" Ah, it's Cadet Neda! Having trouble with one of the vending machines?"

Her ears pricked up, and she turned to look at him, face bright red.

" Commodore General! I, um, was going to get a coffee, but I've just realized, um-"

" Two credits? That's a shame. Do better on your shooting drills next time, okay?" he chided her lightly, with a wink, as he swiped his card. The charge went through. " I want us to beat the 12th Fleet's shooting average."

" Right!"

She got it out of the machine.

" I can't stand black coffee... I like sweet drinks, personally."

He got a can from a different machine.

" Yes! Well! I haven't been able to have coffee before, so I wanted to try it..."

She sat on the bench across from him.

" Really? It's a pretty common drink," he said, surprised.

" I was taking some medicine before that interacted badly with caffeine," she explained. " But since you signed off on my medical release last week, I was going to celebrate the paperwork being processed..."

She seemed very happy, but he could only vaguely recall seeing some medical forms in his endless flow of busy work. It hadn't struck him as particularly important at the time. They had to run medical sign offs every time they stopped somewhere outside of their home sector; it all blurred together after a while.

" Masterson. There you are."

He turned around to see Nova standing in the lounge's doorway.

The lyena's eyes flicked over to Neda for a moment, evaluatory. She was regarding him with some surprise and suspicion as well.

" Oh, Nova. Do you need something? Do you feel any better after our talk yesterday?" William asked blithely, taking a sip of his drink.

Nova visibly tensed.

" Not to interrupt your ceaseless womanizing, but I need to speak to you about how close your ship seems to be to Lyewa-Diurn's territory."

William noticed that Neda's face grew pale at the mention of the name, and her grip on her drink tightened.

He smiled and waved it off.

" He won't cause trouble if you're aboard, will he? It'll be fine," he said.

" I'm sure he will go to the utmost effort to make sure any trouble he causes is done in a legally arranged manner," Nova replied stiffly. He looked over to Neda. " And the fact you have so many women aboard will only serve to incense him further."

William considered it for a moment.

" I suppose he could try to fuss about, but he can't really do much of anything with me in the way, can he?"

Nova flicked his ear, annoyed.

" As you say, then," he gave, and then looked to Neda again. " Girl, are you satisfied with this? Your body is at stake in these..."

His eyes narrowed.

" Coffee?"

She stood abruptly.

" Lyena-Nova. Sir. With full respect, you are not my commanding officer. I have no reason to discuss such things with you. As the Commodore General has supported my decision, I will support his."

William observed the thorny exchange, much of it flying over his head; but what did not escape him was the very obvious bristling anger her words had caused to arise within Nova. His facial expression was neutral, but his ears were pressed down flat and his tail thrashing; his pupils were restricted to slits.

" Nova," he said. " Nova."

" What."

He walked over, and pressed his drink into Nova's hands.

" Have some soda and maybe you'll calm down," he said.

" I'm not angry," Nova replied.

" You're scaring my cadet," William said, voice a bit lower than normal.

" Not as though she has any regard for me," Nova replied, teeth grit.

" Then why don't you have some for me?" William asked.

Nova's ear flicked.

He took the can from William, roughly, and drank from it.

" I'm surprised you gave in that easily," William said, cheerful. " Or maybe you just like sweet drinks, too?"

" They're disgusting," Nova replied flatly. " But I would rather have regard for you, as useless as you are, than Diurn."

He turned and left.

Neda let out a long sigh, like she'd been holding her breath.

" The Lyena is so scary!" she complained.

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