Introductions
Austen waited patiently in the transporter room as the ship was docked at Starbase 84. This was the last Cadet they needed to pick up before continuing on the remaining two years of their three year mission. This was his second mission aboard the U.S.S. Arck-Royal and as such, despite only being an ensign, it seemed the commander had deemed Austen knowledgeable enough to provide ship introductions and tours.
"Transporter beam locked on," said Crewmen Hijah. "Beginning transport."
The transporter hummed to life and before long there was a third body in the room.
The new Cadet was a young woman with presumably long blonde hair pulled up into a bud for duty. She was wearing her grey cadet uniform which gave her green eyes an almost steely feeling, that was greatly offset by the large smile she wore on her face.
"Hello, Cadet Lorean Hale, I presume. I am Ensign Austen Ryen, I'm going to be giving you your ship tour and making sure you have everything you need. So, you know, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask. How was the journey to Starbase 84?" Austen motioned towards Lorean's things to assess her reaction before picking up one of her luggage containers and turning to guide her to her bunk.
Cadet Hale snapped a crisp salute and made a belated attempt to look serious.
"Cadet Lorean Hale, reporting for duty. But... you already said that, heh."
She smiled awkwardly and reached out to shake Austen's hand which was reaching for her duffle bag. Then she froze, followed the hand towards her bag, and hurriedly ran her extended hand through her hair to disguise her movement. A wave of pink started to build on her face as she cast her eyes wildly around the room for something to focus on.
"Nice, uhh... ship," she finished lamely.
Austen straightened up and smiled at the new Cadet.
“Sorry, I didn’t have time to research your culture. I didn’t know if hand shakes were on the table or likely to offend you.”
Austen transferred the luggage case to his left hand and extended his right hand to her.
“Welcome to the Arc Royal.”
She shook her head and waved her hands in violent negation.
"No no no, not at all. A handshake is perfectly okay with me, sir." She took his hand and pumped it twice. "No offense taken, Ensign Ryan, sir."
She dropped his hand and fidgeted, clearly unaware as to what she was supposed to do with her hands now that her luggage was being taken care of.
A mirthful snicker escaped from the transporter technician, but when Hale looked over he was clearing his throat with a stern, emotionless cough.
"So... where do we start? Do we go meet the captain or..." she trailed off, glanding towards the door as if expecting the senior officers to emerge and greet her.
“No, not unless we run into them in the hallway,” Austen replied. “Also, no need to call me sir or add a title or anything. Just ‘Ryen’ is fine. I’ve been here for a while, but I’m still just an ensign, so, you know, lower decks spirit and whatever. You’ll be an ensign soon enough, best not get use to calling ensigns ‘sir’ unless their hard-asses about it.
“Otherwise we have a really mundane and boring tour planned. Unless tours are your thing, in which case, you’re about to have the time of your life. Starting with the highlight that is your bunk. Follow me.”
He nudged his head towards the door then started off, with one last nod to Crewman Hijah.
“So, I trust your travels went well…?” Ryen said, reattempting his greeting question.
Hale appears giddy about being on a tour, though slightly put out that no one IMPORTANT was going to be there to greet her.
"Oh yes, the journey was great! I was getting ferried by the San Clemente and since I didn't have anything to do, I could do whatever I wanted. They didn't bother giving me any assignments since I was only there for a week."
As they walked down the hall, she waved excitedly and mouthed 'Hi' to a yellow-shirted ops officer who seemed alarmed to be addressed by a complete stranger in such a weird way.
"So my bunk? I had a small room on the San Clemente. Is it going to be like that? I hope I get a window. Do you have a window?"
“Yeah, I’ve got a window.” He replied. “We work in a suites set up, so it’ll be a different form than the California Class ships. You probably had one of the bunks in a long hallway of bunks on the San Clemente unless, they were extra nice and gave you one of the visitor quarters. But here, you’ll be in a suite of four rooms, with each room having two people in it. Your suite is for the Cadets, so I think there’s an empty room that’s used as a common room in addition to the kitchenette room. You’re going to be rooming Riley Grishim. She got here last week so she’s on duty right now.”
"Ohh cool. I've never had a roommate before! Do you know her? Is she friendly?"
“I don’t know her, no. But if it makes you feel better about rooming I can help you profile stalk her on the ship’s social system during lunch. Um… if you don’t have anyone else you want to meet for lunch…. Some Cadets are stationed on ships with friends, but I don’t really know if that’s your case or not. And you know, eating alone is bad vibes, so if you’ve got no one to eat with…”
"That sounds perfect, thank you very much, sirr----- uh.... sir... syrup!" She stumbled clumsily. "Syrup is good on Earth hotcakes which are fun for lunch, is what I was saying."
