Again? Although, in hindsight, maybe the makeshift cafeteria was a good thing to have aboard the ship. Aina began to grow more and more used to eating very similar meals day in and day out. After-all, it seemed as though that was all that was provided. She slid her tray down the metallic line in an assembly-line-like fashion gathering up her daily rations in a somewhat hasty manner. The three sections of the plastic tray were quick to fill up with several small bowls of small portions. Sliced slivers of fish that appeared to have been cooked somewhat well served over a small mound of rice, a bowl of what she could only describe as lukewarm broth served with diced vegetables, and another bowl of thick noodles made up her evening meal. The same meal she had in the evening for at least nine days straight now. Indeed, this was hardly like meals from home, but after so many days of having nothing to eat except this, Aina wasn’t one to complain.
With food in hand, Aina slipped away from the line and made her way over to the table where she usually sat. Another long day was winding down and coming to an end, and they usually ended here: at the same table as the other nights eating the same food. She never seemed to mind it though, always taking the time to read some of the books she brought along with her. Tonight’s reading was going to be a continuation of a fantasy novel, it seemed. She flipped open the cover and started to skim along through the pages until she recalled where in “The Last Frog King” she left off on.
Aina Nakaro was one of seven student interns aboard the Artemis research vessel. For a young student from the Torushima Imperial University in Phonox, a real world experience like this was something she dreamed of for a long time. When she originally applied, she was wondering what work aboard a marine research vessel might consist of. It wasn’t long before she figured out that the ‘research’ part of ‘research vessel’ included many tasks which some might consider menial. To Aina though, the tasks were all too fun sometimes, often eliciting a bit too much enthusiasm in her work calibrating sensors and compiling data into digital formats for other (more qualified) individuals to oversee later. By the end of the day however, all the over-enthusiastic mannerisms seem to fade and Aina always seemed to become exhausted and quiet. By the end of the day, she would just end up sitting along with everyone else, eating and reading her book in the small mess hall for the ship’s eighteen ‘inhabitants’.
After eating came quiet hours aboard the ship, the designated time that everyone should use for sleep. Admittedly though, Aina always had trouble sleeping. She entered the cafeteria tired, she left it tired, but still couldn’t find solace in her small cot by the time she entered the cabin. At first, she blamed her misfortune quietly upon noisy sleepers in the room that made all too much noise during the nights; of course, she was sharing the room with the other six students and a few of the crew members aboard the ship, making her living situation very compact. Later on, she started to blame the waves of the Livean Sea crashing against the ship and causing it to rock so much that she couldn’t get comfortable in bed. After so many nights of getting only several hours of sleep, Aina didn’t exactly know what to blame though. Instead, she just stood awake, staring out towards the moonlight that dimly lit the room as she rested and tried to eventually sleep.
Night after night, it never seemed to get any easier falling asleep. The ship was not built with leisure as its first priority. The ship was a bit dated in most of its infrastructure. While of course the instruments for their experimentation were up to par, the ship itself was a rustic relic from at least the 1950s. The ship had many rooms that had been converted into other things as a result of retrofitting in an attempt to keep the ship sea-worthy and up to date with regulations at the ports it stopped in. The mess hall Aina was in previously in was covered in decade-old stains that seemed to have become part of the ship following some neglectful maintenance. Despite its current sloppy state, the crew behind the counters always seemed to be able to prepare meals that didn’t end with the entire crew becoming sick, too. This thoroughly seemed to surprise Aina, who thought that even in her few days on board she might have contracted food-borne illness. The halls aboard the ship were nothing too neat either, dimly lit corridors separated by large metallic doors that locked on both sides in the event of flooding. Even the room that Aina slept in was covered in rust and dark patches all over the floors and walls. It was previously a component to the ship’s coal-fueled engines. Aina herself did some questioning around the state of her sleeping quarters that she shared with the many others there. She had learned that ship’s engines had previously given out while at sea. When the ship was returned, it was found that to replace the turbines and boilers would be cheaper than purchasing a new ship. Later on, when the ship was retired from its original job of transporting cargo in the Livean, it was sold to a small research firm based out of a quaint port city in Kirisaki. This purchase was only a few years ago, so perhaps it really was too soon to try and repair the old ship.
The generally rotting insides aboard the ship didn’t help Aina, especially when she was trying to sleep. Either way, when it was over, and she finally slept, she would wake up the next day and repeat the process all over again. It sure was monotonous, and she would agree, but she appeared to begin finding that banal pattern rather familiar and comforting. The only thing bugging her now was whether or not she should be afraid of finding her highly rigid regime comforting.
