Marissa had been able to fly Tequila Sunrise with no problems whatsoever. Their relationship may have seemed a bit rocky but, with the right controls set up for steering, and a mutual desire to live until the next day, the Ray obliged each roll of the stick and responded appropriately to each press of a button. To Marissa, it was no different to flying any other kind of single-person space pod, and her chosen steering arrangement made it all feel much more comfortable, even if others would look down on her controls as being primitive or clunky. It allowed her to feel in control, as she intentionally took her Ray a little lower than the rest, flying closer to the ground and testing herself as much as she was testing Teqi by flying at this altitude. Despite being one of the first to get truly airborne, Marissa had lingered at the back of the group where she would have more space and more freedom, so whilst she assumed the captain had seen what she was doing, no-one else had attempted to berate her for it. Perhaps the old man approved of people that actually tested themselves? Marissa brought Teqi in slowly and looked for a place to park it.
Keen to show off her skills, she immediately found a spot between two Rays that was only just large enough to park in. On one side was a neon green Ray, whilst a shimmering dark blue Ray stood to the right. "This will do just fine," said Marissa as she brought Teqi to a stop, hovering above the spot. "We can just lower ourselves into place, easy." She smirked at the thought of how much it might annoy the captain (and his Ray, specifically) to see her and Teqi park in the most difficult spot, just to show what they could do. Unfortunately, her smile was wiped from her face by an irritated hum from Teqi. "Look, there's plenty of space here," scolded Marissa as she leaned to the side and peered out of the cockpit. "You're in the perfect position, so we can just go down slow," she scoffed, "There's no need to be such a baby."
Teqi responded with another irritated hum, much louder this time, before dipping slightly to the right and shining a small light on the dark blue craft. "What about it?" asked Marissa, letting her irritation come through instead. One of the display panels pulsed brightly, attracting Marissa's attention to it as it displayed a schematic of the dark blue Ray. The redhead studied it for a moment, before catching sight of the pilot's name.
"Yukiko?" she said aloud, as her Ray beeped in response. "Oh, she's the one that's here by accident right? Nervy little kid?" Teqi gave an affirmative beep, with an undertone of annoyance. It was strange how the craft could make such digital noises sound so emotional. "Oh!" exclaimed Marissa, slapping her thigh. "I get it, I get it. She'll never be able to get out of such a tight spot. Yeah, yeah, fine, we'll park somewhere else." Teqi beeped happily as Marissa rolled the stick to the left and then brought her down on the other side of Axor. The pilot hopped out of the craft as soon as the cockpit roof came up and then spun on her heels to point at the Ray. "Stay out of trouble, got it?"
Teqi give a dissatisfied hum in response as Marissa ran to catch up to the rest of the group, finding none other than Yukiko loitering at the back. The girl really did look like a nervous wreck, and Marissa had no intention of picking up a little sister so she said nothing and just walked behind her. They passed by Oswin Juenva Jones, a woman known to any native of Paipas, but not someone that Marissa had any particular interest in. She was a decorated female Ray pilot, and the poster child for the Ray Program when it had been at its peak, but Marissa just didn't care for her. Was she really that talented, or was she just marketable? There hadn't been that many female Ray pilots that had reached the top tier, so Jones had been the favourite for almost any advertising campaign, along with a few lousy movies, too. In most ways, Marissa found her annoying, but the last thing she wanted to do was get caught up in a conversation with her, and, as she was at the back of the queue, she might well end up having to do just that. Rather than risk giving her Paipan accent away, Marissa nodded and grunted as she shook hands with Jones and quickly distanced herself from the woman, moving towards the front of the group as Max led them inside.
It was a factory that had been shut down mid-production. Marissa couldn't find anything else to say about it. She had stayed in abandoned factories and warehouses before, this wasn't so different to any of those, and she certainly didn't react to the half-built Rays like some of her colleagues did. They were shells, with no AI cores, and without the AI, they were just hunks of machinery. It was no different to a refrigerator, or a lawnmower as far as Marissa was concerned. She made a note of where the key rooms were, although it was almost impossible to get lost in the abandoned factory, as most of the non-essential lights were no longer working. She did wonder what lay down some of the darkened corridors, but overhead strip lights led to either the bathroom, the kitchen or the sleeping quarters and that was enough for her.
After Teqi's earlier attack, Marissa's first port of call was the showers. She wasted little time in stripping off and hopping under the first working shower head she could find, letting the hot water run over her naked body without giving a damn as to who else might walk in. After all, she was a confident twenty-fourth century woman; she wasn't ashamed of her body and she wasn't even bothered by the idea of one of the guys trying to sneak a peek. She could easily handle herself if a guy tried to get fresh with her, but she wasn't so repressed as to insist on being wrapped up at all times, or refusing to shower unless she could be alone. This sort of thing certainly wouldn't have happened on Paipas, but that was part of the reason why she left the religious dinosaurs behind and set off to live her own life among the stars.
