9 Days Later. 16:45 Marcinko Time Bridge

“CNS Marcinko, this is Olympus Mons Minor Tower, proceed on docking path. Expect to slave to the tower in fifteen.”

“CNS Marcinko, proceeding on docking path, expect to cede control to Tower in fifteen,” Lacey called back.

John was finishing up some paperwork. He was filing it as he swung the chair to look to his right. He looked at a couple of other things on his screen then looked at Lacey after she finished submitting something to the station’s tower.

“Lacey, please open a com to all rooms on the ship.”

“All rooms sir?”

“Yes, we’re docking, and everyone needs to be awake before we dock.”

“Aye sir, give me a moment,” Lacey looked back at her terminal and was flipping through a couple of different screens, “and there we go. Your good to go, sir.”

“Good morning, apologies for waking some of y’all up. We will be docked within the next thirty minutes. It is Thursday at 08:00 station time. First shift, those of y’all that were asleep, will be allowed to disembark immediately after we dock. The second shift will assist the third shift to make her ready for temporary storage. Once your department is ready you will be able to depart. The third shift is stuck here till everyone else is off and the ship has been fully slaved to the station.”

John paused and got up out of his chair and walked over to the navigation station, “First and Second shifts please pack what you need from your personal space now. Access back to the ship will not be available until shore leave is over on Monday at 06:00. All departments, please submit restocking needs, second and third shift will not be leaving until those requisitions are submitted.”

John pointed at a couple of things on Caleb’s screen. He had also noticed the ship was drifting a bit off course. John patted his shoulder for making the course correction.

“Kevin, Andern, Nathan, Thomas, and Brian meet me at 11:00 with the station’s requisition office in warehouse 13B. If all goes to plan, we will be upgrading the rec room with a few new things to enhance the creature comforts we have aboard this little ship.”

John walked over to Andern’s station and paused, “Lastly, have fun, but don’t be stupid. I don’t want anyone getting into trouble. That would obviously be bad and not a good look. Punishment for any misbehaving onboard the station will be swift and biblical. Enjoy your time but again don’t be stupid. We’ve had an excellent cruise thus far, don’t mar our record thus far by doing anything inappropriate or illegal. Lief out.”

“Biblical huh?” Andern scoffed.

“Not the time bud, not the time.” John shook his head as he walked away from the operations station.

The station tower called back and requested full control of their navigational systems about five minutes ahead of schedule. The ship eventually docked with the station and a hard tube was connected to the ship.

The first ship began leaving the ship. As a safety precaution, the inner airlock door remained closed as groups of ten crewmembers began disembarking. John was a bit jealous that the first shift was leaving the ship already. He wanted to kick back and relax.

“Patience John, patience,” he muttered under his breath.

“Say something Cap?” asked Caleb.

“Nothing of note, Andern, you get the requisitions in yet?”

“Sato says he needs fifteen to twenty minutes for what engineering needs. Already got chef’s req in the system. I’ve already submitted the weapons request, pretty simple one I might add.”

“Two torpedoes please,” Lacey said laughing.

The mood on the bridge was light, and they were having difficulties focusing. The power cable was sent over from the station and connected to the Marcinko. That meant engineering could begin the final steps to shut down the main core.

“The drive core is the process of being shut down, need five more minutes on the requisition order,” Sato said.

“Sato, do y’all need second shift still?”

“Negative sir.”

“Lacey, announce second shift is free to disembark.”

“Roger that.”

Lacey made the announcement. Now all they were waiting for was engineering’s requisition request for fuel and parts. Shortly thereafter it came. John made an announcement to let the first shift know they were now off the clock; they were to bag up their things and head to their temporary rooms on the station.

John walked into his room on the bridge and packed the gear he wanted to bring onboard the station. He made sure the room was cleaned and everything was put away. He left his room and headed to the airlock where he dropped his bag. He walked down to the enlisted and officer’s berths. There were a few bunks that weren’t made or cleaned up well enough.

John was annoyed but noted the names. He went to a terminal and submitted the names to Lieutenant Page. The enlisted would lose access to the rec room for two days. The cadets would lose access for five days and receive a demerit. To John’s annoyance and expectation Andern’s bunk was messy.

John sighed and then headed back to the airlock. When he got there, Lieutenant Page was waiting for him.

