"Oh, thanks," Kassi said, blushing. "You're Azra, right?"

"Yeah, Seaman Azra Piccolo. Pleasedtameetcha."

"My name's Kassi," she said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice room," Azra replied, leaning against the door frame casually. "Big." Big was an overstatement but it was larger than her room.

"Thanks. So, where are you from?"

"Chicago, originally. You?"

"Right outside of Cleveland. It gets boring really fast in my hometown. I didn't do much other than go to school and ride my horse. So, is this your first time on a submarine?"

<>

"Nah, this is my second assignment. I've always had sub duty, works well with my talents." Azra laughed, running her hand through her hair.

"What exactly *are* your talents?"

"Oh you know, causing chaos and general disorder. You can always tell whenthere's a Piccolo on a ship, carnage and confusion follows, but I think the Commander is trying to steal my fire. He's a nut!" Azra replied smoothly changing the subject. No need to bare her life story to a woman she had just met. Kassi caught the dangerous glint in her eyes and decided not to pry.

Kassi smiled. "Sounds awful. What did he do, exactly?"

"Oh yeah! He tried to get on board without his uniform tags sewn on! Promptly got himself searched at gunpoint. What kind of idiot tries to do something like that? Even the greenest recruit knows not to board without proper clearances!"

"Oh, yeah..." Kassi added. This was her first sub assignment, and Azra was speaking about ship duty so causally. Kassi felt pretty wet behind the ears. "Well, maybe he just forgot."

"Maybe. So, you like to ride huh?" Azra asked, noting the pictures of horses around the room and remembering her earlier comment.

"I started riding when I was 8."

"Cool. I've never been horseback riding before, I'm a city girl. When did you start riding?"

"I started about the time my parents got divorced. It really shook me," Kassi said. "But, I don't wanna bore you with that."

"Not like I have anything better to do!" Azra laughed, "I've only met my roommate once and it seems like we are complete opposites, besides, my guitar and cello are in storage."

"Really? You play cello?! How long have you played?" Kassi asked.

"Not long. Since I was 11, but I haven't played much in years. Just can't part with it."

"Wow. I've got some duet pieces if you ever want to try it out, sometime," Kassi said.

"Like I said, it's in storage, but the lease is up soon, I'm getting it when we dock in several months." Azra didn't want to tell her newfound friend that she didn't know how to read music, with her dyslexia she had only really learned to read correctly a few years ago and had not had time to learn to read music. She played by ear.

"I like you, you seem pretty cool," Kassi said, leaning back on the wall against her bunk.

"Heh. You're not so bad yourself, but I have to ask; are you sure your up to this? I mean, it can get pretty dangerous out there. We're going to see combat. This is war, you know." Azra asked, not sure if she was going too far or not. She couldn't shake the feeling that this ensign was simply so naive, so green, that when the bad stuff hit, and it would, sooner rather than later, that it may ruin her forever.

"You're just not... harsh and tough, like everyone else around here, it seems."

"I've lead a hard life, don't let appearances fool you. I play with the big boys and I play for keeps. But what prompted this?"

"Well, I met this one Lieutenant. Fiona Sucara, she seems really rigid, but she apologized to me for yelling at me earlier," Kassi said. She stood up and touched the picture frame on her desk.

"You hungry? I'm thinking of finding the mess hall." What was with the picture? Azra wondered.

"Oh, no I'm not hungry. Thanks for asking, though," Kassi said, flipping her hair. Her stomach had been twisted in knots all day, this day had been nerve-wracking, she didn't want mounds of food just sitting there in her stomach when she it was time for her shift. She swore up and down that she was getting an ulcer, something her Mother and step father never took seriously when she said it. "So, what do you think of these hydropressure tubes? I'm pretty impressed. I wish I could swim them without those stupid goggles."

"Not just anyone can swim them you know. Only those in charge of maintaining the tubes and those who need to use them. Maybe I'll take you with me one day though."

"Yeah, I'm helm and engineering, specializing in the hydropressure tubes. I'm the only one with access to all of them, I'm the sucker who gets to go in to repair them. But engineering has the final say on what is to be done."

"Well, that's gotta be fun," Kassi said. "I guess you're not claustraphobic or anything."

Azra laughed, "Oh no! I can't be or I'm mostly out of a job! So, wanna go find the moonpool?"

"Sure, I'd love to find the moon pool," Kassi said. "I wanted to go looking for it earlier, but there were some real jerks hanging around."

"This is the military...but why do I get the feeling something happened?" It was a well known fact that there were substantially more men in the military than women and that the men sometimes forgot themselves. The women either toughened up or left, and Azra would sure hate to see her leave.

"Oh, nothing happened, just that ball-busting lieutenant decided to embarrass the crap out of me," Kassi said. Azra noticed the girl had yet to really curse in front of her.

"Lieutenant-lieushimant, he still has to respect you. You probably intimidated him, men hate it when we try to do their jobs...and hate it even more when we do it better than them!"

"He didn't mean to, he thinks he's the knight in Shining Armor for every damsel in distress in ten miles distance of him. No doubt, he'd probably tell you women shouldn't be allowed in combat," Kassi said, pulling her flip-flops on. They had an Ohio state logo over the instep. She might have been an Ohio fan.

"God, one of those kind. Heaven forbid we don't bat our eyelashes and come to him every time we run our stockings! You shouldn't have to put up with his shit."

"Well, I am. Putting up with that, I mean," Kassi said, pulling her hair into a ponytail. She could tell Azra wasn't one to put up with crap from anyone. "I don't want to have a court-martial on my record for insubordination to a superior officer."

Azra shrugged. "I'm a Piccolo. It's expected of me to be insubordinate and court-martialed. But still, I hate stupid people."

"Well, stupid people run rampant in this world. I worked for one in Maryland," Kassi said, as they stepped out the door. Kassi locked and shut it behind them. "They'd fall apart if they didn't have little people to step on."

"True," Azra replied, falling in step with Kassi down the hall. She paused for a moment as she felt the ship begin to pull away from the dock. "Here we go!"