Hadley listened and tried to understand as Demaar tried to explain to her what Ni'en was. "so your telling me because of the opposition I have faced and over come to get where I am now has added to my Ni'en potential? that each time I turn an enemy into a friend I am only adding to this power you feel I have?" she was trying to understand what this Alien was saying to her but she felt like a little kid who had demanded of an adult to talk to her in adult terms only to not understand them at all. if this was how her ship and her suit were powered Hadley did not think that they would be gaining any new tech from this new race any time soon. but if she played her cards right they might be able to lean from her and improve their own tech so that they could keep people alive better then they had for this long. each time they met some one new the higher ups always saw the possibility of what weapons could come out of it but when she had dreamed of making first contact she had dreamed of the med tech they might get from it.

as Xeriahalt shrink away from Hadley sadness filled her eyes. did Xeriahalt race find modding of ones body a sin against the powers that might be? "I will tell her that you did not mean anything by your reaction to her arm, i think she will not be offended once she knows that you were just trying to assess if it was going to harm you at the moment we came towards you. she is much more likely to understand you in that matter then I will. " looking at Xeriahalt she tried to make it clear that she was not offended. "I hope that my mods do not offend Xeriahalt and your race, It is one of the worry's of some of the politicians. that a new race would find me offensive for changing my body so that I might survive in a place my race was never intended to go. none of my mods are for attack purposes, I believe all those Genies have been removed from the general population and found jobs that would suit their natures without putting the rest of humanity in harms way." she knew that she sounded cold and unfeeling to speak of the X3's that way but they were a danger to any one but their own kind, they had made it quite clear and humanity in its fear had placed them in a squad in the army and just let them kill as seemed to be their nature. no human was allowed to breed with them but they were allowed to find love among the X3's. when she had first heard of them she had thought it cruel but then she had talked to a few of them and found that they seemed to like little to no contact with humans or other Genies.

"so you have no pain when it comes out of your chest like that?" realizing that her questions might also be called rude to Xeriahalt's race she blushed. "I am sorry I should not be rude about this. I only want to understand but then just as you did not know about me being a Genie and how rude it was to bring that up I do not know what is rude for your people. What do you call yourselves?" watching her create the light from her chest and then changing that into the tiny crystal Hadley's eyes grew large with surprise as she reached out again to take the tiny crystal. "how long does it take for one to lean how to control the Ni'en? to make it into these..." her voice cut off as Xeriahalt Collapsed Hadleys hand catching her hand that held the crystal. "so she can push herself to far with this energy. is there any thing that would help her build back her strength safely and quickly? I would hate for her to stay weak just to try to indulge my curiosity. is there a way for us to help her gain our language faster? maybe give her access to vids about all the things that have happened in our history?"

"At this point, she needs rest and sustenance until her body can operate at capacity. Normally such actions would not place a strain on her body. But she is still in quite a weakened state." Demaar responded. The doctor had approached again, this time to help make the girl comfortable, she certainly wasn't trying to kill him now. He set aside most of the strange clothing, but left the headpiece close-by, figuring it was probably important to her to have a direct line with the ship itself, or whatever that thing was. Once he'd brought the covers up over the girl again he returned to his notes, there was an incredible amount of things to learn about this new race, especially this extraordinary power they called Ni'en.

"In regards to your physical modifications." Demaar added for Hadley's benefit, "There is not a single one of our kind born without standard subsets of genetic modification being passed on. This definition of pureblood is a historical concept for our people. Our reasoning for this unified transformation is our own, suffice to say; the fact that you have genetic modifications is a mundane concept by our perspective, if you'll pardon my dismissal of it. These people you call Genies would be quite accepted in our society, seamless additions or adjustments to existing modifications would even be offered. Modification of ones self is a part of our culture, the young will often change their appearance to suit their preferences. In contrast to this, Xeriahalt has kept what you could consider her natural appearance from birth."

Once he was finished explaining this, Demaar had to consider what more he could explain, the cultural differences between their people made it very clear that in spite of their similarities physically, they were definitely alien to one another,
"There is a method for teaching Xeriahalt my understanding of your language quickly. But I will not propose it to her until she is in a better condition, it is stressful on the mind and may cause irreparable damage in her current state, it can be almost guaranteed to cause harm. Ideally; she should try to learn it on her own."

Thinking about how noisy this room could be during most of the time Hadley debated having her moved now before she really suffered from lack of sleep or anything like that. “would it be safe for us to move her now to a privet room?” she was not asking the doctor this but Demaar, she knew the doctor would say that he wanted her under his surveillance but she felt that Demaar would know a lot better if she was safe to move, having once in a way been one of her race and having a link to her as he seemed to. “I feel that it might be better to move her to a quitter place that will give her the rest she needs. I want her to feel comfortable here not like she is a lab rat.” She hoped that that idiom would translate well enough that he would understand. She knew that some on board would want her in the brig if not here in the sick bay but she wanted her to feel more comfortable not a prisoner.

