"We are at the jumping point, ready to go to the Bear system... who came up with those names?" Neptune wondered as he waited the next order. "Anyway, it will be a longer jump, fifteen minutes. You know, considering how close those systems are; I am surprised the aliens didn't found us first."
"If Oobleck's theory is correct, they found us already and decided we needed a fucking Grimm infestation. Assholes." Sun commented as his tail moved around the back of his sit in annoyance.
"Or they have troubles of their own to concern themselves with us. Maybe they are too advanced to think of us as worth talking to." Jaune theorized, hoping to be any of those instead of 'they hate us and want us dead'.
"Then they are arrogant assholes. Do you think we will find them soon, skipper?" Coco asked as she stretched in her chair. Having nothing to shoot at put her in a bad mood.
"If we do, no shooting them at the face on first sight, Coco. At least not until the third date." They laughed, though Glynda left out her usual sigh over the fact they could be so childish. "Anyway… Captain speaking, we are going to warp, yay! So, remember to strap things you don't want to float around, this will be a longer trip. Drinks and food won't be served during this flight, complains should be directed to Lt. Schnee to be ignored. In case of emergency we are utterly doomed. Thanks for flying Nagato Spacy, your best choice for dangerous trips around the galaxy."
"Captain Arc, do you really have to say those things? Lt. Schnee already gave a formal complain to me." Glynda said in exasperation as she fixed her small glasses. Jaune chuckled, and understood that she would be like that, but they were all young, and all risking their lives, so he deemed necessary to make the mood as light as possible.
"You need to lighten up too, Commander. We will be inside this ship for a few years if we are lucky, so no need to be formal all the time."
"Well, I do have my return party planed for when we get back in three years. You are invited too, captain." Neptune said as he gave one of his bright smiles, but Jaune looked at him curiously.
"Helmsman, are you aware that this trip have no end date, right? We will keep travelling till we accomplish our objective or deem it impossible." He spoke, and Neptune laughed.
"Funny one, captain, but I had read the mission statement. We aren't going anywhere as far as three years."
"That means that we won't go anywhere that would take more than three years IN warp drive to reach. This is our range, not mission duration. We have at least a thousand systems to check." Jaune complemented, and Neptune stopped laughing, glaring at his friend.
"SUN!"
"What?! It was your idea to come here, since, and I quote, 'there is way too many people angry with us, and besides, we might bang some hot alien chicks if we play our cards right.'" The Faunus boy defended himself. Jaune made a mental note to not let his helmsman near alien females, especially pretty ones. It was both for his and their safety.
"Well, too late to return now, helmsman. Let's get this ship to its next stop. Engage."
Neptune left out one last groan of lament before activating the warp, and again the gravity turned off, the ship was filled in an eerie glow and a beautiful singing female voice could be heard. As the first minute of travel passed and none of those phenomenons subsided, the captain turned to Penny.
"Penny, are you listening to this singing too?" He asked, but received no answer, something unusual with the AI. He turned around to see her slightly floating by his side, her eyes focused to the front of the ship, but lifeless. He took out of the command chair and touched her, to no reaction whatsoever. "Ren, something is wrong with Penny!"
Ren immediately jumped of his seat and approached the artificial girl, the rest of the crew focused on his actions. He opened a small panel on the back of her neck and connected his portable diagnosis device. He spent the next few minutes watching the screen, before returning to his seat and messing with some of the screens there. After a minute of silence he finally spoke.
"Well, it seems the positronic system on her cores is resonating with the warp funnel we are in, making it going in a dormant mode. She is fine, as it is her other core on the ship. Once we leave the warp, she will probably don't even realize she was offline." He said, and everyone sighed relieved.
"Can you fix this? I would rather have my AI working on the longer travels." The captain asked, and Ren wondered for a second.
"Well, Nora might come up with something. I will make sure it is practical and not dangerous." The black haired boy stated, and Jaune nodded.
"You two and Penny work on that as soon as we got out of warp. Now, about this singing…"
"What singing?" Ren wondered, and everyone stared at the captain, and he felt way to self-conscious now as he became the center of attention.
