[Major Richard Quinn]

...Tunk, tunk, tunk, tunk....

Richard's rhythmic footsteps echoed through the mostly empty habitation quarters. Much like everything else in his life, they were like a metronome- precise and monotonous. He'd only been aboard the Eidolon for two weeks, and already the lack of activity was driving him up the wall. So, every day without fail, he found himself doing his runs, usually a few times around the ship on random paths. Those old mercenary instincts wouldn't let him make a regular path so that he might be followed.

Today he'd chosen a path which circled around the reactor chambers (much to the annoyance of the engineering officer), then back along the length of the ship towards the oxygen garden in the habitation sphere. He wore his usual running outfit- a sleeveless black vest with track-suit pants and running shoes. As he ran, his nanonics ran an old music track through his head, much in the same way that people used to wear Ipods. The fast-paced trance music acted as a counterpoint to his footsteps. He often did that, even during combat situations. The music just seemed to put him in the right frame of mind.

Eventually, he came to a stop, panting lightly as he shook his tensed muscles and let his nanonics release a relaxant program to prevent any would-be cramps. He looked around- and found he wasn't far from the leisure decks. Rubbing the back of his neck, he walked into the mess hall, looking for something cold and wet to bring his temperature down a notch. As he did, he noticed Commander Rust sitting by herself over at one table. One side of mouth raised in a smile. Though the ship's computer had been assisting, it was her actions that had made the first space-fold successful. Richard wasn't much of a social person, but he recognized another skilled individual when he saw one. He got a squeeze-bottle of ice water from the dispenser (most drinks were supplied in squeeze-bottle form in case gravity failed), and walked over.

"Commander Rust? I hope I'm not interrupting. I wanted to congratulate you on the first space-fold. Nice work."

[Commander Triona Rust]

It had worked. Against all odds, they had done it. No.... she had done it. Triona hadn't had this much of a high since the day they'd left Earth, though she supposed that didn't really count. So emotions had been running through her that day, as soon as the ship had been clear from Earth orbit and aligned with the rest of the fleet, she'd felt nearly sick at the thought of leaving Tyler for so long. With two weeks to mull on this fact, it soon became unwanted, pushed out of her brain before the kernel of homesickness ever had time to grow. But now things were looking up. The Eidolon had completed it's first space fold, and with the extra attention needed during such times, she would be completely swamped with work to keep the giant ship on track. Crystal could only do so much after all.

But, thankfully, Tolbert had been kind enough to give her a two hour break to replenish her energy and recooperate from the mental stress. Odd, considering her nano-enhancements never really allowed her to get stressed. During times of duress the Commander was always in the best shape, thinking and planning while everyone was sweating. It helped her do her job effectively and remain sane. At least relatively.

So, sighing a bit, still congratulating herself on her accomplishments, she took a few more bites of her salad, relishing in it. The lettuce stocked from Earth was almost gone unfortunately, as most of the ship's nourishment was planned to come from the Hydroponics Lab. A shame really. Placing the suffix 'onics' on any sort of food curbed her appetite faster than a protein shake.

As the brunette pilot placed another forkful of salad in her mouth, she heard footsteps approaching. Usually she considered herself excellent at being able to determine a colleague by their footsteps, but in the last two weeks she'd been acclimating to the ship rather than listening intently to her co-workers foot steps.

She looked up, her long brown hair back in a ponytail, slightly curly from the tight bun it had been in earlier. The person in front of her nearly made her jump, but she surpressed it, face remaining calm. Major Quinn. The Nanobot, as she'd dubbed him. When he'd first been introduced at the officer's meeting the day before departure, it had been noted that his nano-enhancements far outreached all others. In some sense she supposed it allowed him to do his job more thoroughly, but in a more basic sense it unnerved her. The fact that a person... let alone an already muscular man... had been given that many nano-enhancements and so much power... The thought gave her chills.

However, Rust wasn't rude enough to ignore flattery. The woman was a like a lizard that needed the sun to stay warm. Oh, yes Triona basked in it.

"Thank you." She crossed her legs and sat back a bit, looking up at him, subconciously closing herself off. Hopefully he wouldn't notice and be offended, because the last thing she needed was an unessecary confrontation. Though he didn't look like he'd try anything.

"I'm surprise it actually worked, given the circumstances." She sat there looking up at him, tapping her fork on the side of her plastic container. The brunette noticed for the first time his slightly quicker breaths. "You out for a jog?" This was why she hated men, talking to them about anything was so awkward.

[Major Richard Quinn]

While he was slightly winded,Richard didn't feel remotely tired. His nanonic enhancements meant he could probably spend a day fighting a running battle with a full combat loadout on a high-gee world and still have the energy to spend the night cleaning and repairing his own equipment. All that meant that he tended to be a bit vain about his abilities, especially since she had pointed out he was breathing hard.

Prejudice. It was one thing that Richard had never fully been able to escape. When he was young, he'd been a low-life, a street kid never expected to amount to anything. Then once he went into the military, he was the 'newbie'. It had taken years of effort before he earned the respect of his colleagues, Once the military had taught him everything they could, and he'd moved into mercenary circles....Well it was no surprise that he had a hard time trusting anyone.

