Jen grinned.
"Well it was either fly or die. I think I made the right choice. Especially considering the spec of this ship," She said, her eyes still occasionally wandering to stare at something else that caught her interest.
The ship just had everything she could ever want. She could already feel her hands twitching a little, ready to fly across all of the panels in the cockpit. It was impressive, no doubt about that.
"Where did you find this thing anyway? I was on the smuggling ring around the Varion Band for the past few years, and I've never seen anything like this. I mean jeez, how much did it cost to buy those engines," She rambled, occasionally pointing at something or the other.
She coughed after realising how much she had said in such a short space of time.
"Sorry," She said with a small smile.

Jen's smile turned into a small frown when Raymond brought up the military. She didn't enjoy talking about that part of her past.
"Some habits die hard. I served for 6 years. And that was 6 years to long," She said darkly, "Don't worry, I'm not a 'by the books' pilot. I've spent long enough as a smuggler to learn how to fly properly."
She stayed silent for a while, contemplating what life on this ship was going to be like.
"If it's okay, I'd like to see the cockpit. I want to get acquainted with the girl, learn what I'm dealing with," She said, before glancing over at the slightly disheveled crew, "Are they normally this... well, this?"
She sincerely hoped not. As fun as it was to get drunk, it made jobs slightly more tedious than normal.

Rae had no time to shut the door to freedom or out maneuver Tymea as she charged in to grab a hold of her wrist, practically yanking her out of her room and bringing Luirae almost up close an personal with the the one person she would rather be a million lightyears from. If it wasn't for being quick or light on her feet she might have just plowed in the Captain do to the force of being pulled out but she managed to avoid that and keep her head down so she could save a little face by not letting more people see she had cried. That weird painful feeling was back and she felt like she could break or maybe toss the continents of her stomachs but lucky a new voice interrupted everyone but more importantly made it so Tymea would have to let go of the Captain since he needed to conducted official business since it was his job to see to the new recruits. The second Raymond was busy, she hauled it to the kitchen and not caring if she had to drag Tymea with her. "Drinking party it is. Those two will be busy for awhile in any case so the rest of us might as well get started."
Or at least I am going to., Rae continued her sentence in thought.

"Yeeeeees!" Reena whooped excitedly as she realized that Tymea had emerged from the shadows to drag Rae and the others to another fun encounter, the somewhat serious conversation with the team doctor flying out of her head in an instant. Flouncing off alongside Tymea, she stopped in front of Galvus and daintily took back the bottles that she had given to him to hold.

"No worries Galvy, I got this down easy," she said, wiggling the bottles to indicate she indeed 'had this down easy', whatever that entailed. "As for drinking party, surely there is a rec room of sorts on this ship? I know for a FACT I can whip up a mean Nightmare with that atomic toaster oven." What exactly Reena meant by an "atomic toaster oven" was anyone's guess, but there was little doubt that she could mix alcohol like a champ even if she was heavily inebriated. She was a scientist, after all, and the mixing and balancing of different ingredients was practically second nature to her. Of course the stabilization gyroscopes and other equipment in her suit may have helped but it was more fun to say that her drink-crafting talent was more about skill then mechanical assistance. Reena was about to lead the way to glorious intoxication when she spotted a new face among the crew, a blue-eyed female human that even in her tipsy state she didn't recognize.

"Eh? Who are you supposed to be?" she asked pointedly.

Jen's fascination with the ship made Raymond smile a bit as he watched her look in awe. The Monroe was an older class ship, a model that was created by the teamwork of the humans and Yhei. People say that there's a legend to this ship, that it fought in many battles across the galaxy with some of the most famous captains and pilots in control of it. Of course those were only stories, no one really knows the origins of this vessel, except it was left with Raymond because of a deal made with the Committee, and his own father years ago. "It's a long story." Was Ray's simple reply, before nodding at her response about the military. "Something told me that you aren't much for 'by the books' anyway. Didn't see why your flying skills should be different." Raymond replied, giving a shrug, and then looking to where she was.

