FSE

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Rika blinked a few times, staring at her hands while she tried to remember the way they used to look like. Were they hard and calloused, or tender and soft? Or were they like Eve's: slightly calloused yet retaining their femininity? What were her finger nails like? Rika could barely recall what it was like not having claws she had grown so accustom to them. What would it be like if she were to be human again, to have soft skin, nails, hair on only one place on her head?

She suddenly became aware of the women watching here. Was that look curiosity, or just her trying to read Rika's unfamiliar face?

An audible rushing noise came through the closed door, shorty followed by several cries of surprise from where her hood lay on the floor. She locked eyes with Eve, the realization hitting both of them at the same time.

"Flash flood."

Rika snatched her hood off the ground and tore out of the room, too busy to check if the door closed behind her. Outside the rain had let up slightly, but about a foot and a half of murky water formed a rushing torrent past the ladder. The rest of her crew was nowhere to be seen, likely washed away in the rushing water. They shouldn't drowned in their sealed suits, but that didn't mean the deluge wouldn't bury them in mud or break a neck against a rock. Her engineer's suit was the only one meant to take any real physical abuse, and even then it might not be enough.

She hit the control to bring the ladder up and jammed her hood on, sealing it to her neck she spun back to the cockpit. Her mind was flying a lightyear a second, forming a mental list of things she needed to do, and what order they needed to be done in.

First things first: Get off the ground and get the gear up. She started the IST on the engine.

She would need fine control to position the vessel over her crew in order to rescue them. That meant she would need to be in the commander's seat, but to scan the ground in infrared and get directionals on the officer's suits she would need to set it up from either her console or the WSO's seat. She looked up, her eyes moving from one console to the next. How was she going to find her crew and fly at the same time? More importantly, how was she going to explain to them about the passenger? She glanced to the rear of the cockpit, as she tried to think of a reasonable explanation.

She groaned as her eyes fell on the door to the back room. It was open. She saw Eve's eyes wander around the cockpit in amazement before the woman noticed her and quickly pretended to be boredly interested in the open medical bag next to her on the floor. It was obvious that she was nervous, she knew she had eaten the forbidden fruit, and could only hope it wasn't noticed.

"Too late, I already caught you," growled Rika. The woman looked her in the eyes and pressed her lips together. Her arms shook slightly. Was she afraid, or just cold? There were a few uncomfortable moments while the stared at each other, Rika trying to discern her expression until the caustic smell of fear caught her nose. She realized the poor thing was terrified: the idea of having her brain removed through a small tube likely wasn't far off from what she was thinking.

Rika could sympathize with the feeling. Even after she had gotten to know her "surrogate" people there was still a period time where she still feared the worst. Rika did her best to smile a human smile as she walked over to her without showing too many teeth, least it be misunderstood.

"Just as well. I've got a job for you." She offered Eve a hand, "Can you stand?"

The naval officer hesitated, then took her hand and hauled herself up on her good foot. She hopped through the narrow door leaning on Rika, her eyes wandering over the cockpit again. Rika could help but chuckle at the dumbfounded expression on the pilot's face.

"I'm sorry," recovered the woman, "it's just..."

"Believe me," Rika cut off, "it's not that special. Well," she smiled, "not anything anyone you work for will ever know about. Because you won't tell them, right?"

Eve shot back a nervous glance.

"If you don't leak anything, I won't have to fill out paperwork. I'll keep my freedom, you'll keep your memory, and nobody gets court-martialed or mind-wiped. Got it? Great."

She guided Eve over to her engineering console, helping her sit down in the chair, attached the back-up restrain harness from the closet, and showed her how to operate the console controls while she explained.

"I'm going to get us off the ground so the flood doesn't damage the gear. I need you to find my washed-out crew." Rika turned on the display and brought up the crew locator screen. There was a key with four symbols in the top right corner, and the names of the crew they responded to. Rika's icon was almost in the center of the cockpit, right next to a red circle that indicated an unidentified life form. Arrows and symbols pointed to the other crew members off screen. Rika pointed to each and named them off.

"This is you. That's me. This is Niedka, that's Bagom, and this one is Ungow. Ungow we can let swim while we get the other two first."

Eve nodded, aware of the joke. She looked back in wonder at all the controls.

"You can use these buttons to zoom in and out, and the screen is touch if you want to move around. This scale on the bottom is for distance, each tick is about... oh, two and a half of your miles. Got it? We need to get moving."

The woman looked up and nodded, "Yes."

"Good. Oh, and-" she threw Eve a spare hood shaped for Smokey's human head. "Pull this on so we have intercom. Just leave the face part open."

Eve caught the hood and watched Rika with a puzzled look as she climbed into Shave's seat and pulled up the pilot's display. A warm hum filled the air as the engine came online, and she restarted a failed IST when the woman's voice made her jump.

"You have much better english than the others."

"Thanks," she replied, the statement not really hitting home, "I try and keep it from getting rusty, but I know I've slid a lot."

Eve rested back against the comfortable chair and sighed. "Sorry, I have a tendency to think out loud."

The IST blinked fail again. Rika cursed and throttled the power up slightly. Outside the rushing water began to flow slightly around the ship rather than under it as the newly created gravity hill displaced the air around the ship. She ran the test again.

"It's ok, I do it sometimes too," she replied, turning to see the woman behind her. "We should be ready after this test runs its course."

Eve nodded. "You' seem to have your head screwed on a bit tighter then the rest of these guys. Are all of your species like you?"

"Eh?" blinked Rika, "My species? Oh! No, I'm not one of them, well I am, but wasn't before, er, despite what it looks like, I was actually born... um, human..."

Rika's mouth had gone dry. It was too late now. A secret she had been charged with keeping (the vessel) was already being operated by a human military officer. Now, with a slip of the tongue she had nearly spilt the other secret she was never supposed to reveal. The information about the entire mission, if deduced hard enough, was now in the hands of the Naval Commander that sat in a seat opposite staring at her with a gaping mouth.

The IST blinked fail again, and she snarled at the machine, threatening it in english, "YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT! IF YOU DON'T FUCKING PASS YOUR SELF TEST THIS TIME I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART AND SELL YOU OFF TO EVERY SCIENTIST ON THIS ROCK TO DE-ENGINEER AND ANALYZE PIECE BY PIECE!"

She restarted the test and looked back at Eve, who was still staring at her slack jawed.

