"Thanks," Maya replied.  "I apologize for not having had the time to get to know either of you yet.  You might think that as your commanding officer, I'm being too friendly, but there are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is, well, I just happen to be a friendly person and do actually want to know the people I work with.  The second reason is that there's a very strong, personal aspect to being a cog pilot, and by extension a member of a team of cog pilots.  The researchers believe that letting the pilots behave according to their own personalities is the best way to release the cog's full potential.  The drawback of this is that we will not be enforcing normal military discipline, and chain of command will be followed with some wiggle room.  Since I cannot 'order' you guys around as would be normal, I have to rely instead on trying to build as much teamwork as I can.  I need you to trust me and trust each other in order to make this work.  I believe that if we become close naturally, if we build this trust, we can bring out the full potential of our team.  I hope I'm not being too invasive."

[hr]
Israfil flinched a little when he saw the bolt move through the air.  "T-that's incredible," Israfil said.  He would have found it creepy before, but since Mike had warned him before hand, and Israfil trusted that Mike wasn't going to hurt him with his powers, Israfil wasn't that afraid of it anymore.  "I doubt this is even possible, but is there any way you could explain how you do that, or what it even feels like?"