For a long time, Kaz sat in the pilot's chair, his eyes closed and his body relaxed. What could be more peaceful than silence and darkness? Minus the gravity, it was just like being in space. The pilot had often considered suiting up while his mech was in ZG maintenance, where he could rest in peace in weightless silence. He never did, of course, because he was almost always needed elsewhere. Being a battle pilot during times of peace meant finding things to keep busy, and since he had a new technician attached to his squadron, particular his mech, Kaz found that the other passion he enjoyed would be slowly phased out as she took over the reins.<br/><br/>Kaz did not want to think about her again, feeling like he'd already spent enough time trying to figure the young woman out. Shira was a complex woman, and had given him such a confusing set of signals that it was best for him to let her figure out what she wanted and if that involved him, fine. He'd deal with it then. With a sigh, Kaz released the canopy and the cockpit slid open, flooding the compartment with light and sound. The stimulus alone was almost enough for him to close it again, but it slowly started to blend back into normality. He climbed down the ladder and prepared himself to face the world again. Just before he reached the bottom, his communication device began to alert. His sister.<br/><br/>"Hey, what's going on?"<br/><br/>"Kaz I need you to come here right now." Immediately the young man stopped in his tracks. Cara was almost always joyful and laid back, but her voice was panicked and course, as if she'd been inhaling gravel.<br/><br/>"Cara? What's wrong?"<br/><br/>"It's dad. he's.. not doing well. They're telling me he's got radiation poisoning and it's not good..." Cara's voice began to break up as she continued her story. She was the one that cried between the two of them, the one to become hysterical when life threw a curveball. She was always the one to come to him when it was something wasn't right. She was incredibly smart, and Kaz looked up to her for many reasons. Her ability to control emotions, however was not one of those reasons.<br/><br/>"Cara calm down. That's normal on the Arks. Dad's not a young man anym..." Kaz turned as he spoke, having a tendency to wander his space while speaking to someone remotely. His eyes rested upon Shira, who was walking in his direction with a very concerned look on her face. "...anymore. Listen, I have to go, but I will come by later and we can talk about dad."<br/><br/>"Okay... i'm sorry. I know you're busy."<br/><br/>"It's okay. Love you Cara." Kaz switched off his communicator and secured it. The way she kept her eyes locked on him it was impossible to think she wasn't planning on at least mentioning something to him. He was surprised, however, to discover that she had actually gone that way hoping to run into him. As Shira explained the situation, Kaz remained impassive and unconcerned.<br/><br/>"This wouldn't be the first time men in suits showed up to pull me into some back room for a nice little chat. It's just like Internal Affairs. We stumbled on something they didn't expect, and they probably just want us to tell them what we know." Kaz lowered his voice then, keeping his eyes on her but paying attention to his surroundings. "Don't give them any speculations. Don't assume anything, and don't talk about the future. If they're serious, they'll probably just want us to keep our mouths shut about what we found. I have the benefit of plausible deniability. I have no idea what it was, and as far as i'm concerned, it's just a piece of smooth metal from an asteroid. But unless they ask you, don't give them anything extra. Ignorance is your friend. If they start asking you to look into it, pay very close attention to what they want and why. Understand?"<br/><br/>This was obviously not Kaz's first rodeo. In fact, he had seen way too many things that he was not supposed to see or know about. But he served a purpose and he kept his mouth shut about them, so they tolerated him. Good pilots were in short supply, as were good mech techs. If Shira kept her head down, he was confident that she'd be fine.<br/><br/>"Besides, if this was some silence squad, you wouldn't know they're even around until it's too late. So just relax and take it one step at a time."