Nils felt nervous, why wouldn’t he be? He was about to be thrust into a whole new setting, a whole new life.

Standing a few meters from the ramp leading up to the ship Helmsdale, Nils had his card ready in a tight grip, whitening his knuckles. He had to breathe, taking big gulps of smelly air, then breathing it out. It didn’t work, Nils still felt nervous.

He glanced around, standing in line beside three different people, all strangers, all just as quiet as he was. Behind him stood several hundreds, if not thousands of people, all waiting to show their cards and get on the Helmsdale.

Nils noticed that many were talking, many were quiet, many were nervously tip-toeing around, others smiling stupidly. It was a weird blend of emotions. Nils himself where both excited and nervous. Excited that his dream would come true, nervous about all the new people.

What dream, you might ask.

Well, during the week of waiting, waiting for this day, Nils thought about being a medic, all the benefits and negatives, quickly realising that being a medic wouldn’t have to be that bad. All he had to do, was rescue some people, get hailed as a hero, then get back home as a superstar.

No problem at all.

From all the dreams Nils had had, this was not too bad. His earlier dream about being a heavy-gunner entailed him killing an entire army of mech’s by himself, then get home and never have to pay for food ever again.

What was rescuing a few people compared to that? No problem for Nils.

“Next.”

A droning voice said, his energy spent, he had been doing this for the entire day, checking people in, like a machine. Nils took a step forward, giving an awkward smile and handing his card to the man. The man didn’t even glance at it, merely scanning it, then reading out what it said on his monitor.

“You’ve been assigned to group fifty seven. You’ll get your orders from the captain there.”

The man looked tiredly at the monitor, but as he reached his hand out to give it back to Nils, his eyes garnered a little luster, looking up at Nils in surprise. He sat up a little straighter, then gave the card with a fast nod.

Nils nodded helpfully back, happily taking back his card but feeling weird about the sudden three sixty from the man. Nils walked past him, noticing that the man was staring at Nils even as the line moved up behind Nils. Nils shook his head and focused forward, seeing the ramp that lead up to the enormous ship, the ship docked within an enormously wide space, far bigger than any normal city. Nils had seen many ships, but this was huge, he couldn’t fathom how normal humans could have built it. Maybe it wasn’t normal humans?

Moving up the ramp, Nils realised that it would take maybe a full five minutes to just walk the straight path up and into the ship. The scale was mind-boggling.

Nils glanced over the railing, momentarily dizzy from the great height. He straightened up, walking in the middle of the ramp, trying to comfort himself with the thought that this flimsy metal railing would protect him.

He looked to his left, seeing six other pathways leading up to the ship, each with many people walking on it. Looking to his right, he saw ten walkways, each with people walking on it.

Then Nils looked behind himself and had to stop dead in his tracks as the amount of people baffled him. There were lines upon lines of people, stretching further than even the distant houses. How they would bring everyone into the ship in a day was out of Nils comprehension.

Another soldier bumped into Nils, walking around the dazed Nils and taking him out of his thoughts. Nils turned back and continued walking, realising just how big a thing he’d joined.

It took about five minutes to get up and inside the ship, give or take. Once inside, he was met with brightly lit hallways and many signs, each pointing in a different direction. At the “entrance” of the ship, there stood a man, looking just as tired as the man who had told him which group he belonged too.

He walked up to the man, meeting his eyes and greeting him.

“Hello.”

The man sighed, eyes barely looking at Nils as he said back.

“What’s your designated group?”

Nils paused for a moment, then said unhelpfully.

“Uuuh, I dont remember”

The man raised a brow, looking annoyed instead of tired.

“How can you forg- fuck, just give me your card” He said while reaching out his hand, it took Nils a moment to understand what he meant, annoying the man even further. But eventually Nils did, and felt his cheeks heat up.

As the man got the card, he looked down on it, then raised a brow in interest. Saying.

“Your in group fifty seven, that's in deck six. You can get further information once there. And uh, congrats.”

He handed back the card to Nils, standing a little straighter than before. Nils took the card, a bit confused about what had he done to be congratulated. The man coughed awkwardly, still standing with his straight back and pointing to the left.

“The-the stairs are that way.”

He said while trying to avoid Nils eyes.

Nils nodded in thanks, still feeling a bit shy but still smiling at the man, then walked away, aiming for the stairs. He might not understand why he was congratulated, but he was happy nonetheless. With big steps he made his way towards the stairs, aiming for, uuuuh, deck six.

The hallways inside the ship might have been brightly lit, but they were tiny, barely big enough to fit two people side by side. Although, for a strange reason, they were high. Nils couldn’t reach the ceiling even after jumping. His boots clanking against the shiny metal ground, not worn down by years and years of use.

Once Nils got to the stairs, he had to wait, streams of soldiers coming up and down them.

And waited.

He had to wait for quite a while, not comfortable enough to just push himself in, merely finding himself waiting for an opening.

An opening that never came.

“Dont be shy man, just get in there”

A man said from behind. Nils looked past his shoulder and had to strain his neck up to see the mans face. A huge fellow with muscles that seemed to enclose his thick neck and arms that didn’t seem to be able to touch his penis. He smiled cheerfully down at Nils, then took a step towards the stairs.

Nils stared at him in awe, and the man stopped in his step while he said.

“You coming or not?”