"Sorry about that," apologized Rika, "she's getting close to inspection hours."

"Wait..." Eve closed her mouth and shook her head. "You're?"

Rika's ears folded back onto her head and she snarled slightly.

"Yes. Look, I've said too much as it is. I've got to find my crew, and hopefully get you out of here before my command finds out you were ever on board. If this works out the way I hope it will, this disaster will be averted."

The displays flashed in sync with each other before the IST blinked go.

"Finally. Ready?"

"Yes."

There was a small tug back on Eve's straps as she throttled up; the ship retracting them as it prepared for flight. Rika brought the vessel about twenty feet off the ground and retracted the landing gear.

"Alright, where do we go first?"

"Um, left a bit... I can't read anything to give you a heading."

"And I can't explain what anything says. I'll move slow, and you tell me when we're aligned with it."

"Ok."

The vessel slowly rotated to the left as Shepard talked her in.

"Little closer, little more, right there. He's about a half mile ahead.

"Alright."

Rika nudged the vessel forward, hopping the distance in a few seconds. She left the vessel in a hover as she stood up. Behind her the woman was watching the console.

"He should be right under us." She said.

"Good," said Rika as she stood up. She released Eve's seat harness. "How's your leg? Can you stand on it?"

The woman looked up with a surprised look, gingerly got up on one foot and tested it.

"This is amazing. It still hurts, but I can put weight on it."

"Great!" Rika closed the shield over her face, watching as the officer got increasingly uneasy. She had forgotten how intimidating it could be to someone who wasn't used to the alien combat gear. She did her best to sound non-threatening as she explained the situation while moving to the back of the cockpit and opening a cabinet.

"Still hear me?"

"Loud and clear." Said Eve.

"Ok, I can't call for help, because you're not supposed to be here and they might see you. That's good though, because if we work together to pull everyone back in without broadcasting his mistake Shave might be more forgiving of my bringing you aboard."

The officer nodded, her eyes searching the shield for where to look at Rika's "eyes".

"I need to fly this thing, which means I need you to pull them in. This is a retractable tether for spacewalking that I can connect to you." Rika tugged on a grey strap above the door near the engineer's station with a red tag on it. "All you would have to do is grab them and hold on. Do you think you can manage?"

Eve glanced down at her broken leg, thought for a moment and then looked back at her.

"I think so."

"Good. If you put the face shield down it'll seal, that should keep your head dry. Just ignore all the red stuff that'll be at the very bottom of your vision, that's just the hood throwing a fit because it's not connected to the rest of the suit."

Rika watched as the Eve pulled the visor down over her face. As soon as it was down the hood reacted, sealing the shield closed while re-shaping its self to conform to her face. Eve jumped, clawing at her face.

"Woah, hold on, it's ok!" said Rika, "It's just adjusting to you as it activates. Relax... it's fine."

Rika heard the woman take a breath and let it out. She paused for a moment to let Eve collect herself before continuing.

"I'm going to adjust your visor so you can see better," she explained as she ran through a menu on her console. She selected Smoky's hood, and set the visor to see outside the vessel. The moment she did Eve let out an exclamation.

"Wow!"

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"It's like the whole thing vanished," Eve said, turning in circles.

"What's the weather like out there?"

"Raining hard again. Not much to look at."

"Alright. Let's see if we can fix that." Rika slid the spectrum to the right, "How about now?"

"Everything has wonky colors, but I can see detail. Really good detail."

"Good! You're look in the ultraviolet spectrum. Think of a rainbow, and the closer to purple you get, the higher the frequency something is reflecting, at least when it comes to a chunk of that spectrum."

Eve nodded, "Sort of like IR. I can see someone below, they're moving around a bit."

"I'm going to harness you in before switching my own visor over," said Rika. She released the harness from the seat and slipped it over Eve's head, wrapping it around her torso before fastening the straps and watching it readjust its self. Once it was fitted she connected the tether from above the door to the harness.

"You're leashed," she explained. She took Eve's hand and touched it to the door frame, "Feel that? That's the doorway. I'm going to open it now, and when I do go ahead and poke your head out. You should be able to see the outside of the of the vessel's hull."

Rika pressed the door control and watched the sheet of water rushing past the door. The wind howled past, driving some of the rain inside. Eve poked her head out and looked around.

"I see it."

"Good. I'm going to move us in. When you think you're close enough go ahead and try to grab him. As soon as you're ready let me know and I'll reel you both in."

"Ok."

Rika sat back in the pilot's seat and set her face shield to see outside the Farrom, adjusting the spectrum the same as Eve's until she could see the body below, struggling against a rock face while trying to keep its head above the water. Rika could see why- his face shield was open.

She pulled the door as close as she could, lowering until the nose was about to hit the rock and water was dangerously close to flowing into the cabin. She watched as Eve hopped from the door, nearly landing on him. He didn't fight as she wrapped her arms under his shoulders.

"Ready."

Rika retracted the tether, pulling them both into the door way of the Farrom 8. As soon as they were inside, Rika closed the door and raised the vessel back to its original altitude. She returned it to a hover before getting out of her seat again.

Eve was climbing to her feet, waving her arms around in search of something. Neidka coughed and rolled onto his side, groaning. Rika guided Eve back to the engineer's console and opened the face shield for her.

"Are you ok?" she asked. Eve nodded. "What about you Lost?"

[Ye-*cough* yes,] he replied weakly. She heard his voice from the floor instead of the intercom in her hood.

"Your comm is down."

"I-I know." he panted, [turned 'em off to prove a point for Shave.]

"Is everyone else's mask open too?"

"Probably. Have you had contact with anyone?"

"Oni"

"Then I guess that's-"

Rika was about to explain the next step, but was interrupted as another rakken voice cut in.

[Ghost Two, this is Ghost Four. We are picking up your crew scattered and a foreign life on board. Please give status.]

Rika cursed. [Ghost Four, Ghost Two. We are experiencing some technical difficulties, but have the situation under control.]

The voice switched to english, and Rika recognized the speaker as Gamun.

"I don't know if I'd consider trying to drown your crew technical, Flat-Face. Tell me, how's my english?"

She smiled at the cryptic message.

"Your English sucks, Mallet, I taught you American."

"Rika," said Eve, "There's another one of these ships next to us. Someone just waved. Should I hide?"

"No," Rika replied, "That's our sister vessel. Cat's out of the bag -they read life forms and did math."

