Too Close for Comfort

Posted on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 @ 3:14am by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Kodria Mizu & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox

Mission: Section 31-B
Location: Flight Control office
Timeline: 2396, en route to Earth for Shore leave

It was an extremely long night of not really sleeping for Chief Flight Control Officer, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox. Between regularly readjusting the thermostat in her quarters to compensate for a bouncing body temperature and other unspoken activities to try and relax, she had only actually slept for approximately 3 and a half hours, total.

But there was still work to be done. Flight Crew rotations we're in order and the Runabouts Selune and Thor were overdue for an engine overhaul once the Hera arrived at the Terran system for Shore leave in just a few short weeks. So she was up and in the office trying to keep herself buried in her work so as to not think about her very first period at the age of 31 thanks to her recently restored Romulan DNA. Or, more specifically, to avoid thinking about the unwanted side effect of those agressive new hormones.

For the lack of a better term, Mnhei'sahe Dox was impossibly horny. Which was, of course, exasperated by the close proximity of her Miradonian department co-worker and assistant Flight Chief, Mona Gonadie. The brilliantly plumed, avian pilot that Dox had begin to realize she might just be developing a crush for.

"Ensign Gonadie, have you heard back oh how long the Thor and the Selune are going to be out of commission once we're in space dock?" Dox called across the main office to Gonadie who was in her own workshop adjacent from Dox's desk.

"They estimated a week after they get them in, which could take a few days. Plus they'll have to retune the Selune's engines to our stealth profiling after the overhaul. The Thor should be back to us after ten days, but the Selune could take up to two weeks." Mona was bouncing around a holographic wireframe of one of her projects she'd been working on, her miniskirt bouncing along with her as she waved a PaDD and stylus around, making changes and taking notes. "Have you checked the repair roster for the Danu? The manual controls keep needing recalibration and I've been worried about the interface."

But Ensign Gonadie's question hovered in the air for a few seconds as the distracted Chief found herself actively trying to not stare at Mona as she leapt about. After another second, Dox pulled her head up to look at her desktop screen as she quickly called up some files on her screen. "The Danu, yeah. Our Unlucky Lady's problem is it's Chief, I think."

Looking up to make eye contact for only about a half a second before quickly looking back down to her screen , Dox continued. "I've been showing... favoritism to the Danu in flight exercises and the manual controls keep getting adjusted to taste by the pilots on rotation. Then I reset them back to how I like them. But I've scheduled her for a complete system diagnostic and repair while en route to Earth."

"Ah, that makes sense. In that case, I'd like to plump up the control interface so it's better able to handle it and add the ability to preprogram custom presets based on piloting preferences. Shouldn't be too hard." Mona bounced around the holographic model she was working on from one foot to the other as she spoke, trying to remodel a couple of the supports. She then leaned over and looked at it from underneath, forgetting she had on a miniskirt, which flipped it up and exposed her 'tail feathers' in all their glory to Dox.

Keeping her head buried in her computer didn't prevent Dox from noticing the unintentional display of colorful plumage, as she stifled a gasp at the sight.

Standing back up straight, she smoothed the back of her miniskirt back down, trying not to ruffle her feathered behind any more than it already was with the leggings and the miniskirt. "Ahem... Excuse me..."

Any attempt at concealing her attraction hinged on her not letting Mona see how flushed green her cheeks had become. "Excellent. That sounds like a plan, thank you."

Dox turned around in her chair to review on her PaDD so as to not be looking in the direction of the brilliantly plumed Miradonian woman.

"Excellent. I'll start drawing up the modifications immediately." Grabbing a PaDD and writing up a quick authorization form, Mona plopped her plump rear onto her Chief's desk and leaned in with a grin. "Could you sign this authorization form first though? Make it official?"

'Seriously?!' Dox thought as she turned her chair around slowly to the intoxicating sight as she felt a flush of heat run up her body. 'Now she has to messing with me on purpose. She knows what I'm thinking and she's messing with me!

