Howick, one of the smaller cities on Cambridge, was drenched in a warm spring sunshine that set the blossom trees and gradens aglow. Few had much reason to visit Howick during peacetime, in fact it could be fair to say that most avoided the place due to the stigma caused by its most notable feature: The St Edwards hospital, which was designed solely for the treatment of the mentally unstable. The war had created many new patients and not all were happy with the sudden influx of 'crazies'.

The strain on the smaller city resulted in the Bretonian police having to fill roles that in other hospitals would have been filled by volunteers. So few officers had wanted to take the shift at St. Edwards that the Police Comissioner himself volunteered for shifts, to show his officers that nothing was wrong. Of course, he and a few other BPA officers actually had the experience in dealing with the patients of St. Edwards prior to the war, or had learnt how to deal with them during some type of service.

Today, the sunshine spilled through the windows and corridors of the Hospital, so welcome was the suns rays that many patients feel asleep in it's glare and there was an unusual calm about the wards and nurses took the oppertunity to wash linen and catch up on paperwork. It was a wecome change to the constant feeling of everyone being on edge. Comissioner John Steiner, formally of the RMC just so happened to have a shift today, but like so many others, fell to the warm embrace of the sun while he sat at his desk gazing out over the skyline. There were few patients to see anyway, and his officers seemed to be used to their work by now, no harm then in getting some quick shut eye he thought.

Pria walked down on the corridor, she was in civilian clothes, her face and arms were full of scars seemingly too old for her, one or two of the newer ones had patterns. Hr intense eyes pierced pretty much everything she focused at, and even though she tried to be calm, if Hall showed up on the next corridor, she'd flay her alive. After arriving at the door, she knocked.

"Come in" came the startled reply as Steiner woke himself up from his snooze.
Pria walked in. Upon seeing her "doctor", her face reorganized itself according to the "why am i not surprised" template "G'day. I'm yer 3 o'clock appointment" Her eyes almost pinned down Steiner to his seat
He cocked his head to the side, his face marred with confusion "I have a 3 o'clock?" he asked, fumbling to find his roster.
"Great..." She mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. John could notice, that despite Pria's petiteness, her belly was slightly rounding

"Have a seat...er..Captain" he said finally finding her file. He frowned when he read it "Psych evaluation, on the orders of E. Stei..oh for gods sakes..." he said. He sighed, tossed the file to one side and leaned back in his chair looking at the young woman. "So.." he said, waiting for her to begin.
She sat down "Nothin', your brother's pet is a manipulative little twit."
He raised an eyebrow "Pet?" he said, not knowing who she was talking about.
"The Hall woman" She sighed, and held out her hand "About this tall, sounds like the embodiment of upper class entitlement, imperial hubris, and straight up hypocripsy"

"Ah" he said, knowing who she was talking about "Our Ward. Tell me, what is your issue with her exactly? upper class entitlement, for example, explain that"
"Yes, your pet" She was obviously furious at her "Basically, she was pretty much promoted over nothin', all the way up to Captain. Because honor matters. The last sentence dripped of cynism.
"And you feel the need to tell her this...because?" he asked with genuine interest.
"Because your brother is playin' a dangerous game. You basically made her the fuckin' governor on Canaria, 'cuz she has a nice name, and pretty much the only member of the Batshit Homecounties' Wignuts Party whose age is not "ghost". You gave a planet to someone i wouldn't trust a rusty supply ship to."

He hid a small smile before continuing, he liked this girl and her bluntness "So. You were, what, looking out for the Admiral?"
"It's hard to calculate how few fucks I give 'bout him. But I do look out for the people"
He was surprised "The people?" he asked. "You think she's squaring up to be some type of tyrant? And what makes you think we had anything to do with it?"
"The people under her command" She corrected him "And he pretty much told he that already, when I saw Hall gettin' promoted from Ensign to Lt Commander, I went to him. I always keep a lookout for people with high competence, and that promotion was fishy enough to spark my interest"


Again he was hit with some level of confusion "Wait, talk me through the whole thing. How fast have her promotions been?"
" 'Bout nine months since she joined. And she took part in maybe 25 combat missions, in total."
He frowned "And you believe that her promotions are a result of the Admirals bias towards her? Why would be bias toward her do you think?"
"Because she was promoted after 3 combat missions. And I was there in all 3, and she didn't cut it."
He nodded slowly "Yes, but why would she be promoted for it? I'm interested in your thoughts"
"That's the question there, doc." She winked "First guess would be that they are welded together by the hip."
He laughed "You think they're sleeping together? I haven't seen much of that, they're apart most of time"
"So? I See my wife in like every second weekend at this point. You do know what happens when 2 people has 5 free minutes, right?"

"Not really" he said, eager to avoid the topic. "How long have you served in the Armed Forces?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.
"Two years, give or take a few weeks" She noticed the sudden change, but didn't mentioned it on purpose "Seems like an eternity ago"
"How many combat missions have you been on?"
"Three hundred and six." She looked at him "See the issue?"
He was loath to admit it but she had a clear and proveable point "Yes" He wrote something down and returned his gaze to her "How are you sleeping?"
"Like a baby. I wake up creamin' once in every three hours"
He nodded "Pains, aches, brusing, bumps? anything like that?"
"Pain yes. Some of my bones ain't properly welded" She smiled at him "I know my demons, doc"

He sighed "I'm clearing you for flying, you're mentally sound by all accounts so no reason to ground you any longer. Keep away from Hall if you don't like her and...try keep the comments about the Admiral to yourself eh? Not the wisest of moves"
"Someone's gotta keep it real for him, innit?" She chukled "Besides, all I do is sittin' around the bridge. Flyin' a templar pregnant is relatively stupid."
"You shouldn't be flying at all then." he said, suddenly unamused
"I know. Gonna get off soon, O'brian will get me a desk job from January" She shrugged "I know when to stop, doc. You don't survive the borderworlds by being an idiot"
"Fair enough" he produced a form, signed it and handed it to her "This clears you to fly, because there isn't anything wrong with you. Show it to the RMC folks over by the space port and that'll be that"
"Thanks doc." She stood up "Tell the admiral to be on the lookout, will ya? Love makes folks dumb, deaf and blind"
"Yeah yeah" he said, ready to go back to sleep.
"See ya doc." She let herself out, leaving him to his nap