Microcosm

[Sombs]

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July 27th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

"Good morning, Captain."
"Good morning, Captain!"
"Good morning, Captain."
"Morning, Captain."
"Good morning, Captain."

"Good morning, people!"

It was the canteen, a very clean room. Five people were already here as Ezrael entered, showered, shaved and ready to be the Captain. He remained at the entrance for a moment, taking in the view. Commander Aguilar was there, sitting as usual with the wall to her back, the only person on her side of the table while the other four people sat infront of her on the other side, all of them waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive for breakfast. They had their pots of coffee infront of them, and while Sherry was hiding it very successfully, all of them needed the coffee without a doubt. Smirking at his crew, he moved over to the counter to fetch his morning tea from the Kishiro Service Robot which already prepared it. Two other KSRs were busy cutting fruits from Curacao.

Holding the warming cup in his gloved hands, he leaned his back against the counter, looking over to his crew, and mostly Sherry. She was definitely the most solid and character-strong person he knew, at least from her appearance. There was a time where he wasn't sure if she was trustworthy. In the end, it was the Core-Zoner-Conflict that made her pledge her loyalty to him, as she was a Gran Canarian. Before that, she was intransparent, although she was one of the very first people Ezrael met during his time with the Core. Thinking about it, it made him smile at her.

Yaren, evening. The dayshift patrols were over and many pilots returned to the base, boasting about their accomplishments. Back in those days, Core was at peace with Freeport 11. In fact, they fought together with Zoners against the invading nomad forces. It were the very early days of Ezrael in the Core. Not many people knew him, just a bunch of people who either were rebuilding the Apahanta at Alabama or the people he used to work out with on Yaren or Durban. The CV-Eclipse, the former CV-Hoffnungsschimmer, was often moving between Rho and Delta back then.

Sherry was there, entering the bar in her typical way, showing invincibility by not having any clearly readible expression on her face while walking up to the counter. Ordering a sidewinder fang, she leaned her back against the counter, looking around. It was loud, crowded, dominated by men of all houses. It was difficult to get an oversight from this position, so she tried to find another spot for herself. And she was lucky, as three people were just leaving their table. She turned back to the bar counter to fetch her drink, and turned around again, accidentally bumping into a man by doing so. Surprised, she spilled the sidewinder fang all over his lower body. She saw it happen, way to quickly. The drink soaking the black pants of this guy, an entire leg of sidewinder fang. The neutral expression on her face slowly changed to an overwhelmed one as she looked up at the man. Green eyes, a scar on the flawless face, long black hair. He didn't wear a Core uniform, but a black T-shirt and a leather jacket, and now sidewinder fang-soaked black jeans. It looked very out of place. "Ouh, I'm sorry..."

"Bartender, this woman needs a new drink, and I need new pants," he said, obviously in an amused tone before looking at her, smirking. "Don't worry. I never left a bar without at least one person spilling their drink all over me." It made her smirk at him.

Back on the Apahanta, the innocent talk at the table was disrupted and Sherry's pokerface perfectly hid the Oh no in her mind as they heard the sounds of tables and benches getting pushed. They looked over at Ezrael, watching him moving the benches away from the tables, over to the walls. "Captain?" Sherry asked him, wanting him to explain himself.

"We're a small crew, so I'd prefer to have everyone sitting at one big table instead of many small ones," he explained, carrying another bench to the wall. "Feel free to help me. Two rows, one big table." And thus they stood up, doing as the Captain said. Two minutes later, they ended up with one big table and the benches around, the superfluous benches at the wall. "Way better," he commented satisfied, then got his cup of tee from the counter, sitting down next to Sherry after it. They were sitting at the head of the big table row. "Makes it way more personal, don't you agree?"

Being a fan of having a respectful distance to the crew, she gave him an expressionless stare for a moment, just to get his charming smirk from him. He knew perfectly well she didn't like it that way, but then again, she was the commander of crew of 23 people and 380 Kishiro Service Robots. The crew admittedly was sort of a family. There was a short moment when her expression indicated a slight smirk on her lips, before she rose her cup of coffee to her mouth, taking a sip. It was enough of a reaction to him, though, and his look moved over to the crew, who had observed the silent scene between Captain and Commander. It made them smile.

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