The room fills with a round of applause. Some of the officers nearby give their congratulations on my impressive comeback. “Ahh… thanks, but it was just pure luck, honestly!” I say all giddily. It was more than just luck, honestly. I think it’s more appropriate to say it was beginner’s luck. I mean, I do have some experience with these war games.

I think I entered a tournament once back at the academy. But I only got through some brackets before I got knocked out into the loser’s brackets. We have some amazing tacticians in the navy, which I’m proud of and is good for the future of the Federation. But it still kinda stings when you lose to any.

I excuse myself and head over to where Friederika is. I present myself before her and extend my arm for a handshake. But Friederika doesn’t recuperate at first. She hangs her head low and avoids looking me in the eyes. “Kiki…” I mumble. It’s a little disheartening to see her behave like this.

The next moment, though, she’s lively again. She tries to laugh it off. “Right! I’m sorry. That was a bit ugly of me, wasn’t it?” She takes my hand and gives it a firm shake, “you did good, Vicky. Sometimes I think it should be you to be promoted to sub-lieutenant instead of me.”

“Well… I wouldn’t go that far…,” I remark “you’re smarter than me when it comes to being an officer, you know.”

“Oh please,” she gushes, “you’re just flattering me right at this point.” I couldn’t help but pout in turn.

“But it’s true though!” We both let out a laugh.

The room empties a few minutes later. Leaving only me, Friederika, and…

The XO and CO?

They aren’t looking at us though. They seem to be discussing something between the two of them. But soon enough Buttermilch gives us—or rather me—one last glance as he departs the room, leaving only the three of us alone. Mazzareli turns his frowning gaze to us. Friederika and I snap to attention with such imperfections on our salutes that only our mums could love. They drilled us so thoroughly back at the academy, but it never quite stuck with us. With Friederika in particular, you would think she would get it right on the first try.

Mazzareli lets out a collective sigh, “at ease, you two.” The two of us release our breaths and return to a resting position. The Lieutenant Commander walks over to the table, in front of him are the intelligence documents. The ones that Pluto had retrieved for me from earlier. He gathers them up and proceeds to flip through them for a bit. Afterward, he executes a perfect about-face, turning to us directly. “Well…” Mazzareli starts. Friederika and I can’t help but stiffen up a bit. “Relax, you two. It’s nothing too major. First of all, commander Buttermilch commented that he was irked when he saw the intelligence documents sitting here.” He waves the documents folder in front of us.

“I’m not too bothered by it,” he continues “you wanted to do your homework and keep the stimulation as accurate as possible. However,” Mazzareli began pacing back and forth, albeit slowly, “Buttermilch is… a bit of a hardass when it comes to regulations. As I’m sure you are aware by now,” Mazzareli remarks. He stops and presents the documents to us again. I could feel a single bead of sweat racing down my face. Mazzareli said to relax, but it’s a bit hard when you’re being lectured!

“…This is unauthorized use of the general staff’s property. And Buttermilch nor his aide was not informed of these documents being taken.”

“—Did lieutenant Pluto not tell him?” Those words blurt out from my mouth, without thinking. Mazzareli’s frown only worsens.

“Who?” He asks, Friederika rolls her eyes.

“Lieutenant Plotte. She means lieutenant Plotte,” Friederika interjects.

“Oops, sorry,” I say, lying as naturally as I breathe, “my tongue slips when I pronounce his surname,” Mazzareli, unamused, also rolls his eyes.

“…Right,” he begins “no, lieutenant Plotte was not given the authorization to use these documents. However…” I feel like every time he says that we start getting tense “…Buttermilch was willing to let it slide. He wanted the two of you…” a pause as he seems to consider his words, then he frowns again “—well, I suppose the three of you—thrown into the brig on the grounds of a potential security breach. However, with a bit of convincing, I managed to persuade him to change his mind,” if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Mazzareli enjoys waving the bloody documents around, “please don’t let such an inconvenience happen again.”

Mazzareli is about to leave, but before he does, he stops to face us one last time. “Oh, before I forget. commander Buttermilch wanted you summoned to his office, ensign Happ-Schwarzenberger.”

“Eh? Just me?” I ask, baffled. Not the others?

His gaze shifts to Friederika. “Yes, he did not request the presence of sub-lieutenant Trachenberg. Although if you ask me, it would be necessary for all three of you to be present.”

“You mean lieutenant Pluto?” Friederika chimes in, stealing my gimmick. I’m impressed it took her this long to rub off on her.

“Er… yes,” Mazzareli sighs, “I mean him as well. But he asked specifically for you. Please remember to drop by his office as soon as you are ready, as general quarters begin at 1800 hours.”

“Understood, thank you, sir.” Friederika and I state as we give another amateur salute. Lieutenant commander Mazzareli then departs the room.

“Well… Kiki, what now?…” I ask, before looking at Friederika with concern, “hey, are you doing alright?” Friederika looks increasingly pale and particularly distraught. Like a zombie, she looks at me sheepishly.

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t required to come with you,” she says rather dryly, “I think I’m going through a coffee crash right now. Going through that war game exercise and our XO was draining.” I couldn’t help but laugh at her misery.

“You think or you know?” I slap her on the back, and she nearly topples over from the force, “maybe that’ll be a lesson to you not to overdo it on the caffeine, eh?” Friederika could only offer a weak smile in response “aw, what’s wrong, you want me to princess carry you to your room? Kiss you on the forehead for a good night’s sleep before general quarters?”

Okay, maybe I was rubbing it in a little too much. Feeling guilty, I pat Friederika on the head. “Sorry, I was overdoing it a bit too much. Get some rest Kiki, you’ll need it for later.” Friederika nods and trudges her way out of the room.

I can feel my breakfast churn around in my stomach. Even my hands begin trembling more. “A meeting with commander Buttermilch, huh?” I muse as I head out of the room.