Changeable as the Sea

The two female members of the Seven sat in the noisy, roof-less mess hall of the Aven-side fort, still and quiet amidst the bustle and chatter of the rest of the building. Keren and Adara had come in for lunch hoping it would be better than breakfast-- unfortunately, it wasn't, and it did nothing to improve Keren's mood. It had been two days since the captain, Anderson, and the twerp had left in that rickety-looking cart, and there had been no word yet as to how things were going with them. The captain hadn't returned yet, either. Even worse than the lack of news was the lack of work; they'd been given absolutely nothing to do since they got here except for a single weapons and combat drill an hour after breakfast, so Keren simply had nothing to do but dwell on their lack of purpose and attention from their commanders.

The enforced idleness wasn't doing Adara any good, either. While Keren alternately swung from restlessly angry to depressed and discouraged, her friend had spent the whole time simmering resentfully. Not having the twerp around to pick on and Anderson to pick on him with gave her no outlet for her frustration but the occasional snipe at Keren-- which Keren couldn't unfortunately turn into a satisfactory shouting match, because Adara always clammed up again before Keren could actually get going. So, all in all, it had been a pretty crummy two days.

Keren was poking disconsolately at her lunch-- round, fried bits of meat that they all assumed was chicken and some rather disgusting beans-- when suddenly something poked her in the shoulder: Adara's spork. She twitched and jerked her head up, rubbing once at the spot on her sleeve where the quite-possibly food-covered plastic thing had jabbed, making sure she didn't have a spot on her shirt now.

"Hey Keren," Adara was saying, "Let's sign up for one of those escort missions. Get some exercise or somethin', you know?" Escorting scientists out into the Avengaean wilderness: a chance to experience some truly untamed land-- at the expense of having to tote around pack-loads of junk, play bodyguard to a senile or wimpy old man, and quite possibly beat back hordes of unknown monsters. Not that the third part would be all that unwelcome.

"Huh?" Keren answered intelligently, taking a moment until the request sunk in, and then her bored dejection faded almost in an instant. She perked with interest at the prospect of getting out of the depressing and thoroughly dry fort. "Yeh think we caed? I mean, how long are we saepposed tae have until we hear what we're saepposed tae doo next?"

A thought occurred to her-- a hopeful, probably unlikely thought, but a thought that made her smile almost dreamily. "Do yeh think there might be a group goh'ing tae the ocean?" She rather doubted it, since it was so far away according to all the maps, but it was such a wonderful thought....

"Why the hell would you want to go to the ocean?" Adara snorted, her words harsh but her tone joking-- Keren was used to her abrasiveness and took it in stride. "Probably not, anyways. You wanted to go for a swim or something?"

Keren repressed a snort. Why would she want to go to the ocean, indeed... why wouldn't anyone want to? But this was Adara she was talking to, who probably didn't even know how to swim, so she let it rest. Still, you'd think she'd have noticed how long Keren took in the bath, or her Saturday night trips down to the seaside back on Earth. "Yaeh," she answered, "I'd leik a nice swim aboot now. Tis damn hot out here."

Adara pushed her chair away and stood, grabbing at her tray, and Keren followed her lead, standing and popping one of the little round chicken pieces into her mouth as she did so. "We can go check the assignments office, I guess," Adara said. "They’re always looking for last-minute tagalongs. C’mon." They dumped the rest of their trays' contents into the nearest trash can, dropping the trays themselves onto the top of the can, and started out of the hall.

"If they daenna have anyone goh'ing to the ocean," Keren mused hopefully, "maeybe they'll at least have someone goh'in tae a lake..."

Adara ignored her wistful comment, but suggested, "You know what? Why don't you take a look at the boards, and maybe do a little convincing." She grinned evilly and idly tapped one fist into an open palm, and Keren chuckled; she doubted that would be necessary, but it was amusing to think about. "And I'll go get us some supplies from Ammo-shack." At that, Keren gave her friend an amused look; they both knew how the pervert in charge of the Fort's weapons liked to chat the busty Grecian up, and thought Adara always looked murderous coming back from a visit to him, he always managed to give her twice what she signed for. It was a fair trade, in a way. "Sound good?" Adara asked.

