So far, the nine SeeDs' posting on the Deep Sea Research Center had proven thankfully devoid of danger. The hope that they could make it through the entire assignment without encountering any giant monsters from the ancient world was enough to prevent Karenna from complaining about how excruciatingly dull it was also proving to be.

Of course, they'd only been on the facility for one full day, but it felt like they had been trapped in the claustrophobic triple quarters for weeks. When off-duty, they were forbidden even to venture beyond the hall directly outside their rooms, save during the three dining hours when they were escorted to a slightly larger but equally claustrophobic mess hall. And then back to their rooms.

At least on the airship, they had been going somewhere.

Karenna was just finishing her third Triple Triad game against herself; Irvine was out on patrol and Squall was in his customary position, lying in his bed and facing the wall. The game looked like it was going to be a draw.

The door slid open. Karenna's boredom by this point had spilled over into physical drowsiness, so it took her a moment to look over. She couldn't quite bring herself to look up, so at first all she saw were a pair of black boots and the matching pants of a SeeD uniform.

A moment later, she scrambled to her feet. "Paige, hi!" she exclaimed, a surge of energy running through her as she finally identified her friend and possible temporary solution to the boredom problem. "Did you just get off your shift?"

"Yeah," the other girl nodded, taking a seat on Karenna's bunk. "They had me walking back and forth down the same hall for hours. And so far, I haven't seen anyone down there at all except the guard who comes to relieve me. I have no idea what I'm even supposed to be looking out for."

Karenna nodded sympathetically. "Well, at least you get to walk around. My assignment so far has been to stand outside of a door for six hours straight."

"Wanna trade?" Paige asked. "I feel like my legs are gonna fall off."

Smiling, Karenna glanced at the still motionless form of their Commander in the bed. "Let's talk in the hall," she whispered. "It's weird enough when he's in here and none of us are talking."

Paige groaned at the prospect of abandoning her newfound seat, but assented to the idea of getting away from the Commander's possibly sleeping form. The two of them stepped out of the room, drawing a look from the guard at the end of the hall; but he didn't seem particularly interested in the SeeDs or much of anything else, and left them alone once it was clear they weren't going anywhere. The girls sat down on opposite sides of the hall, Paige stretching out her legs as soon as she did so.

"So," Karenna began. "What do you think of your first mission as a member of SeeD?"

Paige shook her head. "I don't even know why this counts as a mission. I mean, it's just like we're on regular guard duty. Why would Galbadia want to hire SeeDs for a job like this anyway?"

"I was wondering about that too," Karenna agreed. "I mean, they've gotta be paying us a lot for how little we're doing here. Doesn't seem like a really smart move for them, either."

"It seems like there's gotta be something really dangerous that they want us to be guarding against," Paige said. "I mean, this is the Battleship Island and all, so who knows what they're doing down here?"

Karenna nodded. "See, though, I've been thinking. And I've been really bored so far, so I've been doing a lot of thinking. If we're out here to guard against some nasty experiment gone wrong, why do they have us spread out through the whole facility like they do, with single patrols and all that? It'd make more sense to just keep us all around the one place where the experiments are being done or whatever."

The other SeeD frowned as she considered this. "Good point. It seems like they're more expecting an attack or an infiltration or something."

"Yeah, except they don't have any of us watching the upper levels, or any of the ways someone could actually get onto the facility. And this place is way too big for our patrols to cover everything, anyway." She shrugged, wrapping her arms around her legs. "My idea is they don't really want us to do anything here. I mean, look at the SeeDs they call up. Everyone who was on the Ultimecia campaign is on this mission; no way that's some weird coincidence. I think they just want to get all those guys out of the way."

"But what for?" Paige asked, frowning.

Karenna shrugged again. "Dunno. Who knows what goes on in bureaucrats' heads?"

Paige nodded, though her expression indicated that the concept rather troubled her. "It's kind of scary either way," she said. "I mean, there's all those SeeDs who've been through Time Compression and beaten Weapons and stuff, and then there's us, kind of just along for the ride. What if something happens that we can't handle?"

"I try not to think about that," Karenna replied. "It really is kind of a scary idea, but I figure there's no getting out of it now, so we might as well just find a way to deal with whatever happens."

"I wish I could think like that," said Paige, sighing. "I really don't even know what I was thinking when I became a SeeD. I used to get scared just thinking about being out on these missions; what made me think I could handle actually being sent out on one?"

"Hey, you weren't the only one who thought you could," Karenna reminded her. "I mean, the Faculty and Headmaster Xu must've signed off on it too, or you'd never have graduated. Plus, I saw you during the field exam; you can handle yourself in a fight."

"I was almost scared silly during that exam," Paige protested. "And that was just a bunch of monsters, when I knew other SeeDs were there to back me up."

Karenna stood and crossed the hall to sit down beside her friend. "Hey," she said, lowering her voice to a softer tone. "It's not like you're alone out here, either. I mean, you're on a team with probably the best six SeeDs ever to go through Garden. What else can you ask for? I mean besides, y'know, another assignment in someplace like Dollet..."

Paige giggled. "Oh, you had to give me that idea."

"Oh, come on. I know you were thinking about it."

The other girl sighed, leaning her head back against the wall. "You know, we should totally get enough money from this job that we can take one of the ferries to Dollet, or the train to Timber, and just go crazy."

"Oh, yeah," Karenna agreed. "We could hit the casinos and the Central Square...thing is, though, the Galbadians won't let you drink until you're 21."

"That occupation is totally ruining our lives," quipped Paige.

Karenna shrugged. "Well, you'd have to bring the boyfriend along, and he'd probably ruin all our fun anyway."

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the artificial hum of the air-circulation system. The guard at the end of the hall shifted his position slightly, and his boots made a slight clicking sound on the floor.

"We are so totally in over our heads," Paige said at length.

"Yeah," Karenna agreed. "Totally."