A/N: As promised, here's a much more timely update to the story. This is part 2 of my original Chapter 44, which is now Chapter 45. As always, comments are appreciated! -(06/19/11)
With little hesitation, Nene calmly rose from her seat and took her blanket with her into her room. On the way there, she managed to crack a smile at both of them, as if she already knew exactly what this little meeting was all about. The bedroom door shut and latched behind her, but that didn't mean that some things couldn't be heard from the other side.
Satisfied with the conditions, Klan sighed and walked over to the couch upon which Cal was reclining. She calmly sat down on the ground in front of him and let her knapsack drop down to the ground next to her. Her hands clasped together in front of her face as she leaned forward against the cushioning. A look of apprehension moved over her face as she pondered what to say. Suddenly, it just came out with perfect bluntness, "My unit is being deployed."
He tried not to let it affect him too much, but he couldn't help but feel like his heart had skipped a beat in his chest. "Oh. I guess that's what your meeting was about, huh?" His face changed from cautious optimism to realistic disappointment.
"Our ship has been called up to reinforce the fleet in the asteroid belt, and we're going to conduct combat testing of the Rasa while we're out there," Klan nodded. "They didn't tell us exactly when we're shipping out, but they said to expect about a week. I guess they're making some modifications to the ship's hull before sending it into combat." She shrugged as if she was trying to make the situation more comfortable, but it didn't seem to work at all. After shifting her posture and staring at Cal for a moment, she got down to business. "I can imagine that these last few weeks have been difficult for you. If it makes you feel any better, I admit that it's been rough for me as well."
They both smiled at each other, knowing that what she had just said was pretty much dead-on accurate. However, they also both knew that they had to reach a conclusion before this conversation was over.
"I wish it was so much easier for me to be able to handle this situation," Klan admitted, "I am sure that you've been wondering what the hell has been going through my head and you're starting to get impatient with me. I have had to do a lot of soul-searching, and I am frustrated with myself because I couldn't come to any kind of definitive conclusions to this point."
"I told you that it doesn't matter to me, as long as you just remain honest with me and yourself."
"Yeah, you did say that." A brief pause filled the moment before she spoke again, "Things seem to keep getting in the way, and now this. The fact of the matter is that I'm not going to be around here much longer and I know that you will be shipping out soon, too. That means that there's a good chance that we'll never see each other again."
"There's always that possibility," Cal agreed, "But both of our ships might end up getting deployed to the same assignment."
Klan shook her head. "They're changing the overall plan. The main fleet is going to be broken up into smaller sub-fleets to reduce any massive collateral damage, should they come under heavy attack again. This plan will also increase our ability to finally locate the Galaxy mainland carrier, while at the same time, give us the ability to police the system from any kind of outside threat." She briefly closed her eyes and leaned forward to place her hands to each side of where he sat. "Cal. That's not going to leave any time for us."
"'Us'?" It appeared that he was not going to be very accepting of what she was getting at.
"We're soldiers. We're in a war. I don't think I have to remind you of that. While we're doing our jobs, we can't be encumbered by our personal connections."
Cal laughed a bit. "That's a pretty bad excuse."
"Pardon me?" She reeled back a bit in response.
"That hasn't stopped your sister; and I'm sure she's well aware of the situation before. It hasn't stopped countless others who serve now and have served in the past-" Cal closed his eyes and shook his head as he got up from his seat. "Look, that's not the point. I'm not gonna fault you for having such reservations. I truly hope that they don't have to go through what we've gone through in the past. But we can't let that stop us from finding happiness in another."
"That's the thing, though! I... I don't know if I can go through that again, Cal! It's a horrible experience and I wouldn't want you to go through it again either!"
"We all die at some point, Klan. That thought doesn't stop everyone else from loving someone, though. It's just a way of life."
"Even so..." she interjected, "There's so many other issues that we would have to overcome. My genetic anomaly keeps me from living a normal life as a miclone. My miclone form is not..." she briefly cleared her throat, "...not 'equipped' to consummate any kind of relationship with a human or a Zentran in miclone form. I thought 'Maybe not as a miclone, but perhaps if he could overcome his fear of macronization...' Then we find out that you have multiple genetic and physical issues that may keep you from living your life on my scale."
Deep inside, Cal secretly cursed himself for that which was well-beyond his own control. It was the only thing he could think of doing at that time. "I'm sure there are alternatives to fixing those issues."
His answer didn't faze Klan. "We come from entirely different backgrounds. You're Human. I'm Zentran."
"Again, irrelevant. We're the same. So what if our races followed different paths since our creation? What matters is that we're together now as one." He looked at her with a bit of a crooked glare. "Or is it that your mother has convinced you otherwise?"
"How can you insinuate that my own mother affects my decisions?" she angrily asked.
Cal took a few steps closer to her face and looked her straight in the eyes, "You're saying that the thought hasn't crossed your mind more than a few times? Deep down inside, you know that your mother is going to give you grief over it. Nene knows this and it doesn't even bother her. So, go ahead and tell me again that she doesn't affect you at all."
Klan sighed in frustration and rolled her eyes. "Fine. But at least you get where I'm coming from."
"I'm not concerned about her. I have no problems standing up to her and proving to her that she's mistaken about her opinions of me... and of Will, for that matter." He sighed and reset his demeanor to move the conversation forward again. "If that's all you can come up with, I'm not really convinced. So far, I've rebutted every reason you've thrown at me. However, I'm not one to have to sit here and convince you of what you should be thinking. That's your decision. I just want to make sure that you're just being honest about everything and so far, I have to say that I'm not feeling it."
"Damn you and your logic," she said out of frustration, "Look, I just don't think this is a good idea. I'm not prepared to attach myself to someone and then lose them again. I know that I will not be there to protect you once I leave, and that's a risk that I'm just not willing to take."
"I completely understand," Cal replied as he neared her face. She was still leaning inwards on the couch with her arms stretched out to each side of the seat. "I'm not going to force you into anything that you don't feel comfortable doing. All I want to know is exactly how you feel. Just let it go... you'll feel better knowing that you don't have to hide what it is that you're thinking."
Following a heavy sigh, she did her best to say what was on her mind, "Cal, I... You know I really do care about you a lot and I'm glad that we've become so close to each other. But, I can't tell you what it is that you really want to hear. It will only make things much more difficult for me. You have to understand this."
"That didn't stop you from saying such things last night."
"Oh, come on... I was drunk. We all say things that we don't intend to when we've had a few too many drinks," she said while rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, but alcohol is known as a 'truth serum' for a reason. People say what's truly on their minds when they've been drinking. I know that what you said is what you've meant to say, but you haven't been able to when you're sober and of sound mind. Then let's not forget what you did- or tried to do last night, anyway..."
"Um, what was that?"
"Come on, Klan. You know what happened last night. I know that you heard Nene and I talking about it this morning."
She started to turn a bit red in the cheeks as she coped with the sudden feeling of embarrassment. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Cal," she said as she looked to the side, unable to look into his eyes while saying it.
"Your hair is twitching again," he said with a laugh.
"Will you stop saying that?" she demanded, mashing her hair down again like she did the day before.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an object. "By the way, you owe me for a new phone..." He waved the smashed PDA in his hand as proof before putting it back in his pocket. After a brief laugh, Cal continued, "I know you were awake when we were talking this morning. I didn't know it until I touched your face and you flinched. It was at that moment that I realized that you had awoken at some point and were playing possum, probably hoping that we'd leave you alone."
"Then why'd you leave so abruptly? Why didn't you just demand that I wake up and stop playing games?"
"Because I know that you will have problems reacting to those things that I had said. I'll admit that I was a little embarrassed at the time, too. But I'd do it again, if I could."
"If it's one thing about you that I simultaneously hate and love, it's that you can be ridiculously perceptive about things. I can't get anything past you when you're at your best..." she rolled her eyes, "Ugh, I can't believe I just said that."
"See? It's not hard to say what's on your mind, right?" Cal facetiously replied.
"Well, you certainly haven't said much of what you've been thinking. You just admitted to me that you only said what you said because you thought I was still asleep. Are we being a bit hypocritical?"
"No. I have no problems standing here in front of you telling you the same thing again. ...how I feel whenever I see you, or think about you. ...how the very sight of you makes me weak in the knees. When I think about how we used to be at each other's throats when we first met and now how things have turned out between us, it always puts a huge smile on my face. How someone who is amazing as you are actually takes the time out of her day to make sure that I'm keeping myself on the right path... Out of the millions of people in this colony, you choose to make me your personal focus of attention..."