“your telling me that any of the Genies would be accepted by your race without any problems?” she sounded surprised that there was a place out there in the stars where her and her kind would be accepted without a thought about what they might do. A part of her longed to just hop in the pod and asked it to take her there. Escape all the pressure of this job and the people back at home base that put all the road blocks up between her and her dream. “would they allow us to do what we want or would we be treated like second rate citizens? Even through we are not the same race your kind would accept us?” looking down at the sleeping form of Xeriahalt she marveled at the natural beauty of this race. “she had not changed her form in any way? Is this how her race looked before they started to modify themselves? I know that when her picture hits the net there are going to be humans clambering for the beauty mod to look like her.” Reaching out she gently pushed a strand of hair out of her face.

“is there a way you could teach me her language?” Hadley’s voice was distance as she thought of all the things that it would help if she knew how to speak this beauty’s language. “it might improve your knowlage of our language if there was a way. I would say I could broadcast our full language database to you but you seemed not to have caught it when we went to pick you up.” Any thought of Language left her mind as Hunger came in calling for the doctor as one of his pilots leand on him blue blood slowly seeping from a wound below his second set of arms.

“doctor Xa’De needs your attention.” Seeing the captain he nodded stiffly to her then went back to moving the pilot Xa’De to one of the beds nearby. “there was an exsplosion in his ships controls, I think it got hit with a stray round and just could not take it.” His voice was filled with worry for the young Terrasite who was now bleeding on the bed. Hadley could see the pain clear on Xa’de’s face as he slowly moved both sets of arms out of the way of the doctor so he could get in at the burns and cuts.

"She would be capable of surviving without medical assistance at this point, she needs food and rest." Demaar responded from the crystal headset. He wondered about what he'd said about being accepted, it wasn't entirely correct to say they would be accepted. As a people, the ones known as Genies would not be shunned, but the hierarchy of their people was reliant on their abilities with Ni'en as well as other factors. Perhaps he had been a little careless in describing it,
"Your people would not be judged for their modifications, but there are positions of power in our hierarchy that you cannot fulfill. It is an aspect of our culture. If you bear us no ill-intent, we offer no ill-intent. It is a little difficult to explain in its entirety. We come from a once-agrarian society with traditional values. By necessity; we learned to go to war. But we prefer peace and the pursuit of knowledge."

When the question was asked about Xeriahalt, Demaar realized she misunderstood him yet again,
"Incorrect. All of our people are born with an inherited subset of modifications. In essence, our genetic modifications have become inborn traits of our people. Xeriahalt is an example of the closest thing you will find to a pureblood as you call it. Modifications have been hardwired to the entirety of our genetic code, it would take several generations to root them out, if we even cared to."

Again the Captain was insistent about translations and language, but Demaar's response likely would have taken the wind out of her sails regarding it,
"The process I would offer to Xeriahalt would likely not work, or at worst, destroy your mind. I will not condone any chance of harming you." He replied sternly, of course his reasoning for it was a little deeper than that, after all, he was able to observe Xeriahalt's speech and see patterns in it that suggested the young woman had taken a liking to the Captain in the brief time they spoke. Demaar remained silent once the new patients entered the bay. He would not speak again while there were unknowns about.

"is there anything, any chemicals compound that she can not have to ingest? I would hate for her to get sick or even die because of the food we give her. the doctor seems to think we are close enough in physical make up that it should not be a problem but I would like to make sure that notching happens to her." lifting up each item of her clothes carefully she ready to take her out of the room while the others had to be delta with by the doctor. over the last few days she had spent many a nights trying to think of the best place to put their new guest where she could be safe but not seen as a threat to any of the others on the ship. at one point she had even thought of giving up her cabin but her Stewart had made it quite clear that it would be against the regulations.

"I kind of guess that we would not be completely accepted..." she said then she smiled as a thought occurred to her. "is the reason we would not be allowed in the positions of power because we cant use Ni'en? part of me want to think that you would allow those that had been born into your society that learned how to handle Ni'en?" it would make sense that they would not want a man or woman that was of a different race that did not know the traditions of them. "I would not blame your race for that."

"so she is like me, all her mods are from her family and from before her birth." smiling she started to make sure she had everything that would be needed to take with her to the room she had set up. "I dont believe that you could ever get my genes back to pureblood as they call it, no matter how many generations you tried to breed it out. I would love to see some of the many different genigices that they have on your home world. there had been talk about humans creating winged Genies to deal with some of the places that humans have recently landed on." what she did not say was that there also was talk of creating them to fight the Buggers that had wings, or so she had heard. she had never been on the front lines so she did not really know if there was any with wings. all the ones she saw in the Vids were walking.

pulling the blankets back she placed her suit and Demaar's connection band onto her chest as she lifted her up and carried her out like she weighed less then a baby. "is there a way you could teach me some of the words? I know it would take time but if we could work on both her vocabulary and mine. I would think that it would make this move alot faster once we got more words in common." the doctor was to busy with Xa'da so he did not see her carry her away from the sick bay. moving through the halls she could feel the ship hum as it switched through the bandways. they would be at their next check point in a few hours if she was guessing correctly. the room she had provided for Xeriahalt was a few doors down from hers, her Stewart having made sure that there would be no problems with its original occupant. the door opened to revile a living area and a door that entered into a smaller bedroom. setting her down on the bed gently she smiled. "dont worry this is a privet room no one else will be entering here but me. I am going to have the computer keep an eye on her so I can be updated when she wakes back up." gently pushing Xeriahalt hair out of her face she smiled down at her, before hanging up her suit acrossed the room and setting the headband next to her on an end table. she could not understand why but she wanted to keep this young woman all to herself for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"commander we had an accident on the flight deck, Xa'Da was wounded and is now being taken care of by the doctor. " Hunter said into his com as he watched the doctor try to stop the bleeding of Xa'Da, he was so worried about him, Xa'Da's race having a second heart near that point in their body. he hoped that he would not be lost dew to blood loss

