Alex

I woke to the sound of the alarm on my phone going off. I groaned as I rolled over to my other side as I tried to muffle the noise. That would have worked if this were the twenty-first century. I did research into how people lived back then, and it was a miracle that humanity has gotten to where it is now with how much sleep we did back then. Unfortunately for me, my alarm was one from the twenty-third century, and it would play the most irritating sound the phone could come up with until my neural implants found me to be in a proper (awake) state. And the worst part of the whole thing is that if it played one noise constantly, you would get used to it. So, naturally, to counteract such a glaring oversight, if it detects that you’re getting used to a noise, then it switches to a different one. There’s an old Terran phrase that I feel is very appropriate in times like this: “There’s no rest for the wicked.”

“Alright, alright, I’m up!” I said to no one in particular. The alarm turned off shortly after. For once I decided to sleep on the bed in the cabin instead of the cot I have in the closet, and it was a bit jarring to find myself waking up in here instead of there. Regardless, I sat up and surveyed my room through half lidded eyes. Everything was just the way that I left it: a complete mess. There were still computer parts and general bric-a-brac scattered across the desk, and once I made my way to the edge of the bed, I saw that I hadn’t even tried to clean up the mess of broken mech and shrapnel from the day before. I groaned at the thought of having to clean it up. Mech or no mech, things like cleaning are always a hassle.

The last thing that my eyes were drawn to was the mech itself. The ragged hole in the chest was still clearly visible, and other cosmetic damage was visible, but did not compromise the integrity of the marvel of engineering. That’s right, I have to get the replacement chest piece.

I looked at my phone for any messages that I could have gotten during my sleep, to see that there was one from the fabricator crew of the ship. It read, “Alex, your requested items have been fabricated and are waiting for you in the fabrication suite for you to pick up at your earliest convenience.” Damn, that was quick. The schematic that David sent me must have been a model from a decade ago if it was made that fast. If there was one thing that Terran armor was known for among the population of Terra, it would be that it takes too long to fabricate it in anything other than an autofab on a Terran ship or shipyard, just because of the sheer complexity of the armor plating. That meant that either the design was old or simplified for a Galactic Community fabricator. Either way, it didn’t bode well for the overall quality of the armor, but then again, beggars can’t be choosers.

I took the elevator down to the ground to get myself some food from the storage unit I had in the closet when I suddenly remembered that I was going to have breakfast with Aeva. Shit! Good thing we didn’t agree on a time to meet, otherwise I’d be hosed right now. I quickly went through all my hygiene rituals and was out of the door in my mech in less than five minutes.

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As usual, eyes turned towards me as I made my way through the halls and corridors of the ship. It had never occurred to me that this ship was probably one of the best ones to be crippled on. The corridors were nice and uniform, with no bumps and bulkheads that you have to climb through like on old Terran subs. Through some twisting and turning hallways that I wouldn’t have been able to navigate without the assistance of the real time map that I had of the ship, I finally made my way to the mess hall. As the elevator doors opened, I noticed that it was much fuller than the last time that I had been there, with nearly every seat taken. The chatter in the room died for a moment as everyone looked at me. It only took a second before I spotted Aeva waving their arm at me and gesturing to a seat next to them. I gave them a wave back as I wheeled my way over. “I’ll sit with you in a second, just give me a minute to find something to eat.”

“Don’t take too long, my food is almost ice cold!” they cried in mock impatience.

I waved them off as I made my way over to the buffet. Thank God there isn’t a line, otherwise this would take forever! I looked over the generous spread before me, consisting of various fruits and vegetables for the herbivores on the crew, along with meats for the obligate carnivores on the crew. I deliberated for a moment before finally settling on the same fruit that I had yesterday, a tidamia if I’m remembering the name correctly. I picked up a knife as well and made my way back to where Aeva was sitting. “Morning!” I said as I rolled up to the table. “Sorry to keep you waiting for so long, I forgot about us meeting up for breakfast until about ten minutes ago.”

“That’s ok, even if we miss the goal that we have in the sky, we’ll end up among the stars either way,” Aeva said while they took a big bite of the meat on their plate.

I started to cut up my fruit. “What is that, a saying among your people?” I asked as I finished cutting up the fruit.

“Yeah, something like that, but it’s only been in our history for seven or eight centuries when we discovered spaceflight,” Aeva explained.

“Very interesting,” I said as I popped open the hatch, causing everyone who wasn’t already looking at me to stare at me in disbelief. I stared back at one of the crew members as I manipulated the arm of the mech to bring a handful of fruit to me in the cockpit. I took a bite. Damn! Just as good as the first time I tried it! “So, do you have any big plans for today?” I asked.

“I just have a patrol to be on, nothing too special I’m afraid. What about you?” they asked.

I gave a shrug. “Well, until the captain decides what to do with me, I don’t really have all that much to do besides fix the mech. It’ll take me a bit of time to do that, and I’ll most likely need some help with that. But if you're busy today, then I can always go over to the engineers to get help.”

They nodded. “That sounds like a pretty solid plan. Do you know when the captain will get back to you yet?”

“I don’t have the slightest clue when that’ll happen, but hopefully soon,” I said as I took another bite.

Aeva looked down at their communicator and did a double take. “Oh stars! I didn’t see the time at all!” Aeva suddenly stood up and desperately shoveled the rest of the food into their mouth. “I’m late! I’ll see you later!” Aeva said as they took off for the elevator.

“See you when I see you!” I shouted after them. I was about to take another bite when my phone went off after a text came in. I looked down at it and saw that it was from the captain!

“Alex,” it started, “your proposal has been considered, and has been approved. Please report to the bridge at your earliest convenience.”

I smiled. Everything’s coming up Alex!