Within nine minutes, the peacefully sailing Unicorn transformed into a fighting ship, with the bulkheads lowered, the decks strewn with sand, the yard... secured with chains, and the guns readied and loaded. Down below, the surgeon would clear the sickbay and set out his torture instruments whilst the cook and his mates threw the fire over the lee side. Thomas’s own cabin was now part of the quarterdeck station, with the two six-pounders uncovered and loaded.Darby rejoined Thomas on the quarter. Someone who I know will be... veryinterested... in the fate of our young Miss Fields."The plasma screen that had hung above the crowd from the upper balconyflickered, its words of welcome disappearing into the black ether, onlyto be replaced with a figure, at first shrouded in static as satellitesshifted into a new alignment.The image soon cleared and the figure stepped forwards, his headdowncast at first, looking up only when he was close enough so that hefilled the screen entirely. His eyes. “Trust me, everything will be fine. You have my word.”The Chief opened my binder and extracted a bundle of papers marked: “SkyWolf: Six Month EVAL/1.”“First, I need you to initial these pages to show that you have read them,” the Commander said as she slid several pages dense with text out of the folder and laid them on the binder cover for me to sign.“Can I read ‘em first?”I pulled my bifocals out of my breast pocket and polished the lenses with a corner of my flannel shirt.“No time. Scan,. I was paying, so I just ordered salad. Tiffany had couldn't decide between smoked monkfish and roasted duck breast. Finally, she decided on the fish, which was at least the cheaper of the two. We made awkward small talk for a while, until she finally brought up the subject I'd been hoping to avoid."So I was thinking maybe we could hang out at your house after this."I figured the best strategy was to play dumb. "What do you mean?" You know, get to know each other more, intimately." She was being.