The pelican's hull pinged and cracked audibly as the engines shifted in their housings. Finally, the engines sputtered and died. Captain Paul Hansen briefly consulted his readout before poking his head into the troop bay and calling out, "And . . . that's it. We are officially bingo fuel."
He looked over his displays once more to confirm that they were traveling on a nominal heading, then rose from his seat in the cockpit and picked his way to the troop bay.
The only other occupant of the dropship was waiting for him when he arrived, arms crossed over her chest. "You say that like it's a good thing," Chief Warrant Officer Valerie Jones muttered grumpily.
"Of course it's a good thing," he fired back exuberantly. "We're flying dead stick, the rescue tug they sent is two or three hours away, and we have an entire Pelican all to ourselves," he explained as he removed his flight helmet and gloves. He leaned close to her, taking hold of her by both shoulders.
"And I know exactly how we're going to pass all that time."
Val's mouth dropped open at her captain's implication. "You don't mean . . ." she began nervously.
"I most certainly do."
"It would be inappropriate," she argued feebly.
"No one will know. Besides, there's no harm in blowing off a little steam, right?"
She would never admit it, but he was making a convincing argument. Still, she felt that she had to give her objections to the idea one last go for her conscience's sake. "The benches in here are too uneven. We'd never find a comfortable spot."
But the captain was not to be deterred. "Then we'll just do it on the floor," he said matter-of-factly. "Plenty of room to get the job done." He punctuated his last statement by moving to the floor himself in preparation of what by now he had to know was coming.
Val sighed. "You're going to get me fired over stunts like these," she grumbled.
Hansen just laughed as he picked out a small paper-wrapped object from one of his many pockets. "Come on," he said smugly, "you're going to love it."
He unwrapped the package as she sat down across from him, still shaking her head in disbelief that she was actually going to cave to this pressure. Hansen, for his part, was looking very pleased with himself when he reached out and took her hand in his, saying,
"Alright, now it's time . . . for you to properly learn how to play Five Card Draw." He took the deck of cards he had just unwrapped and quickly began dealing out hands.
For all of her complaining, Val was truly enjoying herself by the time their rescue made its arrival. It certainly didn't hurt that she'd managed to completely clean Hansen out in that time, either.