"Uh... of course." Dox leaned forward, her eyes locked on Mona's as she signed the PaDD without looking. She forced a crooked smile on her face as the young officers mind raced.

'There you go. Look at her eyes.' Dox thought, trying to focus on the business at hand and not Mona's voluptuous form sitting before her. 'She is your co-worker and your friend. So just be professional and make eye contact with her deep, Amber eyes like crystal pools of... Imirrhlhhse!!!! What is WRONG with you?! You are a Starfleet officer and in your damn THIRTIES?! You aren't a fourteen year old girl, for pity's sake!'

Darting her eyes away, Dox went back to staring at her display screen, calling up data. "Thank you." She said, as calmly as she could.

Mona grinned wider, knowing exactly what was going on. Any Miradonian with a nose could smell the Lieutenant a deck away. "Thanks, Chief."

Which was the precise moment that Commander Rita Paris entered, a petite Vulcan-esque android accompanying her. Taking in the scene- Mona Gonadie perched on Dox' desk quite close to her, Mnhei'sahe Dox herself looking quite bright green and flustered, the observant officer immediately started putting things together, and plotted her course.

"Good morning, Flight Control! At this point of our tour we'll be visiting the flight deck, which we can all see quite clearly through those floor to ceiling transparent aluminum walls there. Hello, flight crew and pads 11 and 12..."

Upon Paris entering, Dox stood quickly up from her seat to greet the visitors. This of course brought her eye to eye with Mona who was still grinning and staring right back.

Pulling her attention away and extremely grateful for the distraction, Dox straightened her tunic and addressed the visitors. "Commander Paris... How can I help you?"

"Lieutenant Dox, Ensign Gonadie, may I introduce a guest of the Hera, Miss Kodria Mizu who's taking a tour and doing a little sightseeing. She is a guest of the Hera, visiting quite by accident from the end of the 25th century. We're taking a bit of an inspection tour, and the flight deck is always one of those wondrous sights of a starship such as ours, aye?"

Her focus off of Mona and on to ships business, Dox's anxiety lessened just a bit as she stepped forward. "There's no place quite like it on the Hera, Commander. And it's a pleasure to finally meet you under better circumstances, Miss Mizu." The stout pilot held out her hand with an authentic, if still nervous, smile.

Mona stood at the ready, smiling mischievously.

The young android shook Dox's hand gratefully. "It's great to see you again! I missed you too!"

In spite of how distracted Dox was, thinking of Mona standing just out of sight, she cocked her head slightly at the unusual choice of words and the excess of emotion she was reading off of the Android she had only met once and extremely briefly a few days ago. "Uh... thank you."

Then Dox stepped aside, folding her hands behind her back to allow Mona to introduce herself.

The brightly plumed Miradonian stepped forward and shook Kodria's hand next. "Hi, I'm Mona. It's so nice to meet you."

"Hi! It's nice to meet you too!" Kodria was beaming at all the introductions and delighted to see all the cool stuff from this era. "So what kind of flight systems do you use?"

The enthusiasm of the young Android was infectious enough to cut through Dox's distraction for the moment as she went into a brief description. "Well, much of the ship and most of our shuttles use the standard LCARS interface system. However, we also have a Delta class Runabout with a manual control system. But even more interesting is the helm controls on the bridge and a few of the shuttles have a very unique Holographic manual system designed by Mona... Ensign Mona... Ensign Gonadie here." Dox found herself flustered again but pushed through.

Mona was the one to giggle slightly at Dox's discomfort, but otherwise let her go on.

Keeping the descriptions a little loose playing to Kodira's youthful energy, Dox followed up. "Mona's are my favorite systems to fly."

Immediately as the words fell out of her mouth, the color drained completely from her plump cheeks. Squinching her face slightly into an awkward smile and chuckling awkwardly.