She closed her eyes to fight back the oncoming emotional response, but it only caused Cal to move closer to her face and try to help her feel better. "Do you know what it's like to find someone who, just by their mere presence, causes you to want to better yourself?" he asked.
"Actually, yes..." she trailed off. However, she didn't go into any details about her response.
"I have to respect your decisions, Klan. If this is what you want, then I will support you on it, but you just need to make sure that you stay honest to your feelings." He reached up and started to touch her cheek. She responded by leaning into his hand while keeping her eyes closed. "I have no reservations in standing here and telling you how beautiful you are to me and that I love you. You should try it; you might be surprised at how easy it is."
At this point, Klan was moving her hands inwards towards Cal as if she was going to embrace him. Just as her palm touched his backside, she gently closed her fingers around him and began to pull him away from her face. "Stop. You're just making this more difficult than it needs to be, Cal," she said while trying not to let her voice sound raspy. "I can't do this. I'm sorry. You have to understand." She opened her eyes and leaned over to rummage through her knapsack. "Here," she said as she pulled something out, "You asked me to return this to you and I've been holding onto it because I either kept forgetting about it, or I just didn't have the chance to return it." She untied the string holding the old chickling hat that she had made for him a couple of months back and slid the hat off to give it to him.
Cal noticed that notorious pair of miclone-sized eyeglasses also attached to the string before she put it back down and out of his sight. "Well, even though you can't say it, I know what's in your heart, Klan." He then offered the hat back to her. "Keep it. You've used it as a reminder, just like Michael's glasses. If I don't survive the next deployment, at least you'll have this to help you remember."
"You shouldn't talk like that. I'm sure you'll be just fine," Klan replied.
"Well, I would like to think that you believe that to be true. Because if you did believe it, then you wouldn't have any reservations about us."
Klan clicked her tongue and scolded him, "Cal! Are you trying to make me feel even worse?" She couldn't help but at least suppress her urge to really get upset.
"Sorry," he said as he looked downwards in mortification. "You know that's the last thing I'd want to do to you. I just want to see you always happy. You have no idea how much better you look when you're smiling."
She couldn't help but grin at his compliment. "See, you know how to make a woman feel good. You should find someone who deserves you more than I do."
"She doesn't exist, but I'll try..." They both nervously laughed at his joke, which helped them to relieve some of the emotional tension building up inside of them.
Cal reached down and grabbed one of Klan's fingers, lifting it up as best as he could. She responded by holding her hand open in front of him, with her fingers pointing up. They both remained silent while Cal gripped her index finger with his hand, and then walked into her palm. He poked his head between her middle and ring fingers, then let his hands drop down to the sides. She simply responded by closing her fingers around him; the gesture was very much akin to a hug. Cal reacted in kind by putting his arms around her hand.
Several precious moments passed in silence before Cal finally let go and she did the same. He let out a heavy sigh as he broke the silence, "I want you to promise me that you won't just give up on love."
"Ugh... Alright, I'll try."
"Trust me, Klan. It's worth it, even if it doesn't last for a long time. There's no greater feeling than to love and be loved in return... I know."
She nodded with a bit of apprehension. "Maybe you're right..."
"Just remember: If you're so afraid of death, then how can you ever possibly fall in love?"
Those very words struck a chord within her and caused her to slightly gasp and recoil backwards. Satisfied with his parting words, Cal descended from the couch onto the ground and walked towards the front door. Klan continued to sit in front of the couch, staring at the pattern weaved into the upholstery. A few moments passed before she heard Cal's voice calling for her again. "Hey," he softly said, "I need you to let me out."
Klan snapped back to reality and slowly got up from her spot on the floor. "Sorry." She eventually opened the door, but it was easy to tell that she wasn't feeling quite right.
Outside, the rain was steadily pouring, but the clouds were showing signs of breaking up, due to the late afternoon sun peeking through the occasional crack in the sky. Cal walked forward a few steps and turned back to look at Klan, who was peering at him through the crack in the doorway. "You know my phone is always on. If you feel like talking to someone, you know that you can always call me."
"I know. Regardless of how many light-years are physically between us, I know that we'll always be friends."
Such kind and honest words from them both helped them let go of each other that moment. They traded smiles before Cal turned around to walk away. He heard the door close behind him before he took a few steps and stopped once more to look back. Knowing that he'd only see the door, he sighed and then decided to walk out from under the covered walkway and into the rain. Somehow, the feeling of the wet, cold rain would help to distract him from the sudden loneliness he was feeling at that very moment. Perhaps the raindrops would be able to cure his pain. The walk back to the gateway complex between the cities was not going to be terribly short, so there was plenty of time to cope with his thoughts and feelings on the way home.
Back inside of the apartment, Klan stood leaning forward against the wall near the door with her hand cushioning her head from the wall's hardness. There was absolutely nothing going through her mind; it was as if her thoughts had imploded upon themselves, leaving a void in their place. Somehow a slight feeling of remorse began to creep over her and her hand slowly reached to the knob before turning it and opening the door once more. She was surprised to see Cal still standing there, turning around to smile at her, as if he was reacting to the door opening. Unfortunately, his image faded from in front of her very own eyes, replaced only by the pattern of rain hitting the ground. Her mind was already playing tricks on her.
In a fit of disappointment, she closed the door, turned around to put her back against the door, and then slid down into a seated position. Disappointment quickly turned to frustration; frustration that she was letting herself become so affected by the moment. She violently rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands and groaned out loud. She then wrapped her arms around her knees and stared straight forward to focus on putting herself back together.
A few moments of complete silence passed before they were interrupted by the faint, muffled sound of a sniffle nearby. Klan raised her head before breaking her silence, "You can come out now, Nene."
It took awhile, but her door could then be heard unlatching and opening. She slowly walked around the corner and into Klan's view, wearing the saddest look on her face. Her eyes were shrinkwrapped with tears, ready to burst at any moment.
"Please don't start..." Klan calmly demanded. Unfortunately for her, she momentarily mistook her sister for someone without a heart.
…
Despite the rainy weather, thousands of people still stood strong near the gateway between Laplamiz and Frontier City. Their resolve didn't seem to take any kind of hits from the gloomy weather. Their steadfastness was rewarded with a break in the weather pattern, allowing them some sunlight to help dry off before it got colder in the evening.
Most of the attention was directed towards the main stage set up some ways away, where an emcee directed the event activities. While a few notable speakers were giving their speeches, a handful of reporters skulked amongst the crowd to interview the attendees.
"I'm just here to show my support for the movement. I'm excited to be here, along with so many other people who share my political views. I feel like we can accomplish so much when we all work together towards a common goal!" one attendee replied to the camera crew in front of him.
The reporter took back her microphone and looked around for another person to interview. Finding her next target, a man who stoically stood apart from the rest of the crowd with his arms folded, she approached him with zeal. "Sir!" she said to get his attention, "Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you've decided to brave the elements to be here?"
"Umm..." The plain-clothes man seemed to be apprehensive to answer, having been surprised by the camera crew.
"What's your name, Sir?"
"Cal."
"And why are you here today?"
Cal waited a moment before answering, but he finally spoke to her once more, "I'm gonna be honest with you... I happened to be walking by and thought I'd just watch for awhile to gauge the situation."
"So, do you know why everyone is gathered here today?"
"Yes, I saw you on the news earlier this morning. They're here to protest against the policies of the administration in the hopes of currying some major changes in the direction and leadership of the colony."
His response stroked her ego just a little bit. "Oh! So you must be a fan of the newscast? You sound like you're well-educated on the facts, then?"
Cal did his best to remain professional and courteous, but his earlier frustrations, coupled with the very recent ones seemed to churn up inside of him until he finally boiled over, "No, actually... I'm not a big fan of your network at all."
The reporter then frowned, but saw this as an opportunity to convert one of the non-believers, or berate one of the heretics. "You're not? Well, I thought you were one of the smart ones!" she chided with a wry grin.
Obviously, Cal didn't find her joke to be funny. "I'm going to try to be as civil about this as possible, ma'am." He looked at many of the people who were beginning to gather around to spectate. "All of you people have every right to be out here to voice your opinions, I don't deny that. But what really irks me is that you're all here under false pretenses." Several people began to murmur to each other, while the camera continued to focus on Cal and the reporter. "You watch this network because you rely on them to feed you all of the information you want to know about everything related to politics, right? Well, have any of you bothered to actually go back and check to make sure that they're telling you everything? That what they're telling you is actually fact?"
