After the introductions had been made Gareth had to shoo Ton’et away promising plenty of conversation later and led Penelope to her quarters. Following him through the ship she noticed the tri-jointed legs that the habsuit obscured at a first glance. Her room looked less like a dedicated living space and more like a large storage space that had been cleaned out, but it was clear they’d done all they could to make it workable.

“My apologies if it’s a little austere, we don’t exactly have many furnishings to fit such large creatures as yourself” Gareth looked furtively at the human.

“Not at all, this is perfect.” Penelope walked into the room and looked around.

There was a small sink in the far-left corner of the square room. The rest of the back wall was shelving. A tall storage locker sat against the right wall and directly from the door against the right wall was a cot that… might fit the human. The rest of the room was bare but clean.

“Reminds me of…” she paused, and her eyes darted away from Gareth, “… well reminds me of what I’m quite used to.” She finished.

Gareth noted an odd kind of what he knew to be a smile come across her face but he couldn’t decipher it. Language was one of his strong suits but reading expressions was never something he was very good at.

“Yes well… uhm, I shall leave you to unpack. When you’re settled come find the Captain and I on the bridge,” he turned and motioned to the right, out the door, “take a right and continue all the way to the end of the corridor. Big doors and the like, even you can’t miss them.” With that, he walked out with haste and the doors slid shut.

Penelope, now alone, took a breath and set to work. With well practiced movements she set her bag to the left and carefully placed the metal safety box on the floor underneath the bottom shelf on the far wall, next to the sink. Pulling from the box her service piece, she went to her bed and slid it under the pillow. Then, she went back, locked the box, and moved to her large canvas bag and began unpacking.

After she was finished Penelope walked to the bridge. The inside of the ship wasn’t quite what she was used to. Both the warships she knew, and this freighter clearly placed function over aesthetics but in differing manners. The Boshuro was austere, organized, nothing was out of place and everything was up to regulation standard. This ship was… lived in. Other crewmembers’ doors were decorated, someone was growing some kind of purple plants in an alcove, and random things were scattered about. Someone had even removed a service panel from a section of wall exposing the innerworkings of the ship and apparently walked away. She didn’t know quite how she felt about it. On one hand it grated on her; she spent years having a strict sense of regulation ground into her. On the other hand, it was almost nice to see a bit of color and personal touch to everything.

As she came to the end of the hallway the bridge doors slid open. Captain Deag sat in a chair at the center of the room. A console was attached by a metal arm to the chair, but it was flipped up.

“Ah I take it you’ve settled in? Everything in order?”

“Absolutely, there’s even room to work out which I’m grateful for.” She noted the odd look in Deag’s eyes.

“Work – Out? I’m not sure the translator is…”

“A human term for exercise, physical training” Gareth explained as he walked over.

“Correct Gareth… you’ve some knowledge of Terrans it seems.”

“Cultural mostly, a ship’s first mate and quartermaster would be remiss not to learn as much as possible about any species we might encounter. Especially a species such as yours.”

“Diligent as always Gareth; Penelope, though, might I ask why one as strong as yourself might need to continue to train their body?”

“Well partly it’s just habit at this point. Military service, human military service at least, doesn’t leave a soldier without some learned mannerisms. You live a certain way long enough and it becomes second nature. But more than that it’s the ships gravity.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“The gravity?” Deag asked.

“The gravity on space stations and ships this far from Terran influence all set their artificial gravity to an average between species norms,” she pushed off the floor and landed back down with ease, “Earth’s gravity is about twice that average. Combine that with human adaptation and you get a loss of bone density and muscle mass because my body recognizes that it doesn’t need to waste energy on keeping itself fit for earth gravity. So, I exercise quite frequently to keep that from happening.”

Deag was almost as engrossed in the biology lesson as Ton’et who had apparently teleported to the bridge at the mention of Terran biology and was furiously scribbling notes on their data pad.

“Fascinating, now, let’s shift the discussion to the effects of physical damage on a human. You see, I have heard that humans can suffer total loss of limbs and continue living, is this true?” They rattled without looking up from the pad.

