Kurz Weber rocked back in his chair. His blue eyes twinkled manically.

"So that's it?" he asked.

"That's it," Tessa confirmed. She smiled sweetly while Kurz made an elaborate show of contemplation. Of course, he would agree. Tessa could see it already. Kurz never could suppress his triumphant grin. This was too easy.

"And if I do it, you'll authorize the tweaks to my AS? All of them?" Kurz pressed.

"I always honor my word, Mr. Weber," Tessa promised.

Kurz's expression darkened. "But what's your plan for XO Hardass?"

"Commander Mardukas will be on leave until the week after next. Please trust that I have thought through the details. Everything is ready," Tessa explained.

Kurz tipped his head back and laughed in relief. Golden hair tumbled. Perfect, white teeth gleamed. A carefree smile anointed a tanned, fine-featured face.

Tessa smirked into her tea cup. Kurz Weber really was the ideal choice.

"Okay, beautiful. It's a deal," he agreed.

"Thank you," Tessa said meaningfully.

She extended her hand across the expansive desk. Kurz's large hand closed around hers, but instead giving her the expected handshake, he raised it to his lips and smacked a kiss onto her knuckles.

Tessa gasped and blushed.

"You'd better get used to it if we're going to pull this off," Kurz chided as he released her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm due for combat training with Sergeant Major Babe. Getting my ass kicked has never sounded so good."

"Don't forget! Tomorrow in the galley!" Tessa called after Kurz as he sauntered away.

He offered her a flirty wink at the door. "See you there, cutie."

Tessa sighed happily. Oh yes, Kurz Weber was an excellent choice.


Tessa normally took her meals alone in the Captain's quarters, so she could keep working while she ate. On the rare occasion that she dined in the galley, she could only make it to common eating area near the end of the scheduled mealtime, and by then, almost everyone else had already polished off their dinners and left. It was a strange, new challenge to maneuver her tray of meatloaf and instant mashed potatoes through a noisy mess hall crammed with her soldiers.

The tip of her toe caught on a seam in the flooring, and Tessa stumbled. Someone's hand jolted out to steady her elbow before she dropped her tray.

"Easy there, Madame Captain," said one of the systems engineers.

Tessa looked him in the eye. "Thank you. I really appreciate your help."

The engineer turned a perplexing shade of red. "You-- you're welcome," he stammered.

Tessa smiled briefly at him before turning away.

"Way to g--g--go, Don Juan," she heard someone say as she left.

"Shut up," the engineer groaned.

From the far corner of the room, Kurz raised his hand to flag her down. As per the plan, he had saved the seat next to him. She nodded to acknowledge him, and he beamed at her. Even though Melissa often complained that her squad's resident sniper was an unrepentant lech and a finicky slacker, Kurz Weber really put the "pretty boy" in "pretty boy loser". Maybe that was why Melissa always sat directly across from him.

But all thoughts of fair-skinned, German cover models dropped out of Tessa's head when she claimed the empty seat beside Kurz and looked across the table into the flashing, grey eyes of Sousuke Sagara.

"Hello, Madame Captain," Sousuke said.

Tessa's heart did a roundhouse, double back flip, full-layout combo.

"Hi," Tessa breathed.

Kurz nudged her under the table. "Hey, you didn't have to come see me. I know how much work you have, what with Mardukas off-ship and all."

Melissa Mao pulled a face. "She's not here to see you. She's here to see all of --"

"I needed a break," Tessa interrupted. She turned toward Kurz and looked up at him through her eyelashes. "How was your day?"

"Pretty boring actually," Melissa said with a shrug. "We ran some of those new simulations, and then --"

"It's much better now that you're here," Kurz told Tessa. He shifted in his seat to lean closer to her. "How was yours? Not too stressful, I hope."

Tessa followed his lead. She allowed a shy flush to color her face as she smiled back. "Mine is better now, too."

Kurz let his voice drop, low and breathy. "You're so sweet that this is a real treat. I didn't think I could see you until late tonight."

