Herc stopped right there at the entrance off the hall. He was still used to go here even though as official head of the Shatterdome he had every right to withdraw himself from the rest of the crew, and yet being alone, especially with Max who kept warding the door like Chuck would walk in every second was simply unbearable. Yet there for one second he thought it would have been better to face that empty room, in which he still stayed as he could not simply move into the Marshal's chambers as those had been Stacker's who had died along with Herc's son. Where ever he turned he was reminded of it all, he could not even look at his dog, which had been Chuck's dog in the first place. And now as he thought that it couldn't get any worse he saw her. Herc Hansen recognized Meghan or "Cyan" Dupris instantly, but she looked totally different then from her profile picture, because she wore her hair open and was older, grown up. He knew that this was the pilot Connor Malone had created himself; literally build himself for piloting a Jaeger especially screwed together for him, so that he could pilot it, despite his drift-incompability. Herc was aware of that, his sanity stated that and yet all he saw was Angela, not only because of the physical resemblance, he heard her voice from right there where he stood.
"Sir", the greeting of a crew member snapped him out of his paralysis and he nodded, not only as a response but also to shake this crazy thought of his head.
This woman was claiming to be a pilot, she had been born in 2000, she had suffered fatal injuries and survived possibly only because of her willpower – which Angela might have done as well. Herc gritted his teeth. That was not the way his strain of thoughts was supposed to follow. She was not her, he told himself. Period. Turning around he started walking to get his own breakfast, Max following loyally with his tongue hanging out but still keeping looking out for his other master.
Cyan started eating like sitting with Mako and Raleigh was the most normal thing to do, even though they looked at her in slight confusion. So she looked up, and almost spat out that they should ask what they wanted to know, but that was not really like her. They said about her that she could not speak because she hardly ever did. Cyan frowned at herself. Both pilots did not seem to be like other people, who kept staring at her like she was a freak, it was rather concern.
"You are going to watch the update", Cyan decided to break the silence, noticing with regret that Raleigh had been about to say something, because she hated being the one to start a conversation.
Her eyes moved to the crewmen that still were staring and who quickly turned away as they realized she was looking. When she looked at Mako she could see on her face that she was surprised how quickly the news was travelling.
"Doctor Nevlin tells me everything", she explained, trying to sound sincere, as she was not that sure about it anymore. "She was told that five PPDC members would attend. It was only logical that the two of you would join…"
Cyan cut herself of, almost as if she almost had spilled a secret.
So much for your social skills, Meg. She could hear a familiar voice in her head, the only one that used this nickname for her; the one she had had as a human being. Shut up, she replied silently.
"You'll do more than just monitoring it, right?" it was Raleigh who asked it and she blinked at him in surprise his response to that gaze was a friendly smile and Cyan knew that he was used to those looks; and she had to admit that it figured: he was too handsome and his demeanor too straight forward that many might have thought that at least his intelligence should be not above standards.
She shook her head at herself, as a pilot one should know that combinatory intelligence and sensitiveness about other people were necessary to be drift compatible. These were exactly those reasons why Malone needed her, because he lacked at them.
"No, I'm the compiler", she eventually answered and now Mako's face wore the expression her own had shown just a moment before: surprise and confusion followed by realization.
"I know you got a glimpse at the file Herc… I mean Marshal Hansen received", she shrugged and quickly looked down at her plate as she felt she was blushing and could tell the looks she just received.
"You hacked your file", Mako realized and made her straighten up again.
"I get alerts when it is opened and where", Cyan admitted again. "When the log told me it was the LOCCENT I knew that H… Hansen wouldn't risk showing this to everyone but to those he trusted… as a pilot… you only trust other pilots."
There was this glance again. They both were not sure about her being a pilot like her and Cyan could understand that, despite the sting she felt. Also if they were as smart as she thought they were, she just had given them the explanation why she had sat down with them. She did not need to speak it out that she wanted to be one of them, even though she never truly would. Meghan "Cyan" Dupris was a pilot without a real co-pilot, because neither Malone was truly drift compatible, nor was her Jaeger human.
Suddenly there was something at her leg and instinctively she turned around and tilted her head; Mako and Raleigh glances automatically followed.
"Hey handsome", she smiled radiantly and dropped her fork to lean down and take Max's face in both her hands to squish it a little and rub her thumbs over his cheeks.
Cyan neither saw the expression on Raleigh and Mako's face or how Herc Hansen stopped in his movement as he heard her speak to his son's dog like Chuck himself.