<ul>It was strange to be immersed in his world like this. Her intention had been to make him uncomfortable, but in turn she had done much of the same to herself. To see this part of him was to make him even more human in her eyes. It had been a mistake that she would have to never make again if there was any hope of escaping this ship with her life. <br/><br/>Zilah loved people, which made things difficult when her chosen profession was to steal from them. However, if things had turned out differently, she would not have minded getting to know this Quen, space patrol officer, over a glass of whatever alcohol was lying around. He seemed like an interesting enough person if the mathematical models plastered on the walls had anything to say. <br/><br/>Shifting slightly, she took the Ydephan stuffed lizard in her hands and eyed it for a moment. It brought back the flashback of an almost lost memory. There she was with braids in her hair and the stain of mageberry juice outlining her lips. "I used to have one of these," she said in a dull voice, setting the plush back down where it belonged as though it had insulted her by merely existing, "Only it was purple."<br/><br/>Turning her head then, brown eyes watched as he rearranged the holographic pieces on the board. She could have answered his question any which way she liked. It wasn't terribly difficult to lie to a person that only knew what you were criminally guilty of and little else. As he made his first move, Zilah was shocked that she recognized the opening and followed suit with her own move. <br/><br/>Chess was an interesting game. The first several moves were rote memorization as both players set up their openings and then it was only after that when things became interesting. She had always thought of it in terms of a relationship. At first everyone goes through the motions of what is expected -- a few dates, you ask each other benign questions, the male opens a few doors -- however, once sex came into the mixture then things became interesting.<br/><br/>"My father," she finally answered him, eyeing the pieces on the board as they were moved around. "He had a great love for puzzles and games that stimulated the mind. We had a dusty library that he liked to fill with any books that he could get his hands on. Some of them were just catalogues from stores, others were children's books. After a while, he realized he'd amassed a great number of chess books and set to teaching himself. However, eventually he decided he wanted a playing partner, so he sat me down and taught me."<br/><br/>Books were practically obsolete -- relics, basically. Zilah had sat in that library as a child and fingered those pages in wonder for countless hours. Few people remained that could actually read, given that every home had an AI system in place that could be programmed to read things to you, among other things.<br/><br/>Glancing over at him, she was wondering why she bothered to tell him that at all. <br/><br/>Swallowing hard, the woman moved own of her knights on the board and did away with one of his pawns. "Are you shocked? A criminal that makes a living out of stealing priceless artefacts, and yet she can read and play chess." Another move and she'd taken one of his knights. <br/><br/>"Why did you join the Corps?" <br/><br/>If they were playing this game, she had any right as he did to ask her own questions.  <br/></ul>