"None of you are hearing a female voice singing? I hear it every time we go into warp." He explained, decided to not let the crew wonder things by themselves. It would be worse if…
"That is our captain, attracting women even in the subspace!" Sun said, making him groan while Neptune and Coco laughed.
"None of us have heard any voices. Are you sure you are alright, captain?" Glynda asked, more concerned with his wellbeing than anything else.
"I will talk with Doc once we got out of warp. Maybe Penny is not the only one being affected by the subspace. I wonder how the Marines are doing right now."
…
"WEISS, AS YOUR CAPTAIN I AM ORDERING YOU TO STOP TRYING TO KILL MY SISTER!" Ruby yelled as a pissed off heiress was trying to strangle the blonde, a series of delicate panties and bras flying around them.
"Just one more minute, captain, and I will be finished!" Weiss answered. She was surprisingly strong when angered, and considering angry was her usual state, they were surprised she wasn't causing more damage. Pyrrha and Velvet grabbed the small girl and pushed her off Yang, as the blonde recovered her breath.
"How some feather weight like you can have such a grip?" Yang asked as she floated and breathed.
"I am a Marine too, you hooligan! And that is what you deserve by grabbing my underwear bag and tossing it around yelling 'panties bomb'!" Weiss answered as she started to grab her underwear back and putting on the bag.
"Where do you found those? They are adorable!" Velvet asked, a little shyly. Quality clothing was rare at the colonies, considering their little resources. Frilly underwear like what Weiss had was even rarer.
"Money can get you everything you need if you have enough. Those are handmade." The white haired Marine answered with no little pride in her voice.
"Those look uncomfortable with the environmental suits, not alone the Hunter armor. That is why I use Renny's boxers." Nora commented with a small bra on her hands, and they all stared at her in surprise.
"You… wear Ren's underwear?" Pyrrha asked, and Nora giggled, removing her suit and showing a sports bra provided by the Army and the grey male boxers. "Yep, the Army doesn't allow us to use underwear designed to a different gender, so I traded the panties for some pancakes and Renny always gimme a pair of boxers when we get new clothes. His clothes last a lot longer than most since he takes great care of it, but he made the requests anyway so I can have some."
"That was… unexpected…" Weiss said, trying to not imagine Ren wearing Nora's panties. And failing.
"It provides great space and is comfortable as hell." Nora smirked as she shook her hips a little.
"Anyway… Yang, touch my things again and I will convert your bras into ammo pouches!" Weiss threatened as she grabbed the bra from Nora's hands, but the blonde just smirked.
"That will be a lot of ammo. Besides, maybe the skipper likes to see them giggle." She said as she puffed her chest out, making her large bosom showing more. Weiss face contorted in disgust while everyone else but Nora blushed.
"YANG! Stop trying to get the captain in your panties!" Ruby yelled, making everyone blush harder.
"Come on, he is cute! And he is nice to boot! Though maybe he doesn't like boobs that much? I saw him looking at the bunny's butt once." Velvet stared at them as they stared back, putting her hands on her butt like trying to hide it, her bunny ears up in alertness.
"T-the c-captain would n-never!" She yelled, but it sounded more like a cute shriek.
"Come on, Vel! You are always swinging it as you walk; even I have checked your butt once." Yang said with a wink, making the bunny girl blush so hard she was red from toes to head.
"That is it! I will make sure the skipper give you some appropriated punishment!" Weiss yelled again, making an indignant pose, but Yang laughed and opened her jacket, showing cleavage.
"Hmm, I wonder if he will slap me." The blonde answered playfully, licking her full lips to make her point. "Besides, you are just jealous because you don't have curves to show the captain, even Ruby have more than you."
"I AM NOT PLAIN!" Weiss and Ruby yelled at the same time, and as they kept arguing, Pyrrha stared at herself, wondering if Jaune would like a more fit body like hers. She would be lying if she said she didn't have more than a passing interest on the blonde. She was so focused on her own thoughts that she didn't noticed when Yang approached her, grabbing her breasts from behind.
