Shira fought to keep her mouth from forming a wide grin as she walked towards the main engineering and tech offices. Kaz Markin! She'd somehow managed to speak with one of the best ace pilots in the convoy and<i>not</i>make a complete fool of herself. He was certainly a fairly introverted individual, but the strong silent type was something Shira could warm up to, right? She quickly pushed that particular thought out of her head - she was here as a professional, it would be stupid to even try for anything like that. Shira forcibly detached herself from the past few minutes and assumed a more professional mentality as she walked into the head engineer's office.<br/><br/>"I'm here to meet a...Dr. Royce?" She looked around, the office was mostly empty, save for a few people. Most people were gathering papers, writing reports, or otherwise grabbing equipment. Desks and research stations were everywhere, and multiple rooms and offices adjoined the larger common area. The back wall was entirely glass, overlooking the hangar. One person waved her towards a room in the back, obviously everyone was a bit too busy to chat. She smiled her thanks and nodded her head, heading towards the office.<br/><br/>Dr. Stephen Royce looked...like a stereotypical mechanic. In fact, save for the framed diplomas and degrees hanging on the wall behind his desk, you wouldn't guess this  rather well-maintained and sterile office was his at all. He was a fairly large man, with a gray ponytail and a full mustache and beard. His clothing was a basic engineer's jumpsuit, no real flair about it. His lower jaw was obviously carbon plating, but largely skin-colored. In his hands, he had a small tablet terminal. Shira cleared her throat, and Dr. Royce looked up from his desk.<br/><br/>"Huh." He took her in. He didn't seem to pay much mind to her arm, but rather to her clothing. His voice was almost gruff, but not unpleasant. "Right, I heard the one we had coming in was more of an academic than a tech. But don't mind me, I'm mostly just used to jumpsuits and not office casual around here. Dr. Shirazah Brigandy, right?"<br/><br/>"Correct.. And no worries, I'm plenty accustomed to hands-on work, my academic background just makes me better at it. It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Royce." She extended her hand, and he shook it with a slanted grin.<br/><br/>"Good shit, I'm glad to hear it - coming from a fellow academic, mind you." He gestured at the frames on the wall behind him. "And just call me Royce or Chief or whatever, I'm not one for titles. They tell me you're accompanied by a new prototype - something about a miniaturized arrow drive?" He showed her the document he was reading on his tablet - the specification document. "Hermes Trooper Arrow Drive. The 'Dart', those chuckleheads are calling it. Doesn't matter if we're in space or on Earth, techs just love their dumb punny names."<br/><br/>"Well, I<i>told</i>them it was a dumb name, but no one listens to the sane one, Chief." Shira smiled. It was good that not everyone was going to be as formal as Kaz. "But yes, I helped with some of the designs on it, and we're meant to test it out with the Knights squadron. I was one of the few on the team with the closest thing to flight experience, so they sent me along since I might end up having to actually field a unit with it installed in order to run checks and calibrate. Though Lyceum wasn't kind enough to inform me of the finer details."<br/><br/>"Figures. Don't tell people more than they need to. I'm a believer in making sure my folks know the score, so..." Royce got up out of his chair. "I'll lead you to the hangar and fill you in on the way. Let's go." Shira nodded, and followed him out of the engineering offices and into another elevator. She barely kept from remarking on the fascination Lyceum had for elevators.<br/><br/>"So basically," Royce crossed his arms as the elevator descended, "they've decided to use Kaz Markin as their guinea pig. He's talented, kind of a grouch, but never lost a unit, so there's less risk involved there. Our units ain't really equipped for two people comfortably, so unless he's willing to let you have the controls, I don't see you going out there. We'll probably run the first few tests with you on-station, and Kaz piloting the mech, and then if possible, you in the mech in a more controlled environment." The elevator doors opened, and they walked into the main mech maintenance hangar.<br/><br/>"That sounds fine." Shira wanted to complain about not being able to pilot, but also understood why. And she'd be working with Kaz? Unexpected, but she wasn't going to complain. "I wasn't expecting you to trust an amateur at the stick of a multi-billion dollar piece of machinery. Instead, I'll just watch over the multi-<i>trillion</i>dollar piece of machinery." They walked up to a large metal cylinder, which seemed to be hatched together and secured to the ground. She put her metal arm up to it, and the cylinder popped open, revealing what looked like a standard booster  - save for the glowing blue sphere at the hollowed-out center, magnetically suspended between metal pylons. It wasn't exactly a mini-Arrow Drive, but rather the eventual design that came about after repeated attempts to scale down. The idea of a small craft being able to make multi-AU jumps wasn't quite there yet, but this was the first step. Royce seemed to be curious about it. Shira just felt anxious and giddy.<br/><br/>"So, anyway, we'll get this....thing...over to Kaz's mech bay. You'd better introduce yourself to him, I'll get things ready for initial installation." Royce checked his watch. "First test is tomorrow morning, but I'd imagine you'll need to get settled in today so you're ready to go. You'll get an office adjacent to the hangar where you'll have full access to the Dart's config frame. Welcome to your first day with the Knights squadron, Doc Brigandy."<br/><br/>Shira just smirked. She was more than ready for this. "Of course, Chief. I'll see you later."