"I ever tell you about the one girl, the brunette, back in-"

"Yes," the soprano interrupted.

The interruption made him pause.

"Did I tell you that she-"

"Yes."

Eagle sighed. He gave his neck a stretch for a moment before settling his head back into the cushion of his pilot seat.

"I need to see her again."

"You said she found someone else," Freya observed. It was her usual, brusque manner. Fifty kilometers away, she was adjusting the neon-blue lighting in her cockpit to help her eyes adjust. She scraped away some of the itches from her eyelids before setting her helmet back over her blonde hair.

Eagle tilted his head with the shrug he felt coming on, even if the others wouldn't see, "Hell. Maybe he screwed up."

"If she was as memorable as all that, don't bet on it."

Well, it was true, Eagle sighed to himself. Then again, Freya could at least let him have the illusion. He popped another vitamin in his mouth, chewing slowly. The others found it weird, but he enjoyed the tang in the chewable. It gave him something to do while they coasted along through the void.

Eagle checked his scopes again. Nothing on the scanners except for some dust and gas clouds. That, and the asteroid field they were now slowly circumventing.

These long-range patrols were growing more common. The higher-ups hadn't yet fully secured another landing site on New Helix. With that in mind, they were doubling up on having their squadrons forming the picket line between the capital ships, the military and civilian transports, and the ark ships.

The Earth Exploration Fleet did not need another sudden surprise from their enemies. So, yet again, they were sending out all available interdiction units on these patrols to keep an eye on things.

Goose let out a grunt of dissatisfaction from his own cockpit off Eagle's rear port quarter. The Russian was not enjoying the peace and quiet.

"You'd think at some point the Intel people would come up with something a little more substantial than this," he groused.

"After the shit that went down out at Junction 7, you want there to be more hitting the fan?" Freya - callsign Little Bird - piped back.

"Look, all I know is ever since the skinnies' little pets went haywire and whomped on us, I want a little payback." Goose was stretching in his cockpit. "The bugs are bastards."

"Bastards with tachyon particle drivers and a Singularity that makes them one massive anthill," Freya mentioned. "You ever see those old nature documentaries?"

"Da. Just means we need a lot of bug spray, you ask me."

"I didn't."

Eagle - Jim Thomas Henderson, rank First Lieutenant - rolled his eyes. These two will make me lose my shit before the bugs or skinnies do.

They'd been together in the 125th Interdiction Squadron for the better part of twenty-six months. In that time, they'd had hundreds of sorties, clocking entire days in their somewhat-roomy cockpits.

Jim felt sorry for the poor fellas and ladies in the smaller Altair fighters. The Altairs were agile, quick, but they didn't leave much in the way of leg room.

For his six-two frame, the Draconus was a perfect fit. Second only to the Amarok interceptor. But those beastly beauties weren't about to start arriving to the 125 anytime soon. The higher-ups were still spinning up a new production line back on the ark ship, Livingstone.

The 125's members weren't slated for replacements or upgrades until two months from now. Unless something drastic happened to order of priority.

"Locust One, this is Robin, over."

His heartrate leapt up. That voice sounded as good as he remembered. Then he frowned. Wait a freaking moment.

What was she doing all the way out here? She was supposed to be back aboard the Livingstone.

Eagle's head swiveled slightly while he fast-scrolled through the protocol appearing on his righthand computer screen. That was his comm readout. The telemetry and comm-sec were correct. And the identification marker checked out. It wasn't a false voice.

Robin.

She'd managed to make her name her callsign? He checked his scopes below and scanned through the friendly traffic.

She's behind us.

The Medusa was over ten thousand kilometers back along their scheduled route. A flight of three Altair fighters were in close escort formation. The Medusa was a sleek, refined ship. Larger even than his own Draconus heavy fighter.

It was jam-packed with enough electronic warfare gear, countermeasures, and countercountermeasures to blanket entire enemy squadrons. An early warning and detection vessel. It carried an advanced Artificial Intelligence program with a disruption pod that could mimick enemy ships and throw them into disarray.

He chewed the inside of his cheek a moment. The other thing... Medusas had one of the most powerful communication systems in the fleet, barring the capitals themselves.

Jim grimaced to himself, Great. Freaking great. She probably heard me grumbling earlier.

"Locust One, this is Robin, how do you read this station? Over."

She sounded curious that he hadn't responded. Jim snapped his head in a quick shake. Keep it professional, you idiot.

He clicked over, "Robin, Locust One, I read your station lima charlie. You've got something for us? Over."

"Locust One, this is Robin. Affirmative," she answered back. "I have unidentified pings in sector 207, ten o'clock on your bearing, five degrees above elliptic. Over."

