We went up to her cabin on deck zero three. I had trouble walking a straight line. When the hatch opened, we walked into a large living room with a pink faux fur couch and two matching armchairs. It was at least four times the size of my quarters. The walls were decorated with fanciful paintings of dragons flying through space with nebulas as backdrops. Tucked against one wall was Koko’s life pod. There were two hatches into other rooms.
“It’s so pretty,” I said. “You really love pink.
“Not mine. Former gunner’s things.”
“That explains it. This wasn’t how I pictured your room.”
“You were picturing my room?” she smiled.
I smiled back. “I should go to bed.”
“Have a drink.”
“I could use some water.”
“Sure, ice?” I nodded. She went over to a cabinet that had a door that folded down into a small bar. She took a glass to the kitchenette in the corner of the room and filled it from the cooling unit water dispenser. She also retrieved a small bottle of pills.
“I’m going to put one of these in your water and give you the bottle.” The small blue pill plopped into the glass and bubbled slightly.
“What are these?” I asked, examining the bottle.
“To prevent hangovers.”
“What’s a hangover?”
“Never find out.” I did a quick query for the term and learned it had to do with a headache and feeling poorly after excessive alcohol consumption, so I happily drank down the treated water.
“Thank you.” I took a seat on the couch, and she sat next to me. I turned to her. “Doesn’t it creep you out? Being surrounded by a dead woman’s things?”
“Things are things.”
“Will you redecorate?”
“Maybe. Not my style, but it seems to be appealing to guests.”
“I would have been surprised if this were your style.”
“What’d you expect?”
“I don’t know. Like a gym. You’re so fit. I picture you lifting weights for fun. Maybe some mirrors and a big view screen.”
“I do enjoy working out. Ship’s got a fitness center I plan to go to all the time. Doesn’t mean I wanna’ live where I exercise.”
“That makes sense. I’ve never really thought about decorating. I try not to spend a mark unnecessarily. My only experience with interior design is what I see other people have in videos. My place was just tiny and functional.”
“I would’ve enjoyed spending some time there.”
“It was terrible. I don’t think it is what you would want.”
“Bare, industrial? Nothing on the walls? My style.”
“Yes, but probably worse than you are imagining.”
“With you there on the bed, it sounds perfect.”
I smiled. “We should switch rooms. Mine’s more your style than this.”
“You can stay here any night you’d like,” Koko said, smiling.
“Thank you, but I’ll be fine in my own bed if I can make it there.”
“Rack.”
“Pardon?”
“Bed’s called a rack on a ship.”
“Why does everything have to have a special name? Why can’t a door be a door?”
“Culture. Separates us spacefarers from landlubbers. Terms are traditional in subcultures and change from the main language over time.”
“I just looked up the word origin and it says it’s a small door, but that hatch leading into the main passageway in front of me is just a normal sized door.”
Used to be a door was what you walked through, and a hatch was what you climbed through. Probably they were small on old ocean ships. Then spaceships had zero G, so everything became a hatch; no walking. Now we have gravity on ships, but we still say hatch because that’s a spacefarers’ term. Say it wrong and we know you don’t belong.”
“I’ll have to find a good terminology list to store on my CCP.”
“Better to learn it for real, but good to have for now.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Okay, I should go back to my quarters. Maybe I’ll see you in the fitness center before our shifts. I have to go there. I’m so out of shape. That walk around the ring nearly killed me. I cheated and used the suit thrusters.”
“You look good to me.”
I held out my arm bent at the elbow to make a muscle but didn’t have one the show. “I’m flabby skinny. Most of my life was incredibly sedentary.”
“Happy to train you if you want.”
“I would. I never saw anyone with muscles like you on Bedford, regardless of gender. Maybe because of the suppressants.”
“Happy to get you away from that place. Could be happier though,” she said leaning towards me slightly. I let out a little laugh. She was incorrigible but I didn’t mind a little flirtation.
“Good night,” I said and tried to get up from the couch, but I sat right back down. “I’ll go in a few more minutes. I closed my eyes to rest for the walk.
“Take your time.”
“Koko, why do you have your life pod in here? Shouldn’t it be on the interceptor where you’d be in the most danger?”
“Interceptors have life pods. Plenty of life pods I can get to when I’m awake on the ship too. Sleeping here in my quarters is the place I’m furthest from salvation.”
“Do you think the mystic was real?”
“Yes. Good reputation.”
“Then can you change things?”
“Don’t know. Have to try. Prediction came before I started keeping the life pods close. Now I’m always aware of my proximity to one. Different future now.”
“But the mystic would have known that once the prognostication was given to you it would influence your actions as it has.”
“Maybe. Don’t know much about how magic works. Just know it’s real.”
“There were no magic users on Bedford. What Dawningsun did to Pippin freaked me out a little.” The end of my sentence came out in a mumble. I was so tired.
“Don’t mention Lee’s magic. Bad things happen. Was just an anomaly with the artificial gravity. Nothing more.”