"We saw your crew scattered and thought we'd make sure everything was ok," said Brakes. "Since you insist everything is fine we'll head out. Exercise is in fifteen minutes, hope you're all done mud bathing soon. We're going to tour and get some bearing of the area until then. Oh, and if you beat your red air we might just forget about your... extra."

Rika and Eve stared at each other for a second, both feeling their stomach climb into their throat.

"SHIT!"

"Goddamn it!"

[FUCK!]

Rika slammed herself into the pilot's seat while Lost frantically pulled up his console while trying not to drip on anything.

"Shave last?" Lost smirked, pulling up his console.

"Shave last." Replied Rika, stone faced. "That fucker is the cause of all this."

"Smokey is surface heading two three seven seven five, about two hundred feet. Gonna change into dry flight gear, hang on."

Rika repositioned the vessel while a wet squelching noise was made behind her. The look on Eve's face when she noticed Niedka without anything on was priceless: a mess of confusion, awe, and horror all rolled into something that was almost comical.

"Yeah," explained Rika, "rakken gender is fucking weird."

"What?!" Said Lost, grabbing his other suit from the crew closet. "It is not!"

"It is to a species that is born one gender and stays that way 'till death. Shepard, we should be over him."

Eve shook her head, closed her face shield and looked down, feeling her way back to the door. "I've got eyes on him."

Rika dropped the vessel again. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

Eve hopped out again and repeated the process of wrapping herself around Smokey before Lost retracted the tether, hoisting her in. Smokey braced himself against the engineer's chair, trying to resist the urge to shake as Eve let go.

"You ok Smokey?" Asked Lost.

"Yes. I'm going to have that fucker's pelt."

Rika laughed. "Shaving Shave! I want to see this."

Smokey released and pulled his hood off as Lost motioned for Rika to give him the pilot's seat. She watched as Smokey looked at Niedka, then Rika, and looked slightly confused before turning around to look at Eve. She watched his eyes move from the featureless rakken face shield to the drenched navy flight suit and clearly feminine human form.

"Who the fuck are you?"

Eve's face might have been hidden behind the mask to Smokey, but Rika could see the worried look on her face as she tried to introduce herself.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Sadok-"

"She's the injured officer I told you about." Interrupted Rika. "The one Shave said to leave. I pulled her on board, and treated this," she said, lifting the leg of Eve's flight suit to show the end of the alien cast that now encased her leg. "-Before the flood came in. After that, I needed help rescuing you three, so she's been hoisting your soggy tails up."

"You disobeyed an order."

"I did." She replied. "And if I'm punished it will be with a clear conscious. Lost, Shave is at two three seven seven three."

Smokey smiled. "We were arguing about that, actually. I'm glad you acted Flat Face, and thank-you, ma'am. Welcome. Just, uh, don't look at or touch anything."

"I can't see much in here." She said.

"Smokey," said Rika as she moved her visor back to normal vision, "I know you're enjoying chatting, but exercise is in ten and Tack, Brakes, Lube, and Mallet won't leak our guest if we don't loose to them."

[Oh fuck! We need Shave!] Cried Smokey, tearing off his hood and drenched suit.

"Ready for another rescue?" Rika asked.

"I can do one more," nodded Eve. She was starting to feel her fatigue as her endorphins crashed.

"Good. Last one is our asshole -er, pilot."

Eve smiled weakly at the joke. She braced herself against the door as Lost lowered the vessel to the water's surface. Shave was looking rather irritated and clinging to a fallen tree. As the vessel stopped moving she sat on the floor with her legs out the door.

"Ready."

"Go when you feel like it." Said Rika, "I'll reel ya' back in."

Eve slid gingerly out the door and practically on top of Commander Yasoi. She quickly locked her arms under Ungow's shoulders and Rika retracted the tether. The moment they were back aboard Rika closed the door as Smokey explained things to Shave.

[Remember our exercise? About five out. The ten won't rat about our extra,] he nodded at Eve, whom Rika was unhooking and helping out of the harness, [-if we beat them.]

[Extra?]

Ungow followed Smoky's nod and realized it wasn't a Yasoi that had pulled him up.

[Who-]

"The injured officer. Flat face helped her. She can't see-visor is slaved to mine and all I get is external ultraviolet." Explained Smokey, pulling his wet hood back on.

[She WHAT?!]

"We will discuss this later." Smokey growled. "We need to go and not loose to 'Ten, or the Yasouds will be replacing us as section lead."

Shave ground his teeth. Eve looked nervously as he let out a short, low growl and began tearing at his hood and suit.

[Flat Face, dry suit and hood. Mine are fucked.]

"Yes sir."

[Why all the english?]

"Put the passenger at ease sir. She's easier to handle that way."

Shave grunted and threw his wet suit and hood into the back room as he took the fresh one from Rika. He pointed at the human pilot, who was shivering slightly and dripping on the floor.

[She needs to be in a flight suit and stuck in a seat by the time I go, or her injuries will be on you.]

Rika spun in a flash and immediately tore the zipper down on Eve's flight suit. She didn't wast any time in trying to peal it off her as Eve started to protest and struggle.

"Hey, what the fuck! I'm ok being wet, really-"

"If you don't wear one of our suits this ride will kill you, ma'am."

She stopped struggling. It made sense... maybe? They had to have something like a G-suit, -but couldn't she just wear it over her-

"Our suits can't go on over anything," Rika explained, yanking the soggy material to Shepard's ankle's. She held the material so Eve could step out with her good leg. "-they contain your life support, for one thing, and clothes might interfere with sensors for another but most importantly-" Rika pulled the other pant leg free of the cast and Eve stepped out, "-it acts like a G-suit, if a G-suit prevented you from breaking your neck or turned into a pulp. Under sudden or heavy loading it goes rigid to protect you. Clothes would leave a gap of movement and cause you to slam around, and if we lost pressure the suit couldn't hold you firmly enough to keep your blood from boiling off. Turn and take the rest off, I'll get my spare suit."

"Everything?!" Eve was half in shock, half in disbelief as she faced what she thought was the closed entry hatch.

"Everything! Hurry!" Repeated Rika.

Shepard scrambled out of her underwear facing the wall and Rika promptly took each hand and set them on the open collar of the suit. She felt a clawed hand grab an ankle and guid it into one leg of the suit, then the other, as she leaned on the bulkhead with a shoulder for stability. She stood again when she felt her second foot through, snug due to the cast, and began fishing her arms through the sleeves. Her ankle was grasped again and she lifted it, feeling something akin to a boot slide on it. There was a faint hiss and she felt the garment reshape to conform to her foot. Her fingers found their respective places in the glove at end of the suit sleeve and slid her arm into the other sleeve while the shoe-shaping process was repeated on her other foot.

