Maybe I can prompt Chie with Dr. Alberton?  Depending on what you want to do and how Chie would be expected to respond to her dad.  If you want to interact with the other lancemates, but Chie is going to be rebellious, I could have Dr. Alberton tell Chie to go along with him to see the rest of the ship, and Chie will refuse and go talk to her lancemates just to spite him.  Or if Chie is actually going to go along with Dr. Alberton's, maybe he can do the fatherly thing and prompt her to talk to them, and she'd go a long with it.

Maybe for a topic, she might feel a bit bad about what she had said before and about how their mechs didn't look might much.  She might rescind her previous statement, and say they look 'OK'.  Or she could talk about how she already feels like an experienced pilot from all the games she's played.