Wait? Who Are You And Where's My Wife?

Posted on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 @ 9:52pm by Lieutenant Renee Salchin

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: Main Hanger
Timeline: During 'The Rant'

The handover of the lifepod to the Wellington's tractor beam had been textbook, but long practice on his side did help that. Alex cringed at the reasons for it, a lot of them hadn't been this sort of thing, this was considered good. "Icarus, Shockwave, landing on Wellington. Clearing this channel until further notice." He clicked off as he brought his fighter drifting in slowly, seeing the single fully empty spot where one of these unknown fighters used to sit. He grimaced again at that thought, deciding he wasn't going to like whatever conversation he was going to be having shortly with the squadron commander here. "All right Gem, walk me through it."

"Oh, I'm finally allowed to talk now?" The very feminine and sulky voice came over his cockpit speakers, "It's about time, Alexander." It huffed, then went on, "Aside from needing a reload of torpedoes and a really nice scrubdown and repaint, I'm actually rather fine. Get your girlfriend to replace the dorsal sensor suite and that'll fix that flicker and ohh, I think the Phase emitter on the ventral port gun lost about five percent efficiency. If you don't distract her too much, she can do that too."

Gemini, the AI of the fighter, limited of course, was a pain in ass. Alex knew that, but it was one of the things that let a Manticore-class fighter like his fly the way it did and keep track of everything as if he were an eye in the sky. The reaction time and information processing using that neural link was rated at about twenty-five to thirty percent above the 'normal', once the user got to about five hundred hours of linked time. And that was the problem, because pilots didn't tend to last that long in the combat they were forced into early on. And this Gemini AI had been with him for the last more than three thousand flight hours, long enough to decide for itself that speaking was the best way to annoy Alex into doing what she wanted.

"Right. But until then, you are going to keep a jammer on to keep these people from scanning you and getting something. Until the Skipper tells me otherwise, we're an advanced race dealing with primitive technology... Hell, what they look to have isn't that far above where we started out this war on." Alex shook his head, reaching up and taking off his helmet, racking it onto the headrest.

"Can I shoot the ones who get too close? Oooo, at least lightly? And if they scan me, I can-"

"NO." Alex growled out, "You are to give them an audible warning if someone gets too close, then alert me if they don't listen. I'll get that confirmed by higher soon enough."

A low groan came from the speaker as he began to unfasten the restraints, "Then just get HER for me and I'll stay quiet like a good little ship."

"I'll get her or someone else to look at you. You are aware that she had to come over here to get looked at by a doc, right? She's not going to be here to patch you up herself." A pang of worry finally hit him. He knew she'd been hurt, but not how badly and then heard that wounded were sent over here.

"Don't be so sure, lover-boy." Gemini said in a sultry fashion, "Two o-clock and incoming fast."

Alex's eyes snapped to the direction as the cockpit opened of its own accord and lo and behold, it was her. The uniform was off slightly, but the body in it was hers. It must not have been bad, the injuries, but she had needed a uniform change and they must not have had any of theirs over here. He scrambled out of the cockpit and met her three steps from the fighter, wrapping one hand around the back of her neck and kissing her without any words passing his lips.

Renee had come into the hanger since the damage to the Wellington was minimal and she'd heard that there was something else incoming that was bright and new and shiny. It was obvious when she walked into the hanger bay what it was and she'd brightened as she kept from running towards it. Then just as her mouth opened to greet the pilot, he'd swept her into a kiss. She stiffened, but a couple moments later let it happen. Apparently he needed it and it was actually rather nice. After a few seconds and a catcall from the cockpit itself, he let her go, the brightness in his eyes betraying absolute relief and she cleared her throat, "Um... Do I know you?"

That relief was replaced by confusion, "Yes? You're my wife? We have two kids together?"

Even his voice sounded nice, but Renee slowly shook her head, "I'm not married..." She checked her left hand to be sure, nope, no ring, "And I don't think I've been that drunk to have had a pair of munchkins and not remember them, that had to hurt!" She looked up at him again, "Hate to be the bearer of bad news, big guy, but I'm not the droid you're looking for."

Shock came across Alex's face as his mind raced. She'd come over here, she WAS here, right here. A voice in the back of his head reminded him 'Cochrane Protocols' and a giggle came from the cockpit. "You're Renee..."

"Salchin." She answered the unspoken question.

His face went red for a moment and he growled up at the cockpit, "Shut up, Gem, you know, didn't you?" He didn't wait for the inevitable answer, "Close up, remain on standby and wait for a reload from the Icarus." There was only a beep and a closing of the cockpit in response, then a muted metallic snicker. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant." He finally glanced at the collar, "I... Thought you were someone else."

"I can see.." She bit her upper lip, "Sorry. But what kind of reload do you need? I might be able to arrange it on this end?"

"Micro-photon torpedoes." He got a smile and a nod from her, "That would be wonderful. Just threaten Gemini with a debugging if she complains, because if she gives you trouble..."

"No problem, fly-boy." A mischievous look came over Renee's face, but she covered it up, "Now shoo, I'm sure you have better things to do."

Alex nodded, worry now again seeping in, but he clamped down on it. He knew the risks he and HIS Renee faced as did she. They had talked about what could happen, whether they liked it or not. He set his eyes on the Wellington's squadron commander and then scrunched his nose as the female pilot started to walk away. Time to get it over with.

OFF:

Lieutenant Commander Alexander 'Shockwave' Setine
Fighter Commander
USS Icarus

Lieutenant Renee Salchin
R&D Engineer
USS Wellington