"Good?" Said Rika. Eve nodded.

"Going to close you up. It might be uncomfortable at first, but don't worry," said Rika, lining the collar of the suit up before touching the two edge of the seam together. The seam immediate began pulling its self together and sealing. "-the suit's been sterilized."

Eve had just realized what that might have implied when she was suddenly violated in several places at once.

"AH-WHATTHEFUCK!" She reached out to grab the wall and her hands found a body instead. Rika grasped the outside of her shoulders, steadying her.

"You're ok ma'am. Both ends of life support. Start and finish of everything."

Eve nodded and Rika moved to her neck. She felt a tug and then the suit lift slightly as it connected to her hood before everything shrank to her form. The red characters in the bottom of her vision vanished one after the other until none were left.

"Everything good? Breathing ok? Anything red or strong smells?" Rika asked.

Eve took a deep breath.

"I'm good." Said a nervous voice. "No red or smell."

"Good. I'm going to guide you to the jump seat."

"Ok."

Rika slid the seat portion forward from the wall and slowly steered Eve. She paused as the back of her legs touched the seat before gently sitting. She slid back against the backrest and instinctively fished for the harness.

"No straps with a suit." Said Rika, amused. She tapped something on her console and Eve's suit appeared to melt into the seat. "Rock forward for me."

Eve attempted to move forward and found that the suit parts of her back, butt, and legs that were contacting the seat had been firmly attached to it, effectively cementing her in place. Rika watched the image of her face look up at her with a worried look, clearly not liking where things were going.

"Unfortunately you don't have a seat release back there, but any one of us will cut you loose in an emergency," Rika reassured before quickly climbing into her own seat.

[Vessel prepped?] Asked Shave.

Rika pulled up the systems page. "All go sir. Teeth are full, heat is null, hull sealed, all cargo and crew secured. Fuel at ninety-seven percent, reactor stable, load out is six Maulers."

"I need to see Flat Face." said Smokey. "Can you slave our, ah, passenger's visor to yours?"

"Working on it Smokey. I've been a little busy, sorry."

Rika switched menus and selected Eve's visor, then changed the settings to bind it to her own. She suddenly felt the softened push of the HASS dampeners as Shave likely ripped the spacecraft into the air. She adjusted her visor back to the visual spectrum and set her perspective outside the vessel. Shepard gasped as the vessel vanished and all that was left was the glowing display of Rika's console and the shadowy outlines of the alien crew, and the cosmos. Below her the Earth had just been shrunk the size of a large house at her feet and was shrinking rapidly.

"Smokey, may I go to engineering channel?" Said Rika.

"Good idea. Kicking you now." Said Smokey.

Rika clicked her mike twice.

There was a four click reply.

[You're clear two.]

[Go ahead four.]

[How's your 'guest' doing?]

[Fine. She smells scared, but handling it well.]

[Sure you're not smelling yourself Flatface? I catch whiffs of your fear clear over here.]

[You haven't tagged us in months. I don't think Shave will let that trend change.]

[Uh huh. We'll see. So we go to Earth first thing next cycle. Do you know if they ever decided between going down after the exercise and hanging out in high orbit or heading back and launching out from the Trisona again in the morning?]

[I don't know. Probably launch from the Trisona so we can pick up all that support and test equipment with us.]

[That would make sense.] Said Mallet. "I guess I should start practicing my english."

"I think you're fine. Shave's the one who needs to practice. God, he wanted to meet an American pilot who dodged him-"

"A human in one of those clunkers dodged Shave?!" Mallet's voice was almost gleeful.

"I still don't think that guy knows what an accomplishment that is. He'll learn soon enough. Anyway, it was embarrassing just to hear him try to just introduce himself."

"He's the one who missed over half those classes. Apparently he thought he would pick it up just from being around you."

"Well it is how you got fluent."

"Yeah, but you were also my tutor and we spend more time together at work than I do at home, did a LOT of talking. He ignored both you and his tutor and I didn't hear you complaining. Even so, can you test me on customs again?"

"Is Mallet nervous? Does this qualify as a log entry?" Grinned Rika.

"Hell yeah I'm nervous. I've never felt so much pressure to make a good impression with a unit, let alone an entire species, and then pile on all the stuff to remain hush about. I mean, six months daily contact without even mentioning-"

"She has ears," interrupted Rika, stepping on the transmission. "Her visor is slaved to mine."

"I was wondering if you were going to leave the poor soul in the black and silence or not. Does she have com?"

"She does, but probably doesn't know how to use it."

"You should show her! We don't do much for this kind of thing anyway. We can all bullshit between barking under G's and getting thrashed in our seats."

"Shepard, do you hear me?"

"Yes."

"I have us on directive mic. Your hood monitors your brain patterns, creepy as that sounds, and when you think about a person on the comm or the group of people on the comm and talk, the vessel will automatically click the mic on their channel. Like how we are isolated from everything but the engineering net, yet if I mentally act like I'm talking to Lost, I'll suddenly be transmitting to him. Isn't that right Lost?"

"Isn't what right, Flatface?"

"You've been talking to me the same way I just spoke to Lost. Since Mallet is outside the vessel we broadcast on the channel instead of to specific person, even if we only think of that person. Give a try. You can tell Lost I'm teaching you how to talk on the comm since I can see he's not busy. "

"Who is Lost?"

"The first person you fished out of the water. Just think about talking to the voice that spoke just now."

"Hello Lost, Flatface is teaching me how to use your comm system."

"It sounds like she is doing a good job. How is the leg?"

"Good, thank you."

"See?" Said Rika. "Easy as pie."

"That was... weird."

"You'll get used to-"

"Does she have it yet Flat Face?" Asked Mallet.

"Her callsign is Shepard, Mallet. And yes."

"What language do you speak Shepard? English? Deutsch? Espa-"

"I speak english." Said Shepard.

"Oh good. I don't know the others. Are you scared?"

"A little nervous, but I'm doing fine."

"You're lying," pounced Mallet. "I'd be scared shitless in your, uh, shoes; and normally I'm a six foot talking dog myself."

"Mallet," replied Rika, "Shepard is a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy."

