Celebration 

"How does it look back there?"

[We're reading all green here, go ahead Mike.]

A few weeks had passed since Mike's first HIMAG test flight, and at this point, he had gotten used to working together with Cait on hammering out the last few bugs.

"Righty, commencing test. Pre-flight procedures cleared, sparking reactor… Good tone."

Listening to the sound of the reactor and the rest of the HIMAG coming alive, Mike heard no anomalies and proceeded with the takeoff procedures.

"I'm gonna go ahead and taxi, auxiliary systems are also coming online now, everything is reading all okay."

In these past weeks, Mike had gotten better at behaving, for example, he no longer boosted out of the hangar, in exchange, Cait had also gotten better at accommodating Mike's way of testing things.

[Affirmative Mike, we're also reading good output from the reactor, go ahead.]

Immediately lighting the afterburner the second he heard that, Mike wore a shit-eating grin as he started an aggressive set of manoeuvres to warm up the craft and make sure there were no immediate and catastrophic deficiencies in the powerplant or thruster modules, both of which were still prototypes undergoing active development. With no immediate explosions following, Mike finished warming up the HIMAG before he hailed Cait again.

"Ready for sim."

[Affirmative, I'll make sure you don't fly into anything important.]

The day's test was a scale simulation of a fight against the crystalline lifeforms that had run wild inside beastkin space; these non-organic lifeforms were of a different calibre than what Mike had faced before and would be referred to as delta class.

(Even if their prediction is a bit off I should be able to beat one… Unless someone from the outside is fucking with this simulation.)

Coming to a stop in deep space, Mike noticed the displays started to flicker before they flashed pink, indicating that a test simulation had begun. The empty space around Mike and the HIMAG seemed normal for a while, then something happened as what looked like aurora started appearing out of nowhere, this was the result of the crystalline lifeform's method of faster-than-light travel and also served to prevent any of its prey from escaping. Shifting from a standstill to a light 'jog', all unnecessary information seemed to fade from Mike's mind as he prepared for combat. While he had been having issues with shakes for the last few weeks and it only seemed to be getting worse, everything seemed to fade away for Mike as he clenched the twin flight sticks. As the auroras increased in magnitude, Mike kept up his casual movement but didn't stay on one patch for more than a few seconds as he started getting impatient.

"Come on…"

Without missing a beat, Mike immediately centred on the first target the second it appeared and squeezed the trigger, seeing an immediate response as the crystal broke apart and shattered.

(Yeah, that fits…)

Although the weapon the HIMAG would be outfitted with hadn't finished development, its spec had been outlined and finalised, approximately it mimicked that of a fixed anti-ship laser; meaning Mike would have to use the entirety of the HIMAG to aim, but he wouldn't have to worry about any kind of travel time. Centring on the next target right as it appeared, Mike tapped the trigger again and watched the crystal lifeform break apart as he started servicing the next one. While watching his spacing to the appearing crystal lifeforms, Mike continued to juke around as he targeted them right as they came out of FTL, but as the frequency of arrivals only seemed to increase Mike knew he couldn't keep up this kind of tempo forever.

Back at the HIMAG development and test centre, a group of stunned onlookers were witnessing Mike's trail in near real-time. In addition to Cait, her staff and Mike's group, all 3 council members and their own staff were also observing the current test, depending on the result things could change drastically for the entire Shard.

"Is he really averaging a target a second?"

While Cait's people were mostly cordial to Mike and his crew having worked with them, either on the development of the HIMAG or the repair of the Wyrm, other people were far more ignorant.

"Yeah, but there's no way he can continue to keep that up, as fast as the HIMAG is there's always human error… And the quality of the pilot itself."

"Hey."

Normally River would have already started swinging at this point, but over the past few weeks, she had mellowed out quite a bit.

"Wha-"

Catching the jaw of the rude person who had insulted Mike, River started squeezing as she put on a large 'smile'.

"Shut your feed hole or I'll snap it off."

River had truly become far more tolerant over the last few weeks as she let the guy off with a simple warning before turning her attention back towards Mike's test.

(Something is wrong…)

Although Mike was performing very well she felt like there was something wrong, even if she had been reassured by him and the others, even if she couldn't put a finger on it, something about his piloting bothered her.

"So far so good… Right?"

Seeing River's face, Jessica already knew something was up, so she struck up a conversation while keeping her eye on the screen in front of the two of them.

"I don't know…"

Breathing a deep sigh in response to River's half-assed response, Jessica put her face into both of her hands and wiped her entire face before she started a very tiring routine yet again.

"River… You have to do something at some point."

"But…"

"I fucking swear…"

The dilemma River couldn't seem to solve for the life of her was as age-old as it was frustrating, she was worried if she was close enough to Mike that she could try and talk about her concerns, as doing so might pull them apart.

"Just… I don't know… Sit him down already and talk, you know, as a pair of adults."

