Chapter 3
Adair climbs the ladder and has to wait a moment to let their eyes adjust to the dimness. Brigit is standing there, back to them as they finally make their way over. Brigit doesn't turn as she asks them the question. But Adair responds as if they were sitting talking to one another. They are used to Brigit when she gets in moods like this, excited for a new project and raring to go, but hesitant as well. Adair helps in these sorts of situations, giving the prodding needed to go the extra step. They would often get into trouble when they were children, and Brigit would cover for Adair, saying the idea was hers, which it usually was, but none of it would have happened without that prodding.
"Well, it's like they say at Academy, You'll always remember your first posting. I'm ready."
Adair walks over to the main screen. Brigit follows as Adair continues, "I've been ready for months now. I can't wait to get out there." They wave with their hand, showing the great expanse or what would have been the great expanse if it wasn't currently showing the scarred metal of the station. "It's just waiting for us. Can you hear it calling?"
Brigit cocks her head to the side, her ponytail following. "Hmm... I think I can. I think Tyche is ready to go..." She turns to Adair. "Well, have we got our first assignment yet?"
"We do, actually, just arrived before I came aboard." Adair lifts their left arm and flicks the wrist, exposing a mini projector, showing the output of their personal com device on the wall. This is a classic Adair invention. With the other hand, they point to the mail program and scroll down to the current assignment. Adair knows Brigit no doubt had seen it already, but goes through the motions.
"You won't like this. It's boring. We're taking a container full of, wait for it, weights to Zephyr." They flip their wrist down, and it all disappears before they continue, "I get that it's super windy there, but weights? We will fill our fifty megaton hold with fifty megatons of weight. It's just kind of insulting..."
After Adair finished with their little complain, Brigit smiles her smile that had a tendency to warm a room and defuses her friend's annoyance. "Yes, but just think of it. How many pilots get to have their first flight with a hold completely full to maximum capacity? It's definitely going to test your capabilities."
Adair thinks for a moment and nods. "True. Hmm..." Distracted from their complaining, Adair slips into one of the pilot spots to bring up the ship's schematics. Adair brushes their blond hair out of their face as a prompt comes up for their authorization and they type in their name, 'Adair Toge' and pauses a moment before putting in the password. This is their first time accessing the ship, and they savor the moment briefly before typing in the password and the schematics pop up, replacing the previous image that contained general ship stats. "Hmm... Shouldn't cause too much stress. It's going to make pulling out of the gravity well take quite a lot longer. When are they expecting us?" Without waiting, they flip their wrist and pull up the assignment with a nod. "Okay, whew, they aren't expecting us for four weeks. If they wanted like three weeks, we would really have to push below the ecliptic plane. As it is, we can set the course in the usual way. Which is nice because it's all charted, and we are very unlikely to hit anything weird."
Adair recalls from their astrogation classes how they charted the shipping lanes thoroughly for objects that could affect a ship. The Galactic Union checked the lanes regularly for unknown celestial bodies. They kept track of and updated the courses of these that had regular orbits. The edge of each system had a beacon that had that system's map. As soon as a ship jumped into a system, the astrogator downloaded an update on that system and changed course appropriately. It was all theoretical for Adair until now. Sure, they had done a few duties on various ships, but those had all been someone else's responsibility. This is different. This somehow feels more real. And they are as excited as ever.
Brigit can't help but smile at her friend's excitement. Nothing could curtail it, nor would she want to. She intended to use that excitement to make sure they succeed in their mission, as mundane as it is. That thought reminds her.
"How are we looking for our scheduled pull out? I know Doc was off shopping for extra provisions. The Celestial Guard only provisions the requirements, and he wanted to make sure we had some good stuff besides the needful. I'm not sure where or what Cali is up to, but I know she'll be on time for pull out."
Adair checks Rory's progress. "Looks like the automated systems checks are good. I would imagine that she'll finish her visual inspection on time." She grinned. "Might need a few prompts." The crew poked fun at Rory, but no one wanted anyone else in charge of the drives and general systems other than Rory. The woman was a genius with ship systems.
"I hope Doc makes it back in time to make lunch, or we'll be making sandwiches." Adair frowns a little, thinking for a moment before they slide their console back, stands, and heads to the kitchen, "Actually, I've finished with the astrogation updates, I could go whip up some sandwiches in case he takes longer to get to the ship than we're planning."
"Good thinking," Brigit replies, always glad when someone had an idea to do something that she was going to tell them to do. She discovered it's always better when they have the idea first.
"Before you do the sandwiches, though, will you fire off a message to Cali? I just want to know when she'll be here. So if I'm reading everything correctly, we should be ready for an 18:00 pull-out. What do you think?" She had been looking at most of the same stuff Adair had, besides some captain-only information.
Adair thinks for a moment before approaching the ladder.
"Assuming the members of the crew that aren't on ship arrive on time, yes, that sounds perfectly attainable." They call out as they descend the ladder with a smile, "And have Tyche send that message to Cali. The ship is reasonably competent, you know!"