Into the Depths

1.

"Yeah, you weren't there for dinner the other night, Mitch. We're lucky this team isn't already scraped." She spoke, her head dropping back to gather the data on her tablet. But Mitch had walked closer, not wanting a table to be between them.

"Well, it would've been better than giving us the bare minimum. This tech is ancient!"
"Ancient is a century. We'll be lucky if this is half, and besides, if it works it works. If everything's good, we'll plan for tomorrow morning instead. Before the normal hunting hours, I want to know what the creature's patterns are and how badly things will be disturbed." Mitch nodded, but Delilah had turned around and attempted to mentally prepare herself for the trip toward the upper bay.

Hardin Walters was the man she was looking for, given that he was training to become the second in command to the Captain. He was fairly busy. Which meant, without a doubt, that her brother John would be somewhere nearby.

Course, John had signed off on the first stages of this project, thinking it would quiet down the rest of the lower class—But what the Captain had failed to realize is that Delilah would put in her all.

In the course of a week, she had managed to get all the supplies needed, and a decent-sized team full of well-capable and qualified friends of hers to get the project started. Even with the carefully placed roadblock, she had managed to fix the damned tech provided—Though it felt more of a donation than actually giving them the necessary equipment.

"Why can't you bypass and ask the Captain?"
"Hierarchy doesn't work like that, and besides—My fiancé might get offended. Again." Hardin Walters was, as of dinner last night, been officially named as Delilah's future husband.

The announcement was meant to go public within the next couple of days, which still set a wave of nervousness to sound off in her stomach as she remembered the grand proposal.

In this day and age, words mean nothing. She simply didn't want any rude remarks to follow or embarrass herself any further when Hardin clearly had some sort of lipstick stains on his skin and partially on his uniform.

Fitting, that she was proposed to him while he had entertained another woman before their cohered dinner celebration.

Without another moment wasted in trying to stall, Delilah had made the trek towards the main deck—Hoping that Hardin was somewhere in the general facility, but if she couldn't find him outright, then she would go to her brother or father.

Given that this was as time-sensitive as it could be.

With a quick scan of her badge, the doors of the Captain's deck had opened—And the entire operational table had been fairly vacant, besides her father, brother, and the two gentlemen who made up the third in command.

Ethan and Eli Roberts—While it felt as though she was greeting Mitch all over again, there was something about Eli's eyes that made him entirely less friendly than his cousin.

"Delilah! What a surprise!" James cheered, nicking his head for the two at the end of the table to leave. She had tilted her head down in the form of a greeting and smiled, but nothing more than that.

Not when there were already nerves causing her to choke on absolutely nothing.

"Hey sis, how's everything in the Hanger?" John asked, his hair readily disbelieving—No doubt the stress of the position bleeding over to him now. "Hanger is fine, I'm at Hanger 3 now...I'm actually looking for Hardin."

Perhaps that was a bit of an oversight on Captain James' own ignorance, but the smile grew while John's turned into worried lines, so she had taken the liberty of exuding them both from an awkward turn in the conversation. "I'm sure he's caught up on more important matters than checking over my procedures list."