by P. S. Power
The man stood in the door of the space, watching for a bit, then moved in with a smile.
"Tiera, isn't it? I wasn't aware that you planned on working the cruise."
She didn't know how to salute or anything, so tried to stand straight, since that was a thing too, she thought. All the military types did that.
"Yes, sir. We'll set up something like this for all the dining rooms, if you wish? Everyone was told to come ready to work. Can we get you something to eat? Maris is very good and can probably come up with anything you want."
"Oh? Wonderful, I haven't had a good steak in ages."
That got Maris to question him closely for a bit, and provide a nice venison steak, instead of beef, with a rice pilaf on the side, along with a small green salad with a light dressing.
The man sat at the closest table to the machine, then started to eat. It was a bit hesitant, but after a bit he grew more interested in the meal. He had some papers, and made notes about something while he ate, not able to let go of work even for those few moments. That was probably why he had the job.
When he finished he set his own dishes on the table with their amulets, so they could be turned off.
"Very good, thank you, Maris was it?" He looked at the woman closely and seemed to finally get that she was actually very attractive. It was hard to see, unless you looked close. Then he rounded on Tiera, who was, she realized, was probably a family member of his. That meant it was fair game, him asking her to do things, even if she hadn't come ready to work. "Would you set that up? Try to teach our people how to make their own. The better the food quality, the happier everyone will be. We could also use an off loading crew, if you have extra people with spare time? It isn't fun work, but we have a string of craft coming in with colony supplies. That's why we have extra time in orbit. Extra hands can't hurt."
She nodded, since that would probably go over better with the fighters than wiping tables would.
Then the man left, without saying much else at all. He looked at her for a long time, from the door, but walked away after that.
It took a long time to find everyone, but once she got with Kolb it was easy enough. He'd already arranged her family into a messenger service, which made some sense really, and sent Tenet around to collect people for a work detail. Then they all met up in the hangar next to the one they came off in. There were six of them, she learned from one of the techs that was walking around quickly, looking harried. She was an Austran woman too, but didn't seem to want to have to put up with a bunch of rowdy kids.
"In here then. If the Captain ordered it. Let's go." She sounded almost miserable and her stringy hair and slightly wrinkled face didn't seem like anything near a smile landed there hardly at all. Tiera thought she understood it, having had deep grief herself once, and touched her mind, just to see.
She recoiled in horror.
Tiera had, on more than one occasion been about to kill herself, or at least let herself die, in her grief over losing her friend. She'd thought that was the bottom of what a human could withstand, and not just die. This woman in front of her was in so much pain that Tiera walked over to her and gave her a hug. It was vastly out of place, but the woman simply held her back for a bit.
"Don't worry, we'll work. We might do it wrong, but we'll do what we're told."
There were ten of them in the room with her, including several fighters, a very calm woman who was clearly from the meditation section, and Sam Builder. For over an hour, they ran, moving crates, boxes and sacks. They all had to be accounted for too, so the sad woman stood with her papers and special Austran pen that didn't need an inkwell and wrote, as people called things off to her.
When that ended, another came, and then another.
Finally another group of eleven people in brown came, and a replacement for the woman, who just sighed and walked away. Tiera almost ran after her, but didn't. It was horrible, but there was nothing she could do to make it even a little better, was there? All her family had died, drowning in front of her. Her friends and neighbors were mainly gone. Her home and everything she'd ever known, vanished in a few hours time. This, working here, was all she could do to fight back against the people that had done it. In her own way she was striking back, making sure that someday people would exist off the planet, so that if this happened again, someone would live.
It was, literally, all that was holding her mind together. A few hugs weren't going to change that. Not that they'd hurt.
Tiera felt small then, even with her new growth. She'd selfishly thought her pain was the same as other people's, and she'd been wrong. Oh, so very incorrect. Not that the comparison made her pain less, but she realized finally, what all the adults around her probably already knew. Certainly the Ancients did. Loss was a part of life and had to be gotten through. Giving up wasn't what Regina would have wanted for her at all. Just like she didn't want that Austran Tech to give up, even though she wasn't in love with her. She didn't even know her and she wanted the woman to keep fighting, even if things hurt as much as they did.
That applied to her as well, didn't it?
She wanted to keep working, but went to get Maris and Sheri instead. Both girls were still helping in the dining room, and probably would have kept doing that, if she hadn't shown back up.
"Hey, bedtime! We can work more after we sleep." That got Maris to stop what she was doing and walk away instantly, though Sheri finished helping the tiny Afrak man with his meal. Tiera didn't stare, but that was a very rare thing.
The men from that land had all been changed a lot. They were all very tiny, even by commoner standards in Noram. So mild and retiring that most wouldn't have left their land at all, she'd have thought. They were also totally incapable of violence. For this deeply dark tiny man to come this far from his home probably meant he was far braver than she was. Sure, she'd faced down magical seemings of dragons, but this man had to face down her. Or in this case, Sheri.
"There you go, sir." She made her voice polite and the man looked at the ground, took the plate and smiled a bit as he backed away.
