At this time, she was surprised she was capable of approaching him, “Lt. Anderson, are you free? The Major requested I examine your abilities to maneuver the mecha.”

            “Yes. It’s really late, are you sure you don’t want to do it another day.”

            “He wants the results by Monday, I’ll have to come in to analyze this data over the weekend, so it’s better to get it done now.”

            “Okay. Let’s do it.”

            He walked through the chest of the mecha, and Bleu set up communications so Lt. Anderson could receive Rosalind’s commands in the cockpit.

            “Lt. Anderson can you hear me?” Rosalind asked with a calm inside voice. It sounded weird that a voice like that could come out of her while she was in the same room as Lt. Anderson, but perhaps she trusted Bleu to hold him hostage if he tried to do anything bad.

            “Yes. It’s as if you are right here with me.”

            “Good.”

            They spent an hour of Rosalind giving instructions and Lt. Anderson transferring the requests into manual movements of every joint Bleu had. Of course, Lt. Anderson passed with flying colors, which Rosalind could see in real-time, but she had to create a value for how well he did, which required more analysis of the videos taken during the session.

            Rosalind could hear her stomach growl. She had eaten dinner about two hours earlier but compiling data and completing these assessments required a lot of energy.

            “I wish I could go home!” Rosalind sighed aggressively, but quietly

            “What was that?” Lt. Anderson asked while passing through Bleu’s chest.

            “It’s nothing, I’m just tired,” She replied while staring down at her tablet. When she had confirmed she had everything she needed she let Lt. Anderson know. “Well, I have everything I need, sorry for keeping you here late.”

            “It’s fine. We stay pretty late.”

            Rosalind was turning around to return to her office when she heard Lt. Anderson call her name.

            “Rosalind?” His voice was soft and welcoming even to her ears.

            “Yes?” She replied while still turned away, pretending to be engrossed in her tablet.

            “Are you going home, now?”

            “I think so.”

            “Do you want a ride home? I don’t think the shuttle is running anymore.”

            “Oh, I didn’t realize the shuttle wouldn’t be running anymore.”

            Rosalind was wracking her brain for what she should do. On one hand, she felt she needed to step out of her comfort zone, but on the other, she was still scared. What helped her decision was the fact that she didn’t want to walk home.

            “I guess if you’re offering, I’ll take you up on your offer,” Rosalind replied with a sigh and internal scream.

            “Okay, I’ll close it down here and meet you at your office.”

            “Alright.”

            Lt. Anderson walked towards the office that was just a few feet from the bridge, while Rosalind returned to her office. As she set her tablet down, she realized just how tired she was. Yawn after yawn escaped her, and she bet that if she were to set her head down on the desk she would easily drift to sleep. She hung up her lab coat and grabbed her backpack, and when she looked up, she could see Lt. Anderson waiting outside of her office.

            The door to Rosalind’s office swung open and she greeted Lt. Anderson with a yawn, “Hi.”

            “Let’s go.”

            Rosalind followed behind Lt. Anderson looking at his feet for where to go, keeping quiet between her yawns. She was surprised and glad that he didn’t try to talk to her, but it made her wonder if he was a quiet person or not. The real question that popped into her inquisitive mind was; who was Lt. Anderson? During dinner earlier she realized Lt. Martinez had completely distracted her from noticing what Lt. Anderson was doing. And that reminded her of her other question; can Lt. Anderson hear Bleu’s voice?

            “So, I have a question for you.”

            “Yeah? Go ahead.”

            “How did your mecha tell you that I needed to eat soon, the day we ate dinner together with all the pilots?”

            “He had it on the monitor that’s in the cockpit, it read in English, ‘You should go, you need to eat.’ At first, I thought he was talking to me, but with you also being in the tower and knowing that you pass out from not eating, I figured he was talking about you.”

            “Yes, that’s exactly what he said to me. He probably didn’t trust me to take care of myself, so he shared that info with you.”

            “Ah, I see.”

            The rest of the walk to Lt. Anderson’s vehicle was conducted in awkward silence. His car when they arrived at it, was a large heavy-duty truck. Rosalind when confronted with the height of it was worried about floundering while trying to get in. Luckily, as Lt. Anderson walked around to his side of the car after unlocking it, she could try getting up and in it without being watched. She flung open the door, set down her backpack, grabbed the inside handle, and hoisted herself up while pushing with her leg on the perfectly positioned sidebar. It was easier than she thought, especially since she still had some strength from her military service days.