Chapter 43

Blue Curaçao

“So where are we going?” Dog asked, as they walked towards the camp’s exit.

“I say we go to Meou.” Dusty replied.

“Oh, that’s a good idea.” Netty said, smiling.

“What’s Meow?” Freya asked, frowning. “Is that some kind of cat attraction?”

“Not Meow. Meou.’ Dusty explained. “It’s a mostly water world. It’s famous for surfing, scuba diving, fishing, and of course their resort islands.”

“Oh?” Freya asked, interested.

“By Tom’s big toe, you’ll love it.” Netty said, hanging on Freya’s arm. “Please say you’ll go.” She pleaded.

Freya had to laugh as Netty gave her puppy dog eyes. She looked up and saw Mon smiling. “You going?” She asked him.

“Look, you’re beautiful and everything, but there is no way I’m missing a chance to surf Meou. Of course I’m going.” He said, shaking his head like the very idea of him not going was the stupidest thing he had heard.

“Well, I guess we’re going to Meou.” Freya said, smiling. She felt embarrassed that she was pleased that Mon said that she was beautiful.

They stepped outside the camp and waited as everyone slowly filtered out so that Sergeant Torres could add the buildings. As they were waiting, Freya started to do some research on Meou. As soon as she put in the name, her search results came back with hundreds of resorts.

From what she read, there were two large continents with hundreds of thousands of islands littered all around the world. The main continents were where most of the world’s population lived. The planet was slightly warmer than Earth and most of the islands around the planet’s equator were too hot to survive comfortably. Both of the continents were above the equator with the islands scattered all around the globe.

There was almost literally every type of resort on the planet. Want to go snow skiing down a mountain, then there was an island resort for you. Into sports, then there was an island that was entirely covered in sports complexes. There were even all sorts of fishing resorts where a person could book a deep sea fishing trip that lasted from a few hours to months. There were islands that were rated by how good the surfing was. Just started to learn to surf? Then there were at least ten islands that boasted calm surfing seas. An expert surfer, then there were a few islands that boasted waves from ten feet tall to fifty feet tall. Freya even found a tropical survival island where they would drop a tourist off naked except for a couple of items.

“What do you guys want to do on Meou?” She asked, looking up from her tablet.

“Surfing!” Mon and Dusty said at the same time.

“Fishing!” Netty said, giving the other two an evil eye.

“What do you want to do?” Mon asked her.

“I’m with Netty. I want to do some fishing.” She told him, smiling. She looked back down and narrowed her search down with those criterias.

“What level of surfing are you guys?” Freya asked, not looking up.

“Expert.” Mon said.

“Look for waves averaging ten feet or greater, but no bigger than twenty. Also look for an average break longer than twenty-five feet. Make sure the resort is in season so the waves will be there. Oh and make sure the depth is greater than ten feet or the expert over here will get cheese grated when he wipes out.” Dusty said, rolling his eyes at Mon.

“That all?” Freya asked as she inputted the information on her tablet.

“Make sure it has a good place to fish and snorkel.” Netty added.

“I want to lay on a beach. So we need one that has a beach.” Dog told them. When everyone looked at him he looked embarrassed. “I need to work on my tan.”

“Oh, this looks promising.” Freya said, drawing attention away from Dog. She read the results. “There is an island that does fishing and surfing charters. You can take a cruise to an uninhabited island where there is a breakwater that is fifty feet long. The waves are averaging twelve feet tall at the moment and the forecast has the waves increasing to fifteen feet tomorrow. The depth is twelve feet on lee? I don’t know what that means. On the other side of the island is a private, secluded beach where you can go both sand casting or walk out to a natural jetty and fish from there. We can get a charter for one-hundred credits for the five of us for two days. That includes food and drinks. Cruise time is four hours there and back.”

“What's the recommended tip for the crew?” Dusty asked with a frown.

Freya paused as she did some further research. Her smile dimmed a little bit. “It says that it’s expected for everyone to tip the deck hands and captain at least twenty-five creidits each. The ship I was looking at has two deck hands, a cook, and a captain.”

