LIGHTNOVELONLINE 7. Optimism
"These are secondary airlocks," Piper said as she gestured to the left and right. "They also provide access to the lower deck through the ladderways. Starboard ladder goes to the main hold, port side to the secondary hold. The ladderways are all normally sealed, so the upper and lower decks are isolated from each other. The airlocks lead to the two ship's boats. Starboard side's a shuttle, seats up to eight including the pilot. That's part of the Demeter's original equipment. Which means it's old, but it's still space-worthy."
She was looking at me as she added that bit, which left me wondering if she overheard what I said to Sarah earlier.
The captain continued, "Port-side is a two-man fighter I picked up a few years back. I don't really have much use for it, but I like the aesthetics. The Demeter lost her second shuttle some years back and I thought she looked wrong when the port-side bay was empty."
Once again I was reminded of the relative lawlessness of the frontier. In Imperium space, merchant ships or other private vessels were not allowed to carry any armaments at all. Having her own fighter craft would be unheard of.
Our new captain was giving Sarah and I a tour of the rest of the ship. We were standing just forward of the mess and rec area, in a corridor that had three doors on either side and one at the far end.
We moved forward till we were about halfway down the corridor, and she gestured to the next set of doors on either side.
"These are the crew cabins. Each one's fitted with a double-bunk, a desk, wardrobe and a small washroom. If you two don't mind sharing a cabin for now, you can take that one."
Piper gestured at the door on the left. "If you'd rather not share, then one of you can take the port-side cabin and the other can take starboard."
Sarah and I exchanged a look. The blonde suggested, "We can figure that out later. Let's finish the tour."
Moving further forward, Piper gestured to the next door on the starboard side. "That's my cabin, and it's off-limits. If I'm in there and you need me, knock or press the intercom button. Don't just let yourselves in."
Me and Sarah nodded quietly. I doubted either of us would barge in on our captain regardless.
The door across from hers was another officer's cabin, and it would remain unused for now. Piper led us through the door at the end, and we found ourselves in a small space that was almost like a miniature airlock. There were three steps up from the corridor level to the next door, and there was a locker on the port-side.
"Emergency equipment locker," Piper said as she gestured to the left. "Behind this next door is the cockpit. This little antechamber is a last-resort safety feature, if something happened to the cockpit the rest of the ship won't depressurize. It also acts like an airlock, so if the cockpit loses pressure someone in an e-suit can get in there without bleeding off air from the rest of the ship."
The last part of the tour took us through that final door and into the small cockpit.
My first impression wasn't favourable. Apart from being cramped, there were loose cables all over the place, laying across the tops of the consoles and dangling from the ceiling. Several systems appeared to be bodged into place, mismatched and ill-fitting controls were crudely bolted or welded into positions where they clearly didn't belong.
While I was low-level horrified we were trusting our lives to this ramshackle contraption, Sarah's eyes lit up and a wide grin settled on her face.
"Did you do all this yourself?" she asked. "This is wild!"
Piper actually looked embarrassed. She cleared her throat, "This ship's been my home for a long while, and I've been flying her solo for more than half a decade. It was easier to reroute as many functions as I could within arms-length of the pilot seat."
She moved further into the cramped space and gestured to the left, "Sarah that's the engineering console, why don't you sit there."
Piper slipped into the forward seat on the right then motioned to the front-left seat and added, "Amanda, sit yourself down there."
It was easier said than done, the seat was form-fitting and had absolutely zero space for my tail. I ended up pulling it straight down and sitting on it which was uncomfortable as hell, not to mention it looked damn peculiar with the big floofy end sticking out between my legs. To my right, Piper had her eyes closed and she was gently pinching the bridge of her nose while she looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh.
Sarah was seated behind me, her chair faced sideways and she was already focused on the various readouts and displays before her.
"One of my early deployments was on a Thurman-class frigate," Sarah commented as she continued studying the engineering controls and displays. "It was probably about the same vintage as the Demeter, so most of this is already familiar to me. Brings back some memories, too."
After a moment she added, "Still, I don't expect I'd be spending a lot of time up front with you two? I'm much more comfortable at the other end of the ship. Better to be watching the engines with my own eyes, rather than watching a display watch the engines for me."
Unlike Sarah, nothing in front of me was familiar. It was obviously the copilot seat, there were flight controls centred on the panel before my seat. Those were surrounded by more displays and controls, while to my left were still more of the same. About the only thing I recognized was one of the panels on my left held a complete comm suite, to handle ship-to-ship and ship-to-planet communication, as well as long-range FTL signalling.
Finally, above all the unfamiliar controls and displays were the windows. They wrapped around and gave a little less than a hundred-and-eighty degree view from left to right. The windows didn't extend quite as far on the left because of those extra controls and equipment on my side of the cockpit, but it wasn't too bad. The up-and-down view was a lot narrower than it was from left-and-right. There was only about a seventy-five degree field of view vertically, and we could see slightly more above than we could below.
Limited as it was, the view was actually breathtaking. Near as I could tell the ship was motionless. We were holding position about a kilometre from the wreck of the Hammersmith. Even though I never liked being on that ship, it was still heartbreaking to see her in that condition.
Her back was broken, the ship had been ripped in two. The aft section was slightly larger and was in a very slow sideways roll. The forward half was in a slightly faster tumble. And those two large pieces were surrounded by a constellation of smaller debris, twisting and tumbling as it floated around the wreck.
"A mine did that?" I asked softly. My mouth felt dry as I stared at the ship where I lived and served for the better part of a year. If not for the emergency in engineering I'd have been in the infirmary when it happened. In the forward section, which looked completely shattered. It was obvious why no other lifepods were launched. I doubted many people survived the initial blast long enough to worry about their injuries or depressurization.
