The alehouse the soldiers took them to was certainly busy. It seemed like the whole port staff was there along with a small troop of soldiers. They did find some room, but had to sit shoulder to shoulder to fit. Sarah didn’t mind that much, seeing that she sat in between Heather and Claire, who both had fairly narrow shoulders. But more Mel was stuck between Ash and one of the soldiers and looked very squished.

Dave put his cane under the table."So, what's good here?"

"Beer." Both of the soldiers answered at the same time.

Dave stared at them for a moment before shaking his head. “I suppose I set myself up with that one. I meant what’s good to eat. Being an alehouse, I know it probably won’t have many options, but…”

“Sausage and potatoes.” One of them replied. “With beer.”

Something told Sarah that the dish was their only option. If she remembered correctly, it would be served family style. She didn’t mind, though she’d skip the beer. She had never had beer before and knew that Alemanian beer had a tendency to be on the strong side. It would probably not be a good choice for a first time beer drinker.

One of the soldiers left to go place the order. The crew sat in silence with the other soldier. No one said a word. Alemanians were said not to be keen on small talk, though in this instance, there was probably more of a language barrier than anything else. A barrier that Sarah could break, but she was hesitant. They might not react well to her speaking Alemanian.

“So since the delivery’s complete, does that mean we head back to Kingsgrove?” She questioned.

Heather shook her head. “We’ll go back to Lum then Kingsgrove. Mr. Heinz only gave us some of the money upfront. That’s not uncommon, especially with a large order. But we’ll only touch down in Lum long enough to refuel and get the rest of the money.”

That was a bit of a relief. Sarah wasn’t sure if she could deal with Syrealians so soon after coming from Aleman.

“Do you think he’s going to get us all beers? Because I haven’t ever had any before…”

“I prefer Aboloanian style myself.” Claire remarked as she tried not to touch the shoulder of the soldier next to her. “Alemanian is just too dark and strong for me. I’m sure if you ask for water, they’ll give it to you. Besides, no offense, I doubt you could make it through a fourth of a pint conscious if you could even stand the taste.”

“None of us are going to drink very much tonight.” Heather looked over to Dave when she said that. “Especially pilots who need to not have hangovers in the morning so we can leave and get back to Kingsgrove from Lum in one day.”

“Yes Mom.” Dave wore a sheepish grin and Heather just shook her head. But she was smiling a little bit. Ash, now that he had a little wiggle room, threw an arm around her shoulders. It it was something the couple did a lot at tables.

The soldier came back and squeezed himself in between Claire and Dave. Sarah was beginning to wonder if she needed to scoot over so the others could have a bit more room. The soldiers didn’t look all that comfortable.

“Food ordered.” He stated after a bit. “Will be here soon.”

Mel shifted in his seat. “Um… w-what are your n-ames?” He asked. Clearly he was someone who didn’t like a lot of silence. “We didn’t r-really get them earlier.”

The soldier next to him pointed to himself. “Karl.” Then to the one between Claire and Dave. “Wulf. Do not wear them out.”

Dave drummed his fingers on the table and leaned back in his chair. Even he would have to be careful around these two. They seemed to mean business and wouldn’t be up for chatting.

“Will you be staying with us all night or just until we get back to the ship?”

“We will guard your ship when return to the port.” Wulf replied. “Which is a shame. This city has quite the night life, but duty comes first.”

The food came and was set in the middle of the table. Another person brought plates and utensils. Everyone one got the amount of food they wanted. The food wasn’t bad, though the sausage was a bit more spicy than Sarah was used to. Fortunately, the potatoes helped cut down on that. Then the drinks came.

The server sat down a pitcher of water and one with beer. At least she wouldn't appear rude if she refused any. Besides, she was thirsty and from what she knew, beer didn’t help with thirst. She poured herself a glass of water to have with her meal.

"Thank you for not shooting Claire earlier." Dave began. "She doesn't usually go around kicking people in the crotch. She won’t be doing that again, right?”

Claire offered no assurances and crossed her arms. “I’ll think about it next time before I do it. I won’t apologize for Agent Zehn though. The guy is clearly a creep.”

Neither Karl or Wulf offered a remark to that comment. It was hard to tell if the soldiers knew Agent Zehn at all. Much like with the Syrealian secret police, Almenian soldiers attempted not to mingle with the ASPs. One bad word from them could ruin their career and possibly their life.

The meal continued on with Dave trying to engage the soldiers in conversation and them replying with either just a word or a short sentence. Eventually, he gave up and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence. The water pitcher was empty while the beer pitcher was only a quarter gone and the soldiers were the only ones who had any.

The silence was broken by the whole alehouse falling silent. Sarah turned slightly in her chair to see Colonel Heinz enter the room. Everyone watched him walk in. He pulled an empty chair from a nearby table and dragged it over to theirs.

“May I join you?” he asked, even though there was no other answer but yes.

Karl immediately moved over, nearly knocking the doctor out of his seat while he was attempting to finish the last of his potatoes. He had to cough to get the bite down so he wouldn’t choke on it. Colonel Heinz somehow managed to wedge his chair in between Karl and Dave. Once he sat down (he had to step over the back of the chair in order to do so), the alehouse once again resumed its lively atmosphere. Now everyone was shoulder to shoulder and it was very uncomfortable.