Tiera didn't comment on it at all. She needed some sleep.
They all were on the same rough schedule, so when she got in the Prince, Smythe and Karina were all in bed, their lights turned off. She gestured, so as to not make any noise, and set the rest to doing the same thing.
Sleep came remarkably easily for her, she noticed, but she just didn't need as much as the others, so she sat up on her bed and started making the gravity devices they'd need. Then, since it was only copy work and she'd brought the supplies, she produced more of her little communications devices, making it so that they'd only work with their own batch. That way all her people could have one and not bother the crew at all, chattering all the time.
That put her up and around about the same time that everyone else was doing it, so they all headed down the hall together to clean up. The facilities were shared, but segregated by sex.
That meant, while it wasn't a huge space or filled with people, she was able to meet up with Karen and Ali.
Her sister in-law hugged her, ignoring the fact that she was naked and damp at the time. Or, Tiera understood, seeing how the rather busty blonde girl's nipples reacted, she might not have really been missing that point at all. When Ali saw Sheri and Maris they got drawn into hugs too.
"What are the plans for the day?"
That wasn't something Tiera knew really, but everyone looked at her hard, anyway. Like she was in charge? How had that idea come about anyway?
Oh, right, she was a bossy little witch. She grinned, and decided to go with her strengths.
"We're supposed to set up cleaning crews for the dining areas, as well as someone to help teach how to best use the food units for the crew here. There might be more ships coming too. I think the rest of the crew is coming? New people trading out, I think, so that won't be too bad, numbers wise. Other than that I don't know. I think we have classes too. If we can find the space for them. Fight
ing, building, and meditation?"
Since they had people for that.
They moved quickly, and she lured them all back to her alcove, with promises of treats. They were tolerably enthused about getting to pass the communications devices out at least, and all headed out to find people. Which meant, naturally that they all ended up in the dining room at the same time, more or less. It was kind of funny. They just didn't know where enough stuff was though, otherwise.
The morning was spent doing that. They set up cleaning crews and helpers for the food units, a few teams for the last of the goods coming in, and then she walked around handing things out to her friends and schoolmates. Around noon she found her parents, who had Taman with them, but not the rest of the kids, who were going from one area to another, making certain everyone was behaving.
Taman looked horribly bored. She was being good, since she was, in general, but she'd clearly been pouting a little.
That got Tiera to cross her eyes and make a funny noise. It didn't get a laugh, but the girl, six or not, understood what she meant.
"I know, I should find something to do, but what? At home I could work in the bakery or build something, but here... I didn't even bring anything to read, except my school primer."
"So, do that? For a few hours at least. Then get with the Lairdgren Group and see what building needs to be done. Sheri needs to learn how to make copies, so you can help with that, can't you? We have meditation practice too, and fighting. You might be too little for that, but why not get with Kolb and see about setting up shield and magical weapons practice somehow? There's lots to do. True, it isn't all chasing boys, but Guide is here..." She was teasing on that point, but the girl nodded, as if it really seemed like a plan.
"Do you think he remembers me? I haven't seen him in a long time. Months." For some reason that seemed like a real concern to the little girl at the moment.
"I know he does. Go slow with him though. After all, you can't get married until you're fourteen. It wouldn't serve to make him feel trapped until then." She just said the words, as if it were normal to talk to a little girl like that. Her mother nodded though and Douglas, back to looking young, did too.
He sounded thoughtful about the whole thing even.
"Still, keeping in contact can't hurt anything. First you should find Sheri and make certain she doesn't need you to do anything. I think she said she was in charge of you?"
Tiera made that simpler, by handing a speaking device over to the girl then each of her parents, with a few extra. It didn't take long for them to get the idea.
"You just hold it to your throat. These can be turned on and off too, since it might get to be a bit much otherwise, with a hundred people talking. You can listen to everyone though, and if we all keep things to a minimum, it might be all right." Most of the kids that had come were fighters after all, and practicing for either leadership or military careers. They got the idea of discipline, more or less. When she flicked hers on, there was speaking, but it wasn't all the time or anything.
With a bit of coaching, Taman had Sheri speaking to her in moments, which meant the little girl was off to the dining room that Tiera's group used. It was nearly luncheon, at least for the people on school schedules, so she headed that way herself, the slightly orange and white hallways oppressive already.
After that...
Well, she kind of ran out of things to do herself. She meditated, but didn't actually need a class for that. Kolb was planning practice for his people, but had to wait for the hangar bays to be open, so they'd have the space. They wouldn't be heading out until later that day, so there was a time when she was just kind of walking around, looking at things. The crew was all busy and her people were either helping out, or had their own friends to be with. Even her family was busy. Her parents looking after everyone, since they were adults, and her brothers and sisters playing miniature guards for them all. No one was doing anything wrong, so that mainly turned out to be walking around and making certain everyone had a talking thing.