"Wait, let me get this straight," the reporter said with skepticism on her face, "You are on live television, accusing a major network of falsifying the facts and withholding opposing viewpoints?"
"Yes," Cal succinctly replied without hesitation.
The reporter turned back to the camera to wrap up the interview process, not allowing Cal to back up his claims, "There you have it, folks. Yet another naysayer who opposes the will of the people. That's what you see from the other side, a bunch of hot air and nothing to back up their claims. Back to you in the studio!"
Cal stood there, stunned that the reporter wouldn't even allow him the chance to convince anyone of his opinion. "Hey! You aren't even gonna let me defend my accusations?"
The reporter had already started to walk a couple of steps back towards their van, but she stopped for a moment to answer his question, "No. No one cares to hear what you have to say. You're a nobody with the intellect of an amoeba. These people only care about what they want to hear, and we give them what they want."
The nearby crowd, which had been murmuring amongst themselves up to this point, realized that there was something not right about the situation. "You never even let him finish!" one person yelled out.
Cal continued to follow the reporter and her cameraman before he finally started yelling at her. "This is journalism?You call yourself a journalist? Sooner or later, these people are going to wise up to your propagandism and you'll find yourself scrambling to cover up all of the lies you report to them every day!"
The reporter then lost her patience and quickly turned around to charge back at Cal. She got into his face to defend her credibility in front of the crowd. "I get paid far more money than you to report the news as the people want it. Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't say on television?"
Although he was quite offended by her statement, he began to wryly grin as he answered, "Well, Miss Reporter, I am a combat pilot and my job is to go out there and fight for the freedoms that you so greatly enjoy in the safety of this colony. It's because of me and my fellow soldiers that you are still able to say and do whatever you want. When was the last time you risked your life for millions of other people whom you have never ever met in your life? I'm pissed off because I realize that I'm risking my life for someone like you, who doesn't care to report on the truth, and instead spreads lies that further your own political views. But you know what? Even though I know that fact, I will still go out there and fight for you, everyone here, and for the rights that you all enjoy. Just so you can go on living your life the way you choose." After finishing his statement, Cal found his finger jammed into her shoulder out of anger. He had been poking her every few seconds when he'd put an accent on the words he was saying.
The reporter found that she didn't have anything to say edgewise. It's hard to follow something like that when someone literally tells you that they fight for your safety, even though they don't even like you. She fumed in anger and turned around to storm back towards the news van parked nearby. Nary a word was said from that point as she got inside and drove away.
By then, many of the nearby attendees had witnessed the exchange and started to creep closer to Cal. Initially, it was hard to tell whether or not they were angry with him, or were interested in what he had to say. Regardless, he continued to point out the glaring proof of the reporter's ignorance. "See? How can you guys believe someone who can't stand up to the truth like that?" Cal said to the people as he pointed at the departing van.
One of the people spoke above the others, "Sir, although we may not agree on politics, I just want to say that we all appreciate what you do out there." Several other nearby people chimed in with agreement.
Cal sighed to release the rest of his anger so he could return his demeanor back to normal. "Look, I appreciate your gratitude. I just hope that you guys have learned something here. Don't just believe the first thing that someone tells you. Make sure that they're telling you the truth before you blindly follow them."
"Like what?" someone asked.
"Well, you guys seem to think that the Zentraedi are nothing but a drain on our resources and that they don't pull their weight. I can tell you that you're all wrong in thinking that. I serve with many fine examples of Zentraedi soldiers and they are all worth their weight in gold. Even the ones who have recently joined the colony are out there doing what they can to secure the system and reliable sources of raw materials with which we can use to build this colony. Who do you think grows your food? Raises your cattle? Constructs the buildings you live in?"
"What about the war?"
"I can't tell you much in detail, but I can say that we are fighting against a very dangerous enemy. One whose goal is to remove us as a threat to them, so that they can use the Vajra to take control of every living thing in this galaxy. You all saw the reports after we secured this planet to colonize. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. That includes wiping us out!"
"They reported that the NUNS was making up the reports of conflict to continue getting funding from the government. Are you saying that this is false?"
"Yes! I've seen it with my own eyes! The threat is real!" Cal was continuously dumbfounded by the lack of real knowledge that these people had about the war effort and the assimilation of the Zentraedi fleet into the colony several months ago.
Before much more could be said, a small posse of imposing characters rushed up to Cal and started to push him away. "Get lost," they demanded.
Cal had already said what needed to be said. At that point, he was satisfied that he had made an impact on at least that small group of anti-administration protesters. "Remember!" he said as he slowly backed up, "Do your own homework! Don't be afraid to do the fact-checking yourself!"
The nearby crowd began to murmur amongst themselves again, now invigorated to actually debate the issue, rather than blindly agreeing with it. At least Cal was able to plant some seeds in their consciousnesses. Only time would tell if it would make a difference with them.
…
Somewhere on the outskirts of the city, a fairly well-wooded area had several paths cut through it and a hilltop was cleared away to make space for the structures built on top of it. A series of large pavilions had been built around an even larger main structure. Each pavilion served as a picnic area for large parties and about half of the pavilions were active with different gatherings of unrelated groups of people. The late-morning sun shone on the hilltop, shedding some much-needed warmth onto the area.
Much of the crew from the Macross Quarter had gathered in one of the pavilions, including the pilots of Skull Squadron. Many of them were gathered in their usual cliques, arranged according to their assigned duties while they were serving aboard the ship. While there were a lot of the crew attending, many of them had also brought their families and friends to enjoy the picnic. Even though it was still rather crisp and chilly outside, the pavilion was well-heated and comfortable enough for most everyone to shed their winter jackets in favor of regular clothing.
Finally getting the opportunity to spend some off-duty time with his new squadron, Commander Thompson seemed to linger near Ozma so that he could be formally introduced to everyone once more. Pilots and crew would occasionally come up to say hello again. After all, they hadn't seen him in the few weeks since they had returned to Aimo.
However, he wasn't the only one getting attention from the pilots and crew. As a matter of fact, a large collection of people had gathered in one corner to meet Ranka and Sheryl, who had come to the picnic with Alto. They did their best to greet their fans without making anyone feel left out. Slowly, but surely, the crowd around them had begun to dwindle as the occasional fan would leave, holding some personal belonging of theirs autographed by one or both songstresses.
Nearby, Alto stood in silence against the wall, holding a drink in his hand. He was soon greeted by one of the other pilots in the squadron.
"Hey, Saotome," Will hailed as he approached, holding his own drink, "How come you're not over there with your girlfriends?"
Alto didn't really like the fact that Will referred to them as his girlfriends, but he quickly realized that that's the way it seemed to everyone else. "I don't like being around all those people. Hell, they're not there to talk to me. I'd just look stupid standing there while everyone pays attention to them."
Will pointed at the group with his finger while holding his cup with the same hand. "What about your other friends? They don't seem to mind."
Brera, Nanase, and Luca were all sitting at the same table as Ranka and Sheryl, enjoying the crowd's company just as much as the two stars. They all shared the same sense of jubilation as each other and were even busily talking to some of the crew and pilots who had come to see Ranka and Sheryl.
Alto dropped his head a bit before looking back at Will, a bit upset that Will had pointed out that which he didn't even bother to see for himself. He clicked his tongue and started to walk away and towards the crowd of people in the corner. "Fine. It's just that I would rather enjoy the picnic as a normal person, you know?"
Will didn't even answer and let Alto walk away before he returned back to his own seat. He grabbed a couple of food items off of the table, which held everyone's homemade dishes. Looking back to where Nene was sitting, he noticed some unknown guy excitedly talking to her. He gritted his teeth as he hurriedly walked over to their table.
As Will approached, Nene noticed him coming and stopped herself midsentence to introduce them to each other. "Oh! Here he comes! Will, this is Ensign Scholtz. He's going to be our replacement fourth pilot!"
"The name's 'Thad'," he said as he stood up and put his hand out to shake Will's hand. Will looked at it for a moment before returning the gesture. "Nice to meet you," Thad said out of courtesy.
"Same," Will curtly replied.
"He's the guy that we decided to recruit before the big battle a few weeks ago. He just got back to Aimo this morning," Nene declared.
"Oh! Well, I'm sure you're glad to be on leave after so long, huh?"
