“Because fly fishing,” Ribsy paused and then smiled. “Yeah. Nice chatting with you.”
When the woman had left, Ribsy sighed and laid back on her bunk. “Because you can't ever let down your guard. Even when you think the fly is sitting on water no fish would ever be in, you can still get a strike. So long as you're in the water, you're on. But whatever.”
Sitting back up, she stared at where Shankari had entered again during their talk and had gone about putting things back with no desire to enter a conversation with the lieutenant. The woman took the fastest showers Ribsy had ever seen. “You musta been in the armed forces when they picked you up,” she lifted her tote. At an eyebrow raise of the other woman, Ribsy snickered. “Yeah, yeah. Fish out of water here. Fuck.”
Badger sauntered back from the bathing compound and paused as he saw Lt. Murphy approaching. Neither of them were in their colors but he gave her a wide berth and kept walking. The woman was, if nothing else, a commanding officer and with a great deal more seniority than he had.
They were all aware of the count down until the choice was to be made. The Marshall had said in his introductory speech when they'd arrived, that there would be multiple pilots chosen, but Badger had heard the murmurs, the rumors. The tech had changed again. The pilot they'd chosen, few knew where he was and those who did, weren't talking. It had been one full day and he was feeling charged with the uneasiness of not knowing.
Badger hadn't thought of anything but piloting one of the jaegers from the moment he'd seen one. He had gone out of his way to say what he thought were all of the right things, eager for a chance. But the chance felt even further away. It wouldn't do them any good to disappear themselves prior to actually fighting.
Or was there a deeper secrecy to it all? They certainly weren't telling any of the candidates a thing. Not any of the new ones and the older ones seemed to hold their knowledge so close it left the wary, those like Badger, more than aware that here, there were dragons. He needed to be one of those chosen to be given the lance, not one of those chosen for bait.
Soon after Lt. Murphy passed, he watched as Candidate Ribsy exited her room. With a grin, Badger stopped her and forced conversation, though that was never hard. She'd figured out he was a fellow nerd and there was always something to talk over, even if it was what she thought of possible engineering directions for a new jaeger.
They all had to sleep, though and Badger was as well rested as he knew how to be on the next morning when, after first call, he settled down against the wall where the training mat was and watched the first pairing for the day. It was time to stand and do this new paired fighting they had heard about.