New Threads - Part 2

Cormus had been patient for approximately as long as he was capable of being patient. "The profile question is actually important," he said. "I spend most of my working hours in a pilot seat. If the shoulder assembly adds bulk I need to know whether I can still reach the full range of the helm controls comfortably or whether I am flying with restricted movement, because if it comes down to the suit or the ship I am choosing the ship every time."

"Fair concern," Zedd said. He pulled up the dimensional specs on the shoulder assembly. "The light configuration is designed for exactly that kind of environment. Low profile, full range of motion. The medium adds bulk but the articulation is built to compensate. We can run a fit test in the runabout cockpit before we finalize your configuration."

Cormus studied the numbers for a moment. "Light for flight ops, medium for everything else?"

"That's the idea."

"Works for me."

Lindsy had been taking notes throughout in the methodical way she approached most things, building a picture before she committed to a position. "The EVA suit and navigation in zero G environments, particularly around debris fields or unstable spatial conditions, is something I may need to do on foot if the shuttle is not an option. The thruster integration and the sensor suite in the visor, are those compatible with standard navigational instruments or do I need to adapt my kit?"

"Standalone with optional ship uplink," Zedd said. "The visor integrates with whatever external instruments you are running. It was designed to work alongside existing equipment rather than replace it."

She nodded. "Then I'm in. It's part of the job and it sounds like it's designed well enough to actually be useful rather than just looking like it is." She went back to her notes.

"Good." Zedd looked around the table. "Anyone else?"

Mei-Lin glanced up at him when he said it and he was looking around the table generally and not at her specifically and she looked back at her PADD and thought that this was going to be a very long cruise if she did not get a handle on herself before they left orbit.

T'Vara had been quiet throughout all of it, watching the schematic rotate above the table with an expression that was harder to read than her usual neutral. She spoke now without preamble. "I'll pass on mine for now."

The table went a little quieter.

Zedd looked at her. "Okay then" he said. While the man hadn't anticipated any objections, he wouldn't be forcing anything on anyone either. Either they fulfilled their contract or they didn't.

"It is not an outright objection" she said. "The suit is well designed and I understand the reasoning behind it." She looked at the schematic for a moment. "I grew up outside institutional structures. Outside the Empire, outside Starfleet, outside most of the frameworks that tell people what is and is not acceptable to do to other people. I have spent a lot of time deciding for myself where those lines are." She paused. "Putting on armor and going into situations that require it moves me closer to a line I have not finished deciding about yet. I would rather take the time to decide it properly than put the suit on and find out afterward that I should not have."

Nobody said anything for a moment.

Cormus was looking at her with an expression that suggested he had not expected that particular answer and was taking it seriously anyway.

Lindsy had stopped writing.

Mei-Lin was looking at the table and thinking that she understood that particular feeling more than she had expected to, the one about needing to decide something properly before you committed to it, and that it applied to more than armor.

"That's a fair answer," Zedd said. He meant it and it came through in how he said it. "The option stays open. No timeline on it."

T'Vara nodded once. "Thank you."

The conversation moved on and T'Vara sat back in her chair and returned to her quiet observation of the room and nobody made a thing of it. Mei-Lin glanced at her once, briefly, and T'Vara caught it and gave the smallest nod and that was the end of it between them.

Cormus lasted about ninety seconds before he was back to the shoulder assembly question and what tolerance he needed for the helm controls on the runabout specifically versus the Dutchman's primary helm and the meeting dissolved into the kind of overlapping conversation that happened when everyone had something to say and nobody had a formal agenda keeping them in order.

Mei-Lin contributed what she needed to contribute and made the notes she needed to make and kept her eyes on the schematic rotating above the table and only looked at Zedd when she had a specific reason to and thought that she was handling all of this extremely well.

He caught her eye once across the table, briefly, and the corner of his mouth moved in a way that suggested he had noticed something without specifying what, and she looked back at her PADD and decided that she was not handling it quite as well as she had thought.

Zedd left the schematic running above the table and sat back with his raktajino and listened to all of it and thought that this was more or less what he had been hoping for when he built this crew. People who showed up and engaged and said what they actually thought.

Even when it was an objection.