Kodria's eyes widened in surprise. "The Mona Gonadie? You were in my history le... I mean... Uh..." Realizing she probably blew it, she clasped her hands behind her back and shuffled her feet a bit. "I really like your flight control systems. They interface well with my analysis programs."

"Well, there was never doubt in my mind that I'd make a mark on history, so there's no point in hiding it." Mona beamed proudly, hands on hips at the young android's slip. "After all, I am the greatest pilot, and to a Miradonian pilot, there is no higher praise than knowing you improved flying for generations to come. But... I know my work isn't finished so I'll keep at it. Thank you, Kodria."

The young Vulacnoid android looked on as the great aviatrix preened proudly, a hint of a grin gracing her features and not sure what to make of what she was seeing. "You're very welcome?"

"If you'd like, We can give you a tour of the Flight deck if you'd like to see it, Miss Mizu." Dox gestured to the massive window leading from the office. "If that's okay, Commander?"

"Okay?" Paris asked with mild incredulity. "It's why we've come. To our friend here, we're living history- like how you view visiting the Exeter. So by all means, I expect the full tour with bells and whistles. Let's show Miss Mizu what an advanced flight deck of a century before her time looks like in action, shall we?"

"Well, until the holodeck put me in the mini skirt uniform, I was really enjoying the Exeter. It was fascinating to see how little the basic functionality of a starship really has changed." Dox recollected their shared experience on the holodeck from a few weeks ago with a slightly less nervous chuckle.

"So, here's hoping our tour isn't too boring for you, Miss Mizu." Dox was happy for the distraction, no matter how strange even if her attention kept floating back to Mona who seemed to be hovering right in the corner of Dox's eyes and just barely brushing the young Romulan's shoulder.

Kodria scrunched up her face in thought as she looked out the window at the shuttles moving to and fro. "Well, the SS Haspatia is a civilian science cruiser commissioned in 2401... Ah... That would mean she's being constructed now, I assume... She has a fly-through flight deck built into a pod lined with sensor platforms. So... Probably not too different. The overall ship design is, I think a variant of the Luna class?"

Mona grinned and spoke somewhat breathily, making sure she tickled the hairs in Dox's ears at least once. "That would save a lot of room in the saucer for labs and equipment. You must be able to keep a lot more experiments going because of that."

"MONA..." Dox exclaimed a bit louder than she intended to at Gonadie's now obvious torments. "...asks a very... uh... Interesting question." Now beyond embarrassed, Dox was fidgeting in place as she tried to pretend nothing was out of the ordinary with a plastered grin as sweat began heading on her forehead.

"Not just yet. The starship that's your home won't be constructed for another five years, Miss Mizu. But here you can see a few of our shuttles and extravehicular craft common to our era. Isn't that so, Miss Gonadie?" Paris called out Mona, who was teasing a little too obviously for Rita's old-fashioned taste.

"Indeed. Most of our craft are state of the art like the Selune and Thor." Mona pointed out the window towards the pair of runabouts that seemed to be constantly prepped for missions. "But most of our smaller craft are more tried and true models like the type 8 and 9 shuttles." This time the brightly plumed Miradonian didn't do anything outwardly to exacerbate her boss's delicate hormonal situation other than just standing next to her grinning as she pointed out the various craft. "Also, down in the lower decks we have a small complement of workbees just in case."

"So, Miss Mizu, is there anything in particular that you'd like to see? Any of the ships of our era?" The Commander asked openly, as she couldn't imagine a ship onboard that was particularly classified.

"Well... I've never seen a type 8 shuttle before... We still use the type 9, unfortunately. I wish we could use the main service shuttles, but being a civilian ship we're about fifty years behind on most of our support craft." Realizing too late how that sounded, Kodria tried to back it up. "I mean uh... Sorry..."