"But…"

Resisting the urge to claw out her own eyes, Jessica had finally reached a breaking point, she couldn't keep it up anymore, watching what felt like a swim race in molasses for far too long she was starting to go insane.

"Woman, I swear to god… Okay, if you don't do something already I will, this has gone on for too long. You have 24 hours or I'll do something drastic."

Laying down an ultimatum and refusing to elaborate, Jessica lit a fire underneath River she wouldn't expect to get as out of hand as it was about to.

"Hmm…"

Even if Mike was currently pulling 10 g, he couldn't help but let out a quiet hum in between his almost instinctual breathing exercises. His current confusion was because of the current test, although I had gotten a bit harder to continue to dodge return fire while eliminating the ever-spawning crystal lifeforms, it was still far too easy.

(The question is if their data is flawed, someone is deliberately watering down the numbers or some other kind of tomfoolery is going on, but these aren't anywhere near the level I would expect from delta-class crystalline lifeforms…)

Dissatisfied in an itchy way, Mike felt like he was playing a game on a way too easy difficulty and quickly became bored as things become routine.

In the end, the test concluded as a stunning success, however much it annoyed Mike. Of course, after such a stunning success, celebrations were in order and Cait treated her entire staff to a fancy dinner.

"I'll keep this short, today was a rousing success everyone here should be proud of! Good job! Let's aim to continue on this path wrapping up the final development and move onto pilot pre-production… Without further ado, cheers! Drinks and food are on the chief today so have at it!"

"Oooh this is great!"

Immediately following Cait's words, Mike started eating and bit into what turned out to be a meat pie filled with cheese sauce and pork, washing it down with wine before continuing to devour his meal. Likewise, Jessica, Dan and River were also present at the party, and while Dan was the only one who didn't drink, the rest of the crew were quickly getting plenty hammered.

"Hey, let's do shorts!"

"What the hell is that?"

Being the Danish uni student he was, Mike wasn't more than 6 glasses of wine into drinking before he suggested people should do shorts. Explaining the concept of slamming pure liquor into his face at great speed, Jessica and River were immediately on board. Lining up a mass of short glasses, Mike fetched a bottle of see-through liquor he quickly set up a line for himself, Jessica and River.

"""CHEERS!"""

Feeling the burning sensation all the way down to his stomach, Mike pounded his chest and burped like the animal he was before he got his next horrible idea.

"Come on, let's do some Russian cocaine."

"W-what the hell is that?"

Although she didn't understand what Mike was talking about, Jessica felt like his enthusiasm was problematic. Russian cocaine was a drink Mike used to start many nights of drinking back home, it consisted of a shot of vodka and a slice of lime coated with cane sugar on one side and instant coffee powder on the other. The procedure to take the shot was as follows: take the shot, get slapped in the face by a friend before biting into the slice of lime, a perfectly normal and reasonable thing to do.

Setting up a table with yet more shots and getting something which approximated lime slices, Mike stood in front of a very hesitant although inebriated River.

"Mike, are you sure this is okay?"

Instead of answering, Mike took his shot, downed it and looked River straight in the eyes

"Hit me you fucking co-"

Not getting to even finish his sentence, Mike was slapped so hard in the face that his vision got blurry, only managing to stay standing by holding onto the table as he grabbed the slice of lime.

"WOOOO!"

Having already caught the attention of the room before this point, Mike's shout was met with applause before it was his turn to slap River in the face.

"Ready?"

"... Read- OW! You fucking cunt!"

Having expected Mike to go easy on her, River roared out in pain after she was slapped, feeling her entire face heat up as she ate her lime.

"Haha! Get fucked!"

Of course, Mike didn't miss the opportunity to gloat, leading to him getting knocked off his feet the next time around, leading to an ever-increasing cycle of escalation

"... Fuuck meee."

Waking up with a significant part of yesterday's memories missing, Mike found himself staring at an unknown ceiling with a hell of a hangover and a very sore side of his head. Examining his surroundings, Mike found himself in a luxurious king-sized bed inside a hotel room he didn't recognise.

(What happened yesterday?... I cleared that test, Cait threw a party where we started doing shots, then we moved on to a nightclub…. After that I can't remember anything else, shit.)

Reaching under his pillow, Mike didn't find his pistol, and that's when panic set in.

(... Why the fuck am I naked?)

Having not noticed the liberating feeling of nudity until now, Mike sobered up real fast and located his underwear on the floor next to the bed, along with someone else's underwear.

"Oh fuck."

"MMmmmmm?"

Hearing a rustle along with a moan of someone waking up behind him, Mike looked back as he felt his blood freeze and saw a very naked River sitting on the bed, having just emerged from the duvet and not quite awake yet rubbing her eyes.

Thinking fast on his feet, Mike managed to get his underwear back on and was about to start running when he, unfortunately, made eye contact with River who seemed just as confused as he was, not only that but it seemed she was also rapidly sobering up.

"... Good morning."