[JE] [JEF #4] Past Flaws 2/12
Title: JE Fleet IV: Past Flaws 2/12
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: R (m/m activity)
Genre: AU, crack, sci-fi
Word count: 54,000
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic. Credit for naming the Yunaka goes to maya_morning.
Summary: When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.
Chapter 2
Kamenashi Kazuya, known as 'Kame' to his few friends, 'kid' to his bosses and 'hey, rookie!' to his colleagues, hadn't planned to join LIPS at all. He'd decided as a small child that when he grew up, he was going to be a baseball player and that one day, he'd lead his team to victory in the Inner Planet Series. Not a bad career choice for a five-year old.
Sadly, Kame had been too young to appreciate the nature of his family's financial situation. The second youngest of four brothers, he grew up in hand-me-downs, with much well-intentioned love but not a great deal of pocket money. Baseball equipment was expensive. Kame played as hard as he could while he was still at school, because he realised, as he aged, that working full-time wasn't going to allow him the opportunity to follow his dreams.
And work was a necessity. Kame worked part time in high school, didn't even consider going on to university. Most of the money went to his family. He didn't begrudge it, not even when it meant denying himself the things he wanted most.
Like travel, for instance. The Kamenashi family had been off-world a grand total of twice in young Kazuya's lifetime, and once had been to Titan Colony so it didn't really count. They'd barely left Japan, never mind leaving the Sol System.
Kame wanted to visit Paris in the spring, to shop in London, to walk across Neptune's famous Floating Bridge. The universe was a big place, and the small boy with the giant imagination had his heart set on seeing it.
But that cost money. There were dozens of career paths that would've gotten him off-world - pro athlete being one of them - but for an eighteen year-old boy with limited education and little chance of being able to afford more, the choices were few. So Kame weighed up his options, packed his bags, and joined the Japanese branch of Lunar/InterPlanetary Security.
The training academy was in Osaka, which afforded him the opportunity to do a fair amount of sightseeing and eating in his free time. Not that he had much; Kame threw himself into his training with every ounce of energy he possessed, driven by the desire to explore.
Unfortunately, exploration was off the cards for the forseeable future. Kame was assigned to the LIPS branch in Lunar City Major, which, in theory, was a desirable location to work. Close enough to Earth that family visits were a quick shuttle trip away, yet far enough to seem exotic to one who'd never lived anywhere but his home planet. The hours were regular, the equipment was in good repair, and the desserts in the station canteen were to die for.
None of this meant much to Kame, especially since he was rarely around at mealtimes and even when he was, he tended to get shunted out of line by his taller and heavier colleagues. It wasn't easy being the shortest person in his unit.
Strictly speaking, Kame shouldn't have been there at all. The rest of his class at the academy had been sent off to considerably more exotic locations, such as Mercury, where heavy-duty sunblock was just as vital as oxygen; or Pluto, where felons lounged in orbital stations on their way out of the Sol System, and out of LIPS's jurisdiction.
It was the force's way of toughening up its rookies - send them out to inhospitable locations, make it difficult for them to come running home with their problems, and leave them to enforce the law any way they could. Kame knew the drill, had been expecting a post at the far end of the Sol System.
But fate, in the form of JE Fleet Admiral Domoto Koichi (no relation to Admiral Domoto Tsuyoshi), had intervened.
The JE Fleet was Earth's contribution to the United Solar Navy, which didn't normally concern itself with such petty matters as pilots making illegal jumps in the forbidden zones around planets, or escaped thieves making a break for Pluto. Not unless they happened to be acts of war; they usually weren't, so the USN and LIPS stuck to their own affairs and didn't interfere with each other.
That didn't mean they didn't cross paths occasionally, though. Admiral Domoto Koichi had been visiting the academy on the pretext of a guest lecture, though everyone knew he was actually there to lure away new recruits if he could. (Many a young trainee had fallen under his spell before, but they all forgave him for the theft because he was extremely pretty.)
Kame had seen him sit in on several classes but hadn't paid much attention, not having an interest in joining the military. (LIPS had a better amateur baseball league.) The admiral, however, had been paying very close attention, though he'd never told Kame exactly what had prompted him to suggest to the trainers that the boy might be ideally suited to a Moon-based posting. Kame suspected alcohol might have been involved somewhere.