He swiveled his head left and the IHUDS display automatically filled with the destination as a blinking red triangle. Distance to target zone, twelve thousand kilometers.

"Copy, Robin, wait one mike." His eyes narrowed and he muttered on the squadron frequency, "Locusts, pipe down, Medusa Robin's got pings. Check your ten o'clock high."

"One, Two confirms. Had to open your big fat beak, didn't ya, Goose?" Little Bird grumbled.

"Honk."

"You're such an ass."

"Nope, I'm a goose. Honk. What's the plan, Eagle?" Goose gave his legs a quick stretch from inside his cockpit before he snapped his helmet on and lowered the IHUDS visor in place.

"Form up on me. Tight spacing. We'll check it out."

"Copy."

They slid in until their Draconi were only five kilometers apart. In atmo, that was pretty distant. In the void, it was tight.

That helped keep their electronic signature minimal. Their transmissions could stay (mostly) private, and there was less signal scattering. That increased the odds they wouldn't give away their existence to any bogeys in the region.

He gently peeled back the Draconus back and up above the ellipse, letting them arrow towards the target.

"Locust, Robin, you're sure you want to head-on that? I can't cover you with my scopes from here. Over."

Jim frowned. Great, she's second-guessing me. Again.

She'd been adamant that he not become a fighter pilot. The washout rate might be low, but Robin had been terrified of him eating a Vitruvian round and dying horribly in vacuum.

"Robin, Locust, we got this, over," he answered.

"Don't get snippy with me, Jim."

His eyes rolled. Oh boy.

"Waaaaait. Robin?"

He choked back a groan. Please, shut the hell up, Freya. Do not put two and two...

"Last station, yes, this is Medusa Robin. Over."

"Hiiiii!" Freya chirped. "Is your first name also Robin?"

His cheek twitched.

... together.

"Locust Two, Robin, yes, that's correct. Over."

"Ohhhhh-ho-ho-ho," Freya was chortling like a maniac. "Robin, Locust Two, our One element's been talking about you."

You bitch. Jim growled.

"Obsessing is a better way of putting it," Goose mentioned.

His eyes bugged out. You motherFUCKER! Shut! Up!!!

"Locust, Locust One, clear the net," he stated firmly.

"Aw come off it, Eagle, it's not like we're noobs around here," Goose retorted. "Robin, Locust Three, hi! I'm Goose. Honk. And that's Freya, Little Bird. You remember Jim?"

"Locust Three, Robin. Hello. And, yes. I remember him."

That sultry voice was delighted with this turn of events. She knew what her voice did to him, and she loved playing. Then her tone dipped another octave lower, "You should ask him what he did for my birthday. Over."

Eagle's heart clenched. Nooooo. No, no! Not that.

"Whaaaaat?" Goose sounded ravenous.

He clenched down on the seat and prayed to whatever gods might exist.

"What he do?" Freya asked before he could bark an interruption.

I am at the mercy of this woman. Please. No.

"He made me a teddy bear."

The gods were cruel. They must be loving this.

"Eagle. Made. A teddy bear? Like, the real thing, not one of those virtual jobs?"

But they wouldn't love it as much as his squadronmates would! Goose was going to cook his goose over this until the end of time, he knew it in his bones. He smashed his fist on the arm of his pilot seat.

"Nope. Real thing. Biiiig plushy teddy bear. Brown, with a white belly, and a cute button nose. Snout. Bears have snouts."

"Ohhh, so sweet!" Freya gave a little clap from her cockpit. "Who knew the hardass could be such a softie..."

Jim glanced back between the other two Draconus fighters. They were snorting, loudly. And it didn't help that his face was turning red. Thankfully, he hadn't bothered connecting with them over a visual feed, or they'd notice.

"Ping. Hello?" he waggled his wing once in front of them. "Am I the only one worrying about what might be just ahead of us here?"

"I'm checking scopes," Goose piped in. "I got nothing. Robin, Locust Three. You sure you had something out this way, Robin? Over."

"Locust Three, Robin confirms. I have..." her voice trailed off a moment, then came back, "I had a ping?"

He scanned over the readouts. There was nothing. "Probably a false positive. Happens out here."

"No. Not a false positive. I'm not stupid, Eagle."

"I'm not saying you are!"

"Wait one. Let me recalibrate."

He chucked up a hand beside his helmet. The woman was still second-guessing him, over a year later. What the Hell?

He'd been on this patrol in this sector for over a month. By the first week he'd learned how to read the scopes properly. False positives weren't uncommon in this region. Did she have to keep treating him like he was just a dumb jock pilot?

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