Shaken from thoughts, Nils smiled happily and followed the man close behind, the man pushing himself into the mass of soldiers. Or to be honest, his mere presence was enough to make people stop in their steps, waiting for him to go past them.

Nils followed, practically pushing himself against the back of the big man as they made their way down the stairs. Nils was happy that he was walking down rather than up, if he had walked up, Nils didn’t know if he would have the power to get down again.

Eventually, the big man hopped off, and just so happened to get off at the sixth deck. Nils breathed out in relief, then looked up at the big man.

“Thanks.”

The man looked behind himself, a moment of surprise flashing on his face, then smiling back.

“You're still here? And no problem kiddo”

Nils didn’t mind the kiddo comment, he was, after all, tiny compared to this man. Something that triggered his blabber mouth as he asked.

“How did you get that big?”

The big man was about to turn around and walk away, but stopped as Nils asked his question, turning back to face him. His smile growing even bigger as he responded with.

“A lot of time at the gym. And let’s just say, a few unnatural means.”

He flashed some teeth and winked, moving to turn away again. But stopping awkwardly, as Nils asked again.

“How many times? What unnatural means? Can you teach me?”

The man turned back, his smile briefly disappearing, his face growing thoughtful.

“Man, that’s the kind of questions you ask after a beer, shouldn't you head for your group right now?”

Nils nodded at the big man, then said happily.

“Yes!”

And then the two stood silent, the man looking down at Nils and Nils lookig up at him. An awkward silence, only broken once Nils realised how weird he was, his face beaming red as he said.

“Oh sorry, ehm. I dont know where to go.”

The man chuckled at that, saying.

“Hehe, man, you weird. I might be able to help with that. What group you in?”

Nils looked up with a smile.

“Fifty six! Wait, no... Fifty.. seven?”

The man shook his head in surprise, looking down at Nils and saying.

“Really?”

Nils nodded, and the man continued.

“Can I see your card?”

Nils nodded again, briefly shuffling through his pockets and handing it to the big man. The man looked at it, but only for a moment, whistling loudly as he said.

“Wow, well shoot me blind would you look at that. Then I guess were comrades”

He handed back the card, then motioned with his hand towards Nils. Nils took the card and looked at the big man’s hand, not realising what it meant. But moments later understanding it to be a handshake and quickly clasping it, the man having a weaker grip than Nils expected.

“I’m Styr, also known as big man Styr, but you can call me whatever.”

Nils shook Styr’s hand enthusiastic, nodding while he spoke. Then as Styr dropped his hand, he looked expectantly towards Nils. Nils smiled back until he realised that the big man was waiting for Nils name.

“Oh sorry, I’m Nils. I’m a medic, and you can call me the great savior Nils.”

Styr smiled, then laughed.

“Haha, well you're a cocky one aren’t you? Dont let that get to your head or the captain will have to bonk some sense into it.”

Styr said, turning around as he began walking.

“Come, I’ll show you the rest of the team.”

Nils complied, following closely behind the big man back, keeping even step, or as even as he could. The big man steps were long, making it hard for Nils to keep up without jogging slightly. Styr would periodically look behind, but as time went on and he noticed that Nils didn’t have a hard time keeping up, he kept his sight straight.

Nils took the time while they walked to look around, but felt a little disappointed. There wasn’t much to see except for the many corridors and many doors. Each with a plaque that Nils never had the time to read, only those that had short simple words such as “Cleaning” or “Armory”. Everything else was the same. Metal floors and metal walls, rounded mirrors by the corners of the corridors so not to bump into anyone and a few monitors. There were numbers by the beginning/end of every corridor, but at the moment, sixty-eight point five didn’t really tell Nils anything.

None of the monitors were broadcasting anything, so they were just a flat black nothing. Pretty boring to look at, actually.

It took quite a while for Styr and Nils to get to their destination, Nils wondering how the hell he would find his way around the ship. Everything looked the same, everything except the numbers and monitors, and sometimes the doors. Once Styr stopped, Nils bumped into his back, weirdly soft.

“Here we are, I’ll introduce you so don’t be nervous. If you have questions, you can take them with the captain.”

He said with an easy smile, reaching his hand for the side of the door, swooshing it past a blank, flat space to the right of it. The door opened in a sideways motion, fast enough to make Nils jump back in surprise.

Styr didn’t even twitch and took a big step into the room, Nils following with a shade of red on his cheeks.

“Hello fuckers, we’ve finally got our rookie!”

The room was larger than Nils had expected, filled with bunk beds. It looked like any normal barrack, just a little smaller and with more room to play. Infront of every bunk bed stood a table, and on the side of each table there were chairs. At this moment, most people were either sitting, or lying on a bed. Two were playing some game at a table closest to the door.

“Finaly, someone new to stink the place down.”

Someone said from the bunk beds, jumping up on his feet and moving towards Nils. Nils saw him, but his eyes stopped once they noticed someone familiar at the corner of his eye, someone he had hoped to not have to see again, someone he met during that trip to the bar.

Styr walked in front of Nils, blocking of the way for the previous man, then saying.

“Captain, this is Nils.”

And the captain looked up, his eyes meeting Nils, and Nils choked back a yelp. The captain was the stranger from the bar, and he seemed to recognise Nils just as fast as Nils did. The two stared at each other awkwardly.

Of course this would happen, thought Nils, feeling like the unluckiest man in the world.