"Yeah, but I'm more excited to be serving in the prestigious Skull Squadron. I've heard a lot about the Pixie Team," he said with a slight laugh, "Not the most intimidating of names, but you guys have made a bit of a reputation for yourselves in the fleet."
Both Nene and Will perked up upon hearing that they were a bit famous. "Really?"
"Yeah! You guys were running up the kills as a team and the rumor was that you guys always managed to get yourselves into combat with every patrol while you were out there." Thad looked at Will with a bit of admiration. "It's such an honor to meet you!"
"It is?" Will was not sure why Thad would hold him in such high regard, but he decided to take it in stride.
"Yeah! I have never seen someone fly an RVF so effectively in combat! When I got back to my ship after that sortie, I told my story to some of the pilots and they already knew about you. They said that Pixie Team had the best RVF pilot in the fleet!"
Will had quickly changed his facial expression to frustration and disappointment. "Whoa, whoa... That's not me."
"It's not?"
"No, I fly a 25-G; I'm a sniper. You're talking about Cal Wagner."
"Oh... yeah, 'Wagner'!" Thad was embarrassed about the situation and proceeded to apologize for the mix-up. "I'm so sorry! Ha ha... I just got ahead of myself there." He then started to look around for Cal. "Where is he? Is he here today?"
Will sighed and dropped his hands to his sides. Nene couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Seeing Will get excited about being some kind of notorious pilot, only to be horribly let down by the realization that it was Cal that Thad was talking about... it was quite humbling for him. "He's outside near the grill. Come on, I'll introduce you to him," he grumbled.
"Just try not to stroke his ego too much, okay?" Nene chimed in as she followed closely behind, carrying her camera by its strap in her hand.
Just outside of the pavilion, Cal toiled away at the huge grill in front of him. Utilizing his experience at working over an open fire, he seemed to be right at home cooking up the hot food for everyone to eat. He wore an apron over his clothes, along with a pair of safety goggles to protect his eyes from the large plumes of smoke billowing up from the grill. On one side, he had a steady supply of uncooked hamburger patties, hotdogs, bratwursts, chicken breasts, and other various grill-worthy items. There was even a small baggie full of hot peppers, some of which were already on the grill. On the other side sat a couple of large platters to hold the finished food. Partygoers would approach and partake of his labors, helping themselves to whatever they could and making requests for things that weren't available at the time.
As Will, Nene, and Thad approached, he had both of his earbuds in while he listened to the music playing from his new phone. A steady, rhythmic nod showed that he was closely following the beat of whatever it was that he was listening to.
"Cal," Will called out to him. Unfortunately, he didn't respond to Will and instead turned away to get something out of the nearby cooler. "Cal!" Will yelled again, now stopped almost 2 feet away. Cal turned back towards them, surprised to see that he now had company. Nene quietly remained in the background, using this opportunity to get some candid photos with her camera.
A smile creased across his lips and he reached up with one hand to pop an earbud out of his ear. The music now became fairly audible, even to the three people standing next to him. He definitely had the volume up beyond safe listening levels. "Oh, hey there!" he happily greeted.
Will wore a slightly disgusted look on his face as he finally introduced Thad to Cal. He certainly didn't like the music that he was hearing, since it was no more than a cacophony to him. "Ugh..." he recoiled as he looked at the now-hanging earbud, then back to Cal, "This is Thad... Scholtz, was it?"
Thad nodded and shook Cal's hand with enthusiasm. "Wow..." he seemed short on breath, for some reason, "It's gonna great to fly alongside you again."
The sous chef didn't quite understand the reason for such enthusiasm. "Pardon?"
"I was the guy you flew with several weeks ago on a sortie." Cal still wore a blank look on his face as Thad tried to jog his memory, "I saw you fight that big, red mecha-drone hand-to-hand, when you could have just finished it off with your gunpod."
"Oh! Yeah... I remember you now. So, I take it you're here because you're our new fourth pilot?"
"Yup! I'm really going to like flying in this squadron. Do you think you can show me a few pointers when you get the chance?" Thad continued to pour it on.
Nene, refusing to hear any more of the inane babble, decided to take her leave and faked a loud yawn, "Well, I'm not going to contribute to this ego-stroking session. I'm going to leave you boys alone so you can keep on kissing Cal's butt. I think every other person at this picnic has something more interesting to talk about..." She didn't even bother to stick around for any witty retorts and quickly disappeared back into the warm pavilion.
"Don't worry," Cal said, "She's always trying to keep my ego in check. So, did you want a burger or something...?" He offered up a finished patty, fresh off of the grill for either Will or Thad to accept. However, they seemed to be looking past him at someone else.
"If they don't want it, I'll take it," another voice sounded from behind. Cal turned around to see Captain Wilder standing there with an open bun on his plate. However, Cal was momentarily distracted by the Captain's civilian clothing. He wore a bright orange shirt with a Hawaiian-inspired print, a huge straw hat, baggy cargo shorts, and sandals.
"Hey, Captain! Nice threads!" Cal greeted. It was already strange enough to see their ship's captain dressed like he's been lying on a beach somewhere, sipping a piña colada from a hollowed-out pineapple with a paper umbrella sticking out of the top. What really drove the point home was that everyone else at the picnic was dressed for cold weather. It was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside at the time.
"Thanks. Now, about that burger..." Captain Wilder had his gaze fixed on the patty, but Cal put it back onto the grill.
"No, not this one. I've been saving one especially for you, Sir." He scooped a much larger patty off of the grill and placed it onto the bottom half of the bun. Before Captain Wilder could walk away, Cal stopped him again. "Wait, you're gonna need something to wash that down." He kicked the cooler door open and pulled a bottle of beer from the ice cubes packed inside. A quick twist of the cap and Cal handed the Captain a fresh, opened drink.
"Thanks, Wagner. Good show," he said, holding up the bottle near his head and using a couple of fingers to give a casual salute.
Cal returned the casual salute with one of his own, nowhere near the required courtesy while he's on duty. He turned back towards Will and Thad, who had stayed quiet for the last minute. "What?"
"You're such a kiss-ass," Will declared.
"Hey, I'm just serving customers, here. Were you guys gonna get a burger or what? Yours come with complimentary beer, too!" Cal replied as he reached into the cooler to pull out some more beverages for his wingmen.
"That's more like it!" Will said as he snatched a bottle from Cal.
Thad looked back at the pavilion, where Captain Wilder had gone. "That was the Captain?" He seemed to be extremely surprised at what he had just seen.
No answer came from neither Cal nor Will. Instead, Will shoved a plate with a burger into Thad's abdomen. "Come on. I'll introduce you to the rest of the pilots and crew." They left Cal alone at the grill, so he could get back to work.
Back inside of the pavilion, Ozma had to remark to Captain Wilder about his appearance, "What, are you in denial? It's cold out there!"
He shrugged with nonchalance as he took a seat next to Monica at one of the tables. Instead, she spoke on his behalf, "That's how he always dresses when he's off-duty, don't you know that? He wouldn't listen to me when I told him that he should wear something warmer today, though. To his defense, the guy is like a living furnace. You could roast a marshmallow off of him, if you wanted to."
"I guess that explains the clothes..." Ozma remarked before taking a sip of his drink.
Back outside, Cal had already re-immersed himself into his world of cooking over an open fire and listening to extremely loud music through his earbuds. But just because he was doing all of the grilling by himself, it didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy some samples of his own work. There was also a reason that he had kept a stocked cooler next to him: easy, convenient access to cold beverages... most of which were alcoholic by nature. There was always an open bottle sitting on the small table to his side, well within reach, should he require something with which to slake his thirst. After taking an oversized bite of his sandwich, Cal immediately followed it up with a swig. Upon placing the bottle back onto the table, he realized that someone had been standing next to the table for some unknown time, surprising him enough to make him swallow too much food and beer at one time.
Cal pounded his chest to help the food go down and tried to speak, but his voice was still raspy, "Klan!" He had to clear his throat a couple of times to speak again. "What are you doing here? I had no idea you were going to show up!" He popped the earbuds out of his ears by tugging on their cord from below.
She wore a bit of an indifferent look on her face, probably not knowing how to present herself at the time. Unlike Captain Wilder, she was more aptly dressed for the season. She wore simple jeans and a plainly-colored black sweatshirt, but it was a few sizes too large for her miclone form. She had the sleeves bunched up above her elbow to compensate for their excessive length. She carried a red plastic drinking cup, full of some unknown beverage. "Yeah, I didn't know I was coming either, until Ozma called me and made me promise to come."
