CH 1 Life on the Station

5:00am

Lights flickered above the steel table with twinkling stars peering through the window. In the background there was a light hum from the ventilation that can be helpful with sleeping. With the air it was a bit stale from the constant air recycling but beyond that not really bothersome. The time at the moment would be somewhere at five. If one were to wait out little before seven there will be some disappointment of no dawn coming.

The closest thing to a glow of non-electrical light would be the fiery figure sitting at the table. Along with the fire were three other figures staring out of the same port as well. What would this group be doing out in the cold room was one simple thing, waiting. "So when is it coming?" "A couple of minutes, three minutes to be exact." "This is going to be awesome! Wonder if I can get a recording from it." "You do know that there is no sound in space, right?" "Normally no, but depending on what the comet is made out of it can create certain frequencies that with - -" "Shush! Both of you be quiet, you are going to make us miss it!" "Ok guys it almost in view"

A short time passed with each waiting with bated breath. Except for the green gumdrop across the fire that is getting his device ready. "Wait for it, wait for it, now!" A white comet started to move very slowly across the port. As it crossed everyone eyes widen at the marvelous site. It only became more marvelous as the white comet began to grow in size. Minutes passed away as it slowly passed. It was the size of the baseball when a small beep and an exclamation of surprise came from the gumdrop. With the device ready he brings up to the window with a satisfied look quickly replaced with the same look as the rest.

In the back a figure came up from behind the group. The figure looked at the passing comet the group was watching. "Well you look at that! A comet passing by and a really bright one too, that's weird." A small fox in the group quickly responded to the figure. "Yeah it is pretty bright." Ignoring the last part of the comment the figure said.

It was almost an hour when the asteroid passed that everyone broke eye contact with the porthole. There was quick excitement as the whole group talked over what they have seen. This continued for a while until the figure in the back coughed to get their attention. Everyone stopped and looked back to the figure. The figure was a burley tall man with blue skin and a thick yellow mustache. "Ok it's about time for work. Everybody remembers what work they need to do for today?"

The green gumdrop was first to respond. "I need to get to the docking bay to help get the supplies ready for transport." The next one to spoke was the fire elemental. "The station's manifest needs to be updated." A grumpy MO soon followed with a disdained response. "Keep the station's system from going ka-blooey." Finally the small fox was the last one to respond. "I go back with GAZZ to work on supplies as well."

After hearing each of them Kagey spoke. "Yep those are it. Now everyone be sure to sign in before you get to work!" With that the group headed out to their respective places to get a start on work. The word 'OPEN' flickered on the door before sliding open to the lobby. The room was somewhat packed with other people heading to work. Some headed to the flight of stairs while others waited for the elevator.

The elevator opened with a bling and a couple of crew members exited. As soon it was emptied the morning crowd headed towards the elevator. The elevator was filled it began to close. Suddenly there was a shout coming from one of the larger crew members. The door began to open back up and a grey troll made it into the elevator. With that the door closed again and started too headed down.

After a couple of minutes passed the elevator stopped at the first floor of storage. Upon entering the group found themselves in an incredibly large room with shelves filled with all sizes of crates. This would be the first of the three supply halls that made the Starchie's Morgue making it a large place to begin with. Yet despite the station's great size, most of the room was held for the supply rather than for the crew.

Half of the passengers left they continued down to the next floor. After a time the door opened again to another supply hall. The fire elemental started to walk off along with some of the other passengers and proceeded to the office area.

11:00AM

In a bright lit room a malt ball was momentarily at rest. Before him on his desk was a book looked as if it was recently bought from a book store. Despite its appearance the book has been in his possession for a long time. He made sure that the book stays that way.

Inside it held text that had been around longer then the book and the reader itself. These tell of many verses of spiritual connection and the stories of those who have spread them. This is what helped him to get out the depression in his early life and has helped him through other problems in life. This would be the same with so many others before him and many others at this time.

He looked at the message that had recently arrived with gloominess welling up inside. This was easily dispelled when looked back at the book. He thought to himself if it has gotten Starchie through the worse in the past surely it will get Starchie through the present worse. With that he turned the intercom on.

