"Okay boys, ante up, minimal bet is a quarter of a credit," Luke said at the head of the card table. A green dealer's visor rests over his brow as he chew on the end of a pretzel stick for a mock cigar. For Luke, being in space was a real killer, he's a smoker and smoking aboard the ship is prohibited. Such contraband is rooted out for as civilians and soldiers boarded the ship.
Coins flipped into the pot, sounding off of each other as a new coin hits the last. Finally the fifth coin was tossed in.
Luke shuffled the cards once more, "Five card draw, one-eyed jacks are wild." He shuffled a few more times and set the deck in front of him for someone to cut it. Max took the deck and separated it into two halves and Luke put the deck back together once more. He began flipping cards towards the players, Max, Dave, Ben, and another pilot from Vermilion, Davis.
Each man took their hands and fanned them out, moving cards around to set up what they want to keep and which ones they want to toss.
Dave started, he had a really ugly hand. It was a tough decision to toss all but his ace or keep the ace and one of his face cards. He decided to ditch four of his cards. Luke asked Dave to reveal that he held an ace which he did, an ace of diamonds.
"I know I'm losing this turn," Dave said in a huff. He wasn't upset at the fact that he'd be losing money on this game, he was just upset that he couldn't be top dog this hand.
Ben took two cards.
Davis took three.
Max waited a while as he stared deep into his hand.
"I'm good," he said as he adjusted his glasses.
Luke took note of the cockiness of Max and then looked at his own cards once more.
"Dealer takes one," Luke said as he tossed his single card into the discard pile.
Each men was delt their new cards and each one of them put on their own little shows.
Ben shouted to himself, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
Dave clenched his teeth but then brought his composure back.
Davis grinned to himself.
Max had his hand on the table face down and waited for Luke.
Luke shifted the pretzel stick in his mouth. In his bluff he began to chew on the end of the stick and then he tossed in a tenth of a cred into the pot.
Dave followed suit and threw in a tenth.
Davis too.
Ben folded.
Then it came down to Max.
"I'll see your tenth and raise you another," he said as he tossed in another tenth.
Luke shifted in his chair and reevaluated his hand. He toyed around at his money beside him with one hand as the others kept his hand level to his eyes. He then tossed in the raise.
Dave weighed the stakes and folded, he only had an ace high.
Davis folded.
It came down to Max and Luke.
Max was very confident in his bluff and pressed the raise once more with another tenth piece. He watched Luke for any sign of doubt.
Max had Luke sweating on this hand as he fumbled through his pot unsure of whether or not to stay in the game.
"Dammit Max, you better have something," Luke huffed out as he moved more and more to the option to fold as well.
Max just smirked his smart little grin. He then pushed his glasses back.
"You know what, to hell with it," Luke said with an uncertain smile, he tossed his coin in. "I call."
Max fanned his cards out in front of Luke. A full house, three kings and two ladies.
"Dammit," Luke cried out. He dropped his cards down to reveal three fours, an eight and a ten.
"Gentlemen," a booming voice said from behind Luke. Everyone turned to see that Commander Fokker was standing with his arms folded behind Luke.
Luke let the pretzel stick drop from his mouth and into his lap.
"You wouldn't be gambling aboard the ship, are you," the taller blond man said with a seriousness behind his words. The war hero of the Global Civil War looked equally as impressive as he sounded. "Because, if you were, I would have to invite myself into the game."
Suddenly all the men at the table felt at ease. They all breathed out their held in breaths in a synchronized puff.
"Sure, take a seat, Commander," Luke said offering Fokker his seat.
"Luke, while you're up can you get me another soda," Dave said.
"And one for me," Commander Fokker said.
Fokker took the deck left behind by Luke and began shuffling them. After a few shuffles he stopped and turn the deck over.
"What the hell is this," he addressed the table. All of the men felt that unease once more as they tried to figure out what their faux pas was this time. "This deck is squeaky clean!"
Commander Fokker reached into his pocket and removed a deck of cards being bound together by a rubber band. The deck was considerably used and were wearing from constant shuffling. He sat the other deck aside and began shuffling his own cards.
"Cut 'em," Fokker said as he moved the cards towards Dave.
Dave lift the upper half of the deck and looked at the bottom card to see what was so special about these beaten up cards. And then he figured out Commander Fokker. The deck had naked ladies on them. Dave sat his pile aside and gave out a laugh. Commander Fokker joined in and sat the second half on top of the first.
"Now these are cards, am I right, cadet," the commander asked with a hearty laugh.
"Yes sir," Dave said as he collected his composure.
"'Sir?' Cadet, please, we're at the card table, call me Roy," Fokker said.
"Um, okay, Roy," Dave said. It felt awkward calling a superior officer by his first name.
