Chapter Text
I woke up the next morning to my alarm on and data pad going off right next to my ear. Luckily, as I was getting ready for the day, teeth brushing, getting dressed ect, I realized that my bed was actually comfortable to sit and sleep on so I didn’t have any unexpected soreness from the night prior rest. Once I managed to get all of the hidden straps and buttons done up in my uniform, I decided to step outside of my quarters to an already moderately busy hallway. I guess time really never stops here.
My goal was to get to the mess hall for some breakfast, only thing is that I didn’t know my way yet. Thankfully my PDA did, it had a built in map and navigation system. That’s how you know that the Orville is really so big that every PDA has to have a map and navigation app on it. I was also lucky that the instructions on the map were easy to follow despite the ship having multiple levels and sections.
After an about five minute walk, much of which was spent staring down at the PDA making sure I didn’t miss a turn, I arrived at the mess hall. I saw that it had an open floor plan kind of style to it with windows out into space all along one wall. I was quickly able to see the bar, kitchen, and a line formed beside the food synthesizers that were inlaid into the wall.
It seems like artificial food synthesizers are standard on most Union ships now, seeing as there’s been one on nearly all of the ships I’ve been on, even the smaller ones. When I got to the front of the thankfully fast moving line, I was able to see what exact name brand and model the four synthesizers were. Astro Tech brand standard style high capacity food synthesizers, a brand I knew. If one of these ever broke down, here in the mess hall or anywhere else, I might be the person who had to fix it. For now though I just ordered an earth style chicken breakfast biscuit.
When I went to look for somewhere to sit I saw several different species within the main dining room already seated. There was another Morclan, a Zenith, humans, and some sort of greenish blob creature on the floor. I couldn’t even begin to guess that one’s species or even its gender. Hell, some species didn’t even have any genders, how cool would they be to meet.
I ended up choosing a round table more toward the side of the room to just observe everyone for my first day. My chicken biscuit was still hot when I dug into it after all of the seating arrangement thinking. The food synthesizers really were up to par to the real thing, there were some subtle differences in texture and such, but overall it was really good.
“Hey, isn’t that an Earth dish? Not even eating anything Valerian?”
I looked up to find another Valkyrie who was the one talking to me.
“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked her. She took me answering her as an invitation to sit down across from me with her own plate of traditionally Valerian food.
“Ohh, I get it. You’re siding with the humans on this one aren't you?” she said, eyeing my plate again.
“I’m not really siding with anyone, I just like the food…” I couldn't see where she was going with this. She leaned over the table towards me and studied my hair, then eyes, then wings. This was sort of normal for us, to value our appearances and see others for how they took care of themselves, but she was doing it to me in a rather aggressive manner. Then, all of a sudden, she leaned away and back in her seat.
“Relax! I’m just messing with you!” She said with a laugh.
“Oh okay, you had me worried for a second. You could have been one of those racist sort of people or something…”
“Me? Nah, there's already too much clutter in the galaxy to add on racism. My name’s Numanixa, like new-man-ix-a. I know, it’s a mouthful… So most people just chose to call me numi.”
“Ah, yeah I can see how people would think that your name is a bit of a hassle. I’m called Eva. Numi is a good nickname to have though.” I told her, then went back to chewing my food.
“Yeah, I guess so. Your’s is a lot simpler. Although, Numi is definitely better than some human nicknames.” She said also turning to eat.
“Humh?”
“Yeah…” She took another bite and kept talking, not the best table manners. “Apparently a popular human nickname for a grandsire was PeePaw.”
“*Hurk*” I nearly spat out my food. “Wow, humans really called their elders that? It sounds like a word they’d use to describe one’s excretions.”
“Ha! Yeah I know! How awful.”
We continued our meaningless conversations for a bit even after we had both finished our meals. Numi was a decent enough Valkyrie, talkative and more open then most of us, but still down to the ground, or the hull in this case as we’re on a space vessel. I had set another alarm on my PDA to let me know when my first shift would start, because who wants to be late on their first day, and that led to us closing our conversation and parting ways after exchanging PDA serial numbers so we could message later if we wanted to.
Just like when I went on my mission to find the mess hall, I turned to my PDA to direct me to where I was posted for the day. It told me that I would have to walk from the lower mess hall all the way to deck 2, sections A-M. So I had about half of that entire deck all to myself for the day. Well, there would be other crew members working around me, but it would be just me there as a repair technician.
