Haruka arrives at the Squadron's base on Earth.

Haruka had only seen the sprawling military office complex and central command tower Rebecca had described as the brain center of the Squadron’s operations on Earth in pictures and video. She’d always privately had reservations about meeting the rest of the captain’s colleagues there. Before today, her biggest concern had been how humans of Earth other than the (formerly?) open-minded and respectful captain of the Figurehead V would react to Haruka as a nearly-human android. Rebecca had always reassured her that the rest of the Squadron would treat her as an equal, a sentient being worthy of the same rights and treatment as any human. Now, that seemed like a dubious proposition…

More importantly, however, she had never pictured meeting those humans with her own skin as bare as the day it had been grafted to her. She couldn’t believe the Captain wasn’t hyperventilating at the prospect, since she, herself, was completely naked… “Right. This is all a dream of hers. I cannot expect her reactions to follow ordinary human logic. Surely it must be almost over…”

Regardless of her own trepidation, anything would be better than this cramped, mortifying taxi ride, where she’d been **** to endure her Captain’s teasing, the passengers’ casual conversation about her nudity and her reactions to erotic stimulation, and a constant need to carefully position her two feminine hands over her two feminine holes to avoid flashing them. Haruka had heard Rebecca had already been promised a cushy top-floor office at the top of the tower upon her promotion. The android was looking forward to a direct drop-off and changing into a uniform... or changing into a bath towel... or even hiding in a closet until somebody could get some clothes for her. Anything but this.

Haruka's hopes fell along with her altitude as the taxi began to descend past the top of the tower and down towards the street in front of it. She was far past the point of patience for a decision like that. "Are you kidding? Put us down on a helipad! Take us to the top of the tower!"

"Parking's street only," the driver spoke curtly.

"Rebecca, order this driver to put us down on a helipad!"

The captain only laughed. "I guess you've never been here before, but still, it's kind of funny you just assume there would be helipads."

"Then just hover us to the outside of the top floor. I will break us in myself!"

"Uh, whose new office are you talking about breaking the windows of?" Rebecca asked her ensign, sounding offended. "Look, we traveled the stars. Traveling a few stories to get to the top of this tower isn't going to kill us."

Haruka clammed up, not because she agreed with anything her captain was saying. She really did feel like she might die trying to climb this tower, which was far more than "a few stories" and now seemed more imposing than the mysterious one she'd encountered on an alien land across the stars. Instead, it was more out of resignation, acknowledging that nothing she said would get through to the captain and wake her up from the dream. "The top floor is the logical end point... That is where this farce will finally come to an end." Besides, it was technically true that even a tower full of Haruka's workers was nothing compared to the mechanized hordes Haruka had wiped out of space.

Again, before Haruka could register what was happening, Rebecca was somehow out from under her and out of the taxi, standing naked on the sidewalk and furiously gesturing for the android to follow her lead.

In order to get out on the sidewalk and avoid exiting into the street, Haruka had to climb over the handsome ambassador on the passenger's side once more. If she had harbored any kind of crush on this man before, she thought this dream version of him had killed her taste for him... And when she felt the long probiscis-like face appendage of the other ambassador, the fly-headed one, brush as though by accident against her bare bottom turned to him, she thought she'd be happy not to see a common fly or a tropical shirt again as long as she lived.

As soon as Haruka stepped out of the taxi, Rebecca led her by the hand over to a nearby alley where they could hide. While the taxi departed, Rebecca put her hands on Haruka's shoulders in their hiding place and gave her a serious talk. "All right, ensign. Now's the time to really show me that handy technology! I know you've got some kind of useful gizmos that'll make it so I don't have to do a naked walk of shame in front of my new subordinates. What's your plan?"

"Of course. I have already been calculating the optimal course of action, Rebecca. Soon, this trial will be behind the two of us, just like a bad dream. Two of my mechanisms will be necessary for us to ascend the tower with minimal sacrifice of our dignity. First..." Haruka gestured to her feet, where pads in the shape of her feet formed from underneath and circled around like cushions. On the bottom of those were openings for jet engines to fire. "My personal integrated jetboots will allow us to fly from the street to the top of the tower without exposing ourselves to the coworkers."

"Neat! I knew your technology would come through. Handy, handy, handy!" Rebecca repeated gratingly as she knelt to inspect the other woman's feet.

"Yes... The second is my personal smokescreen generator." Haruka held her arms forward, bent at the elbows at ninety degree angles. Vents opened on her arms, which began to disperse a high-tech, specially formulated smoke. It was harmless for human inhalation, but would completely obscure their forms for a limited time. "We will ascend at a measured pace with our bodies obscured."

"Ooh, I like it." Rebecca stood back up, then began touching the android's elbows, as though searching for something. Finally, she found what she'd been looking for. "I'll take those too, thanks! Super handy."

"You will... Huh? Take?" Haruka finally noticed Rebecca had somehow removed the jet soles she'd shown her a moment earlier and was now wearing them on the bottoms of her own feet. Before she could comment on that, Rebecca had pressed in buttons on the sides of either of the android's elbows. Then, she removed the lower arms like Haruka was a toy. She was now holding not just the smokescreens, but half of each of the android's arms. "What? That isn't... Huh? Those are not designed to detach that way... They aren't designed to be used by a regular human either..." Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. "W-wait, Captain! You don't mean to leave me here, surely?!"

"Sorry, Haruka, but I've gotta get to the top as soon as possible! I'm a human, I don't have nerves of steel like you."

The android was panicking now from a two-fronted **** on her dignity and her sanity. "Please, Rebecca! I'll take you, we'll be there in a minute! Just grab onto me and I'll carry you! I'm begging you!"

"Ah... I get it." Some new understanding dawned in Rebecca's big, clear eyes. "I'm sorry, Haruka. I was taking it for granted that you would keep your cool and stay logical like a machine, but you're actually pretty shaken up about this, huh?"

Haruka nodded, now past the point of shame as she bit her lower lip and her pale, synthetic skin flushed its deepest simulated red. "Yes, Rebecca..."

Rebecca gave her a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry. We'll fix you up and have you good as new when you get to the top. See you then!"

"Rebecca! Rebecca!" Haruka reached out as if to grab the captain, but she was doing it with a phantom limb, whiffing with no arms below the elbow as Rebecca rocketed as a smoke cloud up towards the top floor. As the last straw of offense, Haruka saw her captain immediately broke through the top floor window once she was at an elevation to do so. "That... I can't believe she... would... Is this her nightmare? Her nightmare is... to be an unfeeling, compassionless, inhuman jerk to me, the one who saved her life?!" The android stared down at her own bare-naked body, defenseless and literally disarmed. "What... am I going to do?"