Harriet woke up, well got up; she’d been too angry to sleep even in her last night of comfort in her state room. She had realised sometime during the night that she was in for at least a year of communal living with dozens of other ratings in a ship’s dorm. That made her angrier and she stormed out of bed and into the shower. Her mood was not approved by the shower being out of action due to the loss of water storage during the attack. The room’s console informed her she had been allocated a litre of grey water to perform her ablutions which would be dispensed into the basin only. Fuming, she managed to work out how to dispense her emergency ration of water and did her best to clean herself with it - at least she still had copious supplies of cleanser. She remembered to stash a fair number of them in her duffel. She had no idea what would happen to her personal possessions now but she suspected it would involve being shoved into a storage locker and forgotten about forever. She started rooting through the wardrobes and drawers she’d unpacked into and started removing the small number of valuable and meaningful items she’d brought. Luckily most of her most treasured possessions were due to be shipped to her university quarters separately. Hopefully there would be time to divert them back home; nothing of her old life was going to find a place here she thought angrily.
Looking at her dresses ruefully she pulled on the flight suit again, and looked at herself in the mirror. The flight suit hung unflatteringly over her tall frame. Sighing she tied her hair up into a bun and went over to the small desk and comms unit and started to think about what she was going to tell her father. Maybe she should tell him the truth - that would show those idiots - but although she was furious she had meant what she said the previous day - she didn’t actually want any of them to die on her account. Then she remembered the bloody pilot - she’d have to be really careful when speaking to her father. If that part of the story slipped out it wouldn’t just be the idiots who had their necks on the block. Well she had her orders she guessed and so she spent the next hour rehearsing how she was going to break the news to her dad.
Finally after running through about seven different versions of her story she felt ready to face him. Suppressing all her anger she put on her cheeriest expression and then punched in their family’s secret security code into the comms unit on the desk. To her relief it recognised the Lord Mayor’s security override and began to connect her to the ultra hardened quantum comms system that was standard fare for Lord Mayors. Not before too long, her father’s coat of arms came up on the screen and it informed her a connection was being established. Seconds later the coat of arms faded from the screen and her father’s face appeared: pale, care worn and shrouded by greying, close cropped, nut brown hair.
“Harriet, my darling,” he began, “thank goodness you’re alright. Your mother and I have been so worried and all the Admiralty could tell us was that the Whittington was attacked and you were evacuated successfully to the Without.”
“I’m so sorry father,” she began, “I was so scared, men were dying all around me. They were after me. The Captain of Marines here got me out on the shuttle. By the time I got to my university quarters I just collapsed asleep.”
“The important thing is you’re safe,” her father said before appearing to notice her flight suit and surroundings for the first time, “Harriet, why are you back on a ship and not in your quarters in the Without.”
“I did something foolish, father.”
“What have you done Harriet?” he asked gravely.
“I, I,” she hesitated, watching her father visibly slump, “I just couldn’t stand it; the number of people who died to get me out. I enlisted.”
“You did what!” Her father had leapt up, “you enlisted? How could you be so foolish? What am I going to tell your mother? You’ve just signed yourself up for 45 years of naval service; not even as an officer. Why Harriet, for god’s sake why?”
“I was just so scared, I sat in that room all night weeping. Then in the morning it seemed the only thing I could do to make amends.”
“There was no damn amends to make. Those men knew their duty and died doing it. Your duty was to become the next scion of this house not run away to be a sailor. Do you know how many attempts on my life there have been since I became Lord Mayor? Thirty seven, that’s how many; but that’s why we have intelligence services and security details.”
“I’m sorry father,” she said crying, hoping she wasn’t laying it on too thick, “I just did what I felt was right.”
“Harriet, what’s right and what’s best are not the same thing. I wish you had realised that,” sighing he said, “you know there’s nothing I can do now. Once the Admiralty has its claws into you it doesn’t let go. The best I can probably do is get you transferred into officer training once you pass through basic.”
“I know, I’ve realised that,” she said, mopping up her tears on the sleeve of her flight suit, “you’re right. I made a terrible mistake but now I have to live with it.”
“That you do child, we all will have to live with the consequences of it,” he said relatively calmly before his visage slipped, his head bowed and he said, “you could have been Lord Mayor one day Harriet. At the very least a powerful and respected member of the Aldermany. Now what will you be? An undistinguished naval officer? You’re not cut out for that life Harriet.”
“I know,” she sobbed - genuinely this time.
“I don’t know what to say,” her father replied, “you’ve made your bed, only now we all have to goddamn lie in it. I have no idea how your mother will react other than I know it won’t be good for either of us.”