"Oh." Cal's reply was quite curt and he quickly turned his attention to the food still cooking on the grill at the time. He flipped a couple of patties, filling their conversation with an awkward silence, since Klan didn't really know what to say or how to take his seeming nonchalance. He did make an effort at small talk after a few moments, though. "How are you doing?"
Such a cliché question seemed to irk her just a bit, but it was probably best to just play along for now. "Fine. I guess. Could be better, but doing okay. You?"
"Oh, getting by... you know how it goes..." Another pause in the conversation added to their level of discomfort. Cal flipped another couple of patties, creating temporarily loud sizzling sounds from the grease igniting the fire below the grating. "So, did you want a burger or something...?"
Klan suspected that he was trying to get rid of her so he didn't have to talk to her. "Do I look like I need a reason to come and talk to you?"
"No, you pretty much just do whatever you want. Seems that, for you, having a good reason isn't a requirement to do... or not do something." Cal has a way of making his point without actually saying it.
A sharp verbal barb was the last thing that Klan wanted to get from Cal, even though it was cleverly disguised as a harmless comment. "Stop it, Cal. You're not being very nice."
Cal, who wasn't even looking at her, put down his cooking utensils with a "clack" sound. He sighed as he turned to look at her, "Sorry. I'm just trying to move on, but it's not that easy."
"I know... tell me about it..." Obviously, she didn't actually want him to tell her about it; turns of phrase always have ironic literal meanings, not intended to be understood as such. "Why are you acting like this, anyway? I thought you said that my decision wouldn't bother you that much."
"...as long as you were honest with me and with yourself." Cal had to finish the sentence for her. The tone of his voice reflected his continuing frustration. "I'm sorry, but I didn't really think you were saying what was on your heart at the time, Klan. I won't bother you about it anymore, though."
She thought about things for a few moments before she attempted to reconcile things with him, "Cal, I-" She stopped mid-sentence and appeared to be looking behind Cal.
Before he could turn around, he felt someone squeeze both sides of his abdomen from behind. A feminine voice yelled out to scare him, "Aaaah!"
Cal couldn't help but react by arching his body backwards and jumping forward, almost causing him to slam into the barbecue grill. He felt his heart racing in his chest as he turned around to identify his assailant. "Damn you, Jen!" he said with a laugh, "You almost made me burn myself!" He then reached backwards and put his arm around her to give her a hug.
She returned the gesture in kind, giggling in a playful way. She noticed Klan standing a few feet away and greeted her, "Hi, Commander! I didn't know you were going to be here today! How's the new post working out?" Jen hadn't really talked with Klan much on a personal basis, and basically only knew her from when she had to direct the aerospace traffic around the Quarter while they were on deployment duty.
Klan was initially shocked upon seeing Cal and Jen's candid greeting with each other. She had been gritting her teeth out of reflex, but put on a more cheerful facade to reply to Jen. "It's doing just fine, Lieutenant." Even though it was a quick answer, it was pretty difficult to say without succumbing to her real internal response. She suddenly felt the plastic cup in her hands buckle from the added pressure from her clenching hand.
After hanging onto Cal for a few moments, Jen stood up next to him under her own power. "So, how did it go yesterday?"
Cal's mind raced for a moment as he tried to figure out what it was that she was talking about. He suddenly realized it and tried to fight off the sudden feeling of discomfort, since he was standing next to Klan. "Oh, I'll tell you a bit later," he replied with a bit of hesitation. He tilted his head in the direction of the food cooking on the grill, "I'm almost done here. I'll join you when I finish, okay?"
Jen nodded and began to walk away towards the pavilion. "It's good to see you again, Commander!" she cheerfully shouted.
Klan struggled to smile in response, before turning her attention back to Cal. She looked downwards towards her slightly-deformed cup and tried to pop the plastic back into its original cylindrical shape. Following a sigh, she broke the uncomfortable silence, "I guess I'll take one of those burgers."
Cal had been feeling some moisture building up around his shirt collar under his sweater, even though it was fairly chilly outside. He felt relieved when he saw that Klan wasn't going to inquire about what Jen had asked. "Sure! Here ya go." He nonchalantly scooped a fresh patty onto a bun and put it on a plate for her. He couldn't help but notice that she kind of snatched the plate out of his hands, instead of gently accepting it from him.
"Thanks. See ya," she curtly replied and walked away. A slight sense of guilt suddenly overcame her after a few steps and she stopped walking. She sighed and turned back to Cal, who was now a few yards away. "Cal." She waited for him to look back at her. "I'm sorry..."
Cal nodded his head and smiled, almost as if he thought the situation was funny to him. "Yeah, me too." He looked at her for a moment and then turned his attention back to the grill.
His reaction was cryptic, to say the least. Klan tried hard not to read too far into it, but his response seemed to carry a tone of resentment. She decided not to pursue the matter any further and quickly stormed away into the pavilion.
It didn't take Klan very long to find her sister sitting alone at one of the tables, who was reviewing some of the photos she had taken with her camera. She took a spot next to her sister, opposite of what she presumed was Will's seat, since there was a plate of half-eaten food there. Her plate made a bit of a racket from being carelessly dropped onto the table. The hamburger momentarily jumped into the air, with the bun separating from the patty before settling back onto the plate intact.
"Hey, you made it!" Nene declared. "I thought you weren't gonna come."
"I'm only here because Ozma insisted." She made it abundantly clear that she was not enjoying herself by her posture. She propped her head up on the table with one hand, while using the other to lift the sandwich to her mouth. "Where's your worse-half?" she asked with biting sarcasm.
"You mean Will, right? What's with your contempt of the male gender right now?"
"Let's just say that I'm not terribly happy with any particular specimen at this point in time." She took a bite and begrudgingly chewed on it for a moment. She couldn't help but notice that it actually tasted pretty good.
"Why are you upset at him? You made the decision."
"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about him being a jerk right now..."
"What did he say?"
Klan sighed and paused for a moment. "He just is. I don't really wanna talk about it."
"Oh-kayy... Well, anyway, Will's introducing our new wingman to the squadron. We finally got a replacement for-" Nene noticed that Klan wasn't really paying attention anymore. She could see that her sister was looking out of the corner of her eye outside. Something seemed to have caught her attention. Yet another female was initiating a conversation with Cal near the grill.
"Hey! Glad you could make it!" Cal said to Ranka, who was waiting for him to place a piece of grilled chicken onto her plate. "He finally managed to ask you?"
"Yeah, I had to twist his arm, though. Shoot, even Sheryl didn't know anything about this picnic until I mentioned it to him in front of her. Sometimes, I wonder what goes through his head. It's as if he is either too shy, or just disinterested."
"If only he was aggressive with you guys as he is when he's flying. He can be reckless on the stick, but he always gets the job done. Perhaps he just doesn't want to hurt either of you two."
"Who knows...?"
Just then, Luca approached from behind Ranka with a plate in one hand, and Nanase's hand in the other. "Cal! I want you to meet my girlfriend. This is Nanase."
"No way, Luca!" Cal exclaimed in surprise, "How did you manage to win the heart of this gorgeous young woman?" Surely, he was embellishing a bit, out of a gesture of friendliness towards them both.
"I have no idea..." Luca grinned at Nanase, shrugging with nonchalance. It was obvious he felt privileged to be at her side.
"Oh, stop, you two," she replied with a laugh. She then put her hand forward to greet Cal, "Luca's had some good things to say about you. It's nice to meet you!"
"Likewise!" Cal exclaimed. Instead of a casual shake, he took her hand in his and playfully bent forward to kiss her hand.
Inside of the pavilion, Nene was alerted to a loud "snap" sound from next to her. She turned to see what the cause of the noise was and saw that Klan had broken her plastic fork; both halves were still tucked under her thumb in her hand, but the handle had taken on an unnatural ninety-degree angle. Nene could see that Klan's attention was focused on the goings-on outside near the grill. "Something the matter?" she asked of her sister.
"No!" Klan replied with a pout. She picked up her plastic spoon and dug into the potato salad which she had been eating. One of the crew members walked by with a cocktail in their hand and Klan suddenly became interested in its origins. "I could use one of those. Who's mixing drinks?"
"Take a wild guess," Nene replied while nodding her head in the direction of the distant drink bar. Bobby could be seen enthusiastically using a cocktail shaker behind the bar.
Looking into her now-seemingly cheap plastic cup, she put it back on the table and got up from her seat. "I'll be right back..."
