Aspen wandered down the hallway, reading the directional signs bolted to the walls every few meters, deciding to first make her way to the search and rescue area; she was unsurprised to find it empty. Several vacuum suits stood in their cradles lining the walls, ready to be sealed around their user in a moment’s notice. The owner of each suit’s name was on a placard above each cradle, none of them being anyone Aspen had met yet. An airlock large enough to fit about ten people in vac-suits was sealed into the bulkhead, the red green light indicator above it lit, letting all know there was atmosphere on the other side of the door. She knew better than to mess with any of the equipment in this room, the need for expedient entry and donning of the suits creating an honor system of security for not fucking with people who would be trying to save lives.

Leaving the search and rescue bay and passing sick bay once more, Aspen made her way back to the common room. Leaning on the railing of the mezzanine, Aspen looked over the sizable room. Gauging the size of the room, she figured it must take up a good portion of the mid-area of the ship, with the cargo hold being just behind and below it being a roughly equal size. The common room was now fuller than before, and several groups of men and women crowded around tables talking loudly and eating, a large screen projected on one of the walls showed a group of talking heads discussing something about the progression in terraformation of one of the planets orbiting Proxima Centauri.

Aspen descended to the main level of the common room and made her way toward a cafeteria-esque serving window. A tall and thin person with dark skin sat behind the counter, vitiligo on their face descended from their hairline to below their left eye, waiting to fulfill orders. Aspen approached the window and smiled, “Hey, do you have anything to go? I’m gonna check out the ship.”

They smiled, “Sure do, I’ll get ya something less crumb-y so you don’t make a mess,” they dipped below the counter, popping back up with a steaming styrofoam cup, the label on it’s side labeling the contents as pho, “You new to the ship?”

Aspen nodded, taking the cup and blowing on the steaming contents, “Mhmm, I’m Aspen, the new SRT.”

“Ooh, the new SRT! I heard we were picking one up, I’m Ericka, they/them,” they extended their hand over the counter for a fist bump, “I’m the lead cook on the ship. Sorry about the noodle cup, I usually prep stuff but since we are docked it’s all instant meals today.”

Aspen bumped their fist and smiled, “Oh don’t worry I lived off stuff like this all through A-school,” she cracked open a set of bamboo chopsticks and took a slurp of noodles, “Any suggestions on where to go first?”

Ericka tilted their head in thought, a hand under their chin, “I assume you found your work space, maybe go check out the gym area? Or the main crew bunk area? Those are both towards the back of the ship, near maintenance so you’ll see everything along the way.”

Aspen nodded, swallowing another mouthful of pho, “I’ll head that way. Thanks for the noodles!”

Ericka smiled and nodded, leaning forward onto the counter, “No problem, any time you are hungry or if you just wanna chat I’m around this area, don’t be a stranger!”

Aspen walked off, cradling her noodle cup as she found the door leading towards the stern of the ship. Noting how clean everything inside the ship looked, she took extra care to not spill or splash any of the broth as she ate.

Passing by several doors labeled as bunk bays, she stopped at an open one and poked her head inside, pod-like bunks in vertical rows of three lined the walls through the entirety of the room, with a door at the end center labeled as the bay’s communal shower and bathroom area. One of the pods was open, a vacuum proof gasket seal around its radius in case of loss of atmosphere, the owner’s bed left unmade and their sheets spilling over the side. The interior of the pods were surprisingly roomy, with Aspen guessing that even someone as large as Tara was would be able to crawl on their hands and knees inside while it was closed.

Curiosity sated, Aspen finished her noodles and tossed the styrofoam cup and chopsticks into a recycling hatch and kept moving. A short distance later, she found the gym. Several crew members stood outside the door wearing gym shorts and tank tops, talking excitedly to each other as they looked through the door.

“Is she gonna do it? That’s more than I can pull by 100 kilos,” one of the men nudged the other with his elbow, a loud grunt was heard and a loud metallic bang echoed in Aspen’s ears.

Squeezing her way past the gawking men and through the door, Aspen looked to the center of the gym to find Tara, of all people, standing atop a deadlift platform with a barbell sitting in front of her, six red plates on each side of the bar collared into place. Tara traded high fives with a few others near her and spotted Aspen and gave her a smile and a wave, popping the lever on her weightlifting belt, “Hey Aspen, how ya settling?”

Aspen returned the smile and walked over to the platform where Tara stood, “Good! I met my CO, got my bunk,” she looked down at the bar and around the gym, seeing other people from Tara’s group of Marines scattered throughout the gym doing various exercises, “I see you’re settling in well.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Tara chuckled, “Definitely,” she motioned at the bar in front of her, “Gotta show you Navy folks how a Marine exercises,” she turned and picked up two blue plates from a rack, loading one on each side of the bar atop the red ones, “I bet I’ve already broken a ship record.”