“One-hundred and twenty credits each.” Dusty said nodding. “That’s really not bad. Food, a place to sleep, and a private beach. I’m in.”

“Do you have to buy your own fishing supplies?” Netty asked.

Freya read some more then shook her head. “Nope. That and the licenses are included with the charter.”

“I’m in.” Netty said rubbing her hands together.

“I’m in too.” Mon said nodding to Freya.

“I’m in.” Dog said, smiling and looking off into the distance.

“Ok, it says that we need to pay the one-hundred creidts now and tip the ship’s crew afterwards. I’ll pay it if you guys send me twenty credits now.” She told them. She immediately got a bunch of notifications telling her that her friends had sent her the credits. She tapped the booking and smiled. “We’re good.”

It took the rest of the platoon nearly twenty minutes for everyone to leave the camp, which annoyed Freya to no end. “We can do a high value tournament mission no problem, but it takes us twenty minutes to leave camp?” She whined to her friends.

When they were finally given notice that they could enter the camp once more, Dusty stopped them. “Lets pack and meet at the new building. Say, ten minutes?” He asked then.

Freya spotted the new buildings as soon as she entered the camp. The travel terminal was a small, single-story building that had glass walls. It was just north of the barracks and across from the rec building, which was a two-story building without any windows. The exchange was a wide building that was larger than the barracks. Freya thought it looked like a mall from all the streams she had watched when she was back home. There was even a water fountain in front of the building.

The grounds around the main part of the camp had also been changed so that what used to be dirt and well maintained grass now had paved walkways running through the camp. The walkways went to every building and there was even a path that led to the beach by the lake. One of the paths led out of the camp towards a bridge that led over the river and disappeared into the woods. To satisfy her curiosity, Freya made a mental note to check where it led.

Instead of heading back to the barracks, Dusty headed towards the exchange. “I need to buy a few things. I’ll meet you guys in front of the travel terminal.” He told them as he started jogging towards the new building.

“Wait up, I’ll come with you. I need to buy some new clothes.” Freya said, as she started jogging after Dusty.

Dusty waited for her as the others went to the barracks to get changed and pack. The entrance to the exchange was two glass doors that opened as soon as they got near enough. Freya stopped in wonder when she stepped inside. The exchange was a four-story building that ran lengthwise towards the camp. The entire thing was filled with shops. Freya guessed that there were at least a thousand shops just on the first floor alone. The funny thing was the place was filled with people. Most were dressed in civilian clothes. She spotted people in Marine working uniforms here and there, but for the most part everyone else was dressed in civilian clothes.

“I keep forgetting that you're new.” Dusty said, coming up beside her. “This is the ship's exchange. Most of those people you see not in uniform are Navy peeps, so don’t mess with them. They normally leave us alone if we leave them alone. Come on, we need to get going.”

Freya nodded and pulled herself together. She waited her turn for the map console and found a clothing store that catered towards tropical clothing. She tapped it and a waypoint appeared in her mini map. She stepped back to let Dusty have his turn.

“I’ll meet you back at the barracks.” Dusty told her when he was done. He gave her a wave and hurried down the opposite direction from where Freya’s waypoint was blinking on her mini map. She watched him go for a second then shook her head and turned in the opposite direction. She thought they would go shopping together, but Dusty apparently thought they didn’t have the time.

She found the clothing store and went inside. The place was empty so the android was able to help her find what she was looking for. Less than five minutes later she had a second, two piece bathing suit and a couple of new outfits. Back home she was not a dress person, but she found herself getting a couple. She also got an old-fashioned, straw cowboy hat that went with at least two of her outfits and looked cute with her bathing suit. She then got a blue backpack that was able to fit all of her clothes. She was informed that her clothes would be at the travel terminal when she got there. Her new outfits cost her 35 credits.

She wanted to leave the store in one of her new outfits, but she was told that she was too low ranking to wear anything but her working uniform outside the shop. She had to be at least a sergeant to wear civilian clothes in the exchange. With a sad sigh she left the shop. She waited for Dusty at the entrance for a couple of minutes, but when he didn’t show up and it got close to the time they were supposed to meet, she left the exchange and went back to Camp Iron.

