Engineering Safety for Sabarene (Sindy)

[Livia Maddox]

Orbit of Sabarene
Captain's Office - Vi'Nu San Hill Class Star Destroyer

Captain Livia 'Fury' Maddox had a conundrum on her hands. Fleet Admiral [member="Manu Xextos"] had given the logistically capable Captain control over the development of Sabarene's infrastructure while he was off on the side-project of being a former Jedi Master. "I don't feel comfortable keeping the military troops in Abha."

Her own malaise bound to her sense as an officer, it made the cohabitation arrangements of officers, enlisted and civilians an inexcusable possibility of potential collateral damage. She had to look no further than the scars on Sabarene from relatively recent skirmishes to know that the flow of people could mean the desert world would once again become empty and desolate. To protect the civilians, they would have to move the military personnel off and away.

At least it would work if their fictitious enemy followed the rules of elegant warfare.

"Captain, seventy percent of Abha is Echani. Can you fathom how impossible it is to find the blurred line between militia and civilian for one of us?" Commander Dasha pulled at his silver hair and dashing silver eyes.

Fury sat back in her chair and laid her hands on her lap. "Enlighten me, Commander. Enlighten me as to how ever civilian on Abha is somehow a master of war."

Dasha groaned, standing back and straightening his uniform. "There are going to be a lot of miffed people. It's a cultural difference, Captain. You're telling them to decide between being docile and being them. A military base outside the city is a mistake."

"And you are the ultimate authority? Get me [member="Siyndacha Aerin"]. We'll discuss this from multiple angles."

"The Admiral's Padawan. . . seriously?" He watched his Captain's face and walked out of the office and on to the bustle of the bridge. "Yes Ma'am!"

The man gone, Fury rubbed her temples and sighed. There had to be a solution.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Her feelings about settling on a new world, when she'd spent so much time over the past many months on board ships, between the now-Abrion Systems Authority, the Silver Jedi of Voss, and so on, going from Token's ship, to the ship she had worked out of while within the employ of the Techno Union, to... the Brynjar, when she met the man that became her master - one [member="Manu Xextos"]. He was Echani, and it was entirely possible that somewhere in the way back that they'd shared common ancestors, she being completely oblivious thus far that he was much, much older than he let on. Not that it mattered, he looked old enough to be her Papa, like Marezius Aerin had been her Papa, and that made him comfortable to be around. And the quirkiness helped, too! 'Normal' people were, well, she didn't quite know what to think of them, sometimes.

And he was an Admiral! That was something! It was a strange position with a steep curve, being appended to what was more of a military outfit than anything else, but at least there were was plenty for her to do, things she was comfortable with, and the crew... well, they seemed okay with her, and she was okay with them, though she wasn't at all certain whether that was because of who she was in relation to the Admiral, or if it was by her own merits. No matter the reason, it was nice having somewhere to belong, far more than she had ever belonged anywhere else since Papa Marezius had passed from this life.

At any rate, she was deep in... well, it could have been recalibrations, or she might have been elbows-deep in grease and gears, but either way she came out somewhat streaked and smudged with the oils of her labours, her somewhat short hair looking like she'd just rolled out of bed when the missive came by way of a Commander - a commander! - personally delivering the request of one Captain [member="Livia Maddox"]. She blinked, staring blankly at the man, shagging one clean palm (yes, she'd been wearing work gloves!) through her hair, scritching as if confused as to why anyone would even bother trying to pull her from her work!

"This... 'Captain Maddox' wants me for.... what?" she asked, perhaps a bit puzzled. "Why?"

Really, there was no reason for this! She was in her element already. What did this Captain expect? Sindy sighed, and began peeling out of her greased-up work jumper, which left behind relatively tame civilian clothes when she was done. The jumper was tossed where she'd left her own toolkit, because if anything, she'd be heading right back here when this impromptu meeting was over... and she'd probably fall asleep in the engine room again. Which was alright with her, though she did get some weird looks for it. Not that she wasn't used to getting weird looks, as they were kind of par for the course, in her case.

Token had stopped giving her those looks, eventually, and had quickly found it endearing, somehow. Which made her think of something about Token. Maybe... oh. Well, it'd been a few days, hadn't it? A week, perhaps? She really lost track of time here, sometimes. Well, the jumper taken care of, she looked at Maddox's man, and gave him a slightly exasperated smile.

"Well, take me to your leader, Commander. I imagine she hasn't got all day, and neither do I!"

