09:30 Primary Study Room

“Cap, do you want to talk about it?” Caleb asked as he sat down next to him.

“Yeah, you look pissed,” Andern said as he sat down across from John in the last free spot.

Lacey walked in, cursed then walked out of the room.

“You snooze you lose,” Andern laughed.

“The level of stupidity I witnessed in the hangar was phenomenal. I don’t even want to talk about it. In fact, after this, I’m going to need to my wife about it on a professional level.”

John began shaking his head. He was exasperated. That was the raw honest truth that he felt about their interaction. But he couldn’t really stop talking about it.

“You want to know the wildest shit? She’s a descendant of the British Royal family that settled on that world,” John said shaking his head.

“We went over their rise to power in depth in high school because one of my teachers was obsessed with the royalty,” Caleb paused, “the governor of the colony basically mismanaged it to the brink of disaster.”

“Yeah, then the very intelligent and charismatic prince at the time stepped up and rebuilt their economy through the thin times to the point where they were no longer dependent on its sponsors. Twenty years after that the colony decided to make the prince their king,” Andern said.

“Five generations later the king, largely on the Confederacy’s urging, switched the political system to a modified constitutional monarchy where the current king and prime minister share power,” John paused, “but now the current future of that world is in the hands of the idiot in our hangar.”

“Yeah, but is she hot?” Andern asked.

The whole room stopped what they were doing and looked at him. John gave him that ‘what the fuck’ look he’d seen many times. Caleb and a couple of others laughed.

“Kristin’s going to beat your ass,” John said.

“Yet you didn’t answer his question,” Caleb smirked as he countered John’s statement.

“Physically, yes she would be attractive in the eyes of most men and women. Personality-wise though? Grade-A shitshow material.”

John shut the conversation down and got to work on his lessons. Normally working on homework after a long shift sucked something awful for all of the cadets, John included. But the schoolwork today was a welcome change of pace and got his mind focused on something different.

John leaned back in his seat and was staring at the ceiling. The lesson was sped up to double speed. He looked incredibly bored and got some of the other cadets in there laughing to themselves. The lessons did drag on but forty-five minutes later they were done.

10:15 Medical – Psych Office

“So, I’m pretty sure there have already been at least three serious diplomatic incidents I’ve committed already. I’m considering that water under the bridge, but I need some advice to prevent any future ones.”

“I’m trying to comprehend this because I’m still hung up on a few things. They told their escorts to leave because they were too slow,” Alice heard everything John had said but was stuck on this point, “No one could be that stupid.”

“Right? No one could, yet we have those gals in the hangar which prove otherwise,” John paused, “Oh, and half of them don’t have any mental blocks at all. Everything they said is the full and honest truth. None of them are traitors or are trying anything fishy.”

“So professionally I’m supposed to give you advice, as your wife I want to make sure you stay out of trouble for obvious reasons, but they deserve all of this backlash for everything that’s happened so far. Except for you shooting near the princess’s head. That was pushing it a lot.”

“K, no more shooting. I can hold myself back from shooting them. Love you,” John got up and hugged his wife before leaving the medical office.

John headed to Main Engineering and joined the crew for a couple of drills. He made a mental note to make the bridge crew run through during their next shift. The drills went through without issues. After that John checked the study rooms to make sure things were going well there. After that he headed up to the rec room, he knew Andern was there and wanted to play darts or cornhole and unwind.

12:00 Rec Room

John walked into the room. Andern waved him over to the cornhole area. In the corner in front of the main door three of the princess’s attendants were drinking coffee and talking quietly amongst themselves.

Rumors had spread that the Princess and her attendants were a special kind of stupid that the Navy hasn’t come across in a long time. John had those same thoughts too, but the truth of the matter was actually much more complicated. There was a level of naivete amongst their guests that the super-rich and politically powerful often exhibited. Though the princess and her attendants had behaved in a way that pushed the boundaries John had initially assumed were possible.

“You did a good job picking out all this swag, the new room is really nice,” Andern said as he threw a bag.

“Yeah, it’s a lot more comfortable in here. Though we need to get some books though. Shelves are a bit bare.”

