Snippet #2556993

Raphael turned towards Vanessa, suprised that this was the first thing she had said since they had boarded the Reverence. Alarms klaxxoned and everyone was shouting a cacophony of orders, with Hanley and the AI Hologram in the center of it all.

"We're about to do battle." Raphael said calmly. "She's bringing the ship to alert." He said, pointing to the Hologram. "They're Communicating."

"And why am I here?" she asked.

Her eyes flitted across the holograms and various displays, but she didn't know where to even begin with making heads or tails of it all. She hadn't lied when she told Bowen she'd never been further from Lutetia than Lornaine. And now here she was standing in the CIC of a spaceship. It was too much to conceivably absorb it all.

"Because I need to keep an eye on you and keep you from escaping, You're going to look really good in a maid outfit in my house." Raphael said. He kept his hands folded in front of him while everything unfolded.

"That is the Shipboard AI.." He said. "It's like... a computer.. you have those right?"

"We do," she answered.

Vanessa couldn't tell if he was being serious with his remarks, or just trying to get a rise out of her. Either way she didn't bite. Her time in the showers had given her a chance to think, and she had determined to not give Raphael that satisfaction.

She would remain compliant and cooperative for now, because there wasn't really a better alternative at the moment, but she wouldn't make herself into a victim to fuel Raphael's cruelty either.

It was that same calm adaptivity that had kept her alive when she had been held by the Psions of Aodhan for nearly three weeks. She had been only seventeen at the time.

It took a lot of nerve to maintain that calm facade though.