"Not at all. Trust me, as nostalgic as I can be about my own era, those type 8 shuttles were like a punishment for wanting to leave the ship," Rita reminisced. "How DARE you not want to use the transporter! Fine, get in the backbreaker, and be careful stepping in on those nacelles we use for landing gear..."

"We can absolutely show you one of our type 8's." Dox stepped forward and spun back around to face the group while tapping her comm badge. "Dox to MacNielle. We're doing a tour of the bay, please make sure shuttle 79010 dash 6 is clear and prepped, thank you."

After a second, there was a light chirp and a young woman's voice replied. "Aye, Chief. She'll be ready for you." Dox smiled as she tapped her comm to reply. "Thank you, MacNielle."

Facing the group and actively trying to not make eye contact with Mona, Dox clapped her hands together, trying a little too hard to seem relaxed. "So, it sounds like you know your way around a Starship pretty well, Miss Mizu. Nevertheless, if you'll stay behind me for safety, we can head to the shuttle."

"Uh... Ensign, if you would, please hold down the fort for us." Dox addressed Mona Gonadie with an awkward expression, hoping for a few minutes separated from the source of her attraction.

"Not at all, I'm certain the tour would benefit from both of your input and color commentary," Paris observed, gently clapping the Miradonian pilot on the shoulder. "Let's go take a nice brisk walk across the flight deck together, shall we?"

Smiling back with a tight lipped grin that all but psychically projected the thought of, 'Oh, you're BOTH enjoying this, aren't you?', the portly young Romulan pilot instead simply said through a forced smile. "Well then, follow me and we'll get going."

Turning, Dox all but walked into the door from her office to the flight deck before it wooshed open in time to save her from that embarrassment. Once on the deck, the silence of watching the activity from behind glass was replaced with the bustling activity of shuttles taking off and landing and crewmembers moving cargo.

Trying to keep her focus on the tour, Dox waved over towards two of the larger Runabouts. "This is the Selune and the Thor, which you are familiar with, Miss Mizu. Both are being prepared for engine refits at our next destination."

The young android was looking around in awe at everything. "The Thor is an original Gryphon class, right? We have one as well, but it's stripped down and rebuilt for flying into anomalies and gas giants. It's so cool seeing an original one! I wanna touch it!" Without any further warning, Kodria headed straight to the Thor and gingerly placed her fingertips against the aft of the heavily armored runabout in awe.

Immediately, Dox stepped forward towards Kodria which her hand out in concern, but pulled it back. "Oh, be careful walking around here without watching where you're going. It can be dangerous if crewmembers are moving cargo or..."

The anxious pilot found her tension with Mona briefly replaced with a more paternal concern for the young Android who just seemed to engender such behavior from everyone she met. But she caught herself and pulled back slightly, as she felt she was likely over reacting.

Mona sidled up to the overprotective Romulan Lieutenant with a grin. "She kind of makes you want to have kids of your own, doesn't she, boss? Maternal instincts starting to kick in? I know mine are. I'd love to have a little one in the nest about now. There aren't any other Miradonians aboard though..."

At which, Dox's stomach flipped upside down and she felt herself go flush again with both embarrassment and almost uncontrollable arousal. She bit her lip and whispered under her breath in a slightly plaintiff, if sarcastic tone, "You're evil, you know that, right?"

"You need to get laid. You know that, right?" The brightly plumed Miradonian replied with a wink.

Rolling her eyes, Dox did her level best to squash the rushing hormones that were taking the attraction she already had for Mona into the proverbial stratosphere. After a second, she whispered. "You have no idea."

In the meanwhile, the delighted young android was busy here and there all about the runabout, excited and delighted to see an antique piece of technology here in its prime, in perfect condition. As a fan of technology and a touchstone to her past, Kodria was excited to be here, and Paris was keeping an eye on her to insure she didn’t get into any trouble while her piloting senior officers grappled with a condition Rita suspected she understood all too well.

“Shall we move on to see another ship, perhaps the Selune or the Unlucky Lady…?” Paris asked to gently draw a bit of attention to the moment.