"When she is in good health, I would advise against anything excessively sweet, or anything that is liable to increase her blood pressure. She becomes.. Slightly insufferable." He seemed to choose his words carefully on that one, only because it was difficult to deal with Xeriahalt when she allowed herself to get hyperactive. Even as a machine with the thoughts of a once-living man, he could get irritated when the girl would not listen or calm down. He was often tempted to call her a child because of that very childlike attitude of hers.

While she was naive and prone to simplistic and sometimes spontaneous behavior, the only reason he obeyed her at all was that she had the right idea in coming to this place, or at least her heart was definitely in the right place in this matter. Their mission was a difficult one to explain,
"My translations have given me a term for which you may refer to Xeriahalt's species, she is of Deltan. The memory placed inside this vessel was also Deltanian, as explained." He added calmly, keeping careful attention on the woman, he could sense her through Xeriahalt's devices, but he didn't sense anything he could consider hostile.

"Our society runs on a balanced principle of strength and wisdom. What you would consider our military is democratic, however we still follow a single leader." Demaar began to explain, he supposed it would help her to gain some insight into their society, so that she could perhaps understand why it would have been difficult to gain a place of power, "When new leadership is decided on by the people, the leader and their twelve subordinates resign. They put forward favored candidates for new leadership, many more stand outs are then chosen. All candidates are then subjected to equivalent tests involving intelligence, wisdom and Ni'en power."

Demaar scanned the room quietly for a moment, there didn't seem to be anything too dangerous, but it didn't hurt to be careful,
"As the candidate numbers are reduced through failures, they are lowered to thirteen. These last thirteen at this point would then locate to an uninhabited planet and do combat. Killing is considered failure, the fallen is honored, the one who kills is exiled and two of the highest failing candidates are given an opportunity to prove themselves. They endure in non-fatal combat, watched by their people through fellow PSI such as myself, until the strongest of them takes their place as the new leader. The remaining twelve become their subordinates and the ruling body. The previous ruling body stands as their advisers or aid in matters of education or military training, or they simply retire, but that does not happen often." There was a brief pause, then he spoke once more,
"Xeriahalt was a failed candidate for the current ruling body, however when given the opportunity to partake in the final test, she chose to refuse, an action that struck quite a sour chord among the Deltanian's, it was an honor none had ever refused before. She told me that she failed of her own volition and explained why she refused to take the place of the fallen, but it is not my place to go into more details without her consent. However, I agreed with her decision and swore on my existence to protect her. I feel I have done an inadequate job in that regard.. Especially to have allowed her to get into this state."

------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm already on my way, the techs are having a look at his ship." Christine responded sharply, she was always watching the fighters, in some way or form, keeping tabs on them. It wasn't because she was waiting for them to screw up, but because she wanted to look after them, look for an opportunity to join them, think of ways to improve their training. Her cautious nature had lead her to believe it wasn't just some accident, at least not a direct accident.

When they got their fighter units, Christine had inspected every single one, but the thing about these ones was they were old, they had glitches that could be worked around. But still, she knew that sooner or later this would happen, old models, old replacement parts, faulty programming, sooner or later one of these would give. And she was right.

As the doors to the med bay opened, she could be heard yelling into her com,
"-sing on us without the courtesy of even attempting to call it rain! I want a direct line to the requisitions so I can tell them myself! I will get every single damn fighter on this ship overhauled, even if I have to do it myself." She turned off the device and stepped into the berth, but she didn't approach too far, instead staring in the direction of Xa'de, practically stone-faced. Her eyes flicked to Hunter then, but she remained stoic, waiting for him to approach instead.

“and what would you call excessively sweet?” pulling her braid forward she ran her fingers through the end of it as she tried to think. “there are some that would say that a single drop of sugar is to sweet and there are others that think it is only to sweet when you have 120 grams of sugar. There are so many different peoples ideas of what is to sweet.” She had never truly understood what people meant when they said to sweet as for her anything that was sweet was near to too sweet.

“I will make sure that it is on record for your race name. I understood that your memorys were from a member of the same race and until I understand what you really are I am going to treat you as if your another member of her race that is speaking to me through a communications device.” She hated to have to simplafie him down to just another of Xeriahalt’s race speaking from a distant place.

As she listened to Demaar talk about how their government worked she realized that it would take a long time for them to fully reach an understanding of each other’s systems of government. Even though they were both based off a form of democracy. The government of earth was now a three party based system. You had the military party, who’s leaders were picked from the high ranking officers by the representatives of the other two parties then voted on by the upper ranked officers who were not in the running. You had the house of Lords, which was a hold out from the long ago monarchy’s that had dotted the worlds they had landed on. The leader of that party was chosen by merits. The final party was the house of commons who were each representatives of their districts voted in by the people of their districts, who would then be chosen by their peers to be voted on by the people for who would be the leader of the party. It was through the house of commons that it was believed that a nobody could gain great power. But in Hadley’s eyes it was through the military party that power was the easiest to achieve.