After about another five minute walk, I arrived in the area I was to be stationed at. I was able to figure out how to clock into work by hitting a button on the PDA that said I’m in my area and on duty. That meant that I’d start getting messages from workers who needed my help or people who saw anything that someone with my skills could repair. The PDA also gave me the main rooms that were in my sector such as the bathrooms, rec rooms, offices, and there was even a greenhouse type room here. What there wasn’t was any personal or private quarters, so that meant I didn't have to take maintenance calls to anyone's private areas. It’s kind of taboo for Valkyries to just go barging into others' personal homes like that. It’s just awkward and disrespectful mostly.
As I was ruminating over what calls I might get, I began patrolling the halls looking for anything out of place. There wasn’t much in these low traffic areas though. All the hallways only had basic decorations, such as an occasional potted plant every other hall, minimal carpeting, and basic ambient lighting. The only really important things for me to check were the pagers, coms, and emergency lights and sires in the halls. But those were only every hundred feet or so along the corridors.
As I passed by the pagers embedded into the walls, I tapped on them to make sure that they didn't have any screen damage and that all of the keys could function. I could also check for any security updates on them. The coms were much the same, except they were embedded higher up into the ceiling. The cool thing was that my PDA, because I was a technician, had the ability to ping all of the devices around me. So all I had to do to make sure that everything was working was to go into what area I was in and select whatever device I was trying to inspect and ping it. That made it so the coms would let out a ping sound back to me and a section of frequencies that my PDA’s mic could listen to and give me the all clear that it was working correctly. The lights and sirens did basically the same thing, this time with the addition of them turning on their lights as well as their sound.
I had gotten through two halls and over twenty devices before I got my first call. My PDA pinged me with a message that a custodian crewman from my area had spotted an emergency light that had the fixture broken off. As a custodian they didn't have the skill or materials to handle it, so they called me to get it done. How exciting, my first real repair job.
The message they sent me also had a pin that showed me where on the ship they were. It looked like they were several sections down from where I was which meant I had a bit of a hike to make. The PDA once again gave me the directions, but I had noticed that the halls down here had a relatively simplistic geometric pattern to how they were organized. That meant they would be easier to memorize so I wouldn’t have to rely on the PDA so much. Speaking of which, all this walking, not even halfway into my shift, had got me thinking that I should buy a step tracker for my tool belt so I could tell just how much I really walked in a day. Just for fun of course.
When I did eventually get to where the pin was placed, I noticed that the crew member who sent me the request was gone, and that the closest emergency light was indeed broken. It was the type that protruded down from the ceiling just like the exit signs did, and that the plastic outer shell of it was cracked and partially broken off like something had rammed into it.
So that meant I would need… a ladder, a replacement cover, and maybe even replacement internal components depending on how deep the damage was. My tool belt around my waist only held the basic tools for repairs and damage control like wire cutter, keys to shut off power or water supplies, some wrenches, some screwdrivers, Phillips heads, extra connection wires, mini circuit breakers, caution tape, ect. To get a ladder, I’d have to find one from a supply room and bring it here. Once again, the PDA came in handy and let me look up where the nearest supply room actually was. Before I left, I did Leave some caution tape hanging from the ceiling around the broken light to let others know to be careful, and just because I could.
After some more walking, again, I came to the entrance of the supply room which needed a keycard to access it. Luckily I had just such a card hooked into a retractable loop on my belt. I swiped it, and the room immediately slid open its door to let me in. It wasn’t an overly big or crowded room, this was only a lower level supply room after all, but I did see some of the supplies I needed. The ladder was leaned up against one wall and the replacement casings were likely in the shelves where I could already see other replacement components for other devices I had seen.
The casing and other small materials I could just clip onto or stick into my tool belt, but the ladder I would have to drag. Upon closer inspection, I found that the ladder actually had retractable wheels on two of the legs that would make dragging it much easier, and less destructive on the floors. Now, with all of my supplies secured, I started to walk back to the pin, again…
Once I finally got there, and had all of the supplies to fix it, I set up the ladder, without the wheels on, and climbed up to look at the broken light closer. I used a flat head to pry off the broken casing from the edges of its housing on the ceiling panel and locked it into my tool belt. I then looked at the internal lightbulb and wire to see if they were cracked or frayed, they were not, and then sent a ping to the light to see if it would turn on, it did. That meant that all I would have to do to it was replace the casing then report the job done.
It took me a minute to properly align the new shell into the groves of the housing, then press and lock it in and add some sealant to secure it. Once I climbed down, I pinged the light one more time, which showed that the light still worked, and then got to do the satisfying job of clicking the all clear button on my PDA that said the job was done. It even moved the message and job into a completed folder so I could see everything I had done up to that point, which for now was only the only light.
