Ah, the third chapter. Edit, edit, edit. I may give up on this before the west is won.

Chapter 3

A week later Pan was working as an acting ensign in engineering. Her father ran a tight schedule, but he was fairly lenient on her first couple days. Pan sat in a swivel chair facing a smooth, black, inclined panel which bore a grid of little squares, each of them buttons that could be used to input information. Her access to the main computer was, of course, limited, in case she typed in the command to self-destruct or anything. The buttons themselves were blank; Pan had to memorize the functions they were bound to. She picked the system up quickly and was now furiously clicking her fingers over the board. A deluge of beeps followed every passerby, and even Gohan was impressed. A little.

Gohan had given Pan a large stack of commands that had to be inputted by 2100 hours. Pan rubbed the back of her neck, cringing at the pain it caused. She was tired and overworked, but for some reason, she felt an urge to keep going, to push on through the fatigue and tedium. Perhaps she was developing a work ethic?

The area around her was blessedly empty. In their efficiency, the other cremembers had finished their assignments and were very likely lounging in the mess hall, celebrating her distress. At least, that's what Pan felt they were doing. She was just happy they weren't here to make her uncomfortable and distract her from the task at hand. She hated it when people chattered at her as she worked.

"Hey! My name's Bra! What's yours?" A peppy looking young woman suddenly materialized at Pan's side. Pan stopped typing long enough to glare at her new acquaintance. She had spoken waaay to soon…

"Pan," she said shortly, and continued typing. She didn't have time for small talk.

"What a cool name! You in engineering now? I am too. I'm fairly new, but I am getting the hang of it. I just came by to drop off a report when I saw you here, working and looking rather lonely. Need some help?" All this came out within half a second. Pan couldn't think of any way to get rid of her. She had to work, for crying out loud!

"I…" Pan got out before the girl started in again.

"That's great. You know, you are a nice looking person. I mean, you have no makeup on or anything, but that's cool. I don't wear makeup all the time, either. Anyway, what do you think of the new system…"

Pan couldn't help but smile a little at the flood of speech escaping this woman's lips. She hadn't said as much herself in that entire week. &What a strange girl,& she thought. &For some reason, she makes me want to know her better.& Pan sighed. &I guess I might as well forget typing for now.& Pan waited for a gap, and then inserted herself.

"Hey, IaminengineeringandIamnewtoowouldyouliketohelpmewiththistyping?" She said it as fast as she could, not trusting Bra to refrain from interrupting. The talkative chick took a few seconds to process Pan's run-on sentence, and then nodded.

"Sure I'll help. I have nothing else to do. Hey, you think maybe we could go for hot chocolate or something afterwards? I am so in the mood for a hot chocolate." Bra proceeded to sit down at the console next to Pan's, taking a few of the papers she held in her lap and starting to type, all while talking about how hot chocolate was her favorite hot drink but that in the neighborhood of drinks in general it was pretty mediocre. Pan just stared at her for a minute, dumbfounded, before shaking her head and resuming her work.

With both of them typing, they finished the task with a couple hours to spare, and decided (well, Bra decided, anyway) to go get that hot chocolate. Pan followed meekly, in awe of this woman with an unnatural gift of speech.

Their one-sided conversation continued in the mess hall, shifting at different times from drinks to food to cute guys, according to whatever passed through Bra's line of vision. Pan was fine with listening; she wasn't a very talkative person, but she was happy to hear of Bra's opinions and attitudes. The fact that Bra was talking to her at all made her feel wanted in a satisfactory sort of way. Pan liked it. Was this what friendship was like?

As the day grew late and Pan found herself suppressing yawns, Bra stood and beamed at Pan. "This was great. We should do it again sometime. Next week?" She waited for a bare nod. "Great. I like you, Pan. You are a nice person. Keep it up. See ya tomorrow, K? K. Bye!" Bra skipped away, leaving Pan at a loss for words and almost missing the humming sound that Bra's constant talking had created in her ears. Sighing, she rose and headed for her quarters.

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The next morning, Gohan had a smile on his face. "Videl, did you know that our daughter has diligently finished all her work on time and made a friend in the process?" He grinned across the table at Pan. "I know all about your little hot chocolate escapade. Lt. Novak told me all about it. It seems you've found a person to talk to, eh?"