"Anti-shipping mine," Piper replied quietly. "Designed for blockades and disrupting shipping lanes. They're made to break big ships. About the size of a shuttle, disguised as a small asteroid or random debris."
Sarah interjected, "The Hammersmith was cruising at Jump-0, but she probably fell out of jump when that plasma conduit ruptured. That would have left her vulnerable to any normal-space hazards. Like old anti-ship mines."
Piper continued, "That kind of mine is typically equipped with passive sensors. Once it detected a large enough vessel nearby it would have gone active. Armed itself, done a sensor sweep, then activated thrusters and driven itself into the target. The warhead's usually atomic fusion, but can also be conventional, or matter-antimatter annihilation."
She added, "The ones floating around here are usually the latter. And the fact that your ship's been flying around this sector for how long, and nobody warned your captain about them? Well that maybe indicates what folks out here think of the Imperium."
After a few seconds of silence Piper sighed, "I'm sorry it happened to your ship though, and your friends. I uh. I know what it's like to go through that."
The three of us were quiet again for another minute or so. I finally forced myself to stop looking at the wreckage floating outside, and looked over all the controls and things directly before me and to my left again.
"So um," I gestured at the various controls, "Sarah's obviously familiar with all this stuff, but I'm kind of lost here. I recognize a few things, but I'm worried I'll be more of a liability than any kind of help..."
Despite Sarah's confidence, I really didn't feel like I was going to be much use to Piper or her ship. And I really hated to say it, but I had to be honest with her.
Our new captain looked thoughtful for a few moments before responding, "You said earlier you're a quick study and eager to learn. If you're willing to try then I'm prepared to give you a chance. And in the mean time, if you feel like you need to do something to earn your place in the short term, then we'll see how your cooking skills measure up."
I took a moment to think through her words, and the situation in general. And to my surprise I found myself fighting to suppress a grin. I recalled Sarah called it the 'holy shit this is real' phase, and I was definitely still there. I hadn't even had time to process the euphoria yet either. And in a way, the whole thing seemed too ridiculous to be true.
A few days ago I was a Navy medic serving my fifth year of a six year commitment. I isolated myself from everyone around me, I had no friends, and felt like my real life was on hold while I dealt with dysphoria and focused all my thoughts and energy on my dream of transitioning.
Now I was a small adorable foxgirl on a tiny interstellar tugboat being offered a job that was somewhere between cook and medic - or ship's pet like Sarah teased - but with the opportunity to learn a lot more. And strange as all that sounded, it made me happy. Even if I had to be the ship's mascot, I'd be cute and adorable doing it. The whole thing was impossible and improbable, but I actually felt optimistic for the first time in my life.
"Ok," I stated as my lips curled into a smile. "You know what, I spent the last five years hating being part of the Navy, but doing it anyways because there was a chance it might eventually let me transition. Now I've got a body that feels right? I can handle just about anything."
I turned towards Piper and told her, "So yes ma'am, I'm in. I'll be your medic, your cook, hell I'll even be the ship's mascot if you like. You saved my and Sarah's life, you gave me a body I love. I'll follow you to the end of the galaxy and back. I'm Amanda Voss, reporting for duty."
Sarah giggled when I mentioned her mascot idea, while Piper looked like she was suppressing a smile.
My new captain cleared her throat and nodded, "Welcome aboard Amanda. And Sarah. Let's get a few things out of the way right now. This isn't a military ship, I haven't thought about rank in ages and I don't want to start. I know technically I'm the captain, but neither of you need to address me as such. You don't need to call me miss or ma'am either. The name I go by is Piper, that's what I'm most comfortable with. And if you don't mind, I'll be addressing you two as Amanda and Sarah."
"Yes ma'am," Sarah responded, then quickly added "Just kidding, sorry Piper. It'll be a tough habit to break though. Can I call you boss if I feel the need to act formal?"
"Yes, 'boss' works ok," Piper agreed. She glanced at me, "Any questions or comments?"
The words "No ma'am" were almost out of my mouth before I caught myself. "Not really. To be honest I'm still processing the last day, maybe the last four days? So it might take a little while before I'm able to give you my best."
"Understood," my new boss stated. "And that's a good point. I know you've both been through hell the last few days. I know you'll need time to get familiar with the ship, not to mention your new selves."
Sarah asked, "What's our current mission? Or current job, or whatever you call it? Sorry I'm not up to date on the civilian terminology."
"I'm basically on a contract with a set schedule," Piper explained. "I have three ports of call in this sector, and I visit them in order. We're a few days out from my next destination. I mentioned earlier I generally don't use anything above Jump-0 for these runs? The customer isn't in any great hurry and they prioritize regular consistent service above fast but inconsistent arrivals and departures. I know that probably sounds boring, and I suppose it is? But it's regular work and this client pays well. There's also regular shore-leave, but we'll get to that when the time comes."
She continued, "Having said all that, we're going to be late arriving at the next port because I've had us stopped here for the past day trying to make my mind up whether or not to tow some of that wreck with us. My options are, I can tow one of the larger chunks along. I can't do anything with it at our next port but after that I could drag it someplace I know will pay for it. Then we'd have to use Jump-1 to make the following port on schedule. Or I can fill up the hold with as much high-value salvage as possible and use Jump-1 to our next destination so we reach it on time."
Our new boss glanced back at Sarah and said, "If you're not comfortable with this then feel free to turn me down. But as that ship's engineer I'm sure you know it inside-out. If you'd be willing to assist me figuring out the most-likely salvage that'd be a big help."
I looked over my shoulder at our engineer.
She frowned and twirled some of her long blonde hair as she thought it over. After a few seconds she finally nodded, "Ok boss. If we can get in for a closer look at the stern, I can tell if the engines or power plant are salvageable. And if not, I could probably point to what might be worth your while."