“Mmm.”
“Good night, Jayden,” was the last thing I heard before falling asleep.
I regained consciousness very slowly, my eyes opening to darkness. My CCP detected access to the controls of the room I was in, so I instructed the room’s lights to turn on. I was still in my ship suit in the pink room on the pink couch. A blanket was spread over me. The hatch into the bedroom was closed. I felt groggy and still sleepy. Only about four hours had passed so I headed out through the main hatch and back to my room where I made myself ready for bed. For some time, I lay there downloading and reviewing information regarding dragoning ships to my CCP so it would be available when access to the ship’s database was cut off. I also tried to memorize as much as I could organically until I returned to sleep.
When I woke up again it was sixteen o’clock ship’s time, or rather, sixteen hundred hours—four hours before I had to report to engineering. Koko had left me a message that she went to the gym and to let her know when I woke up so we could meet up for breakfast. Koko had said with shift work, the first meal after you woke up was breakfast no matter what you ate or when you ate it. I dressed in shorts and a halter top with the intention of working out after I ate then messaged her that I was on my way to the crew’s mess.
Cookie was serving sausages dripping in grease, thick bread slathered in butter and something called chipped corn beef along with fresh fruits including oranges and kiwi. It was another heavenly meal.
Koko joined me soon after I took my seat alone at a table. I didn’t know the other three people there yet and I just wasn’t the kind of person to walk up to strangers and introduce myself.
“I guess the couch wasn’t that comfortable. I saw you were gone by the time I woke up.”
“What?”
“Would have let you sleep in the bed with me last night, but the snoring was off the meter, so I left you where you fell asleep. Could hear you through the partition with the hatch closed.”
“Really? I’ve always lived alone. I didn’t even know I snored.”
“Tell the doctor.”
“That bad?”
“Yes. Maybe you woke yourself up.”
“Does this ship have a doctor?”
“Only an automated diagnostic and treatment station.”
We finished our breakfast, then went to the gym where she introduced me to some basic strengthening exercises.
“Stronger than I expected,” Koko commented as I did some dumbbell curls.
“Bedford does have above standard gravity.” The conversation ended as we both received a communication at the same time via the ship’s network. “General assembly? I guess we’ll finally get to meet the captain.”
“Strange we haven’t already.”
“Should we change first?”
“Immediately means immediately.” We both left the fitness center for the main cargo bay where all hands were to assemble for an address from the captain.
When Koko and I arrived in the main cargo bay, most of the crew had already gathered. The hold was massive with stacks of crates filling ninety percent of the space but still leaving an empty area in the center for the thirty plus crew to come together. Most were human, or at least passed for human, but hobgoblins, ogres, orcs, and gnomes, were all represented. Dawningsun was the only fairy I noticed. We joined her and the other three from Koko’s old ship and I saw and waved to Shaw, Knap, and York though they just responded with confused looking nods.
“Think this is to welcome us aboard?” Pippin posited.
“New crew doesn’t warrant an all hands address and they already messaged everyone about our joining the crew,” Simmons said.
Their conversation continued with small talk about their experiences on the new ship compared to the old. I drifted away having no input to the discussion and began to people watch, taking in the unfamiliar members of the crew.
Cookie came up to stand beside me. “Big news to gather the whole crew like this.”
“Oh?”
“I think the last time was when the captain was first introduced.” She took a drink from a small flask. “I haven’t seen the captain since she came back on board.”
“What about meals?”
“I leave food in the Captain’s mess and come back later to find it gone, but she’s stayed within her suite. Last request was real strange too.”
“Strange how?”
“Large pots of vinegar-soaked soy protein. I don’t know what she’s doing with them.”
“Maybe for the Galagots.”
“What?” Cookie asked with a surprised tone. A few stragglers arrived. I saw Second Mate Tubbs.
“My Xenozoology studies included alien sentient species. I remember them having a love for Terran soybeans and vinegar. They’re obsessed with the stuff.”
“I thought I saw something russet-colored hurrying out of the room earlier when I went to retrieve the pots.”
“A Galagot ship docked with us shortly before departure.”
“That’s something I should have been told. Here I am cooking for aliens and not a word. Waste of some good bourbon. No complaints though and no leftovers.” She smiled, satisfied that her cooking seemed to be appreciated. “I wonder what captain’s hiding?”
“Galagots apparently,” I said.
“Yes, but why? We’ve never had aliens on board before.”
“Maybe she’s about to tell us. That’s Captain, Baha, right?” A woman entered the cargo bay and stepped up onto a meter tall crate. She was very beautiful but had that sameness of appearance indicative of extensive aesthetic procedures. I noticed that her ship-suit had four blue rings around the cuffs. Right behind her was Chief Mate Starr, who had three. I remembered that Second Mate Tubbs had two. Before Cookie could reply, the woman began to speak. Third Mate Flax was nowhere to be seen.