Harriet merely nodded in response to that outburst.
“You’ve been so stupid Harriet, I thought we had taught you better,” he began before clearly another thought had popped into his head, “no one pressured you to enlist did they. Not the Captain or that Captain of Marines you were with?”
“No father, I only met the Captain once at a dinner on board and the Captain of Marines was only concerned about getting me out. He couldn't have cared less what was happening to me once he’d got me onto the Without.”
“Hmmph,” her father exclaimed, before continuing, “I’ve got to sign off now Harriet. I need to inform your mother, after summoning my security detail, and then I’ll have to make a press statement about you enlisting and try and make some hay out of this shit show. You realise this will all fall on Thomas now to keep the show on the road and he’ll be doing it without your help.”
“Yes father, please pass on my apologies to Thomas.”
“I expect you to do that yourself next time the Navy permits you to speak to him. God knows when that might be. I don’t even know what personal comms time they allot new recruits.”
“Yes father,” she replied.
“Well I guess there’s nothing left to say,” her father said sadly, “I’ll speak to you when I can/”
He signed off before Harriet could even say goodbye. For the second time that morning she genuinely wept.
--------------------------------------
Chloe hadn’t slept all night. She’d spent the whole time restoring the pod into something that the crew wouldn’t notice had been catastrophically damaged. Luckily, she thought grimly, all the engineers that were familiar enough with the pod to notice the repairs she was making were all dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.
Fuck she was tired, fuck her whole engineering detail were dead, fuck she’d been working seven hours exposed to vacuum but at least the pod looked like it was functioning now. Not that it was. It was completely fucking dead as well. Chloe had just repaired its outer shell, jerry rigged some system chips into it to produce a series of fake diagnostics, to be uploaded with the rogue pilot spiral the captain wanted somewhat later. Now she just needed to sneak back out of engineering, dump the vacuum suit somewhere and then report for duty in the next twenty minutes so she could pick up another vacuum suit and spend another seven hours, with as many systems techs as she could scrape up who were rated to work in vacuum, sealing the hull breach. It would take that long at least. Then her next sleep shift would be spent getting the next lot of system techs she’d be assigned, who’d most likely never been down in main engineering before, to get the drives back online. Then another shift getting as much of the rest of the ship’s systems restored before she could finally sleep. The Captain’s request to jerry rig some manual controls somewhere was going to take longer. She’d need to find somewhere near waste reclamation where Sparrow would be based to install it. She’d need to then disguise it but still leave Sparrow access if they needed it.
Sparrow, she hoped she’d be ok today. She didn’t doubt the pilot when she said she had the technical skills to work on any of the ship’s systems. She did doubt that a scared teenage girl, with no experience of social interaction and in such poor physical health would be able to take control of a work detail and command them like a proper Warrant Officer. Maybe that had been a mistake - she should have made her a greenling - but Chloe hadn’t wanted to lose the friendship of the pilot and that required them to be peers, or nearly peers in this case. Chloe had fiddled the quartering assignments. She would take over as the senior Warrant in dorm 4, where she could keep an eye on Sparrow. She’d assigned Ms Ellis to that dorm as well - she’d need a different kind of watching as well. Lucky Amir, sitting pretty in his cabin next to the marine’s dorm.
-------------------------------------------------
Sparrow woke up, that was new, she’d never slept before the pod had automatically adjusted her physiology so she could always be on duty when she wasn’t in hibernation. She guessed in the absence of the pod her body’s natural systems were taking over. She wondered what she should do next. She guessed she should wash or something. She wondered where that was. Unlike Ms Liu who was a Warrant Officer Class 1 and as such got a very small cabin to herself connected to the dormitory. Sparrow, as Warrant Officer Class 2 MacLeod, had the privilege of a cubicle within the dormitory, but whilst she could shut the door there was no washing facilities within it, unlike in Ms Liu’s cabin. She guessed she should go out and find them - they’d be some within the dorm somewhere.