She met her friends by the travel terminal. Everyone was there but Dusty. They had to wait a few past when they agreed to meet for Dusty, but when he showed up no one really gave him a hard time. They entered the terminal together. Freya was a little let down when she stepped into the terminal. It was just an open area with a line of consoles on the left side and a large locked door to the right. Her friends ignored the consoles and went right to the door. Mon went first - he placed his hand on the door’s lock, it opened and he stepped into the light. Dusty went next, followed by Dog. Netty waved Freya ahead of her and she placed her hand on the lock. The lock turned green and the name of the planet appeared on the bottom of the locking mechanism. She followed the others into the light.

She stepped out into a terminal that was identical to the one in her camp. In fact, she was worried that something had gone wrong and she was back at the camp. It wasn’t until she looked out the windows and saw that it wasn’t her camp outside that she relaxed. What she saw was definitely not her camp.

Right outside the terminal was a line of passenger cars. She only spotted two cabs, but the rest of the cars had some decal or another of rideshare companies. Beyond the cars was a skinny, single-lane street that had mostly pedestrian traffic on it, with a few cars winding their way through the crowd. Across the street, were a few tourist-trap-looking stores that reminded Freya of the store she had broken into when she was invited to that large mission before the named platoons started recruiting.

“Where’re we going?” Netty asked as she stepped beside the group. They all turned and looked at her.

“Oh.” Freya muttered and pulled out her tablet to check where the marina was located.

“It’s four miles that way.” She told her friends pointing towards where the boat was docked.

“We walking or taking a ride?” Dusty asked.

“I’m not walking.” Netty said as she led the way towards where their luggage was waiting for them on a cart. Freya found her backpack and slung it around her shoulder. Mon led the group out of the terminal once everyone had their stuff. Dusty surprised them all with surfing boards. Every single one of them was brand-new except his. His was an old, worn-looking one. They left the terminal carrying their stuff.

Mon talked to a few of the passenger car drivers while Freya and the rest of her group waited by the sidewalk. He waved them over towards a larger car that had a logo that even Freya recognized as a rideshare company. “He’ll take all of us.”

The car was a battery-powered passenger vehicle that had three rows of bench seats. Freya climbed in after Mon and sat in the far back, while Netty followed them, sitting by the window. Dusty and Dog sat in their own row. The driver was an android who didn’t talk to them except to tell them to buckle up. Once they were on the road, advertisements for bars and clubs appeared on the back of the seats in front of them. Freya found them annoying and spent the ride looking out Mon’s window.

She knew they were in a sim of the real place, but she found it hard to remember it was so as she looked out. The place was filled with people, whose ages ranged from young kids to really old adults. Most of the people were either dark skinned or very pale, but she did see a lightly tanned person pushing a hovering baby carriage. The people looked real as they went about their lives. She didn’t see anyone who looked like they belonged in the military, but she did see a few uniformed cops wandering through the crowd. She noted that, while they weren’t armed with guns, they did have taser clubs on their waists.

The town on the island was very tropical with palm trees cropping up behind the stores and houses that lined the street. She even spotted what looked like a banana, if bananas were blue and grew like apples instead of in bunches on the trees. The buildings looked old but in good repair. They were all painted in colorful pastel colors. The residents seemed to like pink, fluorescent green, and light blue colored paints on their houses and stores.

Freya was pretty sure the android was ripping them off, as it took a few unnecessary turns and seem to like driving on busy streets. She let it go since he only charged them one credit each for the ride. He dropped her group off at the small marina. The marina was smaller than Freya expected, but she was used to the commercial fishing boats that docked in her village during fishing season.

Freya spotted their boat as soon as she got out of the passenger car. It was at the end of the dock. It was a sail/engine hybrid ship. The ship had two masts with two sails attached to each of the masts. There was a woman waiting for them as they walked down the dock. The woman was dressed in a white. semi-military-looking uniform. She gave them a smile and a wave as they got close to her.