"KYAAAA! YANG!" She yelled as the blonde fondled her, the two girls floating as Pyrrha flailed her legs and tried to get Yang's hands of her chest.
"Thinking of blondes? But maybe the one who doesn't have breasts. And I might say, mama these are big too! Let me check yours, Vel!"
The Faunus girl meeped as Yang let go of Pyrrha's and tried to grab her, but Ruby and Weiss held the overly excited blonde back, with Pyrrha getting between the blonde and the bunny, the later clinging on her friend's back.
"Attention crew, leaving warp in fifteen seconds, please be prepared." The voice of Glynda echoed over the ship.
"You all know that once we got out of warp, the gravity will return, right?" Blake deadpanned, and the five girls perceived they were floating over each other. They were about to do something when the warp stopped, and they fell over each other with a loud thud as the gravity returned.
"I hate you all…" Weiss said as she tried to get from under everyone.
"Sgt. Valkyrie, your presence is required at the engineering ASAP." Glynda's voice echoed again.
"Coming!" She smiled and rushed out of the door.
"Did she just left in her underwear?" Blake asked as they noticed Nora's uniform on the floor. Pyrrha grabbed it and ran after her friend.
"Nora! Wait!"
Not a single moment of boredom, Blake thought as she resumed reading the book in her scroll.
…
"Well, I can't find anything wrong with you physically, Jauney, and you don't show any changes on your brain waves. I wonder…." Dr. Verd put a hand on her chin as she looked at the young captain, her grey dog ears moving a little.
"Come on, Doc, if it is something that might interfere with my obligations as captain, I need to know." Jaune asked as he fixed his jacket.
"Maybe you are just working too much. I mean, since you got this position, you didn't took a single day off."
"You talk like we have plenty of things to do in this ship." Jaune retorted, but the doctor used her serious face.
"You do. You cook, you train with Pyrrha, you keep the Marines under control, listen to Glyn's complains about the crew, make plans for every eventuality, teach Penny on how to human, keep Nora of exploding the ship, and those are just the ones I can remember right now. Jauney, you need to do something that isn't remotely related to the job. Blake read novels, for example, Sun and Neptune are in an all-out prank war with each other, Velvet is writing a novel and I think Ren is running a secret bookmaking ring."
"What they would even bet? When Weiss will murder Yang? And what they are using as wager?"
"I think there is one about that one, yes, and they bet duties and personal items. It is all to take the mind of the work and avoid boredom. Jaune, you need some hobby, or maybe a girlfriend or two."
"I will take a hobby, thank you. I am pretty sure no one is interested in a wimp of a captain like me." Jaune said with a chuckle, and the doctor resumed her poker face, her grey eyes cast upon the young captain.
"Very well, I will tell Pyrrha to make sure you take at least one hour per day to do something not job related. And you will take the rest of the day off. And Jauney, I think you are underestimating yourself. You have many qualities people would find attractive."
"Nah. I am pretty sure Yang is messing with me, and Pyrrha is just nice." He said with a smirk, and the doctor left a small giggle out.
"Very well, now go relax a little." With that Jaune left the room, and the doctor called Ren with a scroll. "Change my bet, Mr. Lie. I bet those girls will just jump at him in… a month."
…
"This tastes like paper…" Ruby said as she ate a pancake made by Sun. Only Jaune, Sun and Velvet knew how to properly cook, and only Jaune could make the military rations tastes like food.
"Hey, then you shall learn how to cook." Sun said as he also forced himself into the pancakes, admitting they just tasted as plain as possible. "Not everyone have that weird talent to transform whatever this stuff is made of into fancy food."
"She can't, the only time she was allowed to cook she sent half of our unit to the hospital. And not even think of Yang. She literally destroyed the kitchen." Weiss calmly stated as she also forced herself to eat. After getting used to Jaune's food, eating the usual food was simple disgusting.
"You know, I wonder how real food tastes. I heard that before the colonies people ate muscles from dead animals and sprouts from plants." Ruby asked, and they wondered how that tasted, considering their food tried to mimic those old ones.
"Yeah, the only real food we ever tasted was breastmilk. I heard some rich people even pay for it." They all looked at Weiss after Yang left that comment out.