It certainly wasn't anything resembling logic. While Kame hadn't gone out of his way to advertise the fact, he hadn't troubled to conceal his desire to travel, and had even mentioned to Admiral Koichi (not to be confused with Admiral Tsuyoshi) over lunch that he was looking forward to being assigned to a unit far from home.
After graduating first in his class from the academy - Kame was a perfectionist, after all - he was dismayed to discover that he would be going no further than Earth's moon. Rather than being sent to the galactic equivalent of the outback to enforce the law, he was to join the Lunar City Major branch and live the easy life. His jurisdiction was limited, covering the Moon and specific zones between it and the Earth. Anything beyond that, he was told, wasn't his problem.
Problems, in general, were not encouraged. But when Kame found himself thrown in with a mixed band of men and women from all over the Sol System, and every single one of them taller than him, he had nothing but.
"Hey, rookie!"
Kame looked round to see who was hailing him this time. The culprit was one of the few Japanese based at Lunacy, a guy named Ishida Makoto, whose claim to fame was that in the three years since he'd started there, the branch's arrest percentages had gone through the roof. Privately, Kame thought this was nothing more than a coincidence, but it wasn't an opinion his Ishida-worshipping colleagues shared.
"We missed you at lunch," Ishida continued, smirking. "What's the matter, too good to eat with the rest of us now just 'cause you got lucky last night?"
"Luck had nothing to do with it," Kame retorted. "If the rest of you hadn't been too lazy to run down that freighter's registration, you'd have known he was smuggling Trans-Saturnian rum and you could've been in on the arrest." Heavily implied in his tone was: I did the work, so I got the credit.
Ishida's smirk never wavered. "I might've run down the registration if there'd been anything suspicious about the ship, but there wasn't. Just the pilot. But you're the only one who met him - in a bar, wasn't it? Carl told me you guys left together. What, he was bad in bed so you decided he must be a crook and checked his credentials?"
"Plying a suspect with alcohol is a perfectly legitimate tactic for extracting information," Kame said icily. He was used to Ishida's taunts, but still, every time, he felt the need to defend himself. If he didn't, the situation would only worsen. "I was in the bar - off-duty, I might add - and noticed the pilot drinking nothing but milk by the gallon. Wouldn't that have made you suspicious?"
"That the guy might like milk? Well, yeah, I'd suspect that he had a strong preference for dairy..."
Kame silently counted to ten, imagining with each number that he was smacking a baseball bat into the back of Ishida's head. "Trans-Saturnian rum addicts crave three things: more rum, money to buy more rum, and milk. The rum's illegal in the Inner Planets, in case you hadn't noticed. I got him talking, slipped him some vodka, sent his registration back to the station where all of you flatly refused to even look at it. What was I supposed to do, give up and go home?"
"Any time you feel like doing that is fine by me, Kamenashi." Ishida's smirk had mutated, somewhere along the way, into a look of cold, hard hatred. "We were doing all right long before you got here and started cozying up to the captain, and we'll do even better when you finally admit you don't belong and go running back to your family."
Before Kame could even begin to formulate a retort, the other man gave a disgusted snort and went to join his swarm of groupies over at the replicator. It was just Kame's bad luck that he'd chosen to take his teabreak at the same time as the 'Ishida is my god' crowd. He probably wouldn't even get near the dratted machine until his break was almost over; business as usual.
His datband bleeped an alert at him. It was Captain Maynard, calling from the station down in Lunacy.
"Heard you did good last night, kid," the captain said. "Bennett gave me the whole story over the comm this morning - said it couldn't wait till I got to work. Wasn't expecting you to be out on patrol today, though. Weren't you up till four filling in the paperwork?"
Kame crept out of the room to find a quiet corner before answering, knowing full well that if his colleagues overheard him, they'd have their fill of entertainment. "I'm just doing my duty, sir."
The captain chuckled. "That's what I like to hear. Dedication to duty, not like these louts they keep sending me. Well, don't overdo it, Kamenashi. No overtime today, you hear me? The force can't afford all the extra hours you keep putting in!"
It wasn't funny, but Kame laughed politely because it was expected of him. It was, after all, always a good idea to laugh at the jokes of one's boss. At least Captain Maynard's sense of humour, if somewhat lacking, was rarely mean and never directed at Kame, which made him a damn sight better to talk to than any of Kame's peers. Lieutenant Bennett wasn't bad, either, even if his taste in fashion was akin to that of a blind giraffe.
"Don't worry, sir - my shift ends at six and I have every intention of going straight home."