She stepped out into the dorm with the wash kit a very tired Ms Liu had thrown into her cubicle at some point in the night. It was still sparsely populated; but to her surprise she saw Lady Ellis unpacking in the corner of the dorm. Otherwise there were a few other sailors and NCOs in various states of undress as they rose before the morning shift. She went to check the time and realised that without her direct connection to the interface she couldn’t tell; she would have to buy a watch or check on her work tablet. Aware she was standing around in her sleep suit, she looked all around the dorm to see if she could locate the wash rooms. Suddenly she recognised the symbol on a door at the back of the dorm, not far from where Lady Ellis was unpacking. She headed over there and realised she was agonising over whether she should acknowledge Lady Ellis. She didn’t seem like she wanted to be friends but clearly Captain Hernandez had decided to put all the problem children together, with the exception of Mr Choudary. Well it would be awkward not to greet her too. Sparrow sighed, clearly human relationships were something she’d have to work on to maintain her cover but she just couldn’t decide on the right course of action. With Ms Liu they had gotten to know each other over a long time and eventually Sparrow had been able to work out when she was happy, angry or sad and how to respond appropriately; but with the other’s she had no idea other than Mr Choudary was obviously angry and scared. Eventually she settled on fulfilling the role of a good Warrant.
“Welcome aboard Seaman Ellis,” she said as cheerily as she could muster.
“I can’t believe I have to sleep here,” she grumbled as her only response and then went back to unpacking her bags before a Petty Officer shouted over: “Seaman! You should address the Warrant as Sir or Warrant. Remember or you’ll end up on a disciplinary”
Lady Ellis visibly cringed but grudgingly offered up an apology suffixed with a Sir at the end.
Sparrow left it at that and proceeded into the shower room. She’d gathered the theory from the shuttle’s head but this equipment was all different; well the shower was, the toilet which she now remembered she needed to use now was pretty much the same. A few minutes later she had figured out how to get a lukewarm low pressured drizzle out of the shower; she knew with the damage to the ship water would be being rationed and this was likely grey water anyway. So she sped through what she thought you were supposed to do when washing, before finally dousing her hair in the water and grabbing the towel. A few minutes later she was back in her sleepsuit and walking back to her cubicle to get changed into her uniform.
When she got back she noticed the tablet that had been waiting for her in her room, keyed to her, was flashing a priority notification. She stopped to read it - it was her work orders for the day. She read through them diligently. There were a lot of repairs for a work detail she knew had never worked on water reclamation systems since basic training. She perused the names on the work detail - no one she had ever met in her previous life except one name stood out; Seaman Harriet Ellis. The Captain was definitely keeping the troublemakers together as much as possible. “I guess we can back up each other’s stories,” she thought to herself pondering the Captain’s decision. Having read the tablet’s orders she pulled out a set of number 4 dress from the small chest she’d found in the room already stocked with everything she needed in terms of uniform. There on the chest of the shirt was a name badge simply reading MacLeod. On the lapels was the wreathed sword of a Warrant Officer Class 2, in more formal dress this badge would be on her cuffs as well; as it was she was free to roll the sleeves of her shirt up, which she did for no discernable reason but she regretted it at once, her thin bony arms were now visible and she shrunk at the sight of them. Yet for some reason she decided not to unroll her sleeves and finished getting dressed.
She was almost about to leave the cabin when there was a knock on the door followed by the sound of Ms Liu’s voice: “Are you decent?” she asked.
“Yes, come in,” Sparrow replied.
A moment later the door slid open and Ms Liu came in, already in her number 5’s - clearly she’d be doing some serious engineering today. Sparrow spotted her rank insignia on her lapels and looked at how it was the same as hers but with two dragons to either side of it. She knew what all the rank insignias were but this was the first time she’d seen it in real life, embroidered rather than a computer image. Ms Liu noticed her staring: “something on my shoulders?”
“No sorry,” Sparrow blurted out hastily.
“Well ok,” said Ms Liu cheerily, “come on, we need to get this lot to mess and then out for the morning shift. You ok with what you need to do?”
“Yes Ms Liu,” she replied, “I have reviewed my orders for the day and are clear on the instructions.”
“Very good - but you know you can loosen up a bit,” Ms Liu said, “no need to sound like the Naval Regulations Manual!”
“I will bear that in mind Ms Liu.”
“Okay,” she replied hesitantly.
With that Ms Liu strode out her cubicle and stood at the head of the dorm. As the second in charge of the dorm, I went out and stood to her left and just behind her.
“Attention,” Ms Liu said, her voice raised just enough to command attention whilst not actually shouting. “Prepare for morning inspection.”
Sparrow knew what this was, a formality, almost a ritual of naval life. She followed Ms Liu as they inspected the small number of beds checking they had been made, that the sailors’ chests were shut and they were probably uniformed. Sparrow followed behind pretending to be also taking part but this wasn’t one of the things she had been programmed to innately know. She would need to observe Ms Liu carefully over the coming weeks as there would be times this duty fell to her.
When they reached Lady Ellis’s bunk, the bed was just thrown together. Ms Liu stopped: “CPO Farmer, teach Seaman Ellis how to make up her bed by tomorrow morning.”
