Months passed, and during this time Erich had mostly been working as a flight instructor. His students were members of both the Imperial Navy and Dvrakian Republican Guard. And as a result, there were fresh new faces who entered Erich's pool of trainees with each passing day.
The Flight School, which Erich ran onboard the Carrier, consisted of a series of simulations, and once the trainees had received their certification through these simulations, they would then move onto practical flight experience. Something which should have been easy, but for whatever reason had proven quite difficult for many of the Dvrakian recruits.
S'aleth had just barely managed to pass her flight certification, and the moment she got into an actual cockpit, it ended exactly as Erich had expected, with the klutz of a woman crash landing her dagger in the hangar bay.
Naturally, it fell to Erich to discipline the Dvrakian beauty for her failures, which usually resulted in some proper alone time between the two of them. At first the couple had only experimented with kissing and touching, but S'aleths increasing lust became difficult for Erich to control, and eventually he had no choice but to make love to the woman.
How long Erich would be able to keep this taboo relationship a secret? He did not know, but he found himself enjoying the time he spent with S'aleth more than anything else in his current life. Eventually, eight months had passed, and the time for Erich's scheduled leave of absence had come. Thus, on the last day of active duty, before he was able to get a break, he popped a question to S'aleth that she was not expecting.
"So… I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I actually have a starship of my own, which is currently in storage. I was wondering, since you are also about to go on leave, why don't we take a brief vacation, far away from the borders of the Empire, just the two of us?"
S'aleth looked at Erich with glimmering eyes. She had not expected the man to make such an offer to her. In fact, she was dreading the day that they were finally apart from one another for several months at a time. But, it would appear that her fears would not be realized. Thus, she smiled and nodded her head in excitement before accepting Erich's offer.
"That sounds wonderful! Assuming you can get the approval, where did you have in mind?"
Naturally, there was only one part of space Erich wanted to go to more than any other, but he had wanted to do so while single. He couldn't very well spread his seed across the Great Oni Empire when he was in a rather serious relationship with S'aleth, thus he was actually quite dumbfounded when he heard this question, not knowing where they could possibly go for their brief vacation.
S'aleth could see that Erich was stumped, and thus immediately voiced her opinion on the matter, hoping that he would take it seriously.
"Well, if you don't already have a place in mind, then there is one place I have always wanted to visit. Although, I highly doubt you will ever get the approval required to go there, considering your people's complex history…."
This statement had caused Erich to become quite interested in where S'aleth wanted to go, and thus he was quick to inquire further about the subject.
"Well, what were you thinking about? You don't need to worry about obtaining the proper clearance, I have my ways around that… Just tell me the destination which you desire to visit and I will make it a reality, so long as we are able to get there and back in time."
S'aleth's blood-red eyes darted back and forth, looking for any possible eavesdropping, before whispering about the place she wanted to visit most of all.
"Earth…."
Erich recoiled in shock when he heard this answer. Earth was indeed a tricky subject in the Empire. Much of the Germanic Society refused to speak about their roots as a genetic offshoot of humanity. The fact that they had been forced to abandon their home world and stake their claim out in the galaxy was a source of great humiliation for Erich's people. To visit Earth was practically an act of treason, and if he did succeed in getting there, it would have to be a secret that he would keep for the rest of his life.
But then again, the same could be said about his relationship with S'aleth. Erich could see the pleading look in the woman's eyes, and was quick to change the subject.
"How do you even know about that, anyway? It is not exactly common knowledge outside of the Empire…."
S'aleth looked at Erich with confusion in her sanguine eyes before answering him honestly.
"Well, I read about it, of course. On your interstellar network. There are plenty of chat groups dedicated to reclaiming Earth, and I was curious. I have to admit that I was surprised when I learned that the Germanic race is actually the result of your ancestors fleeing from your home world and rapidly evolving your species through mass genetic augmentation."
Erich immediately calculated the distance between the Germanic Star-Empire and Earth. It was 1800 light years away, which would be several months' worth of travel with his current ship. He would also have to routinely stop along the way for refueling in unfriendly sections of space.
In fact, now that he thought about it, the navigation charts towards Earth were a closely kept secret by the military. It was not exactly something the average citizen of the Germanic Star-Empire could get their hands on. Even if Erich could access that information, the resources required to make the journey were monumental. At the very least, he'd have to invest in a new quantum drive, one that had better performance than his stock model.
After several moments of thought, Erich shook his head, and denied S'aleth's request, stating that it was simply unfeasible to make the journey at this point in time.
