The spy plane's engine rumbled as it slowly powered up, getting ready for takeoff. As I looked around at all the monitors, dials, and gauges, I realized I probably should have done a bit more research before strapping myself into one. Not that it would matter if things went wrong at our altitude, but it would have been nice to have some warning.

What was unmistakable, however, was the sudden appearance of large numbers that began to count down on the main monitor. "Here we go," I muttered as I braced for launch.

As soon as it flashed to zero, the brakes released and I found myself shoved back hard against the seat as the engine roared to life. The second shock in as many seconds was when the aircraft almost immediately began to lift into the air at a forty-five-degree angle. I let out a wordless cry of surprise as we began to spiral over the runway that got smaller and smaller by the moment.

Over the radio, I heard Intrepid chuckling. "I take it you weren't expecting that."

"Were you?" I shot back.

"Nah, but you get used to it," she grinned. "I take it you've never taken off via catapult before, huh?"

"Can't say that I have," I managed to grunt as the continuing upward spiral pushed me to the right side of the cockpit. "When'd you get catapulted off something?"

"Oh, some of us early Essexes had hangar catapults so we've tried 'em out a few times," she answered with, again, what I assumed to be a shrug. "Kicks like a mule but it's a great way to get a plane in the air."

The entire concept sounded crazy, and given her past tense, I surmised that they had them removed. "So why'd they take them out?"

"It was risky even on a good day and you had to keep the hangar clear while launching aircraft. Just easier to spot and let them take off from the deck." There was a brief pause. "You know, if you want, once I'm all fixed up, I could give you a taste."

"I'll have to think about that," I answered diplomatically. "One high-octane adventure at a time, please."

She laughed as she tried to look back up at me. "Got a little more than you bargained for out of this one, huh?"

"Little bit," I quipped. "I was thinking this would be a nice, smooth flight with a gentle ascent, not this constant spinning."

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the plane had begun to level out. We were still on an upward trajectory, but at a much shallower angle than a second ago, and on a straight line path. "Of course," I muttered.

Intrepid giggled. "At least the view's nice."

"Which one?" I asked as I leaned to the left to look out the window. Below us was the vast, deep blue of the Pacific Ocean, and above us was the beautiful blue of the sky, rapidly fading into the darkness of space the higher we flew. "The one above or below?"

"Both," she answered. "Look at the blue of the sky getting darker and darker the higher we get."

"Should be seeing the sunset from up here, too," I mentioned, glancing over at the star as it was beginning to slide behind the Earth.

Intrepid hummed thoughtfully for a moment before she spoke aloud. "My Sun." She waited as if she was testing to see how it felt before shaking her head. "Nah, sounds too creepy."

I leaned forward slightly, not sure if somehow she'd gotten a bad oxygen feed and was starting to suffer hypoxia. "Uh, you wanna share with the rest of the aircraft?"

"Huh? Oh!" She waved her hand dismissively. "Sorry, just trying to think of a pet name for you. I was thinking about something astronomical, trying different things out."

"Ah," I nodded, mostly to myself. "I can see how my Sun would sound a bit too creepy. A little too much like 'my son'."

"Yep," she dryly remarked. "I'll keep working on it."

"You'll figure something out," I reassured her as I went back to gazing out the cockpit windows. Slowly, but steadily, the blue above us bled away until there was nothing but black above, a velvet, starry quilt that blanketed the world below us. And what a world it was. We were so high up, we could see the curvature of the Earth and the blue sky that bled into the void of space, forming a fuzzy halo around our world. It was absolutely breathtaking, and I wouldn't trade this moment for anything.

"Hey, what's that?" Intrepid asked, snapping me out of my reverie. I glanced forward to see where she was looking and followed her finger to a massive object coming over the horizon. "Is that the Moon?"

"That's no moon…" I half-whispered the old line before I grinned. "No, wait, it's the Moon."

"Ha ha." While she was trying to be sarcastic, I could hear the smile straining to break through, even in her voice. "Man, you can see it so clearly from up here."

And she was right. For a moment, I thought it was some sort of optical illusion or that someone was somehow pulling a prank on us. It was absolutely crystal clear, with no distortion or light reflecting from it. Just a grey disk hung against the black. "No kidding," I said softly. "That's…amazing."

"No atmosphere up here to get in the way," she explained. "I wonder if we'll be able to see the stars…"

I glanced up into the void and saw only blackness, at least for the moment. "Not yet. Once the Sun's set, should be able to see them, though."

There was another period of silence on Intrepid's end as she peered out at the Moon. "If you can't be my Sun-"

"Hard pass on the Sun."

"-then how about my Moon?"

It took me a second to get what she was referring to. "So I'm just the Moon?" I teased. "Bit of a downgrade from the Sun."