She cleared her throat.
"Thank you for your help and generosity."
“Don’t sweat it. Lower deckers stick together. I’ll give you the tour and then lunch and then I got special instructions on a datapadd file to give you. I guess they wanted to start you off with your duties early. My condolences, but then again, you probably brought it upon yourself by doing well in your schooling. Your file said you went to military school on Aldia. What was that like? I just did the academy.”
Ryen took two rights and a left as they talked, leading her to her quarters. He walked with the confidence of someone who knew their way around the ship, which is only impressive if you consider the fact that every hallway has the same base aesthetic and layout.
"Definitely. It's Aldea by the way. And the military academy was fine I guess. Kind of chaotic, to tell you the truth. Starfleet academy was much more put together, but that's mostly because our school was brand new. Everyone was figuring things out on the fly."
She trotted along behind Ryen as he navigated the corridors. The ship was amazing! Well, amazing for someone who grew up on Aldea where the largest space vessels were visiting merchants. This place had sleek hallways, bright lights, cool science labs, amazing engineering bays...
As they were walking they passed a small recreation room. She stopped and backtracked a step, subtly poking her head around the door to watch a group of three officers (yellow, yellow, red) playing a board game at a circular table. There were a lot of small pieces and cards as well. And the board was maybe a map? It was too hard to see from the door. Ryen's voice got quieter as he rounded the next corner, apparently unaware that she had become distracted.
She leaned in further, craning her neck to see what the game was, when her right hand slipped on the access panel, causing the door to hit her on the head. She stumbled forward into the room and rubber the side of her head, "Owww..." She looked up to see all three of them silently looking at her, looking curious, a bit startled, but not angry at being spied on.
Her face flushed red. "Oh, I was just, uh, sorry!" She turned and tried to bolt as the door closed automatically in front of her, the result being that she slammed face-first into the closed door.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Johnson looked up.
“Now that was the best thing to happen since we started. Remind me why we even bother playing this game?”
“It’s tradition!” Pipped up Ensign Dawson.
“Um, you, alright?” Ensign Kennedy asked Hale.
She stood up and walked over to Hale.
“Why didn’t the door o—- oh,” she continued and finished before giving Hale time to answer. “Where’s your badge?”
"Well, sir, I uh..." She started, having no idea how to finish. She looked back and forth between the three of them before blurting out, "Please forgive me! I was just walking by and I saw you playing and I was curious so I wanted to see but then the door hit me because I didn't have a badge and it's my first day and-" She gasped, "Oh no, Ensign Ryen is probably looking for me!" She looked back helplessly at the door.
“Ryen? Eh, he won’t mind that you wondered off. It’s called Tale of Solemn. Basically, it’s the worst game ever, but apparently it’s ‘tradition.’ Once a year, we must play. Anyway, do you want me to call Ryen for you?”
Hale let out a pained sigh. "Yes please. Thank you sir." She took a moment to make apologetic eye contact with each of them. Her first day and she'd made a fool of herself before even starting the tour.
Ensign Kennedy tapped her badge.
“Hey Ryen?” Kennedy spoke into the air. “Did you lose something?…. And forget to give it a badge?”
Ryan’s voice came through her comm badge.
“You know actually I did. What room are you in?”
“17-C. You know you really ought to start with the-”
The door slid open and Ryen stood in the door frame before all four of them, looking a but embarrassed.
“Sorry,” he said bashfully, then turned to Hale. “You ready to keep seeing the ship? Your bunk is just around the corner and down two floors.”
"Yes, thank you." She looked back to Kennedy. "Thank you. Sorry for disrupting your tradition. I'm Lorean Hale, by the way. I'm looking forward to working with you all." She smiled embarrassedly at the other two as well.
“No worries, interrupt anytime,” Dawson said. “I’m Dawson. That’s Kennedy. And she’s Johnson. Suite 17-C is always a party!”
“Yeah and bring Ryen with you,” Johnson added. “He needs a good outing.”
“I do not,” Ryen said.
“Please, when was the last time you got wasted.?”
“Bye,” Austen said gesturing to Hale to follow him out of the room. “Thank you for finding my Cadet.”
They enter the hallway and start back down the corridor in silence.
Hale leans forward to make side eye contact with him. "Your friends seem nice."
“They are nice, if not a bit wild,” Ryen told her. “They mean it about the open invitation. You know, in case you were wondering.”
"Good, because I was." Hale jerked a thumb backwards towards the room. "They weren't serious about getting wasted, right? That's definitely against regulations. Or do they mean when you're on leave?"
"Also sorry about wandering off, I shouldn't get distracted like that."
