Veni, vidi, vici

[Thunderer]

Cloaking devices, high-tech powercores, state-of-the-art drinking dens and a refined taste for strong beverages. The impression which Hammond made on Hall was of a teenage boy in the body of a man with no parents to control him, and a variety of destructive gadgets to play with. She was used to pleasing such by feeding their male vanity when she was still a prostitute, but what she had always truly been, or at least wanted to be, was a bookworm, one interested in the shadowy, but all so important, details, and patient long-term investments, of political games. She made it an art to keep her thoughts about other people for herself, unless stating them would bring an advantage, and the only thing that would visibly offend her was telling her that politics and war were not for women. She decided that she would base her relations with Hammond on the trait they seemed to have in common, and that was pragmatism. Purely business, then.

She directed a disappointingly suspicious look at the glass of whisky, certainly not as if she suspected poison, but more as if protesting with the words "What!? Drink on duty!?". But she did take a sip, for courteousness' sake, the strength of the drink apparently having no effect to her, as she got used to alcohol during her days of involuntary debauchery. And this, this little detail, was what described her whole character, and by her conscious intention: despite being a person of much ambition and nearly as much (self-perceived) strength, she still managed to be one of restraint and professionalism as well.

"Some good stuff, Sir. It will be my pleasure to finish the whole glass, and even ask for more -- after we are done discussing. I suppose you've served the Core for a long time, no? Did you know a certain Armed Forces admiral called George? He had the same surname as I."

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