Things were good. Viviana set her beer aside. She had enough of a buzz going to feel loose, but not enough to keep her from operating the equipment. Head bouncing to the rhythm, she kept an eye on the process adjusting the stage lights to match the music, while manually adjusting the mini-spots to track the rotating solos and tweaking the mixing board.

Good music, free beer, and nobody shooting at her. "This is the life," she thinks to herself. After a tour cracking security systems with a combined Naval/Marine strike, it was a well-deserved break. Sure, those missions were a kick and a half, but it was not good for long-term survival plans. For now, it was eight hours a day dirtside studying Sword World Military computers with nights and weekends off.

She grins, resets the mini-spots and admits the truth to herself. After two weeks, she was bored. She heard some base Spacers with more musical talent than equipment savvy practicing. The state of their fourth hand gear was actually painful to her. She offered to fix out of pity. A month later and she was an integral part of the band, not only keeping their equipment working, but improving their sound and recording capabilities as well.