11 Puppet and it's Puppeteer

After Kara had stormed out of her room the previous day, Lila had thrown the confrontation to the back of her mind. So when she found out her new job post was the engine room, she didn't know what to make of this command.

"Is there some kind of mistake? I'm sure I don't have clearance to work in the engine room..."

*Sigh*

" There is no mistake...You are Kara's friend, right?" The officer's question made the all puzzle's pieces coem together.

"I'm not her friend, I didn't ask for this.." Lila wanted to refute the post.

The officer's look clearly said he doesn't believe one word that was coming out of her mouth. And if there is one thing Lila knows, is that the military hates it when people receive special treatment for who they know.

Lila didn't bother to explain anymore. She should go to the person who started it all.

____

The engine room had always held an appeal to Lila. These engines were one of the most advanced pieces of technology mankind has ever developed, in a short amount of time.

When Lila first entered the room, her anger dropped five levels from seeing the engines before her, she didn't even realized Kara was sitting at a table waiting for her.

Forgetting the reason why she came to the engine room in the first place, Lila walked around dissecting and reassembling the energy core in her head.

"Amazing, isn't it...?" Kara watched Lila's fascination with ridicule. You don't want to fix the engine but look how you ignored my presence completely.

"You should be thankful, even after slapping me I still talked them into giving you clearance." Lila didn't even hear Kara walk up from behind her.

"You a week to fix the engines...I was trying for a month, but who knew the Commander would..."

Hearing Kara's words Lila broke out laughing, stopping her monologue.

Irked by Lila's laughing, Kara decided to give her a wake-up call, "I suggest you stop laughing and start working on the engines...Even the crew and that irritating Pace couldn't figure out the problem, and they had a month...you only have a..."

"Week?...No, no, no...you only have a week, not me. I don't understand why can't get this through your head? Is it because you have selective memory loss? Or is it because your just a bitch that doesn't care what people are saying to you?... I said we are never going back to the way thing were-"

*SLAP*

Lila felt pain on her lip, and blood coat her mouth.

"Are you crazy!?"

"No. I'm just returning to you what you gave me. Did you really think I don't have the abilities to make you my puppet, Lila? Oh! Or should I call you Ms. Joy?"

Lila's face scrunched up as she wondered where Kara was going with this...

"I suspicious of how someone like you was able to get a ticket? So, I had someone look you up... You took Ms. Joy's spot, your name doesn't appear anywhere on the roster only on the room registry. Do you know what they do to people who steal other people's chance of survival?... Lila, they consider it murder! Oh Lila, I know you wanted a seat badly, but I never thought you would kill your own forester mother..." Kara shook her head in pity.

"You have no idea what you are talking about! Ms. Joy gave me her ticket, I didn't steal anything!" Lila felt her chest tighting at Kara's twisted words.

"Ooooh, is that how it went? Well, let's just call Ms. Joy, and ask her...oh! that's right we can't, can we Lila?" Kara's sad face couldn't hide the gloating in her voice when she saw Lila's face crumble with realization.

"I'll go talk to the Commander myself, and explain the situation..." She was clenching at straws, and they both knew it.

"Sure, sure go ahead...well, that is if you are even able to meet him. Tell me, how do you think that will go, will he trust your words?"

Leaving the question hanging between them, Kara turned away from Lila and walked back to the table. Picking up her paperwork, Kara made her way to the door.

"You have one week, Lila." And she closed the door behind her.

_____

Five Days Later.

At the core's panel Lila sat working, she had already grasped the problem with the engines and was working on fixing them.

An electromagnetic pulse ran through the core in the asteroid field, short-circuiting the energy core. The reason why the crew wasn't able to pick up on the problem is partly due to all the circuit breakers being on one board.

Lila didn't really need the full week, after identifying the problem she could have passed the work off to the crew, but she knew once she did that all the credit would go to Kara.

Plus, Kara would continue to control under the threat of telling the Commander about Ms. Joy's ticket. She needed to find a way to cut the strings controlling her from Kara's hands.

"The saying is true, no matter what 'roaches will survive us all' " Lila thought as Kara walked in through the door.

"Have you found the answer yet? I would like to get the Commander off my back already."

Standing at the table, Kara looked at the paperwork scattered about. A bunch of formulas and equations, which made absolutely no sense her, were written on the sheets.

"Hmm?...yes." In all honesty, Lila just doodled a couple of formulas on paper, to cover up the real work she was doing.

"Great!..." Kara gathered the sheets of papers on the table.

"I'll give this to him to hold him over...keeping working." She left as fast as she came.

Lila blew out a sigh of relief when Kara left with just the sheets of papers. Usually, she'll stay all day to make it seem like she's working.

Today, Lila was determined to finish the last of her plan.

____

A piece of paper flutter to the floor, Thomas watched as Kara left out of the room. She had came in to give him an update on her work, but she left him more confused and irritated by the work she showed him.

"Sir, is something wrong with Kara's work?"

Secretary Jun picked the piece of paper from the floor and skimmed it with his own eyes.

"Yes...this is "work" just a bunch of useless formulas that have nothing to do with the engines...it's not even her handwriting." The Commander sweeped the paperwork off his desk.