Ladies: Ever notice that if you like someone of this sort, they’re irresistible… and if you don’t, they’re just creepy?

“Heart Deco”

By Joseph Manno

Rhodes bit her lip to prevent a fit—whether of laughter or pique, she still wasn’t sure.

“Mr. King… you exited the ship wearing a life-support belt and gravity boots, ostensibly on a ‘security exercise’—one, oddly enough, I can’t remember authorizing.”

“No, ma’am.”

“Once outside, you proceeded to Lieutenant Ainsworth’s quarters…”

Cassandra consulted her PADD, employing it to conceal what might have been a smile.

“…where you painted a stick-figure mural on her window of you two holding hands.”

She asked a dry, “What, no little hearts, Picasso?”

Brett shrugged, and then grinned.

“I didn’t want to overdo it.”