earshot, it was clear both ways.
"Well, I didn't want you to pick up any of
that stuff again. Also let's face it, the place stinks. I wouldn't
be surprised to find out that you can't get back in it for a couple
of days either. We don't want people to find out the real reason
it's been cleaned, do we?" The last I said more as I plea than a
request.
"Oh, okay." she grumbled "But don't try to be
nice, it makes it hard for me to keep planning my revenge."
"After this morning’s bite I was kind of
hoping you'd call it even."
"That evened out the shower," I winced as she
reminded me of that. "Everything else is still under
consideration."
With that we parted ways and I headed down to
the shuttle deck to pick up my gear, and see what they had planned
for us. Sure enough Gabe had been right, and on a Sunday too! Well
at least it was an easy duty day. I found an open terminal, and
sent a mail message to Balizar, telling him I thought I should take
care of Terease's training, as she had none. Hopefully he'd have it
on her schedule by the time she checked and I'd get away with that
little bit of a fib. Then I grabbed my stuff and headed for the
Simulator deck.
I found Ron grabbing the first unlucky
victims and setting them up for their runs. As there were only two
Simulators and eight crews it was going to take awhile. I looked
around for Rudy, and found him talking with Gabe and his WSO, Dave.
Dave was a gray wolf and about ten year's older then us, he stood
about five eleven, average for a Wolf actually. He was a pretty
good guy and even though he was one of the older hands he didn’t
mind hanging out with us. He also had been around quite a lot
apparently and was always a good source of information.
"Hey guy's what's up?"
"We are," said Rudy, "We got the next one in
about thirty minutes."
"Good, I hate waiting for these things."
"So, Gabe tells us you got a new
conquest?"
"The conquest part is still under debate,
she's a tougher nut to crack than you'd think."
"Oh?" said Gabe, "she seemed to be sitting
pretty close to you there at the table."
"I think that was due to your overpowering
presence Gabe, you just scared her into my arms!" I chuckled.
"Well, she looks pretty nice, a little
underfed though, there isn't anything wrong with her is there?"
Un-oh, I knew Gabe was pretty sharp, I was
afraid he might notice that. "Nah," I lied "it's her first
assignment and she was working so hard trying to make a good
impression, that she let herself get run down and caught some flu.
Then she felt like an idiot, so she wouldn't go see the med about
it. You know how the brainy types can be."
"Yeah, and combine that with one of you
stubborn Leopard types, and I can see where that'd happen. I guess
that explains why I haven't seen her before either."
"She came aboard the Engineering module while
we were all dirtside. If it hadn't been for the clan meeting, we
would never have met. She's still a little shy."
"Well if she sticks around you that'll
change," said Rudy. "One thing you aren't, and that's shy."
"Obnoxious is a little more like it." Said
Dave with a smile.
"To know me is to loath me, huh? Then how
come I get all the girls?"
"When we figure that one out we'll all be
rich," quipped Rudy "come on, lets review some of this stuff just
in case. It's our first EP sim together so you know they're gonna
lay on the team work stuff pretty heavy."
I agreed with him on that so we sat down and
started to run down everything that was in the manual and even
practiced a few of the more common things just to tune up our team
work.
Much later as I headed back to my room, I
thought about the sim session we had just completed. I hadn't done
too poorly, and neither had Rudy. Dave though had to do a speech on
the two-man ejection sequencer, after he bailed out and left an
‘unconscious’ Gabe behind.
I found Terease sitting on my bed as I
entered my quarters; she was looking at my family pictures, the
group photo and the photo of
"Well, I didn't want you to pick up any of
that stuff again. Also let's face it, the place stinks. I wouldn't
be surprised to find out that you can't get back in it for a couple
of days either. We don't want people to find out the real reason
it's been cleaned, do we?" The last I said more as I plea than a
request.
"Oh, okay." she grumbled "But don't try to be
nice, it makes it hard for me to keep planning my revenge."
"After this morning’s bite I was kind of
hoping you'd call it even."
"That evened out the shower," I winced as she
reminded me of that. "Everything else is still under
consideration."
With that we parted ways and I headed down to
the shuttle deck to pick up my gear, and see what they had planned
for us. Sure enough Gabe had been right, and on a Sunday too! Well
at least it was an easy duty day. I found an open terminal, and
sent a mail message to Balizar, telling him I thought I should take
care of Terease's training, as she had none. Hopefully he'd have it
on her schedule by the time she checked and I'd get away with that
little bit of a fib. Then I grabbed my stuff and headed for the
Simulator deck.
I found Ron grabbing the first unlucky
victims and setting them up for their runs. As there were only two
Simulators and eight crews it was going to take awhile. I looked
around for Rudy, and found him talking with Gabe and his WSO, Dave.
Dave was a gray wolf and about ten year's older then us, he stood
about five eleven, average for a Wolf actually. He was a pretty
good guy and even though he was one of the older hands he didn’t
mind hanging out with us. He also had been around quite a lot
apparently and was always a good source of information.
"Hey guy's what's up?"
"We are," said Rudy, "We got the next one in
about thirty minutes."
"Good, I hate waiting for these things."
"So, Gabe tells us you got a new
conquest?"
"The conquest part is still under debate,
she's a tougher nut to crack than you'd think."
"Oh?" said Gabe, "she seemed to be sitting
pretty close to you there at the table."
"I think that was due to your overpowering
presence Gabe, you just scared her into my arms!" I chuckled.
"Well, she looks pretty nice, a little
underfed though, there isn't anything wrong with her is there?"
Un-oh, I knew Gabe was pretty sharp, I was
afraid he might notice that. "Nah," I lied "it's her first
assignment and she was working so hard trying to make a good
impression, that she let herself get run down and caught some flu.
Then she felt like an idiot, so she wouldn't go see the med about
it. You know how the brainy types can be."
"Yeah, and combine that with one of you
stubborn Leopard types, and I can see where that'd happen. I guess
that explains why I haven't seen her before either."
"She came aboard the Engineering module while
we were all dirtside. If it hadn't been for the clan meeting, we
would never have met. She's still a little shy."
"Well if she sticks around you that'll
change," said Rudy. "One thing you aren't, and that's shy."
"Obnoxious is a little more like it." Said
Dave with a smile.
"To know me is to loath me, huh? Then how
come I get all the girls?"
"When we figure that one out we'll all be
rich," quipped Rudy "come on, lets review some of this stuff just
in case. It's our first EP sim together so you know they're gonna
lay on the team work stuff pretty heavy."
I agreed with him on that so we sat down and
started to run down everything that was in the manual and even
practiced a few of the more common things just to tune up our team
work.
Much later as I headed back to my room, I
thought about the sim session we had just completed. I hadn't done
too poorly, and neither had Rudy. Dave though had to do a speech on
the two-man ejection sequencer, after he bailed out and left an
‘unconscious’ Gabe behind.
I found Terease sitting on my bed as I
entered my quarters; she was looking at my family pictures, the
group photo and the photo of
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