Roy delt the cards as he explained that it was five card draw and the "twins" are wild. He also added that they'll know when they get the card with the twins on them. Dave immediately figured out what Roy meant as he fanned out his cards and realized that he held both set of twins on his queen of hearts and queen of diamonds.
"What was the minimal bid," Max interjected.
"Ah, shit," Roy cursed to himself, "I dunno, a cred? Does that sound good to you guys?"
"Sure," everyone answered as every man tossed a cred into the pot.
Luke returned this time with a couple of cans of soda and passed them out to everyone and he sat just off from the table to watch the hand.
The first hand went to Dave.
The second to Max.
Then Dave once more. By this time Roy jokingly cursed out that he was getting screwed tonight.
And then Roy came back with a vengeance and won several mean hands in a row.
"Well gentlemen, it was a whole lotta fun taking your money, and I don't even know your names," Roy said as he reclined in his seat.
In order each pilot announced themselves formally, rank, last name, and then first.
"Damn, they taught you boys well when you were in training, I was kinda hoping that you'd say something like, what's up, my name's Bob, or something," Roy kidded once more.
"Say Roy," Dave began, "what the hell was that incident all about back at that morning's airshow? Who was that idiot you were yelling at?"
Roy turned towards Dave with that serious look once more, "That idiot is my little brother."
"Oops, sorry," Dave said.
"It's okay Monroe, you didn't know," Roy said.
Just then a young man stepped into the lounge. None of the pilots recognized him as part of their squadron and thought that this civilian must have gotten lost.
"Can I help you," Dave started.
"Relax, that's my brother," Roy said to Dave.
Dave looked between the two men and drew up puzzles. How was it that these two were related. Roy is taller, blond hair, blue eyed where the other, well, he's Asian.
"Hikaru," Dave called out as he waved for his brother to come on over to the table.
"Roy," he said as he made his way over.
"Hikaru, these guys are from Vermilion squadron, they're tough but they aren't exactly Skulls," Roy kidded once again, "This is Monroe, Right, Genius, Dixon, and Davis."
"Nice to meet you all," Hikaru said with a nod.
"Hikaru's a damn good pilot, he even helped us out on Macross island, he's even thinking about joining the UN Spacy," Roy said with pride behind his voice.
"Hey that's great," Max started, "but how is it that you helped us if you're only a civilian?"
"Go ahead and tell them little bro," Roy said with a smug grin on his face.
"Um, well, Roy was going to take me up in one of the trainer type fighters but he ducked out for a second, the next thing I knew we were being attacked by Martians, or whatever," Hikaru said.
"So gentlemen, if you would excuse me, I have to take Hikaru over to get his papers drawn up," Roy said as he got up and put his cards away.
"Catch you guys later," Hikaru said as the two men walked off.
The pilots at the card tabled waved the two off.
"That Hikaru guy's just a kid," Dave stated, "what is he, seventeen, if that?"
"Probably," Luke confirmed.
"I can't believe he flew in combat, I wonder if Captain Gloval knows what he did," Max said as he began to laugh.
Dave felt this grim shadow sweep over his shoulders. He was already seeing that boy die in combat. If Dave knew the gravity of war he probably would have never signed up. But how was he to know that war would break out. The Global War ended when he was in his sophomore year of high school, who would've guessed that space invaders would drop out from outer space to blow up the Earth? Certainly not Dave.
"You okay Monroe," Max asked.
"Yeah," Dave started. He brought his spirits back up real quick and reconfirmed, "yeah, I'm fine, it's just getting late, what time is it?"
"Twenty two hundred hours, about," Ben added.
"Damn, I gotta take off, I have morning watch," Dave said as he stood from the table.
"See you all later," Dave said as he left.
O three hundred hours and Dave yawned like he had never yawned before. He stood in the hallway outside the barracks. He paced the length of the corridor during the duration of his watch. His eyes were still heavy and they stung. He managed to get four hours of sleep but he wished that he could have gotten at least another hour or two.
"Oh well," he said to himself, "three more hours to go."
He continued to pace back and forth once more. The barracks were as quiet as a crypt. A third of the crew slept in their cabins while another third worked the morning hours, if you can call it morning out here in space. The last third enjoyed some leave in town.
He kept thinking to himself about last night's poker game. That kid brother of Commander Fokker grabbed his attention. He seems so young and innocent even though he's only a year younger than himself. How could this kid decide to enter the services now. He recalled from his history classes that back in America's past men were drafted into service but as the years moved on to modern times enlistment became a choice you wanted to take on, not something you found yourself in one day. If Hikaru was drafted then that would be different. And then he started thinking about that topic, what if too many pilots go down in this war, will they have to start drafting civilians on board into service. He didn't want to think about it.