“Hello, I’m Margret. I’ll be your stewardess while you’re on the Cable.” The woman told them. “Why don’t you guys head down below and get changed out of those uniforms and into something more comfortable.”

The boat was about forty feet long and had three, small decks. The back of the boat was open to air, with a bunch of fishing rods sticking out behind the boat. They were told to avoid the area by the masts as they were dangerous places to be because the sails could swing around and could knock someone overboard. There was a cabin that was only for the captain near the front of the ship. It was another area where they were forbidden to go. They were told that they were only allowed on the first two decks as the bottom most deck was for the crew. The first deck had a large table where they could eat and, on the side of the wall towards the front of the ship, was a small but well-stocked bar. Behind the bar was a small kitchen stove. Margret, it seemed, was not only their stewardess, but also their cook and bartender.

The second deck held a bunch of very small rooms that had two twin beds in each of them. Freya and Netty ended up as roommates, while Mon and Dog got a room together. Dusty somehow ended up talking his way into a single room. Freya threw her backpack on one of the beds and quickly got changed. She wore her new, white, two-piece bathing suit with her cowboy hat and a short, pale-blue sarong around her waist.

“Wow, you look cute.” Netty told Freya when she was done changing. Netty was wearing her old ugly one-piece bathing suit, but she had a pair of large, black sport shorts on over it. She was also wearing a baseball hat with a weird red logo on it. Freya and Netty met the boys on the first deck, where Margret was behind the bar making them drinks.

“This is called the blue island. It’s made from rice wine, blue curaçao, and rum.” She told them, as she poured them all glasses.

“To the Iron Hand. May we always get the job done!” Mon said, raising his glass.

“To Magic getting through a mission without getting hurt or dying.” Dusty quickly replied, before everyone could take a drink.

“Jackhole.” Freya muttered, with her lips on her drink. She took a small sip. Then she took a bigger sip. She found the drink amazingly good. It had a sweet taste to it almost like candy, but with a bite from the alcohol. She could feel the drink as soon as it hit her stomach. She knew it wouldn’t take much to get her drunk.

They were halfway through with their drinks when the ship got underway. Margret made them a strawberry daiquiri for their second drink with real strawberries. Freya had never seen a real strawberry, outside of a picture, before. She only knew what it tasted like from candy and jam that came from the government handouts. Margret let her eat one when she found out. Freya fell in love with it.

About an hour out, they met the two deck hands, Steven and Richard. The deck hands took them out to the back deck and baited their fishing lines. They showed them how to cast from the back of a boat. Margret came around once everyone had their lines in the water with some hotdogs and cheeseburgers.

The food sobered them up a bit, and it was a good thing as the fish started biting. Freya got the first fish, which was a tiny minnow-looking fish. The others laughed at her when she pulled it onto the boat. She gave them a rude hand gesture. By the time they got to the island, Freya had caught two medium-sized fish. Dog caught the biggest fish that was nearly three feet long and took him twenty minutes to pull in. He quit fishing afterwards. Mon pulled in the most with five fish. Netty fought the longest for her fish but lost it right before she pulled it on board the ship. She ended up with three good-sized fish. One of which Margret wanted to cook up for dinner that night. Dusty only caught one red, fat-looking fish. He had to throw it back as it was not edible.

They arrived at the island in the afternoon and everyone went surfing. Neither Freya, Netty, nor Dog had been surfing before so Dusty showed them how. Dusty, it turned out, was an indoor champion at his highschool growing up. He was pod-schooled, but his school got together for sports. Mon had some surfing experience but nowhere near as much as Dusty did. He admitted that he had only gone surfing at a surf park near his house a few times growing up.

Freya then spent the next hour falling off her surfboard while they tried the waves. The only thing she could brag about was that she was better at surfing than Dog was. Dusty turned out to be amazing and rode inside the barrel of the waves. Mon could surf down the waves but he didn’t know any tricks. Netty was surprisingly good at surfing. She picked up the trick of standing up after a few waves then spent the rest of the time riding the waves. Freya gave up trying to stand up on the board and went with body surfing, which she found was just as fun.