“We’re the last two onboard,” she smiled seeing John had adhered to the age-old Naval tradition.

John was confirming that statement at the terminal adjacent to the door. He pressed the green button to make the inner door open. Then gestured for the Lieutenant to enter.

“After you ma’am.”

“I received your room review. I checked your room to make sure it was cleaned up too.”

“I presume you found it cleaned within the regs?”

“I do. Any thoughts on shifting personal around on the shifts?”

“Honestly not really planning on thinking much about that until Monday morning when we get back to the ship.”

“Fair enough,” the pair got to the station airlock and entered it, “Enjoy your break, it’s been well-earned cadet.”

“Thank you, ma’am, I intend to do just that.”

10:20 Station Requisition Office, Warehouse 13B

John was walking around the station warehouse rather gingerly. It was the first time in nearly six weeks that physical intimacy with his wife could take place. He was caught off guard by how aggressive Alice was. He didn’t mind that one bit though. The soreness was not fun though.

Despite that, he had already selected a whole bunch of swag. He was able to get four more displays, two of which would go back to the mess hall where they liberated them for their new rec room. The other two they’d find space on the walls someplace. A large display to replace the main display was also sourced, though that one cost John some credits.

He smirked at that. The upgrades would come courtesy of his raiding the core fleet admiralty’s accounts the previous year. Just then, Nathan, Thomas, and Brian entered the warehouse.

“Already talked to the chief. We get our pick of stuff,” John said waiving them over.

“We’re losing shore leave because you needed help moving and setting shit up, right?” Nathan asked.

“Yup. So, the sooner we get all this shit moved over the better,” John said sarcastically, “Speaking of. Get a mag-lift and load up the big display and four smaller ones and get it to the ship. Schematics for where all this shit is being placed can be found on the terminals.”

“Roger, want us to haul out the existing couches and chairs?” Thomas asked.

“Yes, bring them back here and dump them off over in the corner where the other trash is.”

John walked with them to get a mag-lift as well and loaded four chairs on it. He pushed it over to an open area and grabbed another lift and looked for some other swag for the room.

“You know we need a couple of round tables and chairs, plenty of space in there for it. Plus, a couple love seats.” Kevin said as he spotted John in the warehouse.

“Good call. Adding two dartboards to it too.” John said.

“Andern is going to show up right on time, isn’t he?”

“Cut the guy some slack, Kristin’s probably pent up too”

Kevin started to laugh, “Forgot about that. You got here early though.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not sore.”

“Good one, I’ll get another lift loaded up. I’m guessing the others already brought some stuff over?”

“Yeah, they are going to get the displays installed and then bring back the chairs and couches.”

John and Kevin continued to load up five more mag-lifts worth of gear. By the time the first group came back Andern had shown up and they brought over the rest of the gear John had requisitioned. Plans were made to meet up for dinner that evening.

14:00 Retail Wing 1, Floor 3. Pork ‘n Bean’s BBQ

“This wouldn’t have been in my top five choices to come here,” Alice said smiling as she ate some cornbread.

“Buuuuut,” John let his comment hang.

“It is quite delicious.”

“I really do wish we could pause time for a few months.”

“We had three months off, then six weeks back to things you want more time off?”

“Yes, yes I do dear,” John was smirking.

“So, what is the plan for the rest of the day?”

“K-Pot Hot Pots for dinner with the crew. Do you have any shopping you want to take care of? Otherwise, we can walk around the station to kill time.”

Alice started to laugh while she picked up his left arm, “No watch on your wrist, eh?”

John smirked.

“Well big guy, you happen to be in luck, but if you can’t get his and hers then no dice.”

“Hell yeah, too bad what we buy will be largely useless in the ship.”

“True, but for more formal occasions and when we’re off the ship. And since it was my idea, it’s on you to pick the brand. But no Richard Mille watches since you’ve already done that.”

The couple laughed and continued to enjoy their lunch. John paid for the meal then the couple decided to go for a walk around the retail area. They both had varying degrees of meat sweats and figured some exercise was in order. That did give allow Alice to pick out several places they wanted to visit. John already had a brand of watches in mind.

16:30 Retail Wing 1, Floor 6. Grand Seiko Boutique

“Oooh,” Alice squealed, “Found it!”

