Rosalind and Lt. Martinez took an elevator up to one of the few floors that allowed pilots to walk into hollow portions of the mecha, where they are shafted into the cockpit for interacting with their mecha. The hollow portion they were heading to was the chest area of the mecha because it was closest to the cockpit and made communication with the pilot easy. When the elevator doors opened, Lt. Martinez led the way, almost skipping with delight, to the bridge that extended towards the mecha’s chest.

            Lt. Martinez stopped a foot away from the mecha and touched it. Rosalind, watched in awe as the opalescent material allowed him to push his hand further in followed, by his arm and the rest of his body. Rosalind called Lt. Martinez to determine how loud she needed to be for him to hear her. She didn’t get a response, so she yelled. He also yelled back and she thought that maybe she should have him come out and put on a communication device so they weren’t yelling at each other during the examination. An idea popped into her mind and she called out to Bleu by speaking to Lt. Martinez’s mecha.

            “Bleu, can you hear me?”

            “Yes.”

            “Could you tell me this mecha’s name?”

            “Yes, this mecha is Catherine.”

            “Thank you.”

            “Catherine, could you make it so I can speak with Lt. Martinez without shouting?”

            Rosalind didn’t get a response from the mecha, Catherine, but she could hear Lt. Martinez’s huffing and mumbling to himself inside the cockpit seemingly from the wall of the mecha’s chest.

            “Lt. Martinez can you hear me?”

            “What the!? I can hear you as if you’re right here with me.”

            “Yes, I asked your mecha to relay our conversation, so we wouldn’t have to shout.”

            “I didn’t know that they could do that.”

            “Neither did I, but I figured I would see if they could do such a thing. Anyways, I’d like to begin the examination, so if you would follow my instructions.”

            “Yes, Miss Rosalind.”

             Rosalind tasked Lt. Martinez with moving all the joints of the mechas within the tower. The joints were the main focus of the mecha scientists’ examination and the results both determined the pilot’s ability to maneuver the mecha and the functional status of the mecha. When Rosalind had completed this assessment on Bleu while the pilots were in comas, she traveled up and down the elevators personally inspecting all the joints spending two hours, while with Lt. Martinez in control, she viewed the movement with the cameras stationed by the joints and recorded and tagged the footage for archiving in under an hour. Despite completing the examination rather quickly, Rosalind was pooped. She wanted to sit down and relax for the rest of the afternoon, she did faint earlier and considered using that as an excuse, but something was telling her she should examine all the other mechas.

            While Lt. Martinez exited the mecha, Rosalind figured she should ask him what the other pilots' schedules were.

            “Lt. Martinez, could you tell me what the pilots might have scheduled from now until dinner?”

            “We don’t have anything scheduled at the moment, till we get our physicals done and the Major purposely delayed that to give us a rest.”

            “I see, well I’m going to go examine the mecha in the next tower. If you’re bored you can come.”

            “I’d love to see you work if that’s alright.”

            “It’s fine. Let’s go,” Rosalind sighed and then before stepping away she kindly said, “Thank you for your help, Catherine, till next time.”

            “Is that my mecha’s name?” Lt. Martinez asked while they were walking to the next tower.

            “Yes, they seemed to have adopted the names the Mecha Children gave them.”

            “Oh, I see. Catherine is a nice name.”

            “Yes, I agree,” Rosalind said with a smile.

            The two of them met up with the pilot of the mecha next door and Rosalind and the pilot performed the examination exactly as she had with Lt. Martinez and Catherine. When this examination was done, they moved on to the next tower as a trio, and so on growing into a group of five of the six pilots and Rosalind. Rosalind was mentally and physically exhausted by the end of all five examinations. But she felt good about getting it all done in one fell swoop and not to mention all the pilots seemed to have warmed up to her, despite her despondent attitude. She thanked the last mecha and decided to call it a day.

            “Thank you all for letting me complete these examinations while you are resting. I’m going to head back to my lab and then get dinner,” Rosalind exclaimed with her last bit of energy to all the pilots.

            “But what about Lt. Anderson?” One of the female pilots asked.

            “Yeah, where is he? Did his mecha get examined?” A male pilot followed up.

            “I examined that mecha two days ago. And didn’t think it was necessary to conduct another examination so soon,” Rosalind replied curtly.

            ‘It’s obvious I’m scared of him, not to mention being alone with him, how dense are these pilots?’ Rosalind thought to herself while doing a mental eye roll.

            “Ah, you’re probably tired from working with us all afternoon,” Lt. Martinez chimed in trying to ease the tension. He understood that Rosalind wasn’t able to deal with Lt. Anderson yet and he knew that some of the pilots were of the opinion that Rosalind was treating him unfairly. “How about we all eat dinner together, with Lt. Anderson and you could get to know him better?”

            Rosalind was caught off guard by Lt. Martinez’s idea but thought it would show good faith with those pesky pilots that were especially gung-ho for Lt. Anderson and annoying her about working with him.

            “Alright, but I’m bringing Lt. Lee.”

            “That’s fine, the more the merrier. Let’s meet at the mess in an hour.”

            “Okay.”