Chapter 13: Legacy

“Do you accept undergoing this operation?” Folar’sha asked.

Ioren was dressed in a surgical gown and sitting on the surgical bed of the medical bay. Her reptilian stature seemed like she was ready for anything. However, even the Aksren Itrean was showing a little bit of tension from the way that she was gripping her hands.

“Are you sure?” Chief Caeytano asked. “It will be an easier procedure. No need to feel anxious.”

Ioren didn’t have her tilon in hand. So much did she want to have the desire to speak. No words could ever leave her mouth. Yet, she tried so hard.

“H ... hi ... I...,” she tried to say physically. She had to say it with the breath of her lungs to mimic the sound. “ ... p ... paes ... paeesss...”

There was a level of sympathy from Folar’sha’s shark-like eyes. Both she and Caeytano were dressed for surgery. Next to the surgical bed was a container. Inside of it was an illuminated pair of vocal cords, ready to be given to the one that needed it the most. Ioren could feel the need and want. She knew that she was the freak ... the one born without vocal cords. So few cared ... so few wanted to help her ... but the ones that wanted to be the people most dearest to her. So much hope was in her mind. If she could beg every good in the universe for it, then she would. It had to happen.

Folar’sha walked over. Her towering size quickly engulfed the little Aksren in a sympathetic hug. The very act of mercy by an alien race known as humans was a gift that could never be ignored. There was no way that Ioren could back out on this. The Shal’rein doctor released Ioren as she reached over and picked up her tilon. She began to type in on it.

“Thank you for caring,” the tilon translated.

“Medical oath,” Caeytano replied with his hand to his chest. “Always help everyone.”

She repeated the message again and then typed in: “I’m ready to finally be able to talk.”

“We will do everything that we can,” Folar’sha said. “Remember ... I can’t make a promise that this will work, but we’ll try.”

The Aksren typed. “It’s better than nothing. Thank you.”

Caeytano pulled up a small hover table near both him and the Shal’rein. “Then ... let’s not hesitate any longer. I, for one, would prefer that this would work.”

“Less work for you, my mate?” Folar’sha happily asked.

“Absolutely.”

“In that case, let’s get started. Ioren go ahead and lay down. We will put you to sleep for an hour, ok?”

Ioren nodded and complied. She adjusted her scaly body and table to lay down on her back. She took a couple of deep breaths. In a matter of hours, she would know if the procedure was a success. Even a small chance was feasible. Her thoughts went to her mate. Stone was strong and fortuitous, but this procedure was precious time away from the new recruits. Thankfully, the scenario today had granted enough time that Stone felt inclined to give the trainees a day to relax but only for this day. This would also give Ioren the necessary time to also undergo this operation. All she needed to do now, was wait...

“I love you too, mom,” Enlai said as he looked at his tablet. The face and image of seeing his mother was heartwarming. However, he seemed a little remorseful that his time was up. The countdown number on the tablet had expired just in time for the displayed image of his parents to end. The communication channel shut down and the device went dark.

Despite running out of communication time, Enlai seemed relieved as he relaxed and slouched to his bed. His boot narrowly grazed Dariea. The internal layout of the barracks seemed relaxed as ever. Dariea was busy using a tablet to examine her face and head. She was seated by Enlai’s bed with her back pressed to the bunk. She would use a small set of laser cutters to trim her hair. There was a faint hint of burning hair, but it wasn’t that bad in the odor. By now, everyone was relaxed.

“It’s my turn, next,” Isandro happily requested. He was laying down on his stomach in his bunk. He had a big smile on his face as Enlai tossed the tablet to his direction.

“Ugh...,” Dariea commented. She cringed at the scent before she finally paused.

“I’ll get you a pair of scissors, ok?” Enlai told her.

“This thing works, but it sucks.”

Isandro was busy typing away on the tablet device. He could only call one person and that other person was waiting for him. Enlai was watching him for a short moment before looking at Dariea.

“Eager to call your parents?” Enlai asked her.

“I was ... thinking of calling my sister,” she replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah...”

“I thought you despised your sister.”

“She makes mistakes, but she’s still my sister.”

“At least we made it today.”

There was a look on Isandro’s face. A man’s face appeared on the tablet. It was difficult for Enlai’s vision to tell him who it was, but the stranger seemed to be a person from former China or Japan. He couldn’t tell anymore than that. He did see that Isandro was delighted to see him.