11:00AM

The sound of sizzle filled the air in the kitchen accompanied with a light chopping. At the back there was fox at back of the kitchen working on the cutting board. As he was chopping away celery he thought a bit to himself. So despite it being in the century we live in now you think we would be passed the use of carving knifes and into automated foods. With that we would have food already without the haste.

On finishing that thought he brought up the cutting board to a warming pot and proceed with sliding the chopped vegetable into the waiting soup. After that he went to the stove to check on how the eggplants were cooking.

He thought on that for a while. Nah – at least working on a making a meal is giving me something to do. He stopped for amount to smell the light aroma coming from the soup. A spoon was brought up to the soup and a quick sip was made. 'That and the automated food would probably not be any good.'

Cchhhh "Good morning everyone this is Captain Starchie. Today it is cycle 43 on the Starchie's Morgue. Starchie would like to state today's need to know. Starchie will be needing quantities of supply within the cargo to be checked. If there is any sign of supplies getting low send out a report to forward desk for resupply. And please be specific on what needs to be resupplied, we do not want another 'shrimp puff' incident. Next we have some reports electric shortages in different parts of the station. With that in mind be sure to have open connection in case of emergency. On docking bay 2 we will need a bit of a repair due to possible air leakage. Finally Starchie liked to announce that today is Videl's 58th birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! That will be all." Cchhhh

Hmm sounds like it going to be a big day. With a quick look at his wrist watch he thought. Better start out the cake mix before it gets any busier. He headed quickly to the kitchen's storage room. Before the waiting could appear on the door's hologram there was a heavy zap and the hologram's light went out. He looked at the door to take in what had happened. "No worries the door should turn back on. . . ." He started to tap his foot as more time passed. "Any minute now and I'll get in."

A quick flicker of blue light passed in front of him. With the power to the door back on did the fox gave a big exhalation and proceed to open the door. "Ok first I need some eggs." The door halted before it could fully open. There was a pause before great ruckus erupted from the fox as he began to pry the door open. "No, no not today!" A sharp shriek filled the air as the door opened more till it was fully opened. Ozzy looked sternly at the door, not today!

With that the fox entered with a tired strode in to pantry. "Eggs, eggs, eggs where are you. . . There you are!" He picked up the eggs and went to exit the pantry. Only to witness the door closed with no sign of power. With that a loud groan came from in the locked door. "WHY!"

11:40AM

It was dark and cramped and the sound of grunting emanating through the darkness. The sound came from Kami Pigs, one of the electrician experts on the station. Before her there was a mess of wires pulled out of the wall. With the aid of both her little trunk and front feet shifted out the wires. Couple of feet away from her was Kirri looking through her RIG. Both held dark circles beneath their tired eyes.

With her trunk she grabbed a red wire and inspected it closely then went for the green wire. On closer look she noticed newest wire had some damage to it and proceeded to remove it. When the damaged wire was removed she than placed an undamaged wire in its place. "Let see, how about now?" Beeping sounds came from Kirri's RIG as she typed away. "No, there is no sign of a current forming. There seems to be a connection missing."

Kami went back to searching in the bundle of wires. She thought more at what could be the cause as she continued to search. All of the wires should be connected. The only wire that could be stopping the connection was that green wire. Even then it should not have cause a problem.

Annoyance filled her mind as she remembered this was the third rewiring for the last cycle. The first was the gravity malfunction in the shower room from two days ago. That took about a couple of hours to fix. Luckily no one was taking a shower yet or it would have made it more difficult. Then there was MO who was experiencing power drainage. The little machine complained the whole time during the repairs in a very disturbing slow motion manner. This went for about for the whole day. When the job was done we went to clock out and headed to bed.

It was then at 11:27 that we received a call that a door in the mess hall was experiencing power problems. At first we expected this task to be difficult as the last rewiring. Instead the only difficulty we are having was bearing the smell of soup close to burning.