“she gave up her chance of being a leader or adviser to the leader of your people to come out here?” Hadley Harrington was stunned and surprised that anyone would give up the chance to help change their worlds just to go off into the unknown. “she must have had a really good reason to come out here, and I don’t think that you did that bad of a job. You have been out in space for how long?” thinking about how each planet had different time cycles she moved about the room trying to think of how to explained an hour to this alien race. “you two have been in our care for four days now, each day is divided into twenty four hour sets.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunter watched the doctor and his assistant move around Xa’De like an detailed dance. He was worried for his friend and not just one of his best pilots. The doubled set of hands made him a perfect asset to any fighting wing. His quick reaction time only made him move valuable.

When Christine walked in yelling into her com he sighed. She would get to the bottom of what had happened. “commander, I don’t know what has been reported to you yet. We were running our usual training run and during one of the attacks on his ship a training round hit his side panel. Next thing we know he is being ejected and the ship goes into a tail spin. I was able to pick him up in moments but the ship had to be chased down. Last I headed they had it in the bay and the techs were going over it.” Looking back he worried that the shrapnel and the spacing had done damage to his second heart. “Xa’de was hit below his second set of arms, near his second heart. I am worried that his heart was damaged in the explosion.”

"I am a Pilot Support Interface, I am a machine with the experiences of a living Deltanian. That man is dead, any emotional attachments he might have had to any particular thing are long gone. His experiences and personality are all that remain. It does not matter what happens to me, so long as Xeriahalt lives." Demaar replied rather sternly, the man whose memories he gained was always a rather straightforward and blunt individual, not the kind to mince words or play to niceties, it was probably the only kind that could effectively watch out for some-one like Xeria,
"I have already monitored the chronological devices on your vessel. Your Earth Standard Time of twenty-four hour increments differs to our own, converting it to your terms would suggest our planet takes thirty-one hours to complete a revolution and four-hundred and seventeen point twenty of your days to orbit our local stars. Our time spent traveling thus far came to four years, seventy-five days, twenty-one hours and seventeen minutes. The last two I have spent keeping Xeriahalt's body functional, we were reaching critical levels, but she calculated that risk." There was a brief pause before Demaar continued, "Incidentally, by your time measurements, Xeriahalt is effectively fourty-three years old. By our standards; she is barely entering adulthood."

Demaar fell silent again, returning to his calculations, there was still some translation issues, the human language had so many unusual variations and uses for single words that he was finding difficult. He was still gathering data. His sensors had recently noticed the failure in the ships that were training outside, but he couldn't get a clear scan of their systems, it was mostly curiosity.



The Commander folded her arms, still staring quietly at Xa'De, she didn't need to tell the doctor to take care of him, at this point any information about Xa'De's health was not going to help her, but if anything happened to him she was going to light a fire under some asses back home. Ever since finding Xeriahalt and their ship, they had turned around, away from the black, back into the unexplored territories on the fringes of their galaxy.

Thinking about it, it seemed that the ship had been heading toward their galaxy, so did it come from another? That was the only possible conclusion she could make about it. She stared calmly at Hunter then,
"Until Xa'de can rejoin your flight, you're going to be a man short. I'm reassigning Palmer to your flight, he's a kid, but he's capable. We're due extra pilots, I'll be checking the dossiers before we hit port." Palmer was as Christine said, a kid, or at least the youngest pilot on the crew, he was bright, but inexperienced, eager to prove himself. Hunter could look after him.

She frowned a little, balling her fist up and covering her mouth as she started to think hard, even if Xa'De lived, she was going to force them to fix up the fighters or provide a new flight, even if it took bludgeoning her way through politics, she'd find a way.

“the Daltanians call you a Pilot Support Interface, or do they call you by the name of the Daltanian that you once were? You do not worry about you being turned into an experiment?” Hadley wondered if maybe she should just stop asking questions of the computer as she seemed to be keep misunderstanding it. She was trying to understand but there were just things that did not seem to be working for them. Raising her eyebrows she looked surprised. “you have kept her alive for over four years? Your races skills are quite good to have kept her alive for that long. I do not believe our pods could keep me alive for that long and I have been adapted to need less oxygen if I have to. I find her a very brave individual and visionary.” Gently running her hand down Xeriahalt arm as she tucked her into the bed she smiled. “I cannot wait to get to know her better. For any woman that would risk her life just to find other life out in the universe is someone I want to get to know.” With that she turned and walked from the room back to her cabin.

So it was a surprise for her to find flashing on her screen as she entered her room a report of an explosion in one of the fighters. Yes it was true that they had cheep ships and yes it was true that her repair men had to do some corner cutting to make sure they had all their fighters working but she did not believe that it was their fault this time for the problem. It was the cheap parts they were getting shipped in to start with.