“Are you a stickler for regulations?”
She took a moment to size him up, looking at his boots, his shirt, his hair, his nails. She looked dead into his eyes for several long moments.
"No." She said definitively. "No, sir." She smiled.
He raised an eyebrow at her then shrugged.
“They’re serious enough.”
"How do they do it? Liquor isn't allowed onboard, right? Can you replicate it? But, no, I thought that kind of stuff was disabled. Is it just liquor or do they do other things? Do they get in trouble? Do the commanders know? One of them, Johnson? was a lieutenant! And they let that kind of stuff happen? Besides, no way they ranked up by breaking protocol all the time... right?"
“I’ll say no more.” Ryen said raising his hands in surrender. “Anyway, this is your suite.”
Ryen turned into the room on thee left labeled 15-H.
The center room has four adjoined rooms to it Austen walked into the room second from the right. He put her stuff down on the empty bunk.
“Sorry this is yours,” he gestured around Hale’s half of the room. “There’s a window there, back facing, but that’s the best in my opinion. Your stuff goes here.”
Ryen tapped the wall next to the bunk and a compartment came sliding gently out of the wall, revealing a spot for clothes and personal items.
"It's... smaller than I expected." She pursed her lips looking around the room, then shrugged. "Well, at least I'll have company."
She reached out for her bag. "Should I unpack now, or should we start the tour? And the assignments, will those take a while because I might want to get started early rather than finishing late."
“Don’t know, I didn’t look at them. It’s up to you if you want to unpack now though. There’s some buffer time in the tour for that. But you’re expected to get your tasks after lunch so I wouldn’t worry too much about them.”
"Buffer time?"
“Yeah,you know, extra time in case things go wrong, you need a break, or you’re just not working at peak efficiency.”
"Oh, that makes sense. I didn't know that was a thing. Do you have any orientation materials on stuff like that? Since I didn't go to the academy, I'm worried some of the finer details might have slipped through the cracks in my studies."
“Um, yeah, they should be downloaded on the datapadd I’ll give you at the end of the tour with your assignments. And if you have any questions you can always hit me up. I’m in room 17-I or my contact is available in the ship data base and my name’s on your orientation file in case you forget it. I sleep at weird times, so feel free to reach out or stop by whenever with whatever.”
"Got it." She paused. "Wait, what if you're asleep and I need something? Do you have a backup person that I should report to?"
Ryen smiled and met her eyes. “I’ll wake up, don’t sweat it. If I’m asleep though, just ring my doorbell. I’ll wake up. But if I die or something, Johnson’s always there to help.”
"Hahahaha... ha.... hah?"
“Don’t worry, I’m not like planning on dying or anything.” Ryen tried to reassure her. “Just a dangerous job and - I’m not helping. Sorry.”
"Oh... yeah."
...
"Well anyways, do you wanna give me a minute to unpack and I'll meet you outside? Or you can stay. Or whatever, I don't know." She started to unzip her duffle and produce neatly packed possessions, a padd, a few trinkets, and a set of grey military fatigues.
“I can wait outside if you want, or I’ve literally got nothing to do but help if you want company.” Ryen scratched the back of his head awkwardly with his right hand. “I don’t know how private you are about your things though. So… up to you.”
"Not at all! I haven't really had anyone to share them with. Feel free to pick around at stuff. I'm thinking..." she looked around the room with an air of an inspector searching for a hidden switch. "...maybe the odds and ends in the top drawer, and maybe I can slot the clothes in the wall fold here."
“Sounds like an efficient system.”
Ryen rolled up his uniform sleeves and started helping with the unpacking.
“I hope your roommate situation turns out good. I also didn’t share a room until my time at the academy. It’s a bit of an adjustment, but if it goes well it’s a really great experience.”
"Yeah it'll be..." she trailed off. "Wait, why wouldn't it be good? It'll be good, right?"
"More likely then not it will be good. And if it's truly terrible then there's a spare room in this suite. My point was, roommates are great and I'm sure you'll have fun."
"Truly terrible?!? Oh god, what'll I do? I've never had a roommate before! What if I ruin it? What if-" she looked furiously into Ryen's eyes. "What if I'M the one who makes it terrible?!?"
" You won't! I'm sure you're wonderful. I like you! You're a likable person." Ryen sighed. "My point was, roommates can turn into some of the best friends ever, I wouldn't stress about sharing a room."
Did he just say he likes me?
She took a deep breath. "Okay, okay, okay. It'll be fine, for sure... I just hope she doesn't mind that I snore REALLY loud and leave my stuff everywhere."
"Maybe don't leave you stuff EVERYWHERE." Ryen laughed.