[member="Noah Corek"]
Cara nodded, the frown not quite leaving her face. A brow lofted in response and for a tense minute she only watched him, saying not a word. There was an internal debated one of should she stay or should she go. Glancing to the door, the only clue she'd give for a moment or two more of what she was thinking, uncertain that she wanted in bed with these people. Then the other side to that thought finally caught up, if she didn't what would be left of her, the business. Twisting her lips, she couldn't seem to make up her mind.
At last she leaned back in the booth, turning back to look at the man before her again. "I see." She said softly. He had her attention, but not perhaps in the way he thought. For another long moment, she only watched, waited, looking for the tiniest micro-expressions to give any detail to her. Some part of her wanting to make him squirm just a little while she rolled through possibilities in her mind.
"Less depressing? Don't think that's really possible." A shrug followed, as she moved on-wards in her mind, to his question. "But I suppose I can try."
Idly she rapped her fingers on the edge of the table, her thoughts deepening as she tuned out the rest of the world around her for a moment. Her focus solely on the task at hand. Moving just to her index finger, she used it, to write a few things upon the table. Just to give a more present form to her thoughts. Slowly working through older designs one by one, to find what was possible for her to do easily and quickly. "The better question is, what I can't do." Perhaps an eccentric trait, but what engineer wasn't at least a little bit odd?
Stopping the movements on the table, she looked up again. "I've worked all the way from small stealth fighters on up through carriers, and even larger research ships. Given enough time I can do anything I wish. As long as the supplies are provided, adequate research and testing facilities are present and funding is a constant. As well as my personal security. It's not the first time my life has been threatened, and I doubt the last. Picking up any project comes with certain inherent dangers. I do expect a certain level of protection to not only me, but as well the designs and facilities that I work in." She was being completely truthful in that regard. "You, yourself, once had me pinned for assassination, as you so quaintly put it. Not a position I want to be put in again. I'm sure you understand." Her needs she had to clarify from the start, and make sure she was understood before she ventured further. "And, housing if I choose to bring my business to you. As I've recently found myself homeless, save for my personal ship."
Her thoughts wandered back to what he wanted from her. "You want someone who is competent, intelligent, flexible, and knows her field as if it were the back of her hand...." She finally smiled, almost smirked. One might say she was more than comfortable, perhaps even cocky. "I'm the girl for that. You've already seen my previous designs, which are already sorely outdated. The Protectorate's is as well. Too many fleets in the galaxy are outdated, with the most advanced civilizations now. Things need to be changing. A new trend created, and new innovations made. With the right help, I can do that. If I'm to be blatantly honest, those ships were not my finest. Learned a lot the hard way." Her mood a bit more chipper, even given her recent admission.
"Lastly, one thing you won't get anywhere else is a engineer who isn't afraid to step into her own ships, even under the worst conditions. For instance, a shakedown cruise, in the middle of a live battlefield. Unlike my counterparts in my field, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty or risk my life in the process, if that's what it takes." She paused a moment thinking back to the best results that ever happened under her watch. Mistakes had been made that were beyond her control. The end result was fabulous in her eyes. Her first carrier.
"The end of the day, there is one thing I learned in the beginning and its never led me wrong. Listen to your ship, they have a heartbeat of their own. Know that rhythm well enough and even before something fails, you'll know. They'll tell you everything you need to know, if you know how their heart beats." Cara paused for a moment, probably getting too far in the metaphorical end of things, but she knew damn well it took a good ear to listen to a ship. Knew for a fact that what kept a ship in the air was love, not anything else regardless of what anyone else said. Her experiences spoke drastically otherwise.
"In fact, place me in the most high pressure situation you can think of, and even better results come out. I'm used to having it rough. I'm used to not having what I need, and having to make due on the fly. Improvising to fix what goes wrong, the second it happens rather than wait for a mess of a ship to come back to me, a failure. That is what I am good at, that is my job. Fixing the unexpected, often jury rigging until we can make it home to do the real repairs. That is where I excel. Honestly never met someone who could do it better than I."
Perhaps she was now gaining confidence in all she'd lost of late. The memories flooded back to her of the successes she had when everything was on the line, and those simple moments made her happy. No one could ever take those things away from her. No one. "I do not fail. There may be set backs but failure is not an option. It never has been and never will it be. Ask for what you want from a ship, I'll figure out how to do it. One way or another it will happen. In that you can count on me." And now it was time to get serious, her expression drastically shifting. "However, if I cannot count on you, I cannot make such promises."
