Mari spent a tense couple of days trying not to agitate Kaede, but it seemed that everything she did in her proximity made the woman’s eyebrows draw down and her mouth thin. Mari had never been so bored in all her life. While she did her best to keep out of Kaede’s way, there was no one else to talk to and nothing to do.
She felt stuck, trapped between certainty that she was right and not wanting to apologize for her earlier outburst, but also not wanting to make Kaede more angry with her. They had to work together, and it was uncomfortable enough already with Kaede’s rigid silence and prickly mood.
It was only three days, but to Mari it felt like it took forever for Kaede’s ports to heal enough for them to go down and do a test run. Kaede went to the medical wing twice a day, and Mari a