“Jack?” Isandro said.

“Isandro, holy shit,” Jack Longwei replied.

Isandro lowered his voice a little bit to offer some privacy to Enlai and Dariea. Both of the two also tried to speak amongst themselves.

“His ... boyfriend?” Dariea whispered to Enlai.

“Yeah, surprised he was able to talk to him,” Enlai replied. “Unless, he was removed from boot camp.”

“Hmph ... well ... not my concern.”

“I agree, so ... we have a few more weeks and we’re done.”

“Yep, good news.”

“Are you wanting to stay on the Lifen after this?”

It seemed to be a question that made her think for a short bit. She even put her laser cutting tool away. She sniffed a little bit.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I didn’t think I had a choice.”

“We do after we graduate ... well ... a little bit of a choice. We’re all deciding to stay on the Lifen.”

“You mean ... we can transfer away?”

“If the marine corp allows it, yeah.”

“I would ... like to leave ... I think. Can’t stand the Master Sergeant.”

“Eh ... he’s not that bad. Besides, he’s eased up on us a lot. Now we have only one person on watch rather than two of us. We’re getting actual sleep now. Plus, you know he won’t be like that when we finish our boot camp training.”

“Maybe ... that Shal’rein woman though ... I don’t know what to make of her.”

“Shira? She’s seems very interesting, almost mysterious.”

“It’s like...,” Dariea turned her head to look at him. “It’s so strange to see the UHN take her in, you know? Like, who did she blow to get her position, anyway?”

“Something tells me that she’s a badass to get her position. I mean, have you seen that eyepatch of hers?”

“An eyepatch? She had an eyepatch on? Damn...” Dariea almost seemed to chuckle to herself. “I don’t know ... she seems ok.”

“I think she’s pretty cool too, especially for a Captain of a ship. She and the XO won that whole exercise today as it was.”

“I know, that’s what the Master Sarge told us.”

“Are you sure? You just seemed to be nodding a little bit in the debrief. He didn’t catch you, but I always saw those little twerks your body would do when you tried to fight yourself to stay awake.”

“Ugh...,” Dariea cringed. “After this whole shit. I’m going to ask one day of leave time on the ship. One-day ... I just fucking sleep.”

“Same.”

Dariea seemed to hesitate. “Fine ... it probably won’t matter, but I’ll fucking stay on this ship. If it weren’t for that shark woman of a captain, I would get my ass off of here.”

Enlai smiled. “Sounds awesome.”

Dariea smiled, then gave a coy look to Enlai. Her facial expression said it all as they looked at one another. It was obvious that there was another reason why she would stay.

“When is your watch?” he asked her.

“I relieve Gavrill in about an hour...,” she crossed her arms. “Maybe sooner once Isandro gets off the line.”

Enlai did his best to give Isandro his privacy, but it was difficult with the enclosed space and room available. His voice was lowered, but he was tuned to talking with Jack through the tablet device.

“Are you doing alright?” Isandro asked Jack.

“Yeah ... I’m doing ok,” there was a hint of remorse in his somewhat dainty Martian accented voice. “After my dad died, they allowed me to end my service in boot camp. It’s ... been an adjustment.”

“Hey ... I’m here for you. I just want to make sure that you’re fine.”

“After everything he did ... he really tried to hurt us in the end. It will be a long time before I can forgive him.”

“I’m sorry that I was the cause of everything.”

Jack waved his hand. “No, no ... I started it. I just ... didn’t know that my dad would go so far.” There seemed to a deep pause in his sadness.

“What is it?”

“It’s just ... odd ... the report and all. An Itrean killed him, but that Itrean took her own life. I started to hear reports. I ended up getting a message that my dad was ... making deals that he shouldn’t have. I don’t think we were the only ones that had to go through what we did.”

Isandro looked down. “We did get away with something that we shouldn’t. We got caught and got in trouble for it.”

“I know ... I know, but ... it felt nice too.”

Isandro gave a slight grin. “It was...”

“Wait a minute, you’re using up a phone call ... boot camp recruits get one call every three weeks in. You should be talking to your parents.”

“I wanted to talk to you ... I ... I don’t want to see you hurt.”

There was a pause in Jack’s voice. “Thank you ... I ... was so worried about you after we were caught.”

