With extra leftover food in hand, we left the restaurant after having paid the bill, and having left a very sizable tip too. The server had looked quite defeated once I handed the tip over to her, but in the end she was very grateful for it nonetheless.

My parents had raised me to be thankful for a service well delivered and I sure as hell was going to be the most exemplary daughter to them, and that counted double on days I visited.

Anyway, a tram and a train ride later, we got home without any issues and spent the rest of our day resting on the sofa. We had also given Eva another call, but we decided to leave the planning for the day after, as Luna had gotten rather tired from eating too much. Her little contest with Eva had ended before it even began.

And so the next day came and with it a meeting of the three of us, with Eva being digitally present through our holo stick.

“What kind of list did you manage to put together?” I asked, with Luna hanging from my good arm.

“I just sent it over.” She replied as a popup appeared on the right of the screen. It automatically opened as my holostick noticed we were talking about it. It showed us a list of hotels in sunny destinations, all with private beaches. Their prices differed quite a bit, but they were all well-within our means.

“Oh, what about this one?” Luna tapped my holoscreen as one of the lodgings floated by.

“Hmm.” Eva chuckled contently. “That was one of the ones I thought you would go for.”

The image enlarged and showed us what the lodging was about a bit more in detail. Instead of being a standard hotel, this lodging seemed to be more catered to renting out beach cabins which are all divided up on their own little man-made private island, with top class service being provided by a system of server bots and human made foods that were flown over by drone from the main island.

That way we could be alone with our party on an island, have a great view and superb service on top of that. There were even quite a lot of activities one could do like driving jet skis and the like.

“It says the cabin roofs also allow you to sleep under the stars!”

“Luna… we have slept surrounded by stars for a couple of months, you realize that, right?”

“But this is different!”

“I know.” I chuckled. “So, Eva, what do you think?”

“Well, there’s nothing on that list I don’t agree with, otherwise I wouldn’t have put it on.” She giggled. “And that one was also one of my favorites, to be honest.”

“Alright, then let’s book it.” I smiled.

“Hang on, soldier.” Eva stopped me. “When exactly do we want to go and for how long. We’ve only got three weeks, but timing is still important.”

“Hmm, how about we leave next week for 9 days or so?” I proposed. “That way, I have plenty of time to order some clothes for Luna and me that aren’t made for Antarctic weather, and we still have time to get stuff done before we need to head to HQ.” I looked at Luna, who just smiled at me and gave a nod.

“Right, that sounds good to me as well. I’ll book it and send you the detail. You just need to make sure you and Luna physically get there.”

“That will be no big problem.” I smiled. “Thanks for making us a list.”

“No problem at all, I enjoy doing it.” Eva smiled. “Well, see you in a bit and don’t be afraid to call me if Lauren annoys you, okay, Luna?”

“Okay!” Luna giggled.

Before I could reply, Eva had hung up yet again. The rascal.

And thus we had to start preparing for a relatively sudden summer holiday. It had been so long ago that I had been in the hotter climates that I barely had any summer clothes left, so as I had said to Eva, I had to stock up on a bit of a wardrobe, but luckily there was Luna as well who could help me pick.

Apart from the clothes we also needed to make some travel reservations as the destination we had chosen was not so easily reached by train, at least not till the end.

Our lodging was in the Polynesian territory so we’d need to take a train to Megacity Brisbane and take a boat from there to the loding’s main hub.

It would be about half a day worth of travel, but most of that would be spent on the boat, as that was by far the slowest part of the journey. Luna did look forward to her first trip on a boat though so I made sure to book the most comfortable of cabins so she could enjoy without any worry.

As for our dinner with our lovely neighbors, we decided it would be best to hold it once we got back home after the trip. That way we could say our goodbyes in a calm manner without the stress of having to pack for holiday in between all that.

Ellie’s drone, in the meantime, we did manage to finish. Ellie was pretty darn enthusiastic about our little holiday, even though she insisted not to come along.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come along?” I asked Ellie’s hologram that was standing in front of me. She still didn’t really have a face yet, but the rest of her body looked quite a lot more refined than the avatar she used a while ago.

“No, Commander, I am sure.”

“For real, for real? It wouldn’t be hard for me to take the drone along in our luggage.”

“Yes, for real, Lauren.” Ellie nodded. “I have a lot to prepare for considering the message you have all received and the activity aboard the ship has also drastically increased. I want to take no chances to seem ‘absentminded’ to the people aboard. While I have calculated the possibility of people noticing to be incredibly miniscule. The chance is still not zero and it’s not a risk I am willing to take.”

“I’m sad that you won’t come along, Ellie. It would have been really fun to have you.” Luna said. “But I understand your reasoning.”

“I trust there will be more excursions in the future where I will be able to join you. So please, do not fret.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded. “And about the ship… are they doing anything drastic to it?”

“They are installing quite a few new weapons systems.” Ellie replied. “I was expecting them too, considering our encounters. They are also adding a lot of weight by adding more armor plates and shielding.”

“We are still going out there to explore, right?” Luna asked.

“Well… I guess we’ll only know when we get to HQ, if we even get assigned to the same ship again.”

“They have not changed anything else aboard the ship. And from what I have gleaned, the crew roster also has not changed, apart from some supplementary security personnel. I think it is safe to say you will get your ship back, Commander.”

It’s not like I had really expected them to take my ship away, considering the circumstances, but there was always that tiny bit of doubt that snuck up on me. But hearing Ellie say that, it did put me a bit firmer in my boots once more. “I suppose some extra guns don’t hurt no matter the mission…”

Soon after, Ellie had to take her leave as the next batch of engineers had come aboard to install upgrades. But before she went, Ellie reassured us that Luna’s box was still stored safe and sound in her mainframe.

That’s how we arrived on the day of our departure towards our holiday destination. With our summer clothes packed, but still dressed very cozily for our short exit into the freezing cold, we stood at the entrance to the hypertrain we were about to take towards Megacity Brisbane. Martha and Roland had come along to the capital to wave us off, as they had some of their own business to attend to there as well.

“Luna, keep a good eye on our Lauren for us, will you?” Martha asked as she gave Luna a hug.

“I will.” She giggled and looked at me.

“And make sure she eats good.” Roland lifted his finger.

“We are never going to eat as good as with you guys.” I replied with a chuckle of my own. “Just make sure that you don’t leave on a holiday yourself when we get home.”

“And miss your dinner invitation? We would never!” Martha smiled as it was my turn to get hugged by her. When she pulled back again, she did take my cheek with her mittened hands. “But in all seriousness, war hero or not, be sure to put on plenty of sunscreen! The Antarctic sun has not been training us very well to be in the open!”

“I will.”

“You should’ve seen Martha last time we went somewhere. Red as the reddest of chili pastes, I tell you.” He laughed but did get booped by Martha in return.

“A cautionary tale we will follow the moral off.” I replied with a smile, after which we waved our nice neighbors a last goodbye as the train was about to leave.

Sadly, our seat was on the other side of the train so we couldn’t wave at them as we departed.