Hearing the Commander speak, Dox side stepped away from Mona, who was hovering entirely too close to her for comfort. "That sounds like a great idea. What do you think, Miss Mizu?"

"Mmhmm! Please! I want to see all of..." Kodria paused as her eyes seemed to glass over for a moment and her head slumped forward. After a second, she reached up and gingerly touched her forehead. "Excuse me, I think part of my personality matrix just reset. Now reporting 59% functionality and stabilizing."

The tone change in the young android was a bit odd, but it was definitely still Kodria - she just sounded a bit more mature. She smiled and looked around at those near her. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to worry you. Can we look at more shuttles now?"

Taken aback, Dox quickly glanced at both Commander Paris and Ensign Gonadie before replying with a quizzical head tilted. "Uh... Mildly worried anyway. What just happened? Are you okay?" The young Romulan pilot stepped slightly forward in concern.

"Yeah, just a bit of a reset." Kodria was all smiles again as she looked around at those around her. "My self repair systems are finally hard at work."

"Excellent! A sure sign of improving health," Paris offered good-naturedly. "Let's show her the Unlucky Lady, Miss Dox. The Delta Flyer model is likely quite the antique in her day..."

"Aye, Commander." Dox's concern abated thanks to Paris' assurance that all was well as she stepped in front to lead the group to the Runabout Danu.

Pressing a pad on the side of the shuttles bulkhead, the large hatch slowly hissed as it lowered to allow them entry. With a broad smile, the red-headed Romulan slipped back into tour guide mode. "Now, 'the Unlucky Lady' is by far my favorite Runabout on the Hera. The manual control systems Ensign Gonadie has worked hard to customize are remarkably intuitive and she's the fastest and most maneuverable ship we have. I'm not shy about saying that I really love flying this bird."

"So you love flying birds?" Mona asked with a wink. "The controls in this particular craft were developed by a Paris, however I've been working on customizing them more for our needs."

Her embarrassment was now pushing past the point of her initial discomfort and Dox was getting irritated by the ribbing. Irritated enough to not feel like deflecting the attention as much anymore.

"Absolutely." She replied, staring back at Mona with a slightly sarcastic grin. If there was no point in trying to hide her attraction she was simply going to be direct. At least as direct as was appropriate under the current circumstances, since Kodira was still essentially a child.

Kodria nodded excitedly. "We have a couple of these, but the manual controls and weapons are stripped out and they're just scientific explorers. They're also rather well used and most have been heavily modified. Seeing one like this is amazing."

“From what I’ve been able to gather, the designer wanted a more tactile interface rather than what he deemed ‘pushbutton’ flying. Which I have to agree is a refreshing change of pace, as it handles much more like a primitive aircraft. In turn, that lends her superior maneuverability… plus she’s a whole lot of fun to drive,” Paris commented, forcibly restraining herself from adding to the innuendo. After all, younger minds tended to pick up on such things, and she’d prefer not to corrupt the youth nor embarrass her junior officers.

"I certainly find a tactile interface improves flight performance for me. I'm not a big fan of 'push button flying' myself." Dox added.

"I agree," Mona piped up in a more serious fashion. "The controls can be hard to find on a flat surface in a crisis, unlike with tactile controls, which are easily found with simple fingertips. Thankfully the bridge panels have tactile feedback systems so that's not too big of an issue, but none of our support craft have them. In fact, you can turn the visuals to either a fifteen-degree eye tracking visibility, or completely off, and operate them completely by touch if you had to."

Kodria motioned excitedly with her hands. "That is soooo cool. We just have the standardized LCARS holo-interfaces. I think I saw a few of the first prototypes around this ship. The 3D screens are common here and I've seen a few full-on holo-displays, but yeah that is soooo cool. I can't wait to try it out."