Still. He figured she had only been making an observation. It was hard to tell most of the time- for Richard at least. Hostility, anger, aggression, those were emotions he could spot a mile away. But when it came to just talking...Richard was like a babe in the woods. But one thing he could tell straight away- she wasn't comfortable talking to him. That was okay. He'd make it short and leave her to her business.

He canceled the music program he'd been running and took a long drink of his water. "Just keeping myself in condition. If I sit still for too long, I end up going a little stir-crazy if you know what I mean. Unlike your good self, I don't have a lot to do until they start waking the colonists- or until we get to our destination. So, I make myself running courses...among other things. And you? What does our illustrious pilot do to keep herself occupied when she's not on the bridge?"

[Commander Triona Rust]

Triona had the grace to blush a bit when he complimented her again. Illustrious? Well, perhaps that did describe her. The Eidolon was her first assignment as well as her first voyage away from the prying eyes of the professors and officers at the Academy. And on top of that she had gone through half the training that was mandatory due to her well-known skills and aptitude. Not to mention she'd just made the first space fold of the journey successfully. People with far more experience than her were congratulating her and offering her praise instead of telling her what she'd done wrong. Finally people were acknowledging her abilities... on a colony vessel of all things. The pilot only wondered what she'd be able to do if unleashed upon one of Eidolon's space planes.


Only two officers hadn't commented on her performance upon its completion. One had been absent and was now standing in front of her, and the other was being an ass like usual. Dyson hinted multiple times that he considered her less than adequate for the job, and she was determined to prove him wrong. Though it would be underestimating to say she wasn't surprised by Major Quinn's approaching her. He was even trying to make friendly conversation which, though she didn't show it, made her withdraw a bit. Any intentions behind such a move were most likely selfish and unpure. But it would be rude to simply ignore him.

"What do I do?" Triona chuckled. "For the past couple of weeks while we were on autopilot I ran, sketched a bit, and read some books... I felt a bit stir crazy but they'll need me more now. Despite all the technology, this girl can't fly in FTL space on her own." She took another bit of her salad, then looked up at him, still a bit distanced. "Though I suppose I'll still have a bit of time to make it up to the virtual entertainment area." The brunette chuckled. "It provides some of the best training I've ever had."

[Major Richard Quinn]

Quinn was marginally surprised. She'd replied like she hadn't recognised his sarcasm- he'd meant it as an attempt at humor, thinking it would give her (and him, though he wouldn't admit it) the excuse to close the conversation. Either she simply didn't see the sarcastic remark...or Richard had genuinely mis-read her.

Then she mentioned that ICE couldn't fly without her. He wondered if she really believed that. Despite that fact that he agreed that humans needed to be kept in the loop regarding anything to do with plotting their course, Richard solidly believed that ICE could probably do a better job than Triona. Not because she was female, but because she was, like him, human. Mistakes were in their nature. And considering the incredible number of calculations required to make each jump, they couldn't really afford any. Not that he would say that out loud, he'd learned long ago that people didn't like being reminded of their shortcomings.

"Yeah, it's no substitute for the real thing, but it certainly helps keep the mind occupied." He gave a self-satisfied smile. "You'll notice the high score for the zero-gee simulations belongs to yours truly. Unless...you care to give it a try?" he asked, with a smile that was ten percent honest and ninety percent challenge.

[Commander Triona Rust]

If it wasn't for his smile, challenging her to a competition, Triona would've taken his statement as either a bit of ego-boosting bragging or him coming on to her. Most men in the world, though she realized 'galaxy' or 'universe' would be more appropriate now, seemed to rely one or the other. If they weren't chasing after women, they were stroking their own egos. Both were annoying and slightly disgusted her. Only a few men had been proved to be different. One of them was hers, Tyler. A pang of homesickness went through her for a second and her guarded expression faultered momentarily. The pilot wondered how long it would be until she got to see him again.

But Quinn... even in these past couple weeks of knowing him professionally... seemed different. He appeared to distance himself almost as much as she did, though her form of distancing wasn't physical. She kept men away with remarks instead of not talking to them. Despite her thoughts that men only had one thing on their minds when it came to women, she was still a gregarious person by nature. Being without people constantly would drive her crazy, especially in this metal lock box called a colony vessel. But the major physically distanced himself. All of their professional conversations had been oddly short, and the only person he seemed to talk to for more than five seconds was the captain.

"Zero-gee?" She smirked back. It was the challenge that caught her, whether or not he was using it as a chance to flirt with her. Zero-gee was a type of training that a lot of pilots went through in order to cope with emergency situations and flying in small space planes that were unable to produce their own gravity fields. "What sort of pilot would I be if I was unable to best a security officer in a zero-gee simulation?" Though she even wondered if she could best him, he was like a walking nano-machine. "Bring it on, Major."

[Major Richard Quinn]

Richard's smile widened, and he gave a short bow. Not many people had taken Richard up on his challenge. Except for those who regularly worked in negative gravity, or the other security crew like himself, there weren't many people on the Eidolon who could keep up with him. So naturally he relished any challenge. "Indeed I shall. If you're up for it, we'll do it in a group of three. One challenge chosen by each of us, and the last one randomized. Winner gets bragging rights." He guestured out of the mess hall towards the Virtual Entertainment Hall.

