"Do not!" Rommie said as Beka came through the *Eureka Maru's* airlock, into the ship's galley.
"Do so!" Trance shot back. The Golden Goddess was nose to nose with Rommie, the Andromeda Ascendant's avatar, and neither of them had noted -- or, more precisely, reacted to -- Beka's entrance.
"Do not!"
"Do so!"
Beka cleared her throat. Loudly.
"Oh, hello, Beka," Rommie said, not taking her eyes off Trance.
"Hi," the blonde pilot said. "So, um, what, um, are you guys--?"
"Rommie and I are having a disagreement over what I look like naked," Trance explained, eyes locked on Rommie.
"What!?" Beka yelped.
Rommie turned to Beka. "Permit me to explain. As Dylan told us, Trance is the avatar of a star, so Trance is, more properly, a construct. Much more sophisticated than I am, of course, but a construct nonetheless. And even then, her true form resembles a star, not a humanoid."
"Right," Beka said.
"Well, if that's the case," Rommie went on, "then it's logical that her clothes are really a part of her, and not something that she can put on and take off. In other words, what skin Trance chooses to reveal is all the skin she has; her clothing IS her exterior. Like a low-rent andromannequin."
"And I said that's garbage," Trance said. "My clothes are separate from me. I can take them off."
"But she refuses to do so. You see the problem."
"I don't have to take my clothes off for you!"
"But you do for me," Beka said.
"What!?" Trance yelped.
"You two are acting like six-year-olds," Beka said firmly, "and if the only way to settle this is for you to strip, Trance, then strip. Now."
"I----" Trance stammered, "what---"
"At least down to your underwear."
"Fine!" Trance unsnapped her top's buckles with a single whipping motion, ripped it off, and threw it down on the floor. She tossed her gun belt on top of it, then climbed out of her plants and let them drop to the floor.
"There!" Trance said, folding her arms, as her two friends stared at her with wide eyes. "Happy now?"
****
When they got back to the inner airlock of the Maru's hangar, Beka and Rommie stopped in their tracks.
"Boxer shorts and a tank top," Beka deadpanned.
"With little bunnies on them," Rommie said. "Yet, somehow, it makes sense."
"Y'know, if I can do this job without going completely insane, it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions."
"Really? Well, there goes my faith in the almighty."
THE END