John smiled. Alice demanded they find a couple's watch and she gravitated to a lady’s version of a watch he liked and wanted. Though she was looking at the steel version, John was going to try to steer her into a platinum watch instead.

“What color bezel are you thinking?” John was curious about what she wanted.

“I like the red and blue ones. You?”

“Green, not going with any other color than green.”

Alice looked at the display, “Ooh, that’s nice too.”

“Ma’am, can I see the lady’s version in red and blue in platinum and the men’s green dial in platinum too?”

“Absolutely, give me a moment, the precious metal watches are stored in our vault,” the saleswoman smiled and excused herself from the couple.

“Always with the precious metal ones, eh?”

John pulled several credit-chits from his wallet and showed them to Alice, “Gotta burn through some of these.”

Alice rolled her eyes at John. A few minutes later their saleswoman came out with several watches. Alice fell in love with the Grand Seiko GMT P-SD245, which had a blue ceramite bezel and internally had the spring drive movement. It was old tech, but the Seiko engineers had to continue working with the movement to make it accurate within a single second over three months.

John wanted their latest watch, GMT P-SDT344. He couldn’t stop smiling looking at it. It had their newest movement, a spring drive tourbillon that was accurate to a second over a six-month period of time. The dial was skeletonized but the metal had been treated to give it the dark hue of green.

The final bill came to just over four hundred thousand credits. They asked for the boxes to be delivered to the military barracks on the station. John kept the warranty cards. Alice peppered John with many questions about why the little cards were so important. While he didn’t have any immediate plans to sell the watches, should he want too they would raise the resale value. In truth, there was little need to retain them or the box, but John was a completionist at heart.

19:00 K-Pot Hot Pots

“Dude, this food is so fucking good,” Kevin said as he rolled a piece of beef into a leaf of cabbage.

“I’m not stopping until I’m well into the meat sweats,” Thomas said laughing.

John was smiling because he had missed these interactions over the last six weeks, “The spicy pot is really fucking good.”

“May look good, but I worry about my comfort tomorrow,” Jessica had tried it too but had been avoiding using that one.

“At least we don’t live with him,” Theresa started laughing, “Sorry Alice.”

“Ugh, why do you do this?”

“Because it hurts so good.”

The table began to laugh. That was largely true of spicy food. While it was near nuclear in heat, it was so flavorful so it literally every bit as tasty as it was painful to eat.

“So being able to walk around and not run into anyone is awesome,” Kristin put a couple of pieces of chicken in the pot in front of her.

“Hey, that freighter was really fucking cool,” Andern said as he made a sandwich of pork, kimchee, rice, and cabbage.

“Dude, those new ships are so nice. Honestly, the new destroyers’ corridors are nearly three times as wide as the Marcinko.”

“John, are they really retiring the Marcinko?” Brian asked.

“Well, so technically yes. But I believe she’s going to be used one more time for the academy next summer, then she’ll get recycled.”

“She’s wearing on me for some sick and twisted reason,” Kevin smiled, “Though I suspect that’s because of the position I have.”

“Same, I told Andern this, but it’s going to be weird to take my first commission and not sit in the big seat.”

“Will it be much different for the rest of us?” Jessica asked.

“This is a random ass guess on my part, but I’d suspect it’d be very similar. Except y’all will be in a newer and nicer ship,” John ate a piece of beef right out of the spicy pot.

“Well, a degree of familiarity will be nice,” Kristin said before taking a sip of her beer, “But yeah like you said, it’s going to be really different for us and Joeng.”

“Par for the course,” John smiled as he took a swig of his beer, “So, breakfast at the mess tomorrow? I got dinner reservations at the Brazilian Steakhouse for us tomorrow.”

“Weight room after breakfast. I need a good workout bad,” Andern said laughing, “Not going to lie, never thought I’d be the one to say that.”

“Let’s do lunch at Cheeseburgers’N’Beer in the other wing. They have golf simulators there too,” Thomas said.

“Well fuck, I’m in,” John said laughing.

“Hey, what are we doing for spring break?” Andern changed the subject.

“Stop it, let’s go to a movie before dinner tomorrow too. There’s a kickass theatre on the first floor,” Jessica said.

“Cool, sports bar after dinner for pool and cornhole. But back to my question,” Andern wasn’t going to let his question die.

“Fair enough, where do y’all want to go?” John was sweating profusely as he ate more meat from the spicey pot.

