Novgorod: Prototypical Behaviour

[Jaden Luka]

"Go away, or I will shoot you."

The alarm noise piercing itself through the black did not go away. It didn't even hesitate. It just kept on bleeping, a persistent annoyance that was just downright rude, and made Jaden's efforts to ignore it and stay asleep pretty much futile. The Commander rolled, reaching out with an arm, as if he could somehow swat the sound out of the air and beat it into silence. All he succeeded in doing was traversing across his bunk enough that one boxer-shorted leg flopped out from beneath the blankets, and was exposed to the harsh chill of Novgorod atmosphere. A groan like the death wail of a tauntaun escaped as Jaden forced himself onto his bare feet, padding across his quarters to the terminal in his room. His descent into the desk chair was unceremonious. The cascading surge of brightness as the monitor switched itself on was blinding. Jaden blinked against the light and the bleariness, face screwed up and contorted as he tried to identify whose face was staring out of the screen at him.

"Hello?"

The Alliance officer at the other end of the call looked slightly startled. Jaden could tell that it was an Alliance officer mostly because of the colour, and the blurry shapes made it seem like said officer was a she. Jaden dug the heel of his hand into his eye socket and waggled it around a few times, before blinking furiously and giving the screen another look, one of his eyes still firmly closed in protest at his aborted sleep. Definitely a she. A cute, redheaded she, in fact. Readheaded as in hair, as opposed to being a Devaronian or a Zeltron or something; not that there was anything wrong with that. That didn't seem like particularly valuable information, though, judging from the backdrop: unless this officer had really gone to town with the interior decorating, they didn't appear to be stationed on either the Novgorod or Jovan Station, and while Jaden was the kind of wise and insightful ladies man who knew the value of investing charm and suaveness well in advance, just in case, for right now the abandoned bed behind him was far more enticing than any sort of bed the redhead might be occupying.

"Oh!"

The officer sounded startled, but Jaden couldn't quite make out her features well enough to be entirely sure.

"I'm sorry, sir. Did I wake you?"

It was a testament to how tired Jaden was that he actually had to consider his answer to that. He peered down at himself, at the ratty old t-shirt that had been stretched and distorted by being slept in too much, at the absent trousers that he vaguely remembered removing and discarding into some corner somewhere. "Not at all," he countered, trying to encourage his features into a sarcastic expression, but only really managing to achieve confused. "It's wear your pyjamas to work day here on the Novgorod."

He let out a small sigh that transformed into a yawn part-way through. "What can I do for you -" He trailed off, squinting at the screen. "- Lieutenant?"

"Well, I, uh -"

It took a moment or two for the Lieutenant to collect herself. She seemed young, or at the very least new. While the Treaty with the Empire had cost the Alliance a lot of it's veterans - some embracing retirement now that the fighting was over; others taking it upon themselves to continue the war even if the Alliance would not - it had opened the floodgates for a whole slew of new recruits. The Empire had never had trouble finding recruits to serve as pilots of Stormtroopers, but it had never really been an attractive prospect to people who weren't cut out to be part of a murderous and oppressive regime. The rise of the Alliance suddenly provided people with the kind of military that they could stomach, one that was willing to offer them stable careers in administration, financing to pay their way through law school or medical school; there were a whole lot of regular people in the Alliance military these days, nestled in amongst all the gruff and grizzled veterans. If he was wearing pants - and thus had access to the credit chit tucked into the back left pocket - Jaden would have been willing to bet that the Lieutenant was one of those kinds of new officers. Forgetting to check the time difference between whatever world she was on and the ship was contacting was exactly the kind of rookie mistake that would be far more embarrassing for her than it was inconvenient for him.

"Don't worry about it, El Tee," Jaden assured, coming up with the quickest lie he could think of. "I'm on the early shift this morning; needed to wake up in twenty minutes anyway, so you did me a favour."

The Lieutenant didn't look like she believed him at all, but she managed a grateful smile none the less. "It's good that I caught you then, sir. Admiral Tyree asked me to pass along some new orders to you."

Jaden felt his eyebrow arching. It wasn't the first time that Admiral Tyree had contacted him rather than the Captain, but he always had some sort of excuse for it. Granted, those excuses were usually to avoid admitting that he was checking up on the Novgorod, and checking up on Jaden to see how he was settling in with the whole First Officer thing; but orders? It wasn't like the Admiral to buck protocol like this; and contacting him via a subordinate instead of calling himself? Jaden felt himself lean a little closer to the screen. Something odd was going on here.

"Are you sure you aren't supposed to be delivering these orders to the Captain, Lieutenant?"

She shuffled uncomfortably.

"No, sir. The Admiral was quite specific: I'm to pass these orders onto you, so that you can relay them to Captain Quez. The Admiral, ah, he felt that Captain Quez might react less negatively if you were the one that told him."

She paused for a beat.

"The orders concern his mother."

Jaden could feel the knot of tension already beginning to form between his eyes; he pinched at the bridge of his nose, trying to dislodge it. "Alright, Lieutenant," he sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I guess you'd better send them through."

* * *

The Lieutenant had lied. Or at least, she had been vague to an extent that didn't make the truth entirely clear. The new orders from Admiral Tyree didn't relate to Senator Meorrrei specifically, but rather to her company: Incom-Koensayr-Meorrrei. Even so, Jaden understood the need for delicacy in a situation like this. Jaden knew from first hand experience the kind of relationship Taataani had with her children, and how important it was for them to stand on their own two paws. The orders might be benign enough, but whether or not any favouritism was in play, avoiding the appearance of it was the savvy choice. Throw enough delegation around, bounce through enough tiers of bureaucracy, and everyone's tail was appropriately covered.

In defense of this particular set of orders though, there was a considerable amount of rational thought that had absolutely nothing to do with genetics or surnames. For several months, the engineers of Incom-Koensayr-Meorrrei had been working to develop the next generation of starfighters for the Alliance of Free Planets: something to replace - or at least coexist with - the X-Wings and A-Wings that had become such iconic symbols of the Rebellion; something new, something more befitting the image of a partially restored Republic; something that fit the needs of a government wanting to protect it's borders and convoys, as opposed to a rebellion trying to exploit and harass those same things. Incom-Koensayr-Meorrrei had reached the stage of producing early prototypes for a new breed of escort fighter, and they needed pilots to test the craft: not just it's capabilities, but also the ease and familiarity with which an experienced pilot could learn to fly them. With so many pilots with assorted backgrounds making up the roster of Valkyrie Squadron, and with the Novgorod herself up on bricks while the engineers poured over some apparently overdue repairs and upgrades, enlisting the otherwise unoccupied Valkyries for a little field testing was immensely logical.

Of course, Jaden couldn't help feeling a little responsible for this as well. Being as handsome and charming as he was, and given the impression he'd left on her when they'd finally met, how could Senator Meorrrei be blamed for wanting his perfect muscular backside to park itself on her padded prototype seats?

Jaden stifled a yawn as he casually guided the shuttle towards the IKM research outpost. Normally it might seem like hubris to say that you could fly a ship with one hand behind your back, but in this instance it was literally true. Operating this shuttle was one of the most mind-numbingly dull activities that Jaden had ever participated in; and yet he had been utterly insistent on being the one sitting in the pilot seat. It didn't matter how boring a ship was to fly: it was still better than fidgeting away in the passenger compartment trusting in someone else's piloting abilities instead of your own.

"There'd better be caf when we get there," Jaden grunted, half to himself and half to Ariana Darin, who had won - or lost, depending on your point of view - the squabble between the rest of the Valkyries to decide who got to be blessed/cursed with being Jaden's copilot for this trip.