Melissa found herself feeling pensive by the end of the briefing. Not just in the sense that, she informed herself, would be quite natural considering the full details of the situation. Still, this was an important briefing, hardly the time or place to be...<br/><br/>And people were leaving. Once the first few had departed, stood up as well, clearing her throat. "I'll be excusing myself as well, then, Miss Simano." She dipped her head in a brief nod, then departed herself.<br/><br/>She returned to her room aboard the ship, managing to get lost only once, maintaining her crisp business-but-friendly projection (at least, that's how she believed she came across--and she tried not to doubt that when she could avoid doing so) until the door had been closed behind her.<br/><br/>"The Kimune," she spoke aloud to herself, voice as steady and clear as if she was giving a lecture. "Are a race native to the planet Algaros." They suit jacket came off first, fingers moving a bit<em>too</em>steadily, if anything, as she undid one button at a time without looking. It was carefully put away while she spoke, and she moved on to the white button-up shirt beneath it. "Although we are optimistic regarding the outlook of diplomatic relations with their race, it should be noted that they have a reputation for working as hired killers, and a diplomatic incident ending in violence could pose a high risk to our personnel."<br/><br/>She sounded professional, like she could have been giving a briefing on it--never mind that everything she'd just said, she'd learned from the captain less than an hour prior. Standing there, talking to herself, sliding her arms through the sleeves of a white shirt with blue pinstripes, she sounded confident. Professional. Collected.<br/><br/>And she was, of course. There was no reason she...<br/><br/>"Oh, who am I kidding?" Melissa demanded, pivoting on the heel of one of her now-bare feet. "This is insane!" Best in her respective field? She was a translator! The extent of her experience began and ended with sparing foreign dignitaries the<em>arduous</em>task of having to wait the whole thirty seconds for a linguist to translate what they were saying!<br/><br/>Oh, yes, of course, she was doing the same thing, basically, here. Except instead of allowing two business owners to negotiate an international merger, she would be helping talk an alien species into joining an alliance on which the fate of humanity rested. No pressure, right?<br/><br/>"I am<em>not</em>cut out for this!" she protested to the empty room. What if she made a mistake? This wasn't,<em>No pressure</em>, this wasn't a situation where if she got distracted the worst that would happen is that she'd need to make a sincere apology and ask someone to repeat themselves.<br/><br/>She<em>had been</em>one of the best in her field, back on Earth, back when<em>her field</em>was just one of the many things going on behind the scenes that helped keep everything<em>else</em>running smoothly, and the only people to compare herself were other telepaths who hadn't yet developed fully enough to move on to bigger and better things. Here, though? Here her 'peers' were doctors, scientists, army officers, shapeshifters...<br/><br/>A bit late, Melissa caught herself. She... did that, sometimes; kept spinning her anxiety higher and higher, twisting herself around an issue without coming any closer to resolving it. She sighed, ran a hand across her forehead, looked down at herself; shirt, slacks, bare feet. She added socks and a pair of low heels to finish that up, then headed for the exit.<br/><br/>What she<em>needed</em>was some fresh air. That being in short supply, she decided to settle for a walk. It was a fierce, determined walk down the halls--corridors? passageways?--of the vessel, the walk of someone who was<em>going</em>somewhere and<em>knew</em>what their destination would be. Of course, she wasn't, and she didn't. She was walking to burn off energy, to take her mind off things, to... ah, right! She was exploring the ship!<em>That's</em>what she was doing! Much better explanation, she thought.