Crossing over to the ship's proper Joe expected just a normal ship, pretty much what she was used to.
In a way it was that. On the other side of the airlock a gray, nondescript corridor greeted her. Sparkling clean and still smelling brand new. It was wider than the ones on the Bethany or on the space dock.
Joe came up at an intersection looking at a map. The indicator told her to head left for the crew-quarters, so she set out to find her new home. What Joe did not expect was to not meet anyone. The corridors were deserted, it was quite. A faint noise in the distance indicated some type of work being performed, most likely linked to the working rig attached to the ship.
Joe easily found her quarters, her name already attached to the bulkhead. She was positively surprised. It was a lot roomier than expected and from the looks of it she would not have to share it.
I have my own bed, a desk with a chair and my very own drawer with still some room to spare!
One might not be able to dance in here, but usually this would provide bunking space for two to four crew members, so she was quite happy. A small door opened to a small bathroom, the shower stall barely big enough to squeeze herself in. Still, my own! I don't have to share! The Computer on the desk beeped, crying for attention.
Joe stored the briefcase with the classified pads in the desk-drawer sealing it. Then she focused her attention on the computer. It displayed her personal messages, some from folks back at the Bethany, some from friends made in basic training.
One was from Sarah, her roommate back from basic. Last time they spoke Sarah was very excited about her first mission as an exo-biologist. Joe could'nt imagine anything more boring than having to poke at molds on a strange new planet, but she did miss her.
Joe found the duty roster and downloaded it to her PDA. It revealed that for tomorrow an introduction meeting was scheduled, so she had nothing more to do for the next couple of hours. Pondering on whether to start studying the information about the ship and the mission or simply go exploring and find out where everyone was, proofed to be not a hard decision.
Opening the door she almost barreled into a small being, as I just managed to catch him from falling it turned out to be a handsome, painfully thin young man. Apparently a chief, judging from his rank pips. He quickly became quite flustered, apparently he was about to ring my door-chime when i almost ran him over. His slight form literally bouncing of my large frame was not really helping. He managed to hold on to a stack of brown coveralls he was carrying, no small feat.
"Sorry!"
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!" We both spoke together, paused and started to laugh. His face turned red in an apparent try to match the color of his hair, which came up to about my chest.
"Let's try again." She said.
"Hi. I'm Jo 9, Navigator."
She stretched out her hand, flashing a wide grin in the hope to calm him down. He managed to only jump back a tiny bit. He looked up to her and grabbed her hand to answer:
"Jim O'Hare, I'm the quartermaster. Nice to meet you, mam. I'm here to deliver your overalls."
"Great, thanks."
He handed them over. She managed to take a look, apparently they were the same design as the one he was wearing. 'E.C.S.' stenciled on the right breast pocket and the name on the left one. Basically the same as the one she was wearing, but brown colored instead of the navy one that was fleet-issue.
"Chief, I have a question. Where is everyone? I expected the ship to be quite busy and not that quite."
He smiled, answering,
"You should have seen it 3 days ago, couldn't walk a step without bumping into one of the space dock goons. They're almost done now, just the finish on the cargo bay so our passengers can be comfy and we're good to go."
"Good to know, where is the rest of the crew?"
"The deckhands are all on board downstairs, the engineers are pocking around in the back-rooms I think I saw one or two of the officers, but the captain and the rest are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, I expect them to trickle in over the next two days."
"All right, thanks chief."
Holding up my her stack of coveralls "I'll just put these away and go have a look at the ship. Anything I should be aware of?"
"Not really, mam. Only the cargo bay is still being worked on, the rest of the ship should be fine." He looked nervous.
"If there's nothing else, mam?"
"Sure, sorry. Dismissed and thanks." He nodded his thanks and scampered off. Hopefully she had managed to calm him a bit, as she could be a bit intimidating to men. Especially if they're that small and thin. She took the opportunity to change into the new coveralls. They had a shoulder patch that she had failed to notice earlier, displaying a stylized image of the Hermes with ‚E.C.S. Hermes' surrounding it.
She carefully exited my quarters and went to explore the ship. She marveled at the cleanliness and the smell. A new ship was something of its own kind. Every ship she'd ever been to, had been clean and well-maintained, but you could always tell the age in some way. She stopped at a wall mounted plan.
It displayed the box that was the ship with its 3 decks, currently she was apparently on the topmost deck, the habitation deck, including quarters for the officers and the mess. The plan showed the engineering section to take up one third of the ships aft section, covering all three decks.
The second deck was dedicated to operations, it contained the bridge, a conference room and the quarters of the captain.
The lowest deck was dedicated to maintenance and crew-quarters. The passage to the spine was also located at the second deck. Access ladders where placed more or less evenly, there was also a lift in the aft of the ship. Probably to move spare parts or other equipment.