Like the intention he'd had last night, before the need to go park himself on a barstool had taken over. Ishida had been right, in a way - it *had* been luck that had put him in the right place at the right time to catch a smuggler. No bars tonight, though. Kame wanted coffee and sleep, and he wasn't particular about which one came first.
Judging by the crowd at the replicator, he thought sleep would be easier to obtain.
"You do that." There was a sound of papers being shuffled. "By the way, I've got a proposition for you. No, not one of those propositions - I guess a good-looking kid like you gets those by the dozen. Sergeant's exam. You interested?"
"What?" Kame spluttered. "Already?"
"Been talking it over with Bennett and we both think you'd ace it, no problem. You're a hard worker; you're sensible, practical and don't take too many foolhardy risks. Could do with a few more like you in the branch."
Kame couldn't deny that he was a hard worker - he was always the first to volunteer for overtime (money was a great lure) and never took time off sick. If he passed the exam, he'd be on a higher pay grade, have more responsibility...and possibly get the chance to travel further afield.
Not that moving up a rank had done anything for Ishida, who was already a sergeant and the senior man on board the LIPS cruiser Kame was currently assigned to. And if Kame passed the exam and remained with the same unit...
"I'll think about it, sir," he said reluctantly. "I really need to get back to work now."
The captain sighed. "Suppose I should give you a few moments to think it over. Try let me know by the end of the week, will you? I know you're the independent sort, don't like relying on other people, but I am actually trying to help your career. I think you've got a lot of potential, kid."
"And I appreciate that, sir."
"Not at all sure you do, but enough of that. You've got work to do, and I need to get going. Some idiot out-of-towner started a brawl in a restaurant and I've got the mayor breathing down my neck to make it all disappear. Let me know when you've made up your mind about the exam."
With that, the captain cut the connection, leaving Kame leaning wearily against the wall with his intensified caffeine cravings. Talking to Captain Maynard was a tiring business, especially for someone working on only three hours of sleep.
-----
Two minutes before he was due back on duty, Kame managed to grab a coffee. He'd had to wait until everyone else had filtered out of the break room lest one of them grab it away from him, but he'd succeeded.
Too bad he'd been so distracted thinking about the sergeant's exam that he'd hit the button for 'decaf' by mistake.
Fortunately, it wasn't as if his daily routine required actual brainpower. If it did, his colleagues would've been fired years ago. All they were doing today was taking part in a joint operation with several of the Earth-based branches of LIPS - forming a blockade in the secure, no-jump zone around the Earth, and checking the registration of every ship leaving the planet to ensure that none of them were stolen or on a wanted list. Mostly it was done from a distance - each ship had to transmit its details then wait to be cleared by LIPS before moving into an open lane to continue its voyage. Only if something suspicious came up did they move in for a stop-and-search.
A lot of hanging around and talking, in other words, and since Kame's colleagues were more inclined to huddle in groups and chat amongst themselves, not even that much talking. A couple of the women approached him at one point to ask if it was true that he'd had to seduce the information out of the pilot last night, but other than that, his conversation was limited to things like "Can you hit that button over there?".
They were all taking it in turns to sit at the comm station - based on Ishida's rota, which meant he had to spend the least amount of time on the uncomfortable chair, talking to pilots over the open channel, and Kame spent the longest. Nevertheless, his turn sped by, and Aya, sitting next to him, was quick and efficient with the registration checks.
It was boring, and it was dull, but it was safe. Kame was five minutes away from passing the seat along when things livened up. A courier, completely out of the blue, fired a pair of luminous green bolts at a freighter opposite.
Ishida let out a whoop from the back, pointing at the main viewscreen. "Ten to one it's accidental discharge, but let's find out anyway. Some idiot just fired a pulse laser right by Earth - let's go lay down the law, guys!"
A roar of enthusiasm thundered around the small bridge, bypassing the quieter members of the unit altogether and ending with Ishida himself. When they got all fired up to make the most of someone else's misfortune, there was just no stopping them. Not for the first time, Kame wondered if he should've listened to his mother and become a fashion designer instead. Of course, there was the small matter of his utter lack of artistic talent to overcome...
Carl, over in the pilot's seat, broke them out of formation and pulled up next to the offending ship. Aya put the details on the screen. It was a Chartreux Courier-class, the Yunaka. with a faded purple 'JOKER' painted on one side, and a bikini-clad, well-endowed, bleached-blonde beach babe on the other. Probably not owned by the priesthood, then.
