She doesn't waste his time with a thank-you. She just copies the file to her planetside storage with her mother's teacher access - it's got the space, it's stable, and Renée never uses it - and bids her army goodbye, one by one, and leaves notes for Asp's next commander, and when the time comes she reports to her shuttle to Tactical.
It's cheaper to travel from station to station than between station and planet, but it's not free; she's in a group of three who all graduated at once, the former commanders of Raptor and a kid who never made commander but has graduated into Tactical anyway. They chat, a little, on the flight, but mostly they sleep and read and try to stay out of each other's way on the cramped little craft.
They dock. Aegis is shunted away from the two boys immediately for an infirmary visit. "Birth control implant. You're only twelve now, but we know how long that lasts, and it's cheaper only to do the girls," says a nurse, swabbing her arm inside her elbow where the exo doesn't spider over her skin.
"Any adverse reactions?" Aegis asks.
"Nothing your profile flags for," says the nurse.
After the little chip goes into her elbow and she has a liquid bandage patching the site, Aegis is allowed to catch up with her shuttlemates. They're bunked together in a double. Aegis, though, is asked about her preferences. Girls are harder to assign than boys, and they can't just throw her in with random members of the opposite sex the way they were so comfortable doing when everyone involved was prepubescent; there's flex around the edges.
"Well," Aegis tries, "could I bunk with Sue in a double?"
"Su? Chinese?" asks the officer.
"Sue's American," says Aegis, puzzled.
"Sure, why not," says the officer, and he tries to look up "Sue". "I'm not finding her in the system."
"Sue's not his real name," supplies Aegis.
"Oh," says the officer, clearly finding this sufficient information to identify the student she's referring to. "He doesn't have a roommate right now - they keep soliciting swaps - but - er -"
"You already said I could," Aegis points out. "If he doesn't want a roommate that's fine, but you already said it would be all right."
The officer frowns, and taps some keys, and - there are no color paths to paint, here, but he gives her a list of directions. They're hopelessly confusing. But that's all right. She knows how to find this particular location.
no subject
It's cheaper to travel from station to station than between station and planet, but it's not free; she's in a group of three who all graduated at once, the former commanders of Raptor and a kid who never made commander but has graduated into Tactical anyway. They chat, a little, on the flight, but mostly they sleep and read and try to stay out of each other's way on the cramped little craft.
They dock. Aegis is shunted away from the two boys immediately for an infirmary visit. "Birth control implant. You're only twelve now, but we know how long that lasts, and it's cheaper only to do the girls," says a nurse, swabbing her arm inside her elbow where the exo doesn't spider over her skin.
"Any adverse reactions?" Aegis asks.
"Nothing your profile flags for," says the nurse.
After the little chip goes into her elbow and she has a liquid bandage patching the site, Aegis is allowed to catch up with her shuttlemates. They're bunked together in a double. Aegis, though, is asked about her preferences. Girls are harder to assign than boys, and they can't just throw her in with random members of the opposite sex the way they were so comfortable doing when everyone involved was prepubescent; there's flex around the edges.
"Well," Aegis tries, "could I bunk with Sue in a double?"
"Su? Chinese?" asks the officer.
"Sue's American," says Aegis, puzzled.
"Sure, why not," says the officer, and he tries to look up "Sue". "I'm not finding her in the system."
"Sue's not his real name," supplies Aegis.
"Oh," says the officer, clearly finding this sufficient information to identify the student she's referring to. "He doesn't have a roommate right now - they keep soliciting swaps - but - er -"
"You already said I could," Aegis points out. "If he doesn't want a roommate that's fine, but you already said it would be all right."
The officer frowns, and taps some keys, and - there are no color paths to paint, here, but he gives her a list of directions. They're hopelessly confusing. But that's all right. She knows how to find this particular location.
bird, bird, bird