I took a deep breath. Today would be my first day on a Patrol Boat. I was pretty nervous. And really excited at the same time. This was it. This was what I had been waiting for.

I straightened out my uniform once more before I took my bag and left. I walked at a brisk pace, but when the docks came into my sight, I slowed down. I got even more nervous. There was no turning back now.

I sucked in another deep breath of air, before I made my way to the ship I was assigned to. The HMAS Hammersley. I saluted to the man standing in front of the ship and stated my name. "Good to have you on board, Seaman Taylor. Go ahead, you'll meet the rest of the crew later," the man who had introduced himself as Lieutenant Commander Mike Flynn, the Commanding Officer of Hammersley, said and smiled at me. I returned the smile and entered the ship. "ET," I heard the CO yell to one of the men on deck, "Show Seaman Taylor to her cabin, won't you?" "Aye, sir!" A man with curly reddish-blonde hair saluted to Commander Flynn and grinned at me, "Follow me, Ma'am." And so I did.

"You're the lucky woman on board who got a cabin all to herself since we have an odd number of females," ET told me when we reached my cabin, "Oh, I'm Josh Holiday by the way, but everyone just calls me ET, since I'm the Electronics Technician." "Ruby Taylor," I introduced myself, holding out my hand, "I'm the Weapons Electrical Engineer in-training." "Ah, so then we'll be seeing quite a lot of each other." ET winked at me, laughing. I laughed as well. Then ET left me so I could get settled in.

I didn't know what to expect yet, but I was really looking forward to my time here on Hammersley.

After I was done unpacking I searched my way to the bridge. "Ah, there she is." ET was there and grinned at me again. He introduced me to everyone on the bridge, Nav, Charge, Chefo and the XO. Then he gave me a tour of the whole ship. To finish the tour he led me on the deck. "There is one major thing you need to always remember when boarding the Hammersley," he said and I waited for him to continue, "You have to salute our mascot." ET pointed at a small figure sitting on top of the bridge. "Who is that?" I asked curiously. "Thor, the thunder god," he explained, "If you don't salute him, it will bring bad luck to this ship, and I'm sure you don't want that." I hesitated, but ET seemed somewhat serious, so I saluted to the figure. "Alright, that's the spirit." ET grinned again. Though I wasn't superstitious at all, it seemed like the best to listen to him. I was new and still trying to find my place here on Hammersley after all.

With that the tour ended and I decided to head back to my cabin to get some sleep before it was time for my assigned Guts Watch. I set an alarm just in case and then made myself comfortable. The swaying of Hammersley helped me relax. I had always loved ships, ever since I was a little girl, ever since I was born. I was the first and only one in my family to join the Navy. My parents had started their own diving business in Cairns which my brother Noah had taken over now and my other brother Joshua was studying medicine in Brisbane. I hadn't seen Josh in ages, I really missed him. At least I was with Noah until today. But now it was just me. I didn't really have a problem with being alone, but I would miss both of my brothers out at sea.

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock. I couldn't believe I had really slept that long. Well, maybe it was not that much of a surprise considering I barely slept last night because I was so nervous.

I got up and got ready for my watch. When I entered the bridge I saw an unfamiliar face. "You must be Red," the man said and I was confused, "I'm Buffer." "Um, nice to meet you, sir, I'm Ruby Taylor, the new WEE," I replied. "Yea, ET told me." Now I was even more confused. "Why did you call me Red? Sorry, sir." "That's the name you got here," Buffer told me, "And you don't have to call me 'Sir'." "Okay," I sighed. My old nickname stuck here too. It was a pretty obvious nickname considering my name was Ruby and my job was working with weapons… weapons equal blood… blood is red. Not to mention the red shimmer my dark brown got in sunlight.

"So… did I miss anything?" I asked, trying to start a conversation. "We boarded an FFV and we're towing it back to base, ET and Jaffah are still on it," Buffer told me. "Okay."

We fell silent again. But it wasn't an awkward silence. Throughout our watch Buffer and me occasionally held a little small talk, but not much.

I was glad when it was over, because I had gotten really hungry. I quickly went to the galley. It was the middle of the night so there was no one there. I grabbed something to eat and went back to my cabin.

After breakfast I was walking down a hallway. "Red!" I heard someone call and stopped to turn around. Charge was walking up to me. "Yes, sir?" "No need to be so formal." "Okay." Charge took me with him to show me all the equipment onboard and what I needed to be aware of, basically everything I needed to know on this ship, a more detailed version of ET's tour, a lot more detailed. It was a lot for me to take in. Especially when he took me to the engine room as the last part of our tour. Tomorrow I probably wouldn't remember half of what Charge had told me, but I tried to memorize as much as I possibly could in such a short time.

During our tour, Charge also told me that we had picked up a marine biologist from Bright Island. She was suffering from some kind of poisoning, or so it seemed. She needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

Just when we finished the tour there was a request for every available pair of eyes to come out on deck and post as a look-out. "What happened?" I asked as Buffer handed me a pair of binoculars. "We can't seem to locate the fishing boat," he explained. I immediately started looking for anything at the horizon.

We looked for what felt like hours, when I noticed something in the sky. "Sir! Flare" Green 90," I exclaimed. We set course to recover ET and Jaffah. There was nothing else I could do now, since I wasn't allowed on the rhib just yet, so I searched for something else to do than just wait. I found Chefo in the kitchen. "Need some help?" I asked. He looked at me and hesitated before answering, "Sure, I'm making some soup, you could give me a hand here." Now I had something to do. It wasn't much but at least something. And it wasn't long before Jaffah and ET came to the galley wrapped in blankets.

"What's this?" Jaffah asked. "Soup," Chefo answered as he gave him a cup. "I hate soup," Jaffah complained. At that Chefo threatened to drop him back where he was found. "Hey, the woman you got off Bright Island, she alright?" ET asked while I handed him a cup, "Thanks." "She didn't make it," Chefo told him. I lowered my eyes. I hadn't had any contact with that woman but I still felt bad that she had to die, and we were just about to bring her to a hospital.

And then Swain came in. He was the medic, so he must have been the one who felt the worst about it. "Hey, we heard about the woman," ET said. "Yea, well, maybe we did something wrong," he replied, "Don't know." It was more than obvious how upset he was. I wished there was something I could do, but there wasn't. I started to follow him, searching for something to say, but I gave up in the end. There really was nothing I could say. And there was an announcement to come to the deck. CO Flynn wanted to talk the crew about what happened and told everyone that there was counseling available. I didn't think that applied to me. I had hardly had anything to do with all of this. But it was great that it was offered.

I just wanted to go home now. I packed my bag and got ready. It wouldn't be much longer until we reached Cairns.

My first time on a Patrol Boat. The crew seemed really great. I was definitely looking forward to working with these guys from now on. There was a lot I still needed to learn and a lot I was sure to yet experience. But I had this feeling that everything would turn out for the better.