Andern made a hell of a throw with his airmail dragging in two of his bags that were hanging over the hole, “Oh hell yeah, got you that turn.”

“Yet the game is not over.”

The two friends continued to play the game. After going into overtime Andern won when John made a good through that didn’t push in the other two bags like he was attempting to do. John shrugged and gave Andern a handshake for a game well played. A pair of enlisted crewmembers called their dart game early and asked to sub in for the pair.

They walked over to a couch and sat down and turned the new big screen on. There was a college football game on. John smiled as he pointed at the screen, they had seen both teams play before. North Dakota State was hosting South Dakota State. It was a back-and-forth game dominated by the defense.

“Not gonna lie, never want to see Navy play either of these two teams again,” John said as he leaned in and focused on the game.

“You know, they may be in the lower league, but they put on a hell of a show,” Andern said with a hint of regret.

“Provided of course you like the ground and pound style game. If you like high octane offenses, then they will disappoint.”

Andern leaned in too, “Well yeah, you’re not wrong. But their offenses are potent in their own way.”

Neither of the two looked away from the screen and focused on the game until halftime. At that point, they both leaned back and looked exhausted. NDSU was up by thirteen points, but SDSU was getting the kickoff in the second half. Both teams were beating the absolute hell out of one another.

One of the attendants came over and meekly asked if she could speak to John. John agreed and let her start.

“We’re still struggling with why what we did was so wrong.”

“What’s your name?”

“April.”

“April, how often do you or the princess interact with commoners in person?”

“Never, the princess would never lower herself to interact with them as it isn’t necessary. She’d interact with those they vote to represent them.”

John sighed, “You have the social awareness of a bull in a China shop. You told your escorts, who were there to protect you until you got to the Jupiter jump point, to go away because they were too slow.”

“But they were.”

“Then precisely how in the hell are they supposed to protect you if you speed away from them?”

“But we’re in Sol, there’s no pirate activity.”

John let out a giant belly laugh, “There’s pirate activity every day here, and in truth in every system. The seriousness and threat of the attacks are minimal here, as it is in Proxima Centauri.”

“That’s not right, there’s no pirate activity there.”

John chuckled as he grabbed a tablet on the table next to him. He split the screen between the halftime show and pirate statistics in the Sol Sector.

“See, twenty-seven confirmed cases in the last twenty-four hours. One medium threat, three minor threats, and the remaining were all categorized as insignificant. This information is freely available to everyone.”

“But that’s not possible, we’re told that pirate activity doesn’t exist.”

John smirked and pulled up Proxima Centauri’s statistics then sarcastically said, “I’m the King of the planet Manchester.”

“You certainly are not.”

“Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true, as is evidenced by what I just said. Your home system has four to five times as many pirate incidents overall compared to Sol. Looking at the ratios it has roughly the same number of medium threats, but a higher ratio of minor to insignificant cases. Again, this information is freely available to any and all.”

The attendance looked at the statistics in shock, she was at a loss for words.

“Furthermore, your inability to talk to the unwashed masses is a critical failure of all you royal types. As an aside, this also applies to the hyper affluent and those in political power. Both groups are so aloof with societal norms it creates naivete on all things and cripples your basic ability to interact and read people.”

“It can’t be like that.”

“Were I in charge, the princess and you lot would be transported on a repurposed frigate where you’d have some rooms with all the royal touches you’d expect, and the crew would be hired from the planetary militia because they certainly aren’t going to make mistakes as you lot did.”

She nodded and left the room with her two compatriots. John shrugged and cleared the pirate data from the screen and got comfortable for the second half of the game. The two were joined by the enlisted that were playing cornhole sat down on the other couch and watched the game with baited anticipation as well.

In the end, NDSU squeaked out a win. The four football fanatics in the room were absolutely exhausted by the end of the game. The second half flew by since both teams preferred to run the ball, so the clock continued to tick down.

14:30 Mess Hall

“That game was exhausting,” Andern said as he was eating a calzone.

“I love calzone day. And yes, but those two teams always play like that. Which is cool.”

Alice kissed John on the cheek and sat down next to him. Jessica said hi to everyone while sitting down next to Alice.