Hitting her com button she turned back out of the room and walked quickly down the hall ways to the Fighter bay. She wanted a look at this problem ship before they could do anything major to it. “Commander what is this report on my vid about an explosion in one of the fighter ships? Did we have any deaths to report?” she tired to keep the tone of worry out of her voice as she tried not to run. This was one of her many nightmares that drove her from sleep each night. The only thing that would make it worst would be the lose of life or a second one going off as she arrived in the bay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Commnder permission to speak freely.” Hunter stood at attention now knowing that what he had to say next could be the making or braking of his chances to be promoted from here. But he knew that he could not just stay quite when he was worried about what would happen to his men. “I do not feel that it is time to be changing up the flight. I know that from a military stand point it is a wise move but something about this feels wrong and I don’t want to be bringing in others when I am not sure why the ship went up in the first place.” Looking back at Xa’de he sighed, he had never thought to lose his second best gunner in the flight to a broken ship. Now he did not even know if he would be seeing Xa’De’s oddly comforting large smile.

"I may hold his name, but I recognize that I am not the same entity, his personality and memories were simply a matrix that turned me from a blank entity to something with more personality and experience. A stone is still a stone, even if you are to carve words upon it." Demaar responded. He had long accepted what he was, "In my experience, however, Xeriahalt has proved to have an enlightened personality, at least amongst our people." He added when the captain commented about wanting to know more. It would be a worthwhile endeavor to get to know her, he was certain.

"And if the Traskann attack? What excuse will you give them for being a man short of a full wing? It's a risk we're going to have to take," She replied sternly, the Commander wouldn't budge on a decision, nor did she want to endanger a life but they needed a full fighter wing. If they went out with an incomplete wing, their performance would be lessened and it would also be a sign to the enemy that the fighters were in a bad state, "The techs will look at it and if necessary; I will too," She added, tying to reassure Hunter. She didn't want to put any of her pilots in those flying deathtraps, but they had to suck it up and bear it, "Take Palmer, that's an order, Hunter. He needs the flight time and the experience." She repeated herself, just to make sure it was clear, but stared at him as she was about to walk out,
"And tell everyone to pray for Xa'De," She added, exiting the berth as quickly as she had entered, now that this had happened she had to scramble to get things done, the techs would be taking detailed scans and pictures as evidence and submitting their reports, and if it was a malfunction due to faulty resources, she would cram it so far down the throats of the paper-pushing desk jockeys back home, they'd think they were born recycling units.

As her comms activated, she heard the Captains voice, raising her hand to the side of the head,
"No deaths yet, but if anything happens to Xa'De, there's going to be more than one to report back home when I get my hands around their necks." The Commander replied sharply, irritation clearly on her voice, everyone here was family, Hadley and Christine were the mother bears, although Christine was certain she expressed her frustration a lot more while Hadley kept things calm. It was practically good cop bad cop but Christine was sure Hadley could really put the screws to people if need be.
They could always talk to Admiral Ishimura too. If there was a man they could trust, it was probably him, especially when he was willing to put Hadley at the head of his old ship. She could bet even he was looking for some way to help them, even now, once he got word of this situation; she doubted even he would keep an absolutely cool demeanor,
"How's our guest?" She asked, if only to get her mind off the issues at hand momentarily. She'd heard that the alien girl had woken up. The life pod had taken to talking to whoever was nearest int he cargo bay, light conversation, simple questions, but most people were just as creeped out by a living, talking ship as she was so the conversations didn't last.

And there was something else they would have to deal with, the fact that they had an unregistered.. No.. Two unregistered life-forms on their ship, neither had gone through quarantine and would definitely be considered possible threats. If they learned about this back home, there was a chance they would suggested that the fighters were sabotaged somehow by the unknown technology of the ship or the girl somehow did it. Their unusual energy signature too, that could also be blamed. And it would all be wrong, but they would use it as an excuse regardless of the truth.

"if the Traskann’s attack I would rather be one man short and working in harmany then to be a full wing with one cog that is not working well with the rest.” Hunter said more matter of fact then trying to persuade her. He knew that if she gave the order that she was not going to back down but he really did not like having to take a new person into the wing after they had just gotten used to each other. The kid would feel like an outsider when he should be part of the team. “we have worked out attack formations that work well if we are down one man, even two men. Please let the wing go without him, let us prove that we can work well one man down.” Looking back at Xa’De Hunter sighed. “IF he dies we can take the kid on. But if we take him on now and Xa’De recovers then what happens to the kid? Its better if you just put him into the second wing then put him with us.” Sending a Pray upward he hoped that Xa’De did not die from this attack.

Reaching the main fighter hanger Hadley looked around trying to find the ship with the damage. She planed on talking to Chris alone about their guest privately and not over the coms when they had time. When she reached the ship the extent of the damage was stunning to her. Never before had she seen such heat warping of metal before. The whole side shield plate was ripped and twisted from the attack. She could not see how Xa’De had survived this much damage and still be alive.

“evening captain.” One of the bay techs said as he walked up and saluted her. “come to check on the ship have you? Not sure we bay techs know what we are doing?” he said jokingly. It was well known among the bay techs that while Hadley allowed them to do their job with little to no interference most other captains would second guess their bay crews and try to make sure the work was done properly.