And that was only partly true. Really, the engineering crew was more than capable of doing the work themselves, but in all honesty, she could do it better, and her dual degrees had little to do with that. She'd been good before the supposedly required education to get her that oh so important piece of paper, and she was proving it. After all, she wanted to earn her place and earn respect here. She couldn't expect to just show up, being the 'padawan of the Admiral' and expect them to just accept it.

That wouldn't be fair at all!

 

[Livia Maddox]

"Status report, Marron!" The Captain Fury barked from her command chair aboard the Bridge. Dasha had been gone right long enough in her astute opinion and if the silver haired fox spent any more time lolligagging on the Brynjar the Fury might have more than his head as recompense.

Not that Livia Maddox wasn't fond of Commander Dasha, she'd spent many an exhausted night being carried from her drunken stupor on her couch to her bed by the man. He'd pluck off her shoes, tuck her in and sleep in the chair till morning. It wasn't the most professional way to keep an officer but the man insisted in his petty mission to 'take care of her'. Livia brushed her fingers across her forehead and sighed.

"Commander Dasha is docking now, Ma'am."

"Good! Present him to my office with the Admiral's Padawan and be hasty. Go!" The Captain pulled herself up to her feet and waited until Marron had scampered off, her dark hair rocking behind her. The Fury waited until Marron was completely gone, before pulling out her silver handled black cane and limp, limp, limping her way to the office she should like to never have left. As she walked, she saw Dasha coming and knew if she was going to preserve any amount of self esteem she'd best be seated before Sindy could see her ruined leg.

"Engineer [member="Siyndacha Aerin"], do tell Commander Dasha what the best part of being Echani is." Right to the point, as always.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

The shuttle ride from the Brynjar to the Vi'Nu was uneventful, for as soon as she set foot on the shuttle, Sindy was working through the surge of nervousness and undercurrent of panic that accompanied every time she knew she was going to purposely meet someone unfamiliar, someone new. By this point, working through the stages was something she'd gotten down to an art, and if you didn't know her, or didn't have that empathic acuity, it might be easy to miss. She'd learned to put on a face, if necessary.

Before long, she was delivered along with the Commander to the office of this 'Captain [member="Livia Maddox"]', a woman as pale of hair and face as herself, but without so many freckles as Sindy had. And it didn't take very long at all for this woman to throw a question at her - one she wasn't sure she could answer... at least not quickly. She bit her lower lip, and looked from the Captain to the Commander.

"Um..." she tried to think of what little she knew of what the typical Echani was like, what she'd observed so far, being amongst them, and looked back to Maddox with uncertainty streaked across her face, "...I don't..."

And beneath the surface, a discomfort associated with the gap in her knowledge presented itself. What was the best part of being Echani?

"...I don't know, Captain."

She shrugged.

 

[Livia Maddox]

One thing would be radically clear to [member="Siyndacha Aerin"] as she met Captain Fury Maddox: Livia was no empath and never would be. The stern blonde sat behind her desk with the aching reserve of a career in mumming up and taking names. Not kind by nature, but morally sound all the same, the woman stared at Sindy until the Admiral's Padawan shrugged.

A nearly non-existant smile quirked up on the Fury's lips. "Thank you, Ms. Aerin. Do sit down."

The Fury sat higher in her chair, pulling her eyes slowly from Sindy to Dasha. "See Dasha? Not all of your people are blood thirsty total combatants."

"Captain that's not what I . . "

"The first words out of our wonderful Engineesta's mouth weren't 'to be warriors and militia', nor was it to pull a very Mandalorian type death scream of 'for the Clans'. I posit to you, Dasha, that there's more to being an Echani than war. Thus, I believe that separating the military academy from Abha is exactly what we need to do.

Ms. Aerin, I've been in a bickering match with my XO for over three hours. The Admiral has put me in charge of the planetary development of Abha's militia and of the Sv'Yato Fleet and I need your advice as a creatrix and engineer. Can you look at these potential plans and tell me if they'd work as a military academy and flight training centre, please?"

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

When the captain made some small insistence that she sit down, the engineer did just that; sitting while being put on the spot was distinctly less unnerving than standing while the same occurred. She gave [member="Livia Maddox"] a thin, barely cordial smile, while she worked within to quell her nerves while she sought to disprove her commander's thoughts, despite his attempts to object that his thoughts were not as she outline. For her part, Sindy stayed out of it, and waited to see if there was anything else that the Captain needed her for.