“Ok, you’re taking a bloody shower when we are done here,” Alice was shaking her in disbelief at her husband, “I wouldn’t mind going back to New Orleans, but the Florida Keys were really nice.”

“Cuba looks awesome,” Nathan added.

“It is awesome,” John smiled.

“Yeah, when we’re not being chased by random people,” Alice said sarcastically.

“Hey, that was totally not my fault.”

“Florida Keys sounds good to me. Though in truth damn near anywhere we go will be fun. But being near the ocean is tits,” Brian said.

“I’m down for wherever. Be nice if we didn’t have to shoot anyone, get kidnapped, or be dragged out on assignment though,” Jessica grinned.

“Y’all are smartasses,” John grabbed his napkin and was wiping the sweat from his forehead, “This stuff is fucking addicting.”

The group laughed. They stayed another thirty minutes before they decided to part ways. Alice was absolutely disgusted at how much John had sweat. He looked like he had run a marathon. He tried to be funny by saying he was in a marathon of sorts.

After he got out of the shower the couple enjoyed some more intimate time then fell asleep earlier than expected. They were on a really weird sleep schedule; one they should still adhere to while on leave but John didn’t think it’d be that possible to stay on schedule during their free time. If he couldn’t trust himself to do it he certainly wasn’t going to order anyone to do that.

03:22 Barracks, Couples Room

‘Who in the fuck is calling now?’ John was thinking as he rolled out of bed and walked into the other room.

He sat down at the terminal and accepted the call. The screen turned on then a man came into focus. John had no clue who this man was.

“I presume your Captain Lief?”

“Well, Cadet Lief, acting Captain of the Marcinko.”

John could hear laughter from the man. Whatever electronic masking the other individual was using was turned off. John discretely began recording the conversation.

“Well played boy. I am seriously impressed. I’m Rene Dubious.”

John interrupted him, “Your reputation precedes you, sir. You’re the captain of the Folly of Icarus.”

“And you’re the rapscallion that disabled one of skiffs. My engineer has some rather choice words with you for what you did to one of her creations.”

“Your engineer is a clever bastard, but any good engineer has that trait in spades, don’t they?” John was smiling.

“Very true.”

“Mind if I ask you two questions?”

“You’ve earned one, but if the second is interesting I’ll consider answering it.”

John laughed, “Was the skiff rigged to self-destruct if any of us walked into it?”

“Funny that you ask that, I told her that we ought to have done that, but she insisted we not waste perfectly good explosives on her skiffs since they would never be captured.”

“I suppose I can’t be too negative on that, I’m usually that arrogant too. Second question, what did the IMS Dirty Fellow, or more precisely someone on her do to you?”

“Can’t say that’s an interesting question per say, but technically the answer is.”

“Would you care to know what the Navy came up with, keep in mind, this is the Navy and not Naval Intelligence’s conclusion to entice an answer out of you?”

“Fire away son, I’d like to hear that.”

“Someone, captain most likely, owed y’all a debt and they either reneged on it or were actively ignoring it. Then you clapped them.”

The pirate almost looked offended, “You think we’d kill someone over something so petty?”

“I was going to say I’ve killed men for less, but that’d be lying. But I do know this, some people have earned a good killing.”

Rene flashed a predator’s smile, “I like you son. Wish I could convince you to work for me.”

“Hell, I’d be lying if your way of life wouldn’t have a certain charm and thrill to it. But I’ve got my eyes set on commanding a whole fleet one day.”

“You dream big. Your compatriots were not thorough enough with their conclusion.”

“Obviously, I thought that to be too convenient. Though I don’t doubt they owed y’all a debt.”

“They did, dead men can’t pay debts though. Her Captain had been running their mouth as of late. But it was the Captain’s son that did something to a crew member of mine and wouldn’t give him over to face punishment.”

“Blood is thicker than water. Can’t blame the man for attempting to save family, but he’d have to do something pretty serious to warrant a ship kill.”

“Indeed. Well, it is time we end this call. I look forward to our cat and mouse games in the future, though I wonder who the cat and the mouse will be.”

The screen ended. John smiled as he began playing back the call. He forwarded it to Director LeCroix, along with a short message. He got up a stretched a little and turned off the workstation.

“Who indeed will play what role?”