I continued my regularly scheduled rounds on the rest of my section, or what I could cover, feeling productive and looking forward to the midday meal notification which then arrived promptly at noon. Seeing as the mess hall was on a different level then mine, I got to relax for a minute riding in the lift as it took me to the right level I needed. When the doors opened up onto the mess hall’s level, I was greeted by the sight of several other workers walking to it to get their own lunches. I didn’t see Numi anywhere, but I did recognize one of the workers as a bridge worker. He was one of the human guys who piloted the ship I think. The only reason I remembered him though was because I remembered thinking at orientation that he stood out because his orange hair matched his orange uniform. It’s almost funny now seeing as I’m now wearing the same color because I’m also classified as an engineering personnel.
As, what I would find out is the usual, I went in to find that nearly the entire hall was crowded with people, mostly human. I got in line and looked around like I did this morning to see if I would recognize anyone else, and ended up noticing that many were higher ranking officers based on the rank insignias everyone had built into the shoulders of the uniforms. Mine only had one strip and one dot, but most others had two or three stripe and dot combinations. I did see a few others with only one stripe and dot, but the pattern was interesting.
In my musings, I had also moved into the official line for served lunch, not synthesized food. It would be interesting to see what they served. What else was interesting was whose voice I heard coming from several people behind me. Isaac’s voice.
I ended up turning my head to try to see where he was exactly, without trying to seem like I was surprised to see him, and saw that he and the other bridge pilot had joined the line with the other guy. They seemed to be talking about something random related to their tastes on the lunches that were served aboard. I couldn’t listen too closely to their conversation simply because of all of the chatter in the room.
Before I could focus on them too much, it was my turn to order in the line. It was a cafeteria style setup where the chefs would serve your portions of what you asked for onto a sectioned tray then pass it along the line until you got everything and then took your tray to go eat. It was simplistic enough, although when I did reach the front I quickly found out that I hardly recognized any of the food they had. Now I wasn’t allergic to anything, as far as I knew, but I did have a habit of getting unpleasant stomach aches if I ate something too far from my normal diet.
As I was struggling to decide what I asked for, I also started worrying about how much I was holding up the line while being indecisive. I ended up just choosing things that had familiar colors and shapes, or that smelled good. Lucky for me, even if I didn’t end up liking anything on my plate, I could just use the synthesizes and look like a weirdo doing so. Even so, when I got to the end of the lunch line, I did find one thing that I recognized. They had earth apples, which I already knew that I liked.
In the end, I didn’t hold up the line too much, although it still felt like it, but now without the stress of the line, my attention shifted back to the bridge officers and Isaac. I stood around for a second trying to decide where to sit, when the three men walked past me to go sit at, what I assumed to be, their normal table. I decided to play it safe and sit at a table nearby just for the sense of one-sided familiarity I had with Isaac.
“Well, anyways, I still don't agree with you. But who am I to argue with a guy made out of metal?”The orange haired one said while sitting down with the other two.
“I fail to see how my material makeup is of importance in continuing a discussion with me,”Isaac said back.
“And… that right there is exactly why.”
“Come on Malloy, give the guy a break. There's only so much a dude with a titanium brain can compute.” Said the third guy to the orange haired guy, Malloy.
“My processor is perfectly capable of ‘computing’ everything that I need to. I am even considered more advanced than all of you because of my makeup, but I do appreciate you expressing your opinions around me, despite their incorrectness, lieutenant LaMarr.”
“Cool your jets Isaac. We’re just teasing” LaMarr said back.
“You might be…” Malloy grumbled.
From my seat a few feet across from where they sat, I was able to overhear their conversations with Isaac. It seemed like they didn’t like him very much. Maybe because Kaylons were hard for humans to get along with because of their lack of emotion to the opposite of humans having an abundance of emotions.
“So, you guys have any run-ins with the new trainees?” Malloy asked to the table, seeming to want to make small talk after they all started eating. At the mention of trainees, my ears peaked up to listen in.
“New… Trainees?” LaMarr asked.
“I believe Malloy is referring to the new crew members that had arrived here for the semi-annual rotation shift yesterday evening.” Isaac told him.
“Ohh, you mean the whole ‘stand on this big stage while the Ed gives a speech to a bunch of random people.”
“Correct.”
“Yeah? What about them?”
“Well I don’t know about you guys, but I had to fend off some random newbie trying to get into my things this morning.” Malloy said.