“I was saved by good people ... they’re nice and have become good friends.”

Enlai overheard what Isandro had said and smiled to him. Even Dariea gave a nod to him in appreciation.

“That’s wonderful,” Jack said. “I just wish I was there with you.”

Isandro seemed to bite his lip. “Maybe you can.”

“What do you mean?”

“You come aboard the Lifen.”

There was another pause. “I don’t know, Isandro. I’m not sure that I’m ready to jump back into boot camp if they will even let me. I still have to handle the funeral arrangements as it is.”

“You don’t have to jump back into it just now...” Isandro lifted his hand and lowered it gesturing to him to calm down. “Take your time. But, when you do, I can bring it up to my Master Sergeant. I’m sure my Captain would love to have you a part of our team too.”

“Wow ... really?”

“Yeah,” there seemed to be excitement in Isandro’s face. “We need marines so badly. They took me in despite everything.”

“It ... makes me happy to hear you say that. It sounds like you managed to pull through ... after what my dad threatened us ... called you ... it was ... horrible. I’m sorry that he did that.”

“Please tell me that he didn’t abuse you when you were a kid.”

“He got angry so quick at times. He would act on it. But ... don’t worry about it. I will be going to therapy soon ... put it all away.”

“You’re never alone, Jack ... you’re better than your father. Better than anything.”

A beeping sound was starting to go off on Isandro’s tablet. He had a minute left in his call before the connection would end.

“I just picked up the message too,” Jack said. “Your time is running out.”

“It’s alright, it’s worth it,” Isandro said.

“I was ... I was thinking ... maybe I could do that. I’ll need some time, but ... if you could make it through this, then so can I. Who is your drill instructor anyway?”

“Master Sergeant Stone.”

“Stone? He ... was an associate with my dad. Wait ... I know him. I met him when I was younger. Wow ... that’s incredible.”

“Listen, you take care of yourself, Jack,” Isandro remarked. “Know that I’m doing ok. Once I finish up recruit training, I’ll give you a callback.”

“Thank you, Isandro. You’re an incredible person. I promise that I’ll be ok.”

Isandro put his fingers to his lips before he placed it near the screen. “I love you,” he told him. The beeping on his tablet was letting him know that the communication link was about to cut off.

“I love you too,” Jack replied. A subtle smile was on his face before the tablet finally went dark. Jack pressed the tablet to his chest for a moment as if a dark cloud had been lifted. Eventually, he turned his face to look at Dariea and Enlai.

“I’m ... sorry if you two are offended if I’m...,” Isandro said.

“It doesn’t matter to me who you fuck,” Dariea remarked with a shrug. “Can you ... toss me the tablet?”

“Here.” Isandro tossed the tablet to her where she caught it. She began to immediately start keying in her code so that she could make her own call.

“Are you going to do it?” Enlai asked him.

“Do what?” Isandro asked.

“The ceremony when we graduate as marines?”

Isandro looked at his hands. “Yeah ... I’ll do it. I’m not going to chicken out on it.”

“I was almost hopping that you would,” Enlai also looked at his hands too. “It would have given me an excuse not to do it either.”

“Don’t worry,” the small-statured marine replied with a wave of his hand. “I’ll just patch up your hand after the whole thing.”

“That’s true...,” Enlai pointed his finger at him. “Can’t go wrong with that.”

Isandro looked away and back at him. “You know ... you did pretty good out there.”

“I ... don’t know about that, but...”

“No, you did. What we did today ... that wasn’t easy. I was doing my best to remain confident, but ... it was fun getting through to the end. I think you managed to pull through as our team lead.”

Enlai could feel a sense of pride. They had gotten through the worst of the day. He had crossed his arms as he tried to appear boastful.

“Hmmm ... maybe I was,” Enlai replied with some coy. “Thanks, man.”

Isandro smiled again. The mood had been well placed. Everyone knew that they still had a little way to go, but it was becoming clear that the four could do it. They were going to make it. Now, it was just a matter of pushing through for the next few weeks...

It had been a couple hours. Both Chief Caeytano and Folar’sha were on the bed overlooking Ioren. The Itrean woman was asleep and wrapped in a neat-white blanket. The surgery was nearing completion. Her neckline was open and exposed to clean air. In the surgical cut was a tiny hint of blood. A newly placed set of vocal cords was present where there originally was none.