"Go on, rookie," Ishida drawled, making Kame jump. "You're on communications - say something. Maybe you'll catch yourself another smuggler and get promoted somewhere a billion light-years away."
There was always hope. Kame swallowed, suddenly feeling like he hadn't had anything to drink for days. All eyes were on him, waiting for him to speak. He opened an audio-only channel, looked resolutely straight ahead at the ship, and delivered his warning.
"This is Officer Kamenashi Kazuya of theLunar/InterPlanetary Security vessel Murasaki. Chartreux Courier-class Yunaka, you have fired illegally upon a civilian vessel in a secure zone. Disarm all weapons and stand by to be boarded."
Another whoop from the back, and the sound of a stampede for the lockers as everyone went for their space armour. All LIPS officers were issued with an individual set upon assignment to a unit - Kame was amazed that no one had sabotaged his yet. A few quick snips in the oxygen supply and auto-repair systems, and he'd be a goner if he ever closed the suit seals.
The stampede was so loud, in fact, that Kame almost didn't hear when he got a reply.
"Uh...it was an accident," a nervous voice from the Yunaka said. "We were performing maintenance in the cockpit and the trigger was pressed by mistake."
Kame had trouble believing his ears. "You were performing a dance in the cockpit?"
Aya, who was sitting near enough to hear, looked askance at this. "A dance? Oi, Kamenashi, have you been drinking? Just how much did you have last night?"
"Not a dance," a different voice from the Yunaka answered. "Maintenance. You know, fixing stuff?"
There was a crash in the background, and a muffled voice muttered, "Don't antagonise him."
"Me? I'm not the one who fell on the weapons console!"
"I said I was sorry!"
Ishida got impatient. "What's the hold-up, rookie? Tell 'em to hold position and we'll send a tunnel across."
Kame held up a hand to shush him and turned to murmur to Aya. "How many different voices did you hear?"
She chewed on her lip a moment, then said, "Three."
The crew roster, displayed on Kame's small screen, listed only two members - joint-owners Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi. The passenger roster was blank. The slave trade had been outlawed centuries ago, so the third voice couldn't belong to cargo, and none of them had sounded computer-generated.
There was an unregistered person on board the Yunaka.
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: R (m/m activity)
Genre: AU, crack, sci-fi
Word count: 54,000
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic. Credit for naming the Yunaka goes to maya_morning.
Summary: When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.
Chapter 2
Kamenashi Kazuya, known as 'Kame' to his few friends, 'kid' to his bosses and 'hey, rookie!' to his colleagues, hadn't planned to join LIPS at all. He'd decided as a small child that when he grew up, he was going to be a baseball player and that one day, he'd lead his team to victory in the Inner Planet Series. Not a bad career choice for a five-year old.
Sadly, Kame had been too young to appreciate the nature of his family's financial situation. The second youngest of four brothers, he grew up in hand-me-downs, with much well-intentioned love but not a great deal of pocket money. Baseball equipment was expensive. Kame played as hard as he could while he was still at school, because he realised, as he aged, that working full-time wasn't going to allow him the opportunity to follow his dreams.
And work was a necessity. Kame worked part time in high school, didn't even consider going on to university. Most of the money went to his family. He didn't begrudge it, not even when it meant denying himself the things he wanted most.
Like travel, for instance. The Kamenashi family had been off-world a grand total of twice in young Kazuya's lifetime, and once had been to Titan Colony so it didn't really count. They'd barely left Japan, never mind leaving the Sol System.
Kame wanted to visit Paris in the spring, to shop in London, to walk across Neptune's famous Floating Bridge. The universe was a big place, and the small boy with the giant imagination had his heart set on seeing it.
But that cost money. There were dozens of career paths that would've gotten him off-world - pro athlete being one of them - but for an eighteen year-old boy with limited education and little chance of being able to afford more, the choices were few. So Kame weighed up his options, packed his bags, and joined the Japanese branch of Lunar/InterPlanetary Security.
The training academy was in Osaka, which afforded him the opportunity to do a fair amount of sightseeing and eating in his free time. Not that he had much; Kame threw himself into his training with every ounce of energy he possessed, driven by the desire to explore.