"Klan!" Nene exclaimed to momentarily stop her sister from walking away, "Be careful, now. Remember what happened the last time you had some drinks?" She wore a mischievous grin, obviously trying to goad her sister into a reaction. With a scoff, Klan stayed silent and walked away towards the drink bar.
Finally satisfied with his work for the time being, Cal put together a small plate of snack foods and joined Jen at her table. "Hello, ladies..." he casually greeted as he sat down. The rest of the bridge bunnies sat at the table; even Commander Choi decided to mingle with her subordinates.
They seemed to be waiting in anticipation for him to join them. "So, tell us all about it!" Jen said, "How did it go yesterday? Did you get the answer you were looking for?" She stared into his eyes with a smile. She leaned forward towards Cal, propping her chin up on the table with her hand.
He was noticeably uncomfortable talking about something so personal in front of a bunch of women. The fact that they were waiting with bated breath made it even more uncomfortable. He casually chomped down on a potato chip and answered the question, "No, we just decided to stay friends."
Several tongue clicks sounded almost simultaneously. "Oh, that's too bad!" Mena said.
Jen continued to stare into his eyes. Her intentions were pretty clear, but she asked the question anyway, "So, who was it? I'm dying to know!" Several of the girls chimed in to agree.
He shook his head as he answered, "Not gonna tell you... Well, maybe some day. Just not now."
"Aw, what a tease. I'll get it out of you soon," Jen said in a playful tone. She tugged at his arm to let him know she was still somewhat serious. "I mean it!"
Commander Choi, being far more experienced at life than everyone else sitting at that table, weighed in her opinion. "Oh, you're still young. There's plenty of time left for you to find someone special to you."
"Well, it's better to have loved and lost... you know how it goes," Cal casually replied with a shrug.
"You and I share that in common. My husband died a few years ago, but our many years together were nothing short of marvelous. I heard about your fiancee. It just pains me to hear that such young love never had the chance to truly come to fruition. You'll find someone soon, I'm sure." Commander Choi's mood had turned the atmosphere a bit somber. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hijack the conversation and make it all gloomy like that," she said with a laugh and a smile.
"Yeah! Don't worry, Cal," Mena said, "If I wasn't already married, I might be tempted..." The bindi on her forehead told of her relationship status.
He laughed at her attempt to make him feel better. "Well, do you have any unmarried sisters that might be tempted?"
"No, she doesn't," Lam replied for her. "All of the young women in her family have already been betrothed. So, you missed out. However, not all of the women in my family are taken yet."
"But you don't haveany sisters!" Monica chimed in.
"I know!" Lam playfully grabbed Cal's arm and tugged him closer to her.
Jen wasn't going to have any of it. "Oh, no... I don't think you'd get along with Cal that well. You already have a boyfriend, anyway!" She pulled him back towards herself with his other arm.
"So do you! What's it to you?" Lam continued to playfully banter with Jen.
Cal simply sat in his seat and allowed himself to be tugged in whatever direction the girls decided for him. He struggled to put a bite of food in his mouth, since his head was going wherever his shoulders would go. After several seconds of holding a chip in front of his face, he finally bit down on it and began to chew. His eyes wandered upwards from the table and into the distance, where he could see Klan sitting at the bar in the distance. Her gaze was fixed upon him and she didn't seem to approve of what she was seeing.
Bobby's voice repeated a couple of times from behind her, "Klan. Klan!"
She jerked as she turned around to respond to him. "What?"
"Your drink is ready."
"Oh... Thanks." She picked it up and didn't even bother to look at its appearance before downing the whole thing without putting it down. She kept her gaze on the table where Cal was sitting, trying to make out what they were saying. From her distance, it was all just a bunch of hens clucking at each other, though.
Bobby felt a little under-appreciated for the hard work he had put into creating the drink for her. "I was kind of hoping that you'd enjoy that a little more."
"I'm sorry, Bobby. It was good. Can I have another one?" Klan had turned to look him in the eye when she asked. Seeing that he was going to fill her request, she grabbed some assorted shelled nuts from the basket nearby. There was a nutcracker sitting in a holster next to the basket, but she didn't bother to pick it up to use it.
"There's a nutcracker here―" Bobby's sentence was interrupted by the loud crack of the shell breaking in her hand. "Nevermind..."
Even the mighty walnut was no match for her dexterity. She nervously fidgeted with the shells as she dug the softer nuts out and ate them. All the while, her gaze remained on the same thing as before. It seemed as though she was taking out some excess aggression on the hard-shelled nuts.
Will and Thad finally finished making their rounds and re-joined Nene at her table. "Whose plate and cup is that?" Will asked. He then noticed the letters "K.K." written in black marker on the cup. "Oh, nevermind. Your sister is here?" he asked as he looked around.
Thad seemed to perk up at the mention of another woman sitting at their table. "Sister? You have a sister in the squadron?"
"Yeah. Well, no... She was in the squadron. She used to be the squadron XO and our team leader until she got promoted. She's serving on another ship now." Nene noticed that Thad was starting to get a certain glimmer in his eyes. "She's not your type, so don't even think about asking."
"Aw, how can you say that? You barely even know me!"
"Just trust me on this one," Nene replied, "She's not easy to get along with."
"What's her name?"
Nene sighed out of frustration, but answered anyway, "Klan Klang."
He put his finger on his chin to indicate that he was thinking about something. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"
"Does the nickname 'Nephilim' ring a bell?"
"Oh!" Thad reeled back a bit in surprise, "That's your sister? I thought your last name was Rora."
"She's my half-sister."
"Ah, makes sense," Thad shrugged. "Yeah, maybe you were right, then..."
Like clockwork, Klan appeared from within a crowd of people, carrying what looked like a lowball glass of rum and soda. She sat down at her seat and only looked at Thad for a split second before digging into her food.
"That's your sister?" Thad asked. Klan looked up from her food to give him her infamous stare. He flinched a bit, as if someone had splashed him in the face with some water.
"Yep!"
"But she's just a kid, how can she outrank us all?" Thad, like everyone else who meets Klan for the first time, had several questions to ask about her appearance as a miclone.
She couldn't help but forcibly exhale out of frustration. Instead of dignifying his question with an answer, she took another bite of food and tried very hard not to jump across the table to lay down the "rules".
Will interjected to avoid any kind of violent confrontation between her and the grossly uninformed, "That's just how she looks when she's in her miclone form," he said in a quiet tone of voice, "She has some kind of genetic abnormality that causes her to take on a child-like form of herself."
"Ah..." Thad replied with a smile, "I just expected something a little more intimidating than a little girl." He playfully laughed, thinking that he was going to be cute about it.
Having heard enough of Thad's jokes, Klan shot up from her seat, slammed her hands on the table-top, and lunged in his direction. Her cheeks were swollen with food, but she began to burn a hole in his face with her frightening glare.
Thad immediately understood the nature of the stories he'd heard about her. He reacted by leaning back in his chair and partially put his arm up as if he was going to block an incoming attack from the diminutive girl sitting across from him.
Fortunately for him, Klan didn't do much more; she didn't have to. Having asserted the intimidation factor of her true nature, she sat down with a satisfied aura.
Will and Nene laughed at the situation, leaving Thad in a slightly mortified state. "Holy crap... never judge a book by its cover..." he mumbled just loud enough for everyone at the table to hear.
"Damn straight. Don't forget those words of wisdom, either," Klan replied, staring off into the distance. "I should probably just not bother to miclone myself anymore. It's not like I now have any reason to do so..."
Cutting the tension with a knife, Cal came out of nowhere and stood next to Klan. He plopped his plate down onto the table, but he seemed to be in good spirits. "Hey, guys."
"Finally decided to join your wingmates, huh?" Will chided.
"Yeah, I was busy cooking your food for you, in case you forgot!" Cal pointed at Will's half-eaten hotdog on his plate.
Will smiled at Cal's response. He knew he was just kidding and reached around Nene's back, holding his fist up in the air. Cal, who was still standing, returned the gesture and bumped his fist against Will's.
"Is that some kind of squadron greeting?" Thad asked.
"No," Nene replied, "That's just something the two of them do. Some of the pilots have started calling them the 'Bash Brothers' because of it."
While Nene continued to answer Thad's questions, Cal sat down and leaned inward towards Klan. She was still eating and pretending that nobody else existed around her. "Hey," he said in a hushed voice, "Umm... I'm sorry about earlier."
