>Nah, no need to play this one coyly: despite there being only about
>three years' difference in their ages, Shirley's more like a surrogate
>mother figure (or at least a very mom-like big sister) to Lucchini.
>She's there because she's worried as hell, they're very close; but not
>in that way.

Yeah, theirs is very much a "surrogate mother" relationship, as Lucchini sees Shirley as a stand-in for her mother who she misses very much, while Shirley sees Lucchini as a little girl who needs someone to look after her. It's just that Shirley isn't the mothering type (for that you'd need to see Lynne), so she ends up seeming more like the "cool big sis."

>Canonically, I can't recall any particular evidence of bias in either
>direction on Shirley's part. She seems to be Too Busy For That
>generally, albeit not in a driven-self-denial sort of way; she's just
>doin' other stuff. Lacking official direction (or even much in the
>way of insinuation) on this point, I'm proceeding under the assumption
>that she's a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey scale and just happens to be on a
>show where men are mostly invisible. :)

It doesn't help that official policy is that the pilots are not to have more than a professional relationship with any men posted to the base. And that the nearest men who aren't wearing uniforms are usually miles away.

Amusingly enough, when fans do ship Shirley, it's usually with Trude.

>In fairness, there are only so many ways to play the
>inscrutable-semi-polymorphous-alien-blowin'-stuff-up-machine card. :)

I find myself sort of frightened about the thought of what happens when Neuroi-chan eventually develops a personality.