Spacepunk (IC)

[Coalition of North American States]

Rod Walker walked back to his room after receiving the tablet. He got to his room, and said aloud,"Gotta start packing." He grabbed his duffel bag and beganthrowing stuff in it. He threw in 3 sets of clothes, a flashlight, batteries, his personal tablet, charger, his toiletries(toothbrush/toothpaste,etc.), and numerous other items. He slung his duffel over his shoulder and picked up his tool kit with his right hand. With his left, he checked his pockets to make sure he had everything. In his pockets he had a knife, his wallet, some loose change, and the newly issued tablet. He walked over to berth 423. He put in the access codes and pressed his thumb to the lock. It hissed open. He though to himself, Now to find my bunk and report to the Captain. I'll find the Captain first. He checked the tablet for the Captain's location and began making his way to the Captain's office......

[WhatsamattaU]

Ember laughed, an action that caused Wi to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"No one will have to fight for their position," the captain said. "This isn't that kind of ship. Positions are given, taken or promoted on merit. I'm the kingmaker and what I say goes. If any of you have issue with someone else, you bring it to me. Fighting on a ship when there's only a dozen or so of us is one easy way to go stir crazy when you're out in the black. I'd be a lousy captain if I couldn't resolve stuff, that's for sure." Her eyes rested on C.C. "If you're here for the Domestic position, then it's probably yours. There's not much competition for that kind of thing. I'll tell you this, and everyone else take note. It's not the job of the cook to clean up after you all. Your rooms are your own responsibility and the mess area and rec room are shared. For those of you who've done this kind of thing before, you'll know to keep the ship ready for sudden zero-G at all times. For those of you who haven't...." she smiled slightly. "You'll soon learn."

Ember stood and moved around the room, handing each of the occupants a small-screened tablet. "This tablet has direct access to most of the databanks on the Saxifrage. It also provides a direct link to me, so we don't have to fight through the mess that's this stations intranet just to get in touch. Keep an eye on it, in the next day I'll be sending out formal job offers and your role if you've got one. If you haven't, then access rights will be lost and this tablet will be useless.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm hoping for the ship to leave in just a few days."

---

Later that same day, everyone who received one of the tablets from Ember will receive the following message:

<Saxifrage Internal Messaging> 
<Priority message>
<Sender: Captain E. Kone >
<To: All crew members>
-------------------------------------------------

The following positions have been filled with the following people:
 First Officer: Quil Oretea
 Chief Engineer: Emilia Jorgeir
 Comms: Anton Krill
 Navsens: Phoenix McLaurin
 Drive engineer: Rod Walker
 Life support: George Collins
 Domestic/cook: Carmentis Castillo

Boarding on the SS Saxifrage can begin immediately, location: Berth 423. This tablet contains entry codes, simply press to the lock for access and your biometrics will be added to the system. 
Upon boarding find your assigned cabin to leave your gear, then check with the system to get the location of the captain (which will be either her office or the mess) and report for duty.
Scheduled departure is set for 49 hours from the timestamp on this message.
Hope to see you all soon.

C.C.

Mindful of the gravity difference between Mercury and Ceres, C.C. did a little ‘happy dance’ after reading Captain Kone’s message. The job was hers! Sure, she may have made a less than perfect first impression with the Capt., but it was good to show any group that you weren’t a pushover.

C.C. gathered what few possessions and little cash she had and checked out of the travelers’ hostel. Then she quickly made her way to Berth 423, in the Space Dock. She was so excited! Especially to see her ship’s Galley! One thing that concerned her was that all the appliances and fixtures might be there, but she had to be sure that she had knives and utensils. If they needed anything, perhaps the Captain could spare her some credits before departure?

She hoped Capt. Kone would have a better opinion of her for wanting to make certain her area of responsibility on the ship was ready.

Arriving at the berth, C.C. hit the intercom button on the gang plank and announced herself, “Carmentis Castillo, Ship’s Cook, reporting for duty and making the Galley secure for travel.”

The outer door opened and C.C. took her first step onto her new home. No one was in the passage way, so she inquired on her tablet the location of the crew members on board. The display indicated that only the Captain, the Drive Engineer and herself were on board and that the Captain was in her office, on the Command Deck. C.C. then got directions from the tablet on how to reach the Captain's office. Soon, she was outside the office door.

C.C. softly knocked and waited for an invitation to enter, or an order to come back some other time.

