That she got a [color=Olive]"Your concerns are valid, Daschke"[/color] out of the Colonel at all was a small moral victory.  This didn't amount to anything else, though.  Her expresion carried with it a growing sense of [i]disappointment[/i] in the Colonel's response that she did not hide as he continued, working out a plan of minimal engagement.  Engagement, nonetheless.

[color=SteelBlue]"Very practical, sir,"[/color] was her clipped response.  Practicality in the face of...well, many things, but she personally imagined it as self-preservation.

She could feel eyes on the back of her strained neck after she spoke up.  Some of the others did not find her concerns founded - not news at all.  Did they think she was stupid, or simply deluded?  She did turn around to face them, sharp eyes scanning theirs in turn, but she wasn't ready to confront anyone in specific.

[color=SteelBlue]"If anyone disagrees with me wholly, then you are welcome to take it up with me in private,"[/color] she said before turning away from the group.  This was something she wouldn't bend on, and something she hoped she could make others understand.

...some part of her imagined being a guard for this weapon.  That she would eschew sleeping in the same cots as the others and lay next to a nuclear warhead every night, sword kept close to her chest, and she would inevitably cut down anyone who tried to infiltrate and steal the abominable weapon.

There was one concern.  She knew otherwise, with her rich upbringing entailing a good education, that sitting next to a disarmed nuclear weapon wasn't [i]seriously[/i] going to irradiate her.  The danger existed but she probably was worse off sitting in a junkyard filled with the broken shells of fusion reactors anyway.

Nevertheless, fear doesn't have to be rational to be acted upon.  And she feared that damn thing.

She instead resolved to run through anyone who worked Ziska up to trying to steal the bomb for a joke.

Yeah.

Ingrid retired soon after she worked through this.  Her night would be spent training with the sword against anyone who would take her, her own shadow if need be, as she prepared for this seeming inevitability.  All the while, she was keen to explain her view of Nui Awa to Marit after being approached.

To her, it was a city that had seen its best years well before any of them had arrived.  Its populace in decline and paranoid, she advised that the sensible approach to espionage - blending in with confidence - would be better made with a touch of looking over your shoulder.

Also the alcohol they served was better than she expected.