Chapter Text
Apollo let out a sigh as he read through the files on the new crewmates set to arrive at his ship today. Which was both good and bad for various reasons. Mainly being that it was always nice to have some extra help on a ship that explored the universe, but it sucked solely because he already had sixteen people including himself on the ship.
The Skeld was small, it really wasn’t supposed to have more than fifteen at a max, he really wasn’t sure how much he wanted four extra crewmates tacked onto the bunch they already had. He tried to convince Toast to send them anywhere else, like the Airship because commander Chilled Chaos always seemed to be looking for more help.
Nonetheless he was going to be stuck with them. At least they seemed like a competent bunch. He used that loosely, Steve and DK also seemed competent at first glance but in reality those two never did their tasks or their work for that matter. Why would they? That would make his job too easy.
“You ready for today?” Hafu's voice startled him and he looked over at the admin office door where his old commander stood. She had recently become an officer and was now leaving this crew for him to take care of. At least she wasn’t leaving the ship anytime soon.
“I guess. It’s not like I’ve never gotten a new crewmate before. And judging by their files at least they’ve worked together,” Apollo pointed out, scanning over the file in front of him for a final time. “They should be getting here, I’ll see you later,” He said and left her to do whatever work she had.
He headed to the airlock door and watched as it cycled for a moment before out stepped four crewmates. Apollo took a moment to study the crewmates in front of him and connect their pictures to their files in his brain.
First of all he had Junkyard, a reactor expert and highly respected amongst officers and commanders alike. He had recently stepped down from his position as a commanding officer and back into the role of a crewmate. He was older and honestly it unnerved Apollo that someone as old as him would be doing missions but whatever. He was wearing a brown suit with a black fedora on his head, a bright yellow feather sticking out of the hatband.
Next up was the oldest daughter of said man, Courtilly. She was in specific a tracker but on the ship she would be classified as a medic. Which was great, because he totally needed another medic on this ship. Uh huh, definitely. Her hair fell down her shoulders, covering the symbol that would be on her coral colored suit, a cow hat sat on her head. Apollo chose not to think about that as he quickly analyzed the last two.
Kara Corvus was the youngest of the four, dressed in a red suit very similar to the one Steve wore. A witch hat sat on her head and a small black bird was on her shoulder. She would be another navigator, tacking onto the five of them there already were. Including himself, 5up, Hafu, Steve and DK. She was also said to be a witch, similar to the powers that their own electrician on board had, but she wouldn’t be able to use them on the Skeld for fear of the electricity throwing a fit.
Finally there was Kara’s twin brother, Skadj Viking. He wore a metal viking hat that somehow made complete sense with his bright orange suit. He was an engineer of sorts, meaning he would hopefully get along with Aipha. The young cadet needed someone to talk to that wasn’t him about engineer shit like engines.
“Welcome to the Skeld. I’m commander Dumbdog, you can call me Apollo though. I’ll give you guys a quick tour, get you settled into a bunkhouse, and then introduce you to the rest of the crew,” Apollo said, letting themselves properly introduce themselves. They didn’t need to know he already pretty much had their files memorized.
He did nearly wince when he shook Junk's hand though, because the man seemed cold. Like temperature wise he seemed cold. Though that could’ve easily been the stress of moving to a new ship or he was just weird.
Apollo led them to the medbay so that they could scan before Janet decided to show up and yell at them for not doing it immediately, and he proceeded to take them across the Skeld.
“Oh my god! Look at these engines!” Skadj said nearly immediately upon seeing the upper engines. He walked right past Apollo and began to inspect them. Apollo knew most engineers had a similar reaction because of how old the ship was, but at least most of them just looked excited.
“Oh uh…” Apollo was a little thrown off from the sudden noise considering only Junk had really been talking to him during the medbay trip and while Apollo was explaining how things tended to work.
“Skadj!” Junk scolded him and Skadj looked at him with wide eyes for a moment. “Must you have cut him off? You can look at those later,”
“Sorry?” Skadj asked, it wasn’t a real apology but it got Apollo to relax and laugh a little bit.
“Holy shit, yeah, you’ll get along with our engineer here just fine,”
“You have another engineer?”
“Kinda,” Apollo explained as he started to lead them down to reactors and security. “We have a cadet, you’ll meet him in bit, but he does the same stuff and gets excited,”
“He’s just an engineer?” Kara asked. “I only ask because most cadets get a few training types before they become a crewmate,”
“Yeah, he pretty much immediately discovered he liked engines and he came from a different ship where he already started his training,”
Eventually he led them back to the cafeteria and up the ladder, which brought them to the hallway of bedrooms. He had his own and right across the hall from him was a room that had recently been turned into a bunkhouse for Hafu, DK and Steve to all share. They were all high ranking and Hafu didn’t mind it.
Right next to him was Antfrost and 5up, a commanding officer and his own second in command. 5up was particular about wanting a room with Antfrost because they had their own agenda at least sixty percent of the time.
Janet, Kimi and Ovilee also shared a room. All three being medics and the remaining girls on the ship it’s just how rooming worked out when they rearranged things after a crewmate permanently left.
Koji and Scott also shared a room, considering Ovilee had left Scott for the girls and Koji’s partner had left for a different ship. Across the hall from them were Baycon and Gumi, who tended to only really work together despite how much arguing they caused.
Swifyz and Whyin were across from Anfrost and 5up, considering they also worked with 5up on his other ship and were actually a direct result of the rehabilitation ship. If Apollo had been told why they had been on that ship originally he didn’t remember.
The last crewmate that was right across the hall from where Dumbdog would put Junkyard and the others, was Aipha. He was young and a little too high energy for most people to handle so they had put him by himself.
“I’ll give you four some time to settle in. Be in the cafeteria in two hours and we’ll do a proper introduction to the rest of the crew,” Apollo said and walked away, sending a message on his tablet to the others.