I paused a little bit later at the exit to her chambers. Technically I had chambers of my own a level below. It was a short dedicated elevator ride to get up here and see her. But something told me I wasn't going to be spending a whole lot of time in those chambers. Something told me I wasn't going to want to spend a whole lot of time in those chambers, for that matter.

One look at Varis standing there in her uniform, an understated slightly purple thing that had her rank insignia for her personal military up in one corner, as well as her rank insignia in the Imperial Military, was enough to tell me I wanted to spend every possible moment I could in her chambers.

It was also interesting to see those two separate rank insignias. It really drove home the two separate parts of the livisk military. Which seemed odd to me, but I guess it wasn't that odd. There were some who still had trouble understanding the difference between the Terran Navy and the CCF, after all.

She put her hands behind her back, and suddenly she was lifting up on the balls of her feet. That was a cute look for her, and there was a slight blush to her face as she looked at me.

"So anyway," she said.

"I hope you have a good day at work," I said, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek. Which had her eyes going wide as she stared at me. Then she smiled and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me in and giving me a much more thorough kiss.

I thought about saying something about how that was going to make her late for work, but then I remembered she was the boss. It's not like she had to worry about being late for work.

When I came up for air I wore a goofy smile. I felt a goofy energy as I looked at her.

It'd been so long since I'd felt anything like this for anyone. I'd had a few dalliances at Central Station, but even that was mostly when I was a lower rank. There was the chance to do something with Rachel back when she was still Connors and not Keen, but even when I thought about that night? I knew it wasn't going to happen.

This, though. This felt like something special. This felt like something real, for all that I had to get abducted by an alien and taken back to her home world for this to happen.

"Thank you for that," she finally said.

"No problem," I said, hitting her with a lopsided grin.

"So what are you going to do today?" she asked.

"I was thinking about getting a look at some of those warships you have sitting around that lattice work down below."

She frowned ever so slightly at that.

"I don't know if that would be a good idea on your second day here, Bill."

"Damn," I said, "And I really wanted to get a look at them."

"Yes, but the number of times you talked about trying to blow up the empress in the imperial palace has me thinking you might try something precipitous."

"You don't think I'll actually be able to pull it off?" I asked. "I'm insulted."

"I don't know that you'll be able to pull it off, but considering how resourceful you've been so far? I don't want to take the chance."

She leaned in and kissed me again.

"Fine, how about if I just start with a trip to the hangar bay down below? Maybe I could check out some of the fighters and other smaller ships there?"

"I suppose that would be fine. Did you hear that, Arvie?"

"Acknowledged. He now has access to the upper hangar. Harath won't be happy about that."

"Harath can deal," Varis said, turning a sharp look back to me. "You're not allowed to fly anything."

"Oh, come on," I said, "Didn't I prove myself this morning?"

"You proved yourself, and then some," she said, "And that's exactly why I don't trust you in any of those fighters or bombers. Or even a transport."

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"Fine," I said, shaking my head.

I suppose it was too much to hope she'd give me access to that sort of thing. I felt like I was maybe a traitor to humanity, but the more time I spent with her, the less I wanted to take one of those fighters and do a suicide run against the imperial palace.

That run would ultimately be ineffective, anyway. Varis had shielding and defenses all over her building and the complex around it. Something told me the empress had similar surrounding her palace. The kind of stuff that would turn anybody who tried to attack her into a smear over the city.

"Good," she said, reaching out and giving my hand a squeeze. "Now let's go."

So we stepped onto an elevator that ran down the side of the building. It was almost enough to induce vertigo. I was fine in a craft that ran on antigrav. At least then I knew there was something keeping me aloft.

But there was something about being attached to the side of a building in a massive glass contraption that made me feel a little queasy.

"Are you okay?" she asked, obviously sensing what was going on in my head.

That link seemed to be growing more intense. It was easier for me to tell exactly what she thought when I looked at her, which was an interesting development.

