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Stars burned in the endless black, light first shed centuries past now reaching her eyes. Long after the light of those stars had first been shed, whole civilizations had risen. They greatest ones had spread and made laws, conquered and ruled, supported their population and put down insurrection, fought off invaders and finally crumbled from within. All before the light first shed by those stars had ever reached this spot. Now after all that time, her eyes were here to bear witness to that light. Dark brown eyes, the color of cinnamon, or so said one of the men who ever came close to stealing her away.
Quietly, Dai chuckled to herself. It was inevitable; every time she stared at the expanse of space, she got overly philosophical. Stealing was not an entirely inaccurate term to use though, she had to admit to herself. She was as married to her career as most women were to their husbands. It had cost her friends, loves, a portion of her psyche, and in return...
Well, in return she had earned the Olympus. Turning around, Dai surveyed the office before her. The Captain's Cabin (she even thought of it with capitalized letter C's for each word), just the thought of it sent another chill down her spine. Actually that wasn't quite it. The Olympus wasn't her first command, that had been the Sydney; a sleek and wonderful cruiser which she still missed quite dearly. No, the chill down her spine, the excitement that made her blood rush at the mere thought of wher she was standing, was the sheer enormity of that to which her cabin was attached. Literally.
She could almost see most of it even now, as she turned around and looked back out the heavily-armored viewport. It stretched out for almost three quarters of a kilometer. Sleek, shining in its berth, and in her imagination Dai was certain she saw it glittering in the light of all the little construction worker drones going about last minute oddities before tomorrow's ceremony.
"My dreadnaught," Dai whispered to herself. The very words seemed to steal her breath away, they were so powerful. They had given her a dreadnaught. It was almost too much to believe, and certainly more than she ever expected. 'Work hard, be brave, and be there for your enlisted,' her father had said. Well look where that had gotten her. A dreadnaught.
The tone at her cabin door startled her, snapping the wonderstruck woman out of her reverie. "As you will," she called absently, giving one last look out the viewport as she turned to cross the cabin. She walked past her bed and dresser, built into the deck and bulkhead respectively, both still completely barren. The cabin door opened just as Dai made it to the small three-step up to the office portion of her cabin, and within the open archway stood a young man in his dress uniform. He saluted smartly and held out an active datapad, its screen glowing brightly with information.
"Captain Liao, Staff Commander Karl Ostermann reporting for duty," he said by way of intruduction. The surprise was evident on his face, even though he hid it quickly; it was generally the same reaction. Career military men were accustomed to meeting career military women, but tall physically capable men were never prepared to find themselves saluting small shapely women. It often brought up inadequacy issues.
Dai let him hang for a few moments, his arm still held up uncomfortably in a salute, while she took the datapad and glanced over it. "My brave young Executive Officer, yes?" The question was rhetorical, and to Ostermann's credit he didn't reply. Marking one in his favor, Dai graciously returned his salute so he could drop his arm. With that she turned and walked to her desk, sitting down to look over the datapad more thoroughly. Ostermann followed, the hatch closed behind him, and he waited patiently at the end of her desk.
After a short while, she looked back up at him. He definitely cut a striking figure in his dress uniform, particularly since he stood nearly two meters tall and was built like a behemoth.
"You're certainly the largest line officer I've ever met," she said with a playful grin.
Ostermann was quiet for a moment, contemplating how he should respond. "You're probably the smallest I've ever met," he finally said. His expression seemed worried, but Dia liked that he had kept his response along the same lines. It showed that he wanted to open things up, make this work. They couldn't work together if they didn't develop some kind of a connection. Dai liked that he got that.
Though she didn't have any other seat in the small office, her belongings were still packed and sitting nearby. She motioned to them. "Please, have a seat," she said, placing his datapad on the desk. He complied, and Dai pursed her lips thoughtfully as she contemplated. "So," she eventually asked, "how scared are you?"
The other officer seemed taken aback by the question, and he blinked a few times. "Captain?"
"I'm absolutely terrified," Dai said with a grin. "They built eleven hundred meters of cold, hard metal, around a gigantic gun, stuck some engines on the back, added more smaller guns, then plunked me down in the captain's chair and tossed you in right next to me." She gave a small little chuckle. "Worse, they tell me that by the time we launch next month there will be over six thousand people for whom you and I will be personally responsible. If you're not scared, I need to know because that means you don't understand in the slightest what we're up against."
Ostermann blinked a few times, and then let out a small laugh that seemed more relief than amusement. "I'm terrified too, Captain," he said quietly. "I was shaking the whole ride up the elevator."
Dai's smile widened and she gave a laugh of her own. "Please, call me Dai. Or Di, or Li, or some combination thereof, when there's no crew around."
"Thank you, Dai," he replied, with a nod and a smile in that same soft voice. "Call me Karl."
The two shared a smile, and Dai nodded her head slowly. "I'm glad to meet you Karl."
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This is a work of fan fiction, intended for the amusement of myself and those reading it. I am in no way affiliated with Bioware, Electronic Arts, or anyone else who has any official say over the Mass Effect franchise.
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