It was peaceful, really. No one here seemed to care much about rank or anything either. Even the people from Noram just smiled at her, even if they were common folk. The ship was huge though. A quarter mile across and nearly half that high. Not having anything else to do, she walked, covering a lot of it, over the course of hours. She didn't go onto the bridge, since the people there were actually busy, and while she glanced in to a few places, to watch people manage the space, heat and air quality, she didn't really stop to chat. Not until she got to the waste management section. The man working that area was old, and angry.
As far as she could tell he was from Vagus, and if he was impressed by her being tall at all, that didn't show. On the good side, he spoke passable Noram Standard.
"Too much shit. We don't have storage for it. Orders are not to dump it on the main paths." He gestured to the vast tanks which had clear sections to show they were nearly full. "Captain hasn't responded to my note either." It was hard to get past the accent, but only a little.
Tiera looked at it, and then left, running to her room. When she came back she had six of her new devices, which meant one for each tank.
"These can be used to take the... waste and make it into other things. It works, but isn't that fast. We'll have to store whatever we make too, but that can be stone, or sand, so pretty dense. Metal too." The man might not have a good idea what that was though, since his people were forbidden the use of it. On Earth at least.
His name, it turned out, was Ong. Which was simple enough to remember. He also cared not at all who she was, as long as her new magic worked. He got a unit set up, noticed the configuration and made a pipe from one of the water tanks, being careful to make it air tight. Then they made a heavy stone slab and stacked it to the side. He did the work that way, but the stone was a nice heavy one that didn't break easily.
"This good." He let her move the things, one at a time, which took a while. They had a lot of them to make, and Ong was still running out of space. It wasn't going to back up the waste disposal system though, so he was happy enough and got her to make a line of the heavy things out in the hall.
Eventually, near six or so, she thought, the next man came to watch the system. He was from Noram, and got the idea almost instantly. The devices she'd made were a nice deep gold color, and shone like polished metal, but made one of the heavy stone blocks per minute with no real problem.
The man looked to be of merchant stock, but low rank. When he pointed at the new set up he looked worried.
"That's a lot of work for one man. I think I can keep up, but Merta, on the third shift, is tiny. We need some way for her to keep up. Plus, we need to get with storage. It makes sense, but what can we use this for?" Being bright enough for space work he grimaced. "Oh. Food. Well, that works, but we can't let anyone know."
Tiera went wide eyed as if the very idea was a new one.
"Or, well, if we put them back in one of these we can make pretty much anything. Not just materials, but whatever you can work out. Finished goods and all that. If it's too complex you have to know how it works, but other than that, anything. Nearly." She might have missed some things, after all. She wasn't perfect. "It can be used to make air, water, jewelry, cloth or even wooden furniture. As long as it can fit in a four by four section. So no beds really."
They had magic ones anyway.
The man nodded and Ong walked away, barely noting that she'd been there at all, it seemed. She'd worked up a good sweat, moving the heavy blocks for hours, so went to shower again, and then to get something to eat. While working moving rocks might not be fun, it was useful and had been slightly better than being alone.
Instead of remembering Regina, she thought of that poor Austran woman and decided to try and visit with her, if she could. They had a week after all, and if the woman worked in storage at all, which seemed likely, then Tiera and Ong had made a lot of work for her that day.
At first she didn't think she'd really be able to.
The lady wasn't in their dining section as far as that went, and just walking around looking for someone she didn't have a name for wouldn't work either. Still, Tiera knew what hangar she'd worked the day before and could ask around there.
It was later in the day, but when she got to the door of the space, the lady was there, along with several crew members, working to get a small ship unloaded of people. They were all yelling, and then a group standing to the side loaded up. Her new friend slapped a speaking device to her throat.
"The Morning Star is exiting the Winters Kiss... Now, Captain."
"Ready to go, everyone get ready to go. We leave in five minutes." Alan Sorvee sounded confident of that. It was his job, so why not?
Dropping the device from her neck, the woman called out to the new arrivals. "I'm Jennifer Quigley. Top mate for the loading section. We have guests on this cruise." Glancing over at Tiera , she gestured. "They're all dressed like this, for ease of finding them. School kids from Noram, but hard workers. We will not have any problems with them. Is that understood? The Fleet Admiral set that order herself. If one of them asks you to do something, then see that it gets done, duty allowing." The misery was still there, but came out as bitter hardness, not pain. The people looking at her seemed to be wary though, as if it all might just be a trap.
Jennifer Quigley stared at Tiera for a bit.
"So, can I help you with anything, Miss?" The tone was a bit leading. Or really a lot leading.
"Yes. We have an overage of stone blocks? Outside of Waste management. It's part of the new system."
That was all she said, and the crew that had come, their bags still in hand, were sent off to see to that at once.
Tiera went too, since, after a fashion, it was her mess.
Chapter ten
The first three days of the trip were pretty nice, considering everything. The food improved for everyone, and Sara, Trice and Ali grabbed one of the new devices and made all kinds of things with it that impressed everyone else. None of it was actually needed, except for some toothbrushes. If people had a problem with them being made out of waste, well, they didn't know, did they? The girls had asked for something to work with, so the practical people on the ship provided some nifty and handy blocks. That was all.