Unfortunately, exploration was off the cards for the forseeable future. Kame was assigned to the LIPS branch in Lunar City Major, which, in theory, was a desirable location to work. Close enough to Earth that family visits were a quick shuttle trip away, yet far enough to seem exotic to one who'd never lived anywhere but his home planet. The hours were regular, the equipment was in good repair, and the desserts in the station canteen were to die for.
None of this meant much to Kame, especially since he was rarely around at mealtimes and even when he was, he tended to get shunted out of line by his taller and heavier colleagues. It wasn't easy being the shortest person in his unit.
Strictly speaking, Kame shouldn't have been there at all. The rest of his class at the academy had been sent off to considerably more exotic locations, such as Mercury, where heavy-duty sunblock was just as vital as oxygen; or Pluto, where felons lounged in orbital stations on their way out of the Sol System, and out of LIPS's jurisdiction.
It was the force's way of toughening up its rookies - send them out to inhospitable locations, make it difficult for them to come running home with their problems, and leave them to enforce the law any way they could. Kame knew the drill, had been expecting a post at the far end of the Sol System.
But fate, in the form of JE Fleet Admiral Domoto Koichi (no relation to Admiral Domoto Tsuyoshi), had intervened.
The JE Fleet was Earth's contribution to the United Solar Navy, which didn't normally concern itself with such petty matters as pilots making illegal jumps in the forbidden zones around planets, or escaped thieves making a break for Pluto. Not unless they happened to be acts of war; they usually weren't, so the USN and LIPS stuck to their own affairs and didn't interfere with each other.
That didn't mean they didn't cross paths occasionally, though. Admiral Domoto Koichi had been visiting the academy on the pretext of a guest lecture, though everyone knew he was actually there to lure away new recruits if he could. (Many a young trainee had fallen under his spell before, but they all forgave him for the theft because he was extremely pretty.)
Kame had seen him sit in on several classes but hadn't paid much attention, not having an interest in joining the military. (LIPS had a better amateur baseball league.) The admiral, however, had been paying very close attention, though he'd never told Kame exactly what had prompted him to suggest to the trainers that the boy might be ideally suited to a Moon-based posting. Kame suspected alcohol might have been involved somewhere.
It certainly wasn't anything resembling logic. While Kame hadn't gone out of his way to advertise the fact, he hadn't troubled to conceal his desire to travel, and had even mentioned to Admiral Koichi (not to be confused with Admiral Tsuyoshi) over lunch that he was looking forward to being assigned to a unit far from home.
After graduating first in his class from the academy - Kame was a perfectionist, after all - he was dismayed to discover that he would be going no further than Earth's moon. Rather than being sent to the galactic equivalent of the outback to enforce the law, he was to join the Lunar City Major branch and live the easy life. His jurisdiction was limited, covering the Moon and specific zones between it and the Earth. Anything beyond that, he was told, wasn't his problem.
Problems, in general, were not encouraged. But when Kame found himself thrown in with a mixed band of men and women from all over the Sol System, and every single one of them taller than him, he had nothing but.
"Hey, rookie!"
Kame looked round to see who was hailing him this time. The culprit was one of the few Japanese based at Lunacy, a guy named Ishida Makoto, whose claim to fame was that in the three years since he'd started there, the branch's arrest percentages had gone through the roof. Privately, Kame thought this was nothing more than a coincidence, but it wasn't an opinion his Ishida-worshipping colleagues shared.
"We missed you at lunch," Ishida continued, smirking. "What's the matter, too good to eat with the rest of us now just 'cause you got lucky last night?"
"Luck had nothing to do with it," Kame retorted. "If the rest of you hadn't been too lazy to run down that freighter's registration, you'd have known he was smuggling Trans-Saturnian rum and you could've been in on the arrest." Heavily implied in his tone was: I did the work, so I got the credit.
Ishida's smirk never wavered. "I might've run down the registration if there'd been anything suspicious about the ship, but there wasn't. Just the pilot. But you're the only one who met him - in a bar, wasn't it? Carl told me you guys left together. What, he was bad in bed so you decided he must be a crook and checked his credentials?"
"Plying a suspect with alcohol is a perfectly legitimate tactic for extracting information," Kame said icily. He was used to Ishida's taunts, but still, every time, he felt the need to defend himself. If he didn't, the situation would only worsen. "I was in the bar - off-duty, I might add - and noticed the pilot drinking nothing but milk by the gallon. Wouldn't that have made you suspicious?"
"That the guy might like milk? Well, yeah, I'd suspect that he had a strong preference for dairy..."