"I couldn't wait that long," she murmured. She allowed her fingertips to smooth down the flipped up cuff of his sleeve. Kurz played along like a pro. He caught her hand and gave it a lingering squeeze. This time, Tessa's blush was all real. Kurz was really much too good at this. She made a mental note to increase Kurz's espionage skill score in her files.

Melissa's fork clattered on the tin dining tray. "What kind of sick joke is this?" she hissed.

Tessa snuck a glance at Sousuke. He was staring straight ahead, which meant directly at her or, rather, through her, while methodically consuming his meal.

Melissa Mao's gaze, however, sizzled with white-hot rage.

"Weber, get your hands off Tessa," she seethed in a low voice.

Kurz dropped Tessa's hand and looked down, as if suddenly embarrassed. "You're right, Sis. I'm sorry. I just get carried away around her."

Sousuke banged his fork and knife down on his tray. He stood up, and his posture was much too rigid for a casual meal among friends. "Please pardon me, Madame Captain. I have urgent matters that need my immediate attention," he rattled off.

Tessa blinked. She hadn't expected a reaction this strong from Sousuke. Perhaps this would be easier than she had thought...

"It's fine, Mister Sagara. I'm afraid that I must be going as well," Tessa said.

Kurz whined like a puppy when she pushed back from the table. "Do you have to go?"

"I'm sorry," Tessa told him gently. Sousuke was still watching, so she held her breath, ducked down, and delivered a chaste kiss to Kurz's right cheek.

Melissa made an awful, choking sound.

Sousuke's eyes went wide.

Tessa smirked inwardly until she looked around. The entire mess hall had gone dead silent. All eyes were trained on the raspberry lip gloss smear on Kurz Weber's face.

Tessa gulped, remembered the plan, pinned up a smile on her face, and left.


"That? Was awesome!" Kurz congratulated her when he snuck into Tessa's office later that evening. "I'm going to get jumped in the locker room, but did you see Mel's face? Priceless!"

"I think we can safely progress to phase two," Tessa said thoughtfully. "Will tomorrow work for you?"

Kurz blinked back from whatever place his gleeful mind had transported him. "Huh? Oh. Sure thing, princess. Tomorrow is fine by me."


The next day, Kurz walked Tessa from her office to her daily staff meeting on the opposite side of the sub. They held hands to whole way, right past the hanger where Melissa and Sousuke were re-calibrating the Arbalest.

Over dinner that night, Tessa noted that Sousuke hardly touched his food.

Kurz noted that Melissa clocked a 10K in 45 minutes on the treadmill.

They agreed to push up implementation of phase three.


"I'm beginning to think we got a little over-confident," Kurz droned as he plopped into the chair across from Tessa's desk.

It was late, and she was tired. Tessa frowned as she jotted her signature on her tablet computer and tapped the right key combination to send the report back to High Command.

"I think the plan is going just fine..." she started to reassure him, but when Tessa looked up from her computer, she gasped. Kurz had a purple-black, crescent-shaped bruise under his left eye to match the dark mark she had put just above his collar line with a hand-held vacuum the night before.

"What happened?" Tessa demanded. She yanked her first aid kit from the second drawer of her desk, fished out an instant ice pack, snapped it against the corner of her desk, and shoved it at Kurz.

Kurz accepted the now-freezing baggie and slapped it over his impressive shiner. His one visible eye drooped with misery. "What else? I got jumped in the locker room."

"By Sousuke?" Tessa asked, incredulous.

Kurz scoffed. "I'd be in a lot worse shape if that were the case." He winced as he shifted the ice pack. "It was the entire engineering team. Not a decent fighter in the whole lot, but there were at least seven of them versus little, old me. Good thing Mel's been giving me all that hand-to-hand training, right? I'll have to thank her when she starts talking to me again."

Tessa chewed on the tip of her braid. "Melissa is avoiding you?"

"Sousuke, too," Kurz sighed. "I think 'Operation: Mark of Love' may have taken things too far."

"Or not far enough," Tessa thought out loud. "Phase four. Tomorrow."

"Tessa, I don't know. Kissing you in front of--"

A hot bubble of anger welled up and popped inside of Tessa. "And which one of us is highly trained in strategic theory, Mr. Weber?"

Kurz sunk lower in his chair.

