Cap grinned.  “Well, I’m Captain Infinite, but all my friends call me ‘Cap’, and I hope you will too.  That there is Princess Stella, and there is Major Atria Silversword.  The others are Atria’s author Junichi Kaguyama, and her illustrator Aiko Mitsubi.  They don’t speak English, but both Atria and I are fluent in Japanese, so we can translate if needed.”

    The two newcomers looked at each other for a moment in disbelief.  “Shouldn’t you be in costumes or something?” the woman asked.

    Atria swallowed what she had been chewing.  “My uniform got wrecked in battle the other day.  I’m waiting to arrange a new one.”

    “I stopped fitting in my outfit three years and fifteen pounds ago,” Stella said.  She looked at Adam.  “Maybe I should try to trim down a bit before the wedding.”

    “I only wear the tights when I’m working,” Cap added.  “They’re in a duffel bag by the bunk, if you want to see them.  I don’t mind.  Just don’t lose them.”

    “Seriously,” the man said.  “Can you prove any of this?”

    Cap stood up.  “Yeah, sure.  Just give me a bit of space – this is the sort of thing I usually do outside, with lots of clearance.”  Slowly and gingerly, he rose to hover a foot off the ground.  Then he glided down the line of beds.  At the end of the row, he landed and walked back to the newcomers and held out his hand.  “As I said, I’m Captain Infinite.  It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

    Both of the newcomer’s eyes turned cold.  Neither took his hand.  “Good for you,” the man said.  “I’m Mark Gable.  I write comic books.”

    “I’m Alice Matson,” the woman said.  “I’m the showrunner and creator of Jenny Calhoun, Monster Slayer.”  The both moved past Cap and sat at the table away from his plate.

    Beside Atria, Stella blinked in surprise.  “What’s that all about?” she whispered in Atria’s ear.

    “I don’t know,” Atria whispered back.  She turned to Alice Matson and Mark Gable.  “Look, we know this is hard to take in, but we can all vouch for Cap.  He personally saved the life of Stella, Adam, and me, and he doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body.”

    Cap sat back at his plate.  “It’s okay, Atria,” he said, his voice subdued.  “They don’t have any obligation to like me, or anybody else they don’t want to.  You can’t force people to be your friend.”

    “No, it’s not okay,” Atria retorted, staring at Mark and Alice.  “You just snubbed a worthy comrade in battle and one of the best men I have ever met.  Which is far more than I can say for your Jenny Calhoun, who is quite the vicious little psychopath.”

    Alice blinked and shook her head.  “Wait, Jenny Calhoun is here, just like you are?”

    “Out there somewhere,” Atria declared.  “She nearly killed me, and if she had succeeded she was going to kill my friend Stella next because I had ‘annoyed her’.  And she really likes the word ‘stabby’ for some reason.  So considering what your creation is up to, I don’t think you have any justification for snubbing Cap.  He’s right that I can’t force you to like him, but while I am around you will respect him!”

    Alice looked down at the table and swallowed.  “I never wrote her to be that way.  Angsty, yes, but not vicious.”

    “Well, she’s that way now,” Atria said, turning and lifting her shirt to display the scar on her side.  “She’s the one who did this to me.”  She lowered the shirt and returned to her food.

    Alice closed her eyes for a moment.  “For whatever Jenny has done, I am so very sorry.”

    “Just treat Cap with respect, okay?”

    “Okay,” Alice muttered.

    Breakfast finished in an awkward silence.  Once it was done, Atria went to her bunk, pulled the belt and antigrav out of her duffel bag, and brought it to the table.  Out of a pouch on the belt she pulled out a small screwdriver set and started opening up the back of the antigrav.

    Kaguyama and Mitsubi sat down on each side of her.  “I’ve never seen the inside of one of these before,” Mitsubi said in Japanese.  “May we?”

    “Sure,” Atria replied.  “Just don’t touch anything.”  She opened up the back.  Everything looked like it was where it should be.

    “So what happened?” Kaguyama asked.

    “These aren’t built to handle being slammed into the sides of buildings,” Atria said.  “So when that happened, it stopped working.  Everything looks right...hopefully the shock just jostled the battery for a moment, and it will be fine.”

    “And if it doesn’t work anyway?” Mitsubi said.

    Atria closed the unit up.  “Then it’s broken.  I’m a combat officer, not an engineer.”  She grabbed the pillow from her bed and wrapped the belt and antigrav around it.  “Stella, could I get your help for a moment?”

    Stella looked up from where she had been sitting with Adam and Cap.  “Sure.  What do you need?”

    Atria held up the pillow.  “Just stop this, very carefully.  If it’s travelling upwards, just let it go to the ceiling.  The antigrav is rated to lift up to 350 pounds.”  She turned on the antigrav, held the pillow in front of her, and then let it go. The pillow floated in the air.

    “So far, so good,” Atria muttered, tapping the pillow in Stella’s direction.  It glided towards Stella.  Stella caught it with a delighted grin.

    “You could make a really fun game out of this,” Stella said.

    “Stella, I’m shocked,” Atria declared.  “This is an expensive piece of military hardware.  I would never use it for such a frivolous purpose.”  Her face broke into a grin.  “At least, not during on-duty hours.  Unfortunately, we just have the one, and it’s already taken at least one shock.  So, we’ll have to use it sparingly.  Send it back, please.”

    After Atria recovered the pillow, she turned the antigrav off and recovered her belt.  All that was left to do was wait.

    She spent a while just sitting by the window and watching.  Mitsubi was examining Cap’s tights and peppering him with questions about it.  Kaguyama had sat down at the table, opened his laptop, and started writing.  Alice and Mark sat uncomfortably on their beds, no doubt trying to make sense of it all.  Stella and Adam sat nearby, chatting, with Stella occasionally offering to let Atria join them.  She waved her off.  Sometimes it was good to enjoy the quiet moments.

    It was a couple of hours after lunch that the door opened and Colonel Sato entered with one of his officers, making his way over to her.  Atria stood and greeted him.

    “Your request for assistance has been considered by my superiors and the Ministry,” Sato said in Japanese.

    “And?”

    “It is granted.  We will help you.”

    Atria nodded and thanked him.  The waiting was over.  It was time to get to work.

NEXT: “Unexpected Meetings”