'SEE YOU MORNING' 160 Lübeck's Monologue — Abridged Version

After dinner with Brittany, Lübeck ordered two bottles of beer,
“Come, let’s go stargaze and drink,”
“Okay,”
“Pity there’s no moon here,” Lübeck said, tucking the beer into his pocket and pulling Brittany down to the lower deck. Apart from the bridge and manned lookout posts, the only observation windows were above the hangar bay where aircraft were dispatched and received — those were just auxiliary observation positions for personnel, with no operational equipment, accessible to anyone.
This observation corridor also had sealed doors at intervals, but they were usually left open. The observation windows were small, multi-layered portholes — structurally strong but offering poor visibility.
Lübeck and Brittany stood at one of the windows, leaning against the sealed door partition. It was a quiet spot, undisturbed by anyone.
“One bottle each, enjoy it slowly. Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Lübeck said, opening a beer and handing it to Brittany.
“Hmm, is this all I get in this lifetime?” Brittany asked playfully, looking at the beer in her hand.
“Hahaha, tonight this is all we have,” Lübeck said, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close.
Brittany’s eyes curved into crescents as she looked at Lübeck, raising the bottle to her lips and taking a delicate sip, looking quite pleased with herself — because now only she had the right to talk about the length of a lifetime with the man before her.
The fragrance of aged wheat fermentation lingered between them, as though whether that little porthole could see the stars no longer mattered.
“Tell me, were you enchanted by that woman?” Brittany asked, placing her hand on Lübeck’s chest, as if she could feel with her hand whether his heart was lying to her.
Lübeck smiled, looking at the face before him, recalling the conversation he’d had with Shizuka at noon.
“Bri, if you hadn’t brought it up, I would’ve forgotten,”
“You’re bullying me,” Brittany said angrily, balling her fists and punching Lübeck’s shoulder twice, then leaning into his embrace.
Lübeck leaned against the bulkhead, stroking her back with one hand, glancing out the window to the side. He could see nothing — the corridor lights were on. Lübeck mocked himself silently: what was his gaze avoiding? What was his mind evading?
Brittany was right. He was bullying her — bullying her for having no one to rely on, bullying her for her modest background, so that she’d have to give herself to him here, and still have to worry at every moment whether some other woman would steal her man. But… that equally slender figure… she came from the depths of the universe…
Lübeck was also assessing his own emotional stability. Was it the dual impact of Ruth’s passing and the memories carried by his age reversal that had compromised his emotional equilibrium? So much so that whenever he saw a woman from space, he would subconsciously project her as Ruth, and thus feel inexplicably drawn to her. Perhaps he truly needed to distract himself, or this would eventually affect his duties as ship captain.
“Bri, shall we look at the stars together?”
“Mm,”
Looking at her face, Lübeck felt a pang of guilt again. How had she become a tool for him to distract himself?
He turned off the corridor lights for that section, and the view outside the window became clear. Lübeck wrapped his arm around Brittany’s waist, and the two stood side by side at the window. That tiny porthole seemed to draw them even closer, because they needed to press their faces together to share the view.
“See those three stars in a row? Easy to spot. That’s Orion’s Belt.”
“Oh, how far away are they?”
“Hundreds of light-years.”
“Heh, we’ll never get there in this lifetime.”
“Mm, this ship can’t. But the fighters we carry probably can. They’re alien black tech — that’s already an open secret around here.”
“Oh, then I’m not going either. Will the men there be ugly?”
“Hahaha,” Lübeck hugged her waist and swayed her gently.
“Very likely.”
“Sigh, Lübeck, where did that woman come from today at noon?”
“The Pleiades, just to the left of Orion’s direction. See, the brightest star over there is Sirius — that’s to the right. The opposite direction is left. But the Pleiades aren’t very bright, hard to pick out.”
“Ugh, so complicated. I don’t want to find it anymore. As long as the women on it don’t come steal my man, that’s all I care about,” Brittany said, then looked at Lübeck and rested her head on his shoulder.
“So boring. Any shooting stars? I want to make a wish.”
“No, there’s no atmosphere. Meteors don’t burn up.”
“Ugh, can’t you just lie to me for once?”
“Oh, then you tell me.”
“No.”
Lübeck knew she was acting coquettishly, but the monotonous starry sky in the universe truly couldn’t satisfy a girl’s romance. He pulled her waist tighter and said,
“Shall we keep walking?”
“Okay.”
The scent of beer, the empty corridor — it was perfect for a couple to stroll. That one passage they could walk down seemed like the one road in life on which the two of them would never part.
Over drinks and idle chat, they had nearly reached the end of the path. Lübeck was about to lead Brittany back to rest when he faintly heard sounds coming from the hangar below, as if someone was doing something.
Naturally alert by nature, he couldn’t ignore it. He pulled Brittany down from the observation corridor and into the hangar passage.
Following the sound, they walked to a hangar bay and looked inside. It was that Super Sabre fighter — the skin panels removed. Shizuka was servicing her aircraft. The sounds of tools or parts clinking, and the use of lifting slings. But she working alone didn’t comply with hazard control regulations, because if she were accidentally injured, there would be no one to call for help for her.
But how to tell her? She didn’t like to socialize. Lübeck was thinking about how to bring it up.
But Shizuka seemed to notice someone had arrived. She turned her head and glanced at Lübeck.
“Hello, need any help?” Lübeck asked quickly.
“No need, thank you,” Shizuka said, turning and standing up.
“Uh, if you’re worried about convenience, I can find two female mechanics to give you a hand,” Lübeck thought a lot. Shizuka was so petite, and he was also worried about what might happen if male crew were here. Seeing she didn’t respond, Lübeck quickly added,
“If there are confidentiality requirements, you can keep them from touching anything — just as safety supervisors.”
“Alright, thank you then.”
“Good, they’ll be here soon,” Lübeck said, then pulled Brittany away.
Lübeck ended the conversation quickly and left, uncertain whether it was because he feared Shizuka’s big eyes seemed to read something from his gaze, or because Brittany’s arms, wrapped around his left arm, were squeezing tighter and tighter.
On the way back, Lübeck ordered them night-shift meals, notified duty personnel to monitor the relevant areas, then returned to his quarters with peace of mind.
He’d just closed the door and turned around when he saw Brittany had already tossed off her outer clothes and slipped into the bathroom.
Lübeck followed and picked up her uniform, hanging it on the rack.
“Erich, don’t worry about my clothes, I’ll wash them later,” Brittany said from inside the bathroom, cracking the door open a sliver to speak to Lübeck.
“Sure,” Lübeck said, walking over.
“Hair fragments are pricking me,” Brittany explained while washing her hair and body.
“Then why didn’t you say so earlier? Come back sooner and get clean.”
“Ah, it only started pricking badly now. I sweated, so now it’s pricking badly,” Brittany explained, twisting her body to rinse the foam off. Some of the water splashing off her flew through the door crack and landed on Lübeck.
“Erich, I don’t know if I’ve washed clean. Can you check my back for me?”
Lübeck smiled, though she couldn’t see it.
“Sure.”