While Kami continued to contemplate while searching for the culprit a muffled cry came from behind the door. "How is the door coming, did you find out what's wrong with it!?" Kirri looked back at the door and talked in the same tone. "We're still working on it!" A small thump came from within, probably him sitting down. The muffled voice spoke again in a concerned manner. "Did you at least turn the stove off?"

Kirri remembering the smell of the burning soup scrambled to turn off the stove. After regaining her composure she spotted something peculiar on the hologram display. "Hey Kami, wait second." The small pachyderm stopped to look at her. "Try one of the cables near the bottom left corner." Kami nodded and went back to the spot. Couple of minutes later sounds of the door's power returned. Kirri then pressed the door's hologram to open while Kami placed the wires back into the wall.

In the dark a fox stared back at Kirri and rushed to her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought would have stayed there all day!" The small pachyderm witnessing the small sign of affection gave a little smile. Kirri grumpily responded. "Ok yeah you're welcome. . . Isn't there a soup that needs your attention?" The pachyderm immediately retracted the smile while the fox tensed up and took a whiff in the air. He backed away from the yellow life saver and went to see if his soup was ok.

With the huggy fox busy Kirri turned to Kami. "Want to head towards the bar and get some drinks?" Kami stated hoping that all of her grumpiness be removed. "Sure, I can get this case logged in for records while we head that way."

The duo headed towards the stairwell. Kirri than asks Kami. "So how are both of your parents doing?" Kami face brightens up more than a face already cheery should be. "Oh there doing mighty well. Ma is selling her pies pretty well. With Pa he still holding onto his job stubborn as ever." The lifesaver looked thoughtfully at the pachyderm's statement. "Huh sounds like they have a solid ground even at these times."

Before heading up the stairs both of them stopped by a holographic machine. On the front of it was a blue hologram with an image of a camera with the words SAVE STATION on front of it. Kirri was the first to use it. With a wave of a hand the station proceeded to open. She started to log in the report for the malfunction kitchen door. After the report was finished she clocked out of work and logged out. Kammy came up next and repeated the same process as before.

With both sides done they now head up the stairs. Along the climb Kami remembered something. "Hey Kirri, I just remembered that I will be getting my Ma's special apple pie pretty soon. Would you want some?" A light chuckle escaped Kiri as that sentence finished. "When was the last time I said no to your mom's cooking?" The pachyderm returned a smile. "I guess that's a yes"

12:00AM

The sound of liquid being poured was the presumed background noise of the communication office. This lasted for a minute till the pouring stopped and the air vents came back as the sole background noise. "So do you think the party is going to be ready?" Carrick stated to Benjiman while he handed her cup of coffee. She returned an uncaring shrug and proceeded to take a sip of her offered drink.

Small brows bunched together on Carrick's forehead as the goblin continued to think on how this situation will blow up. His ears twitched at the sound of a snap filled the air. He looked back to the purple headed mushroom taking a sip from her cup. After a good take she responded with a calm position. "You got a message."

He looked back at the bleeping light on the computer station and proceeds to answer. As soon the screen lit up a confused ho-ho appeared in the screen. "Did Captain Starchie tell the secret birthday party for Vinyl out loud to everyone?" The goblin nodded with his response "Yeah he just did what you just said." A deep disappointed sigh came from both of them. "Well with no way this imminent danger can be avoided let us talk about something else. Like how about the recent fashion magazine!" The depression faded away with the eager buzzing now between the two. "Definitely, they did have a good idea on adding Victorian outfits to that issue. The suits they had were amazing, not to mention some of the dresses!" A shout came from seated goblin. "So agree with you on that! They made most of the suits well fitting! All except for Freddy Kallock's, he could have done a better job on the legs." There was moment before the screen spoke out. "Well he always did have trouble with making a good suit, that just him." Across from the two Benjiman only stared at them.

While the conversation continued a blip came on the radar. It glowed became dim and brighten again with a light ping for a while. The pings eventually got Benjiman's attention from the ensuing argument that was beginning. Upon her inspection it was a ship, there was a quick cross-reference on the ship's identity. A sense of surprise appeared on her face. It was the GutGrinder arriving earlier than scheduled.