[quote=@Terrans]
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[h3]Fihlyn Numosath[/h3]
[i]ESS 3822-01[/i]
[hr]
After nearly a week on the colony ship, Fihlyn had found comfort in her morning routine.

She would wake slowly in her rest tank a few hours before the official day-cycle began, giving herself enough time to prepare and don her suit. The tank had been installed in her quarters when she was first assigned to the crew, a necessary accommodation for her physiology and a welcome respite from the ship’s parched atmosphere. But as much as Fihlyn appreciated being able to sleep underwater, she was still growing accustomed to the limitations of her makeshift “bed.”

The tank had been designed by the Edenites and was only just large enough for her to lie in, almost certainly converted from a cryopod. There was little room to properly stretch or relax, and during the first few days she often woke with cramps and lingering aches. Regular stretching in the mornings and evenings had helped somewhat, but it was not the only compromise.

She had started to notice the curious quality of the shipboard water supply. It was clean, of course - the ship’s filters had made certain of that. But the water had a sterile taste to it. The filters had removed nearly all of the minerals and ions with meticulous precision, leaving it strangely empty. Fihlyn sometimes imagined it must be similar to an Edenite trying to sleep in a room that desperately needed a humidifier.

Still, it was far better than being forced to sleep in her suit.

Once awake, Fihlyn would linger for a while before sealing herself inside the suit’s protective casing. By keeping her door closed overnight, she had discovered she could maintain the air in her quarters at a higher humidity than the rest of the ship. For a short while each morning the room felt almost comfortable.

During that time, she could perform her morning prayers without the encumbrance of her suit getting in the way. Afterwards, she would still have more than enough time to review the ship’s navigational logs from the night before. It was a good way to prepare herself for the day’s tasks, and truthfully she had found that throwing herself into her work prevented her thoughts from lingering too long on the recent past.
[hr]
“Mr. Lockman, Ms. Sokolova - it is a good day to see you both, yes?”

Fihlyn offered an energetic wave with a gloved hand as she entered the hangar. A stack of tablets was awkwardly cradled against her chest with her other arm. There was a deliberate spring in her step; the Quessir made a point of greeting the crew with enthusiasm whenever she saw them in the morning. It was said that a friendly start to the day led to better team cohesion, after all. Each of her heavy footfalls rang against the metal deck, and the wheeze of her suit’s compressors occasionally betrayed her presence. Subtlety was not one of the suit’s design priorities.

“I see that good progress is being made on your shuttle?” Fihlyn inquired, peering curiously at the scattered detritus and tooling that lay around the two humans. “I am glad that you were able to recover it. Attempting to land the ESS thirty-eight-twenty-two, dash-zero-one on a poorly surveyed planetary body would have been…” She paused for a moment, frowning as she tried to think of the right word in the Edenite tongue. “...unfortunate?”

Fumbling briefly with the tablets that she’d brought with her, the Quessir continued excitedly. 

“I do not mean to interrupt your work, but I have made progress on an expedited training program for piloting the ESS thirty-eight-twenty-two, dash-zero-one. With so few of the original command crew remaining, it would be prudent to have redundancy for piloting and navigational needs.” 

Managing to get her glove-constrained fingers around the top-most tablet, Fihlyn offered it to the pilot. 

“I decided that the first chapter of the course should focus on general vocabulary and terms related to piloting this class of vessel. Much of it should be easy review for you, I am sure, but there will still be a test…once I have finished writing it.”

Turning to the ranger, the Quessir’s smile wavered slightly. 

As much as she appreciated the star charts that the woman had provided, she had still not received a satisfying answer as to how she had acquired them. The priestess had vouched for the Edenite, which had been enough for Fihlyn to put her initial concerns aside. And yet, there was still a sense of lingering unease. Fihlyn knew enough to recognize that the star chart she’d presented was supposed to be classified. That meant either that the woman had acquired it through illicit means, or that she was involved with a part of Eden’s security apparatus that Fihlyn would have preferred to have kept at a comfortable distance.

“You are doing well, Ms. Sokolova?” Fihlyn asked, doing her best to keep any hint of suspicion from her voice. “I never properly thanked you for providing your star chart during our departure. It is very detailed. There are records of systems that I did not realize Eden had ever surveyed, even remotely.”