Commander's Rounds

Entry 14: Northern Exposure

"Well, Victorious, it just feels like you're being pretty forceful about this."

He had called Victorious in for a reason, and that was to talk about things regarding Tirpitz. "Commander, how do you figure?"

"Well..." He pulled out an incident report. "Apparently, two days ago, Tirpitz had her window open at noon, and you took this opportunity to fly a mini-plane in there to have it drop off roses and a handwritten invitation to dinner?"

Victorious nodded. "I spent a lot of time on that invitation, too. And I didn't ask Belfast to make it, just did it all myself to give it my own personal touch."

The commander rubbed his temples. "That's... Not really the problem. The problem is that you took advantage of Tirpitz opening a window to fly a plane inside of her room."

Victorious just gave the commander a long look. "You do have to be brave in all sorts of matters commander, and since we're on the same team now, I want to show her that I'm not afraid of love!"

"That's-" He needed a minute. "...If you do insist on this sort of thing, there's a way to approach Tirpitz, and it's not what you're doing." He could only barely believe he was willing to give this sort of advice.

"So, how does the commander break the cold ice to get to her warm heart?"

The commander thought about that sort of thing, remembering the time that Tirpitz leaned on him to gain his warmth. "Well, right now, you're acting as a jackhammer, when what you really need to be is the sun. You mainly just need to be available more than anything else- help her out with whatever she's doing for the sake of helping her, and I think she'll show you her smile sooner or later."

Victorious just gave him a smile for a long moment. "This is an interesting new side of you, commander."

He blinked once. "How do you mean?"

She giggled. "The commander seems to be putting more thought into love and romance these days. I like it."

He shrugged. "I just consider it another part of thinking about the future."

She stood up. "Call it whatever you like- I'm going to see if Tirpitz needs anything."

And then she was gone.

After Victorious left, he was about to sign off on some budgetary matters before realizing he had yet another visitor- someone tall, somewhat stoic, and wintry in her own right. Sovetskaya Rossiya was in his office, and then, in front of his desk. She seemed to have that long, white coat of hers regardless of the weather, and she had white hair to match. As much as she might superficially resemble Enterprise in a picture, in person she was worlds apart. She dumped a package on the table. "Information from the homeland. Compiled as you requested."

"Thank you for delivering that."

There was a silence. She tended to be rather terse in official matters- she would do what she came to do, and then she would leave. But she wasn't leaving this time, she was just standing there, at attention, in front of the desk.

The commander was the one who breached the silence. "...Is there anything else?"

She looked down and to the side a bit. "Comrade commander... I require swimwear."

He considered this. "There are some shops for that sort of thing in the town, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to find."

There was a pause again. "...I require your assistance."

Oh. Ohhhh. "That's quite an ask- I don't see why you can't get help from one of your fellow ships in this regard, they know more about buying this sort of thing than I do."