Shades of Green - Part 2

"You made good time," he said, and let that carry the welcome. He looked at her with the same ease he had brought to dinner the night before, unhurried, taking in the change from silk to black duster without remarking on it. She was dressed for a ship and not a lounge and that told him something about how she intended the morning to go. He found he did not mind the direction at all.

Cormus set the diagnostic tool down on the nearest cart and gave the vessel a long, slow look from nose to nacelles, the kind of look that had nothing to do with politeness and everything to do with genuine interest. The crescent nacelles curved like something that had been designed to cut as much as fly, and those cannons up front were not there for show. He let out a breath through his nose that was somewhere between impressed and mildly concerned about his own parking situation.

"She's beautiful," he said, mostly to himself, then looked at Tiraa directly. "She's also about three meters longer than I was planning for. I'm going to have to reorganize half the bay." He did not sound particularly upset about it. If anything there was a trace of something that might have been anticipation. "What is she, if you don't mind my asking?"

“A D’vara class shuttle.” Tiraa glanced over her shoulder at the vessel and then to the young man. She could feel how enchanted he was by the ship and that Zedd was impressed in his own way. “Who might you be?”

She knew, of course, but it wouldn’t be polite to not exchange introductions.

"Cormus Fletcher," he said, and extended a hand without ceremony. "Shuttlebay chief and support craft lead. Which means that ship just became my immediate responsibility and my immediate problem, in the best possible way." He glanced back at the D'vara with the look of someone already mentally rearranging his bay around it. "I've heard of the class but never seen one up close. She flies as well as she looks?"

He brought his attention back to Tiraa fully then, the ship having held it long enough to be polite about. She had the same careful ease he had noticed in people who were very good at knowing exactly how much of themselves to show in a room, which was its own kind of information. He filed it without making anything of it. "Welcome aboard," he added, simply and without extra weight behind it. "If she needs anything while she's in the bay, fuel, diagnostics, a better parking spot than I currently have to offer, just say the word."

Tiraa took his hand without hesitation and gave it a brief squeeze without putting too much behind it. His enthusiasm made her smile grow and warm; sometimes allowing herself to be affected by others was a pleasant thing. “Thank you, Mr. Fletcher. That’s very kind of you. My name is Tiraa Shai. This is Rallid.”

She gestured to the man behind her without looking at him and he offered a simple nod of greeting, his arms remaining crossed over his broad chest.

Cormus gave Rallid a nod in return, easy and unbothered by the economy of it. He had worked with enough security types to know that crossed arms and minimal acknowledgment was not rudeness so much as professional habit, and he had no particular interest in making it into something it wasn't.

He looked back to Tiraa. "Tiraa Shai," he repeated, not testing it, just settling it in. He had a habit of doing that with names, saying them once so they stuck. "And the D'vara is yours." It came out as a statement rather than a question because the way she had glanced back at the ship made ownership obvious, the particular look of someone checking on something that was theirs rather than something they had borrowed. "I'll get her squared away properly once we figure out the flow of the morning. She'll be in good hands." He glanced once more at the ship over his shoulder, the nacelles catching the bay lighting in a way that made the black and gold markings read sharper than they had on first impression, then turned his attention back to the room and whatever Zedd was about to set in motion.

“Perhaps once everything is settled, Rallid can give you a tour. If you’re going to take care of it, you should know it, hm?” Tiraa offered, her black eyes settled on his youthful face but lacking that certain unsettling feeling that could come with her gaze.

"I'd like that," Cormus said, and meant it without qualification. He glanced at Rallid with the open curiosity of someone who genuinely wanted to know what was under the hood rather than making polite conversation about it. "No complaints from me on that arrangement." He left it there, clean and simple, because it was a generous offer and he was not in the habit of burying those under unnecessary words.