"Well, some of them, yes... But to be fair, these past couple of days have been extremely difficult, even for our standards." Just as he finished his sentence a drunk Reena made her appearance. "Reena, I doubt that you'll remember any of this, but this is Jen Winters. She's our new pilot. Jen, this is our xenobiologist, Reena Vaemas val Mari'Dosvin. Reena for short." After the small introduction, Raymond nodded down the hall to Jen. "The deck is down this way."

The two walked through the halls, the sound of laughing and shouting still echoing through them. "This model of Exploration craft is a 88-TF, but I think you already knew that. Engines aren't original, from what they told me when I got Her, those were shot off in some battle years ago, and replaced with newer versions. The Hyperspace Relay was also upgraded after one of our first missions, but other than that, everything else should be regulation."

They entered the main deck. The room was very large, probably two stories high compared to the levels of the ship, the wall opposite of them was made of glass windows revealing the Spire, and the large star they orbited. On the walls were terminals, weapon lockers, two airlocks on each side, and ladders going up and down to turrets for manual operation. In front of the windows were four terminals. The pilot chair was put lower into the ground, with a lounging chair and multiple controls. To the right was the co-pilot seat, and the left was the ship's "GPS" in a sense. It had every map and planet in the known galaxy within. Behind all the terminals was a large chair, belonging to the Captain. It had override systems, but when the pilot was in command Ray could do nothing to interrupt her choices.

"CAPTAIN ON DECK!" The voice of Tango yelled, his robotic self walking towards the two. "Tango, this is our new Pilot, Jen Winters. You've officially been demoted back to Co-Pilot." Ray said.

Tango looked at Jen and held out his robotic hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Winters. I am the Topographic Analyzer for New Galactic Occurrences, or Tango for short." His glowing white eyes shut off and on again, as if blinking to mimic human characteristics. He liked to copy the race that he currently talked to to make them feel more comfortable... Or so he thought.

"So, uh, has the Committee told you what our new mission is?" Ray asked professionally. He didn't know if Jen knew about the actual mission or not. If she did, he had to find a way to convince her that the new coordinates punched in were the ones for the mission. He was so close to getting answers on his sister!

Jen grabbed Reena's hand and shook it firmly.
"It's good to meet you!" She exclaimed, before glancing towards where Raymond had pointed, "I'm sure I'll have a chance to talk to you later."
She followed behind Raymond, her eyes still wandering over everything, absorbing all the information that she threw at her.
"What do the engines run off? It changes how they handle depending on what sort of reactor you're using," She asked, her mouth dropping a little as they reached the main deck, "Holy shit."

She immediately rushed over to the control panel, a massive grin on her face as she looked over it all.
"Yesss, you have unlocked controls. No jamming for us. Smooth flying all the time," She said, fiddling about with one of the levers.
She let out several more oohs and aahs, occasionally tapping at one of the panels and looking at something before finally standing up.
"This ship is amazing!" She said, a big grin on her face, "I will be glad to be it's pilot."

She walked over to the robot, taking his hand and shaking it.
"It's good to meet you Tango. Call me Jen," She said, before blushing a little, "Sorry for demoting you. I'm sure we'll able to work together to fly this baby."
She turned back to Raymond, shaking her head.
"No, they didn't have enough time. I chose my sentence pretty much just before I arrived here. They rushed me on because apparently leaving soon," She said, before walking over and tapping the map, finding the inputted coordinates, "Is this where we're headed? I can definitely get us there, might be some tricky flying when we get closer."
She glanced at him, "You sure this is our mission?"

The interaction between Tango and Jen made him smirk a bit, Tango simply shook his head. "It is quite alright, 'Jen', I was not programmed to be a pilot, but due to one of the first missions under Captain Chase's command, the technological members of the crew imported a makeshift pilot program into my core." Tango said this information as if it was light talk. Ray crossed his arms as Jen looked at the coordinates. It was in a sector that wasn't very explored, but from what the data told them from previous exploration, it was dangerous. Ray nodded, staring only at the map. "Yeah, that's the place."

Raymond's guilt cut deeper now, he barely knew Jen, and he was asking her to fly them to one of the most dangerous sectors in the galaxy. He would be going against Committee orders as well. Was finding his sister that important?

