A spot of DIY - Aside from piloting, what better way to let off some steam - Or so felt thee Scarlet Scourge.
Having recently made friends with the ship's Quartermaster, tools were easy to come by, a quick chat to confirm things with Hoki and Scarlet was off.
Moving aside all the furniture in both her and her wingwoman's rooms, she set about systematically tearing, striping, and bashing the thin dividing wall between the two rooms to pieces - It was perhaps a little sturdier then she'd guessed but that was no problem, in fact it gave her all the more incentive to hit it harder.
Not to say Scarlet had any intention of making a mess, no sir - She swept and carried the debris away and before noon was upon her, smoothed out the rough edges to the point one might almost think there had never been a partitioning wall.
Next was to rearrange the furniture to fit the larger space but quickly it became apparent what her and Hoki had between them would be insufficient to do the job and so Scarlet set off on another little quest.
Before long the room was decked out with a dinning table, chairs, extra cupboards, an entire kitchenette (which she took great pleasure in plumbing herself) and a few other homely knickknacks.
It warmed her heart a little to know that evening a dozen or so senior officers would return to their rooms and in a blind rage deploy subordinates to find the 'borrowed' items - And that when those subordinates returned to report who had taken them, that said same officers would no doubt suddenly remember they had 'never owned a coffee-table after all...'
She had even procured an extra bed - This had been tricky as it wasn't exactly something the ship carried alot of extras for, but Scarlet could take pride in her skills of persuasion.
She spent the afternoon tentatively unsealing, unscrewing and unwiring one of the dampener fields and moving it over next to the other - Then butting all three beds together to in effect produce one very large bed with gravity above it.
She wasn't entirely sure how good an idea this was, in part it felt a little insensitive towards Hoki whom Scarlet loosely remembered hearing that the woman was gay - Perhaps that would make it awkward for Hoki to sleep next to other women, but in truth Scarlet was struggling to find ways to help Una - So far the idea of having it that no matter what side of the bed the girl woke up on, she'd be met with a friendly face, was the best Scarlet could come up with.
Besides she could always sleep on the floor if her idea was a bad one.
With the wall gone, the furniture in place and the beds reconfigured, her project was done - It was a good days work if she said so herself. The enlarged room looked almost like a nice hotel-lodging now, a kitchenette to one corner, dining/lounge area across from it, the beds in the opposite corner, wardrobes and other storage alongside them.
Sure the metal walls of the ship were still quite present on all sides and yes she was aware her idea of home given her background, might be a little different to what girls like Una and Hoki had grown up with - But all told she felt this was the best they could achieve right now.
She took a deep breath, evaluated her days work once more, allowed herself a final grin at the expensive of those the furniture had been lifted from - And left the room to go get the final piece - Una herself.
Scarlet made the all to familiar journey to the sick-bay, entering the long hallway of a room, she was greeted by the massive figure of Doctor Hasain;
"Ah Scarlet, back again - This time no doubt for a full check up yes? Or to atleast let me take your bloods, I have no doubt you disobeyed my advice and took, oh shall we say 2 doses during the last battle?
You will atleast let me to take your blood pressure?"
His booming voice greeted her with this same set of questions most times she an entered the space in the last few days - Scarlet wasn't overly sure if he meant them seriously or not, after all if he did take her vitals and they were as negative as both he and her knew they would be - What was the man planning to do, take her off the battle rooster?
For now she had come to conclusion it was just the doctors idea of banter...probably;
"Eh-heh, hey Doc."
The man nodded, clearly taking note of her somewhat softer than usual tone - "Well, not like you are my biggest concern any longer." He added, eyes narrowing.
Scarlet frowned back, "I'm not?"
"No. A week ago yes, a ticking timebomb I would of called your wellbeing but now it seems all your fellow pilots seek to out-do you. Of course young Miss.Conchabhair is the most concerning."
Scarlet swallowed. Doctor Hasain beckoned her forward and they made their way to the end of Una's bed.
Words seemed to fail Scarlet whenever she laid eyes on the young Rookie now.
Her skin so pale it didn't look natural, her eyes drained of any ounce of vitality - Weight loss was just starting to show, her hair a barely attended mess. The girl bluntly looked less alive than many of the corpses Scarlet had come across in her time.
A nurse was currently helping the girl out of bed and into a bare-bones wire frame wheelchair - Technically such things were unnecessary with most of the ship's lack of gravity - But it wouldn't do to go from weightlessness, to flat on your face if you entered the wrong room - So Scarlet watched as the nurse gently strapped Una in.