Kame silently counted to ten, imagining with each number that he was smacking a baseball bat into the back of Ishida's head. "Trans-Saturnian rum addicts crave three things: more rum, money to buy more rum, and milk. The rum's illegal in the Inner Planets, in case you hadn't noticed. I got him talking, slipped him some vodka, sent his registration back to the station where all of you flatly refused to even look at it. What was I supposed to do, give up and go home?"
"Any time you feel like doing that is fine by me, Kamenashi." Ishida's smirk had mutated, somewhere along the way, into a look of cold, hard hatred. "We were doing all right long before you got here and started cozying up to the captain, and we'll do even better when you finally admit you don't belong and go running back to your family."
Before Kame could even begin to formulate a retort, the other man gave a disgusted snort and went to join his swarm of groupies over at the replicator. It was just Kame's bad luck that he'd chosen to take his teabreak at the same time as the 'Ishida is my god' crowd. He probably wouldn't even get near the dratted machine until his break was almost over; business as usual.
His datband bleeped an alert at him. It was Captain Maynard, calling from the station down in Lunacy.
"Heard you did good last night, kid," the captain said. "Bennett gave me the whole story over the comm this morning - said it couldn't wait till I got to work. Wasn't expecting you to be out on patrol today, though. Weren't you up till four filling in the paperwork?"
Kame crept out of the room to find a quiet corner before answering, knowing full well that if his colleagues overheard him, they'd have their fill of entertainment. "I'm just doing my duty, sir."
The captain chuckled. "That's what I like to hear. Dedication to duty, not like these louts they keep sending me. Well, don't overdo it, Kamenashi. No overtime today, you hear me? The force can't afford all the extra hours you keep putting in!"
It wasn't funny, but Kame laughed politely because it was expected of him. It was, after all, always a good idea to laugh at the jokes of one's boss. At least Captain Maynard's sense of humour, if somewhat lacking, was rarely mean and never directed at Kame, which made him a damn sight better to talk to than any of Kame's peers. Lieutenant Bennett wasn't bad, either, even if his taste in fashion was akin to that of a blind giraffe.
"Don't worry, sir - my shift ends at six and I have every intention of going straight home."
Like the intention he'd had last night, before the need to go park himself on a barstool had taken over. Ishida had been right, in a way - it *had* been luck that had put him in the right place at the right time to catch a smuggler. No bars tonight, though. Kame wanted coffee and sleep, and he wasn't particular about which one came first.
Judging by the crowd at the replicator, he thought sleep would be easier to obtain.
"You do that." There was a sound of papers being shuffled. "By the way, I've got a proposition for you. No, not one of those propositions - I guess a good-looking kid like you gets those by the dozen. Sergeant's exam. You interested?"
"What?" Kame spluttered. "Already?"
"Been talking it over with Bennett and we both think you'd ace it, no problem. You're a hard worker; you're sensible, practical and don't take too many foolhardy risks. Could do with a few more like you in the branch."
Kame couldn't deny that he was a hard worker - he was always the first to volunteer for overtime (money was a great lure) and never took time off sick. If he passed the exam, he'd be on a higher pay grade, have more responsibility...and possibly get the chance to travel further afield.
Not that moving up a rank had done anything for Ishida, who was already a sergeant and the senior man on board the LIPS cruiser Kame was currently assigned to. And if Kame passed the exam and remained with the same unit...
"I'll think about it, sir," he said reluctantly. "I really need to get back to work now."
The captain sighed. "Suppose I should give you a few moments to think it over. Try let me know by the end of the week, will you? I know you're the independent sort, don't like relying on other people, but I am actually trying to help your career. I think you've got a lot of potential, kid."
"And I appreciate that, sir."
"Not at all sure you do, but enough of that. You've got work to do, and I need to get going. Some idiot out-of-towner started a brawl in a restaurant and I've got the mayor breathing down my neck to make it all disappear. Let me know when you've made up your mind about the exam."
With that, the captain cut the connection, leaving Kame leaning wearily against the wall with his intensified caffeine cravings. Talking to Captain Maynard was a tiring business, especially for someone working on only three hours of sleep.
-----
Two minutes before he was due back on duty, Kame managed to grab a coffee. He'd had to wait until everyone else had filtered out of the break room lest one of them grab it away from him, but he'd succeeded.
Too bad he'd been so distracted thinking about the sergeant's exam that he'd hit the button for 'decaf' by mistake.