Both Caeytano and Folar’sha had surgical masks over their red and blue surgical garments. The human checked to ensure there wasn’t any deviation in the operation. However, it also appeared that he was leaning towards Folar’sha for guidance. Both of them had an arrangement of surgical tools beside them. The Shal’rein was undoubtedly taller than Caeytano being able to look at the hairline of Caeytano’s neck. In Folar’sha’s hand was her tilon. The display screen beside the bed was providing medical data on Ioren’s vitals.

“Ok...,” Caeytano remarked with subtlety. “Finished connecting the hyoid bones into place. Almost done...”

“That’s pretty good,” Folar’sha remarked with a smile.

“Hmmm ... it does appear that you are the one guiding me this time.”

“Heh,” she lightly chuckled. “For your first true surgery with an Itrean, you are doing well.”

“Still...,” Caeytano paused as he looked at the display screen by the bed. “I’m not liking the spike in the white blood cell count by the implanted tissue.”

“We will do it again...,” Folar’sha gave a somewhat remorseful look. “Try again, here...” Her finger pointed at a piece of exposed tissue near the lower base of Ioren’s neck. “Use the DNA sequencer at the endpoints again.”

“Trying to fool her body is only working so much. Even a human body wouldn’t reject something with the work we’re putting in so far.”

“It’s the only way that I know.” Folar’sha was shaking her head. “It’s just not enough. My skills are just...” She paused.

“It’s alright,” Caeytano said as he took a dual-linked tool and began to focus a beam into Ioren’s neck. “I’m still amazed that the Itrean immune system is so strong. Even with our work put into this organ, her own body is trying to destroy it.”

“Our people used every biological weapon against each other. We had to increase our resistances.”

The chief medical officer noticed that the white blood cells began to decrease slightly as he continued to do his work. He gave a nod.

“Ok,” he said. “It’s stabilizing again, but I don’t know for how long. The Itrean body fascinates me. Your own white blood cells are capable of ‘realizing’ when a foreign object, disease, or bacteria is changing its form.”

“Because we had diseases that did that. Xilik’s disease was considered the best of that achievement. I still remember when it came. I ... couldn’t even see it or track it. We didn’t even know we had an epidemic until it was too late.”

“I see...,” Caeytano shook his head. “I’m mending the tissue into place. Rest of her vitals looks good so far. If this fails, I might have an idea on what to do next.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, but let’s hope this will work.” The chief medical officer took a suturing tool device and brought it to her neck. “I’m not going to go heavy on this. If her body starts rejecting it or it starts to get bad, we can make emergency surgery and have the vocal cords removed.”

“It’s not necessary,” Folar’sha said. “If her body sees this as a threat, her antibodies will begin breaking it down. You can go ahead and seal up the cuts.”

“Alright,” Caeytano began to make the necessary stitches. “Hmmm ... one set ... two sets ... and three.” He took a cloth and applied it over Ioren’s neck. He was busy cleaning up the residual blood. “Stitches are in place.”

“Apply this to her,” Folar’sha handed a hypo syringe to Caeytano. “It’s the nanites.”

The chief took the device and applied it to Ioren. “Set ... I think we’re done, right?”

“Almost,” Folar’sha said. “Wait about one minute. Her neck and throat will go through rapid regeneration. After that, we can safely wake her up.”

The chief seemed exhausted as he stretched his body a little bit. He took his surgical gloves off as Folar’sha did the same. The Shal’rein woman then extended her hand and retrieved them from him.

“Ah ... my neck,” Caeytano mildly complained. “I need a short break. This surgery was longer than expected.”

“I can’t wait till we get more people to help out in medical.”

“Oh ... you haven’t heard yet.”

“Heard what?”

“I just got a message from Martian command about a few hours ago. We’re getting a couple of newcomers here. We’re getting another doctor.”

“Really?” there seemed to be some excitement in Folar’sha’s voice.

“Yep ... a person fresh from Mars and another person from New Olympia, a civilian I think. I can’t remember the names at the top of my head. Kinda surprised me to hear that, but with that and Isandro coming to work here, it will help our low numbers.”

Folar’sha put her hand to her stomach. “By the time we get more medics, I will end up giving birth to our baby. Maybe we should train our child to be a physician too.”

