The Voyager 8 is one of ten human exploration vessels deployed to the Initiative. Donated by the Special Aeronautics Division, The Voyager models are highly versatile, expensive, and very advanced. Most ships, even military ships, are designed with only one mode of travel: interstellar, intrasystem, or planetside. Based on designs of other Expeditionary models, the Voyager series is designed with all three. The Voyager can travel anywhere in the galaxy at any time.

It was a mass of steel, the Voyager 8. Delicate systems hid behind thick shiny armor. Retractable turrets, six in total, lined the underbelly and the topside of the ship. Dual mounted with four barrels, 8 mm rounds. Each gun could chop an air transport in half.

Despite the formidable weaponry, the Voyager 8 did not look like a military vessel. There were no markings, nor a name on the outside. Besides the mounted turrets, no other weaponry was on board. The Voyager, by design, looked like an exploration vessel, except maybe a little thicker plated.

Juno stepped into the closed docking bay, marveling at the beauty of such a ship. Military ships were huge, or very small. They were manned with hundreds of soldiers, or just two or three. The Voyager looked like a comfortable middle ground. She wondered how the inside looked.

The back bay had a door ramp that lowered and raised to accommodate supplies. It was large enough to roll a tank inside. Juno headed for it, suddenly feeling dwarfed by its magnitude as she made her way up the ramp.

Inside, crew members were busy settling things in, bustling from cargo crates to lockers and cages lining the walls. The bay was large, expanding to fit two mid-sized rooms on a secondary deck, while the floor could easily hold fifty people itself.

Even though the bay was large, it was filled almost to the brim with crew and cargo boxes. A forklift hoisted boxes onto the wall of the bay where they were secured by yellow belts. Crewmembers were busy categorizing, sorting, and taking inventory on every item, shouting orders at one another.

Juno thought the bay was definitely large enough to fit a vehicle or two inside. She wondered if they’d be assigned one. Probably.

No one in the crew saluted her as she stepped inside. No one knew who she was. At present, Juno was just one of many personnel in black uniforms making their way through the Voyager. With the black duffle bag and some of her personal things, Juno looked like everyone else hunkered down with junk.

The cargo hold was a mess of people, machinery and movement. Juno tried to see a way out of it all. There was a cargo elevator that went to the second floor: an iron walkway with two rooms behind glass. There were two exit doors on the bay floor too, but hell if she knew where they went.

Juno looked for someone empty of enough responsibility to ask. One of the officers from the briefing was standing nearby. He was tapping something into a data pad near a shipment of equipment. The officer was inundated with crew members asking questions and fumbling around beside him, though.

Juno waded through the other crew members anyway.

“Petty Officer, is it? You have a minute?” He did not, but he’d have to make time.

“Petty Officer is not my rank, greenhorn. What is it?” The man said half mocking, before looking up from his datapad. His body stiffened and he saluted her when he recognized her.

“First officer on deck.” Everyone around stopped what they were doing to salute. It still felt weird.

“At ease, at ease. Just looking for a way onto this bucket.” Everyone relaxed. It took some of them a moment to get back to work. They were still gawking at her.

“Sorry, ma’am. Didn’t recognize you. There’s a lot happening.”

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“No, worries. What’s your name and rank?”

“I am Special Officer Jacob Dennings, ma’am. I’m in charge of this bay.”

“How’s everything running?”

“Operation is smooth, ma’am, but we aren’t getting a lot of time to pack up. It would be better if we launched tomorrow… in my opinion.” It was true. Captain Carter wanted to disembark as soon as possible and that meant as soon as humanly possible. No one had time to do anything.

“I understand. The Captain’s adamant about leaving today, so just do your best.” She had already tried to convince him to push it back, but he refused. Carter was sizing up his crew. Already the games have started, she remembered thinking after the discussion back in the briefing room. Knowing Carter’s way of doing things, there would be plenty of little tests here and there that would push the crew to their brink.

“Yes ma’am. One of those doors will take you to the main hall. The door at the end is a personal elevator to the main decks. I figure you want to drop your stuff off first. The elevator can take you to the crew quarters. From there, the main deck is up a ladder. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you, Special Officer. Resume your duties.”

“Ma’am.” Most of the crew looked experienced, like veterans of their occupation. Though, there were plenty of young faces here, too. She wondered how much overlap there was. I hope they didn’t send us any rookies.

The crew deck was not promising. A living quarter with a kitchen, and RnR area, was small but cozy, however, a long hall lined with small cabs, one on top of another, made up the rest of the quarters. Two people shared a slot, a sort of bunk and across the hall two other people shared another slot. They were like bunk beds but a bit bigger, and pod like. It did not look like a lot of privacy, but there were beds for the entire crew it seemed.

It was exactly as Juno dreaded. The quarters were like marine quarters.

With heavy steps, Juno treaded down the hall looking for an empty place to set her things. She assumed she’d have to just choose a bunk. None of them looked assigned. First though, she wanted to drop off the captain’s bag. At the end of the hall she saw a door that looked like a door to a cabin.

It would be strange if that was Captain Carter’s room, but knowing the militant style of the Captain it would suit him. Ships usually draw designs so that the captain’s quarters were away from standard quarters. Maybe it was different on an exploratory vessel… if that’s what this was.

She made way towards the cabin anyway.

Pleasantly surprised, Juno stepped up to the door only to realize it was her name written across a nameplate on the wall: First Officer Juno. Cabin 1 A. She got her own cabin.

Relief lifted her spirits. That made sense. I’m not a grunt anymore. That meant the captain’s cabin was on a different deck. She smacked the button below the nameplate, and the door popped then slid open.

The cabin was tiny. There was a twin bed, and a chair on the opposite side of the room with a small knee size table jutting from the wall. A small shelf hung on the wall between them. There was a tiny personal toilet with a sink and sliding door near the entrance however. That was a nice positive.

It was small, sure, but Juno’s heart jumped when she laid eyes on it. It was a cabin, her cabin and it had a door. Privacy. She’d never had that before. She dropped her stuff on the floor.

A room of her own. The authority of her position finally sank in. She was number two on the whole of the ship.

The room was ugly as hell, the walls metallic steel colored with a black floor. The ceiling and the wall with the table and chair were solid white, in contrast. The color helped reflect light throughout the room so the ship could save power. It was indeed very ugly, but nothing she wasn’t used to. It helped that it was uniquely hers. The room could have been the size of a personal foot locker and held the smell of old cheese and feet, yet Juno still would have appreciated it. In the marines you own nothing. But here, she was the first officer. She had her own damn room.

She enjoyed her newfound confidence.

With all of the crew throughout the ship, the crew quarters were quiet, relaxing even. There was a hum the ship made that permeated through the deck floor. It was lulling.

This would be where she slept from now on. No more marines, no more pot banging, or alarms. No more distant artillery fire waking up her platoon at odd hours. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be anymore gunfire or bloodshed either. But that was to be determined.

This is it, she thought. This was her new life. After today, she’d be aboard a ship heading out beyond the human systems. A new life, a new mission. Aliens and distant worlds. Exploration. New species, star systems, and worlds abound. And long behind her, her marine days.

But this was for the good of humanity. She knew that. And she was ready for it.

Juno squared her things away in the cabin, then snapped to. She still had a job to do. Leaving her room, Juno marched into the heart of the ship. She had to prepare the Voyager for launch. They’d be leaving soon, out into the unknown…