Veras broke the silence in the room. "I think you are right Stella. Looking at my engineering report - they targeted an area of about three feet wide. It's the one spot on our hull that, if super heated by a laser, could cause the quickest damage to our warp drive." She paused for a second. “Honestly I didn't even realize that spot would be an issue till right now."

The room fell into another moment of silence as everyone took in that bit of news. It started to feel a bit overwhelming, and when I am overwhelmed I like to eat. Thankfully for me I still had the heavy iron shake. Unfortunately for me it made a slight slurping sound that in the silence in the room could be heard as if it was a massive vacuum that just got turned on. Everyone's eyes turned to look at me as I finished my sip.

Stella let out a light chuckle. "I couldn't agree more, Elly. All, let's take a moment and finish getting settled in after that crazy take off and meet back in the mess hall. We can discuss this further. Veras. . ."

"Yup. Will have a full report for you when I meet up with everyone." The gorgon turned out of her chair as her hair swayed as she moved quickly and headed out the door.

"Grace, let's swing by medical on our way." Stella motioned me to follow as I was still trying to recover from the moment of embarrassment. I could see on everyone's faces that they thought I was not taking their situation seriously. That here I was, some random person who shouldn't be here and where they just had a narrow escape. What was I doing? Taking a sip out of my shake like I was at a movie or something.

It took me a second to realize we were now back in med bay and both Stella and Grace were staring at me. "Oh sorry, I got caught up in my own thoughts. I didn't mean to make it seem like I didn't care about the situation I promised. It…it was just bad timing."

That brought a smile to both Stella and Grace's faces. "We know you didn't mean it that way and I don't think the rest of the crew took it that way either. However, I do need to be honest with you. I was not planning on bringing you with us. There is a lot of danger in the life we live here and we all have to be able to chip in and work together." She paused for a moment to let that sink before she continued. "Elly, you saved my life and for that I am truly grateful. However, from what you have told me you are not prepared to work on a ship or have any true skills that could benefit the ship."

My head sank. She was right. I had always planned on getting some certification skills in the future. I knew most any organization required those to even be considered for a job. It's just without any interface ports, enhancements, or skill chip slots, I was doomed to try and learn the ancient way. Most places don't even allow for that kind of testing anymore.

Stella could read what was going through my head. "I know that isn't what you wanted to hear. Honestly, I wish circumstances were different. You seem like someone with a good head on her shoulders and a quick mind. However, without any way to get you some useful skill certs I am not sure I could have you on board."

How could this get any worse. I mean I knew again everything she was saying was true. It just wasn't fair! I mean it wasn't my fault I was abandoned in the middle of space with nothing and no one. It wasn't my fault I had literally no one, not even another one of my species to turn to! I was as alone as anyone could be and I felt every bit of that now.

"If I could," Grace said, clearing her throat and bringing me back from a very dark place. "While I agree Stella, Elly doesn't have anything that can contribute to the ship now. I don't think that will be true if she stays with us."

My head whipped up at that moment. Grace had me pulled back up in her scanner as there was again that virtual image of me floating in front of us.

"If you look here." She said, pointing at my stomach. "Elly is showing signs that she might have some latent enhancements that just haven't come in yet. I believe this is due to the lack of nutrients provided to her at the orphanage. Her stomach is taking the heavy dense shakes we have been giving to her and is working more efficiently than anything I have seen and that includes your mother. You can see here that it is taking the dense material and distributing it to at least twenty different locations within her body. In fact now that she has had the dense metal shake there are even more." I could now actually see what she was pointing out. She was able to highlight the different paths my stomach was taking all these materials to. This was actually something I read about. That a modified stomach could take the correct nutrients and send them to the different enhancements and either help repair them or help them grow if the enhancements themselves were programmed to grow.

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"Am I understanding you correctly that Elly has over twenty latent enhancements that are dormant? How is that even possible?" We both looked at Grace for an answer to that question. How could this be? We all knew that the orphanage wouldn't have done this.

"Honestly, I am not sure. I do not know if this is just part of her species or if this was done genetically during her parent’s pregnancy. Trust me this confuses me just as much. However, given what I am seeing she probably will have more enhancements than anyone else I have seen but all of them genetically implanted."

The room was silent and my mind was racing. Who am I and who are my parents or even more important who was or is my species. What does this all mean?

"There is one problem though. They look like they are all competing for the material they need to grow. I would imagine that if Elly here grew up in the environment she was supposed to. There would be some way to help these grow in a more structured sequence."

"Well that is good news and makes my decision easier." Stella turned to face me, her expression that of a stern captain. I could tell her next words were going to be just that. Those of a captain who has to make a decision that is best for her ship and crew.

"Like I said earlier Elly. My plan wasn't to bring you along and everyone on the ship has to contribute in some way. This news does i think need to be considered however. So here is my decision. We have six days before we come out of hyperspace. You will be given the rank of deck hand that will provide you with all the dense nutrient food your stomach can handle plus training access to our database. You must learn and prove that you can be of some use to us here."

Finally a spark of hope. Something I could truly try and earn for myself and prove I was worth something. That I wasn't someone who was just discarded and is worthless.

We all headed out of med bay and down a different hallway. We walked in silence for a couple of turns before we stopped in front of a small door.

"Well as a temporary deck hand you are owed a room. So this will be where you will stay during our trip. Gerald please mark this cabin as belonging to temporary deck hand Elly."

The AI beeped in acknowledgement as the tiny door swung open. Inside was a room the same size as the one at the orphanage. There was a small modest twin bed set up in the corner of the room straight ahead. To my right there was a replicator station that could be used for food and probably other small items. A small sitting chair set in the center of the room facing the right wall. In the back corner seemed to be a small square opaque glass walled section. My guess was the bathroom for the room. Essentially this was a small, fully functional room and it was all my own!

My mouth must have been hanging open as I heard the two ladies next to me giggling. I quickly turned to face Grace. That same kind smile was on her face as she saw my reaction. Tears were welling up as this gave me a spark of hope to belong to something.

Grace chimed in. "I almost want to just keep her on the crew for these reactions."

"Take your time and get settled in. Ask Gerald to lead you to the mess hall when you are ready. Oh and I was serious about all that your stomach could handle. There is a replicator there that can make you almost anything." Grace pointed over to where the food replicator was at.

Grace quickly added "I have also just updated your information on the ship’s crew list to include a dense nutrient plan. The replicator will now make sure that anything it makes has the nutrients you need."

I honestly didn't know how to respond to all of this. The two took my silence as a good sign and left me in my new room.

I slowly walked in and around the space. This was what I had always hoped for. I mean just this morning i was living in a crate house i had put together. Now here I was with a room on a spaceship. Tears slowly started to come down my cheeks as I was just so overwhelmed. I wiped them off being grateful that I was alone and no one had to see me in this state. I looked down at my hand to see dirt smears across my hand reminding me that it had been some time since I had a proper shower.

First things first. I need a shower and some clean clothes. I walked towards the opaque glass walls as the wall slid open. It revealed a beautiful dark grey sink on the wall with a toilet next to it. On the other side of the toilet was a bin that my clothes could go into. I walked over and quickly got undressed and dropped my clothes into it. They disappeared as I realized it was also a cleaning bin. I stepped towards the other end of the bathroom and a light drizzle started to fall from the ceiling. The water was the perfect temperature as I just let the water start to wash the built up grime away. A small alcove on the wall slid open to show some stocked shampoo and soap. It smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.