"I NEVER DID THAT!" She protested immediately.
"Eeeewwww…" Ruby said as she ate a cookie to wash down the pancake and the idea of adult people drinking breast milk.
"Where's our might leader by the way? I know he would love to talk about my breasts." Yang smirked as she played with her golden mane, and Ruby and Weiss groaned.
"Doc said he needed a day off and Pyrrha is making sure he is doing it." Sun explained, and Yang left as soon as he said that. "Hey, come back! There is still food on your plate and you know it is against regulations to do that!"
"Forget it, Sun. Once Yang decides she wants something, she will get it." Blake said from over her scroll. "I wonder what exactly the Captain and the Major are doing now."
…
"A guitar?" Pyrrha wondered as Jaune finished assembling the instrument, a six string guitar, or at least something like it. It was basically just the arm, the strings and a small padded attachment to rest the instrument on his leg.
"Yeah, mom always thought that everyone should learn music. Something about keeping a sharp mind." Jaune said as he started to tune the guitar.
"Are you any good?" Pyrrha wondered before blushing as she realized she might have hurt the blonde man's feelings. She instinctively put her ponytail in front of her face.
"I was part of the Spacy band, but you usually don't get noticed when you are playing with several others and usually classical music or military hymns. I performed on the Arena once with some girl from the Army that was pretty famous back them." He explained with his usual smile, making Pyrrha relax and cast her emerald eyes on the instrument. "I should check on Penny, I worry leaving her to Nora…"
"Captain, you are here to relax and I will make sure you will. I am sure Ren can keep Nora under control."
…
"Nora, no."
"Nora yes!" The energetic girl yelled as she grabbed a chainsaw used to do rescue operation and was intended in making it Penny's new left arm. The artificial girl found that all too entertaining.
…
"Come on, play something for me!" Pyrrha demanded, sitting by his side.
"Well, let's try this one, it is very old."
Spaceman out here on my own, I am alone
In solitude I'm free, through space I roam
There's no world I've ever known
This place is my home, in this space, which I roam
Alone on my own
Every world I pass by and every moon I see
And the stars up in the sky they're waiting there for me
What I like most of all, where I feel at home
Sailing through this white universe traveling alone
Spaceman out here on my own. I am alone
In solitude I'm free, through space I roam
Will my dreams yet come to be, will they come to me
From my pain I'll be free, from this world I will flee
Every world I pass by and every moon I see
And the stars up in the sky, they are waiting there for me
But what I like most of all, and where I feel at home
Sailing through this white universe traveling alone
Every world I pass by and every moon I see
And the stars up in the sky, they're waiting there for me
What I like most of all and where I feel at home
Sailing through this white universe traveling alone
Pyrrha had to hold some tears back, and if she was just a little infatuated with the blonde captain before, she just crushed really hard on him. She was almost saying to him how she felt but held back, remembering their situation, ranks and the mission, all that weighted on her heart, and she feared she would only cause trouble to the captain.
"Woah, skipper. I am impressed." They turned to see Yang at the door of the training room. Pyrrha blamed herself for not allowing Jaune to take her to his quarters now. "I want to be serenaded too."
"A… what? No! I certainly would choose another song if that was the intention, which wasn't!" He protested, and Pyrrha felt a pang of sadness. She knew he said that to avoid a misunderstanding with the crew, yet she actually wanted to feel what was like to be courted, honestly courted, at least, not just people wanting a ride on her fame.
"Anyway, I heard you took a day off to relax, and yours truly want to help. I know a few things we can do that will relax you." The blonde said with a wink and bended a little, giving him a good showing of her cleavage, and Jaune blushed a little. Pyrrha noticed that and her face changed to that of annoyance.
"Thanks, Lieutenant, but I am pretty sure your idea of relaxing is not the same as the captain." Pyrrha answered defensively as she gently hold his arm. Yang noticed the action and smirked, noticing she wasn't the only one after the blonde man.
"Oh, I don't know, Major. Maybe we should let the boss man here decide." Yang answered, and Jaune could see sparks between them, for reasons he was oblivious to.
