Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you?
---
The young amnesiac scrubbed at her eyes the next day, tired from staring at glowing data screens all morning.
"Ready for a break?" Diandre asked.
Angel nodded. "Boy, am I ever."
"Let's go grab something to eat."
"Sounds good."
The two stood, stretched, then walked out the door toward the dining hall. There they ran into Ryan, Diandre's youngest older brother. "Hey you two -- how goes the data analysis?" he asked, glancing up from his meal.
"Eh, it's...tedious," his sister replied, sitting down next to him after pointing Angel to the vacant seat on her other side.
"You can say that again," Angel agreed, scrubbing at her eyes again.
Ryan laughed. "You know, you can turn down the lighting on those monitors, or turn up the lighting in the room."
Diandre and Angel looked at each other sheepishly, prompting another laugh from the prince. "So, ah, what have you been up to today?" the princess queried, trying to change the subject.
Her brother lightly punched her shoulder, playfully telling her he realized what she was doing. "Oh, just this and that -- if you guys need a break but still want to do stuff, want to come with me to go check out the Viper?"
"That old rust bucket?" Diandre exclaimed.
"Hey now -- you just have to see what they've done with it. It hardly looks like a Lancer anymore."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Where's it stationed at, again?" she asked as a servant came by with plates of food for herself and Angel, who began eating quietly.
"In geosynchronous orbit around Neptune -- it's right on the horizon, so you can only really see the beauty of one side of it, but it's more than enough to amaze even you, sis."
"Nice... Angel, you know what a Lancer is, right?"
"I think so -- that's the ship that was made by the Empire way back when to combat snubfighter attacks, right?"
"Exactly."
"So, uh, Ryan... what did they do to this ship to make it so much better?"
"Oh, they added completely new hull armor twice the strength of the old, plus new and more advanced shield generators. They also took the engines off and added an elongated cargo/hangar bay to the aft before replacing the engines with completely new ones."
"My stars, how much did this cost?"
"Eh... a pretty credit. But with all the resources we've mined off the planets in this system, it's not too bad. Besides, since individual companies do a lot of the mining, we finance our own enterprises with taxes from their profits."
"If others are mining too... where do they get their profits from?"
"Ever since our mother's speech to the New Republic years back, we've gained an incredible amount of contacts -- most of our treasury's money comes from business dealings with NR systems."
"And where do all these dealings, uh, happen? They aren't really allowed here, right?"
Ryan nodded. Angel was stunned at how much he resembled his next oldest brother with that action. "The system neighboring ours is mostly uninhabited save for one moon with an outpost city and space station orbiting that moon. We conduct dealings on the station, and goods are transferred either on the station or by direct linking of our ships in orbit around the moon."
"Interesting... there's quite the operation going on here, isn't there?"
"You can say that again."
Angel would have inquired further, but Gavin walked into the room at that moment. She froze, then suddenly became very interested in her food. He looked at her curiously before taking a seat on Ryan's free side. "How's lunch today?"
"Excellent," his younger brother replied.
"Nice," he replied, his gaze wandering back to Angel. Abruptly he stood. "I just remembered something I need to take care of -- I'll be back for lunch in a bit." Without another word Gavin turned and left the room.
"That was odd..." Ryan mumbled around a mouthful of food.
Diandre nodded. Their other companion remained silent, nearing completion of her meal. "You all right, Angel?" she asked.
"Yeah. Fine."
"Is something wrong between you and my brother?" the young man queried. "He looked at you funny."
"I...I don't know. We don't talk much. How could there be something wrong?" she said hastily, a nervous laugh ending her sentence.
"Uh...okay."
Angel finished her food and stood. "Yeah, yeah, everything's fine...fine..." she murmured to herself, barely within earshot of the other two. She shook her head and exited the room in a different direction than Gavin had taken.
"Well, that was weird," Ryan declared, leaning back in his chair. "Any clue to all of that, Diandre?"
"Sort of...but I'm not really sure."
"Okay. Maybe you should have Gavin talk to her, or something. It seems like they need it."
"I don't want to be nosey or pushy, though."
"Wouldn't it be better if they both were able to focus better on the task ahead? Gavin's been acting somewhat funny at times lately anyway -- I wonder if this has anything to do with it."
"It might be a good idea..."
"Besides, you know Angel better than I do. I'll mention it to Gavin--"
"Nah, I'll take care of it. It'd be better if only one person got involved. Don't worry, I'll keep you updated."
"Thanks, sis." The pair got up after finishing and wandered toward one of the hallways. Impulsively Ryan gave his only sister a hug. "I'll never say this enough, but you're awesome, you know that?"
Diandre returned the embrace and smiled gently up at him. "Thanks. And don't worry, I've put all that behind me... mostly, anyway."
"Well, just hit me if I start acting like I used to."
She laughed. "I'll take you up on that."
"Hey...don't use it as an excuse to beat me up!"
"Me? Beat you up?"
He stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. Diandre joined him, and their laughter carried down the hallway they walked through.