"Tessa," he said finally. "Have you ever thought about just telling Sousuke how you feel?"

"Do you want those adjustments on your AS or not?" she threatened.

Kurz pushed himself to his feet with a groan. "Have it your way, kid. I'll be by to walk you to your meeting at the usual time tomorrow."

"Have a good night," she called after him.

"Whatever," he replied.


The knock on her office door came just before the scheduled time, and Tessa nearly tripped over her computer's power cable in the scramble to answer it.

"Sorry. I was just--" Tessa got out before she froze.

Sousuke's grey eyes, not Kurz's baby blues, greeted her. They smoldered as he stared her down from the other side of her doorway. His voice was a growl. "Permission to speech freely, Madame Captain?"

Tessa's heart did a back handspring, Arabian double front.

"Certainly," her voice volunteered. Her body stepped back to allow him to enter her office. Her mind was of no use at all.

When the door closed, Sousuke turned to her. His eyes flashed. Her knees went wobbly.

"Tessa, there's something that I need to say," he said.

"Yes?" she answered weakly.

"I know that I don't have the right to interfere with your relationship with Kurz, but I can't stay silent any longer," he went on, his voice increasing passionate.

"Oh, Sousuke," Tessa exhaled. This was exactly the moment that she had dreamed of when she made her plan in the first place.

"Please, you have to end things with Kurz because it's not right...I can't...I don't want..." Sousuke stopped to take a breath. His licked his lips as he struggled to find the right words. Tessa nearly lunged for his mouth.

"I don't want to be the one to report you both to Commander Mardukas," Sousuke finished with a decisive nod.

"What?" Tessa exploded.

"You know as well as I do that the relationship between you and Kurz is highly inappropriate. The fact that you waited until the Commander was off-ship to go public with your affair confirms that are aware of the the indecency..."

"Indecency?" Tessa squawked.

"...it's the duty of a crew member to report potential hazards when they arise, and as Captain, you know as well as anyone the sacrifices that must be made for the protection of all. Your lovesickness is putting us all at risk. I have no choice but to report it." Sousuke's expression softened. "For what it's worth, I think that you make an agreeable couple."

Tessa's mouth steadfastly refused to work. It hung open as Sousuke reached out to touch her shoulder.

"I repeat that I am sorry, Tessa," he said softly.

When the door closed behind him, Tessa blinked for a few moments in shocked silence before her mind caught up. As soon as it did, she screamed in pure frustration.

"DAMN IT!"


It was tricky keeping up with Kurz's long strides, but Tessa was doing her best.

"Hurry. Chow time is almost up," he reminded her over his shoulder.

"I know!" Tessa snapped. "It's not my fault that the meeting ran over time."

They rounded a corner and the din of the mess hall greeted them. Tessa braced herself for the humiliation.

"Hey, Tess?" Kurz whispered to her just before they reached the door. "I think that you're a hell of a woman. I should have told you from the start that Sousuke's brain is too malformed to sense normal things like jealously. "

"Thank you. I know. You're pretty great, too," she whispered back. "I approved your AS adjustments this morning."

Kurz reached out to take her hand.

They turned into the galley.

"Leave off, will you! You can be such a nag!" Kurz said too loudly.

Several heads whipped around to look at them.

"I'm a nag?" Tessa said shrilly. She yanked her hand back from Kurz's grasp. "Why, you talentless, insensitive--"

"Oh, great. This again," Kurz griped.

"-- pretty-boy loser! I don't know what I see in you!" Tessa finished.

"Yeah? You're not so hot yourself," Kurz yelled back.

Tessa's slap echoed through the silent room. Kurz rubbed his cheek while Tessa wiped at her false tears.

"It's over, Kurz Weber!" she half-screamed, half-sobbed. "I never want to see you again."

"Tessa, I'm sorry," he started, but Tessa pushed passed him and out the door. His voice followed her down the hall. "Tessa! Come back! I didn't mean it! Tessa, PLEASE!"

"Let her go, Weber. You know it's for the best," Melissa's voice, soothing but firm, came soon after.

Tessa couldn't help but smile despite her disappointment. Kurz really was an amazing actor. She needed to remember to add that to his dossier...