"Just leave, Ray... And please. Don't try to find me."

If that planet really was dangerous, and if the signals coming from it were really S.O.S. calls, he had to help her. He needed to.

"Captain, the Committee has given us the green light to leave port." Tango said, sitting back down in the co-pilot seat. "Alright. Tell everyone to meet up in the main deck. I want to give a mission brief before we go..."

"Well, I'll be glad to have you as my co-pilot," She said with a smile, before turning back to Raymond, "Captain, I can definitely get us there. But you're gonna have to be prepared for the worst once we enter the sector. That's a notorious place for pirates and bandits."
She smirked a little at the irony of the statement, considering her previous occupations.
"Of course, it helps to know all their secrets and tricks."
She made her way over to the pilot's display and tapped a few buttons, humming a little.
"Tango, I've set the engines to warm up with 4 second blasts every minute. That's a little lower than I'd usually do, but I'm not sure what these engines can handle yet. If they stay below 500 degrees for 10 minutes, put them up to 6 seconds. That all okay?" She asked, finishing what she was doing with a last few taps.
She nodded to Raymond.
"I'll see you up on the main deck Captain," She said, walking past him and pausing for a second, "I'll leave you to your thoughts now. You look like you need a second."
She'd noticed the slightly troubled look on his face during their conversation, attributing it to the tension which had been in the air between him and the rest of the clue.
'Must be something personal,' She mused, making her way up to the main deck and taking a seat, waiting for the rest of the crew to appear.

Rae was already in the kitchen, practically on her way to getting drunk if she wasn't already in that position since she had thought it a brilliant to forgo a glass in preference of swigging from a freshly opened bottle that was almost empty in the short amount of time away from the Captain and new pilot. She hadn't truly planned on drinking that much until she noticed it had dulled the foreign pain she had been feeling or more it distracted her from it with a million other more amusing thoughts or maybe it was just she thought it was amusing. Either way it felt like freedom and she was going to happily accept it without the worry of consequences since nothing could be worse than the confusion and ache of before. Luirae thought not of her problems and was just freely enjoying and smiling at the others antics without much care, that is until Tango's voice came over the system and informed of a meeting on the main deck about the upcoming 'mission'. "Pfff.." Rae scoffed, only to be stopped by a small hiccup. She glared at the speaker for ruining her fun and grabbed a glass that had been on the table, chucking it at the speaker and not caring that she had horribly missed and it just flew through the air to shatter on the ground. She almost wanted to use a vulgar human hand gesture but her fuzzed mind couldn't remember exactly what the gesture was so she just ended up cursing in her natural language or a slurred, botched version of it any way. "Issss all llliiiies." she slurred simply with none of her normal elegance and vocabulary since her mind was on the basic language wise for one that was not her own. "Am not go..goin..." Rae stated proudly before busting out in a fit of giggles for almost no apparent reason and leaning on the person next to her happily.

Reena, as inebriated as she was right now, still had some semblance of what was going on around her, and she was aware that the Captain had called everyone into the main deck for a briefing. Bold choice, considering the amount of alcohol currently going through the majority of the crew right now. As she tried to figure out a way to drink from one of the bottles she had taken back from Galvus, a flash of lucidity hit her for just a moment as she considered that her being loaded might make her more receptive to whatever the dangerous mission might have been. If the Captain wanted to, he could pretty easily convince Reena to do something that a more sober Reena wouldn't have even considered. That would have been a trick worthy of a Sorlas matron if there ever was one.

Luckily, as far as Reena knew, the Captain was not a Sorlas matron. Raymond Chase was a good man and a fine leader, and as far as Captains go there are few others she would have been happy working under. If she could jump in front of a gun to save Raymond's life...she would give the concept some serious consideration. Hey, she had a lot of respect for the Captain, but she still wasn't in any hurry to eat a bullet for the guy. Getting shot hurt.

Still, Reena decided, she should do something nicer for once and go see what this mission was. Handing off the bottles to Tymea again, Reena flounced off after the new copilot and took a seat next to her on the bridge, going for a spin in the swivel chairs when she found out they were swivel chairs.