“Ton’et.” Gareth said.

“…” They looked up, “…yes?”

“Still not time.”

“Oh… very well, later then I suppose. I’ll be in my lab, Miss Penelope. Just out the door and to the right…” They responded as they, sulking, left the bridge.

“Yes well, on the note of gravity, we can increase the gravity in your room to better suit you. Twice this is about the maximum we’re capable of. It’s a non-critical system so it’ll be turned off in emergencies and we’ll let people know not to waltz into your room carelessly but there shouldn’t be an issue.” The captain said as he pulled the console down.

A couple of taps and a small readout of Penelope’s room came to view. With a couple more taps he increased the artificial gravity.

“Looks like this ship has got all the bells and whistles huh?” Penelope said.

“… another human phrase?” Deag cocked his head to one side and then the other.

“Yes. It means-“Gareth started

“Wait wait, let me decipher it… bells and whistles. Noise making? No, no more general than that. Extras! Bells and whistles could be put on as additions to the original object. Added for convenience and utility. I see! Indeed!”

“Spot on captain” Penelope chuckled.

Gareth was making some sort of face that must have been his people’s version of a smile, somewhat obscured by his breather, as he gave a chuckle himself.

“I do think, captain, that our new security officer should get a tour of the ship as well as her station, yes?”

“Indeed. By all means.” He waved a paw over to his left and Gareth moved to a stretch of consoles and screens mounted on the wall.

Penelope followed and Gareth explained that these consoles included sensor readouts for the interior and exterior of the ship, control of cameras in the corridors and the cargo bay, as well as a secondary control for their weapons systems. It may have been more accurate to say weapon system though as the ship boasted only a singular mortar style weapon. It was known as an arc caster and wasn’t capable of dealing much damage. Its main purpose was simply to overload and disable a pursuing ship before they could get within conventional energy weapons range.

Gareth then led her on a short tour of the freighter. A bulky ship, almost three times longer than it was wide. It was built to haul large amounts of cargo. Incidentally this meant it wasn’t exactly fast, especially at sub-light speeds. The Bridge sat at the forward where two parallel corridors ran down joining once again at the cargo bay in the aft section. The cargo bay took up the most room by far, comprising the back third of the ship.

Having run the length of the ship Gareth moved from the cargo bay just as Captain Deag called over the intercom.

*Attention all crew! Our cargo is secured, and preparations made. We will depart shortly. First officer and Security officer to the bridge please! *

“Excellent timing, as always. Let’s go.” Gareth said and started off for the bridge.

The ship began to rumble as its engine started up and began departure sequence. Penelope took to her station as the ship oriented itself toward the station’s exit hatch and surged forward.

“Captain?” she asked.

“Yes?”

“I don’t believe I learned the name of the ship?”

“Ah! Of course! Welcome aboard The Blue Nebula Penelope. There’s a bit of a story to the name but I’ll tell you some other time.” He smiled knowingly as he made small course adjustments.

“Gareth,” the captain spoke up after a long pause, “Go ahead and transmit to our first jump point and inform the Raxian Colony that their shipment of cells in en route. If all goes well, well make Raxia in six standard cycles.”

“Transmissions sent captain, readying for FTL jump.” Gareth responded from his con.

“Penelope, ship systems check?”

“Were green here captain.”

“…”

“… uh, ships systems check reads nominal, were ready for jump.” She translated.

“Excellent, engaging FTL”

Oriented to their first destination, The Blue Nebula paused only a moment before blinking out of the system beginning its journey to Oorbos.

---

“Sir, a cargo vessel is jumping to the Oorbos system. Her manifest reads a significant number of charged energy cells. We could inform our friends there. A tidy sum if captured safely.”

“No”

“… Sir, it would be our biggest haul since…”

A clawed hand scrolled down to the crew compliment and thrust the data pad toward the subordinate.

> Position: Security Officer. Species: Human. Age: 31 Terran years. Sex: Singular, Female.

A photograph was attached.

“She’s the one from the bar. I’m not sending our crews to their deaths. Let some other crazies go for it.”

“A… Understood sir.”