Pan smiled, but couldn't feel any satisfaction for finishing her work. After all, she had had some help. "Dad, I need to admit something…"

"What, that your new friend helped you with your assignment?" Pan blinked, confused. "Don't worry, dear. I don't expect you to take on such a large job and do it all by yourself!"

"Huh? Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?" She sighed for the fiftieth time that week. "Why is my life so annoying?"

"Aw, come on, you just aren't enjoying yourself enough." Gohan said cheerfully. He must have been recommended for a promotion or something, because he was elated. "I have a surprise for you, dear Panny!"

"Oh, no! Not a surprise! Anything but a surprise!" She groaned.

"Yes! Guess what it is!" He smiled.

"No."

"Come on, guess."

"You bought me a reindeer."

"Not quite. I talked to Captain Jason!"

Pan looked at him silently for a while. "Great."

"He has been watching your progress reports, and he's impressed! He says that if you keep this up, he might promote you! Get ready for extra duties, kid, 'cause he's watching!" Gohan looked extremely proud, and it was hard for Pan not to smile like a foolish child basking in the warmth of her father's admiration. She held it down to a small curve of the mouth, attempting to keep whatever shred of pride she had left. She was actually happy that her parents were proud! She disgusted herself.

&&&&&&&

The 'extra duties' consisted of an engineering survey she had to administer (which was useless, stupid, and a waste of time and energy, in her opinion) and a daily report on the warp core's uranium output. She had to catalogue various readings, graph them, write down extrapolations, and conclude, all using a device with a whole other button system she had to memorize. For an elite craft, this ship was pretty inefficient. Pan handled the extra work well enough, sometimes getting help from Bra, who seemed to show up next to Pan's console quite frequently. Pan didn't mind the company anymore; she was actually beginning to enjoy the one-sided conversations she and Bra had.

On one such inefficient day, Pan was surprised to find that Bra didn't appear at her side as usual. She stood up from her swivel chair and surveyed engineering. It was empty except for herself. Strange; usually there was at least one officer on duty to keep an eye on the area.

She padded across the bay, eyeing empty consoles and flickering lights, when her ears were suddenly invaded.

"Blaeuouat! Beeeeep! Blueaueut! Baaaaaat! Bwwaaaaaoop!"

The loud, obnoxious blaring of the Red Alert warning system made her jump ten feet in the air (aah, hyperbole). She ran to the nearest console, typing frantically, trying to discover the problem. From the various readouts and codes she gathered that something was happening that was bad and that she should do something to fix it. Stupid troubleshooting system…

Pan darted around the cove, searching for answers and not finding any, all the while hearing a Red Alert that was increasing in volume and speed. Her nerves were going haywire. She had to do something!

"Okay, Pan! Calm DOWN!" she shouted. She breathed deeply, thinking of the meditation exercises Kugo had taught her before he left her. Before he left her. Why did that baka have to leave? "GRRRRRRRR!" Pan felt annoyed with her collective life experiences. She saw her flaws and hated them. She saw other's failures and hated them. She heard that STUPID ALERT and hated it! She had to make it stop!

Adrenaline pumping through her veins, Pan charged over to the warp core, typing quickly into the main console. "Okay. Problem? See readout 4-a. Okay. Trouble. Danger. See this. See that. Just TELL ME ALREADY!" She saw a single message appear on the console's screen:

warp core breech

"Oh, crap! This is not good!" She thought rapidly. What do you do with a warp core breech? Don't let it explode. It's definitely exploding, buster! Gotta save the ship. Gotta get rid of the stupid thing! Pan thought of the solution. Eject the warp core!

She typed the command, stopped, then realized that the computer would react to a command from her voice. "Computer, eject the warp core!"

AUTHORIZATION PLEASE

"What? Saving the ship requires authorization?"

PLEASE REPEAT THE QUESTION

"Forget it! Just eject the warp core!"

AUTHORIZATION PLEASE

She thought frantically and suddenly recalled the ID callsign Gohan had given her before-

"ID code 56 Pan Kappa Tolstoy!" She held her breath, thinking there was no way it could be that simple.

ACKNOWLEDGED

Huh. Okay, then.

Just as quickly as the pounding Red Alert had begun, it ceased. The warp core, however, decided not to eject. &What? What now?& Pan thought, sweat sliding down her cheeks and her breath speedily heaving. A man entered the room.

"Congratulations," he stated simply. He was standing in front of a bright screen, and Pan found it hard to recognize his features. "You have passed the test."

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Haright, the third chapter stands corrected. Be nice readers and review!