“Oh? And what was their reason for attempting to do so?” Issac asked.
“It was one of the new cleaners. They found my stash on the observation deck”
“I see, and by ‘stash’ you are referring to a secretive supply of illicit materials you kept there.”
“Yes, Issac.” Malloy said snappily back.
“Aw no, did they take the…”
“No. I convinced them to clean somewhere else before they could get anything.” Malloy interrupted LaMarr. Isaac looked between them for a moment.
“Your question indicated that you are in corroboration with Malloy in his illicit materials he has hidden on the ship.”
“Jeez’ Issac, you make it sound like we’re hiding cocaine.” Malloy said.
“Oh, Then what are you hiding?”
“It’s just some booze Isaac.”
At first I was also a bit concerned, kind-of like Isaac was. It seems like even the head officers on the bridge have secrets on this ship. It makes me wonder if i’ll ever find a stash like that on any of my jobs. Although, I was relived to hear that it was only alcohol that they were hiding rather then drugs or weapons or god knows what else people smuggle out here.
“Well, in terms of the new crew-members, I too have had some interesting interactions with them.” Isaac started.
“Yeah? And what qualifies as ‘interesting’ in your book?” LaMarr said.
“During orientation I had noticed that I along with lieutenant Bortus received more attention then everyone else on the podium had. I received fifteen percent more while Bortus received twenty-two percent more.”
Wow, Isaac must really be smart if he can calculate those numbers just from looking over the crowds at orientation. It makes me wonder if he noticed me looking too.
Malloy and LaMarr shared a knowing look, “Yeah, i’d guess that thats because you’re made of metal an Bortus is a Morclan. Of course people are going to give you weird looks.” LaMarr said.
“And why, because of these attributes, would that cause people to look at us more? Is it because we are considered attractive?”
Double wow. Maybe he really was paying more attention before. I assumed that no one on the stage could focus on my face out of the other hundreds so I didn't really focus on not staring at him. Could he have really seen the way I looked at him?
“What? No, dude… People look at you guy because they’re probably not used to seeing alien species that look so…” LaMarr sentence faded out like he was unsure what to say.
“Inhuman.” Malloy provided.
“I see. From my research I had found that humans in particular tend to look more at people who they find attractive, thus why I could infer that lieutenant Bortus and myself received more attention because of that.” Malloy gave him a pitying look.
So that means that he probably wasn’t thinking of me specifically when he mentioned the whole, “Am I attractive,” thing. I mean, I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Yet…
Now that I really looked at him though, I could appreciate his construction better, if that’s even a thing to admire about an in-organic being. His body wasn't too thin or thick, he was taller than me, but a probably average height for humans, and his face was simplistic but oddly pleasing. He also seemed more polite then a lot of humans or Valkyries.
All of a sudden his head turned toward me. I then realized that I had turned around in my seat to fully face him. I knew that most organic species could have a sort of sixths sense to know when someone was looking at them, but I didn't know that that applied to him too! I kept my position for a second, staring back at him, when he tilted his head to the right slightly, almost like a canine would do when looking at something that confused them. That’s when I promptly turned back to my own table and hurried to finish the few bites of food that I had left that I could stomach.
I then heard what sounded like both Malloy and LaMarr twisting in their seats to try to see where Isaac was looking. I was mortified. It wasn't proper for anyone to just look someone up like that without acknowledging them, like Numi had done to me earlier. I just hoped no other Valkyrie, or anyone who know of Valkyrie culture, saw that. Speaking of that sixth sense about knowing when people are looking at you, I got that feeling now.
“What?”, I heard Malloy say to Isaac.
I got up with my tray to put it in the dirty dishes pile near the lunch line before leaving. Before I could fully get out of the room I heard them mentioning something about a ‘winged girl’ to Isaac to mortify me that much more. I could only wonder what he would say to them. That I was staring at him, that he saw me doing the same thing at orientation, that I did it again in the engineering room! I should have confronted him, introduced myself, that could have been my chance. I just didn’t know how the two humans would have taken me approaching, their assumed to be friend, like that in the middle of the mess hall. I’d have to apologize later because of that.
Although, I didn’t hear Isaac say anything back to Malloy when he asked, “what?” or when the two started mentioning me. I can only hope he didn’t, or wouldn’t, take offense to me and not gossip about me to his co-workers. Then again, Kaylon’s don’t seem like the type to gossip.
That’s it, I’ll definitely seek him out later to introduce myself. I think, hope, that he’s not too inclined to reject me. After all, he did look back at me…