Well, the ship is nice. It has everything a ship should have, plus some fun things Irken military ships don't, like a trampoline room. It seems like that would just be for smeets, but it's pretty popular among the whole crew. Blaze and I spent about half an hour bouncing around in there, until a bunch of half-grown smeets started playing tag. I was okay with it, but Blaze was a bit scared. I asked Des about it when she showed me my new room and she said Blaze is just cautious since . . . whatever happened to her.
Anyway, the relaxation rooms are good, the engines are very up-to-date, and I have a fairly small room with a nice big window, a comfy couch, a drawing table, and a well-stocked cabinet of art supplies. There's even a tablet (a normal computer one, not paper) that I can draw or write on, and it has a carrying case so I can keep it with me. It also plugs into the main computer, which will allow me to do artwork with more flexibility and a larger screen. I love this place!
There's a meeting tomorrow morning where the Centrals will introduce me to the whole crew and assign my duties, so that everyone knows who I am and what I do. Des and Dire are coming over soon to ask me a bunch of questions about what I like and give me a skills test so they know what my strengths are. Right now, though, I'm free to do whatever I want. So of course, I'm working on that drawing of the Tallest watching Devastis. I found a few images of them on the ship's network for reference, and I'm working hard on getting them right. The line of Red's brow, the casual way Purple would pucker his lips around his soda straw. It's not easy. I look at my work so far and sigh. Maybe I need to practice on other things first.
When Dire knocks on the door, I'm working on a sketch of a bar of cleanser that I have set on the table in front of me. Its texture makes it interesting, and its rounded shape is a challenge. How do you make something flat look round?
"Come in," I call, and the door opens to reveal Dire and Des. They both sit down on chairs in front of the window, so that I don't have to turn away from my drawing table to look at them.
"Having fun?" Dire asks.
"Working on it," I reply. "It'll be more fun when I figure out how to make my drawings look a bit more real."
"We'll make sure you get the training to do that, then," Dire says.
"All right," Des says, pulling out a computer tablet and opening a file on it, "we have a list of questions for you, so why don't we get started?"
"Okay." I'm a tiny bit distracted by the soap, but I don't think that's going to do any harm.
"First, what's your favorite thing to do?"
"Imagine things, like stories and images."
"If you could do any one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?"
"Make the most beautiful art the galaxy has ever known."
This continues for about ten minutes, with Des asking me questions about everything from what I used to do and why I hated it to my favorite type of entertainment. Then she takes out a box from her bag and sets it on the table.
"This is gonna require some participation, so I need you to come over here," she says.
"What is it?" I ask.
"It's the kit for the skills test," Dire says, opening it. The box contains a pair of VR goggles, some cards, a few blocks of different shapes and colors, and a smaller version of the tablet Des has.
"Okay, you need to follow my directions exactly or the test results will be invalid," Des recites. "Remove the tablet from the box and turn it on. You should see a screen with a set of questions on it. Answer them for me."
This test takes over an hour, during which I have to make shapes with the blocks, navigate a maze in VR, answer about a million questions about math, language, strategy, and economics, put a mixed-up story in order, and determine the common thread connecting several seemingly unrelated objects. Finally, Des tells me I can go back to my drawing while she analyzes the data.