"I'll be fine," I said. "I just keep thinking about how it would be trivial for somebody to blast us off the side of this building, and that would be all she wrote."

"Not really," she said. "The elevator unit has independent shielding and antigrav if it does separate from the building. And most of the shielding up here is so good that if something were to happen to break through it, then everybody in my tower would have trouble. Not just the two of us."

"That's not comforting," I said.

"It should be," she said. "Nothing short of a nuke would be able to take us out, and even then it would take a big one. Like we're talking big enough to take out a good chunk of the city."

"Okay. That's really not comforting," I said.

The elevator came to a rest on the upper hangar bay.

"This elevator is keyed to your biometrics now, so if you need to go back to the room for whatever reason you won't have trouble."

"What if I need anything else?" I said.

She grinned and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. Then she reached out to pat me on that cheek. I moved a hand up there, not sure how I felt about her hitting me with such a familiar gesture in front of all the livisk hustling and bustling around.

"You're my pretty now, staying here in my tower. You can do anything you like. Anything will be charged to my account."

"Anything at all?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Don't go doing something silly like trying to requisition weapons or a battle cruiser or something like that."

"You know me entirely too well," I said. "But what if I go through an intermediary arms dealer or something like that?"

"Good luck finding something like that," she said, though her smile faltered just a bit. Like she thought I was more than capable of doing exactly that.

It was nice that she was starting to get such an outsized idea of my capabilities, because all I had right now was bluster and bravado. It's not like I could actually do anything I was saying, for all that my mind was swirling with the possibilities of how I could help my smokin' hot alien girlfriend and myself and my crew at the same time.

Then I blinked. My smokin' hot alien girlfriend? It sounded ridiculous, but I guess it was true. She really was my smokin' hot alien girlfriend. There were worse ways for a guy to live.

There must've been something about the way I was thinking about her, because she suddenly blushed. I felt a touch of the same emotional warmth I was sending out to her coming back my way.

"I'll see you for lunch. Assuming I don't get called away by the myriad of things I have to do day-to-day here."

"I'll look forward to it," I said.

"Don't work too hard. I need you to keep up your stamina for tonight," she said, hitting me with a wink as I stepped off the elevator and onto the hangar bay. "I fully intend to put the zero gravity fields over my bed to work tonight."

She said that last bit loud enough that it could clearly be heard by everyone close by. Now it was my turn to blush as I got looks from the livisk out there.

Surprisingly, those looks weren't nearly as hostile as I would've expected. No, they were staring at me with grins. Some looked like they might be a touch jealous that I was with the general, but as soon as they saw me looking they looked away.

I took a deep breath and let it out in a long and slow sigh. If I was going to be the general's pretty then I figured I might as well play the part. As long as they thought I was nothing more than the general's pretty? They were going to underestimate me. And the moment your enemy started underestimating you was the moment you slipped a knife between their ribs.

Maybe. Or maybe all this planning was so much wishful thinking on my part.

I looked out over the hangar bay. At all the fighters and transports. There were even a couple of larger craft. It made me feel like a kid in a candy store.

The elevator slid shut behind me. I took a deep breath and let it out again, and then I started making my way out across that platform. I wasn't sure what I was doing here, but I knew I was going to find something.

At the very least, I had lunch to look forward to. But as I made my way across the platform I saw exactly what I was looking for. Something that looked like a larger fighter craft. Which meant a bomber of some sort. The kind of thing that was meant for long-range death-dealing in a situation where they didn't want to send a larger cruiser.

And it was sitting with its guts open on the hangar bay and a very annoyed looking burly livisk leaning into a compartment, yelling at somebody to hand him this tool or that.

I grinned and made my way over, figuring learning a little bit about how things worked on the hangar deck might be useful. Maybe.

Assuming he didn't just yell at me to leave him alone. Which, given my experience with other mechanics back in the Terran Navy, was a very real possibility.

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