[Mufasana]

Krill smiled. It would be just like the kasei war days. Back then...
He drifts into the battles he fought. Then he snaps out. He looks at his map. Berth 423. He loved comms. So he picked up an antique walkie-talkie at one of the numerous kiosks and plays with it as he heads to the berth. His gun is still on his hip. He wondered if he would get in trouble for that.

[Maldurich]

Quil glanced at his tablet, comparing it to his old one. The one Ember had given him had a small display, nothing like the Lunar tablet he had from his time in his previous life, but it had direct access to the Saxifrage's database. He still had some 36 hours, so Quil decided to hook the two up and use his old tablet for the sake of it - uploading, bypassing security and passing the database into his tablet was the easy part. The hard bit was with the biometrics - he'd have to transplant the fingerprint and iris scanners to his own tablet, assuming their memory was hardwired into the scanners themselves. He hadn't even taken a look at it yet. He probably - no, definitely - should've done that in case the transplant didn't work, but...

Quil fiddled with the tablets for a few minutes before being rewarded with a resounding clink when his irises were registered. Finally opening the message, he was surprised to find he had gotten the XO position. He had worked on his father's merchant vessel as such, when he was 16, but he had never really liked the task of delegating crew members - he preferred to work in his own space, around people who knew what he was doing, and where he could know what they were doing. Alas, he reckoned, it's a chance to get on a Pre-Cataclysm ship! He still hadn't gotten over it - most of the board room discussion had involved him gazing at the Saxifrage, ears in the room but soul in the MMT. It had been surreal, seeing a dream he had thought had been destroyed for eternity. Quil looked down on his tablet again, and realized he had enough time to get a half cycle of sleep before boarding the ship - before boarding to his new life. He waved to a passing vendor closing for the day, and managed to grab some food before he grabbed a quick nap.

[Xah]

Ember leaned back in her chair, lifting her feet up onto the desk in front of her. The captain's office was a decent luxury on a civilian ship, most tramp-haulers made do with a corner of the command deck or a chair or two crammed into personal quarters. The Saxifrage boasted not only a captain's office, but also a smaller one for the XO. Lots of space was the main advantage of a decent drive. Ember wasn't usually one for speculation, there was little point in reminiscing as to how amazing things must have been in the past, but she was pleased that the Saxifrage was a relic from that Golden Age. It made her job a hell of a lot easier. The screen in front of her was large, taking up most of the desk and she would normally have it set to things like local commodity prices, or a radar sweep of nearby objects; the kind of thing they'd be looking out for. At the moment, it was a selection of the Saxifrage's internal cameras and a read-out of who was coming onto the ship; right now, she was all alone on the ship.

The Captain's office was on the Command Deck, with wide windows that gave a full view of the hemispherical command and control room. There were two doors; one into the corridor where the elevator was located, and the other into the C&C itself. Ember liked the layout, but it was the fancy glass that went opaque at the flick of a switch that she liked most. She'd never admit it, but little things like that is what made a good ship into an excellent one. She was considering taking a quick trip to the galley for coffee when her communicator chimed with the ring she'd reserved for Wi and she rolled her eyes to herself. He was damn good at his job, she thought, but an annoying letch. Reaching out, she accepted the call, voice only. "Wi, you reprobate, you'd better have something good for me."

"Ember, my gi..... good captain!" Came Wi's voice. "No video call? I'm disappointed."

"Yeah, well, live with it."

"I'll just have to use my imagination then. You're probably in your quarters, fresh out the shower..."

"Wi, keep it business or shut the fuck up."

"Hmph. You're no fun. I've got good news though; my contacts came through good. I've got a job for you. It's fairly time-critical though, so you'd have to leave in the next day or two."

"We're scheduled to leave in," Ember glanced at a readout on her monitor, "32 hours. Send me the details and I'll let the rest of them know."

"On it's way. Good luck with that, I'll get something else for you for when you're done."

"Later Wi." Ember hung up and watched her notification bar light up with a received message. Just as she was about to open it, the display showed an arrival at the Saxifrage's main airlock. "Who's that..." Ember mused, pulling up the video feed, "Ah, Mr Walker, good. At least we're not going to die from radiation." She watched the engineer make his way through the ship but, before he could reach the command deck, another one turned up. It was the Mercurian domestic, the feisty one who'd wanted to fight for the role. Ember smiled to herself and watched as the other woman made her way towards the command deck too. The first knock came.

