She was actually pretty much was a sociopath. To feel more at ease she proceeded to slit open Sarah's torso and hang her organs from the ceilings as decoration.
The woman felt uncomfortable. Sarah seemed to recover from the initial shock way to quickly.
"Right. Your story makes awfully little sense. What the hell is Contents? Why the hell do you grab lights from theaters? And most importantly: Since when do we have technical people around who are not essential to the maintenance facilities?"
Sarah sighed in exasperation. It didn't look like she was going to be allowed back to the circuit breakers until this woman was finished interrogating anything that moved. Somewhere behind her, she was fairly certain Michael was hiding under a table. Surely electrical work wasn't meant to be this complicated. "It might not make sense, but it's what happened. I don't usually come to install systems with a cover story, you know. Contents May Differ was my ship, before I came here. An old passenger liner I had when I did freelance work. I grabbed the projectors, like I said, because I thought they would be handy to fit to Contents' scanner UI. You know, get a three-dimensional image of whatever the scanner was pointed at. She was still in the middle of a retrofit when I chanced across the Rheinland military, who didn't seem to like her being where she was. The pod landed me on one of your bases, and I figured I'd make myself useful keeping your ships flying." She rested a leg across her knee. "Which should pretty much answer your last question too, huh?"
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
"So.. the Military just decided to shoot you? Damn.."
The woman appears to have calmed down suddenly, though even now everything about her demands authority.
"I didn't realize that. Well.. I can't complain about having another engineer in here I guess. Still I'd rather have people like you keeping our ragtag fleet flying than replacing some light bulbs. We're severely understaffed as far as engineering goes. But.. you're busy with it now anyway, I guess you'd better just finish the job. Once you're done, grab a drink on my cost and come and see me."
The woman salutes and goes sit in another corner at an empty table, where she grabs her datapad and appears to be trying to research something.. or someone, searching the extranet, internal reports, datafiles...
"Sure. Thanks." Sarah nodded, more then a shade confused by the woman's sudden shift in attitude. She'd known coins that didn't flip that quickly. Who was she to walk in and start making demands like that? It went against everything she had so far seen of the Widerstand, and the equality that seemed to have pervaded every aspect of the movement. Even the free drink wasn't so much an offer as an order. Overall, she concluded, it all reeked of the military that she'd scrambled to get away from. Sarah gave a shrug and returned her attention to the circuit breakers, resolving to escape the Embassy soon as she could.
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
But, but... After a good five minutes of perplexed staring and basically looking like a total idiot, Michael finally gained some composure and let of sounds that more reminded the others of the ape behind the bar. A lot of memories had suddenly shot up in his head. A lot of repressed feelings were now joined by the massive confusion of what had just happened. He had barely realised what was going on between the two women as not even Freyas tone of voice could rip him out of his confused trance.
Sarah, I think you got it from here. I'll most definately catch up with you later, buy you a drink for the trouble I put you through, Michael mumbled as he started to stumble away towards the table that Freya sat down at. He was still considering that the fall might have had an apparition appear in front of him, but she seemed real as ever as he was walking towards her
Looking like a slight fool Michael eventually made it across the room and came to an abrupt halt in front of the table. Michael salutesK...Kommandant. I thought... I had no idea.... How?... "Get your stuff together", Michael said to himself I am glad to see you are alright Kommandant. I had heard horrid rumours and quite frankly was not expecting you here at all
As Michael miraculously had finally produced an acceptable sentence, he loses all of his commanding posture and slumps into one of the chairs at the Kommandant's table still staring at her in a huge state of confusion.
The woman who was recognized by the man as a Kommandant, Kommandant Freya Eistochter to be precise, gave Michael an almost lethal look.
"Surprised that I recovered, Hermann? Oh and don't give me all that nice talk, everyone can see your disappointment. You should know better than to be so naive and hopeful. I am not that easy to get rid of."
That sudden harshness ripped Michael out of his trance. Unbelievable what this woman could do to him.
