(GQ Special #1) The Misadventures of Ranger Kim and Ranger Kelly

12. No Woman's Land

"Wish I could've been there to see Jun annihilate everyone at laser tag." Corey lamented. He and Jaleel, along with Jun, were sent to fix the light panels on one section of the Virgo.

"You didn't miss much." Jun assured him.

"Only because you murdered everyone before the games really got started." chided Jaleel.

"It wasn't like, that bad, right?" the rookie asked him.

"You always say stuff like that." Corey began to mimic Jun. "'Oh, I beat Kelly in a fight, no big deal, brah.'--"

"I never beat him in a fight. I only held him off from beating up some other guy!"

"As if that makes a difference! You still came out alive. That's basically winning against him."

"You know," Jaleel added on, "at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Jun were hiding some kind of secret."

For a split second, Jun worried that he was onto her.

Corey picked up on it. "Ah! See? He just had a look that said 'Oh no, he's onto me!'"

"Cough it up, man. Admit it, you were in special ops or something, weren't you?"

Jun shook her head at that accusation. "You guys are imagining things..."

"It'll come out sooner or later." Corey's words came off more threatening than he probably intended. "Anyway, since you're so good at everything, why don't you help me install this light coil."

"Nah, that's Jaleel's specialty.--"

Before Jun had a chance to finish joking around, two guys barreled down the hallway clad in nothing but their... nothing, actually. What was it about the IF that made people want to become exhibitionists? Jun would never know. Someone once said the wise man covers his face upon being discovered in the nude. These were two very wise guys, wearing paper bags over their heads. A Venus symbol with a circle-backslash sign over it decorated each bag.

"Fellas," Jaleel began with a sigh, "it's that time again. Folks are about to get buck-wild."

"And buck-naked." Jun added on. "What was that about?"

"Oh yeah, this is your first trip here." Corey acknowledged. "Since women aren't allowed this far out in space, we call it No Woman's Land. A buncha guys throw a big party when we arrive here. It's not 'official'," he made air quotes, "but depending on which ship you're on, the higher ups don't care as much. And the Virgo? Really doesn't care!"

"Correction." Jaleel raised a finger. "They do care, they just wait until the next day to give punishment. Last year, my unit was put on clean-up duty."

"Ughhh! Wasn't last year when they--??"

"Yes." He cut off Corey's question before he could finish. Whatever happened last year, Jaleel's haunted eyes told Jun that it was better left unsaid.

Corey turned to Jun. "You going to the party tonight?"

"I'm not really into wild parties like that." Jun told the truth, but not the whole truth.

"Me neither." Jaleel went back to screwing in the light panels. "It wasn't like this on the Orion. The No Woman's Land parties on that ship were more about brotherhood and camaraderie."

"Here, it's more like a 'no girls allowed' party." explained Corey. "Most of the guys really just want an excuse to party, but some dudes take it way seriously and try to make it into some kind of woman-hating religious experience and it gets weird."