A few moments of silence followed, then:

"I am very, very sorry madam. I meant no disrespect, but my behavior was unacceptable."

"Apology accepted, Mallet."

Rika turned as far as her suit would let her, which wasn't very far.

"Please excuse her ma'am. Mallet, well, "

"Wears her callsign well?"

"Yes. Very much so. Still shaking in your boots Mallet?"

"Oh yeah... Brakes was listening in and just finished nailing my pelt to the aft bulkhead."

Rika and Eve gave a short laugh.

"Just so you know: in english, pelt is typically referred to something with a heavy coat of fur. With light or no fur it's referred to as a hide, in which case he just tanned yours." Said Rika

"Tanned?"

"Made it into leather," replied Shepard.

A pause as Mallet searched the encyclopedia she had dowloaded, then: "Oh god, that's how you make leather?! I... I guess that sounds about right."

They rode in silence for another minute before Mallet spoke again.

"Where the fuck are we holding this thing at?! I'm going be out of hours on this star dart at the rate we are going."

"Probably opposite of the Earth from Sun. Away from prying eyes."

"Except the pair you are carrying with you."

"Shepard and I are going to be star gazing, looking at heat levels and reactor outputs while Shave tries to break our necks. She might help spot, but we'll be staying visual. Besides, I'm sure she'll decide to have a small bout of selective amnesia once she gets back to Earth, likely from being hit by a truck, but nothing so bad that it needs to be treated."

"Oh yes." Said Eve, playing along. "In fact, I think I feel it starting to come on now. Who are you again? Where am I?"

"Oh good. Now you just need to beat us so we'll have amne-whatsitcalled too! You'll need luck."

"I don't think so. We haven't lost to you in almost a year." Said Rika.

"We have a tactical advantage this time." Mallet replied,

"Oh?"

"You have to protect things from your abductee. If you were to be put in a position where defending would result in either reveling a combat active cockpit or the-"

"MALLET"

"Shit. Oops."

"We won't have to worry about it if you do that for us."

"This is why I'm nervous about this deployment. I liked regular interceptor duty compared to this: Chase Koaku couriers down and clobber them. Occasionally run off interceptors and heavies. Easy. Simple."

"It's easy for us, yes. You bitch an awful lot about being bored on them, but Shave and Smokey always come back from those and go straight to bed exhausted. Tack and Brakes have do the same."

"True, but they don't work the weekend to fix these things."

"Lost and Lube do sometimes."

"Privileges of rank I guess. They seem to be happy about this one though. What was that phrase you used? It'll be as easy as...bashing sea...puppies?"

"Clubbing baby seals."

"Yes! I love it! "

"And you sure made it look like it," muttered Eve.

"What was that?" said Rika.

Eve immediately perked up suddenly. "Er, sorry, I thought that was to myself."

"Visors are slaved. You didn't broadcast, but I hear everything you say, as you will hear every thing I say, or is said to me by the crew and ship. Hence why I'm on engineering channels and not the battle net. Otherwise you'd here a ton of rakkan from... well, it would be noisy."

"That's... good to know."

"You'll hear me get bitched at a lot, some by the ship, and some by my officers, so I wouldn't sweat it. When you live in this close of quarters with four others, you get really good at forgetting things that were meant to be private."

"Shepard," said Mallet, "we are all from interceptor squadron FLI-682. What unit are you from?"

"VFAS-212."

"Whoa, really?"

"Really."

"Have family in the command Mallet?" laughed Rika.

"Flat Face, she's the maintenance officer from our host unit."

"What?!"

"Pull up the host profile they sent us."

"Damn she's fast on this thing," said Rika, running through menus on her console. "You're our host MO ma'am?"

"Yes, but I didn't exactly believe it when they said, er, people from off planet were coming. Well, until just now."

The unit profile appeared on her console screen and she selected the small picture. It enlarged to fill the screen. An athletic woman in a Navy uniform with pale skin, black hair and blue eyes stood in front United States and US Navy flags. She had a severe look on her face and the rank markings of a lieutenant commander.

"Pull it up yet?" asked Mallet.

"Yeah."

"Is that what she looks like?"

"God, that picture is horrible!" Cried Shepard.

"Send us a better one then!" Said Mallet.

Rika smiled. "It's still better than you look after being hit by a truck, ma'am. No offense."

"I...I won't argue with that."

"You got hit by a truck?!" Exclaimed Mallet.

"I did. And then Flat face was kind enough to pick me up and patch my broken leg while my wingmen beat feet for base."

"Beat feet?"

"Left in a hurry." Said Rika.

"Ah, that makes sense. Ouch. Your office is going to be a painful place to be tomorrow, won't it?"

"For some people. We'll take care of most of this in the ready room. Away from enlisted ears." She sighed. "Echo really stepped in it this time."

"A little late on the ears," Said Rika.

"You're killing time with the only two enlisted this side of the Sun, ma'am," beamed Mallet, "but we both understand. Leadership shouldn't be airing dirty underwear in front of the lead."

"Exactly. So it's just the two ships? My report said four were coming."

"There will be four ma'am," Rika said. "Ghost One, or the Farrom Four, is our commanding officer's vessel, but he's got to rub elbows with brass at the Pentagon and Moscow and London, etc, for most of the Det, so Farrom Four will likely come back only to do heavier scheduled maintenance and then leave again. You likely won't see much of it. Farrom Nine will be accompanying us when we arrive, but lately they've been a hanger queen, which is why we don't have any wingmen with us now."

"So if Ghost one is the commander's, then Ghost two is?"

"Shave is the Executive Officer, yes." Explained Rika. "Or Commander Yasoi is, as you will formally learn tomorrow."

"We usually refer to him as some variant of arrogant bastard when he's not around, and you are welcome to as well. You shared officer only stuff, I shared enlisted only stuff. On good faith, ma'am."

"Is there something you call me?" Said a new voice.

"SHIT Smokey," gasped Rika. "You damn near gave me a heart attack!"

"Nope! Smokey is bad enough!" Laughed Mallet.

"Would even tell me if you did?"

"You're not a douch bag Smokey," said Rika, "You haven't earned a flight line name yet."

"What's a douch bag?"

"Oh my god." Said Eve.

"Like I said, I'm the only human in the unit." Said Rika, shaking her head.

"What is it?" repeated Smokey.