But, Kommandant. I was away for 6 months. I only heard the bad rumours. I thought you had died after you disappeared for a while. I myself had gone off the radar for a few months while chasing Unioners, Michael tried to explain himself as he was hoping for her to remember anything about the point where they had last left off their conversation
Nearly whispering, hardly understandable for Freya who was right next to him he saidFreya, I actually thought you were dead. Errr. Kommandant I mean. Oh good, now he had also called her by her first name. But Michael couldn't care less. As the veil of confusion lifted itself he started feeling joy for the fact that the two were reunited and all he could do was smile
Fortunately Freya appears to be okay with him calling her by her first name. She sighs. She has nothing against Michael. Quite the contrary in fact, but after all this time it is difficult to act casual for him again, like she had to do way back. She can't stay angry at him either however.
"I'm sorry. I have been in medbay for such a long time. I missed so much, I got so much work to do. I am a bit stressed alright."
She moves her hands away from her data pad and buries her face in them all the stress, but also her weakened state as she's still recovering and all the mental pressure the past year brought upon her are becoming too much even for the fierce Kommandant. Come on, Freya, keep it together! The new girl might come over any moment, what will she think when she sees her, a Kommandant, like this? And what will Michael think? Stay strong, Freya, emotional breakdowns are not something a revolutionary can use. She sighs heavily.
"I... please... just... don't look and pretend this is not happening okay. I am just... I don't know."
Light returned to the Embassy in a cluster of flashes, strip lighting in the bar's roof bathing the room in soft yellow glow that left it looking like an oversaturated photograph. A handful of screws returned the panel to its position atop the wiring, a freshly cut groove exposing the domed point of the projector to the bar's patrons. Sarah descended from the table, keeping a grip on a nearby chair to avoid making a second tablecloth assisted express trip to the carpet.
Michael had settled into a seat opposite the eagle-woman, and the two were deep in conversation by the time Sarah wandered over. At least, it looked like they were in deep conversation from a distance. The reality of the matter was a silence that had settled over the table like an ill-fitting coat. With her shoulders slumped, the eagle-woman looked at least half a century older. Michael's face was fixed in a smile, surprise still lingering on his features - an expression Sarah was quickly coming to associate with the young gunboat captain. A part of her itched to make for the door, to leave the pair to their conversation. A second part raised its hand and politely pointed out that she hadn't had a chance to show off yet. In the end, the second part won, and Sarah pulled up a seat at the table before her consciousness had time to pull together any further objections.
"Hey." She fixed the table's occupants with her best mad scientist grin. It probably looked a little like someone grimacing, but that was the whole point of the thing, wasn't it? If it looked comfortable it hardly qualified as mad. She fished her datapad from a trouser pocket, fingers flashing across a surface smeared with grease and half a dozen other chemicals that a reputable laboratory would have no doubt have attached warning labels to. "I told you it'd be neat, didn't I?"
Nothing happened for a long moment. Then, with a rumble reminiscent of a thunderstorm, the blue wireframe of a Firefly crackled into being above their heads, heat radiating off it in waves. Not quite hot enough to be painful, but warm enough that Sarah shifted her seat a few feet back. "Volumetric display." She grinned, dialing back the intensity until the ship was a faint outline. "Eats up more juice then a toddler in a supermarket, but I can pretty much put out any image I want. And...er... You might not want to touch that." She nodded at the outline, still hovering over the table like a phantom. "There's a small possibility it could burn your fingers off. Nothing too bad, I mean, it's only plasma. It's not like sticking your hand in a reactor or anything, but... Just don't touch it, okay? Easier for everyone that way."
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
Freya, who still didn't even introduce herself to Sarah, wanted to release her fury, but she then suddenly decided not to. Not useful to do so now. It appeared Sarah was able to continue her work without getting distracted, something that a woman like Freya values in a person.
She slowly lifted her head and looked at Sarah, then looks around at the lightning and at the blue wireframe. She sighs heavily once more as she returns her attention to Sarah. She pushes a few buttons on her datapad and then slides it to Sarah.
"It appears you are good at this stuff. We have only few people who can do these kinda things. I looked up all data I could find on you, you are the person for a certain position left vacant on this station. I need you as head-engineer of Bruchsal. I put way too much trust in you, but I have little choice. Don't make me regret this."
She points at the relevant parts of the form that can be seen on the datapad. She wants to deal with this quickly as she clearly struggles to keep herself from bursting into tears.
"Signature there, iris-scan there, fingerprint there. It will authorize you to use all facilities you need. For access to some of the highly-restricted weapon and ship depots you will still need permission from a Kommandant or the Oberst, but you'll rarely need that anyway."
She buries her head back into her hands, visually emotional and rather... unstable.
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