"If you think yeh can manaege tae not hurt him," she agreed.

"Well, it'll be hard, but I've done it before...." She glared at her friend as she smothered a cackle. "You know what I meant!"

Getting back to the subject at hand, Keren asked, "Doo you have a particaelar place yeh'd like me tae look for, or is anything good?"

At this Adara shrugged. "Hell if I care. You pick. Maybe you'll find your ocean adventure or something."

As they neared the ammo shed, really more of a shack with a large warehouse tacked on to the back then anything else, Adara waved to her friend, and they parted ways. Keren continued on alone to assignment board, a large white board with lists of names, dates, and locations. She barely glanced at the square-jawed, middle-aged man sitting at the desk beside it looking bored. She could feel his eyes on her, though she hardly blamed him; not only was she unusual enough to be interesting, with her freckles and bushy hair and unusual height for a woman, she was the only thing moving in this part of the fort to watch to relieve the dull duty he was assigned to.

Keren continued to ignore him, focusing entirely on the assignment board, scanning the locations and names of the scientists going to them. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the name of the western ocean, the slightly nearer one, next to one of the scientists' names. She winced when she realized who the scientists was: a doddering old fool with a reputation that he was hard to understand and harder to respect. He most likely wouldn't be able to take care of himself at all, especially not in a dangerous situation. That would probably be why the lines beside his journey were mostly empty. Only two other people had signed up already, leaving six more guard spots open-- for a moment, Keren imagined finding the other cadets and bullying them into coming along for the fun of it.

Despite the temptation of the sea, she looked over the rest of the trips scheduled. Most of them were full already, but there was a journey to the southern desert to investigate some ruins that looked like it might be interesting.... Then again, the thought of all that sun and all that sand made Keren positively itch. Besides, the names already listed for it didn't look appealing: Adara couldn't stand one of them, and Keren despised another two. It looked rather like the ocean trip, as well as being the most enticing destination-wise, was also their best bet. It left in two days, which was even better-- less time to wait around.

Finally ready to give the desk-man her attention, Keren flashed him a grin, turning to face him. "'Ello," she said cheerfully. He smiled briefly, but it faded back into his glum boredom quickly enough, though he did sit up a bit, taking out a pen, anticipating what she was after. He anticipated correctly. "I'd jest like tae sign up meself and my friend for Doctor Abernathy's ehxcursion."

"Names please?"

"Keren Skylier O'bannon, that's me," as if that wasn't obvious; she looked very much like a Keren O'bannon. "Cadet level, ID number 887252 NEUUNIS, and Adara Demes. Um, her ID number is... um...."

"883666 SEUUNIS," came a voice from behind her. Keren glanced over her shoulder at Adara, finished earlier with her ammo-collecting and coming up behind her as the man was writing, grinning.

"Found an ocean one," Keren admitted. "It was thae best one left, anyway."

"It was probably the first one you found, wasn't it?" Adara's mouth twitched into a smile.

Keren contrived to look innocent and expected that she'd failed rather nicely, but she was happy enough that her friend was rapidly cheering up and they were going to the ocean. "Ah, nae," she said lightly, "there was one goh'in tae thae desert, but ih was almost full."

"Yeah, right." The amused disbelief in Adara's voice made Keren chuckle again. "Well, when are we leaving?"

"In a coupla days, or 'least that's what it says." Keren shrugged, still smiling cheerfully. "Sounds good." She nodded at the man at the desk, who was watching them with detached interest.

"You've got me down, too?" Adara asked.

"Yeah, though thaere's still a few spots left...." Keren's voice trailed off, but her earlier notion of perhaps inviting their fellow Sevens along had come back into her head, and her mouth twisted into a sky grin as she looked side-long at Adara.

The Grecian raised an eyebrow at Keren, obviously catching her meaning, and then smiled broadly at her, saying, "Let's go find the other Cadets, then!" Keren laughed in agreement and followed her off to do just that.