“We missed you this afternoon, Colonel Heinz.” Dave began as he attempted to find some place to put his cane so that it didn’t get in anyone’s way. Eventually, he put it between his legs. “I have a complaint to file against Agent Zehn. He took my radio operator out for some tea and then…”

“Accosted her?” He finished as he poured himself a glass of beer. “He’s already filed his report, Captain Sherman. I assure you that he had no intention of going through with it or harming her. He was just testing how she reacted to a stressful situation. I know that’s probably hard to believe…”

Dave slammed his hands on the table and stood up. “I don’t care what his intentions were! No one gets to treat any of my crew like that and just walk away like nothing happened, agent or not!”

Colonel Heinz’s face grew serious, even as he took a gulp of his beer. “Sit down, Captain. You’re causing a scene.”

When Dave didn’t comply, Karl simply reached up and put a hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him down. Ash shifted as if he was going to get up, but Heather put an arm on his and shook her head. Mel looked nervously back and forth. Sarah wondered if he was going to faint. Claire looked like she wanted to throw her wrench at someone. Sarah no longer felt like picking at her sausage. Something about Colonel Heinz made her lose her appetite.

“Now if you wish to continue doing business in our fair country, I suggest you all learn how to at least tolerate Agent Zehn.” He picked a piece of sausage off the middle plate and popped it into his mouth. He started talking once he stopped chewing. “After all, he can tolerate Freians. If you want, I can assign someone less controlled with his emotions.”

Dave sighed. “No, Agent Zehn is fine for now. But the next time he wants to go off alone with any of my crew…”

“Then he has the authority to do so. I think the kick from Ms. Cunnigham has discouraged him from trying that method again for a long time. He practically limped into my office.” His gaze drifted over to Claire. “I should be punishing you, but he said not to hold it against you. And since he’s a good agent, I’ll honor his request. You should thank him later. In any way you deem appropriate.” Then he grinned.

Claire shot up. For a moment, Sarah was pretty sure she was going to launch herself at him. But she turned around and headed toward the back where the restrooms were. Maybe it was for the best that she go somewhere and cool down for a bit. Zehn may have forgiven her, but there was no way Colonel Heinz would be that merciful if she did something to them.

“I see you’ve barely touched the beer.” He remarked as he looked at the beer pitcher. “Is Alemanian beer too strong for your Aboloanian tastes? Or maybe you just don’t want to get drunk. I can see that, though…” He pointed to Ash. “You look like you could drink plenty and barely be affected. One wouldn’t hurt you.”

Ash sighed, as if this wasn’t the first time that someone had said something like that to him. He drank some of his water before answering.

“No, it wouldn’t. But I’ve also never really like beer of any kind, Aboloanian or Alemanian. So I skip it when it’s served.”

“Very well then. More for us.” The Colonel remarked as Wulf poured himself just a little more. But Sarah noticed that they were pacing themselves, probably so they wouldn’t get drunk while on duty. “Maybe after this, we should play some cards. It is a popular past time here in Aleman.”

“A round probably wouldn’t hurt.” Dave stated. Heather stared at him slightly. “But limited on the money. We wouldn’t want to spend all of our money we just got.”

Mel saw his opportunity and took it. He squeezed himself out between Ash and Wulf. “I’ll sit this out. I need to go to the restroom anyways.”

The only ones who ended up playing were Dave, Colonel Heinz, the soldiers, and Ash. But Sarah had a feeling that Ash was mostly in it to keep an eye on Dave. Heather said she’d rather observe. Something told Sarah that she was a shrewd card player, but she didn’t want to reveal that at the moment. Sarah had no interests in cards. To her, most card games were too boring. As the round went on, she noticed Claire and Mel had been gone for a while. Surely they hadn’t headed back to the ship.

She got up and went to the back. While Claire wasn’t in the restroom, she did find her when she went out the back door. Claire seemed to be out of breath, like she had been exercising a lot. Several of the trash cans in the alley were knocked over.

“Is it time to leave?” she questioned. “And I was wrong. Heinz is worse than Zehn could ever be.”

“No, they’re playing a round of poker. But just one. I noticed you and Mel were gone, so I thought that he might’ve been with you or you had headed back to the ship.”

Claire shook her head. “I haven’t seen Mel this whole time. And it’s not like him to disappear without telling anyone. Maybe he got locked in the restroom again.”

Again? How bad of luck did Mel have? They went back inside and Claire knocked on the door.

“Hey Mel, you doing all right in there?” There was no reply and it turned out that there was no one in the restroom. Sarah went to the person at the bar and tapped on it slightly to get their attention.

She shook her head.

He handed Sarah a note.

Sarah slipped it into her pocket, though she had a bad feeling about it.

Claire seemed to know better than to ask what was going on. Sarah wanted to read it at that moment, but there were too many people. Perhaps it was better to read it one they got back to the ship. She had a feeling that Mel had not left without telling anybody through his own volition. He was probably in trouble. Hopefully, not too much trouble.