Casey’s communicator chirped in Ben’s hand. Casey pointed out the button on the side for him.

  “Good morning, Ensign Trainor.” came Tempo’s voice from the device as Ben keyed it on.

  “Tempo, how are you today?” enthused Casey.

  “I am doing well! I regret cutting the pleasantries short, but telemetry and audio analysis tells me you are not alone, and GPS tells me you are likely with Lieutenant Brinks. Are we able to talk freely?”

  “Yes, if we stick to non-classified topics. I am sure Ben here doesn’t want to hear anything he will have to testify to later.”

  “In that case Lt. Brinks, are you capable of not hearing something or do we actually need to go to separate rooms?” asked Tempo.

  “No, the proper forms must be maintained. It’s traditional to go make some more coffee in situations like this.” Ben decided and sauntered out casually.

  “Peggy is still out of town, but I have a message for you from her.”

  Peggy’s message played from the device. “Don’t answer, this is a recording. A courier drone delivered it to Tempo for me, since I am over 2 months out at light speed. Everything is still going according to plan, and I should collect you Monday about lunch time. I pulled Allegro out on a mission for me. I’ll skip the details for now, but she should be finished rendering my judgement in a day or so. Have fun with your new fling, and I'll see you soon.”

  “That is all.” said Tempo.

  OK. Well. I have the company car and the company card so I guess I'm set. I’ll be leaving the comm with Ben though, so I’ll need a replacement.”

  “There should be one in the center storage compartment in the car. Arpeggio will have more when she returns.”

  Ben returned with two mugs.

  “I’m very busy not hearing anything other than “Thank you for the coffee.””

  “Thank you for the coffee.” parroted Casey. “It looks like I have the rest of the weekend to do what I like. Tempo, it’s always a pleasure but right now I like what I see.”

  “Likewise Ensign, and we can speak again later.”

  As dinnertime approached Casey stuck her head in the bathroom door.

  “Casey, this is my third try to take a shower today.”

  “And I’m going to let you finish it this time because I want to go out to dinner. Dress to kill.”

  “Food? Oh thank God, I’m starving.”

  “It's not my fault you didn’t eat today.”

  “So says the woman who draped herself over my kitchen counter in nothing but one of my shirts.”

  “How did you make it through flight school if you are so easily distracted?”

  “No comment.”

  Casey waited her turn and slapped Ben’s hand away as he headed to the closet.

  “Nope, no touching. Did you leave me any hot water?”

  “Meh, only one way to find out.” Ben taunted.

  The car didn’t have a rear view mirror to hang her shoes off of, which Casey felt was an oversight. Instead she got a screen the size of a small tablet that served that purpose. She tossed her shoes to Ben and smoothed her skirt as she slid into the pilot’s seat.

  “I thought about asking if I could drive, but seeing those controls made me change my mind.” he said.

  “What’s really going to blow your mind is that I don’t need them.” The car rose a foot as she closed her door and spun in place to face the street. Casey secured three of the five points on the seat harness at the same time.

  “How are you doing that?”

  “Wi-Fi adapter in my head. We will keep this at ground level so I don’t have to get the FAA involved.”

  “You know, it’s awesome that every time I wonder, you remind me that you a baddie.”

  “Before we go anywhere though, there is something I should have checked earlier.”

  Casey concentrated on the car’s comm and crafted an open hail. After a moment she looked at Ben again.

  “Ok, Peggy left us with some cover. We have a fleet scout ship on the far side of the moon, one at orbital altitude over Panama, and one at five thousand feet about ten miles off the coast.”

  “Can anyone see them? That last one would have gotten me scrambled by now.”

  “Nope. Time to crash an expensive restaurant without a reservation.”

  On the way a question occurred to Ben.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “It surprises me that as an alien starship captain you don’t seem to go anywhere armed.”

  “Oh, if I need to put a hole in anyone in a pinch I can just use the car.” Casey indicated the sleek lines of their ride with a wave.

  “That seems extreme.” Ben mused. “And it would be a shame to damage it.”

  “What I mean is that I have four primary and six backup gravity nodes on this thing. Any one of which I could use to effect a wound in soft tissue of any severity I please. However, the Squiddies consider it poor form for a ship captain to resort to defending themselves. Any of the scout ships in this neck of the Solar System could crush a city block like a trash compactor if I indicated that I was under threat. The one off of the coast could do it from where it is currently parked.”

  “And that isn’t considered a weapon?” Ben asked incredulously.

  “No, because the Squiddies have an obvious and foundational defense against it that they just aren’t talking about and they maintain override control over every mass simulator in the solar system.”

  “That still seems a ridiculous level of offensive power to put in the hands of 10 randos from Earth.”

  “Robert Ingersoll wrote about Abraham Lincoln, in part, saying “Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power.” The squidies think they know us, but now they are checking their work.” answered Casey.

  “That’s pretty heavy.”

  Casey let the pause in the conversation draw out.

  “Yeah. It is.” she finally replied as she pulled into a parking lot full of expensive cars.