“Yes Sir,” barked an older man with the bunk closest to the top end of the dorm. Lady Ellis slumped visibly at the prospect.
“At least you’ve got the right uniform on,” Ms Liu carried on chastising the other girl, “shirt not fully tucked in at the back though, sort that out.”
“Yes, Sir,” she replied testidly.
“Very good,” Ms Liu said slowly in reply, before turning back to face the room; Sparrow fell in behind her. “Right, time for breakfast, in your own time Ladies and Gents.”
The dorm started to empty as the small company of sailors trooped out. “Just follow them and do what they do and you’ll be fine,” Sparrow said gently to Lady Ellis who had just stood rooted to the spot.
“Great now the glorified computer is taking pity on me,” she sighed before catching Ms Liu’s stern gaze, “I meant the Warrant is taking pity on me.”
“Just get off with you,” Ms Liu said pointing at the dormitory door. Lady Ellis scuttled out to catch up with the other sailors. “Come on, us too, follow me.”
She followed her out of the dorm and was initially surprised when she turned left whilst the sailors ahead turned right. Then she remembered they’d be going to the Warrant Officer’s Mess not the general messes. Right that made sense, outside her head she was WO2 MacLeod. They walked in peaceful silence to the mess.
“You sure you’re going to be alright?” Ms Liu asked again as they walked.
“Yes Ms Liu, I’m confident I can carry out my orders.”
“You’ve never issued orders of your own before and had to lead a team, it’s harder than it looks. Today, just worry about learning your detail’s names and get them familiar with the systems. Realistically, no one ever finishes their work orders for the day at the best of times. Tech Lieutenants who haven’t done any practical work, just theory, are the bane of our lives, Ms MacLeod.”
“If you say so Ms Liu it must be true.”
“Yes and just you remember that Chloe Liu never lies.”
By this time we had reached the mess. It was surprisingly full - perhaps you didn’t get to make it to Warrant Officer on a fighting ship unless you had luck on your side. She didn’t worry about not being recognised - her fictional self had only been on board for a short time and chances were most of the other Warrant Officers wouldn’t have really noticed her presence yet; and the rest might have been on duty during her sleep shifts. She followed Ms Liu to an open spot at a table in the centre of the room. They sat down and shortly after two seamen from the catering department presented two meals to them. Rice, some sort of protein pieces and a tiny portion of vegetables, green beans she thought but she wasn’t sure. This meagre offering was still much more than the sailors got, she thought, thinking of Lady Ellis and the shock she must be going through right now. Still she thought this was going to be her first non survival ration meal. She tentatively stuck her form into the rice and gingerly raised it to her mouth. She chewed and was presently surprised by the starchy, savoury taste. Next she tried the protein pieces - to be honest they tasted only of the drizzle of soy sauce they had on them. Finally she tried the vegetables and was suddenly left frozen by their firm texture and subtle sweetness.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Captain must be trying to boost morale if we’re getting veggies instead of vitamin pills,” Ms Liu remarked.
Snapping out of her surprise, Sparrow nodded in response. She looked at the big clock on the mess’ wall and realised her shift was due to start in eleven minutes, and she estimated it was a good eight minutes walk to her first work order. She quickly shovelled as much food into her as she could - it wasn’t much; after a few more bites she felt very full, another new experience.
“Don’t worry,” Ms Liu whispered to her, “your digestive system is still getting used to eating. You’ll be able to eat more soon, and stop looking like such a skinny little thing!”
Sparrow just cast her head down - she hated this skinny body, all she could hope for was that Ms Liu was right and she might start to feel more like how she’d always assumed she was. Clocking the time again brought Sparrow back to the here and now. She had to leave, grabbing a glass of water., she drank it all quickly and then waved goodbye to Ms Liu who waved back smiling at her scurrying off.
She’d never run anywhere before she thought, there were so many firsts she was experiencing. It was kind of exhilarating, she thought - maybe she should be more wary but she suspected pilots were designed to have very high fear thresholds. As she ran she thought about Ms Liu’s advice. She had of course memorised all her orders and names of her detail already. Even without the interface she could still recall perfectly from her local storage - although of course she now had much more limited storage capacity relying solely on her organic brain.
When she arrived at their first job; to repair water conduits that had been shredded during the morning. A simple job of weld and replace - something well in the capacity of most techs regardless of specialism. She would just need to supervise them to ensure the new conduits were connected to their correct connections. Most of her detail was already there, with the one exception being Lady Ellis, but the sound of reluctant footsteps alerted her to her approach.
