(GQ #9) Sanctuary of the Elusive Captain

1. Tutorial Stage

With a reflective tiled floor as his stage and the stars as his backdrop, Captain Galhardo addressed the five members of his crew in the observation deck. The yellow cape at his back drifted in microgravity.

"As you may know, aside from travelling to Neptune and documenting findings along the way, one of the Celestion-5's other duties is to test out experimental equipment for the Interstellar Forces." He picked up a plastic box at his side and handed it to his younger brother.

His younger brother, the lieutenant, took the box and handed out five pairs of glasses to the five crew members. Five strangers the captain did not know. Five strangers the captain did not want to know. Five strangers the captain's brother badgered him to know. So, he began to scope out which one he might consider talking to.

"One for you, Mia~" Lieutenant Galhardo gracefully extended the first pair toward Ranger Mia Wattson.

"Thank you." From what the captain knew of the freckled redhead, she didn't like talking much. It'd be easy to leave a conversation with her if things went wrong. He remembered her reading a book about astrogeology; that aligned closely enough with his interests to feel comfortable starting a conversation. However, he always caught her in the midst of doing something suspicious. Could Wattson be trusted?

"Here's one for you, Rookie!" The lieutenant winked, handing the second pair to Ranger Leonardo Summers, who eagerly accepted.

"Wooah, these are sooo cool!" As his nickname implied, the bucktoothed brunet had recently enlisted, just like the captains themselves. Both he and Captain Galhardo shared a passion for the Interstellar Forces and space itself. Conversation would be easy enough if they kept to those topics, but Summers often got curious. Eventually, he'd ask one too many questions...

"And one for you, Jun." Lieutenant Galhardo handed the third pair to Ranger Jun Kim before engaging in a fist bump.

"Eyyy, thanks, Emil." Ranger Kim swished the jet black bangs obscuring their eye. For a self-proclaimed 'surfer brah,' they displayed competence and maturity any good star ranger should have. It seemed absurd that they had to disguise as a man in order to enlist. To think that was only four years ago... Thanks to them, no one needed to repeat that. Captain Galhardo thought highly of Kim, but that was the problem. Being eight years his senior and having such historical significance, he would no doubt look immature next to them. It'd be best not to have more people seeing him as a child.

"Here's yours, Aiden!" The captain's younger brother gave the fourth pair and a chip-toothed smile to Ranger Aiden Kelly.

"Hmph." Even slouching, the lean, mean goateed ranger towered over everyone else. Ranger Kelly's enthusiasm matched his respect for the military in general, and he had blond hair as dirty as the crimes he committed before enlisting. The only trait he and the captain had in common was a lack of attraction, and even that was better shared with Ranger Kim. To make matters worse, the lieutenant saw him as some kind of role model when he looked more like a model for 'Bad Influences Weekly.'

"And here you go, Roxie!" Lieutenant Galhardo presented the fifth pair to Ranger Roxanne Allen.

"Yaaaay! I bestow upon you my thanks!" The curly redhead lifted her glasses high into the air. Ranger Allen only held a low rank because she hadn't yet completed her nurse training. Yet still she was the ship's best trained medical personnel. That in itself concerned the captain, but her personality scared him even more. On all levels except physical, she existed on a plane of reality he could never hope to comprehend. The thought of holding a conversation with her made him break into a cold sweat.

The lieutenant captain twirled his own pair of the highly expensive, highly experimental glasses in midair before putting them on. He turned to Captain Galhardo. "Is it time to get this party started?"