"I don't know," said Mallet, "It's one of those converted human phrases. It means someone with a big ego who is a jerk, but I think there's another, older meaning that adds to the insult. Our two humans are strangely quiet on this though-"

"It's an item used to flush out a dirty vagina," said Eve. "Like, a bag of dirty douch water."

"That's... more than I wanted to know." Said Smokey.

"Well, you asked." Replied Rika.

A few moments of silence passed.

"I'm surprised you didn't have any input on that, Mallet." She added.

"I closed the net, Flatface. Shave doesn't want Brakes cheating by using it as a trace. Says the stakes are too high."

"Good idea."

"Thank you." Said Shepard.

"No prob-urrrg!"

The ship suddenly bucked up, smashing it's occupants under a heavy G-load. Points that were stars streaked into lines in the direction of the force. A piercing tone sounded, and Eve suddenly yelled as the Farrom 8 flashed its over-stress warning straight into the mind of every crew member. The G-load vanished instantly.

[FLATFACE! GET THOSE FUCKING LIMITS OFF ME!] Snarled Shave.

"SHIT! Sorry sir! On it!" Rika quickly brought up the appropriate menu. Shepard watched as what she assumed were numbers rapidly change and a series of illuminated bars shot up.

"Fixed sir. I'm terribly sorry about that. I'll set a reminder next time."

[Make sure you do that. Why are you still using english?]

"It puts our passenger at ease. Calm people are easy to handle people."

[Ah.]

"Is everything back to normal limits?" Asked Lost.

"Yes sir. I'm double checking now. Do you need the crunch drive up?"

"No. Just making sure you don't get in any more trouble than you already are."

"Thank you."

"What the hell was that?!" Asked Shepard, recovering her breath. "It's like I knew before the tone sounded the ship was about to break in half."

"Your jet has a voice that tells you when you're being shot at or the engine is on fire and the like, yes?"

"Yes. Aural warning system. It uses tones and a voice we call 'Bitching Betty'."

"We have a similar system, but it lets you know directly, so there is no processing of lights or voices or tones- even though we have those as a backup. Those fractions of a second processing them count. I had a G-limiter set so we didn't make shockwaves on accident when we were on Earth."

"So you adjusted the G-limiter on the fly."

"I did that and more," explained Rika. "I adjusted the max velocity, max force applied, top accelerations along all axis, power distribution. And that's not counting things like crunching and the HASS system."

"Hass system? Scrunching?"

"HASS stands for High Acceleration Survival System. The acronym is a bit different in rakken, but I think it translates well. How many G's do you think we pulled back there?"

"I'd say about four."

"Experience speaks. You felt about four. The farrom took about four thousand."

There were a few seconds of silence, during which there was another shove.

"That's impossible! How many that time?"

"Twenty thousand."

"...No way. It felt less than the first one. I'd say only about a two."

"That's because I removed the G limiter back to our structural limit of about two hundred kilo G's, and the feedback ratio changed with it."

"And feedback is the hass."

"Yes. It's like using artificial gravity in a practical sense instead of simply a crutch in sci-fi writing."

"And you had a limit of four thousand times the force of gravity while engaging us. One fiftieth of capabilities."

"Yep. We wanted to prevent shockwaves."

"And you can turn what you feel down by using gravity?"

"It's an interesting system, really. Complicated as hell, heavily redundant, and a bitch to work on."

"I can imagine. Can you make it so you feel nothing?"

She watched Rika fiddle with something, and suddenly felt like she would float out of her seat if her suit wasn't attached to it.

"I can actually make it so you feel whatever you want. Before I had it set so the base gravity matches that of Earth, but I can easily turn it back to the default Arlon strength. Want to feel it?"

"Sure."

Rika made some adjustments on her console and Shepard pressed back into it, feeling only slightly heavier than she did before.

"There. 10.1 newtons per kilogram. Not a big shift."

Eve shook hear head and lifted her feet out.

"Why does it feel lighter out there?"

"There is a cabin hass and seat hass system. The cabin has no redundancies and is for extended trips, protection from emergency maneuvers if you are out of your seat, etc. The cabin is still set to Earth gravity."

Eve suddenly felt a solid mash into her seat, then pulled towards the ceiling.

"Urgh." She grunted at the sudden changes before she settled back into 1 G.

"I can dial each seat up and down separately too. So if the WSO needs fine fire control I can just flatten his out at a constant but still leave the Pilot all the feedback he needs, but takes a lot of energy to null everything out."

"That's really, really cool." Said Eve, envisioning maneuvering without fighting to stay awake. "How does it work?"

"I can't tell you that, sorry. But-"

[Bandit, 115563 plane, 458991 south, 300 and closing.] Called Smokey.

"Fight's on Shep-!"

Immediately the cabin was thrown into chaos. Eve was no stranger to aerial combat, but this was just brutal. Instead of the familiar shoves, slams, and being thrown against her harness she was shaken like a rock in a can kicked off a mountain. The violence was ever changing in direction, or in most cases multiple directions. Occasionally she would see a red padlock float past her vision, but the blackness it surrounded was indistinguishable from the rest of space. In her ears she could hear the barks of Rika breathing against the G-forces.

Just as suddenly it stopped.

"Holy-*Gasp*-shit."

"Yeah," panted Rika. There were a few seconds of silence as the caught their breath.

"Did we get them?" Shepard asked.

"Not yet. We're just getting started. Shave is running now.."

"No kill on us?"

"Nope! We made contact, Shave had to act erratically in case they shot at us with a laser and then tried to get on them. In space distances are so large and speed so great you can actually dodge a laser shot, but you can't see where it's going or know you're targeted until you're hit -at least if your enemy is using passive targeting. Tack had the tactical advantage though, so now we are running, putting some distance between us to allow Shave to either get a laser shot or missile lock without being close enough for a Parthian. He's going to change vectors several times, while I am going to manage our heat levels, cooling in a way that doesn't broadcast our location."

There was a sudden jerk.

"See? Vector change."

"You can control cooling?" Asked Shepard.

"As in, no heat signature?"

"I can't completely get ride of our heat signature, but I can make it smaller, dissipating heat from accelerations away from our opponent and over a distance instead of making us look like a star on his sensors."

"Interesting."

There was another buffet.

"As soon as Shave get's into a good position hold on, because it'll get really violent again.

####

[FUCK! THAT CHEATING, LOW BELLIED SLIMEY PIECE OF-] Shave kicked the scuff plate. [FUUUUUCK!]

[Shit!] Said Smokey.