“I remember watching a documentary about her mom and dad when I was little,” Jessica said.

“Oh my god, I watched that too! I wished so much to be a princess. Love watching any royal wedding. If it’s on I watch it.”

Andern and John looked at one another looked disgusted. It would be fair to say that neither of the young men had any interest in royalty. Andern thought it was stupid and living such a privileged life was not a goal worth attempting. John had run-ins with royalty and those like them in Intelligence and hated everything to do with them.

“Ugh, everything to do with royalty in this day and age is idiotic at best,” John said rather smugly.

“Agreed, it’s all stupid. Pointless even.”

“Your opinions are being tainted by recent events,” Alice grinned.

“My point remains though,” John said as he took another bite of his calzone.

The girls scoffed and talked about the royal weddings they’ve watched. The opinions of the two Neanderthals sitting at their tables were ignored. John and Andern finished their food roughly at the same time. John kissed Alice goodbye then headed to his room to get some sleep. It was desperately needed.

15:30 Main Hangar

Valerie sat on a chair and looked disgusted with her surroundings, “April what did he say?”

“He called us profoundly naïve and incapable of understanding basic social interactions that people run into on a daily basis. And that our decisions to press forward without escorts was beyond idiotic. He also showed us that pirate activity does in fact happen with a high frequency both in here in the Sol system and in our home system as well.”

“Nonsense, there’s no pirate activity in either system.”

“Your highness, the attack clearly suggests otherwise,” Katherine said as she sipped on some tea.

April punched in the same filters John had used on her tablet and handed it to Valerie, “As you can see your highness, there clearly is pirate activity.”

“How vexing, why then were we told there was none?” Valerie looked perplexed.

The princess and her attendants continued their conversation. It then shifted to how appalling they found their furnishings and living arrangements to be. They came to an agreement that they would reach out to the captain after they had their dinner.

Meanwhile, the guards that were stationed in the hangar felt like the previous guards. Their ignorance of the world made them feel dumber for being in the same room with them. It quickly became the new shit assignment on board, and the enlisted crew quickly spread rumors and innuendo about it.

17:30 Captain’s Ready Room

John was sound asleep, dreaming about being with Alice on a beach someplace. It was a happy and fun dream. But then the message button began blinking red, then the coms activated.

“Captain, apologies for waking you up, but our guests insist on talking to you,” Jessica said.

John was groggy and still mostly asleep, rolled over and pressed the button on his headboard, “What?”

“The attendants contacted us, and the princess insists on talking to you.”

“Three hours.”

“We’ve been telling them that, but they are spamming the internal coms.”

John rolled over on his bed and swung his feet out onto the floor, “It’s too fucking early for this.”

He pressed the red button to close the coms. He focused his eyes on the floor and slid his feet into some sandals and looked for a shirt. He walked out of the room while he was putting his shirt on. John looked exhausted and annoyed in equal proportions.

He walked down the corridor toward the main hangar door. John was interrupted a couple of times by his crew asking why he was up. The only answer they got was some mumbled gibberish. Those that interrupted him decided to move on with their days as something was up and they ought to steer clear of things.

John pressed the button to open the door and groggily walked into the hangar. The guards at the door recognized him and saluted.

“At ease,” John said as he walked over to their guests.

“Perfect you’re here,” Valerie said.

“What do you want?”

“Many things in fact. Better accommodations, proper food, and nicer cutlery. Oh, clothing that is so much more comfortable than the rags we’re wearing would be nice too.”

John gave the princess a blank stare and said nothing.

“Anyways, how long will it be until we get Manchester.”

John sighed and answered, “Between seven and twenty-two hours.”

“That’s not clear enough. Or quickly enough.”

“Deal with it,” John sighed again.

“When can I speak with my parents?”

“Not until we land at the royal family’s private airport. Do you actually have something you need from me, or do you just have complaints about the conditions you’re in?”

“Well, I do find the conditions here terribly dreadful.”

“Well, shit like this happens when you decided to tell escorts to fuck off. Now deal with it. No further requests to the bridge will be allowed, unless the guards see something off, they won’t be responding to any of your requests either. Your access to the rec room is being reduced to forty-five-minute increments once daily.”