Aspen shrugged, “Well your title is safe from me, I think I can maybe deadlift seventy five kilos,” she quickly counted the plates on Tara’s bar, “And here you are about to pull three forty. Going for a personal record?”

Grinning, Tara refastened her belt and motioned for Aspen to step away, “Nah.”

Tara chalked her hands in a bowl and set up in front of the bar, spreading her stance to shoulder with foot placement and dug her feet into the floor, she took a deep sucking breath and reached down to grab the bar. Pulling the slack from the bar, she dropped down, straightening her back and began to pull. Tara’s face quickly turned red, the muscles in her arms bulging as the weight came off the floor. Tara exhaled forcefully as she rolled her shoulders back and locked the weight out in a standing upright position, then brought the weight back down to the floor.

Aspen started clapping and was about to let out a cheer when Tara’s stance dropped back down again, and she repeated the lift, and then did it again. The whole gym had stopped their exercises and was now watching. Tara’s face was completely red by the time she finished the third repetition, sweat rolling off her face as she hopped up and popped her belt, and let out a roar.

The gym went nuts, the Marines swarmed Tara, slapping her on the back, and shouting, and even the Navy crew members were cheering for her, excited by witnessing someone complete a monster lift not once, but three times. Aspen smiled and stood back, from the crowd, not looking to get some one’s sweat rubbed on her as they all crowded around her.

She shouldn’t have bothered though, as Tara extracted herself from the crowd and clapped a hand on Aspen’s shoulder, a small puff of chalk poofing up, a huge grin on her face, “I think I definitely have the ship record.”

Aspen looked at the giant chalky handprint on her shoulder, standing out remarkably well against her gray uniform and smiled, shaking her head, “I’d say by the reaction of some of the Navy guys in here. Surprised they aren’t upset by a Marine coming and taking their title.”

Tara shrugged, “Lifters are the same across the whole Federation, we just like seeing big weights moved around,” she looked back to the deadlift platform, then to the clock on the wall, “What are you doing later?”

Aspen shrugged, “I dunno, we still have like 14 hours till we make way, and I’m just checking the ship out,” she cocked an eyebrow at Tara, “Why?”

Tara’s reddened and sweaty face got a shade darker, her pale lips contrasted greatly against her olive skin, “Uh, well I was wondering if you wanted to hit the chow hall together or something… It’s okay if you say no, no pressure or anything.”

Aspen felt her ears grow slightly hot, she thought Tara was pretty, and maybe she was just wanting to be friends when they had met on Triton before, but seeing her blush when asking her question made her realize there may be more to Tara’s interest, “Sure, I’d like that,” she pulled her tab out, “Here, let me get your info so we can message.”

Aspen was about to hand her tab over to Tara, then remembered the other woman’s chalky hands, thought better of it, and had her retrieve her own tab from her bag and they tapped them together, transferring each other’s contact information instantaneously.

Tara smiled, stowing her tab back in her gym bag, “I’ll message you later, I still have some exercises to do.”

Aspen’s stomach fluttered slightly, “I’m looking forward to it.”

\\\

Aspen blushed again as she exited the gym, one of the Marines from Tara’s unit giving her a knowing wink as she walked by. As she entered the hallway, she put her back to the the wall and smiled again, her mind reeling. Her first day on the ship and she already had a date! Was it a date? Was she allowed to date other people on the boat?

Aspen’s thoughts were interrupted by her tab emitting a soft ding and she opened it to a message from Tara: an animated potato lifting a barbell over its head. Aspen giggled and sent a laughing emoji, then decided to message Terrance.

* Aspen: Terrance, I think I have a date?

* Terrance: Holy shit, no way, ON THE FIRST DAY? What are they like? Tell me everything.

* Aspen: She’s a Marine! Super tall and strong, like 2 meters tall, and she’s really pretty. I think she’s from Earth’s Mediterranean?

* Terrance: A Marine? Girrrrlll. If you can, snap a pic together and send it. Ye shall be judged.

* Aspen: lol, I’ll do what I can, but no promises. We are meeting for dinner later, which from what the cook told me will probably be a cup of noodles or something.

* Terrance: Oh how romantic. Good luck, Asp. I better hear all about it.

Aspen sent Terrance a thumb up emoji and pocketed her tab. She looked down the hall towards the maintenance and engine zones and thought of going down there, but decided against it, she was going to go back to her room and study Dr. Holt’s medical protocols while she waited for Tara to message her.