The crew's V.E. Hall consisted of thirty rooms, fifteen to each side, running down a long curving corridor that was set against the outer hull. Each section had its own V.E. Hall, although the section halls were much larger. The concept behind each was simple enough- each room was set up to be able to run a multitude of programs. There were full simulator units on either side for aircraft or spacecraft simulations.

The entire room's gravity could be adjusted via small manipulations to the Eidolon's gravity field, either up or down depending on the user's preference. Crashing into the walls wasn't an issue- they were well padded, and in the event that large-scale movement was needed, special harnesses very similar to those found on a gyroscopic chair could be lowered from the ceiling. The system used a form of motion detection, so literally the user's movements were incorporated into the program. All interfacing with the system was through a combination visor/wrist unit, although those with nanonic enhancements could simply link up to the room's processors through their Neural Translators.

At this time on the ship's clock, there weren't too many rooms occupied. Richard went to an unused room and opened the door, allowing Triona to enter before him. Once the door was closed, he let his Translator link up and run through the room's large selection of simulations. While it loaded the criteria he asked for, he ran through a few basic exercises, knowing zero-gee was a lot harder to operate in than most people imagined.

"I'm just curious," he began, dropping forward into a lunge, "How much experience have you had in zero-gee? I'm not doubting your abilities, just trying to establish what difficulty to start the sim at." This was half-true. Richard admitted he didn't know much about the commander, save that she was obviously a top-notch pilot. She had seemed open enough so far, which he figured was probably a good sign.

[Commander Triona Rust]

Triona nodded in consent at his organization suggesment. "That sounds fine to me." This was already proving to be very interesting, and it would give her something to do during her time off today. Before she'd resigned herself to homesickness and sketching (never a good combination as either her mother, Tyler, or her home usually became the subject of her drawings), but now it seemed she'd be spending it running around in zero-gee and who knew what else with their cyborg of a security officer. Tyler would be slightly jealous and protective if he knew what was about to happen. He was about as enthusiastic as she when it came to her spending time alone with men other than himself.

As she followed Quinn upstairs, noting the general vacancy of the VE Hall, the pilot felt a general tightness in her chest indicating that her heart would normally be racing if her nanos hadn't kicked in and altered the chemical signals. It meant she was feeling nervous... or wary... Not surprising since this was the first time she'd ever been alone with their security officer, the most muscular man in her experience. He could crush her if he wanted to... among other things. It was a good thing that his heart seemed to be somewhat sincere, not to mention that his view of women appeared to be nowhere near that of the Captain's.

They entered the room and Triona sighed, putting her hands on her hips and looking around. It wasn't the first time she'd been a room in VE Hall, but it was the first time with someone else. A lot of firsts were happening today... she needed to get out more. Though when you didn't want to be involved with men she supposed that closed a lot of doors. Keeping her feet shoulder width apart she pulled her right arm across her chest to stretch her shoulder.

"Experience? Well, I've done everything from flying in a zero-gee situation with small spacecraft to repairing a large craft in space on a tether. The zero-gee requirements for pilots pretty rigorous nowadays." She chuckled. "So I'd say put it wherever you're comfortable." The young pilot hated mentioning the fact that she'd just gotten out of the Academy... It made her sound so green. Hence, she tried to word her sentences to avoid it wherever possible.

The pilot slowly let her feet slip, her legs spreading wider until she fell comfortably into the splits. Reaching forward, she grabbed her right foot and arched her back, stretching further. It felt so good to stretch, as if she was pushing her limits of flexibility with each movement. "How about yourself, Major? What experience have you had?"

[Major Richard Quinn]

Richard lifted his leg, putting his foot at head height against the wall, so he could lean on it, stretching the ligaments in his thigh. He was pleased to have someone else to practice with- normally most people played against him once and then got fed up- or scared off. Richard didn't like to lose, whether it was in a virtual environment or a real one. If people wanted to hold a grudge against him because he wasn't willing to 'go easy' on them, that was their problem. He carried a certain pride in his abilities, and relished the opportunity to pit them against anyone else.

He smiled, switching legs. "Space Marine training means I'm pretty capable in zero-gee- in combat or otherwise. Wouldn't want some jarhead to shoot his rifle and end up sprawled on the wall behind himself from the recoil. As for vehicles.....well....I haven't kept up the practice, but I can pilot MSV's okay. Physical stuff is more my specialty."

He took his foot off the wall, and did a few quick hops on the spot, feeling the adrenaline working through his veins. He loved that feeling- the adrenaline high after a long run- this was the best time to get some zero-gee practice done. His enhancements released some endorphins into his system, letting his thoughts work that little bit faster. Finally, the room's processor indicated the first session was ready.

"Okay. The first test is designed to test your reflexes and your three-dimensional awareness- along with your self-navigation abilities." The two harnesses lowered down from their recess in the ceiling. "Have you ever played "Capture the Flag"?"