“Better punctuality, Seaman Ellis,” she called, turning to look at the other girl sulkily watching over.
“Sorry sir,” she said grumpily, “I got lost.”
The other sailor’s on the detail obviously had no idea who she was thankfully - that would stop awkward questioning. Today at least - no doubt rumours would spread. At least that is what she had observed in the media she had access to. Sparrow pretended to be looking at the work orders again, before addressing the rest of the detail; six men and women all in their welding gear already, an old male petty officer and four able seamen and of course Lady Ellis.
“Morning everyone,” she began, “a simple weld and replace job to get you started as Water Recycling Techs.” She then continued issuing each sailor with specific orders. The Petty Officer, she asked to take Lady Ellis to go and collect her own set of number fives; she briefly panicked that she should be in her number fives as well but Ms Liu would have told her - and she was supervising perhaps she wasn’t expected to get her hands dirty. That was a relief, her current body probably wasn’t physically up to it. The other sailors she ordered off to collect their welding gear, cutters, and replacement parts.
When all her detail had returned she set them to work, she paired Lady Ellis with one of the female able seamen and told the older woman to teach her to weld, pointing at a couple of spare conduits she had requested just for this purpose. She left them to it and concentrated on what the rest of the detail were doing. Clearly Ms Liu had picked her a bunch who were actually quite meticulous, as she observed them carefully check the system plans before beginning their repairs. Damaged parts would need to be cut out, new connectors would need to be fitted allowing the new conduit sections to be inserted. More minor damage could be patched and welded and then they would test each run for micro leaks before moving onto the next section.
She took the time to review in her head the rest of the work order for the day. Sadly the jobs got tougher quickly - a complete strip down, damage survey and repair of a main purification unit being the worst on the list. She decided, as there was no instruction about the order of jobs to be completed, they’d tackle that next; Lady Ellis really couldn’t help with this task and she decided to send her some System Tech training modules to complete - quickly pinging them to her work tablet. The rest of the detail she’d have to closely supervise and probably get involved herself.
She was right, although her Techs were capable of stripping down the purifier they needed direct instructions for her when it came for identifying damage - which was extensive the control boards were fried and the filtration system was completely destroyed. She herself took on the control board work - she sent one of the detail down to stores to collect new control boards and then set about removing the damaged board and doing some new soldering on some of the damaged connections in other sections of the control unit.
By the time they had finally repaired the filtration unit and eaten the lunch that was delivered to them there was only time to do one more job before the end of the work shift. With that over, she dismissed the detail and started to head back to the dorm to change for dinner.
“You’re not even going to wait for me,” an angry voice called behind her.
“Seaman Ellis,” she replied, “you must follow naval decorum otherwise you will be punished.”
“Whatever,” she replied, “there’s no one here now.”
“You must be cautious,” Sparrow warned, “I would not like to see you punished.”
“Thanks for your concern, Warrant,” she replied sarcastically.
“No thanks needed,” Sparrow replied calmly, before adding, “I think it would be a good idea if I gave you extra training sessions - you’ll need good scores for the Captain to be able to transfer you to officer training.” Sparrow had seen her performance on today’s training module and it wasn’t actually that bad, the other girl’s education had obviously been good as she had a good knowledge of much of the theory underlying how the systems worked but she was much worse on the practical application part.
“I’m sure that’s a string my family can pull,” she said, still sulking.
“Nevertheless, unless you are proficient you will fail to earn the respect of your fellow trainees and subordinates.”
“Fine, whatever, I’ll do them I guess.”
“Great, I’ve booked simulator three,” Sparrow said cheerfully, “come in number three dress for 21:00.” For some reason despite Lady Ellis’ poor grace she was looking forward to it, maybe because she would be able to be her when it was just the two of them and not Rita MacLeod. She wondered if eventually Sparrow and Rita would merge into someone new - but for now she was still Sparrow. “You best get to mess if you want to be on time,” she suggested to Lady Ellis. The Lady scowled at her but sloped off in the general direction of the mess. Sparrow hoped she didn’t get lost again; and automatically found herself pinging the complete map of each deck to Lady Ellis’ work tablet. Recalling a selection of the same maps from her local storage she quickly determined the most efficient route before remembering how damaged the ship was. She updated the map with the damage reports. Large sections of the ship still hadn’t been properly surveyed but she noted most of the major repair work had started and quickly plotted herself a new route.
When she arrived at the Warrant Officer’s Mess she found Chloe sat in the same seat as this morning with an empty chair next to it. She walked over and sat down in it.
“Saved you a seat,” grinned Ms Liu, “how did it go today.”
“Okay I think,” Sparrow replied, “would you like to see my work tablet.” she said, handing it over to the other woman.
“Not to shabby, Ms MacLeod,” Ms Liu said as she reviewed it, “that’s more than I expected you to get done today. Don’t worry you didn’t finish, stripping down that filtration unit will keep everyone off your backs. They must have known that was a whole shift job in itself.”
“Thanks,” Sparrow answered a little bit sheepishly, she had after all had the advantage of her programming.
“And how did it go with the detail,” Ms Liu followed up.
“Alright I think,” she replied again more hesitantly this time, “I think first meetings must always be awkward, at least maybe they will be for me.”
“They are, it’s not just you. Just settle into it slowly, it’s ok for you to keep a bit of distance from the other ranks. It’s kind of what’s expected. Not the distance the officers keep obviously, but some is definitely appropriate. Remember you’ll have to discipline them; that’s part of being a leader as well.”
“Yes Ms Liu,” was all she really had to say to that - she didn’t feel much like a leader, let alone like one who could admonish those serving under her.
“Don’t worry I’ll help you out,” smiled Ms Liu and Sparrow couldn’t help smiling back at her.
“On the subject of help,” Sparrow said, changing the subject, “I’m going to give Ms Ellis some extra practical lessons.”
“Probably a good idea,” Ms Liu agreed, before adding, “just remember, appropriate distance. I know she looks about your age and you might want to befriend her but remember even now she’s in the ranks she’s still an aristo and could make your life all kinds of miserable even without revealing our secret.”
Sparrow was about to nod when a burly WO1 interrupted. “You preying on the newbie then Chloe?”
“No Charles,” Ms Liu said sternly, “that’s a very serious allegation you are throwing around.”
“I was only kidding Chloe, you’re so uptight,” he said sheepishly.
“And you’re an annoying arsehole.”
“Fair enough,” he laughed before extending a hand to Sparrow. “WO1 Appleby,” he said, obviously waiting for her to shake it.
“WO2 Rita MacLeod,” she said, extending her hand and wincing as he gripped it much harder than she was expecting, still she managed to force out a strained, “pleasure to meet you Mr Appleby.”
“Charles is fine in here,” he began, “Scrawny young things aren’t you - you must be good though to be a WO2 despite that. Probably why Chloe is so desperate to get you under her wing. She always nabs the best and leaves the rest of us with everyone else.”
“Now that’s not true,” Ms Liu said indignantly, “it’s just I need certain competencies for main engineering and not everyone has them.”
“So you’re down in main engineering?” he asked, turning towards Sparrow.
“No, Water Recycling,” she replied.
“Ah she’s already got you onto a big job,” he stated, before adding, “looking to get her promoted as quickly as possible then Chloe so you don’t have to sit next to the pilot anymore.”
“Far from it,” Ms Liu said instantly, “I actually quite enjoy the pilot’s company, it’s a shame she doesn’t get to socialise more.”
“Well each to their own I guess. What do you reckon Rita?”
She paused, at first confused to hear herself addressed as Rita; but longer as she digested that exchange. She was upset a little she guessed but that was to be expected. Only the Captain and Ms Liu had ever treated her as anything other than a ship’s component. She decided to play it safe. “I’ve never actually spoken to a pilot before, so I can’t really judge.”
“Well there’s a first time for everything - when you do meet her, let me know what you think,” and with that he retook his seat and tucked into his meal. Dinner was a much more leisurely affair than breakfast.
“You’ll get a lot of that,” Ms Liu said sadly.
“It’s to be expected I guess,” Sparrow replied slightly sadly.
“Yes,” Ms Liu said slowly, “anyway Charles is an arse, but he’s not the worst. I think he was trying to be friendly, believe it or not.”
After that they tucked into their meals - a protein block, some sort of savoury sauce and a vitamin tablet and another heaped pile of rice. Once again Chloe cautioned her not to eat too much and to stop once she started to feel full. Sparrow found she was able to manage a little bit more than she expected although most of the meal remained on the plate. Still progress she guessed. Then she looked up the time and realised she was in danger of being late to meet Lady Ellis; relying on visually checking the time was very annoying. She didn’t understand why they hadn’t programmed a clock into her; maybe there was no way to get an organic brain to have a consistent experience of time. Already she noticed the periods when she was supervising her detail had seemed to move much more slowly than when she had been repairing the control boards on the filtration system. Quickly, she shook herself and brought her mind back to the here and now. She quickly took another drink, said goodbye to Ms Liu and dashed off to the simulator she had booked.
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She was late, of all the hypocritical, annoying, disrespectful things, computer-girl could have done, especially after this morning. Harriet didn't even know why she had even turned up. She was pretty sure the machine wouldn’t have had the guts to do anything. Yet here she stood leaning angrily against the door to the simulator she found she didn’t even have the rank to unlock.
Her first proper day as an enlisted Seaman was even worse than she could imagine. She had no idea what she was doing, who to call Sir, who to call by their rank or even just their name. She supposed most recruits learnt all that in the first few weeks of shoreside training before going to their postings - something she’d not had. She supposed it would all be in the excessively long file marked Naval Regulations which was highlighted as essential reading for personal time in her work tablet. Then she’d been made to miss most of dinner by the CPO who seemed equally pissed off as she was at the prospect of demonstrating how to make a bed. When the CPO had finished showing her he grabbed all the bedding and ripped it off, dumping it back on the floor. “You turn,” was the only explanation she got as he wandered out of the room. It took her nearly all her mess slot to remake it and it was time to head to the training simulator. So tired and hungry, wondering how she’d ever sleep in a shared dorm she headed off to meet the Robot.
Then there was the actual work, her train of thought continuing. Welding practice had terrified her, even through her protective gear she could still feel the heat of the arc and feared its blinding brilliance all the while completely uncomfortable in her welding mask. Then there was the stupid training module, how was she supposed to demonstrate practical knowledge. I guess that’s what she was doing here; stupid Sparrow.
Speak of the devil, she finally saw the computer-girl approaching. The other girl gave a little wave of acknowledgement. Clearly she had dropped her prim and proper act for the evening. “Hello, Lady Elis,” yep - she had totally reverted to her normal persona.
“Shouldn’t you be staying in character,” she snapped, “if you get found out me living through this waking nightmare means nothing.”
“Oh,” the computer-girl exclaimed; amazed that her machine brain hadn’t thought of that, Harriet reflected, “but I was hoping it would be safe to be myself this evening as it’s just the two of us.”
“Whatever, let’s just get this over with so I can go to sleep.”
The computer-girl pressed her thumb to the simulator’s door lock and it slid open from them. In front of them was a simulation of the conduits they had repaired this morning. “I thought you might want to practise welding; don’t worry I’ve adjusted the settings - there will be only enough heat to sting you if you make a mistake and the arc’s brightness is set to what you’d see through a visor.”
“Oh what an exciting evening you’ve planned,” she replied sarcastically, not that anything like that seemed to get through to the walking computer.
“Start there,” she said, pointing to a hole, about three centimetres in diameter.
Harriet reluctantly picked up the simulated welder and visor, picked up the patch and filler and headed over to the fake damaged conduit. Sighing, she got to work; it was definitely easier without the fear she was going to melt her own arm. After fifteen minutes she had finished, and she inspected her handiwork, not too shabby she thought, just as she became aware of the other girl peering over her shoulder.
“Not terrible,” the robot said, “you’ll need to pick up the pace, that should only have taken five minutes and there’s a small gap here you’ll need to fill,'' she said pointing to a hole in the join only a millimetre or two wide.
Grumbling to herself Harriet lowered her visor and filled the hole. Then Sparrow got her to repair fourteen more under timed conditions until she managed to do one in seven minutes. “Acceptable, for now,” came the judgement from the machine, “we’ll practise these more tomorrow.”
Great, she thought, how long was she going to have to endure these sessions.
“Let’s head back to the dorms,” said the other girl, “I guess even when I want to be Sparrow here Ms MacLeod takes over.” She sounded almost sad - was the machine even capable of emotions or was this just some interpersonal relations routine she had programmed into herself. And what did she even mean by that? She’d acted the perfect Warrant all evening, at least that was what she expected from her limited knowledge of how the Navy actually operated. I guess she hadn’t insisted I call her sir again” she thought; but otherwise she had acted as she had throughout the work shift.
“Come on Lady Elis,” the computer-girl beckoned her out of the simulator.
“Look, I guess we’re stuck together for a bit. Stop being so strange. You can call me Harriet if you like when we’re alone. I guess it’s Seaman Elis the rest of the time.”
“Correct,” she replied bluntly, before pausing for a long time and finally adding, “Harriet.”
“Right, that's done. I’m still calling you Ms MacLeod in private. I don’t want to get in trouble,” she added. She had glanced over a small bit of the naval regulations and was shocked to find corporal punishment was very much part of naval discipline. Then she added, “You and Ms Liu seem to be friends, inexplicably, but you never call her by her first name.”
“That’s because Ms Liu is my superior, my programming would not allow it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes,” she said again, sounding sad, “I have tried but it’s just not possible.”
“You really are a machine aren’t you?”
“Technically I am a biological construct.”
“A machine then just with squishy bits instead of wires, well not in your case -I’m frankly surprised you’re still standing.”
That barb clearly broke her skin as the computer-girl seemed to sag before starting to walk off. Could she be sad, really? AIs didn’t have emotions did they; just machine intelligence. Wasn’t the pilot the same even if she was made of organic matter, she was just a component of the ship really wasn’t she. Even now if she was seemingly forlornly heading back to a crew dorm. For some reason despite herself she felt compelled to call after her:“Don’t worry, you’ll soon fatten up even on the dross they serve here; I looked up the nutritional information after lunch - we all get 2000 calories each day’ that’s enough you’ll start to put on weight slowly.” She had no idea why she was suddenly comforting a machine, but yet she was. I guess when something had a human form you couldn’t help from treating at least a little like a person. Maybe that was how it started for Ms Liu before she had completely fallen down some machine loving rabbit hole.
She was just wondering whether the computer-girl had even heard her when Sparrow slowly shortened her stride and fell back to be walking side by side with her. She didn’t say anything but she had straightened back out from her slouch. They walked the rest of the way back to the dorm in tolerable silence much to Harriet’s relief - she had definitely used up her quotient of talking to strange robotic girls for the day. God what if her actual friends could see her now, in Naval uniform, tired and dirty, eating the slop they served her, and going to have to sleep in a shared dorm. She guessed millions of people across the corporation had to do just that until they were married and became eligible for an apartment housing allocation - usually after a few years on the waiting list. However, she never had before - she had always had her own room in the family compound inside the square mile.
When they reached the dorm some of her fellow sailors were still up talking quietly in the small social space, still lit softly. They nodded at the two of them before adding a perfunctory “Evening, Sir,” addressed to Sparrow, which the other girl acknowledged with a nod of her own before heading towards her cubicle. Harriet took herself to the shared washroom, hoping no one else was in it. Obviously it wasn’t, the unit had a lock. Locking said lock quickly she stripped off, did her best to wash in the shower, trying to ignore it was filthy water she was washing herself with, and then quickly brushed her teeth in the sink. Finally she got dressed back into her uniform - she should have taken her sleepsuit in with her, now she would have to go back and get it and then get changed. She exited the room but as she did so a big male Able Seaman pushed past. “Be quicker newbie, there’s only one head in this dorm and some of us need a shit, 3 minute limit for the likes of you. ”
All she could do was gulp and nod - she realised this man terrified her - he was massive. Her brother was tall but it was a lithe slender tallness common to the Aldermen lines. This man was as tall but also broad; muscles pressed tightly against his uniform.
“Stop scaring the greenling,” a female voice called out from the social area. Much to her relief the man huffed and went into the head.
“Thanks,” she said quietly to the female sailor.
“Don’t worry Ted just likes to throw his weight around, he’s all talk though - been written up too many times not to know the limit - so don’t worry he’s not going to put your lights out.”
“Um thanks,” she said awkwardly before adding, “Harriet Elis, well I guess Seaman Ellis now.”
“You can be Harriet again now the day’s over,” smiled the other woman, “Able Seaman Maria Gomez.”
“Nice to meet you,” she replied; thinking how many times she had interacted with the Corporation’s actual people - not many, she reflected.
“Posh sounding aren’t you; your family not quite posh enough to rig the work allocation for you though?” Maria teased.
“I volunteered,” Harriet replied, sticking to her story.
“You what! No one volunteers. Why would you? Food’s shit, work is worse and you’re likely to be killed well before you're thirty five.”
“A lot of people died evacuating me during the boarding, I felt this was the least I should do after that,” and though it was a lie Harriet did sense a small kernel of truth within it. A lot of Mr Choudary’s marines and Ms Liu’s engineers had died protecting her; she didn’t even know their names and she doubted her family had found out. She would have to ask Ms Liu. “Aargh,” she thought, “I’m already falling into naval life if I’m thinking of her as Ms Liu.”
“You’re not…” Maria began before hesitating and tailing off; looking her up and down.
“Not what?”
“Nothing,” the other woman replied, “forget about it.”
“Damn,” she thought, her identity was going to be common knowledge in this dorm by the morning and probably the whole ship by the end of tomorrow. She made her excuses and headed back to her bunk, pulling open the carefully made sheets she’d toiled over this morning. Exhausted, she flopped down into it and despite her worries, nay disgust at the whole situation, she soon fell asleep.