Klan stopped chewing for a moment and cleared space in her mouth to speak, "Oh yeah? Sorry for what?" She was looking at him from the corner of her eyes and started to chew again.
"I was being kind of a jerk to you earlier. You looked pretty upset when you left and I suspected that I went a little too far in what I said."
"So... you aren't really sure if that's why I'm upset?"
Cal grunted at her question, but answered after a slight hesitation, "Well, I thought that's what was upsetting you... but it doesn't matter anyway. I just wanted to make sure that you don't think that I don't care."
"You're apologizing for something that you're not even sure is your fault? That's not really like you. You're too stubborn to admit when you're wrong about something."
Suddenly, Cal found himself getting a little upset. "Is it really that much of a surprise to you? Maybe you missed the part where I made it abundantly clear that you were important to me." He stopped for a moment as he realized that his voice was starting to increase in volume. Both of them had their heads fairly close to each other to keep their conversation on the down-low. Everyone else at the table was still busily chatting with each other, and the dull roar from other people's conversations in the pavilion helped to drown out the private conversation. "We may not be 'together', but you'll find that I still put a lot of value into you as a friend. I don't want to let a little disagreement come between us, okay?"
The immediate vicinity had become quiet, for some reason. They looked up to see that the other three pilots at the table were watching them have their little conversation with each other.
"Everything alright?" Nene asked.
Klan straightened her posture out and closed her eyes while Cal answered, "Just fine. We were just clearing up a little miscommunication."
The sound of a sharp whistle cut through the air before anyone at the table could ask for details. Ozma was standing on one of the tables near one of the entrances to the pavilion. "Alright, listen up!" He waited for most of the crowd to grow silent before continuing. "Did everyone get enough to eat?"
"Yeah!" everyone answered.
"I just want to say 'thanks' to everyone who brought food with them; everything was delicious! Well, everything that I could make room for..." The crowd agreed and some laughed at Ozma's offhand comment. "So, thanks to you all for your great dishes. Also, let's not forget the great job Bobby did serving mixed drinks for those of us who have no idea how to make them!" Bobby put his arm in front of his waist and politely bowed as everyone turned their attention towards him. He couldn't help but blush a bit, since he was getting a compliment from someone for whom he had feelings. Ozma, still uninformed about Bobby's crush on him, continued giving props, "Lieutenant Wagner also did a great job slaving over a hot grill to make sure we all had our share of freshly cooked meats. It wouldn't be a picnic without grilled food! Where is he?" He looked around to find Cal, and saw him waving from his seat a few tables away.
A couple of the crew members at the table next to them leaned towards Cal to personally chime in their approval, "My compliments to the chef!"
"I told you my boy could grill!" Will remarked as Cal thanked the crew members for their words.
Ozma finished acknowledging everyone's efforts to make the picnic happen and moved on to his next agenda item. "Okay, now for a something a little more fun! In case any you hadn't noticed, this is a paintball park... We rented out one of their woodsball courses for our own personal use this afternoon and I'm expecting an epic battle for bragging rights on the ship: my squadron versus a team comprised of some of the ship's crew. If anyone else wants to participate, feel free to join in. Family and friends are welcome!" The crowd began to chatter with each other upon hearing his announcement.
Captain Wilder, who was seated near Ozma, stood up to speak to everyone. "Commander Lee has a bottle of 18-year-old scotch that says that his pilots will come out the victors. I'm willing to bet that the ship's crew has something to say about that!" he said with a wry grin. He looked over the crowd of familiar faces, those whom he has worked with on a personal basis during his tenure as the ship's captain. As was expected, a portion of the crowd cheered, while the other jeered in response.
Ozma laughed from Captain Wilder's words and the crowd's reaction. "Alright then, it's settled." He pointed at a group of park employees standing nearby. "If you're interested in participating, these guys will show you everything you need to know about the equipment we'll be using. Once we've started the match, those of you who are tagged out can return to the pavilion. We'll have monitors set up with camera feeds so you can cheer your team on from the sidelines. Don't go anywhere, either. When the match is over, we'll have a bit of a parting ceremony to do. We have some awards and recognition to give out to various crew members and pilots, plus several extremely important announcements to make." He stopped for a moment to let the words sink in. "Okay! Have fun, everybody!"
While many of the picnic attendees began to bustle in preparation for the upcoming event, the members of Pixie Team felt the call of "duty" and started to get up from their seats. However, Klan firmly remained in her seat.
"Are you coming?" Cal asked.
"No, you guys go ahead. I'm not a member of the crew or squadron anymore."
"Oh, come on," Nene whined, "You heard Ozma. Friends and family can participate too! Besides, we still consider you to be one of us."
"I'll be okay. Thanks, though."
Cal, Will, and Nene clicked their tongues as they walked away with Thad following closely behind them. They got into line to wait for their turn to get their equipment.
About half an hour passed and Klan had really started to enjoy the relative quietness alone at the table. She was batting around some thoughts in her mind when she heard someone approach her from behind.
"Penny for your thoughts," Bobby said as he leaned up against a structural support beam nearby. He was already decked out in equipment and was waiting for everyone else to finish getting ready.
Klan turned around to see who it was and then turned forward again with a chuckle. "Nothing. Just enjoying the peace and quiet while I can."
Bobby laughed. Whether he was laughing at her or with her, was something of a mystery at a glance. "I know I haven't really seen you in a few weeks, but I still know when something's not right. You don't seem yourself today. You know I have to ask, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I don't think you can help, though."
"Oh, a challenge! Try me. You might be surprised." Klan stayed silent and managed to crack a smile. "You're going to make me guess, huh?" Bobby put his hand up to his chin and looked at the ground. "Judging from your behavior at the bar earlier, does it have something to do with Lieutenant Wagner? Do you miss your pilots that badly?"
Klan initially reacted in surprise, but then realized that Bobby has always been rather perceptive of what goes on around him. "I do miss them. I miss all of you, to be honest." Her eyes wandered over the crowd outside until she saw Cal standing around in his gear, casually talking to Jen again. The two of them were somewhat secluded from the rest of the participants, though. "Bobby," Klan said as she started to firmly tap her fingers on the table, "I do have something that you might be able to help with, now that I think about it."
"What's that?"
She motioned in the direction in which Cal and Jen were standing. "What's the deal with those two? They seem to know each other pretty well and appear to be pretty close."
Bobby raised his eyebrow with intrigue. He smiled and exhaled as he answered, "You don't know?" She looked up at him with dreaded anticipation. "They met each other right before we deployed into space a few months ago." He laughed as he moved to the next sentence, "I won't go into any details, but let's just say that they spent the night together, since they figured that they wouldn't see each other again. Pretty romantic, huh?"
"He did what?" her head spun around to look at him.
Bobby could see that there was a fire raging behind her eyes. "They slept together several months ago. What's the big deal?"
A horrible sound began to emanate from the table near Klan's hand. Bobby looked down and saw that she was carving several grooves into the durable plastic tabletop with her fingernails. The greyish material was being lifted by her fingers and began to curl up into her palm. She didn't even flinch; she just continued to glare out at the two friends talking to each other outside.
A moment of clarity overcame Bobby and his face reflected his enlightenment. "Oh. My. God. Now I know what all this is about. You're jealous!"
She quickly spun her head around and shot him an angry look. "Bobby!"
He put his hands up in front of his chest to show that he was defenseless. A moment of silence passed by. "I don't hear you disagreeing with me." She turned away to look outside and began to sip on her lowball glass, holding it in her hand when she wasn't drinking from it.
Cal and Jen were unaware that anyone in particular was watching them as they stood around the corner from most of the crowd. "Where's Commander Ortiz, anyway? I haven't seen him here yet," Cal asked of Jen.
"I don't know," she said as she looked at her watch, "He said he was going to be late, but I didn't think he'd be this late. I should probably call him to make sure he isn't lost or got hung up somewhere."
"So, I take it you guys are doing okay now?"
"Yeah. He was really apologetic after our little fight. It seems that he can admit that he's a bit jealous when it comes to seeing me interacting with other men... especially you, considering our past 'adventures' together." Jen giggled a little bit at her remark.
"'Adventures', huh?" Cal said with a smile. "Well, I just hope that he isn't going to intentionally be bringing any kinds of shitstorms down on me because of it."
"No, I made him promise to behave when he's around you. You won't have to worry about him, okay?" she said balling her hand up in a fist. She grinned with an evil look on her face. She then cleared her demeanor and moved on to another important subject to her. "Look, I know you don't want to tell me about who it is that's caught your attention, but I'm sorry that it didn't work out for you. She doesn't know what she's missing out on."