"Shave, you're going right for the... the," said Rika.

[I know! I don't have a choice! It's either that or he's got me!]

"I can't shut off! She'll see the cockpit!"

[Well we can't loose! Tack will blackmail the shit out of us!]

"I can pull my vision back inside the cockpit, but then she'll see! Someone make a call, [cockpit or Trisona?]"

[Cockpit!] Called Lost.

[NO!] Smokey yelled. [I have every vessel in the system pinged up here! 'Might as well give her a tour of the fleet! Trisona! Show her the fucking hornet's nest, it's better than the whole damn battle group!]

[We are so fucked.] Lost muttered to Rika. [You know they'll read her. The moment we pass overhead it's just as well Tack ran through he halls screaming it.]

"I know Lost. Ma'am, I'm really sorry for what you're about to see."

"Sorry to see what?" Asked Eve. There was a quiver of worry in her voice. "I can just close my eyes if-"

The broke over the horizon of Iona and there, basking in the moonlight in all of her massive glory, sat the Trisona in high orbit.

"-Oh. My. God." she whispered.

"To see that ma'am." Said Rika.

A section of farroms could be seen leaving the port bays, likely on patrol. Off her bow a group of Ekherb class fighters practiced maneuvers, and several flights of both types could be seen on returning and departing vectors.

"Is that a... a..." Eve stuttered. The sheer size of it was unlike anything she had seen. It made the Thomas Jefferson look like a canoe.

"Are hornets still carrier based ma'am?" Said Rika.

Eve shook herself out of it. "What? Oh, er, yes. Yes they are."

"Well," said Rika, "Farroms are a lot like Hornets. And I do mean a LOT."

[GRRRAAAAHHH!] Snarled Shave, punching the throttles into their stops. Everyone was shoved hard into the backs of their seats as he dropped their vector lower over the vessel.

[Shave,] said Lost, [You're going to move her closer.]

[She's already seen it,] Shave bit back, [At least this will slow that fucker back there down.]

[#Ghost two, Ghost home. Push Log package on 3-1-7.#]

"God damnit. They know." Smokey muttered. [Ghost home, Ghost two, log package pushed on 3-1-7.]

[#Receiving package, thank you Ghost two.#]

"Shit!" Said Rika.

[Flatface! Tail now!]

Rika jammed what looked like an Earth-style throttle grip all the way forward. Immediately she felt smashed into her seat as her console screen automatically flicked over to the power distribution and iron plasma display. Breathing was difficult, as every gasp in was akin to doing a push-up with the diaphragm.

"Still -uhn- hanging -uhn- inthere -uhn?"

"Yes -gasp- shit!"

"Tail -uhn- nojoke!"

"A.B-gasp-?"

"Sort -uhn- of. -Uhn- Fiftyfive -uhn- percent -uhn- leftShave." Rika called.

The vessel suddenly pitched up, and they were crushed into their seats.

[TAIL -gasp- OFF] Yelled Shave.

Rika ripped the lever back. Immediately the force back lessened, then the vessel rolled 180 degrees and pitched up again. They held for a moment, then the pitch stopped.

[Tail!]

Rika slammed the grip forward again, and once again they were crushed back and down into the seat again, with Shave once again pitching the vessel hard. A red padlock snapped by, overshooting as it blindly followed the trail of highly ionized iron particles their 'tail' had left behind. It didn't take Shave a moment to orient behind them.

[Trigger down.] Called Smokey.

The red padlock became an 'X' and there was a whoop of excitement, even from Shepard.

[#Ah! I thought you were heading around the planet!#]

[But you thought wrong!] Called Shave. [Amnesia setting in yet, Tack?]

[#Oh yeah, whole crew is coming down with it. Not like it'll do you much good from the sound of it.#]

[I'll take everything I can get at this point.]

[#Ghost two, this is Nest. You are clear for immediate landing in bay two six five, use closest vector.#] Said a cool voice from the Trisona.

[Ghost two copies; push bay two six five.]

"Immediate. Shit. They're pissed." Said Lost.

[#Oh you all are so fucked.#] Said Tack.

[Would you quit gloating you louse?]

"Smokey, can I have engineering channel again?" asked Rika.

"Yes! ... There. It's open."

"Thank you."

"What was all that about?" Asked Eve.

"Ghost four chased us into a corner, where we could either accept the kill or show you classified information AND be open to a scan from the Trisona. Obviously Shave chose the latter."

"Trisona? The carrier?"

"The carrier. You saw, which is better than seeing the active cockpit, and they scanned. They copied our log and we've been directed to land immediately in our unit's bay. They know what happened. They know you were hit by a truck. They know I disobeyed. They know Shave almost drowned his crew. They know you're here. They know you fished everyone out of the flood. They know what you saw."

"This isn't going to end well, is it."

"It will be ok ma'am. At the very worst you won't remember any of this and that's it, but what's far more likely is that they'll threaten to do that if you say anything, then take you to dinner, and then take you home. The four of us, on the other hand, will probably be spending most of this deployment in the brig."

"Nah." Broke in Smokey, "More likely just a heavy ass-chewing and long sweep patrol duty until we forget what it's like to be outside this star dart."

"Shave and Tack still at it?" Asked Rika.

"Oh yeah. You know how they go. I got tired of it so I switched here for a short break."

There were four clicks of a mic. Someone (probably Smokey) clicked two back.

"Brakes says channel is monitored." Said Mallet.

"That would be the real reason Smokey is here, then."

"A pelt can't fix a farrom. We need the rest of you to survive this ass-chewing too."

"Gee thanks. What do you think Shepard is in for?"

"Not sure." Said Smokey; "She hasn't done anything wrong, and she's not a prisoner, so it's not like she can be in trouble. Seeing as she's an officer from our host unit... they'll likely take her to the mess and give her a room for the night? Dunno. I doubt they'd do anything crazy like a wipe. She didn't see anything vital and it's not like we won't be right there if she decides to hold a press conference or something. I wouldn't worry Shepard. The hardest thing for you will be being surrounded by thousands of people that look like Flatface."

"So everyone looks like her when not visiting us."

"Yes." Said Smokey.

"Yep!" Said Mallet.

"The canine resemblance, yes" said Flatface, "As far as I know, I'm the only one that looks like a bipedal Maligator."

"So you're the only ones altered for our, what, comfort?"

"Everyone that goes to Earth I think... except Flatface."

