Was that man stupid or did he just ignore her because she was a female?
Repressing a gesture of annoyance, she finally pretended to dust the rank insignias on her uniform, "Commander Sanada Junko. My pay is better than yours. Is that a problem for you?"
Junko then smiled warmly, and she added : "Now the gun. We need something that he will be the only one able to use. You have something like that taking the dust around there, i'm sure. Be a good boy. Go look for it."
The quartermaster looked up from his datapad as the woman spoke, his distracted expression quickly turned to surprise. 'Uhm ' Hai well, let me check with medical.' He mumbled to himself as he ambled off to inspect the racks of weapons. 'O hai - 'the pretty one' they said, the 'nice one'. Nice like thermite!...' He returned with a case and tapped again at the pad 'they will be here soon Commander, Lieutenant-Commander' he bowed to each. Moments later a whitecoat arrived with a clear vial. He nodded to the armourer 'Hideaki ishikawa biometric chip sir' handed the vial over, bowed and left.
The armourer opened the case and withdrew a repeating pistol ' which he stripped in a matter of seconds. He scanned the vial, placed the pad down. He looked to Hideaki and emptied the vial into one hand, secreted the tiny chip into the one of the larger components, before reassembling the piece again quickly. Handing the weapon to Ishikawa he spoke 'Everything else is standard, save that no one but you can fire it, without first removing the chip ' which I doubt anyone would find. Oh! the first time, you might feel a little sting' he warned, smiling.
*****
Meanwhile in the mess-hall...
"Eya," she gave a short giggle "I simply thought you would benefit from seeing how different things could be compared to your cell life. Allow me to expound"
"This sudden attention forces an immediacy to your situation. There are some who would hand you over to black dragon society.' she raised her spoon to signal she meant to go on as she swallowed another mouthful of ice cream. 'This buys me something, but I do not need political favours, and it seems overly cruel considering other points.'
'I could have it publicly known that you 'accidentally' died in whilst in transit ' This gives me renown with The Society, but nothing else and explaining would be messy.' she gestured dismissively with another full spoon.
'Some say I should simply release your body into space, and forget about this whole incident. - a time honoured tactic, but again, worthless.' she paused as she ate. In the stark light, Her gaze seemed to focus more keenly on Yuki ' the subtle mechanical contractions of her right iris betrayed its organic appearance.
'Unlike some of them, I believe your life has value.' She took a sip of tea. 'I believe your life can be made-over, into something that serves the republic and weakens its enemies. Through re-conditioning you could become something other than Yuki ayaka, Your past would be stripped away, your body and mind honed to be weapons.' She chewed a piece of pork, pointing her chopsticks upward. 'finally, the government would have you sent back to the dragons, as a pro-republic agent and informant . This is meritorious, though I cannot ignore the risk of you going 'native' again.' she speared a sliver of fish a waggled it to and fro 'Of course neither of these options comes without a leash.' She looked to the unscarred woman as if waiting for her to say something.
[font=Tahoma]Ayaka listened to her. The admiral almost sounded like a butcher valuing a peace of meat on the market..
"So you offer death, death and wiping my brain so I would as a minion to the Republic between Blood Dragons."she poured some more tea.
"I surrendered to you so I would live in Kusari again. If this is your proposal Admiral then please tell your people to deliver my blade in the cell."her voice was void
She stood up and bowed.
[color=#FF99FF]"Arigato for the food."she looked at admiral with an empty mind.
Yuki Ayaka held herself by the table for a few moments and then walked towards the doors.
'I am sorry you feel that way Yuki' the admirals raised voice said to Ayakas back. Already in motion the marines formed around Yuki as before. Unseen, the admiral signalled something with a resigned nod.
The trudge back to the cell was interrupted, 'Not that way' one of the marines gestured with his rifle the direction of the detour.
The marine sighed amusedly as the marched 'Relax girl, spacing you here would be too visible anyway. You are just being moved.' Eventually they reached the marked doors of the docking bay. A marine quickly dragged a black bag over Yukis head, she heard the door open and the familiar sounds of a working flight deck.
An awkward boarding later the group were in motion, Yuki felt the shift as they initiated interstellar flight. An uneventful journey passed before she felt the queasy drag of entering atmo and landing.
"Sure we are done here." she asserted.
She then walked out of the armory with a vague goodbye gesture to the quartermaster and without waiting for Ishikawa's agreement.
As she was hearing his footsteps behind her, she pondered : "Look. We have this boring patrol i forgot to perform in Rishiri. I guess we should get it done before the High Command slaps my so beautiful fingers?"
After bidding his goodbye to the quartermaster he quickly turned around and followed Junko.
He finally caught up with her and answered.
"Sure thing. Can't wait to get off this station and back into a ship."
The two moved to the docks and as they approached their ships Ishikawa stopped for a moment. "Well.."
Junko quickly moved past him and headed to her ship. "I'll see you in space, Ensign."
He watched her get into the ship and mumbled. "Never mind then.."
Then he quickly walked over to his chimaera and undocked from the station.
Not that she would be half out of Hiroshima by the time he was out in space...
![[Image: siggies.png]](http://pile.randimg.net/0/46/11539/siggies.png)