They returned to the boat after the waves started to disappear. The captain took them to the beach where they went fishing again. Well, everyone but Dog. Dog grabbed a towel and spent the entire time on the beach sunning himself. Netty dragged Freya down the rocky jetty to fish. Freya didn’t catch anything but some blue crabs that were the size of her hand. Margret turned up with a bucket for them to put what they caught in. Dusty and Mon stayed on the beach fishing. This time, Dusty ended up catching a few saltwater walleye fish which Margret wanted to cook up for dinner.

They retreated back to the boat right before the sunset. Margret loaded them up with drinks before she went off to cook dinner. The captain, an older gentleman, kept them company with funny stories about his past passengers. The food that night was a mixture of sushi and fried fish that they had caught. The captain returned to his duties right before dinner was served, so it was only Freya and her group who ate the fish. Margret turned on some music and served beer with their meal.

Freya and her friends sat around that night drinking and talking about everything and nothing. Sometime during the night, Freya found herself kissing Mon. They retired early to his cabin and spent the night together. She couldn’t stop smiling when she ate breakfast next to him the next morning.

They spent the morning surfing again as the waves had returned. This time, Freya was able to stand up and surf for about two seconds before she fell off. She got better during the day, with Mon’s help. She did fake a few falls to get more of his help. She didn’t even feel a little bit bad for doing it as he didn’t seem to mind helping her.

They fished some more afterwards and drank some more. The ship turned back toward the main island a few hours after lunch. They got back to the main island a few hours later. They tipped everyone very well. Mon suggested that they get a hotel room so that they could go clubbing that night. They all agreed. Freya felt embarrassed when Mon got them a hotel room together, but was really glad that he did. She was happy that no one gave them grief for doing it. The others got a single room that they each paid part of.

They went bar hopping that night before they found a really cool bar that had a dance floor on the beach. They drank and danced all night. Freya was glad that no one besides Dog could dance. Mon was horrible at dancing but she didn’t care. She was glad he was out on the dance floor. In the end she dragged him back to the hotel room after telling Netty they were leaving.

In the morning they met up in the hotel's restaurant for breakfast. They went shopping after eating and Mon bought her a beautiful seashell at some tourist shop. Freya thought it was extremely tacky, but was touched that he would buy her something. They ate lunch on the island before heading back to the travel terminal.

“Hey Magic, can I talk to you for a bit?” Dusty asked, as they were getting ready to go back to camp.

“Yeah Dusty, whats up?” Freya asked, as she stepped back, letting Netty go before her.

“Look, I’m glad for you and Mon, but this has to stay out of the platoon. It can only happen outside the camp, if you know what I mean. When we are a mission, you need to be a marine and a marine has no friends when on duty. You understand?” He asked her.

Freya flushed and felt a little angry at Dusty butting in, but she understood where he was coming from. She hadn’t really thought about where the relationship was going. She didn’t know if it was a vacation thing or if it was a long term thing. She enjoyed it, and wanted it to continue, but she didn’t know what Mon wanted. She looked back over her shoulder to see Mon waiting for her by the console. She got a little giddy that he was still there and waiting for her.

“I understand.” She told Dusty, after a few seconds.

“I hope so.” Dusty said with a sad smile, before he walked past her to unlock the door and step into the light.

“What did he want?” Mon asked, frowning after Dusty.

“Nothing.” Freya lied as she kissed him.

“That was not nothing.” Mon said leaning down so that he rested his forehead against hers.

“He told me this had to remain outside the platoon.” Freya finally told him.

Mon took a deep breath then let it out. She could smell beer on his breath. “He should stay out of things that don’t concern him. But he is right. When we are on the clock we need to be on the clock. If you need to let me die to complete the mission, let me die. I’m going to do the same with you, okay?”

“And when we’re not on the clock?” Freya asked, looking up into his eyes.

“Then we’re not on the clock, are we?” Mon asked with a wicked smile. Freya felt her insides warm up. She smiled back at him in return. He let her go first back to camp before he followed her.