TA5

==Chapter 5 - The Armada==
Space Walking
Exodus Road, 3 month Distance 
Uninhabited Star System, Deep Periphery
May 3167 CE
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Vice Admiral Elizabeth MacAulliffe went out to personally check the rigging on the comet.  This wasn't because she wanted to show off-she absolutely didn't.  But she also absolutely didn't trust the training of the Snow Raven contingent assigned to her group.   She'd faced down the Ghost Bears during that short war, and their spacers, despite having the best equipment for the job, had been...insufficient against her.
So she checked the Snow Raven technical team's work on the ice-block that would form the core of 'Water point 4'.  She wasn't alone, a group of Folk spacers from the MS Sleeping Dawn, and team of Rockjacks from the Khe Sanh Ridge were out here too-ostensibly because of the size of the job-wrangling a 5 KM dirty-ice comet and wrapping it in portable refinery to extract water. From that, hydrogen and oxygen (and other valuable trace gasses and minerals) is a big job-and a necessary job for the fleet coming behind them.
There are a half dozen more 'water points' that have to be established, along the route.
"It's good." she said after finishing her analysis.  "You did good work, Tech."
"Of course!" the Snow Raven senior tech said, "Why would you doubt-Oh, right, you're Lyran."
"Arlunan." she corrected him absently, "Cain't yah tayll?"  it had become something of an old joke by now.  "You got the training the Bear's people didn't, this is all correct, including the vent assemblies to deal with blowout, and you didn't need to be told."
''
he laughed, "We are not all innahlodah, Admiral.  Even with the Clan presence.  Poor Ghost Bears are all Duttyfet, You sig Beltah?"
She laughed, "I's dirtyfeets learned Rockjakkah, only jaw small Beltah, diggit tho'.  I'd think your Warrior casties would try beat the old jaw out of you sig haya?"
"The Ravens are remarkably tolerant, something about being outnumbered several hundred thousand to one." he laughed, "Some Savvy Spasah now yah tho'. ayeh."
"Shiny." she grinned.  "I see work to be done, and I'm out of the way..."
"Free Stars, Admiral." he told her.
"Free Stars and safe transits." she gestured back, stopping just long enough to watch them light the tug-engine that would move the comet to the right solar orbit.
The drift back to her flagship gave her time to think, which is why she did it that way, instead of taking a shuttle.
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Star Commodore Maximilian Siegel watched the Lyran Admiral's course and felt a little pang of professional envy. Someone so completely comfortable in null-gee that she would use a six liter 'broomstick' to return to her ship instead of relying on a pressurized shuttle.
Her apparent effortlessness as a spacer was a quality that the Watch had neglected to analyze. Focusing perhaps a bit too much on her record of victories against both Ghost Bear and Shadow-Fleet forces, and a little bit too little on how the woman conducted herself in the day-to-day.
Working with her was a learning experience.  She could socialize with Folk, the almost-gypsy-like spacer subculture that flitted in the cracks of civilization. Also the Rockjacks, and Belters, while also being 'clear' with officers from nine nations and three Clans.
Proven Warriors that are also proven diplomats aren't that unusual, or even that worthy of envy.  It was how she seemed to simply become the void, to swim it like it was her native place.
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