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With the Constitution being decommissioned and all, they’ll have to rotate me into another ship. And if Commander Ashworth is for it, then now is the perfect time. Just think of it: finally serving on the same ship....”
    “Yeah. That’ll at least cut down on my Comm Center use. I had to barter away my weight room time for today’s session, right on top of yesterday’s session.”
    “Oh, Tom, the sacrifices you make for your family.” She feigned a tear. “It really touches me. Right here.” She touched her chest.
    His eyes flicked lower. “Wait, do that again, but move in closer to the cam,” he murmured. “And pull your uniform down a little....”
    “Tom!” She held a finger to her lips. “My mom’s right there. She can probably still hear us!”
    “No, I can’t,” came the disembodied voice of her mother from offscreen.
    She put her face into her hands as her husband started to laugh. Men.
    “Hey, Miller! You done yet? My girlfriend’s waiting!” She glanced up at the man waiting near the door. Lieutenant Volz—one of the fighter jocks. Young, cocky, and eminently impatient.
    “Yeah, hold on, Volz. Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” she said, waving him off.
    “You’re ten minutes over your time.” He pointed to the clock on the wall.
    She rolled her eyes. “Look, honey, gotta go....”
    Yet somehow, with the good news about the Constitution’ sdecommissioning, her husband’s imminent arrival at Lunar Base, and the distinct possibility they would soon be on the same ship, the rest of the day became more bearable.  
    With the Old Bird’s current assignment at L2 Station, she had the duty to pilot one of the crew transfer vehicles to shuttle officers and enlisted back and forth between the ship and the station. Normally, it was just a routine part of the job that made her want to gouge her eyes out from boredom, but today she punched the engine and pushed the g-forces.
    “Whoa, easy there, cowgirl,” said Commander Pierce from behind her. As CAG, he ran a weekly training exercise with the fighter wing based on L2 Station, and he was just returning to the ship with his pilots.
    “Sir, you’re from Britannia—”
    “York, actually,” he interrupted. His patrician accent was oddly soothing to her ears. “But close enough—they’re both in the Britannia Sector.”
    “Sir, you’re from York,” she corrected herself, “and I’m pretty sure no one from York is allowed to call me cowgirl . Have you ever even seen a horse? A cowboy? Corral? Tumbleweed? A six-shooter?” She glanced back at him, seated in the midst of a few dozen of his fighter jocks returning from their training exercise.
    “I’ll have you know, I own two horses. And my father has an original Ruger 22.”  
    She gave him a skeptical look.  
    “Well, the gun is in an airtight display case. And the horses—well, I’m told they’re quite well cared for....”
    “Exactly,” she replied with a smirk, and pulled the controls to angle the ship around one of L2 Station’s nacelles.
    “Why are you so happy, anyway? Haven’t you heard we’re being decommissioned?”
    Exactly , she repeated in her head, but didn’t want to give the impression she was eager to leave. “Yeah. But I just heard I might get to be reassigned to my husband’s ship.”
    “So you’re taking it out on us? Seriously, slow down a bit.” He clutched onto his armrest as she put the transport ship into the final tight curve that would take them back into the Old Bird’s fighter bay.
    Glancing at her speed indicator, she saw that he was right—she hadn’t been paying attention and they were coming in way too fast. Seeing that she only had a few seconds to correct their speed and approach vector, she shoved the thrusters into reverse, which had the added effect of throwing them all forward into their restraint harnesses.
    But she’d overcompensated, and now, just as the landing gear extended, the back of the shuttle spun to the right,