Night falls and you all sit down around the fire Boris and Sarah have made, eating your rations. Sarah seems to be a bit happier than she did on the helichopter, and Boris seems to be a big part of the reason for that. It’s not obvious if she likes him in the way he seems to like her, but she definitely finds him amusing. You find yourself musing about Sarah as you eat. Does she really have Terra’s DNA? There definitely seems to be some kind of unfinished business between them.

“So, boss,” Boris says. “Are you going to tell us what this is all about? Is this just wilderness training?”

“This is team building,” Terra says. “Easier to do it out here where there are few distractions. By the end of this, we will need to be able to trust and rely on one another for our very lives.”

You already trust Terra with your life, and Boris too, probably. As for Sarah, you don’t know. She’s a stranger. A pretty, alluring stranger with a huge chip on her shoulder. Could you come to trust her? Possibly. Could she come to trust any of you? That seems less likely. Sarah doesn’t seem the type to trust anyone for any reason.

Right now she’s smirking into her rations.

“Something funny, Sarah?” Terra asks the question with what is probably deceptive calm.

“Trust,” she snorts. “That’s for babies.”

Well, at least she’s transparent. You can trust her to be fairly obvious.

“Is it?” Terra pushes the point. “I would have thought trust is for people who bail you out of a military prison. I’m trusting you not to repeat your previous mistakes.”

“Well, you shouldn’t,” Sarah says. “I never promised you anything.”

Boris and you exchange interested looks. Terra doesn’t look surprised. She’s calm. Very calm. You shift uncomfortably, your butt prickling for some reason. You haven’t done anything wrong, but someone’s going to end up paying for Sarah’s attitude, and last time it wasn’t Sarah.

“I might trust you,” she says. “If you tell me why you have me out here with a couple of hicks.” She looks at you and Boris. “No offense.”

“You’ll know when you need to know,” Terra says. “Don’t refer to your squad mates as hicks.”

Sarah rolls her eyes. Boris looks unhappy. You’re not pleased either. Sarah thinks she’s better than you and Boris. She probably is, but that’s no reason to be a jerk.

“They’re so wet behind the ears you can taste the uterine fluid,” she says, upping the ante. “How long were they in the academy before you pulled them for this? A couple weeks?”

“Three months,” Boris interrupts, as if that makes him sound more experienced.

“This is a training unit,” Terra says.

“This is a fucking creche,” Sarah replies.

“About where you need to be,” you mutter.

“What?” Sarah turns her anger on you, her eyes narrowing. She’s quite intimidating when she wants to be. Mental images of her kicking a tree into firewood flash before your eyes as she stares you down.

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