With no relative star to provide a day/night cycle the Roanoke's lighting system mimicked a dawn and dusk to the best of its abilities. Oftentimes Abigail was lit, a scrappy silhouette in the maintenance LEDs, in the middle of night making her adventures to the toilet and the officer's lounge. Seldom did she stay in her quarters if it wasn't to sleep in them. She had an aversion to the space and claimed it was cramped. But when the princess left Abigail's quarters she remained inside and did not leave the room for the entirety of the evening, claiming that the battle and rough landing tired her out enough to get some rest. 

Jakunta banged on the door with a heavy hand that could only be him. Abigail's gaze flickered to the door for a moment before she got up and clicked on the speakers for the door lock. 

"Yeah?"

“Hello.” he spoke, staring at the door.

"Heyyyy." Abigail thought about it for a moment.

The keypad flashed green and the door hissed open. She gestured for him to enter.

Jakunta entered and looked around the room. “Empty.” he said, void of any emotion indicating whether that was a good or bad thing. “Are you going to be a soldier, or the poster girl?” he asked next, straight to the point as he sat himself down.

"The soldier," Abigail responded. "But it's hard to give the poster girl up." 

“You will give it up. Or we die. You die, I die, ship die.”

"Firstly," Abigail sat down on her bed - sheets still tucked in neat, "the only fun I get out of all this Child of Savonia shit is the bragging rights and how people look up to me. Second, it's not a goddamn risk. You sound like Aleks. Did it ever occur to either of you that the mistakes I made this year might have something to do with me being a shitty pilot, overpromoted to this rank because of who I know and the terms of my contract?"

"Because the contract's key here, Jak. It's not a...a lifestyle choice, it's a fucking legal obligation. Failure to uphold my part of the bargain means they'll fail to uphold theirs. Best case scenario I get kicked out of the Direwolves, probably kept out of a MAS, shunted back into Jaatikar where I can finally live out the life I was supposed to live - ODed at thirty five because I don't know what the fuck civilians even do other than watch me on the TV. Worst case scenario, they get all maliciously compliant to the terms and conditions and choke me to death on a loophole."

She tugged on a part of her sheets. "This isn't something you can beat the shit out of until it stops twitching, nor do I think you can get it redacted. I signed the papers. I'm gonna have to do my fucking job." She pulled a face. "Right now they aren't allowed to bother me while I'm on duty. But the moment they catch wind of what's happened here, I'm fucked. They'll dreg up every scrap of footage they can find, every audio recording, security cams, body scans and make as much material as they can out of it." 

Jakunta furrowed his brows and rubbed his forehead, seemingly annoyed at something. “No. YOU do not understand.” he pointed at her, dramatically, before gesticulating his hand into a gun. “Bullet only throws if the gun works! You are the gun. They need gun to work.”

"...You're right. I don't understand your strange, vodka infused Zalavi wisdom." Abigail pulled a face. "And I think it's going to be vastly blown out of proportion. We're going to just take her back to UEE space and I can deal with the fallout...I dunno. Immediately, it sounds like. As soon as we land." 

"Only thing that will blow up is you if you keep playing pretend instead of doing job, child like." he nodded firmly as if he had the ability to peer into the future. 

[color=lime]INS Roanoke
Hyperspace
Local Time: 1030[/color][hr][color=lightblue]“-we’re going to be exiting hyperspace in the middle of the FEZ.”[/color] 

Silence.

Where Ingram expected protestation - especially from the mouthiest, shortest member of the crew - he found an impassive expression and complete silence meeting him. Her eyes narrowed slightly but her expression was blank. He might as well have mentioned a change in the lunch menu for all she seemed to care. However, taking a professional actress at face value was a dangerous presumption; she sat with a too-straight back as well, and seemed far too composed for Abigail's usual first-thing-in-the-morning routine.

Jakunta picked at his teeth. "We get extra pay? Emperor fuck us, he take us out to dinner?" 

Abigail's gaze briefly flickered to Aurelia.

When Ingram sealed the lounge and explained the fears of a mole, their new roles as the Princess' personal bodyguards and the importance of maintaining Aurelia's anonymity, Abigail decided to pipe up.

"Are you fucking serious? The FEZ? Emperor's going to be more willing to let Jakunta fuck him than find out his youngest's traipsing around in some smelly Merc fuckpit!" She leant back in her chair. "I vote we call Auri [I]Overtime[/I]. That's got nothing to do with her royal status."