Sali stepped into the room, as the guard moved off to the side. Seeing the captain settled on the sofa, she gave him a smile and sat on the opposite one.
He waited for her to get settled and then started, “How’ve you been?”
‘Uh, fine?”
“Glad to hear that, now you did express an interest with your credit status?”
She nodded, “So what did you buy me?”
“Well as I said the other day I bought you the things you will need. So far you have a bed, and three sheet sets to go with it. I also purchased a set of casual clothes for you, nothing fancy. Just some basic shirts and skirts, and a couple of dresses. No underwear though.”
She blushed, “I’m not sure...”
He chuckled, “and that would be why I didn’t. Now I do it for Ruri, but that’s a very different thing.”
“Right, so what else?”
“A collection of hair care and bathroom products, I picked items noted to be popular with our Valorian residents and consulted with both Vera and Reia on the ones I chose. This includes a hair dryer, several soaps and shampoos. Along with combs and brushes.”
“It sounds like I’ll be pretty well set when I get out.”
“In theory, yes. I figured I’d give you everything when you got out. I have it in storage for you in the meantime, and around the same time we’ll see what kind of quarters I can arrange.”
She leaned back, “I guess I’ll just spend my time dreaming about it in the meantime. I don’t have much else to do.”
“Yes, I’ve heard but the guards said the paints were well received.”
Sali smiled, “Thanks for those, I was growing bored out of my skull. There isn’t much to do when you are locked in a cell all day. I miss the factory.”
Countryman chuckled, “I thought you would say that. So I arranged for something for you to do.”
She jumped up, “you did!” stopping herself a moment later from hugging him she said, “Thank you! What is it?”
“Farming. More specifically we practice a variation of Hydroponics called Aquaponics aboard ship. Where we raise fish alongside the plants we grow.”
“Never thought I’d be a farmer, but it sounds interesting.”
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Sali looked around the chamber in amazement. Rows upon rows of alien plants grew within the chamber. People were everywhere, and below her feet she could see into a massive fish tank, full of alien fish and even more plants. It was almost like stepping into an alien ecosystem. Yet while alien there was the tinge of the familiar.
A man stepped from the crowd, he was professionally dressed with a neatly trimmed beard, “Ah Captain, this must be the young lady you were talking about. I’m technician Redfox and this little area is my domain.”
“It’s something else.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Oh I agree. Now I’ve heard you have no prior experience with farming but that’s quite alright. Many of our civilian helpers didn’t either when they first arrived, but our little facilities does generate a lot of jobs for the community.”
“It’s so bright in here too.”
He chuckled, “Yeah the rest of the ship is pretty dim, but in here we maintain a light cycle. Right now we are in the middle of a day cycle.”
“I see, so what do we do here?”
“Well there is a lot to do, we have both an active fish population to manage and quite a few different plant species. One thing about our facilities is that they are quite productive and they operate year round. I was thinking I’d start you with the fish, they mostly take care of themselves, but we still have to monitor the environment and distribute feed.
“In theory it’s stable but the tanks can fluctuate on occasion and the fish don’t respond well if things aren’t right. They can take some variation though, and we have a computer monitoring that and letting us know if things get off. Last week we had a minor scare as the pH balance was off. Turned out to be a clog, leading to a minor build-up of excess waste. Once we cleared that out, the water went back to perfect.”
“Huh interesting, you mentioned feed?”
“Yep, some of the fish we raise are carnivorous, but for those that aren’t we add specially formulated pellets to the water. For those that eat other fish, we toss in the chunks of fish meat or small fish for them to eat. In this tank we mainly raise tilapia, they are excellent for this and they take well to the food we give them.”
“They are kinda pretty.”
“Oh there are much prettier fish, and we raise other species as well. A variety of cod, bass, salmon, catfish, and a few more. We have chambers like this one that separate the fish and the plants we grow, but we also have others where the fish and plants are more integrated. If you head down that way, I can show you the rice fields. Rice was traditionally grown in water-immersed paddies, so growing them in the same water we are raising fish works out perfectly fine. In fact, the fish are often beneficial to the plant.”
Sali nodded, then turned to say something to the captain. Only he was on the other side of the room, having a conversation with someone. “Huh interesting, so what kind of plants are we raising?”
“In here we raising a mix of plants, this chamber has tomatoes, several varieties of bell peppers, a few different kinds of onions, and a selection of herbs.” he pulled her over to a vine plant with a mixture of red and green orbs growing along its vine, “These are tomatoes for example, you can tell which ones are ripe and ready for harvest based on color.”
As he spoke a female worker came over with a basket and started picking the red ones. Using a pair of scissors to snip a small section of vine with each one she took.
“They turn a bright red when ripe and ready for harvest. We take a small section of vine with each one, as they keep a little longer and taste better if separated just before cooking. The vine isn’t edible itself, and we use those sections to make compost for our plants. This can be important to keep production up.” he paused and gestured to a door.
The captain saw and smiled, “taking a tour?”
Sali nodded, “looks like it.”
“Have fun then, I have some things to do, so I will be by later to see how you are doing.”
With that Countryman left and she followed Redfox out of the chamber and down the hall into another one. It was set up differently, but she could see more fish in tanks below while above there were rows of tall plants.
“Now then in this section, we are growing grain, there are a number of similar chambers like this one. Grains like corn and wheat are easy to grow and in high demand. Rice is another grain we grow but it likes a different setup from this. I’ll show you one of those chambers later.”
“You have more? This one is huge!”
“This entire deck and the one below are agriculture. This is where we produce all the food you and everyone else eat. There are a lot of mouths to feed too. Last I checked we had some eighty-five thousand people across three ships.”
Sali blinked, “That’s a lot of people.”
“Tell me about it. Honestly, I don’t envy the quartermasters. The ship was never designed for that many people, yet we managed.”
“I’ve heard the ship was a bit crowded, but I’d never realized it was that crowded.”
“Yes, well let’s focus on the tour and then I will show you a few of things you’ll be doing while with us.”
“Sounds good,” said Sali as he led her into the chamber. She ended up having a good time as she was shown around the facility.