It was like she was watching someone else entirely, Una's arms and legs were limp, neither resisting or helping the nurse - She let herself be moved about like a ragdoll. It looked almost as though her head would tilt forward, as though the pain to keep it upright were too much.
Hasain began speaking at Scarlet's side; "She has experienced a few episodes of night-terrors, we have medicated for this, along with medication for the pain from her injuries and her mental state. A full list of instructions and the prescriptions are here."
He handed her over a large brown-paper wrapped box, which she languidly accepted, "Right..."
The large man hummed beneath his breath - "Are you sure you are ready for this Scarlet? As your doctor I completely loath you--"
"Oh, thanks man." She murmured back.
"--But as a fellow soldier I have nothing but respect for you and your services to all the causes you have chosen over the years. That does not mean I expect you to be able to heal a broken mind - If this is a burden you are not at the right place of your life to accept, then say the word - There are many others on this ship, you pilots are far from alone." He finished, softly laying a hand on her shoulder.
For the first time since spotting her young friend, Scarlet finally tore her gaze away from Una, and back to the Doctor - After a moment she grinned as best she could;
"No one's ever really ready for anything ya? But I can't fail until I've atleast tried first - I weren't ready to be a soldier, a pilot and certainly not an Ace, but here I still am - I know we ain't alone Doc' but that's still our girl and if we weren't ready to hold her when she's down, then we should never of let her fly in the first place right?
I'm ready."
The Doctor nodded and that was that.
****
Scarlet pushed and floated Una's wheelchair back to her room - Doing her best not to snap at anyone who dared to shoot her a sympathetic glance along the way.
Upon returning to the newly renovated room she gave the girl a tour of sorts, showed her where her new clothing was stored (Most of her old attire having been lost with her room), making sure the Rookie knew she was free to read anything on Scarlet's bookshelves and that she'd be more than happy to get more books from Kolme's room for that matter.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Una didn't exactly respond to any of this, in fact Scarlet wasn't even sure the girl was awake at times.
She got dinner brought up to them from the canteen, it was one of Kolme's privileges as acting Ship XO, and since she had already stolen his code to raid all the rooms for furniture, she didn't much mind abusing it to get room service.
She and Una sat in the small dining area and ate, well sort of.
The girl indeed seemed aware of the food and of the general idea that she should eat it, but her plate was far from empty by the time Scarlet decided to call dinner 'ended'.
Una spoke just once that day, she asked; "Where are we?"
Scarlet had been so excited to hear the girl's soft and rather nice voice again that she had given a long, winding answer even Kolme would be proud of.
She'd explained their spatial coordinates, then put those in context with the nearest planets and Nation-Satellites - Told Una how they were still pursing the Curadh, but this time was different to Station 9, back then the Curadh had tried to lose them, sudden changes in speed and course - This time it seemed content to just let the Tristian flotilla tail it, maintaining a course just barely out of firing range and heading in the general direction of Bhaile's shadow.
That and more - Una's only response had been to vaguely nod her head, eye's seemingly blank of emotion.
Scarlet wondered later if perhaps Una's question had been less literal, and more philosophical - Whatever the case the girl spoke no more after that.
Shortly after dinner Scarlet helped her into the middle bed and shut off the lights - It was still early evening but she could see no point in trying to force the girl to do anything at this point.
She sat herself in bed and read for some time. Eventually Hoki returned, late into the night going straight to bed herself - And for a few hours there was sleep to be had.
And then it started.
The screaming, the pouring sweat, the endless stream of names.
Some names Scarlet knew, others only Hoki recognized - And more still neither of them had ever heard of.
And in this manner, so passed the first of many long and sleepless nights.
****
Somewhere not so far away, atleast not in a cosmic sense, another Ace pilot and his charge were also having a long night.
"Major, Major! Stop walking away from me!" The young Casnel pilot, Helt called out.
The towering form of Major Moncha stopped in his tracks, just a couple step away from his cabin's doorway;
"I'm not walking away from you, I'm walking towards my room." He said back coyly.
Helt's shorter form had caught up now, his expression bordering on a pout at the Major's response, "Oh ya? And what do you call storming out of the meeting like that?"
"Storming?! I-, The cheek! I don't storm out of anything, I'm the boss man - And since when do us pilots have meetings like that one? Why was it all so damn formal eh?"
The meeting in question had been between the five pilots of the Curadh and it had been somewhat stiff.
Usually when he wanted to talk strategy, he simply took Gemon or Yazan aside - If he wanted to give a pep talk to Helt & Falc, he would do that - But this meeting had seemed forced - He couldn't imagine that in his absence his deputies had run things like this and so it got on his nerves, Moncha felt as though he was being had.