"Mr Walker, come on in," Ember called, gesturing through the glass-panelled door of the office. "Glad you made it. Nice and early too. I suggest you drop your stuff off in your quarters and by then, some others will be here. I'll give you all a tour at once." As she came around her desk to offer Rod a hand to shake, C.C. arrived and the captain gestured for her to enter as well. "Good, an engineer and a cook. At least if no one else turns up, we've got the main jobs covered."

[Coalition of North American States]

Rod Walker said,"Thank you, Captain. I'll drop my stuff off in my quarters if you can point me in the right direction. Nice office by the way. And yeah, with just the three of us, we won't starve and we won't get cooked." He looked around the office a bit, noticing the large screen. He pulled out his knife and begin picking his fingernails clean to pass the time, while he waited.

[Mufasana]

Anton walked in, still playing with the walkie-talkie. He just stands there, looking at the walkie-talkie. He fiddles with it.
"Hello! Comms is here."

[Grenartia]

Ember laughed, an action that caused Wi to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"No one will have to fight for their position," the captain said. "This isn't that kind of ship. Positions are given, taken or promoted on merit. I'm the kingmaker and what I say goes. If any of you have issue with someone else, you bring it to me. Fighting on a ship when there's only a dozen or so of us is one easy way to go stir crazy when you're out in the black. I'd be a lousy captain if I couldn't resolve stuff, that's for sure." Her eyes rested on C.C. "If you're here for the Domestic position, then it's probably yours. There's not much competition for that kind of thing. I'll tell you this, and everyone else take note. It's not the job of the cook to clean up after you all. Your rooms are your own responsibility and the mess area and rec room are shared. For those of you who've done this kind of thing before, you'll know to keep the ship ready for sudden zero-G at all times. For those of you who haven't...." she smiled slightly. "You'll soon learn."

Ember stood and moved around the room, handing each of the occupants a small-screened tablet. "This tablet has direct access to most of the databanks on the Saxifrage. It also provides a direct link to me, so we don't have to fight through the mess that's this stations intranet just to get in touch. Keep an eye on it, in the next day I'll be sending out formal job offers and your role if you've got one. If you haven't, then access rights will be lost and this tablet will be useless.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm hoping for the ship to leave in just a few days."

Phoenix suppressed a giggle at the thought of one of the greenhorns bonking themselves on the head with an unsecured wrench, as they took the tablet from Ember, and headed to their friend's apartment.

The nice thing about this line of work is that you make stops all around the system, as well as friends. Helps save on room and board expenses between jobs, as long as you're willing to help out with chores and the like. After doing the dishes, McLaurin laid on the couch, listening to some locally-produced music. Which ends up mostly being chopped and screwed bits of various pre-cataclysm (at least, what little that's been found) and modern music from the inner system. It is an acquired taste, but they found it pleasant enough to fall asleep to.

While they were asleep, a notification popped up on the tablet Ember issued:

<Saxifrage Internal Messaging> 
<Priority message>
<Sender: Captain E. Kone >
<To: All crew members>
-------------------------------------------------

The following positions have been filled with the following people:
 First Officer: Quil Oretea
 Chief Engineer: Emilia Jorgeir
 Comms: Anton Krill
 Navsens: Phoenix McLaurin
 Drive engineer: Rod Walker
 Life support: George Collins
 Domestic/cook: Carmentis Castillo

Boarding on the SS Saxifrage can begin immediately, location: Berth 423. This tablet contains entry codes, simply press to the lock for access and your biometrics will be added to the system. 
Upon boarding find your assigned cabin to leave your gear, then check with the system to get the location of the captain (which will be either her office or the mess) and report for duty.
Scheduled departure is set for 49 hours from the timestamp on this message.
Hope to see you all soon.

Waking up, McLaurin found they had slept about 16 hours. Which was really weird. Even with the extended day/night cycle on Venus, most people were able to live on a standard 24-hour cycle. Phoenix figured they were just really tired. Despite this, they checked the tablet, and found they indeed had a job. Not necessarily the one they wanted, but it wasn't like they never did it before.


Nevertheless, they packed their things. Nothing super unusual in their bag. They had 3 sets of clothes (admittedly, there were more than that of things like undershirts, socks, and underwear), a personal data drive (containing a fuckload of music, games, videos, images, and some necessary programs), basic hygiene items, a personal tablet (and the charging cable), and a multitool (which has proved its worth multiple times). In addition to Ember's tablet, of course. While it all sounded like a lot of extra weight, most of it is just essentials. With their bag packed, they made their way to Berth 423, and utilized the credentials to get in to the ship, where they encountered Krill standing around on the command deck, playing with a cheap radio transceiver.