She located the next ladder and descended to the second deck. The noise was more prominent here and she headed towards it.
The access to the spine was a massive hatch that was currently open, due to some thick cables connected to an access point and trailing through the bulkhead. They disappeared in another hatch that presumably gave access to the cargo bay.
Entering the spine was an interesting experience. It was the largest hallway she'd ever seen on a ship, more the 4 meters wide and at least 6 meters in height, it was also very long, according to the specs it should be 54 meter. The end was dominated by an identically massive hatch like the one that lead to the ship.
She followed the cables to the open hatch. Expecting a massive cargo bay she was quite surprised to enter what looked very much like a small lobby. Not finding any signs she followed the cable to the left side to a well-appointed lab area where work was conducted at some machinery off to the side.
As the cargo bay was much higher, 30 meters if she remembered correctly, there should be several levels as the ceiling was much lower than that. In the back several hatches lead somewhere, presumably more labs. A staircase at the side lead up to the next level. She was about to turn around to check the other side when she was stopped with a stern "Can I help you?"
An orange-clad dockworker, one of the goons, had spotted her and run over. He looked familiar, when he had reached her she recognized him, his face also showing quite some realization that extended to a wide grin.
"Jo! What are you doing here on this tub? Don't tell you'll be flying it?" She smiled broadly.
"Tim! Still with the knuckle-draggers I see! Yes, you're looking at the new navigator of this 'Tub'".
"Then you'll be glad to hear that we're as good as done installing the extra live-support systems. We should be out of your hair before the day is out, just finishing up here."
"That is good to hear, any plans for when you're done here?"
"I now do." Flashing a wide and toothy grin that she returned.
"Good, my place at 1800."
Without waiting for a reply she turned and left, smiling all the way back to her quarters. Upon arriving she noticed that her duffel had arrived so she busied myself with packing away her stuff and taping her family pictures above her desk.
After that she pondered on how to kill the time. Having to decide between taking a shower and grabbing something to eat, she headed for the crew mess. She found it next to the crew quarters. Chief O'Hare was busying himself in the pantry, which filled one wall. The rest of the room was filled with smaller and bigger tables and accompanying chairs. Hardly big enough to sit the whole crew in one, which was not really necessary as everyone would eat according to his or her shift schedule.
"Miss 9, what can I help you with?"
Smiling at her he gestured to a small buffet with sandwiches and the coffee machine built into the bulkhead.
"I'll just grab a bite and some coffee, thanks chief."
"Sure" he turned and left her to choose. She settled for a Cheese and Tomato sandwich and a Mug of black coffee and took a chair. The coffee was rather weak but the sandwich was quite good which she stated to the chief.
"Yeah, I know. I did not have the time to tinker with it, but don't worry. I'll set this beauty up to produce black gold in no time."
Satisfied she returned to her quarters to take a long missed shower.
The shower stall was really just big enough for her. After bumping her elbows several times she finally got the hang of it and managed to enjoy the hot water without hurting herself.
Freshly cleaned and casually dressed in a shirt and sweatpants she settled at her desk to busy herself with the top-secret content of her drawer. She started categorizing the pads.
Some contained details of the Hermes, essentially all the clever idea they had when dreaming up a new type of freighter. Especially interesting where the design concepts that expanded on the idea of a modular ship that can easily be adapted to a wide range of tasks. One draft for a large style colony transport was quite intriguing.
One pad was solely dedicated to proposed upgrades of the ships weapons. A freighter is not a warship, so naturally it has next to no weapons and is rarely heavy armored. This was common knowledge, sadly that also known to pirates and other ungodly beings.
The Hermes was armed. She had two Plasma cannons. One on top of and one on the bottom of the box. Both had a limited firing arc. But the idea was more to serve as a deterrent.
She skimmed the rest of the pad, it did hold some interesting concepts for arming the ship that would take the special design into account. But the best fight is always the one that does not happen in the first place so she went on to the next pad.
That contained preliminary data on the region that was the designated area of operations.
Studying the pad she heard her door chime. She'd completely lost track of time!
"One moment."
She swept the pads back into the drawer, sealing it.
Reaching for the door controls she keyed it to open, looking right at Tim's grinning face.
"Hello sunshine."
"Hi, is it time already?"
"Almost, we finished early." Holding up a small box he continued.
"May I enter? I brought gifts!"
She made room for him to enter and closed the door behind him.
"Gifts, how nice of you."
He set the Box down on my desk and opened it. When he turned he held a roll of duct tape in his hand, his grin was even larger than before, maybe even as big as mine.
"You know just what a girl wants."
She did not study any more that night, although she did not get a lot of sleep it was a very good night.
A very good way to start this journey.