"The LCARS interfaces are very efficient, but I've been insistent that every pilot in the department is trained and beyond proficient with the manual systems." Dox smiled, replying to Kodira. Though she leaned slightly towards Mona as she added, "Operating by touch is a vital skill for a pilot, as I see it."

"The Danu is in need of recalibration right now, but that's because Mona and I are nit-picky with her. But she's well within the specs to take her out for a spin." Dox looked over to Paris for approval with a sincere smile. "If that's okay, Commander."

“I see no reason why not. Miss Mizu, would you like to take a spin in a brand-new antique?” Paris joked. After all, she herself was a perfectly preserved mint condition Starfleet officer circa 2268, and she understood the fascination with the past so many had. Besides, the youngster was sightseeing, and why not let her have a little fun?

"Could I?" The young android was excited for a moment before calming down, a bit of realization hitting her. "But I'm not trained in anything more than basic piloting skills. Which is really odd considering my lineage, but... It is what it is... I could interface with the sensor systems though! I would love to see through this ship's eyes!"

Mona grinned wider. "Well, you happen to have three of the galaxy's finest pilots right here with you."

"And I honestly think it would be a great test of just how intuitive your flight system customizations really are, Mona." Dox added, genuinely sharing in Kodira's enthusiasm enough to get out of her own head.

"I'll get clearance from control and keep an eye on things from here," Mona replied with a soft smile and a brief pat to Dox's shoulder.

Smirking, Dox gestured inside to Kodria with a smile. "While you're doing that, we can run the Pre-flight checklist, then. After you, Miss Mizu."

Happily heading into the runabout, Kodria headed to the science station as usual and tried logging in, which didn't work, of course. "Ah... I don't have a login... I just tried using mine from the future..."

Walking up behind the enthusiastic Android, Dox began the Pre-flight checklist. She entered her own access codes to unlock the station for Kodira. "There you go, Miss Mizu. Full guest system access, until Commander Paris has you in our systems. So, you work the science stations, then?"

The red-headed Romulan was finally processing just what "Android from the future" meant, no longer trying to actively not focus on Mona and figured that was an innocent enough question.

"I do," replied the young android with a smile up at the half Romulan Chief. She then tapped away at the station, familiarizing herself with it before finally resting her palms against the panels and interfacing that way like a tricorder or a PaDD, closing her eyes and running her data analysis systems directly through the sensors. The systems displays could barely keep up with her as she ran through everything the small runabout could offer.

You turn out to be a spy I am going to be very put out... Paris' instinctive protectiveness of the starship Hera was always in her mind, and that mind needed to be suspicious so that something didn't blindside the crew. In the here and now, as she leaned on the hatchway of the 'Unlucky Lady', the kid looked pretty legit. It was probably a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive, but the kid had survived a literal house of horrors to get rescued. It seemed as though the least they could do was give her the opportunity to mingle with personages from her life in the future while they were young, here in the past. Back when Captain Dox was only Lieutenant Dox, for instance.

"Miss Dox, I would appreciate it if you would take Miss Mizu on the vanity tour. No more than a lightyear distant, and have her back within the hour, if you will. I've a bit more tour to take her on, and a few more people for her to meet." Paris offered a wave, then ducked back out of the hatch, sealing it behind her. "A moment of your time, Miss Gonadie..."

Back inside the Runabout, Dox watched as Kodria interfaced with the systems, keeping an eye on her own monitors to make sure the mysterious visitor wasn't accessing any files beyond the operations systems of the Runabout. The guest access automatically shut down the computer access to the HERA's mainframe and was a basic security precaution. Still, Dox was taken aback at how endearing Kodria was and smiled.

"Well, we have the green light from control." Turning back to the helm, Dox entered the egress instructions into the controls. "I'll take us out and clear of the ship for a bit and then you can take the stick. Sound like fun?"

"Mmhmm! It does!" Kodria was getting into it as she processed all the data coming in from the Danu's sensor pallete's. "Do you mind if I optimize these sensors once we get under way?"

