She slid her sword back into the scabbard and hooked it back on her belt noticing that the dance had caused the bandage from the IV to come off and her hand was bleeding again but it didn't look that bad, she merely stood there staring at the blood as it clotted on her hand.
"You're good." Said a familiar voice, causing Miranda to turn . "But you should get that properly seen too." Gaea was out of her armour, and had pointed to the bleeding hand. She was sitting on a crate nearby, bottle of water in one hand. She was, frankly, a mess. Wearing just stained leggings and a tank top, the clothes revealed the extent of cybernetic enhancement she had undergone. Her skin was studded with silver interface ports on every nerve cluster. Much of her remaining skin was heavily scarred or simply replaced with battlefield quality synth-skin, a mixture of different tones that made her look stitched together. Her nose had clearly been broken at some point, and chunks were missing from her ears and hair, evidence of more scarring. And she looked exhausted, drained of all energy, her eyes surrounded by deep black wells that spoke to profound exhaustion.
"I need to ask you some questions. If you have the time to spare."
It took a moment for Miranda to realize that Gaea had been speaking to her. She looked away from her hand to the elemental. "It's fine. And as for my skills as my grandfather would say after twelve years of lessons I better not be good, I better be great." She said, noticing the bandage on the floor a short distance from her. Reaching down she swiped it up pressing it to her hand. God she wished they hadn't woke up in this hell hole. If they weren't short on supplies she could use some med gel to stop the bleeding but she figured since Kromlyn was giving out bandages they either were out or conserving it. Miranda wasn't used to not having the best of everything, even while in the Navy they always had the best of supplies.
She recognized the voice as Gaea spoke but looked much different without her armor. The woman was heavily modified and Miranda figured it was her that was able to throw Winter and her around not the suit. Being modded wasn't unusual though Miranda wasn't that fond of it. In her mind Lyrans were already perfect and no need to improve on perfection. There was the odd occasion though when it was needed much like Quentin's bionic heart. The assassination attempt had left her heart badly damaged and it was the only thing they could do to save her. "What do you want to know? It doesn't look like I got much to do unless you have figured out a way to fly this heap from here." Miranda said.
"I need to know if I can trust you." Gaea said flatly. "After what happened in the cryo-bay. I can use you, up front. I know that the Lyrans don't skimp on training, you'll be able to handle the basics and I need every trigger finger I can get. But. . ."
She rolled her shoulders.
"If you can't work in a team, and I won't judge you for that, if you can't play nice with others, the science guys will have jobs for you. At the very least, having a trigger finger we can hold back here will do wonders for their confidence."
She sighed.
"So. Think you can hack it?"
"Look you do whatever you have to but trust me if you make it to the bridge you are going to need the best pilot you have to fly this fucked up ship. And believe me when I say that is me. No other pilot on this mission has logged as many flight hours as I have both on and off the flight simulator. Not to mention I was the first to complete the doomsday scenarios." Miranda said, recalling her time confined to the mission headquarters. She hadn't much to do during those months, her connection to the attacks had been all over the news feeds and quite a few people weren't pleased she was there. Miranda didn't make any friends before the mission. So she spent most of her spare time in the simulators, learning everything she could about the ships. She had even demoed some of Dr. Warrick's drones but hadn't liked them at all. A pilot without the guts to put themselves in danger wasn't worth a damn.
As she held the bandage to her hand she could feel the bleeding slow but didn't pull the bandage away yet. She sat down on the crate looking over at Gaea's mods, there were so many of them and quite a few looked jury-rigged. It made her wonder what the woman had been through in the last couple of years. "I can hold my own in a fire fight you can count on that." Miranda had never actually seen combat on the ground. The Lyrans didn't have any active campaigns going on, they mostly dealt with pirates. She had faced off with the pirates several times in space battle but never been part of the boarding teams. They had Marines for that. "I can play nice so long as you can keep that dog on a leash." Miranda said, thinking of Winter despite that fight being just as much her fault as it was the Teran's. If not more her own though Miranda would never admit that.
"She's a Terran Marine. TFMC training trumps instinct every time, she'll stay in line. However. . ."
Gaea stood, and cracked her knuckles.
"You call her a 'dog' one more time, and I'll put you down like one." She reached round to her back, and tossed Miranda a data slate.
"What we have on the bridge and its OS. Read up, flygirl."
Without another word, Gaea turned on her heel and left, throwing a casual wave as she stepped out of the room, leaving Miranda alone with her thoughts again.
She watched as Gaea walked away thinking that Terran Marines were nothing compared to just about anyone in the Lyran military. Despite her dislike of Marines she still had respect for them. They were elite soldiers and her dislike stemmed mostly from the fact Quentin was one. Miranda would play nice with Winter, for now at least. That still didn't mean they would end up the best of friends. Tucking the tablet under her arm she headed to where the mess had been set up, finally deciding that her stomach was settled enough to eat. Once there she noticed a small line of people waiting to get food.
Her head was also starting to hurt less so she decided to test her vision and see if it was getting back to normal. Slowly she pushed the holo-glasses down the bridge of her nose, squinting at first though carefully she opened her eyes. Everything was still a little bright but not enough to keep her from being able to see. She took the holo-glasses off and tucked them into a pocket in her flight suit. It was a couple more minutes before she reached Sanders and his chicken fryer. She glanced at the pile of raw chicken and crinkled her nose at it.
"What's wrong don't like the menu?" Sanders muttered.
"Do you have anything else?" Miranda said, she had been on a meatless diet since her last few years in school. She had been on the school speed skating team, several of her class mates had switched to a meatless diet saying it gave them more strength and endurance so Miranda had tried it as well.
"We got chicken and chicken." Sanders said making it clear that he wasn't taking requests.
"Uhm.... anything without meat?" Miranda asked, looking down the cooking station and not seeing much other than the chicken. She knew things were limited but hoped there were some other answers. She wasn't sure if they had set up some sort of garden or if the supplies to maintain one were available.
Sanders reached beneath the counter and dropped a brownish colored block on the counter. "Got protein ration. Though I can't comment on the taste." Sanders said, before pointing to a small room on the far side of the kitchen. "Hydroponics bay is over there you might be able to make a salad. So Miss picky eater what's your specialty?"
"Pilot." Miranda said, picking up the protein ration. It wasn't her first time with protein rations they tasted like cardboard and were dry as hell. The best thing was to eat them with a generous amount of water. When in the field they often would mix them into a pot of water with some hot sauce and heat it up over a fire making a sort of stew.
"Huh not much use for one of those, any idea where you are gonna be working? I could use a hand in the kitchen." Sanders said, leaning on the counter.
"No thanks I'm gonna be on Gaea's strike team." Miranda said, looking to where he had pointed out the hydroponics bay hoping she could find some herbs to mix into the protein rations. "I'm Lieutenant Miranda Clarke, by the way."
"Tough out there sure a pilot can keep up?" Saunders asked, drumming his fingers on the counter, "Clarke...hmm unless you are Lyran." He said, putting it together that she was Lyran just as Miranda started walking to the hydroponics bay without saying anything else. "Hey!" He shouted at her retreating back. "Fly us out of here, and I'll cook you anything you damn well want!"
Bookmarks