“came to see how much this was going to cost me and my ship.” Walking back and forth from one side to the other she tried to see how the round had ripped into the side of the ship. “I don’t see how this round took out the whole side shielding, have you found the cause yet?” when the man shook his head she sighed. “I want to know if it was a matenance problem or a manufacturing problem.” In that she was much different than most captains. Few if any would admit that it could have been a manufacturing problem. They never wanted to admit that their perfect Navy yards could make mistakes. Yet Hadley had seen some of those Navy yards from the workers view and knew that they did not always fallow their orders to perfection when they were rushed.

Chris put her palm over her com device a moment and glared at Hunter,
"Hunter. Shut. Up. This isn't the time for your insubordination." She stated simply, it didn't matter how many other officers he didn't get along with, even her, orders were orders, if you couldn't follow them you were screwed, "Reality check for you right now. What if Xa'De dies? You'll need a new wing-man anyway. So suck it up, take the kid and make him a part of the team. Oh and in case you conveniently forgot, I was the one who stuck you all together in the first place and what were you like? A bunch of idiots who couldn't work together worth a damn, with a cocky one-man show taking up position as the Ace. Oh right, that was you. So for all you know, Palmer might surprise you and be just as good as Xa'De or work well with you regardless of your time with him. We're a ship full of long-shots and now you think you have the weight to say you don't want to give some-one else a chance?"
She prepared to lift her hand from the com device, but instead gave Hunter one last sharp glare,
"If you've got anything else stupid to say, now is the perfect time to keep it to yourself, I've got more important things to deal with than childish whining from a grown man. Like making sure the rest of our fighters wont suddenly blow up in your faces." With that the woman stormed off, for good, uncovering the comms. For once could that idiot just listen and do what he was told? Maybe not, but he didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. It was going to be up to him to welcome Palmer to the group, if he couldn't manage that, then Christine was clearly going to have to change the rosters around until there was no more of this bullshit we work better by ourselves mentality. All the flights on a warship had to work perfectly together, all the pilots had to adapt or their potential for the future would be stunted.

It didn't take Christine long to get to the flight deck herself, saluting the Captain quickly before she got closer to the damaged ship. If it was her own life, she didn't care about the risk of another explosion, these things didn't exactly pack much explosive force on their own anyhow, but when you were in the cockpit.. Well, you were shit out of luck. She stared thoughtfully up at the broken machine, her face an absolute mask of fury. Stress had been piling on to her lately. so much so that she took a step back and leaned on the handrail raising her still-human hand to her head, grumbling to herself in annoyance. Couldn't Hunter see that she was trying to do this for the best?

Unappreciative bastard. It wasn't like she was declaring Xa'De dead already, but it was better now than later. Even if Xa'De survive, that wound was going to need full, proper treatment not to mention recovery time. Sure there was decent medical care under the doctors hands but an injury like that could not only be crippling, depending how much it damaged, it could be worse. She dropped her hand from her face, gripping at her shoulder, head lowered. She knew exactly the kind of impact a truly crippling injury could have on the victim. The amount of confidence in ones own abilities being shaken in a single instant.

She took a moment to breath and looked at the ship again, especially where the warping had occurred. Strange, for a moment it seemed to her like the metal was bent completely outwards. If she was seeing this right. Normally when an explosion was caused by an exterior shot, at least some of the metal would still have bent inward, to reveal the impact point of a penetrating shot. Yet the still-present edges were all bent outwards, even the burnt-out interior compartment.
Was this an act of sabotage? It was only a brief glance, so perhaps she was imagining things..

Hunter about ready to replay to her accusation of insubordination bit his lip and saluted her. “yes SIR! Right away SIR!” turning to look back at Xa’De he sighed and walked out of the sick bay. Why is it she cant realize that the only reason we work well together is because we all did not know each other when she put us all together. We each had to lean how the other thought. A young kid like that with no exspierance is going to be swallowed up by us and if he does not crack under the pressure then he is going to become a yes man. Always fallowing one of us around and taking our every order. Hunter had seen it happen one to many times with young men that were place in the main wing for their first wing. They developed hero worship and from there it became ether resentment or servitude. Had she not seen the likes when she ran her last wings?

Walking into his wings bunk room he sighed as all eyes looked to him for the answers. “men I don’t know if or when he is going to be back but our honored commander has requested we all pray to whatever powers we worship that he be returned to us safe and whole again. She sends her pride in us and she informs me that she will personally look into this accident.” Using his fingers he formed quotation marks around the word. “and see that none like this have a chance to happened again. She worries that Xa’De will be out for some time…” before he could talk the wing broke out in anger shouts as they realized what he was about to say. Even though they did not know who the replacement was they knew that poor Xa’De had been removed from their wing. When he did return he would not be allowed to take the new guys place for by then they should be working well enough together that it would only disrupted the wing a second time. “SILENCE!!!” His voice cut through the bubbling sounds to the point that a pin could be heard if it dropped. “I understand you concerns and I did bring them up to her, she understands your concern and will do what she can to minimize the impact for now we will be welcoming Palmer to our berth and wing.” The sounds that came from around the room made it clear that he was going to have to go one on one to deal with the brewing insubordination. If this blew up in the commanders face the records would show that he would try his best to stop it.