He kept pacing back and forth. Three long hours later he was ready to call it a night and turn in but that's when Luke and several other pilots from his squadron woke up for morning chow. Perhaps he'll go to sleep after breakfast. He joined up with his buddy, Luke and made way for the mess hall.
Coins flipped into the pot, sounding off of each other as a new coin hits the last. Finally the fifth coin was tossed in.
Luke shuffled the cards once more, "Five card draw, one-eyed jacks are wild." He shuffled a few more times and set the deck in front of him for someone to cut it. Max took the deck and separated it into two halves and Luke put the deck back together once more. He began flipping cards towards the players, Max, Dave, Ben, and another pilot from Vermilion, Davis.
Each man took their hands and fanned them out, moving cards around to set up what they want to keep and which ones they want to toss.
Dave started, he had a really ugly hand. It was a tough decision to toss all but his ace or keep the ace and one of his face cards. He decided to ditch four of his cards. Luke asked Dave to reveal that he held an ace which he did, an ace of diamonds.
"I know I'm losing this turn," Dave said in a huff. He wasn't upset at the fact that he'd be losing money on this game, he was just upset that he couldn't be top dog this hand.
Ben took two cards.
Davis took three.
Max waited a while as he stared deep into his hand.
"I'm good," he said as he adjusted his glasses.
Luke took note of the cockiness of Max and then looked at his own cards once more.
"Dealer takes one," Luke said as he tossed his single card into the discard pile.
Each men was delt their new cards and each one of them put on their own little shows.
Ben shouted to himself, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
Dave clenched his teeth but then brought his composure back.
Davis grinned to himself.
Max had his hand on the table face down and waited for Luke.
Luke shifted the pretzel stick in his mouth. In his bluff he began to chew on the end of the stick and then he tossed in a tenth of a cred into the pot.
Dave followed suit and threw in a tenth.
Davis too.
Ben folded.
Then it came down to Max.
"I'll see your tenth and raise you another," he said as he tossed in another tenth.
Luke shifted in his chair and reevaluated his hand. He toyed around at his money beside him with one hand as the others kept his hand level to his eyes. He then tossed in the raise.
Dave weighed the stakes and folded, he only had an ace high.
Davis folded.
It came down to Max and Luke.
Max was very confident in his bluff and pressed the raise once more with another tenth piece. He watched Luke for any sign of doubt.
Max had Luke sweating on this hand as he fumbled through his pot unsure of whether or not to stay in the game.
"Dammit Max, you better have something," Luke huffed out as he moved more and more to the option to fold as well.
Max just smirked his smart little grin. He then pushed his glasses back.
"You know what, to hell with it," Luke said with an uncertain smile, he tossed his coin in. "I call."
Max fanned his cards out in front of Luke. A full house, three kings and two ladies.
"Dammit," Luke cried out. He dropped his cards down to reveal three fours, an eight and a ten.
"Gentlemen," a booming voice said from behind Luke. Everyone turned to see that Commander Fokker was standing with his arms folded behind Luke.
Luke let the pretzel stick drop from his mouth and into his lap.
"You wouldn't be gambling aboard the ship, are you," the taller blond man said with a seriousness behind his words. The war hero of the Global Civil War looked equally as impressive as he sounded. "Because, if you were, I would have to invite myself into the game."
Suddenly all the men at the table felt at ease. They all breathed out their held in breaths in a synchronized puff.
"Sure, take a seat, Commander," Luke said offering Fokker his seat.
"Luke, while you're up can you get me another soda," Dave said.
"And one for me," Commander Fokker said.
Fokker took the deck left behind by Luke and began shuffling them. After a few shuffles he stopped and turn the deck over.
"What the hell is this," he addressed the table. All of the men felt that unease once more as they tried to figure out what their faux pas was this time. "This deck is squeaky clean!"
Commander Fokker reached into his pocket and removed a deck of cards being bound together by a rubber band. The deck was considerably used and were wearing from constant shuffling. He sat the other deck aside and began shuffling his own cards.
"Cut 'em," Fokker said as he moved the cards towards Dave.
Dave lift the upper half of the deck and looked at the bottom card to see what was so special about these beaten up cards. And then he figured out Commander Fokker. The deck had naked ladies on them. Dave sat his pile aside and gave out a laugh. Commander Fokker joined in and sat the second half on top of the first.
"Now these are cards, am I right, cadet," the commander asked with a hearty laugh.
"Yes sir," Dave said as he collected his composure.
"'Sir?' Cadet, please, we're at the card table, call me Roy," Fokker said.
"Um, okay, Roy," Dave said. It felt awkward calling a superior officer by his first name.
Roy delt the cards as he explained that it was five card draw and the "twins" are wild. He also added that they'll know when they get the card with the twins on them. Dave immediately figured out what Roy meant as he fanned out his cards and realized that he held both set of twins on his queen of hearts and queen of diamonds.
