Final Hikari: New chapter! See? The author wasn't abducted by aliens. XD Though that would be pretty nice if they were as good looking as Faize and Arumat…

Myuria: -once again at the Calnus' bar- This 'beer' you Earthlings have is disgusting…

Final Hikari: A lot of the taste depends on the brand with beer. The expensive stuff is supposedly good.

Myuria: -smirk- I thought you didn't drink.

Final Hikari: XD I've been to sporting events. Need I say more?

Myuria: …What?

Final Hikari: … …I don't own anything from Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

Aroma of Love

Chapter VII

Interlude

Captain Edge Maverick of the SRF-003 Calnus drummed his fingers against the metal surface surrounding the ship's master terminal. It was undoubtedly the easiest to use, since once his passwords (frequently words would not have chosen if he had known children like Lymle and Meracle would constantly be peering over his shoulder when he typed) were entered, there were no more security prompts.

They really shouldn't show the passwords as characters, anyway, even if it is the captain's computer… Then again, they did design the ship to make the primary control unit rather isolated…and they didn't expect Lesser Fellpool to be jumping around all the time…

When he was first appointed captain of the Calnus, he'd been determined to learn how to do every task required to keep the ship going - although he had managed to learn the majority of them, there was still a notable hindrance he'd encountered all too often.

It was that when anyone got too deep into program configurations, much of the text was still in Eldarian, unable to be translated by the automatic onboard systems. Subsequently, since the language wasn't like anything from Earth, it was hopeless to try to learn on such short notice.

Never mind the fact Faize was already proficient in three or four Earthling languages.

However, he seldom spent more than a couple of hours a day at the console. Faize, Bacchus, and Reimi usually had everything done by eight or nine in the morning. Faize, the co-pilot, took care of all flight coordinates and route programming. Bacchus, the navigator took care of all the ship's settings and statuses. He also oversaw the maintenance.

Myuria wasn't particularly interested in helping during flights, since she usually used her time on the computers to send emails to people she knew on En II. Sarah was also seated at one of the consoles, but it was all they could do to keep her from pressing any of the buttons. After a few rather hazardous incidents, Faize had locked all the commands from that console to be ignored.

There was that one time she leaned on some of the buttons on her elbow and nearly deployed the landing equipment during a warp…

Out of all the extraterrestrials from underdeveloped planets aboard the Calnus, though Lymle was close behind her, Sarah had managed to cause the most trouble. Not that it stopped anyone from befriending her though, since she did always mean well. (Even when the results were disastrous.)

One of the landing feet got disintegrated when it got too close to the column wall…

Much to Edge's inconvenience, Reimi had been unusually elusive since planting the Aroma of Love. He'd only seen Faize briefly before the fire alarms went off and Reimi told him it was a false alarm. Inwardly wondering what sort of love-potion-induced trouble was afoot, and more distantly wondering how a ship full of women was so frustrating, the answer with a sore tail came pouncing through the automatic sliding doors.

"Edge!" Meracle called out, ears drooping and voice unhappy.

He jumped slightly and hurriedly pressed the enter key to clear the screen of the extremely inappropriate password before she reached him.

"Is something wrong, Meracle?" he questioned, voice balanced and cheerful as it always was when he addressed children, or youngsters in general, despite the close call.

"Edge!" she repeated, louder, and with a frown. "Faize stepped on my tail! Really hard, too."

Glancing momentarily at the rapidly moving purple appendage, he decided to take the sensible manner of approach and only silently feel bad for their Eldarian crewmen - he wasn't very popular with the girls on the ship. "How did it happen?"

She blinked, apparently expecting more sympathy. "Um…well…," she trailed off, sounding more than a little guilty, having hoped he wouldn't ask. "He never looks down when he walks and those awful boots really hurt my tail!"

"I see. You know he didn't do it on purpose, though," Edge replied, casually reaching out to ruffle her hair. "But where is Faize?"

"Erm…eh heh heh…," Meracle paused, still waiting for her unconditional sympathy, though it did note come. "Well…it was all Welch's fault! I totally didn't give him a concussion! Meow!"

Edge blinked once, expression blank. "Welch did what?" he echoed, somehow unsurprised.


Final Hikari: I'll leave Edge's passwords to your imaginations. XD I'm sure if I favor the curse words in foreign languages, Edge's would be atrocious; not the kind of thing that belongs in a T rated fic. -snicker-

Myuria: You're really drawing all of this out…

Final Hikari: Well, it makes it fun for the readers, right? XD Anyway, my upcoming short story Teenkeeper and the SO4 school AU requested by MAY4 will be two projects of 2010! There will be a crap load of oneshots too, of course. Hopefully the alternate scenarios of TLH International will inspire much life in this section! :D

Myuria: Quite an optimist.

Final Hikari: It's either that or complain about work. XD And more importantly, TLH needs more if not just as much love as TTEOT. -shifty eyes- It's too excellent of a game. And, yes, you read 'column wall,' a poorly hidden Xenosaga term. XD