Her laugh echoed in my ears as I saw her shake her head in the forward cockpit. "How about my Moon and all the stars in the sky? My Moon and stars."

"Your Moon and stars, huh?" I repeated as I looked back at the celestial object suspended in the void. "I like it. It's fitting. We met when you were out staring at the stars and I was staring at the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen."

I could practically hear the blush when she finally answered. "Oh, now you get smooth," she playfully smirked. "And how long were you staring at me, anyway?"

"About two minutes. I want to say I was enraptured by your beauty, but mostly I was trying to figure out a way to get your attention without startling you."

"And we both know how that turned out."

I held up my hands in defense, even though she couldn't see the gesture. "Hey, it all worked out. In all honesty, though, watching you stare up at the night sky that first night…that's something I'm going to remember the rest of my life."

It was quiet up there for a long time, with only the muffled sounds of the engine, before Intrepid spoke up again. "That's…thank you," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You know, I think the one memory I'm always going to have of you is when I got back from that patrol. You had the look I was expecting, the one I always get, that sympathetic 'Poor Intrepid' expression everyone makes, but…there was something more. You believed in me, you didn't let me sit in self-loathing, and you showed me just how much you really cared about me. And that…that means a lot to me."

As I sat there, listening to her pour her heart out, I realized that I loved her and that I had loved her for a while now. But as much as I wanted to tell her right now, I wanted to wait, at least until we were both face to face. "Thanks," I said, my voice thick with emotion. I cleared my throat so I sounded a bit more normal. "Glad I could help."

"Any word on when we're supposed to hear back from Vestal?" she asked, equal parts hope and anxiety in her voice.

"Should be any day now," I answered as I watched the Sun continue to disappear behind the curvature of the Earth. It was strange to watch it vanish, not in the typical red and orange hues, but its pure white brilliance as it slipped away. "Man, this is one unique sunset," I muttered.

"Yeah," she breathed. "But look, the stars are becoming clearer now, too."

I glanced up and saw the pinpoints of light in the sky, steady and constant instead of their usual twinkle. "There they are," I confirmed. "Absolutely beautiful." I leaned back and admired the view. "To sail the sea of stars," I sighed.

"It's a lofty goal," Intrepid said. "But it will take so much work."

"That it will," I agreed, "But it's something we have to do." I glanced down at the Earth, that beautiful blue sphere that gave us life. "We were not meant to stay here. This world will always be our home, our birthplace, but it is not the end. It is our beginning. Our future is out there, among the stars, exploring."

"In mare, in coelo, in astra," she intoned softly.

"What was that?"

"Bit of an addition to my motto, In mare, in coelo," she explained. "It means 'On Sea, In The Sky', but in astra means 'In The Stars'. Sea, sky, stars. I would go into that beautiful, endless night with you, John."

"There's nobody I'd rather have by my side than you, Intrepid," I softly answered with a smile.

As the flight continued, we sat in raptured silence, enjoying the unforgettable view. Well, she did. I divided my time between enjoying the view and watching the plane's progress on the map interface. We were getting close to the target point and time. Now, all I needed was a little luck from above.

"Hey…is that…" Intrepid began slowly as she leaned over to her right, gazing down at the lights below us. "Is that Alaska down there?"

I quickly checked the map to make sure and answered, "Yep, that's Alaska down there. But what's more important is the light show that should happen up there."

When I caught her looking at me through the mirror, I pointed up and hoped my timing was impeccable.

I could hear her putting it together in her response, the hope and joy that was bleeding in. "Wait…you mean…"

"If we're lucky."

She pressed her helmet against the cockpit, searching the sky for those lights she'd hoped to see all her life and I prayed that the universe would grant me this one small boon.

It would seem that the universe heard my prayers, or I just got really lucky, either way, the sky above us lit up into ribbons of green light as the Aurora Borealis began.

Intrepid let out an excited gasp I could hear even over the sound of the engine. "It's more beautiful than I could have imagined!" she cheered as she watched in awe of one of nature's most ethereal and breathtaking displays. Even though I'd seen this before, this time, this time felt different. I wasn't burdened with work or freezing cold, or suddenly finding myself in a new environment with no time to adjust. I was seeing this with fresh eyes, eyes Intrepid helped open. And I admit, her enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

We sat there for thirty minutes, watching as the sky shimmered and danced until the plane slowly banked to the left as we headed back home. Both of us craned our necks to watch those lights for as long as we could until we had to face forward again. And while I knew the answer, I still had to ask. "Was it everything you hoped for?"

"Everything and more," Intrepid beamed. "That was…" She let out a happy sigh as she composed her thoughts. "That was incredible. I can't believe you did this just for me."

"First off, you're worth it," I smiled, "And second, I had to do something spectacular after our first date."

"Fair," she laughed. "Although we should probably stop one-upping each other like this. This escalation is going to get out of hand very rapidly."