The women looked at him oddly. They were looking at one another and trying to process what he had just said. They weren’t exactly sure why he was rescinding their ability to contact the bridge or him personally.

John sighed yet again and walked toward the door. He told the guards his new standing orders regarding their guests and headed back to the bridge. The on-duty crew would shut down communications made by their guests.

“I find the captain’s behavior highly rude and dismissive,” April said.

“I concur,” Katherine agreed, “He’s an uncouth savage.”

“You are both quite correct. Please pull as much information about him. I want to know more about this savage. Perhaps that can be useful in negotiating with him in the future.”

1 Ship Day later, 04:00 Bridge

John was still waking up and had already drunk a full pot of coffee at this point. Lieutenant Page was observing the bridge crew this morning. After finishing the shift paperwork, he rotated his chair addressed her.

“Lieutenant, I’m going to level set with you and pull a page out of the book of captain’s prerogatives. There won’t be any drills today because the idiot guests we picked up woke me again while I was sleeping.”

“Understood, I’ll still stay regardless.”

"Speaking of our guests,” John said, “what are they up to?”

“Captain, they are reviewing your file,” Andern said, “I was just checking what they were doing on one of the workstations in the hangar.”

“Let them, it’s mostly redacted anyway.”

“Caleb, how long until we jump back into real space?”

“Twenty minutes sir.”

John got up from his seat and walked over to an empty station next to Andern. He sent a message to the Senior Chief to get his men ready. Moments later he received a message confirming that they were ready.

“Lacey, please open a channel across the whole ship.”

“Opening it now,” Lacey swung her chair around and gave him a thumbs up.

“Good morning. We will be docking at St. Mary’s station in thirty minutes. All off-duty personal is to suit up with combat suits and then go to the armory to get their sidearms. After docking, we will be walking through the station, protecting our guests, and heading to the dropship. Once on the ship, we will be making an aggressive descent into the atmosphere and landing near the royal palace. We shouldn’t run into any problems planet side but keep your head on a swivel.”

John paused and headed toward the door to the bridge, “Third shift will wear flak jackets and be surrounded by everyone else. You all can do this.”

John stopped at the door, “Caleb, the bridge is yours, outgoing communications are automatically set to be turned on once more so you can coordinate with the station tower. Remember to ask for an immediate docking via Naval Intelligence approval Three-Tango-Zulu-Five-Niner-Charlie.”

The bridge crew acknowledge the orders. John left and headed to the main hangar to get suited up into his suit of power armor. He could hear the engine reduce its power and presumed they had jumped back into real space. That assumption was confirmed when Lacey shared a message on the internal coms.

“Ship has translated into real space, docking in ten minutes.”

The reliquary dinged and held up the suit's helmet for John to put on. He took the helmet from the hook and hung it on his hip as he walked over to the armor. John grabbed a knife and attached it to his chest plate. A submachine gun was magnetized to the small of his back. A pistol was taken then attached to his hip. Spare magazines were taken from the shelves and hooked into the pouches on the chest plate opposite the knife.

The last thing he did was pick up a spare drum mag for the battle rifle, then John picked up the battle rifle and walked into the hangar.

“I must protest, I do not want to wear this,” Valeri said.

One of the enlisted men was about to say something when John walked up, “And I don’t give a damn about your opinion. You are wearing the veil, put it on now, and shut the hell up.”

“Hard dock is being moved into place, expect seal in five minutes. The power cable has been connected. Kevin is powering down our systems,” Lacey said.

Some of the third shift crew arrived in the hangar and went to the armory lockers to get their flak jackets and sidearms. John reached for his helmet and pulled it off its holder. He stepped in front of the door and shared a few words with the Senior Chief.

There were some mechanical sounds that could be heard, and a whooshing sound that sounded like atmosphere was being pumped into the airlock. Then they could hear the outer doors open. Red lights above the inner door began flashing. The flashing grew faster. John motioned for a crewmember to go over to the door. He put his helmet on and readied his rifle. The lights switched to green, John motioned to the crewmember to press the button. The doors to the station began to open.