Fortunately, it wasn't as if his daily routine required actual brainpower. If it did, his colleagues would've been fired years ago. All they were doing today was taking part in a joint operation with several of the Earth-based branches of LIPS - forming a blockade in the secure, no-jump zone around the Earth, and checking the registration of every ship leaving the planet to ensure that none of them were stolen or on a wanted list. Mostly it was done from a distance - each ship had to transmit its details then wait to be cleared by LIPS before moving into an open lane to continue its voyage. Only if something suspicious came up did they move in for a stop-and-search.
A lot of hanging around and talking, in other words, and since Kame's colleagues were more inclined to huddle in groups and chat amongst themselves, not even that much talking. A couple of the women approached him at one point to ask if it was true that he'd had to seduce the information out of the pilot last night, but other than that, his conversation was limited to things like "Can you hit that button over there?".
They were all taking it in turns to sit at the comm station - based on Ishida's rota, which meant he had to spend the least amount of time on the uncomfortable chair, talking to pilots over the open channel, and Kame spent the longest. Nevertheless, his turn sped by, and Aya, sitting next to him, was quick and efficient with the registration checks.
It was boring, and it was dull, but it was safe. Kame was five minutes away from passing the seat along when things livened up. A courier, completely out of the blue, fired a pair of luminous green bolts at a freighter opposite.
Ishida let out a whoop from the back, pointing at the main viewscreen. "Ten to one it's accidental discharge, but let's find out anyway. Some idiot just fired a pulse laser right by Earth - let's go lay down the law, guys!"
A roar of enthusiasm thundered around the small bridge, bypassing the quieter members of the unit altogether and ending with Ishida himself. When they got all fired up to make the most of someone else's misfortune, there was just no stopping them. Not for the first time, Kame wondered if he should've listened to his mother and become a fashion designer instead. Of course, there was the small matter of his utter lack of artistic talent to overcome...
Carl, over in the pilot's seat, broke them out of formation and pulled up next to the offending ship. Aya put the details on the screen. It was a Chartreux Courier-class, the Yunaka. with a faded purple 'JOKER' painted on one side, and a bikini-clad, well-endowed, bleached-blonde beach babe on the other. Probably not owned by the priesthood, then.
"Go on, rookie," Ishida drawled, making Kame jump. "You're on communications - say something. Maybe you'll catch yourself another smuggler and get promoted somewhere a billion light-years away."
There was always hope. Kame swallowed, suddenly feeling like he hadn't had anything to drink for days. All eyes were on him, waiting for him to speak. He opened an audio-only channel, looked resolutely straight ahead at the ship, and delivered his warning.
"This is Officer Kamenashi Kazuya of theLunar/InterPlanetary Security vessel Murasaki. Chartreux Courier-class Yunaka, you have fired illegally upon a civilian vessel in a secure zone. Disarm all weapons and stand by to be boarded."
Another whoop from the back, and the sound of a stampede for the lockers as everyone went for their space armour. All LIPS officers were issued with an individual set upon assignment to a unit - Kame was amazed that no one had sabotaged his yet. A few quick snips in the oxygen supply and auto-repair systems, and he'd be a goner if he ever closed the suit seals.
The stampede was so loud, in fact, that Kame almost didn't hear when he got a reply.
"Uh...it was an accident," a nervous voice from the Yunaka said. "We were performing maintenance in the cockpit and the trigger was pressed by mistake."
Kame had trouble believing his ears. "You were performing a dance in the cockpit?"
Aya, who was sitting near enough to hear, looked askance at this. "A dance? Oi, Kamenashi, have you been drinking? Just how much did you have last night?"
"Not a dance," a different voice from the Yunaka answered. "Maintenance. You know, fixing stuff?"
There was a crash in the background, and a muffled voice muttered, "Don't antagonise him."
"Me? I'm not the one who fell on the weapons console!"
"I said I was sorry!"
Ishida got impatient. "What's the hold-up, rookie? Tell 'em to hold position and we'll send a tunnel across."
Kame held up a hand to shush him and turned to murmur to Aya. "How many different voices did you hear?"
She chewed on her lip a moment, then said, "Three."
The crew roster, displayed on Kame's small screen, listed only two members - joint-owners Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi. The passenger roster was blank. The slave trade had been outlawed centuries ago, so the third voice couldn't belong to cargo, and none of them had sounded computer-generated.
There was an unregistered person on board the Yunaka.