"Alright, I guess I'll just strike 'found lunar colony' off the list for the fourth date, then," I joked.

When her peals of laughter finally died down, she looked at me in the mirror and smile softly. "In all honesty, John. This has been amazing and I cannot thank you enough."

"My pleasure," I smiled back.


Compared to the takeoff, the landing was unbelievably smooth. No crazy banking and spiraling up, just a gentle turn here and there, followed by a soft landing. We taxied over to the parking spot where we were met by manjuu ground crew who swiftly hooked up ladders, opened the cockpits, and helped us out of our seats. As soon as I was unstrapped, I unsealed my helmet and took a big breath of fresh air. While wearing a space suit for four hours wasn't terribly uncomfortable, the recycled air was something I could've done without. I handed the helmet off to a manjuu and made my way down the ladder where Intrepid was already waiting for me.

Without saying a word, she grabbed the collar of my spacesuit and yanked me forward for a passionate and tender kiss that seemed to go on forever. When we broke, she smiled at me and said, "I've been waiting to do that for the past two hours."

"So, the date went well, then?" I grinned playfully.

"You know damn well it did," she giggled as she pulled me in closer for another kiss. "That was an incredible experience! But right now, I am dying to get out of this spacesuit, as fun as it was to wear."

"I heard that," I agreed and we walked back towards the hangar as we each worked on taking off our gloves.

Intrepid glanced up at the night sky as we worked, and as she did, her pace slowed. I was so busy fiddling with the seals that I didn't realize it at first until I heard her voice behind me. "The stars in the night sky are distant. So distant that even with all the courage in the world, the effort it would take to reach them is unfathomable…" she spoke softly. "However, all it takes to catch the commander in front of me is...this!" Before I could turn around, her arms wrapped around me in a loving embrace as she placed a kiss on my cheek. "Hehe, isn't that right?"

"Absolutely," I said as I turned my head to kiss her properly. As I looked into her stunning blue eyes, there beneath the starry sky, I said what I wanted to say earlier. "I love you, Intrepid."

Those eyes of hers widened in surprise, but I could see no fear or awkwardness in them. Instead, her smile grew and she whispered, "I love you, too, John."

I turned to face her properly and wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her close. We kissed once more, under the stars…


The next morning, I awoke not to the alarm, but to the sound of Intrepid's phone going off. Of course, in my sleep-addled state, I thought it was my alarm and repeatedly tried to answer it before I realized it wasn't mine. By the time I rolled over, Intrepid was already reaching for it to see who was calling.

"Bremerton?" I muttered, idly wondering who would be calling us this early. It clearly wasn't an emergency because someone would have called me directly, or in the event of a dire emergency, the base alarms would have woken us up.

As soon as Intrepid glanced at the phone, she bolted upright and awake, looking like she'd seen a ghost. Her startled demeanor, in turn, woke me up instantly and I sat up next to her. I was about to ask who it was when she accepted the call and put it to her ear.

"H-hello?" she answered, and I heard someone's voice. I couldn't tell who exactly, beyond it was a woman's voice, which only narrowed it down to…everyone on the base except me. "Uh-huh. Y-yeah, yeah, today's fine. No, give me a few minutes to get ready and I'll see you there. Bye."

If anything, she looked more nervous when she hung up than when she first answered. "Who was it?" I asked as I placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. "You okay?"

She nodded, not speaking at first. "That, uh, was Vestal," she finally answered, her voice just above a whisper. "She's got the damage assessment."

My blood ran cold at that announcement. Our relationship hinged on this news. If it was good, we could spend time together during Operation Siren. If it was bad, we would be apart for months, if not longer. "Did, uh, did she give any sort of hint as to what the assessment is?"

Intrepid shook her head. "Nope. Just that she'd meet me first thing in the morning."

"You want me to come with you?"

"Please," she whispered as she leaned against me, wrapping her arm around my waist. "I don't want to lose you."

"I don't want to lose you, either," I whispered back. "All we have to do now is get through this one meeting, hope it's the good news we're expecting, and then we're in the clear."

"I still have to get qualified," Intrepid protested.

"I'm not worried about that," I said with a shake of my head. "I know that if Vestal can get you operational in time, you are going to ace those qualifications. I've seen you train, I've seen you fight. You might not be the most graceful off the battlefield, but you're unstoppable on it. You've got this."

My words seemed to allay her fears, and she took a deep breath before nodding once. "Alright. We'd better get ready, then."

A/N-Only one chapter left! Will it be triumph or tragedy? Love everlasting or long distance hell? Only one way to find out! Also, poll is still going on, Alabama currently in the lead, but only by one vote! Again, you can find the link to the poll on my twitter page( admiral_fluffy). Until next time, fair winds and following seas!