FRIAR'S HOTEL, PICON CITY

Chloe Burmeister was frantically tying her shoe laces to complete her uniform. The sound of running water could be heard from the doorway to the on suite bathroom as her fiancé, Joshua Albert, showered. Suddenly the water stopped and Joshua appeared in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"You don't waste any time do you?" said Joshua as he leaned against the doorway his tone not even pretending to hide his annoyance. Chloe sensed the ensuing argument and turned to pick up her jacket off the chair.

"Don't do this now!" she pleaded softly.

"Well how do you expect me to behave?" he said. "You just get up and go in the morning like we're having an affair or something. Then when we're on the Hermes you completely shut me out!"

"Josh!" protested Chloe. "You know what will happen to us if they find out. Dishonourable discharge! Everything we ever worked for would be just thrown away. Two officers who are in a relationship cannot serve on the same ship. Once you transfer to the Olympus we can go public. And then we can get married."

Joshua paused for a moment as he stared at her. His mind was racing as it always was at this point. Then a horrible thought crept into his mind. Maybe she's just using that as an excuse. Maybe she's just playing me?

"Is that what you want?" he asked. "Really?"

"How can you say that?" she cried. "I am Geminese! I-I shouldn't even be in the same room as you until we're married! Do you know what my parents would do to me if they ever found out we've slept together? I did that for you!"

"Okay" said Josh apologetically as he rushed to embrace her. "I know I just get so frustrated sometimes. I hate all this cloak-and-dagger type love."

"And you think I don't? Just…Just a little longer and all this sneaking around can end. But in the meantime we have to behave like officers."

Joshua looked into her dark blue eyes. In that instant all doubt erased.

"I know" said Joshua as he kissed her forehead. "Go on. You better go. I'll head out in an hour or so. I'll see you on the Raptor back to Hermes." The two of them hugged tightly and whispered "I love you" to each other before she turned and left.

RAPTOR ZERO-SEVEN

ENROUTE TO BATTLESTAR HERMES

The Raptor trembled furiously as it broke away from Picon's atmosphere. Gradually the ride began to smoothen and it was soon as gentle as though it were on the surface. The Raptor pilot, Bolenko callsign Stinger, nudged the control column over to the right and the Raptor changed its trajectory from near-pure vertical in relation to Picon so as to enter into a low orbit over the beautiful blue world.

To Stinger the planet had lost some of its charm. Ever since the Hermes had gone into refit over six months ago he had been flying nothing but 'Pack mule' flights to and from the planet and he was looking forward to getting back out into the deep of space. Stinger lived for the excitement of the unknown and the regularity of shuttling people and equipment to and from the ship was mind destroying. Nevertheless it was clear to all that since the announcement that the refit was complete the 'colour had returned to his cheeks'.

There were six passengers on this run all of whom were returning from a 36 hour shore leave. Among them were Chloe Burmeister and Joshua Albert. During the flight to Hermes the two of them sneaked the odd glance at each other but said hardly anything. Once they were safely in orbit Albert got up and walked toward Stinger in the front.

"So what have I missed" he said to Stinger. Lt. Joshua Albert was the Traffic Control Officer on the port hanger deck so he had developed quite a repertoire with some of the pilots.

"A lot actually" replied Stinger. "You go away for a day and it goes crazy. The auto landing system malfunctioned again. Kept sending contradictory orders to Scorch's Viper. Poor guy was dancing around the sky like a firefly!"

"Ooh!" chuckled Joshua.

"Yep. It was traced to be a calibration problem in the approach Dradis. Commander Bowman doesn't want to delay our departure to wait for a Calibration Raptor so until further notice it's 'hands on' approaches."

Both Stinger and Joshua talked idly for the twenty minutes back to Hermes. Burmeister pretended to read a book but secretly she watched as the two of them laughed and joked. As she watched a secret smile appeared on her face. There was no doubt in her mind. If she didn't know anything else she knew in that moment that she loved him.