Virginia checked her white uniform with the red stripes on the sleeves and the red sash across her chest in the mirror one last time before leaving her moored gunship. She buttoned up her high collar and put on a pair of black gloves that were the same shade as her belt and polished boots. She pulled her long, blonde hair into a ponytail over her right shoulder and walked through the airlock from the gunship Salem directly aboard the Ames Research Station's main deck, and strode unerringly through the well-maintained corridors of the station towards the main bar - and she wasn't alone, followed by about a dozen men and women, selected volunteers from her crew for extended medical training.

As soon as she reached the bar, she told her men to have a drink while she would have a word with Doctor John Holiday first. As her crew gathered around the bar for a drink, Virginia chose one of the more distant tables near the large station window, with a nice view of the endless, black clouds of Kepler.
She adjusted her uniform and sat down in a comfortable looking chair, and while she waited for John Holiday, she had the robotic attendant bring her an ashtray and a glass of sweet baileys on the rocks. She placed her metal cigarette case and lighter next to the ashtray and curled her blueish gaze into the endlessly deep clouds outside the station windows.

Virginia turned her gaze from the dark clouds of Kepler to John Holiday and nodded at his greeting, "Greetings, Doc.". She reached for her glass with her left hand and took a light sip of her sweet alcoholic liquor, testing its taste for a moment before she decided to reply, "Concerns? People like me always have some concerns.", she smiled slightly and opened her cigarette case, "Whether it's adjusting to a new life and new... colors, worrying about my ship, command issues with my people, or just worrying about the future itself.". Reaching for one of the vanilla flavored cigarettes, she lit it and took a long drag from it before blowing a puff of smoke away from Holiday's direction, "Nice suit, by the way, reminds me my days in a bar when I was serving similarly dressed patrons back on Houston.".

She flicked the ash from her cigarette into the ashtray and shook her head, "Oh yes, I'd like to discuss something.", she took another drag from her cigarette and blew a puff of smoke through her nose, "I'd need some antidepression meds.".

During the conversation, she kept her blue gaze back on Holiday's face, watching his reactions carefully. It was a sort of habit of hers to try to learn more about people than just from mere words. It almost gave away an impression that she could see something what others do not and was looking for any tiny, almost insignificant details.

Virginia flicked another ash from her cigarette into the ashtray, and smiled slightly, "This isn't a Liberty Insurgency uniform, this one is from the Liberty Free Republic... it allowed me to...", she paused for a moment and took a drag from her cigarette as she searched for the right words, "Allow me to feel normal despite everything that has changed for me? Somehow... I can't imagine being in command of a ship and other people without being in a uniform.".
But that was only part of the truth - the main part was the fact that a person like Virginia just could not shake all the habits of the past. Whenever she wore a military uniform, and especially an officer's uniform, she acted differently than when she wore civilian ones. Something in her just made her to maintain a certain professionalism.

She took her glass in her left hand again and lightly sipped her sweet baileys, "Antidepressants aren't for me, I'm more or less fine and can do without them, however my crew is not in the best of shape." She paused for a moment and looked briefly out the dark windows of the research station, "Not all of the transports with refugees from Veracruz arrived in Pennsylvania in one piece. The authorities intercepted some them and... well, a few of my people took their own lives because of it, demoralizing the rest. Even hardened soldiers have their limits of what they can and can't tolerate."
If Virginia was in any significant way demoralized or depressed by this as well, she was very good at hiding it behind her Captain Belle visage, perhaps only her look seemed a bit downcast when she spoke aloud about the suicides of her men.

Virginia took one last drag from her aromatic cigarette and placed it in the ashtray, grinning slightly, "Yes, I know a psychologist could help them... but the thing is, they won't admit they have a problem. They're just too proud of it. It's more acceptable for them to just take the pill.", she finished, sipping baileys from her glass.

As John Holiday became concerned about her mental state, she slowly rubbed both of her black gloved hands together and shook her head slightly, "I'm fine, I'm fine.". It was the reaction of a person who does not like it when someone tries to figure out her own problems and weaknesses. It was almost an instinct, her reaction and response was almost immediate and did not allow for much thought.

Virginia had listened to what John Holiday had told her, but even as the conversation progressed he could see her withdrawing 'into herself' and preparing for a 'counter-attack'. It was evident in her pose - the way her muscles and tendons tensed, and her face as her red lips pulled into a tight line. But most of all, her blue eyes, which seemed to have hot flames, fires of anger in them, said it all.

She took a deep breath and was already preparing in her mind what she was actually going to yell about, but at the last moment she paused and just let out a deep breath. Probably a combination of the fact that they were in an important bar on an important station to her, the fact that she was dressed in uniform, or just an elemental respect for older people trying to pass their wisdom on, had finally made her prefer to keep quiet.

Instinctively, she reached into the cigarette case with her left hand for another cigarette, but as quickly as she had reached for it, she returned it to the case and closed it. It had only been a few minutes since she had finished the previous cigarette and she wanted to control her habits.
Virginia took a silent sip from her glass and just sat in her seat, probably thinking about what Doc had told her and also trying to cool down, which was probably harder for her than the actual thinking. The firestorm in her eyes was only very reluctantly calming down.

But her almost explosive reaction was not purely irrational. She had probably always been a hot-blooded choleric, and her life lessons probably had made her more short-tempered and unwilling to admit and show her own weaknesses. She was a very volatile combination of innate personality and life experience, but not in the sense of not being able to function - just difficult to work with on a more personal level.