As Hadley reviewed the footage for the third time she noticed that Chris had walked in. the way she was holding herself Hadley knew that something was up. “evening Chris, did the doctor say anything?” she said as she walked over and laid her hand on Chris’ shoulder in a comforting manner. She hated it when her friend was hurting and after their fight when Xeriahalt came in she had been watching Chris laying on more stress each day. Yet she did not seem to want to talk to Hadley about it now.

After a few gentle rubs on the back Hadley stepped back towards the ship so that she could point out what she had noticed. “I reviewed the footage of the run three times and each time I cannot believe what I am seeing.” Reaching up she pointed to the front most part of the damage point on the ship. There were lines of the nose art striking back into the damage. The nose art seemed to be some sort of flying creature that looked rather upset. “see those?” she pointed to two lines of slightly whiter paint. “at first I thought those were just added paint to the art but after reviewing the footage I am surprised. Those are the scrap lines of the ammo as it went on a direct line into the joint of this plate here.” She pointed to the armor plate that had been blown out by the blast. “From what I can tell the attack hit the sweet spot and ripped that thing to shreds when it had nowhere else to go.” The sweet spot was a term used by the intelligent department when talking about weak spots on the enemy ships. Most sweet spots were a lucky shot but this one was not one she wanted to have on her fighters long. “I ordered the Bay crew to check all other ships for the same problem. I fear it may be a ship yard shortcut. Any fighter found with this problem is to be pulled and fitted out with new armor for that part. I am not going to have any more pilots hurt because of this defect.” holding out the tablet she hit play on a close up of the ship. it happened as she said it, a perfect shot that should never have worked. Looking at Chris she touched her center mark, a frustrated movement. “I am going to be bringing this up to the admiralty next time we are in system. I don’t understand why they keep sending us the shoddy work. Or I am going to ask that they send us only stuff from New Vegas, at least then I would know that no short cuts were taken.” she seemed ready to say something else when her com beeped a set of four beeps going up in tone. Looking down at the com she smiled then looked back at Chris. “well it looks like our guest is awake again. I leave the rest of the search in your capable hands.”

Christine stared at the simulation being run, it all seemed to make sense at least a one in a million chance of a training round causing damage like this, she still wanted to argue that there was something off with it, but Hadleys conclusion that it was a manufacturing mistake probably wasn't too far off either. In order to quickly bring the war to the Traskann they'd had to rush a lot of their construction processes back home, but frankly it had begun to hurt more than help, especially if practice runs could become dangerous. She folded her arms and signed, gripping her left arm defensively,
"I just had an unpleasant conversation with Hunter. The idiot doesn't want to face up to stone cold reality. The doctor was too busy trying to save Xa'De's life to tell us the chances of survival, but if the worst comes to pass; they'll need a permanent replacement on their team. The moron thinks they'll do fine without an extra member, but they cant fly without a missing man forever." She brushed her hand up her left arm and grimaced, "Then there's worse than that. Being alive but not feeling like you can be yourself anymore. Hunter hasn't seen the battlefield to the same scale I have, nor can he understand exactly what Xa'De might go through." She growled a little to herself and dropped her hands. It was pointless thinking too much about it, they would just have to deal with it. The only consequences to be dealt with would be their own if they couldn't accept a new pilot. This was reality, they needed to face up to it now rather than later.

She looked up when Hadley mentioned that the guest was awake again, she too was about to say something when the captains comms beeped,
"Uhm.. Captain..? We're getting security breaches.. They're starting from the personnel quarters and working their way.. To the fighter bay, if I'm not mistaken. Our system is completely locked up, we cant even hit the emergency alert." The security officer explained, as soon as he'd done so, the upper set of doors leading to the same catwalk the captain and commander were on seemed to open of their own accord before Xeriahalt's form could be seen, slowly, jaggedly walking towards them.

Her eyes were at least half open, as though she were sleep walking, but she still seemed quite aware as she lurched forward, using the railing for support. Her head tilted up, focusing on the damaged fighter behind them. She continued to walk, regardless of how unsteady she seemed, determined, in spite of it. Her headpiece was gripped firmly in her left hand as the right gripped the railing,
".. You know she looks almost as stubborn as you are." Christine remarked offhandedly, smirking at Hadley before staring at the girl again, frankly it was terrifying to think she could walk right through a ships internal security like that. The level of technology she had must have been incredible, or whatever it was that gave her such a level of ability even in her weakened condition. Yet she was practically an open target, what was driving her to endanger herself like this? The closer she got, the more Christine realized something as she could see the girl clearer,
"Is she crying?" Christine asked suddenly, taking a slight step forward.

Indeed, tears were running down the side of Xeriahalts face, it was a paint hat was difficult to describe, one that she knew these people couldn't understand yet. they didnt understand so many things, although she and Demaar had tried to explain so much there was still so much, so many differences in their culture. But this was something she was sure they were unaware of, it wasn't this ignorance that pained her, but something else she felt as she stared at the damaged ship, trying to get closer, her right hand reaching out toward it as she took a few independent steps from the railing, only to stumble forward, practically ready to fall flat on her face.

