<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fa/Mars_test.jpg)</div><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Character name:</strong></td><td>Lt Colonel Louise Cotter</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Location:</strong> </td><td>Observation lounge</td></tr><tr><td><strong>With:</strong> </td><td>A blob of jelly called Laura</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Doing:</strong> </td><td>Remeniscing, then getting back to business.</td></tr></tbody></table><br/><hr/><br/>"Mmmm, I love the way you go all quivery." I said softly, as I lowered Allie gently to the floor. "Allie", I breathed her private name. To the rest of the world - nay, the rest of the solar system, she was Laura Hicks, but to me, in private, like this, she was Allie.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Lieutenant Laura Alicia Hicks, Ma'am" The sergeant had said, popping his head around the door of my office in Antarctic Training Camp Two. The camp was brand new and had been built to house and train half the larger number of candidates for the colony mission. ATC-1, where I had trained for the third manned mission all those years ago, was ten miles away, with another one hundred and fifty candidates. I was in nominal charge of ATC-2, along with one Commander Yoshi kanatogu of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force. There were two others of my rank, I knew, over at ATC-1, an American and a South African. All four of us were candidates for the post of Mission Commander. Everyone expected Lt Col. Charles Blumann to get it, as he was the US military's choice, but I was the only one with actual experience on Mars. In a way, I was grateful to the damned Chinese for starting the Third Oil War, because it meant that the only other survivors from 3M3 were too old to go. If it hadn't been for that war, and the twenty year delay it put in the Mars programme, I wouldn't have been sitting in hat office.<br/><br/>"Oh?" I had looked up, expecting a big beefy sailor-girl. This was to be my acting head of security as the previous guy, a Major Josef Goldblum, Israeli Defence Force, had just washed out of the program for religious zealotry. He had made a passing comment about Mars being the "New Promised Land" which was overheard, taken out of context, reported, and the next day he was told to pack his bags and escorted off base. A pity, he was a nice guy and a good officer.<br/><br/>So when this petite elven featured cutie slipped into my office I was gob-smacked! "Well, hello, Lieutenant. Take a seat..." I didn't return her salute, as I wasn't wearing my cap. She stood there, confused and I suddenly realised, grabbed my cap from my desk, crammed it on my head, returned the salute and took it off again, all in ten smooth moves...<em>Damn, what the fuck?</em>I remember thinking. I was normally much more composed. Maybe it was the uncanny resemblance to... NO! I would NOT think about her!<br/><br/>I had serious doubts, I was willing to admit, about her ability to do the job. She wasn't as short as she first appeared, and those baggy USN fatigues concealed some hidden muscles, but she just looked so delicate. And those eyes......<br/><br/>I had torn my eyes away from hers. "Laura Alicia Hicks. That's a pretty name. Alicia". I smiled at her. I was falling for her, which was a bad idea. But what the heck. Even if I got on the mission, the chances are she wouldn't. If neither of us did, we could work something out. If we both did, well, cross that bridge when...<br/><br/>"Laura, please?" She insisted. "Not even my mother calls me Alicia."<br/><br/>"How about Allie, then?" I giggled. I think she knew at that moment what I wanted, and she smiled back.<br/><br/>"Just between us, and just in private, Wing Commander". Suddenly she was all business but I knew, looking in those eyes, that she felt as I did.<br/><br/>Later that day, we met up in the gymnasium and I put her through her paces on unarmed combat. Oh the arrogance of that statement.<em>I</em>put<em>her</em>through<em>her</em>paces? Fuck! She demolished me! I'm good, I can hold my own against PT sergeants, but this little SEAL chick wiped the floor with me. I lay on the matting, the breath driven from my body once again as she crouched on my chest, a hand sword like at my windpipe where she had stopped the killing blow, and decided to cheat. I smiled, reached up and grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her down. She resisted at first, looking almost panicked, until our lips met, then she dissolved onto me and I rolled her over and lay on top of her for the first time. "Allie", I husked, "Be in my room at twenty two hundred zulu, that's an order..."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>I smiled and closed the memory file again, storing it back onto the archive chip in my head. "Allie", I said again, and kissed her softly, tasting her mouth, teasing her tongue. Then I stood up. "We better get dressed and get some food, babe. There's a lot to do still and some of it can't wait until tomorrow." I reached for my clothes and smiled at my lover. "Look, I know it's early days for anything, but ... we're all expected to produce at least one child. Do you want to be mother to mine?" I blushed, and added quickly, "Give it some thought anyway."<br/><br/>I turned away and pulled my clothes on, hoping that the red uniform would hide the redness of my face.