Helt shuffled a little uncomfortably in the face of the onslaught - "Well, that, Falc was just looking out for me is all..."
Moncha scoffed, "Oh is that it then? Well keep your romance to yourself."
The young man's face flared at this, "Now hold on, you know that isn't what it's like!"
"Oh ya, how ain't it? All I know is you've been enamoured with Falc since the day she arrived."
Helt faltered a moment, clearly unsure how best to approach this line of questioning;
"Major.... Major do you know what its like to be a Magi? It's.... It's like a fire inside, buried deep in your head and your chest, but me, I'm just a minor one - Just enough compatibility to be able to fly the Casnel is all - But Falc's different, she's like an inferno, she glows so bright, the most powerful flame I've ever met - Being near her, it's more like a compulsion than an active desire, like if I stand close enough, her fire might make mine brighter too."
"That so? Lame excuse Helty, you can admit it was 'love at first site' for all I care."
"Major!!" Helt yelled, he looked as though he might even cry - "Major I don't like her like that and you know it! This connection I have with her, it's like family I guess? Like knowing you want to protect someone simply because they share the same birth name as you - But I don't 'like, like' her."
The Major flinched at this staunch rebuttal, "Oh, right, ah, sorry then - Though that doesn't explain the whole meeting thing."
"Really? Falc just wanted us to talk is all Major - Ever since you came back to the ship you've been different, you won't look at me anymore, won't talk to me - Was it the party, that stupid incident with that IAFS pilot, is that it?"
Moncha shook his head, he didn't want to do this, he didn't want this conversation - Yet here it was nonetheless;
"Of course it ain't, you can hold what ever politics you want eh - Don't matter to me."
"Then what!? Because, because Falc thinks you're the sort of man who thinks too much when left alone Major - That sitting in an IAFS prison cell would do nothing but think himself into a hole..."
Moncha winced, "Is that her 'Magi intuition' talking? Ha, what does it matter, she's right."
Helt gulped hard then asked the question he had been holding back - "So you have noticed? All the signals, all the little nods, Major it's too cruel, please give me a straight answer!"
"Helt you're young, your heads filled with all this Magi stuff, like with Falc and--"
"Major I'm 26!! I think I'm old enough to decide when my own mind's in love!"
".....Ya, course you are, sorry." The tall man murmured back, it was so easy to see Helt as young rather than just a little immature, so easy to dismiss him for Moncha's own peace of mind...
----
"Is it the age gap? Or our difference in ranks? Are you just not, you know, gay?
I won't mind, if you tell me it's any of that, I truly won't mind - But please Major, stop ignoring me, it hurts too much."
Moncha closed his eyes, leant an arm against the corridor wall - "Those are good question Helty, they are - I'm nearly 20 years older than you and I'm your boss - That's alot of power for me to hold over someone looking for... well..."
The tears formed in Helt's eyes, but he nodded all the same.
"But really, Helt you might think this is a terrible excuse, no it is a terrible excuse - But I'm afraid kid, that if I let you in it'll cost us all - What if in battle I prioritised you over the ship? What if the worst happened and I had to make the call to abandon you to save everyone else - And I couldn't?
Helt I'm going to say something truly terrible to you and I'm sorry but - It's not something you've done, it's all on me."
The tears slowly ran down the younger man's cheeks, but he nodded no less - Turning on his heal, raising a sleeve to wipe his eyes, "Thanks......", with that Helt began to walk away.
The Major hesitated, he cursed his own mind for not allowing him to keep ignoring the signs, he cursed himself for not giving the kid an answer sooner - And he hesitated to say what he did;
"Helt? I don't know if this helps but, that last question? You can atleast stop worrying about that one ok?"
----
Moncha slouched down onto his bed, staring up at the dampener field above - He reached into his jacket and retrieved an old ship's badge, the felt type that would usually be sown to military cap or the like.
He rubbed his finger across its gold embossing - 'T-S-U TROY CLASS BATTLE-CARRIER, CURADH' - It was such a long time ago he'd received this, the people from IAFS had been kind enough to let him keep his jacket and this emblem when they released him.
Whenever he looked upon it, he was reminded of when they had started out, him and Captain Synapse Senior - He had trusted that man with his life in more ways then one - And when the Captain had been executed, punished for heroic deeds that had saved lives - Moncha had been left behind, to protect their home, to keep the Curadh safe, to keep the Marie Synapse safe, he owed that much to her father.
But now, he wished more deeply to see his old Captain's face once more, to ask his advice - To know what they were doing was right, that he was protecting them from the right side of history - But Major Moncha knew that was one face he could never see again - He tucked the badge back into the recesses of his jacket, he needed to get some sleep.