"Aw, Jen, don't start with that..." Cal said while rolling his eyes.
"I'm serious! For what it's worth, you've been a really great friend to me and I can only imagine how it would have been if we'd been something more than that. I'm glad that we can keep things platonic, though. I'd like to see you find happiness sometime soon. Just know that I'm always in your corner when you need me and I appreciate how you're there for me when I need someone to talk to. Thanks." She coyly approached Cal and hugged him. She managed to sneak a friendly kiss onto his cheek before letting him go and walking away. He just watched her leave with a smile on his face.
Bobby, who had seen the exchange had just started to laugh to himself when he heard the sound of glass shattering nearby. Klan's lowball glass was now a garbled pile of razor-sharp shards lying on the table. Her hand was still holding what remained of the base.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" he said as he reached over to inspect her hand for any cuts. "How the hell did you not cut yourself?"
"Alright, that's it. I've seen enough. If you'll excuse me, I need to wash up and go take care of some business elsewhere." She tugged at her hand after standing up. "Oh, and by the way... if you tell anyone about this conversation, I will hunt you down and take to that hair of yours with an electric razor."
Bobby nervously laughed and let go of her hand. Inside of his mind, he was still shocked that she hadn't sliced it open on any of the shards after the glass had spontaneously exploded in her hand. ...or was it spontaneous? He pointed towards the building next to where Cal was standing. "The bathroom's that way!" he hollered at her when he saw that she was walking in the opposite direction.
Once everyone was suited up and ready to go, one of the park employees spoke to the crowd over a bullhorn. "Alright, if I can have everyone's attention!" Most of the chatter quieted down and all eyes were upon him as he continued, "This is going to be a capture-the-flag match." A map of the course displayed on the large monitor to above him. "Somewhere in this area, the flag will be randomly dropped by one of our remote drones," he said as he circled an area at the center of the map with his laser pointer. "The object is to grab that flag and return it to the enemy's base, not your own! The match is over when the flag has been captured, or when all of the members of one team have been tagged. You'll find many man-made obstacles and buildings littered all over the map. Feel free to use them to your advantage. Trees will be abundant and can be used as cover, if you so choose... that's why it's called 'woodsball'."
Another employee took over for him and began to explain the functionality of the equipment. "All of you have the same basic equipment, but there are a couple of exceptions. While most of you have a standard, semi-automatic paintball marker, each team has a pair of snipers equipped with a bolt-action rifle and a rudimentary ghillie suit for camouflage. These rifles are specialized in long distance accuracy and if you get hit by one of their paintballs, I can assure you, it's gonna hurt!" Several groans could be heard from the crowd. "Don't get me wrong, it hurts to be shot by any paintball, but theirs is just going to have a higher velocity on them... which means it's gonna raise a bigger bump on your skin if you get hit in an unprotected spot. The snipers can be the most valuable players on your team, due to their effectiveness, but you have to protect them! Their bolt-action rifles ensure that they can only fire once every couple of seconds. Now, you all have the option of wearing additional body armor, if you so choose, but it's gonna weigh you down. You're only required to wear, at minimum, goggles and an armband for team identification."
Several participants began to gravitate back towards the equipment lockers to take him up on his offer, having heard about the risks involved in being out there with little protection. Cal had been standing amongst the rest of the crowd when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He turned around to see Will standing behind him, wearing a ghillie suit and holding a rifle at his chest pointed diagonally towards the ground. The ghillie suit was not much more than a cloak large enough to cover Will's back. The shaggy material was just enough to give him a little bit of camouflage. "I should have guessed that you'd cry about it until you got to be assigned a sniper role," Cal remarked.
"Actually... the squadron agreed that Patterson and I would be the snipers, since that's what we do as pilots while we're in combat," he replied. Of course, he was referring to the other 25-G pilot in Rabbit Team. He put his fist up again, "I need a spotter and point man. You in?"
Cal smiled and bumped his fist against Will's to let him know he was in agreement. "What about Nene?"
"I'll babysit the chickling," she replied as she approached from behind Will.
Thad, who had been standing nearby, heard her remark. "Hey! I am not a newbie! I've got plenty of combat experience, you know...!"
"Welcome to the big-leagues, chickling," Cal responded with a grin on his face. In his mind, he was already thinking about how he was the newbie in the squadron just a few months ago. Now, he was one of the veterans responsible for making sure the new pilots got to be the brunt of every joke.
"Okay! On to the next item," the park employee said. He looked up at the monitor, which now showed some kind of sample picture taken during another event at some time in the past. "Here is what you're going to see when you put these goggles on." He used a laser pointer to draw attention to various parts of the picture. "These goggles will display a HUD for you to see during the match. Here, we have a compass at the top-middle. This will obviously show you directions so you don't get disoriented out there. Also, you will see this highlighted line on the compass reading. It's telling you what general direction the flag is. If the flag has been picked up, it will move along the compass, relative to where you are on the course. That way, anyone who has the flag knows that they're gonna have everyone hot on their heels."
He then pointed to other portions of the HUD on the goggles with his laser pointer. "Here is your current ammunition count on your gun. You will all be supplied with refills, but you'll have to do the reloading yourself. The canisters are easy to swap out and reattach to the hopper on top, so it won't take you too long to reload. Just make sure that you choose a good time to do it, or you might find yourself on the receiving end of someone else's paintballs." A few laughs came from the crowd of players. "These goggles have dynamic light filters that will highlight friendly players without affecting your ability to see everything else. They will also display the player's identity above their head so you can communicate with each other. You have radio headsets that will allow you to talk to each other. You can restrict your signal to team-only, or toggle it to speak to everyone on the course." He laughed a little bit as he continued, "We like to encourage a little bit of trash-talking between teams to keep things moving out there."
Nene stared at Cal. "You'd better behave! I'll shoot you myself if I get tired of hearing your chatter."
"What...?" he replied with a feigned look of innocence.
"Okay, and finally... We have these armbands to identify your team. Any of you who chose to wear body armor will also have a large stripe on your back and chest colored according to what team you're on." He looked around to get a quick idea of how many people were going to play. "Is everyone here and ready to play?"
"Yeah!" most of the crowd chimed.
"Okay, let's get this started. I'll need the teams to separate so we can make sure your colors are correct. Red team is over here, and blue team is over there," he said, pointing to two separate staging areas.
All of the players began to separate into their assigned teams while the employees checked their colors to make sure that there weren't any mixups. Will made it a point to single out the other two snipers on the other team to gauge their capabilities based on his impressions of them.
"Everything looks good. Okay, let's get you guys to your starting points," one of the employees hollered. "Red team, you go with him. Blue team, you're with me."
The large groups of players had already started to make their way down the hill and into the course when someone began to yell at them from behind "Hold on!"
Surprisingly, Klan was jogging down the hill, wearing paintball equipment. She had even opted to wear body armor, even though it seemed to be a little too big for her. Her hair floated in the air behind her, trying to keep up.
"Oh, we have a latecomer. What team are you on, Miss?" one of the employees asked.
She ran up to where Pixie Team was walking and lifted Cal's arm to see his color. "I'll be blue!" she replied.
"Okay. Come on, then..." he waved her over to his group.
This came as a surprise to the pilots. "We're red team," Cal declared.
"I know that."
He laughed a bit as he realized that she had no intention of being on his team. "Wait, I thought you said you didn't want to play."
"I'm not here to 'play'. I'm here to make sure that you don't win," she said while poking Cal in the chest with her index finger.
"Oooh...!" several people grunted in response to the challenge being laid down.
"You can try..." Cal casually responded. "I just hope you can lift that paintball marker high enough to aim it. That thing is almost as big as you are."
A series of jeers and laughs sounded from the other pilots. Klan, who had started walking away by the time he responded, turned around and used two of her fingers to point at her eyes, then turned her hand around to point at him with the same fingers.
Will leaned in towards Cal's head. "That means she's watching you."
"I know that, asswipe."
After a minute of organizing and double-checking the teams, one of the employees got back onto his bullhorn. "Okay, the teams are set and it looks like the pilots are seriously outnumbered! Are you guys okay with that?" he asked of Skull Squadron.
"That's just the way we like it!" Ozma loudly responded.
The employee shrugged at Ozma's response. "Okay, if that's how they want it... Red team, Blue team, follow us to your starting areas. Good hunting, everyone!"