“It won’t be that long, but ... it’s better than nothing at all.” Caeytano put his hands to the top of his head to stretch it out a little bit. “Ack ... I think after this, I will need one of your prized neck massages.”

“My hands are as ready for you as ever, my mate.” Folar’sha smiled at him as he did in return. However, Caeytano looked back at the screen. He continued to watch the data that was given.

“What do you think?” he asked her.

“We can go ahead and wake her up.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

Caeytano picked up a small hypo syringe of blue fluid from the table. He carefully read the wording before bringing the applicator to Ioren’s shoulder. He pressed the button to give it the sleeping Itrean.

“Done...,” the chief remarked.

“She will wake up in less than a minute.”

Both the chief and doctor Folar’sha had remained quiet. They both took off their masks and discarded them. They waited for the injection to work its magic. Finally, within fifty seconds, Ioren’s eyes opened up. She was slightly groggy, but it didn’t take long before Folar’sha put her hand to her chest.

“Relax,” Folar’sha told Ioren. “We finished the procedure.”

She began to use sign language as a method of communication. However, both of them didn’t understand it. The Shal’rein woman simply answered the question for her.

“The surgery is complete,” she told the hybrid Itrean. “Your body is quickly healing up. You should be able to speak pretty soon.”

“We have to let you know, that despite our efforts, we don’t know enough if your body will accept it,” Caeytano explained to her. “Your body’s immune system is being tricked to take it in. Unfortunately, it’s 50/50 that your body will allow it. Right now, we have it stabilized, but ... time will be our real answer.”

There was a sign that Ioren was anxious. She wanted to speak but was afraid. She had to wait for the two to tell her if it was ok to talk.

“Go ahead...,” Folar’sha told her. “Go ahead and try to talk. Don’t worry, we aren’t expecting you to sing for us.”

Ioren closed her reptilian eyes. She took a deep breath and tried to mouth the words out.

“I ... cccooonnn ... ttttaaakkkk...,” the words were said. She experienced mild pain, but Ioren had spoken. It was high-pitched and wasn’t on the mark, but it didn’t matter.

For the first time, Ioren displayed absolute shock. She put her hand to her mouth and breathed hard. She tried again to say the words.

“I ... cccaaann ... tttaaallllkkk...” she said. Ioren gasped again. For the first time in her life, she could speak. Tears were developing from her eyelids.

“Good ... good,” Folar’sha said.

The display screen began to show red. The location of the vocal cords was starting to disappear.

“Damn...,” Caeytano commented. “It didn’t work. Ioren’s immune system is attacking the tissue and destroying it. Her body is rejecting it.”

“Nooo ... Naaa...,” Ioren tried to say. “Soo ... cccloossee...”

“Can we do anything to save it?” the chief asked Folar’sha. The Shal’rein closed her eyes temporarily before shaking her head no.

“Ehhh ... eeepp...,” Ioren remarked before her voice fell silent again. There were no coherent words. Her voice box was out of commission.

“I’m sorry, Ioren,” Folar’sha told her. “We were trying. I’m just not an expert on this field ... especially when it comes to restoring lost voices.”

“I am too,” Caeytano added.

Ioren could feel a pain in her throat. She would know that in days, whatever was put in her throat would be broken apart. She held her hands up to him. She made the gesture of opening a tilon.

“Here,’ Folar’sha said as she reached over the floating table. She picked up the pair of metal rods and handed it to Ioren.

Caeytano turned around and began to walk away, almost as if he was ashamed. It had felt like it was for not. A patient had failed surgery. He was thankful that Ioren was alive to at least know that the procedure had failed. However, from her back, Ioren had opened up her tilon and began to type away on it. She was meticulous. Folar’sha had looked over to her mate, that was squeezing his fingertips.

“It’s alright,” Ioren’s tilon translated her words. “For a few seconds, I had a voice...” She paused and then typed, “My voice.”

The chief had stiffened up a little bit. However, he remained tough and firm as he turned around to look at her.

“And it was a beautiful voice,” Folar’sha told her.

Ioren typed. “Don’t feel bad for me. You tried to help me.”

“I know.”

The chief was looking at the display screen by the bed. He seemed to be thinking. “We might be doing all of this wrong, but I’ve been thinking of something.”

“Yes, you had an idea.

Ioren seemed curious but she stopped typing.

