The wind picked up a warm breeze, blowing Shira's raven hair out of her face and behind her. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and basking in the warmth of the Sun, her toes digging into the grass and dirt. Shira exhaled, slowly opening her eyes and taking in the trees, the deer running through the grove, the snow-capped mountains far off in the distance. She reached out to pluck flower from the ground, only to be interrupted by her parents calling her name.<br/><br/>Dr. Shirazah Brigandy awoke to sunlight streaming in through her apartment window, and where there should have been an arm outstretched, was only air. She groaned, lifting herself to a sitting position with her right arm, and glancing at the empty shoulder, a metal socket, for her left. Her fingers ran over the back of her neck, tracing the steel plating over her spine before finding the cord plugged into the port at the base of her neck. Shira unplugged herself, allowing her mind to slowly return to wakefulness. The benefits of having a data port synched to her mind and nervous system was that she could always ensure her dreams were pleasant and relaxing. It required some hoops to jump through and months of bonuses, but entirely worth it to curb the nightmares after the accident. Most of her body being cybernetics now instead of natural human just meant she could do more to it.<br/><br/>Shira glanced out of her window, over the city-like area that made up Pioneer's main central block, and at the sun. Not real of course - putting a star in the middle of a space ship would likely end poorly. Today's weather: sunny, with some clouds, same as the entire last month. Maybe some day they'd figure out more sophisticated artificial atmospheres and she'd wake up to some nice rain. Shira's apartment was fairly modest, a basic studio with a bathroom, but it was far better furnished than she'd had as a student, owning more furniture than just her bed and a desk. The walls were covered in posters of pilots, clippings from major research papers, her degrees, and a single wall that was blank. She looked at it, and the wall blinked to a feed of news for the day.<br/><br/>"Let's see....organ failures are on the rise again? They're blaming lack of maintenance on the shielding, but it's probably just the symptoms showing up now after a previous exposure. We're a few days out from the next jump, they're talking about cracking down on after-market cybernetics..." Shira muttered to herself as she looked over the screen. A specific story caught her eye, and she grinned. "Oooh? One of the Knight aces is being assigned back here?" In reality, there was no screen on the wall. Instead, her left eye seemed to shine slightly as it simply told her brain her wall was a massive display. The idea that she could very easily fool her senses whenever needed was something Shira took plenty advantage of, but tried not to think too hard about. It just tended to dredge up some sort of formless existential panic in the back of her mind. She dragged herself out of bed and into her shower, turning it on. Her artificial skin simply expelled any dirt out of her pores as the warm water ran over her, the lights running down the length of her spine glowing a pleasant blue.<br/><br/>The part of Shira's morning routine she half anticipated, half dreaded, was the arm. Not that it was difficult, but her nerves always got a little jolt when she slotted it back into her shoulder. Her left arm was entirely artificial, meant to replace the real one she had lost. Most prosthetics were designed to look just like a human arm, with skin and flesh, but hers was mechanical and metal. It just made more sense to her - it wasn't<i>her</i>arm, really. It was a replacement, and Shira had specifically requested it look as such. Besides, it also looked cooler like this. She took a deep breath, then slotted the arm in. She felt a shiver run through her spine, and a weirdly cold jolt run through her shoulder. The rehab clinic had offered to make that easier, but really, she preferred it not to be. Shira picked up her morning coffee with her now-attached left arm as she picked out her clothes.<br/><br/>"Let's see here...dunno if I'm doing much field work just yet, so probably best to go professional?" Shira talked to herself as she got dressed, a practice that helped her organize her day mentally. "I mean, I'm probably just gonna meet the team today, but...wait, no, I'm meeting the pilots too, right?" She grinned. "Yeah, let's at least turn it up a bit - can't look<i>too</i>dull for that." Shira put on a purple cocktail dress, and then a cropped black blazer over her shoulders, attaching a brooch with the Lyceum Corp Logo. "And today's more of a....red-feeling kinda day." Her hair turned into a dark, reddish-black shade, the tips brighter than usual. Her usual black metal choker rounded it out.<br/><br/>Shira took herself in. The lights on her back just barely glowed through the fabric, and the metal plates jutted out at the base of her neck - and of course, the arm. It was how she preferred it. Some people liked hiding away their modifications and implants, but she saw no use in lying about herself. Her left eye shone a bit again, and projected a calendar of her schedule in the air in front of her. She had to report to the Knight Squadron hangar and join up with the engineering team there, moving from her old position in the R&D labs within Lyceum Corporate HQ. About time for her to head out, too.<br/><br/>Stepping out of her apartment and into the corridor-streets of Pioneer's central block, Shira's right eye squinted in the sunlight. Sprinting to the station, she barely caught the tram as it sped off along the residential ring she lived in. As it took her towards the hangar elevators, she gazed out of the windows. Pioneer was a marvel, practically a space-borne city, but it could never quite be a replacement for a proper home on a real planet, not to her. Psychologically, it was important they replicate an earth-like environment as closely as possible, but it wasn't perfect. It just lacked heart. Shira's stop came up, and she disembarked, heading towards the Knight Squadron hangar elevators.