Figuratively Speaking: Iceberg

[Sombs]

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December 3th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

Almost a week later, massive progress has been made. The Apahanta was at Livadia, where repair ships were mounting the new weaponry. The blueprints were perfect and the KSRs of the Apahanta's workshop were able to create all nine new turrets without troubles. The Catport, Sombra Hookier's Whale, had to put up some extra runs for the resources, but the efforts were rewarding. Tests would be needed to be made, those were scheduled for the next day once the montage is done.

Ezrael was in the canteen, sitting at a table with a cup of curacaoan tea infront of him as well as a PDA. For once he was wearing civilian clothing instead of an Apahanta suit. As Sherry entered the canteen and spotted him sitting all alone in the canteen, she knew what was going on. "Oh, you're leaving?"

While she moved towards the counter to receive a tray with a snack from a KSR behind the counter, Ezrael browsed through the pictures of the new turrets. "Yes. I didn't spend much time with Maren lately, which is bad. We had our daily calls, but you know, she isn't good at small-talk. And table manners."

"You also can't wait for those, huh?" Sherry asked him as she sat down infront of him at the bench, nodding at the PDA. "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you want to bridge the time to finally get to test those things. But then again you really seem to love the girl. I wonder what it is that makes her so attractive to you."

Looking up slowly, his neutral expression changed with a smirk and a slight blush. The latter was very uncommon for him. "As a biologist, I know that love is more of a lock and key model. There is a difference between sexual attraction and love, which is often mixed up with each other. I only believed in the former, knowing that what people call love is literally just the successive combination of source's and receiver's pheromones." He reached out to take a sip of his tea, taking his time while Sherry's eyes were piercing him in an expecting way. "What I'm saying is, with Maren I have both sexual attraction and biological love. She also supported me when I needed her and she turned out to be ambitious about learning how to live with me."

"You have no clue why you love her, don't you."

"I'd like to pretend love could be explained like that. In her eyes I'm degenerate for living promiscuous and dumb for doing the things I do. She certainly doesn't love me for my intelligence, and to be honest I don't think she's half as clever as she pretends to be. She is not dumb, but she overestimates her skills."

Sherry grinned at him as he said that. "You almost died twice in the last three months. I think you're overestimating your own skills often as well."

"As I said, she doesn't love me for my intelligence." The wide smirk on his face was infecting her and they laughed.

"By the way, the jump drive has been adjusted by now. Once you're back, we can do the first tests. There are some coordinates we got from the Titanic we can use for the tests. Poole for example, and Sigma-15." Taking the sandwich from her plate, he lead it to her mouth and took a small bite while looking at him.

Smirking back at her, he took another sip of the tea before responding. "That'll be interesting. New guns, the jump drive. All the new possibilities. This is really exciting. Looks like you get to play the Commander again in the next days, with actual action."

Chewing, then swallowing, she put the sandwich back to the plate. "Captain, I don't mind it if we are hidden in a nebula for ten years without any contacts to deal with. The Apahanta is my home, and I don't want to risk it just for the sake of fighting boredom."

"I can't promise you a boring life, but I like your attitude. I always was a fan of being alive. Those things will help us with it."

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