It became very quickly apparent that she did.

"Hm," she sounded, leaning over the plans. Architecture wasn't within her realm of expertise, but there was a certain theoretical reach she could make with respect to the structures, anyway, but the concern was over the placement of the academy with respect to the city, "I wouldn't put these facilities too close to the city, particularly with the noise that training of pilots presents..."

Not that she had a problem with the noise - engines of all shapes and sizes came only second to her love for droids.

"...assuming that shipboard Echani won't be the only residents. Even so, it's nice to be able to find a little quiet, isn't it?"

She looked to the two officers. She wasn't sure whether either of them had much appreciation for silence, because she was fine with or without it to a certain extent... except, perhaps, where severely conflicting noises were concerned.

 

[Livia Maddox]

Dasha rolled his eyes and sat down, pulling his chair to the side so he could stick his boot on the vertical axis of Livia's desk. The Captain raised her eyebrow, but left it be. "That was another of my concerns, Ms. Aerin. Starfighter and flight training is noisy, dangerous business. The last thing we need is an overeager cadet launching into Abha's residential district. I should know, I used to be a fighter pilot." The woman sat back and watched [member="Siyndacha Aerin"] work. Already the girl was showing proclivities and talents that caused Livia to see what Manu saw in her. Sindy Aerin was a crown jewel of engineering, and bringing her in on the project was the best thing the Captain could have done.

"I do like solitude, myself. And no, we have many colonists, the majority of whom are Echani, but there are Chandaari, Nelvaani and there's an Epicanthix colony going up on the other hemisphere. Although there is a predomination of warrior cultures that does not mean we have to keep them all tightly together. Here are the wind speeds for the area I was planning to build on. Not calm by any means, but not vicious . . . most of the time. What do you think?"

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

She nodded, satisfied with the answer to her mostly rhetorical question, but remained sitting straight up, her fingers laced together in her lap except for when she might need use of her hands. The Admiral's Padawan peered at the wind speeds common to the area for a moment before raising silver-blue eyes to look on [member="Livia Maddox"]. Wind? Well, if there was a 'most of the time'...

"Tall structures should take into account the outlier wind speeds, and be able to effect some sway if necessary," she replied, briefly glancing at the commander before posing a question of her own, "any idea as to the seismic history of this part of the continent?"

She didn't have a single clue about any of the specifics of Sabarene, but it wasn't out of the question that there just might be earthquakes - as a general rule, more likely closer to coastal areas, less likely further inland. She hadn't been planetside yet, so she knew nothing about where the city was situated in reference to planetary features such as bodies of water and mountains. She could have asked, but simply... hadn't. Not yet.

 

[Livia Maddox]

[member="Siyndacha Aerin"]

"The tectonic plates of opposing continents meet up in an arc here." Livia called forth a holoprojection of the planet Sabarene and twisted it until a geological view came up. With a brush of her finger she brought up the proposed site of the Kresimir Military Academy, nestled in the near as makes no difference centre of one of the plates. "This is one of the major deserts, but its part of the continental shelf. I thought it would be a better place, but I'm no geologist. As for the recent history I can tell you there were major force user battles on Sabarene that wiped out its' entire indiginous population but for a small pocket or two. The planet itself went through vast amounts of trauma in the ensuing battle. But that battle is done, and the planet is ours. Soon it will be an official part of the Fringe Confederation and all of us will feel a lot safer, once the orbital defences come in."

Leaning back again, Livia batted at the projection to re-start its' realistic spin on the planet's axis. Sabarene. The desert would spring new life, and within that life warriors would be made. Maddox rubbed her left leg and reached for the front pocket of her uniform then thought better of it. No. She could wait.

At least another five minutes or so.

 

[Siyndacha Aerin]

As she did before, she nodded again with the response to her question - an actual one, rather than rhetorical. She'd hardly noticed that she'd slipped into some semblance of the mode of business that had been all but beaten into her by her father, and otherwise nurtured with more care by her uncle. That was the only thing that kept her from dismissing such things entirely; Al Trozky had been able to make her see how the at-the-time unwanted education in business and law it could be useful, even to her own interests.

"Better to be safe than sorry," she waved a hand, as if to dismiss something, "altogether, build taking extreme wind speeds, and the potential for any seismic activity into account... on top of placement at a reasonable distance away from the city - make sure you allow for potential sprawl - and I think it should be okay."

She shrugged.

"But what do I know? I stick my head in engines all day."

[member="Livia Maddox"]