Manuel

“Oh. Darrow. I remembered. No more Truffle Pig. She hates it. Says it’s demeaning to her other contributions and athletic stature.”

“Uh-huh. Well. She doesn’t get to choose her own callsign.”

“Of course not. I was thinking Strawberry Lass. No? Crow Whisperer? Red Rabbit?”

“We’ll figure it out later.” I have a thought. “What do they call baby eagles?”

He acts like he’s just seen a puppy. “Eaglet. Oh gods. She’ll die.”
― Pierce Brown, Light Bringer

“Battered and bloody, we join Cassius, Lysander, and Sevro before the door leading out of the Sovereign's inner sanctum as Cassius types in the Olympic code to open the doors. He pauses to sniff the air. 'What's that smell?'
'Smells like a sewer,' I say.
Sevro stares intensely at the razors he's taken from Aja, including the one belonging to Lorn. 'I think it smells like victory.'
'Did you shit your pants?' Cassius squints at him. 'You did.'
'Sevro...' Mustang says.
'It's an involuntary muscle reaction when you're fake executed and swallow massive amounts ofhaemanthus oil,' Sevro snaps. 'You think I would do that on purpose?'
Cassius and I look at each other.
I shrug. 'Well, maybe.'
'Yeah, actually.'
He flips us the crux and makes a face, twisting his lips till it looks like he's going to explode. 'What's happening?' I ask. 'Are you... still...'
'No!”
― Pierce Brown

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”
― Pierce Brown, Dark Age

“At any rate, it was clear that our backup crew would not fly Gemini 10. So when I heard from John Young (he and Gus Grissom had just come off the Gemini 6 backup crew) that he and I were to fly 10, I was overjoyed. I would miss Ed, but I liked John. And besides, I would have flown by myself or with a kangaroo, I just wanted to fly. All that stuff about crew psychological compatibility is crap. Almost anyone can put up with almost anyone else for a clearly defined period of time in pursuit of a mutual objective important to each.”
― Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey