Avel looked at the bottles for a moment and considered her options. Laura was technically right about the rank thing. So she decided to obey the orders she had been given.
Reaching out she grabbed both bottles, popped the lid off of one and in roughly ten seconds, downed the first one in a single swing. After a few seconds of gasping for air, she downed the other bottle in twenty seconds before setting them down on a nearby table and gasping for air.
"Alright, I get it. I'll stop bothering people with my problems. I have to go now."
With that she headed off to the quartermaster.
---
Before Avel could get down to the quatermaster's office, a junker drone would scurry up to her, holding its body high up off the floor so that it would be easily noticed.
"AVEL!" It shouted, "AVEL! AVVEEEEEL!...
Wazu would like to see you when you have a moment. He is currently on the bridge."
Avel turned around with a raised eyebrow. "Is it urgent? Because unless it involves a medal or a promotion, which I highly doubt, tell him I'm not in a talkative mood right now. I'm also busy with a couple other things at the moment."
"It has recently become urgent yes," the drone replied, "Will you please follow me?"
"Alright then." She sighed. "Please lead the way."
The drone would guide Avel back up to the bridge where Wazu was finishing a teleconference. The image of an older looking nepleslian man fading away shortly after Avel had arrived in the room.
"Have a seat," Wazu offered, leaning back in his as he waited on Avel to move. He did not seem to pleased with the man on the other end of the transmission but there was little anyone could do about that now.
Grabbing a nearby chair, Avel sat down and began speaking.
"Let me guess. I'm not going to be promoted out of my P4C rank and you wish to scold me on my performance in the last mission?"
"Or are you simply going to have me thrown out the airlock and be done with it?"
In a previous life Avel most likely would have been scared but now she simply wanted her sad career in the marines to end. In any way, shape or form.
"The other way around," Wazu replied. "You did well on Malaise, your quick and consistent action was what let Matteo and I make it out of that office. You can be a competent soldier but that is not what is holding you back."
He would press a few buttons on the side of his chair, bringing up a set of transcripts of her conversations.
"You keep going on about how you feel worthless and I am becoming worried that your anger is becoming a danger to the crew.
In another unit you might have been transferred so they would not have to deal with you, but you aren't so lucky here. We are going to help you control your anger and make you into a better soldier rather than passing the job onto someone else.
So, first off: Is there a particular reason for why you act the way you do?"
"If I do anything, it won't be directed at any of the crew members." Avel replied calmly. "As for your question..."
"I know what it is like to be hot blooded and quick to anger." Wazu replied, "But if you want to improve yourself you are going to need to learn how to take better care of your emotions. From what I understand something about a datapad got you upset this time. The marines are trying to work with you, but you are intentionally making it hard for them.
I assume you do not want to be a private forever?"
"No. No I don't. But now I'm beginning to wonder if I'll just lead a unit to their own demise if I ever get promoted. Now that I think about it, I don't even know why I signed up for the Marines."
"Because so far, nothing good has come from it. Not for me or this unit."
Avel rubber her forehead. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing anymore."
"I take it this is because of your P4C status? Is it that you feel like you are not going anywhere?
For that matter, what do you want to do with your life?" Wazu asked.
"It's pretty obvious that I've wasted it. It really is over as far as I'm concerned. There's just one thing I need to find out and I already know it's going to be bad.
After that, I don't see any reason why you should care about what happens to me afterwards. My existence didn't exactly mean much to anybody and I know I won't be missed.
I'm just another name on paper to you people."
"This is the kind of thing I am talking about. I am reaching out to you and you are complaining about no one caring about you. Have we done something specific to make you feel unwanted here?" Wazu asked.
"I would have to tell you my entire life story, including the parts that are now missing, for you to get an idea of why I don't expect anything good to happen.
I don't know if I can really do that. But I can stop complaining since it is kind of annoying to the other marines."
"That would treat the symptoms, but not the problem." Wazu replied, standing up from his chair so he could walk over to Avel's side of the table. "Harm would say that you do not get points for what has happened to you, only for what you did. Tell me your life's story but I can tell you this now. If you keep letting that dominate how you think you will not be able to improve yourself."
"I will, just as soon as I find out this one last thing." Avel replied slowly, not entirely sure about her response. "So what now?"
"Now we talk about why you are being held back." Wazu said, "You worked with Gian and I on helping develop the marine's self defense training, you are good in a gunfight, and the laytex grenade you assisted with is in use in a few places as a riot control device.
Normally this would be enough to get you promoted up to running your own squad but you keep pushing people away and threatening to kill yourself. Thinking that people do not care about you has become a self-fufilling prophesy. You will not be able to do anything more than what you are doing now unless you can get that under control."
"So this is all my own damn fault after all." Avel replied with a less than optimistic expression.
"What you should be taking away from this is that you have the capacity to do better." Wazu said, "I am hoping the up coming shore leave will help you with that. Have a drink with the other marines or come roll with me sometime. Try to get to know us instead of assuming we do not care."
"I normally just exercise and spend my free time at the shooting range. Talking to people and making friends is not one of my strong points." Avel replied. "But it hasn't exactly made me into a better fighter than the others so maybe I've been doing something wrong."
"I do not need fighters." Wazu said matter of factly, "I can always build more of those if need be. What I need are people. Combat is only part of what we do here and if that was all I thought you were good for I would not keep you around and I want to keep you around."
"I never really saw myself as a person before..." Avel started. "I was meant to be something else and something I failed to be at that. Maybe they were right after all."
"You need to stop seeing yourself as a failure and I feel like I am having a hard time making you see things that way. Right now you need to make friends and build relationships. Do not concern yourself with your combat duties again just yet."
"You'll see why when I tell you my story. But in the meantime I'll give your suggestions a try." Avel said nervously, then added in a stern tone. "For as long as you don't recommend Harm!"
Wazu chuckled, "She might do you some good... but I will not force you down that road."
"You could let me use her for target practice. That would provide me with a resonable challenge at the shooting range."
"... That was supposed to be a joke." Avel replied after a moment of silence. "But it does give me an idea how to field test the latex grenade later on."
"Yeah, I had a few ideas for that too. Let me know if you want to help test it out." Wazu said in all seriousness, "Now, are you going to be alright?"
"For now." Avel sighed.
“We will talk again soon. In the mean time you need to go get kitted out for shore leave.” Wazu said, leaving Avel to find her way back to the quartermaster’s office.