"I'm sorry, S'aleth. There are too many reasons why we won't be able to make that journey, time being one of the primary factors. Maybe some day I will be able to take you there, but for now, it is just not in the cards..."
The red-skinned beauty immediately began to sulk as she heard this, though she knew little about the difficulty they would have to endure just to visit Earth and return to the Empire alive, she really wanted to see the home world of the man she loved.
But she supposed it just wasn't meant to be, thus she came up with another idea, which unfortunately Erich was also forced to decline.
"Then what about the planet you grew up on? Alemannia right? That's not too far away and is well within the borders of the Empire. You might even be able to introduce me to your family as a friend…."
There was another hopeful look in S'aleth's glimmering red eyes, yet Erich did not share her enthusiasm, in fact he appeared quite wounded over the suggestion, which immediately caused the woman to become concerned as she inquired about what she had said that made him this way.
"I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong?"
Erich took a deep breath and shook his head before informing S'aleth why it was not possible to visit Alemannia and introduce her to his family.
"No, it's nothing that you said. It's just that I'm afraid that is also not an option. You see, my father is the sector governor of the region, and he has disowned me for reasons I do not wish to get into right now. Even if I wasn't exiled from my family, the only person who would actually be happy to meet a friend of mine would be my mother, and if she were to find out the truth between us, then even she would be disgusted with me, again…."
S'aleth gasped in shock when she heard this information. She did not know that Erich had been disowned by his family, but she could only imagine what would drive his parents to do such a horrible thing. Even though she knew that Erich did not want to speak about the issue further, S'aleth could not help herself, and asked anyway.
"I know you said you don't want to talk about this, but I can't help but wonder what you did to receive such treatment. It wasn't anything bad, was it?"
A slight scoff emerged from Erich's lips as he shook his head. There was a bitter tone in his voice as he begrudgingly spoke about what had happened.
"No, it wasn't anything bad, unless you would also consider our relationship to be a bad thing. To make a long story short, I had a brief relationship with an Oni woman, my father found out, and he disowned me. In all honesty, the whole thing was quite the scandal. There was even an investigation conducted by the authorities. In fact, the only reason I have not been executed is because someone powerful in the Empire buried the story and denied the allegations against me. Even though they were completely true…"
S'aleth had a sympathetic look on her face and was just about to say something when a familiar voice interrupted her.
"I knew it! You did bang that Oni babe! And here you are hiding your relationship with sweet little S'aleth here. You, sir, are a player!"
Erich and S'aleth both looked up in dismay at where the voice had come from, to see that Karl was silently observing their conversation the entire time. He then jumped down from the alcove he was hiding in and confronted Erich with a look of fury in his eyes.
"You bastard! Why didn't you tell me you were disowned by your parents? I would have gladly helped you out, hell we all would have! When something like that happens, you come to your friends for support!"
Erich was surprised to hear this come from Karl. He had never informed his friends at the academy what had happened to him during his first winter vacation. Instead, he acted as if everything was still normal for several years.
As for S'aleth, she was quite upset that Karl had interrupted her, and began to pout in silence, waiting for Erich to finish up his conversation with the man who she considered being a bad influence. However, Karl's next words clearly aggravated her.
"It's decided, you, me, Dolph, and Fredrik, we are going to the great Oni Empire once we get our leave! I don't care what anyone says. You have a starship, right? How many beds does it have?"
Erich appeared slightly aghast at Karl's suggestion, but he did not outright deny him, at least not immediately, instead he entertained him at first.
"Well, four, but-"
However, before he could finish his sentence, Karl grabbed hold of Erich's shoulder and gave him a thumb's up before responding.
"That's perfect! It has been a while since the four of us got together, and unlike you, who keeps managing to attract alien babes, we are all still turbo-virgins! You are taking us to the Great Oni Empire so that we can finally become men, and that's final!"
Erich looked over at S'aleth for support, but she simply snubbed him, and walked away, but not before leaving her feelings out in the open.
"Oh fine, forget about me. You go hang out with your friends and screw your way through that entire empire of horned sluts! See if I care!"
Immediately Erich ran after the girl, who was clearly upset by the conversation that Karl had started on his own, leaving his best friend behind to feel like an idiot.
"Wait! S'aleth! Come on! It's not like that!"
Upon seeing Erich scamper off like a whipped hound, Karl reached into his uniform's pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, which he immediately began to smoke. He stared towards the area that his friend had run off to, before shaking his head and voicing his disapproval.
"That succubus has you wrapped around her pretty little finger…"