Kalika went home to her quarters on the ship, stripping off the wet clothes easily. They were put into a bin that would bring them to the cleaning facilities, where she could pick them up on the morrow. Once that was done, she went to her bathing chambers and got clean. Rain was exquisite, but it left her itchy for a warm shower.<br/><br/>As she cleaned herself, turning under the spray of water, she pondered. All the things she could do here; all the animals and plants she could improve on. The thrill of the exotic mixed with the comfort of familiarity, the burning desire to know ever more, to improve on nature and past genetics... It was a wonderful thing. Even from her first day, she was intrigued and eager to go. Something niggled at her, though: becoming so caught up in this. was it really a good idea? Eventually she would be called back to the mixing of Aurian and Azurian genetics. That was a certainty; they<span style="font-style: italic">had</span>to mix. It was that or death for her race, and they would fight the politics tooth and nail to resist being wiped out. Once the politics were sorted, she would be needed back in her department. Would she be able to leave this flourishing ecosystem behind? It wasn't her project, but she knew that in time it would be. That would be difficult to leave.<br/><br/>These thoughts swirled in her head as she got out and dried off. Moving automatically, she got dressed for bed and laid down for a while, just thinking. Her mind was heavy when she finally drifted into sleep.<br/><br/>The next day brought renewed vigor. There was no point in pondering the future too heavily; all sorts of things lay between the present and the future she was trying to examine. She got up with a determined smile on her face and got ready, packing her bag, adjusting her glasses, and heading out.<br/><br/>When she entered the lab and was greeted by Everett, she smiled. His swivel in place was highly amusing to her. A flair for the dramatic existed within him, even if he didn't know it. "Good morning," she said, smiling warmly. "How are you this morning?" she asked, setting her things down at her desk and sitting down. She pulled out a portable recording device, where information and data could be typed in and stored. It also had a voice recognition speech-to-text function that worked nearly perfectly with her voice. She found it useful for recording notes and such things during research and experiments and brought it with her wherever she could.