Caeytano pointed his finger at the screen. “We might be able to push forward on the nanorobotics to help us out.”

“What do you mean?” Folar’sha asked.

“We used sets of nanites to heal her throat. I was thinking of establishing a different net of nanites that can continually adjust the chemical patterns of the vocal cords. Even if the DNA pattern isn’t the exact same, the nanites might be able to adjust to Ioren’s immune system response. Her framework, like any other Itrean, has been designed to continually adjust and tune its chemical sensory network to detect for viruses, bacteria, and so forth. I was talking to a friend back on Mars that knew more on nanorobotics. It might be the only way that we can help Ioren out if we are to get her a new set of vocal cords.”

Folar’sha put her hands together. “That sounds wonderful.”

“The biggest problem is the battery life that the nanites have. Even the ones that repaired her would only last so long, let alone for a lifetime. We need something better.”

“Don’t we have anything to help?” Ioren typed.

Folar’sha shook her head. “I tried asking the T’rintar for help, but they claim to have nothing. I ... think they are lying.”

Despite the innocence in her voice, Folar’sha felt quite sure that what she said was the truth. It was that or the fact that the T’rintar clan had purposefully ignored or put little effort into it. Regardless, Ioren was more intrigued by what humanity had to offer.

“This will have to fall upon the Martian Medical Research and their team to help out on this,” Caeytano said. “From what they said, they have nanites with a service life of one year, but they are pretty expensive and hard to produce. You would need to have injections of fresh new ones annually, but ... procuring them would be hard.”

“I see...”

“Listen,” the chief put his hand to the bed. “We’re not giving up on this. The UWA is making advancements as each day pushes forward. They already have been working on nano-regenerative armor on future UHN ships. They are making significant progress in being able to make large amounts of nanites in short time frames. In about a year, we can return back to this conversation, and the UWA will have a larger surplus. I will still try to tell them about your condition. They will try to help, but ... if the situation isn’t life-threatening, then they will look at your voice restoration as optional surgery compared to mandatory surgeries.

“It’s the same with me,” Folar’sha said. “I’ve been studying your condition. I’m getting better at trying to find a solution. If they won’t send someone to help, then I will do it for them.”

Ioren, despite the heavy setback, felt a sense of happiness run through her mind. She smiled and began to type on her tilon. There was much that needed to be said. She let her device say everything for her.

“I can wait. For the first time, I actually spoke, and I loved it. Even if it was short, I still spoke. I thank both of you in your efforts. You are truly wonderful. Again, don’t blame yourselves. I’m thankful to find carrying people.”

“We can keep trying,” Folar’sha said. “We can even use a set of Aksren vocal cords.”

Ioren shook her head no. She typed, “I like the Yutilian vocal cords. We will wait till other options come.”

Folar’sha put her hand on Ioren’s shoulder. She was consoling her. Caeytano took the compliment to heart. It was all that he needed to hear. For now, the only solution for Ioren was to wait. The answers would arise eventually...

“And then ... I was like ... awake and saw the whole ship in front of me,” Dean said in his calm stupor. “I think that Silent-Bro just had the smarts to fly both of us through that tunnel, you know?”

“Dean, the computer isn’t that advanced to handle auto-pilot through such a small tunnel,” Mizu replied. “You’re telling me that you just slept through that whole part?”

“Hey...” Dean held his arms out in a big shrug. “Maybe I was like ... sleep-flying, you know?”

“Sleep-flying? Come on ... you flew through that tunnel like a boss. I would have been shitting my pants at those speeds. There is no way anybody could have done what you did. Take some pride. You were fucking amazing out there ... ummm ... my apologies, CO ... XO.”

Mizu and Dean were standing in the CO’s stateroom as they looked at each other. Shira and Javier were standing by the center projector table, listening to the pilots speak to one another.

“None is needed,” Shira calmly told Mizu. “The stealth craft, in your opinion, functioned appropriately. Do you both agree?”

“Well ... like ... Silent-Bro seems like a pretty cool bro, you know?” Dean said and lifted his hand to swear. “I stand by it, Ma’am. Dean’s honor.”

“You won’t have any argument from me either, Captain,” Mizu added. “They still need to be worked on in the interior. It was ... uncomfortable with the little room, but they still worked.”

“I have reviewed some of the early data,” Shira commented. “Both of you performed your duties as expected.”