As Shira watched Kaz leave, Ceres walked up to her behind the bar, silently cleaning up the empty glasses.<br/><br/>"A swing and a miss, hm?" She queried as she ran the glasses under warm water and soap, her eyes focused on her task. "Even I could've seen that coming. He's a bit droll, not really your type. He did leave a tip though, so much for your assertions." Ceres took a pure white cloth and began wiping the glasses down, her fingers softly cradling them. Her hands were entirely carbon and metal, though a bit smoother than Shira's arm and with padding on the fingertips and palms. Her sleeveless blouse showed that the rest of her arms at least looked human - the cybernetics started at the wrist.<br/><br/>Shira rolled her eyes and swung back around to face Ceres. "Not my type, perhaps, but I think he'd still be fun. I'm not looking for anything serious anyway." The unspoken statement was, as they both knew, Shira hadn't been looking for anything serious in years. "And it's less of a miss and more like...the game got rescheduled due to rain? There's still a chance I'll go up to bat again tonight."<br/><br/>"I think we're torturing that metaphor a tad. So no worries about seeing him at work tomorrow?" Ceres began stacking the glasses back on the shelf. "And at the rate you're going, you'll have slept with half of the bachelors on Pioneer by next year. Perhaps you'll start on the women next?"<br/><br/>"I'm<i>not</i>going through half the bachelors on Pioneer. There's nothing wrong with having some guiltless fun, and I'm not that voracious. I think I'm just going to head home and grab some takeout tonight." Shira rolled up a napkin and tossed it, bouncing it right off the back of Ceres's head. Shira's maturity level always dropped rapidly when she was with her best friend. "As for women...are you perhaps volunteering? The first candidate in a new experiment?"<br/><br/>"Not even in your dreams." Ceres's reply was quick and blunt as she turned to face her friend. She was smiling, however, finally dropping the emotionless face.<br/><br/>"<i>Always</i>in my dreams." Shira's voice dropped to a sultry whisper. She paid her bill, making sure to leave a tip while never breaking eye contact. "The things you do with those deft fingers and the way you look at me with those piercing eyes-"<br/><br/>"Get out before I call security, accuse you of harassment, and ban you from the bar. I'd be doing us all a favor."<br/><br/>"You love me so."<br/><br/>"<i>Out</i>."<br/><br/>Shira laughed and finally got up from her chair, bidding her friend a good night and heading home, picking up some takeout food along the way.<br/><br/>--------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>The next morning, Shira's mind was entirely set on ensuring the test was a success. Her hair a muted purple and tied back, makeup very minimal. It was how she prepped for any sort of major even that didn't require her to look good or present anything: dress down, so there were fewer distractions for her while getting ready in the morning. It wasn't the time to really care about looking good, but instead to focus on the task ahead. Her attire was a blazer over her black and white spandex zero-g jumpsuit - capable of interfacing with open space equipment and various machinery, and mostly, she just wore it because it was comfortable.<br/><br/>She'd been in her hangar office since early in the morning, before even the majority of the overnight shift had left, running initial diagnostics, making sure the mech systems were ready to handle the Dart drive, and making sure the drive itself hadn't decided to explode, implode, teleport ten AUs out of the ship, or otherwise malfunction. Once she had triple-checked everything, pored over many report screens until even her cyber eye felt tired, and was as confident as possible that all systems were at least stable enough to begin the test, Shira stepped out of her office. Her eyes fell on the one thing she couldn't really control in this scenario: the pilot, Kaz Markin. She'd just have to give him regular human trust and rely on his skills. She walked up to him, noting he was talking to...his mech?<br/><br/>"As much as the lines between machine and man have blurred - and I would know - they still can't answer back." Shira's tone didn't have any of it's playfulness from last night, as if nothing had transpired between them. She was curt and professional, but not unkind. "Good morning, Mr. Markin. Are you ready? We'll have our briefing in approximately 10 minutes."