Assimilation (Unna to Demaya)

[Akirapryde]

Demaya gave a slight smile at the admission. "Look, the nest advice I can give is first try to open up some. Don't be afraid to smile. You have a lovely smile and a wonderful personality. I have seen it come out when you let your guard down."

She nodded as she held up her hand, "I know, guilty as charged on that also. But I have learned to let it slip a bit. You have to, if you don't want to come across as flaky or as a phony."

"These guys and gals will eat you up and spit you out if they don't feel that they can trust you. That is the source of their feelings with you and to a lesser degree, Auro. I don't think the vast majority of them truly feel that they can trust you two."

She moved forward a bit, "no self help book" she said very softly with a smile, "will ever be able to help you to over come years of self inflicted isolation. Only you can do that."

She nodded pulling back a bit, "once you learn to start to open up, don't be afraid to be wrong. You have to realize that you don't know everything. Time and experience is a great teacher. Before I came to this unit, I had studied all the great books of warfare. I could tell you each battle the Republic fought. The losses, and deciding factors for victory or defeat."

"But I didn't learn from those books that each battle is different and has to be fought differently." She shrugged her shoulders, "it was a learning curve for me. But you asked me how I handed those who left me for dead. It wasn't easy and trust me, it wasn't easy for them either. But Master Chun, who knew the truth, didn't care. It was the reason why he choose their company for me to command."

She drew in a deep breath, "rather you like them or not, you will have a mission to do. Success of that mission and also life or death depends on that bond you create between yourself and them. Within hours of being put in command of Bravo Company, we were on mission already. Hell I didn't even have time to come to terms with the situation myself."

"I remember the look on their faces when I stepped on to the shuttle. Most of them thought they had seen a ghost. Gone was my Republic armor and blaster rifle. I wore my Jedi Robes and Lightsaber. When the shuttle departed, I stood their at the rear of the cargo hatch with the only thought in my mind was that they wouldn't smell the vomit from when I threw up just an hour before. I told them what happened on Vega was behind us. What was going to happen on Risa Prime was ahead of us."

Her smile grew, "that and I placed an explosive device next to the internal fuel tank and warned them that if I wasn't on the shuttle when it attempted to enter hyperspace again, it would blow up." She laughed a bit, "I was sure that they understood the humor of the joke."