"What was the minimal bid," Max interjected.
"Ah, shit," Roy cursed to himself, "I dunno, a cred? Does that sound good to you guys?"
"Sure," everyone answered as every man tossed a cred into the pot.
Luke returned this time with a couple of cans of soda and passed them out to everyone and he sat just off from the table to watch the hand.
The first hand went to Dave.
The second to Max.
Then Dave once more. By this time Roy jokingly cursed out that he was getting screwed tonight.
And then Roy came back with a vengeance and won several mean hands in a row.
"Well gentlemen, it was a whole lotta fun taking your money, and I don't even know your names," Roy said as he reclined in his seat.
In order each pilot announced themselves formally, rank, last name, and then first.
"Damn, they taught you boys well when you were in training, I was kinda hoping that you'd say something like, what's up, my name's Bob, or something," Roy kidded once more.
"Say Roy," Dave began, "what the hell was that incident all about back at that morning's airshow? Who was that idiot you were yelling at?"
Roy turned towards Dave with that serious look once more, "That idiot is my little brother."
"Oops, sorry," Dave said.
"It's okay Monroe, you didn't know," Roy said.
Just then a young man stepped into the lounge. None of the pilots recognized him as part of their squadron and thought that this civilian must have gotten lost.
"Can I help you," Dave started.
"Relax, that's my brother," Roy said to Dave.
Dave looked between the two men and drew up puzzles. How was it that these two were related. Roy is taller, blond hair, blue eyed where the other, well, he's Asian.
"Hikaru," Dave called out as he waved for his brother to come on over to the table.
"Roy," he said as he made his way over.
"Hikaru, these guys are from Vermilion squadron, they're tough but they aren't exactly Skulls," Roy kidded once again, "This is Monroe, Right, Genius, Dixon, and Davis."
"Nice to meet you all," Hikaru said with a nod.
"Hikaru's a damn good pilot, he even helped us out on Macross island, he's even thinking about joining the UN Spacy," Roy said with pride behind his voice.
"Hey that's great," Max started, "but how is it that you helped us if you're only a civilian?"
"Go ahead and tell them little bro," Roy said with a smug grin on his face.
"Um, well, Roy was going to take me up in one of the trainer type fighters but he ducked out for a second, the next thing I knew we were being attacked by Martians, or whatever," Hikaru said.
"So gentlemen, if you would excuse me, I have to take Hikaru over to get his papers drawn up," Roy said as he got up and put his cards away.
"Catch you guys later," Hikaru said as the two men walked off.
The pilots at the card tabled waved the two off.
"That Hikaru guy's just a kid," Dave stated, "what is he, seventeen, if that?"
"Probably," Luke confirmed.
"I can't believe he flew in combat, I wonder if Captain Gloval knows what he did," Max said as he began to laugh.
Dave felt this grim shadow sweep over his shoulders. He was already seeing that boy die in combat. If Dave knew the gravity of war he probably would have never signed up. But how was he to know that war would break out. The Global War ended when he was in his sophomore year of high school, who would've guessed that space invaders would drop out from outer space to blow up the Earth? Certainly not Dave.
"You okay Monroe," Max asked.
"Yeah," Dave started. He brought his spirits back up real quick and reconfirmed, "yeah, I'm fine, it's just getting late, what time is it?"
"Twenty two hundred hours, about," Ben added.
"Damn, I gotta take off, I have morning watch," Dave said as he stood from the table.
"See you all later," Dave said as he left.
O three hundred hours and Dave yawned like he had never yawned before. He stood in the hallway outside the barracks. He paced the length of the corridor during the duration of his watch. His eyes were still heavy and they stung. He managed to get four hours of sleep but he wished that he could have gotten at least another hour or two.
"Oh well," he said to himself, "three more hours to go."
He continued to pace back and forth once more. The barracks were as quiet as a crypt. A third of the crew slept in their cabins while another third worked the morning hours, if you can call it morning out here in space. The last third enjoyed some leave in town.
He kept thinking to himself about last night's poker game. That kid brother of Commander Fokker grabbed his attention. He seems so young and innocent even though he's only a year younger than himself. How could this kid decide to enter the services now. He recalled from his history classes that back in America's past men were drafted into service but as the years moved on to modern times enlistment became a choice you wanted to take on, not something you found yourself in one day. If Hikaru was drafted then that would be different. And then he started thinking about that topic, what if too many pilots go down in this war, will they have to start drafting civilians on board into service. He didn't want to think about it.
He kept pacing back and forth. Three long hours later he was ready to call it a night and turn in but that's when Luke and several other pilots from his squadron woke up for morning chow. Perhaps he'll go to sleep after breakfast. He joined up with his buddy, Luke and made way for the mess hall.