Alice was made for war, so with the intermission from combat since Jehan, she was starting to get fidgety. She could spar with Maki, but maybe it wouldn’t be bad for her to start participating in non-combat activities. Thus, she began to volunteer with the Lincoln’s company like some of her fellow pilots had been doing. Her knowledge of engineering was mostly limited to MAS technology, but she reasoned that the crew could always use an extra pair of hands, especially powerful, metal ones like hers. Unsurprisingly, many of the crew members were puzzled by her presence, but some seemed like they were starting to warm up to her. Helping out the Lincoln’s crew also gave her ample opportunity to interact with the ship’s other female personnel, but if there wasn’t one thing worrying her, it was bound to be something else. She couldn’t make sense of this new curiosity with women, but more frequently she found herself wanting to seek their company. Just the other day she had become flustered when a crew member complimented her after lifting a heavy object. She couldn’t determine if these reactions might compromise her primary functions, but she wanted to at least understand them and what they meant.
Suddenly she was reminded of Ariana. She hadn’t seen her often since Jehan, nor had the others of the 7th in fact. Perhaps it might be better that way. It was obvious that Ariana was still traumatized by the horrors of combat, and even though only Maki and Trapp had witnessed them, sometimes she had the feeling that she somehow knew about what she herself had done on Jehan. Even if she didn’t know about it now, Alice didn’t want to think about what would happen or what she would think of her if she did find out at some point. Despite this, Alice remembered one of her first interactions with Ariana. She told her a story from when she was a civilian, about an intimate experience with a young man she was infatuated with when she was a student. She had tried to explain her emotions at the time in a way that Alice might understand, but maybe now she might be able to understand what she was feeling now.
Ariana had also been working extensively with the crew, so her first thought was to try and ask them where to find her. She was told it seemed like the second lieutenant was looking for Captain Marquis, so that pointed her in the right direction. Eventually, she found Williams running down a hall. When she looked in the opposite way, she found Nishizumi in more than close proximity with the captain. Her head tilted slightly for a moment before she remembered they deserved their privacy, and she quickly turned around and left them alone. She soon caught up with Ariana, finding her writing something on her data pad.
“Ah, um, hello Miss Williams...How are you? The rest of the 7th has not seen you often recently.”