章 23: Babysitting Mission
The manuever began to get the two VIP passenger ships into a trajectory for Earth. Nuan Qing was already asleep, or at least she was pretty good at pretending.
"This is your pilot. Our fighter escorts informed us that they will break off as we travel out of Martian traffic control zone and the gravitational sphere of influence. For the rest of the flight, we will stay in close proximity of the other ship; Martian Flight 17. We are expected to enter Earth's sphere of influence in about 2 weeks, and land in Beijing."
As our ship accelerated to escape velocity, the fighter escorts remained behind.
"We have now acheived our target escape vector. All passengers are now free to roam around as they please. If we ever need to perform a mid-course correction, I will inform you beforehand."
Nuan Qing opened her eyes again and moaned a little bit.
"I'm going to bed. I never got any rest since the war began." she said, and left her manuseat.
"No one ever did." I said, and stood up as well. "I am going to... well... be paranoid. If you ever need me, I will be around."
"Thank you, Commander. Now, please excuse me." she said and walked to her bed. I ended up watching her unawares.
"Please excuse me, Commander." she repeated.
"Oh." I said. "I am leaving."
"And don't come in without knocking!" she said.
"Yes, of course." I said as I was preparing to walk out. But then, I stopped.
"Miss, I have a question..."
"What's that?"
"Why are we..." I was a bit uncomfortable, as she was.
"Huh? Why are we what?"
"Why are we staying in the same cabin?" I asked.
"Security reasons." she said.
"Yeah, I can understand that much, but still... Isn't this a little-"
"Ugh." she said. "I asked for it, okay?"
"You... did? Why?"
"I said SECURITY REASONS!" she yelled. "Didn't you hear what happened to Vice Admiral Clara?"
"Wh- No." I said, then paused. "Well, yes, I know she has been assassinated, but I don't know the details."
"Well, she was assassinated in her sleep, with a deadly biological agent." she said. "These sort of things are what I'm really afraid of. And this is not for my own sake, this is for the Republic's."
"So you basically want me to stay by your side and watch over you for hours as you sleep?" I asked.
"If that's required, yes." she said. "That part is your job."
I was in awe by her words. This really was turning into a 'babysitting' mission.
"Look, you know everyone who boarded this ship." I said.
"No, Commander, the opposite; I don't know most people who boarded this ship! The personnel are new." she said. "I can't fully trust anyone for this moment. Not even you, actually, but that's another story."
"Patience, Kagan..." I said to myself. "Just two weeks, and you will be there."
"Now, please Commander, if you excuse me..." Nuan Qing coughed lightly.
"Oh, yes, sorry. I completely forgot." I said and got out of the room. Just after I got out, I got back in.
"Wait a minute. If you are going to sleep, should I really knock?"
"EEH!" she screamed. "Why are you still here!?"
"Calm down, you will make people worry..." I sighed. "I will knock to get in, but if you are sleeping-"
"Oh, wow." she said. "Well, if I don't answer with 'Don't come in!' in 15 seconds, you can come in."
"Alright." I said, and got out again. This time, she locked the door from the inside.
"Come on now! The door has a lock, why do I have to knock?" I shouted to the other side.
"Well, I don't know!"
"Look, let's do it this way. If I see the door unlocked, I will assume it is okay to come in." I said.
"No!" she said. "What if I forget to lock it?"
"Why would you?"
"AARGH!" she shouted. "Perhaps I really shold have picked to stay alone."
"Fine, fine, have it your way." I said and walked away towards the ship's cockpit.
After a very short walk in the corridor, I knocked on the cockpit's door. The commanding pilot, Tom, opened the door of the cockpit for me. With him, there was a co-pilot inside.
"How are things going?" I asked.
"We have acheived the target velocity vector as I said, Commander." Tom said. "Everything is looking fine. Nothing unusual. We will maintain a distance of 250 meters with Flight 17 during the whole flight."
"Commander?" the co-pilot turned around.
"This is Commander... uhh..." Tom tried to introduce me to him.
"Kagan." I said.
"...Commander Kagan of Martian Navy. He is responsible for the security matters here and will be at the embassy. And Commander, this is Mr. Braun, co-pilot of Flight 09."
"Nice to meet you." I said.
"My honor." he said. "It is unusual to see someone from the Navy, though. There would usually be police forces instead."
"Any word from-"
"COMMANDER!" This was Nuan Qing's voice, coming from the passenger cabins. She was shouting for me.
"Excuse me." I said and started running back to the cabin. Knowing her a little already, I would bet this wasn't a serious situation, but I didn't want to hear complaints about my response time.
Using an electronic brute force technique I learned in the Naval Academy, I barged in to the cabin. The passenger cabin doors weren't actually so secure; the locks were designed for convenience rather than security. They were designed to be easily openable from both sides in case of emergencies.
"EEYYK!" she screamed. I understood the reason for this second scream pretty soon.
She was half-naked. With my face red, I immediately got out.
"I TOLD YOU TO KNOCK!" she shouted behind me.
Needless to say, it was incredibly hard to understand her. I was only hoping that she wasn't such a person when it came to diplomacy. But then... Perhaps diplomacy worked that way, with people like her.
"Sorry." I said with a weak voice. By that time, everyone had gathered in front of the cabin's door. Everyone had seen my embarrassment.
"What is going on here?" a man in the crowd asked.
"I don't..." I paused. Simply saying 'I don't know.' would be too unprofessional for the 'head of security'. "It is under control." I altered my sentence.
"Is that so?" someone else in the crowd spoke.
Slowly, the door behind me opened, and Nuan Qing peeked out. She appeared to have completely dressed in that short time.
"It is okay. I'm sorry for making everyone worry. I'm fine." she said.
"Lady, if you think-" someone spoke, but Nuan interrupted him.
"I am okay, thank you. The Commander is doing a good job. Now, I would like to have some privacy, if you don't mind." she said.
The crowd slowly started to disappear.
"Come on in, Commander." she said softly. I turned around and stepped back into the cabin. The door closed.
"You idiot." these were the first words I heard inside.
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