"I think I should really check Nora…" Pyrrha and Yang held him in place. He sighed and wondered if he really would be able to relax and hoped no one else would start acting weird around him.
…
"You should go for it. He looks like a decent dude, and his sisters are Faunus, so he is not a racist and I don't think he is one of those with Faunus fetish." Coco said to Velvet as the bunny blushed terrible, and covered her eyes with her ears. She was thankful the two were the only ones at the bridge at that moment.
"But we barely know each other! And he is younger than me and my superior officer and a human and…"
"And nothing! He looks cool, you are a cutie and you can use the excuse of getting to know him better to… well, know him better. Besides, I think half the Marines have the hots for him." Coco completed as she fixed her sunglasses. "I am surprised there are not more fistfights around here."
…
"Why are you two doing this again?" Jaune asked as Pyrrha and Yang put boxing gloves and were about to spar.
"Just enjoy the show, skipper. It is not every day you have two beautiful girls doing a demonstration for you." Yang answered as she stretched, making sure to aim her 'assets' towards the captain.
"You said once you wanted to see me compete one of those days. So, since the Lieutenant so graciously offered, we will give you an appetizer." Pyrrha answered, getting ready to fight, and not noticing she also was showing off to him. "Mind giving the sign?"
"Uh… Fight?" Jaune said, wondering if Ren was having a better luck with the girls he was with.
…
"Nora, no."
"Nora yes!" She answered as she grabbed a jetpack to build it inside Penny.
"Sergeant Valkyrie has some interesting ideas." The AI answered with a smile, finding that all very entertaining.
…
"Sun, I think this is a bad idea." Neptune stated as they prepared a small trap in front of Jaune's room. It would drop some type of green paint they made with the food stuff on him.
"Come on, we have pranked all of our COs before. And we only got caught by half of them." Sun defended as he kept fixing the trap. "Besides, he is a cool guy; it is not like he will toss us off the ship."
"He probably wouldn't. Me, on the other hand…" They turned around to see Glynda standing behind them, a displeased face. They tried to run away but instead ran into each other, the trap exploding and covering the duo in green paint. "Now, if you too would follow me to the brigs…"
…
"Well, I do admit this was entertaining, but I don't intend to put my crew against each other for fun." Jaune said as he gave Pyrrha and Yang bottles of water as the two Marines panted with their backs against one another. "You two fought well."
"Indeed. I am glad you weren't competing at the tournaments, Yang. I am pretty sure I wouldn't have as many championships with you there." Pyrrha praised her rival, and Yang left a content sigh as she drank the cold water.
"And I want to punch the dickheads in the dick heads for not allowing you on the ground. You are not just talk; you know how to the deliver a Major punch." Jaune and Pyrrha left a groan out. "You know, how about popcorn and a movie? I am pretty sure that will work better."
"I am in." Pyrrha and Jaune said, and the three laughed.
"I will just let the Commander take care of everything. I am really feeling better now." He said as he helped the two girls up.
…
"Lt. Lie, you better have a good explanation for this." Glynda watched a knocked out Nora on the floor with her hair all up, as she murmured something about sloths.
"Nora tried to add a taser to Penny. And she tasered herself while messing with it." Ren explained calmly, and the Commander sighed hard at that. "I already have uninstalled it, but the good news is we finally found a way to avoid Penny to shut down during the warp."
"Next time, try to do it without knocking yourselves out, Lieutenant." Ren nodded and he helped Penny to carry the unconscious Nora to the med bay. "I think I should be glad Ruby and Weiss didn't do anything today.
…
"Ruby, NO!"
"Ruby yes! Come on, Weiss, I just want to cook some pancakes for the captain. He works too hard for all of us."
"Ruby, you don't cook as much as you create weapons of mass destruction! If we could feed Grimm with your food we wouldn't be here!"
"That, was mean. And I am your superior officer, so help me cook something!" Ruby said as she put an apron.
"We are going to martial court. And for cooking!" Weiss answered as she put an apron too.
One thing was clear, there wasn't going to have a boring day in the Nagato.