"Why not you, Flatface?"

"The process that changes human to rakkan is one-way, and I'm not sure if that was on purpose or an accident. I think it has something to do with my change going much deeper than their fancy disguise."

"I see." Said Shepard. "So you really are human."

"I was, Everything under my fur now is as alien as alien can be. My organs, metabolism and the like are all rakkan. The only thing I kept unaltered was my mind."

"I see. So why was this developed? -The human to rakkan thing."

Rika shrugged, becoming aware that Eve had begun to fish. "I'm not entirely sure. A shallow gene pool? They apparently take volunteers from all over the universe to try and deepen it. Mallet's parents were Walkers, right?"

"Yeah. I was born after they chose to convert over. Oh! Flat face! Show her my ID for the det! It has both of my pictures on it. WAIT! Show her you bootcamp one!"

"Ugh, not that thing."

"I would like to see it Flat face." Said Eve.

Rika sighed and pulled it up on her PDA and transferred it to the display. A young lady with shoulder length brown hair and a scared expression on her face was next to a picture of the Rika that had hauled the pilot in earlier that evening.

"I saw your bad picture, so I guess it's only fair."

"...That was you."

"In the flesh and blood."

"That's really amazing. What was the change like?" Probed Shepard, "It must have been pretty long and complicated."

"It wasn't eas-"

"Oh no," interrupted Mallet, "it's pretty simple; just two injections, one right after the other." Rika planted her hand onto the forehead of her face-shield before trying to play it off as if she were resting her head on her hand. Mallet kept feeding Eve everything she wanted to know, and Rika didn't know how to stop her. "You feel like shit for a few days -Rika slept for two straight- and you have a big appetite, but that's it."

"That's not that bad," agreed Shepard. "Still to do something like that, it must cost a fortune to make one, let alone develop."

"I dunno," said Mallet, "but I imagine it-"

Silence. Then: "I have to take care of a few things, Tack thinks we took some impacts and I need to go inspect before we change velocity."

"Alright Mallet. Have fun." Said Rika

The channel went quiet and she gave a tired sighed, starting her pre-landing checklist.

"Oh Mallet," she muttered to herself.

It wasn't a few seconds before she heard Eve's voice again.

"She's not very good at being quiet about what she needs to be, is she?"

"Nope." Said Rika, "And the hardest part is shutting her up without letting people know when she's saying something important. I'm not one to talk though."

"In deed. Too bad she's gone. I was going to ask her what else was behind this deployment of yours. Maybe she could take some notes for me too... just in case I somehow forget this trip."

Rika snorted. "Yeah. We'll have her email them to you and CC your command."

"Seriously Rika, what is in store for your people, if you even consider us that anymore?"

"I am rakkan, ma'am. I have a family here that I could never have on Earth, and they have accepted me with warm welcomes and without judgment. Humanity is my parental species though; I will never forget that, and I will never cease to care about them. As for what is in store: who knows? The human race is in grave danger, -you already know from the last invasion, and the truths of what can be done about it are ones that many people might not want to face. Regardless, nobody works well with you when they feel intimidated. Yes, we have a carrier full of warbirds up here. We've had one up here ever since the first invasion; it's why they haven't come back. As for the transformation injections: Yes, they can change a human into a walking canine with nothing more than two shots and a couple of weeks. How do you feel knowing that we have that capability? If you were in our shoes, might you want to mitigate fear from both of these as much as possible when working with the people they affect? Turning humans into rakkan is not my unit's focus on Earth. Our purpose is to teach you about fighting Koaku."

"Which, after seeing how you go at each other, makes me think this training will be impossible."

"If going after a Koaku interceptor for us is like you engaging a MiG, how do you think we should behave in training you?"

"You... It's pointless. There is no way for us to even have hope in that match ...Unless that's the point."

Rika didn't answer. She sat in silence for a few seconds until she heard the officer start talking it over to herself.

"But if that's the point, it would... then we... our options are..."

Rika got out of her seat to prepare the back room of the vessel for landing upon the Trisona. Eve looked up at her as she walked by, and Rika could see the translucent image of her face and shadow of her body against the stars. Her face was basalt. When she spoke her voice was deep, and carried a tone Rika could only understand as fear driven by the power of anger.

"What are you planning to do to us?"

Rika stopped and looked Eve in the eyes.

"We are going to teach you what we know about fighting Koaku. From that you can come to your own conclusions and evaluate your own options. -But this is a conversation you should have with my commander, not one of his sergeants."

They continued on in silence, watching the enormous bulk that was the Trisona loom ever closer. Shepard had grossly underestimated the true size of the carrier, because just as she thought they were about the crash into the side they kept moving forward. Her mind began to race with progressively worse and worse scenarios of what was about to happen after they landed. As Rika reassumed her seat they turned onto the final vector to the bay and Eve realized that the small rectangle of light was actually the objective bay and not a window. Rika could hear her breath quicken pace.

"You'll be ok Eve, I promise."

"What are you talking about?" The navy pilot snapped.

"I don't have to pull biometrics to know you're scared when I can hear you breath. It's ok to be afraid. I was fucking terrified my first time coming here."

"What was that like?" Said Eve, eager to get her mind off the immediate situation while still garnishing any valuable intel she could.

"Well," Said Rika, "I got caught vandalizing and was arrested. I was slammed with a heavy fee- a hell of a lot more than I could come up with- and the threat of jail if I didn't pay it on time. My dad, who has always been a hard-ass, immediately paid the fine for me. I have never been so surprised in my life, but that wasn't the end of it. He took me on an evening hike with him, which was normal when he wanted to lecture me on something, but instead he tells me he slipped enlistment papers in with all that stuff he and the lawyer told me to read and sign. I thought it was bullshit until this huge thing blocks out the moon and all the stars overhead...

...So I grab Mallets hand, and I can feel she's shaking like a dog shittin' a peach pit!"

"She was afraid of you?"

"Terrified! You think the stuff we assume about aliens is horrible? The rumors about what humans are like are just as bad."

"Well... not sure if I'd call those rumors or not."

"There does seem to be a lot of truth in it." Rika watched as Shave set the vessel down on the bay deck. Beside them Rika could see the Farrom 10 land as well. "Well ma'am, here we are. If we aren't kicked from the deployment I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

Eve nodded, watching over her shoulder as the bay doors closed behind them and the area re-pressurized. Would she remember this when she returned to Earth?

Would she even be returned to Earth?

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