As Dox pulled the Unlucky Lady out of the Shuttlebay and into the vastness of space, she brought the Runabout up and over the Hera to give Kodria and herself a view of the Herself as the speed over and into the space past the ship.

Pondering the request Android from the future, Dox turned slightly and squinched her face in a half grin. "While I appreciate the offer, that sounds like the kind of thing that would be potentially dangerous in ways I'm not smart enough to think of, temporally speaking. I mean, an optimization from you might be a technological leap for us decades too soon."

Then, Dox put the ship on autopilot as they hovered, still fairly near the Hera, and turned to face Kodria in her seat. "Thank you for offering, though. We're just about ready for you to take the helm. The system is set to give you a warning if we get close to a light year from the Hera, though."

The anxiois flight chief was starting to feel a little nervous now, not knowing quite what to say. As she thought back to their introduction earlier, Kodria had said with a massive smile, 'It's great to see you again! I missed you too!'

At the time, she was too distracted by Mona to read too far into that and now she was beginning to think about what that mean as they really hadn't met before. Hoping her concerns weren't reading too plainly on her face, Dox stood up from the seat and gestured saying. "She's all yours when you're ready, Miss Mizu."

"Right..." Disconnecting from the station she was at, she opened her eyes and got up, heading to the pilot's seat. Once seated, she tapped at the controls to familiarize herself with them before resting her palms against them and connecting that way. "This is going to be different..."

The shift from the autopilot to Kodria's control wasn't the smoothest, the Delta class runabout doing a hard roll to port before stabilizing. "Ah yeah... I can see everything through the flight sensors. It feels like the flight controls are extensions of my own systems."

Crouching behind the pilots seat and holding on to the bulkhead, Dox lurched slightly as the Danu rolled. Her proverbial 'space legs' keeping her fairly steady as she smiled at Kodria's excitement. "You can see through the sensors? As a pilot, consider me jealous."

"Don't you have that interface that Professor Gonadie... Ah, no not yet..." Kodria again caught herself in spoilers for the future. Sighing heavily, she made a confession. "Trying to remember when I am is hard... By the way... Your pheromone levels have been off the chart and I've been noticing some odd readings from you. I didn't want to say anything in front of the others, but are you ok?"

Sighing with embarrassed, Dox rolled her eyes and sat down in the seat behind the clearly observant Android. "Really? Lovely. Yeah, I'm okay. It's... complicated."

Pausing for a second, Dox reminded herself that Kodria was essentially a child in many respects and didn't want to go into all the embarrassing details of her newly discovered crush on Mona Gonadie. Instead she shifted her focus back the previous statement.

"As for the, uh, 'Professor', she's been developing some amazing pilot interfaces already that I've tried, so It's not a massive shock that she'll eventually crack it. So, don't stress yourself out too much. No harm done. And I can't imagine it's easy for you to not just talk about things that are the past for you."

The young android nodded in agreement as she did a few simple flight maneuvers. "Yeah... Aunt Rita and Maica and mom... They all taught me wonderful things, but most of it was safe. You and the pirates took me to bars and we talked about love and personal stuff so... I think I might be more relaxed around you. If there's anything I can do to help you, I'd like to."

'Okay...' Dox thought to herself. 'I guess the whole Artan Baroness thing works out for me.' But it was likely also more information than she needed to know about their future. Still, if Kodria felt comfortable talking with her, Dox also didn't want to shut her down either.

"I appreciate it, Miss Mizu. And I'm glad you feel relaxed, so I dont want to make you feel like you can't be. So, let's make a deal. You'll do your best to not tell me stuff about your time or what is my own possible future and I'll do my best to forget any slips that happen. Otherwise, we both have to tell your Aunt Rita." Dox's tone was a little playful and friendly as she finished. "Deal?"

Kodria grinned up at Dox happily. "Deal."

 

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