New Faces

A Thursday Prompt story
© 2018 by Walter Reimer


Prompt: extension



Three days later Meredith was back on Magus Station, waiting for the shuttle that was assigned for transport crews. There was a constant flow of traffic back and forth between the station and the cargo ships, ‘parked’ in synchronous orbits. The mare, dressed in a simple green jumpsuit with the Transcosm insignia on her left shoulder and with her belongings in a backpack, was looking up at the status board when her ears flicked at the sound of someone coming up behind her.

“Hi! You with us then?” She half-turned to see a feline mel with a broad face and curiously folded ears walking up to her. A taller reptile with a dark gray hide and a blunt, squarish muzzle was the one who spoke. “You headed up to the Kiss Me?” the monitor asked.

She nodded and extended a paw. “Meredith d’Estcourt. Got hired a few days ago.”

The feline took her paw and shook it. “I’m Vinzen Garry. I hired on as helm for the night shift.”

“Fujiwara Castro,” the Komodo monitor said, shaking the mare’s paw. “Call me Fuji. Cargo handler.”

“Pleased to meet both of you. I’m helm for the mid-shift,” and when she said that Garry smiled widely. “What?”

“I’m on the night shift,” the Scottish Fold said, “I’ll be relieving you, and it’s my choice.” He wagged a finger at her. “No sneaky trying to get the Mighty Kwin to change the assignments.”

Meredith blinked. “’Mighty Kwin?’”

Fuji rolled his eyes. “It’s a song on his home world. Wouldn’t stop singing it the whole trip up here, and the Captain almost didn’t hire him.”

“Mikhal just frowned at me,” Garry said. “I think he’s been to Nha Moi once in his lifetime.” As she cocked an ear quizzically he said, “Nha Moi’s my homeworld, one of the earliest colonies. We preserve a lot of the old songs and stories there. Where are you from?”

“Here,” Meredith replied, pointing out the window at where This Far seemed to loom over them.

“Ah,” Fuji said. “Looked like a nice place. I only passed through on my way up into that mountain range to the east.”

The palomino asked, “The Kraftsberg? Why up there?”

“I’m Gaiaist,” the reptile replied. “The faith tells us that all living worlds deserve veneration, so I go to meditate and pray.” Behind him, Garry was rolling his eyes.

“That’s nice,” Meredith said diplomatically. “I’m Church of Deus myself.” Her ears perked as a chime came over the public address system and she looked at the status board. “There’s our shuttle,” and the trio headed for the departure lock as the craft approached the station.

The shuttle’s copilot checked their ID against his padd. “All three of you headed to PT-73?” the bear asked, and after they nodded he ran a meaty finger across the padd’s surface. “That’ll be all of you then, and they’re loading cargo now. All paws on deck, you know? Oh, and that reminds me,” he said as the airlock sealed behind him and they took seats, “fair warning.”

“What about?” Meredith asked.

The bear chuckled. “The artigrav ain’t working.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Garry said as Meredith opened her bag to get a set of hair ties for her mane and tail.

At the least, the flight was uneventful, even boring, and after an hour the Kiss Me in the Dark came into view.

“Um – “ Garry ventured.

“It looks like – “ Fuji started to say, glancing at Meredith, who was snickering.

A lot of the current generations of cargo transports were spherical, or at least oblate, in order to maximize the volume in their holds. Their ship, being older, was a cylinder that drew to a blunt point. From her history classes the palomino knew that the early chemically-powered rockets had been phallic as well. Hatches stood open along its sides and lighters were docked up against it as their cargoes were loaded.

The bear came aft from the cockpit. “The pilot’s going to shut down our artigrav before docking. Strap in and if you think you’re going to puke, use the bags, for Deus’ sake. I hate cleaning vomit out of this thing.” He went back into the command cabin as the three passengers returned to their seats.

To his credit, the pilot brought the gravity down to zero gradually before moving in to dock with the Kiss Me, so there wasn’t any nausea. As soon as the copilot opened the hatch Meredith popped the buckle on her restraints and drifted up out of her seat with just a light tap of her hooves against the deck. Fuji moved a bit faster, ducking his head and taking a gentle impact against the ceiling on his left shoulder before using the backs of the seats as pawholds. Garry was taking as much time as Meredith, which made her guess that the Scottish Fold had been in the Navy sometime in his life.

Mikhal Kwinton was gripping a pawhold as Meredith came up to the hatchway. “Good, you’re here. All of you get your gear stowed. I need d’Estcourt forward, helping with that fucking artigrav; you and you,” he growled to Vinzen and Castro, “get aft and help the others get us loaded. We leave for Kormorant tonight.”

“Right, Boss,” Fuji said, and he and the feline headed down the corridor to the crew quarters. Meredith followed, finding her name already on the door to her cabin, printed on an adhesive label.

Surprisingly, the cabin was a bit roomy, and all hers. There was no time to explore, so she let her bag drift into the room and closed the door before moving purposefully to the bridge.

The bridge had four seats, three facing a bank of consoles and the fourth having only repeater screens. It had the same generally lived-in look as the rest of the ship, and there was a soft chatter of voices in the background as cargo was loaded and the fault in the artigrav was solved.

“ – I tell you, I just checked that damned waveguide!” a young rabbit doe said irritably into her headset as Meredith entered. “How could it be out of alignment now?” She was a bit stocky, her fur an interesting dark bluish-gray shade. “Who’re you?”

The palomino mare introduced herself. “Are you sure that the generators are in phase with each other?” Gravitic generators had to be carefully aligned and their frequencies matched, or the artificial gravity field might develop flaws or collapse entirely.

“The others are checking all of the generators right now.” The rabbit brushed her ears back and glanced at the feline femme gazing at the monitors from her helm seat. “I’m Ginny Edwards. You must be Meredith. I’m on your shift, assistant engineer, and that’s – “

“Karla Parker,” the feline in the chair growled. “Day shift helm.” She looked over her shoulder at the mare. “I wanted your shift, but Kwinton had other ideas.”

“What’s wrong about the day shift?” Meredith asked.

Parker shook her head and her expression fell slightly. “Day shift helm’s the First Officer. Meaning I have to do most of the paperwork.” She returned to watching the monitors. “I hate paperwork,” she muttered, then abruptly leaned forward and stabbed a button on the console as if it was a feral mouse and began speaking into her own headset. “Parker, go ahead . . . what do you expect? This heap’s as old as you are! . . . Yes . . . Yes . . . Yes . . . Seven and three-quarters . . . Yes . . . Ye-what? Okay, got it.” She touched another button. “Everyone, this is the bridge. Artigrav’s fixed, but they’ll be stepping it up in ten-percent increments, so be ready for it.” She sat back and huffed a sigh, flicking her tail at the same time Meredith felt a feather-light downward tug on her own tail.

Ginny smiled and started closing panels, glancing up only momentarily as Kwinton sailed in through the open doorway. The skunk stuck out a paw, planted it on the back of his seat, and made a complicated series of twists that ended with his rear end firmly planted in the chair. “Report,” he growled, giving Meredith a nod.

“One of the aft gravitrons was out of phase, by seven point seven-five Angstroms,” Parker said. “They’ve got it fixed, and they’re raising the gravity – “

“One-tenth at a time. Good job,” the skunk said. “As soon as we get full gravity back and the cargo secured, we’ll all meet in the dining room.”