  Dinner was fabulous. Casey wasn’t carrying cash, so Ben got to tip the very confused valet as the car parked itself. He also got to slide a large bill to the Maitre d.

  Afterwards was also grand, but Casey managed to lose a shoe and her underwear somewhere along the way. The two awoke to the doorbell the next morning.

  “Here.” offered Ben and he threw his robe to her. After putting on the previous evening’s pants he went to get the door.

  “Allegro’s here!” He called as she tied the sash and walked into the living room. Allegro was in her black ship suit instead of the casual clothes they had last seen her in.

  “You left these in the car.” said Allegro and tossed a wad of cloth to Casey. Embarrassed, Casey quickly stuffed it into the pocket of the robe.

  “What have you been up to?” asked Ben.

  “A proportional response!” laughed Allegro. She crossed her arms in front of her and nodded her head sharply at the TV, which turned on.

  “The world is still shocked at the assassinations of Nicaraguan army’s commander-in-chief, chief of staff, and Minister of Defense. We have just learned that an attempt was also made on the life of the president, but the assassin instead hit the headrest of the presidential limousine as the president was getting out of the car. No groups have claimed responsibility as of yet for the killings. Stay tuned as this situation develops.”

  The TV turned off.

  “What the fuck happened that made that response seem proportional?” demanded Casey.

  “Ask Anderson and MacNeal. They might even tell you.” giggled Allegro.

  “Fuck.” said Ben. “Does anyone want coffee? Because I want coffee.” He walked out of the room.

  Casey composed a message to Anderson on her neural processor.

  “Can you tell me what just happened?” Mentally she hit send.

  “You have received an invitation to a virtual meeting with Anderson.Carol.8496120. Do you accept?”

  Casey hit the appropriate reply and everything went dark. A square white room faded in, with a pulsing white light in the center of it. A moment later Allegro also abruptly popped into being.

  “I see neither of you have set up your avatars yet.” She pointed at Casey. "Don’t do that again. I had to catch you before you hit the tile floor. We are both now sprawled out on the couch like we ODed, but I told Ben we are fine.”

  She pointed to the light in front of Casey.

  “And you. Your comm’s microphone picked up you collapsing all over your desk. I E-Mailed your boss to tell him you are fine and don't need to be moved, but don't be surprised if your coworkers prank you while you are out.”

  She crossed her arms again.

  “Give me permission to modify your settings and I will upload your most recent body scans.”

  Casey agreed when her system prompted her.

  “Why are we naked?” Asked Anderson when their bodies appeared.

  “Because you two were dumb. Be less dumb.” snarked Allegro.

  “What can you tell me?” asked Casey, very professionally ignoring the awkwardness of the situation.

  “The Nicaraguan government paid a South American cartel to use its assets to kill an American asset. A secret service agent was also shot while trying to respond. Allegro rebutted with a reciprocal four bullets, two lung shots, one head shot, and one miss.”

  “That’s all I am allowed to know?” asked Casey in a huff.

  “At this time, yes. Sorry, them’s the breaks. What I am not telling you now is that was cool as shit, and the quickest and most efficient op I have ever not observed.”

  “Well, I would look forward to seeing an after-action report if one existed, but since the op was purely a thought exercise I will remain disappointed.”

  “I’ll see if I can get a creative writing enthusiast to mock one up for you sometime.” nodded Anderson.

  “Alright you two, get out of here. And spend some time configuring your defaults.” Allegro demanded and disappeared. Left behind on all four walls, floor and ceiling were the words “And read the fucking manual before you pull this shit again.”

  “OK, how do we leave?” asked Anderson.

  It took about ten minutes to hunt down the proper commands from the documentation. When she opened her real eyes again she was supine on the couch and Allegro was sitting on top of her.

  “Get off of me, you’re heavy.” Casey pushed, but Allegro didn’t move. “Why does my head hurt?”

  “Because you were doing 3d rendering in your brain. Don’t do that again unless you have the proper equipment handy to keep internal temperatures down and distribute some of the computational load.”

  “Coffee?” asked Ben mildly from the recliner next to the couch.

  “Water.” declared Casey as she finally managed to wriggle out from under Allegro. She had to sacrifice the robe to get out, but she didn’t care. Allegro had no interest in people. Ben just sipped his coffee.

  “What is with you today, Allegro? You are not usually so… whatever this is.” Casey asked over her shoulder on the way to the kitchen.

  “It’s your human hormones, I think.” Allegro called back.

  “Ovulating?” Casey followed up as she returned with the biggest cup Ben had in his cabinets. She took a long pull. “Ah, water!”

  “Yeah.” Allegro offered the robe back, but Casey shook her head and kept walking to the bath in the back bedroom.

  “You walk face first into the strangest conversations around here.” observed Ben as he took another sip from his coffee mug.

  “Not my fault you humans are so… untidy with your reproductive processes.” Accused Allegro. She pointed sharply at Ben. “Speaking of, you are cleaning the car.”