Hadley looked over at Christine and wanted to scream. “As your captain I should be reprimanding you for calling him those names in public. It is one thing to say that behind closed doors it is another to do so here. But as your friend I understand your feelings behind it.” There was a touch of sadness in her eyes but it was gone moments later. “We are a tight knit community here, when they first came on board they were each a screw up, a misfit. You were able to pick out the best men for our four squads wings. You saw what each of them could be and who they would work with the best. Now you’re asking them to give up on their brother and take on a new man even before the blood has dried in Xa’De cockpit. Do you realize how they might see that as a betrayal?” her voice was low, pitched so only Christine would hear what she had to say. It was not the wisest moves for Chris to have brought Hunter up in this place at this time. “You should have given Doc time to announce if he could save Xa’De before assigning someone new to the squad. Who was it that you assigned to his squad anyways?” while Chris may have seen battle more then Hadley, Hadley had seen what happends when supperiers stepped in and forced a change they saw as good onto a close knit group and then would broke no resistance. There was always going to be resistance when change came. If you worked with the men through the change then the men did not loath you but would work with you.

She nearly jumped when her com beeped again and the security officers voice came over it announcing that they could not sound an alarm yet there was a security breach, starting at the personnel quarters. Fear and worry gripped her as she wondered who or what had come after their new guest and now was coming after their guests ship. She was about ready to bolt out the door to go back and check on Xeriahalt when she walked in through the doors. Tapping her com she watched Xeriahalt move as if she were sleep walking. “Stand down, it looks like our guest is sleep walking and came to check out what was going on here. Send out maintenance and security teams to understand how the breach occurred and how we might repair it.” Looked at Xeriahalt she thought she had a good idea though how this young woman had passed by all the locks. “from what Demaar, her ship says, she is.”

Watching Xeriahalt Hadley wondered how close she was going to come to the edge before she had to be pulled back or be lost to the lower deck. While there was a chance that she would not be killed by that fall as they had less gravity here then in the main ship, it was still possible for her to hit something on the way down that could cut her badly. At Chris comment she stepped up next to her trying not to wake her fully but to have a good look at her face. Now what is driving her to these tears? Can she feel the pain that Xa’De was in when he was hit? But if that is so then she should be going to sick bay not here. It was on instent alone that she reached out and pulled Xerihalts back from the edge of the area. Her arms wrapping around Xerihalts waist and pulling her into a hug. “careful! It would be bad for you to fall down and get hurt beyond what your body can heal.”

"First of all, I didn't put them together just so they'd learn to work with only each other and nobody else. That's a nonsense theory. I put them together based on past aptitudes and simulation training. Second of all I wont back down or apologize for following protocol. If they want to treat it like I'm being a heartless bitch, then fine, I'm a heartless bitch. And I don't care if they think it's a betrayal, either, thinking purely emotionally about it is for fools. This is the military, not a grade school. A standard flight requires a full squadron except in absolutely extreme conditions, that's a rule, not a guideline for them to blow off because they think it's inconvenient. The injury and incapacitation of a single pilot in a training accident does not apply as an extreme condition." The commander stated darkly, "We have a few reserve pilots so I'm putting one to use, of course if HQ would give us more to work with; I'd swap the entire squad out for a reserve squad rather than a single pilot until we knew better of Xa'De's condition, but reality isn't so kind." Christine added further, folding her arms, "And it's Palmer. And he, like everyone else on this ship, is due a chance to prove he can do more than menial chores and simulation runs all day. And the quirk of the day is that he's lazy, lazy, but a brilliant pilot. I've only ever seen him flying seriously in an actual fighter, in the simulations he pulls every crazy stunt he can, purely because it's fun and there's no risk to care for." Christine wanted to add that she understood how that felt, but kept it to herself. Palmer was definitely lazy, she'd had to yell at him more than a few times just to tidy his quarters up.

However it seemed no matter where Christine turned lately, she was getting the third degree from people, they were putting up barriers. Honestly not surprising considering they were all practically outcasts in the military, but being a voice of discipline for this many people was putting a strain on her nerves. They were all so selfish, stubbornly thinking of things in their own terms. Idealistic, foolish terms that didn't match up to the reality of their situation. Having to listen to even the Captain take their side was frustrating to the woman, did she really give up advancement to be second-guessed by a trusted friend and associate who supposedly understood her?

Christine was so furious that she almost didn't noticed the alien girl almost going off the edge. She could have gone to catch her in time but Hadley had beaten her to the punch, so she stayed in place, watching as the Captain caught their guest.
Xeriahalt looked stunned as she was held, eventually looking down to the arms around her waist, the action of hugging wasn't unfamiliar to her, it was simply a long time since she'd felt that sensation. However she soon put her hands to Hadley's arms, as if trying to push her off, while she spoke in an irritated tone, yet in her weakness she couldn't even push Hadley off, Demaar's voice could be heard from the headpiece,
"Xeriahalt is frustrated that she can do nothing for this ship. She is sensitive to the pain of your vessel but her body is still too weak yet. Her impatient nature in the face of problems she would normally try to solve is leading her to pushing her body to its limits. I would appreciate if you could convince her to get better first. I'm not managing as well as I would like."