Anton walked in, still playing with the walkie-talkie. He just stands there, looking at the walkie-talkie. He fiddles with it.
"Hello! Comms is here."

"Unless she has a transceiver operating on the same frequency, which is pretty unlikely, she's not going to hear you." Phoenix said to their technically superior officer, before continuing, as they stepped into the elevator. "She said in the message she'd either be in her office or the mess. The office looks empty, so I say we go to the mess."

[Mufasana]

"Hum? Oh, this thing. I just was playing with it. The mess sounds good. Energy bar?" Anton offers one to Phoenix. "Do you like the captain?" Without waiting for a reply, he bursts out again.
" I once had a drill sergeant who had killed several people. It was all in accidents, I think, but he had a sort of serious look- like he would never let that happen again. The captain, I feel she has a history. " He points to it. "But who knows?"

[Xah]

Before Ember could escort the two crew members from her office, the entry display lit up again, revealing two more arrivals at the main airlock door. "Aha, some bridge crew. Good. We'll go meet them and I may as well show you all around in one big group." She said. Quickly pressing a few buttons on her terminal, she opened a com-link to the main airlock. "Welcome aboard. If you both want to wait there, I'm coming down with a few others and I'll show you all around". Locking the terminal, she nodded to the other two and led them to the elevator; first down to the mess deck and then to the store deck, where the main air lock was located.

"Welcome everyone to the Saxifrage, hopefully you'll come to consider it your home, and with luck it'll make us all obscenely rich." Ember said, a smile flickering over her face. She leads the small group to the central elevator. "This level contains the main stores," a few gestures to nearby doors. "Dry goods, equipment parts, all the little things that enables a ship to function. Over there is the main utility room, air filters, water pumps, that kind of thing, and the main airlock, which is the main route on and off the ship." She pointed to a hatch near the elevator entrance. "That's the access hatch to the lower decks; computer core, life support and engineering. They also function as a safe space in the even of a solar flare alert as they're surrounded by the ship's water store. If the alarms go off, that's where you head for. There's a secondary air lock in engineering for accessing the outside of the ship and the reactor. Hopefully, we won't be needing that too much."

She paused by the elevator doors, "Next floor up is the bunk deck and your own rooms, any questions so far?"

[Coalition of North American States]

Rod Walker was enjoying the tour. He had never seen a ship quite like this. It was alot nicer looking (and in better condition) then ships he had served on previously. He said,"Captain, engineering is down that way, correct?" He pointed down a hatch.

[Grenartia]

"Hum? Oh, this thing. I just was playing with it. The mess sounds good. Energy bar?" Anton offers one to Phoenix. "Do you like the captain?" Without waiting for a reply, he bursts out again.

McLaurin turned down the energy bar. Why Anton had such a love-hate relationship with them, they couldn't figure out. They were about to respond to his question when he started speaking again.

" I once had a drill sergeant who had killed several people. It was all in accidents, I think, but he had a sort of serious look- like he would never let that happen again. The captain, I feel she has a history. " He points to it. "But who knows?"

"I mean, I didn't get that kind of a vibe from--" They responded, before being cut off by the Captain's voice.

Quickly pressing a few buttons on her terminal, she opened a com-link to the main airlock. "Welcome aboard. If you both want to wait there, I'm coming down with a few others and I'll show you all around". Locking the terminal, she nodded to the other two and led them to the elevator; first down to the mess deck and then to the store deck, where the main air lock was located.

"Welcome everyone to the Saxifrage, hopefully you'll come to consider it your home, and with luck it'll make us all obscenely rich." Ember said, a smile flickering over her face. She leads the small group to the central elevator. "This level contains the main stores," a few gestures to nearby doors. "Dry goods, equipment parts, all the little things that enables a ship to function. Over there is the main utility room, air filters, water pumps, that kind of thing, and the main airlock, which is the main route on and off the ship." She pointed to a hatch near the elevator entrance. "That's the access hatch to the lower decks; computer core, life support and engineering. They also function as a safe space in the even of a solar flare alert as they're surrounded by the ship's water store. If the alarms go off, that's where you head for. There's a secondary air lock in engineering for accessing the outside of the ship and the reactor. Hopefully, we won't be needing that too much."

She paused by the elevator doors, "Next floor up is the bunk deck and your own rooms, any questions so far?"

"I have one," Phoenix spoke up. "How many of the rooms have been claimed so far?"