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I burst into the common room, surprising Carrie, my blond diplomat friend, enough for her to almost fall off of the couch she was sitting on.
I nod in appreciation of how empty the room is. All the couches are moved to the edges, and there's no people in sight.
This is gonna be great, I can already feel it. Carrie had approached me with the idea, since a lot of the morale checks had gone negative, so she thought the ship could use a little cheering up. Ironically, the morale people were too sad to think of something like this. At least I'm pretty sure. Haven't talked to them much.
“HOORAH i have found them! They were in the birthday box in the storage room. And don't worry, there's plenty enough mattresses in there.”
Carrie gets up and comes over, grinning. She cheers at the sight of the rolls of paper.“Ive finished my own thing too! Since i cleared the room early, i thought id make signs for the doors, well, the openings, to warn people not to come in.”
I grin, “ooh can i see them?” that's a really good idea, actually. Well, what did I expect, it's Carrie, she's just awesome like that.
She laughs, “Sure!”
I grunt through the roll of tape I'm holding in my mouth. On my tiptoes, I manage to slap the last end of the streamer on the door frame. Stepping back, I admire my work. 3 crosses across the opening, to block people from coming in. the perfect solution. You can barely see through it. And it's practically a bank safe door. No one’s getting through my mighty lines of paper.
I start to turn to Carrie, who just finished with her own opening, then freeze. Oh crap. I sigh.
“So…you know how, like, we have to get the mattresses in here?”
Realization dawns on her face.
Laughing, we go to take down my crosses. Hers can stay up, since we only need one to bring the stuff in.
We walk to the storage room, talking the whole way. When we finally get there, I bring her over to the bedding. It had taken me a while to find it the first go round. It was around a couple corners of shelves. With 93 people on a ship, the storage tends to be a muli-level Walmart. Mattresses stack all the way to the ceiling on one side, blankets and pillows on the other.
I raise my arms, then turn around and bow to carrie. “Here are the items you asked for, your grace” some day she's gonna get fed up with me, but it hasn't come yet, so ill just live in the delusions that im funny.
We grab a mattress each and bring it to the common room. Thank the stars for the moving hallways, I wouldn't be able to carry a full blown mattress more than twenty feet. After some maneuvering we get them into the room, and put them down in the empty expanse of floor. It's looking less like a newly bought house by the minute.
“Now time for more!” I super enthusiastically say. Carrie laughs, and heads back to the storage room.
After lots of rounds of this, bringing in mattresses and after that, pillows, then blankets, we arrange them around. The mattresses getting dirty shouldn't be a problem, the ship has a great cleaning machine. But, nonetheless, we put some of the blankets on top of the beds to make it look more finished. I wish they differentiated a little bit, but I guess we have to take what we can get.
I step back, and look at our work. It's marmalade. The beds make a giant platform in the center of the room, pillows around the edge, and in piles where the mattresses connect. perfect.
Carrie holds up a hand for a high five. kachapow.
“Great work, biscuitfriend! Its looking marvelous”
I nod, “this was a great idea, blame yourself”
Carrie checks her watch. “We still have a half hour before the time we set up for the party,” she looks at me with hope in her eyes.
I brace myself for the next question. Ugh, not again.
“Do you want to play uno?”
I look between my 8 cards in my hand, and the 1 in hers, and resign myself. She grins as if she just learned she’s inheriting the entire galaxy. And slowly puts down a blue five.
“NOOoooOOOooOooo” I fall backward onto a pile of pillows. She cackles. “How do you always winnnnnnn”
“Practice, and more practice, my friend.” Her laughs and smiles fill the room.
“I do not want to practice any more uno. Please no.”
I try to change the topic. Anything is better than uno.“Okay, anything we need to do before starting?”
She thinks for a moment. Then lights up. “Do we have any snacks? We probably need those” how could i forget human fuel! But that begs a question, do the non humans here need food as fuel, like could Huidol just chug gasoline? Actually, let's not think about that. He might read my mind and then think it’s a great idea.
“Oh yes yes! Lets go grab some from the mess hall!”
Munching on some of the chips Carrie brought, we chat until my alarm chimes.
“Yay! Time to call people in!”
“I shall take down the high security blockades,” she salutes as she stands up.
Okay, how do I do this? I haven't sent a mass announcement over the speakers before. Hmmm. i click a few buttons on the controls for my comm. That…maybe should do it.
**Everyoneeeee come to the common room for a group sleepover!**
Hearing my own voice over the speakers is jarring, but it worked, so there's that.
And, soon enough, people trickle in.
Eventually, we are all laughing and playing around late into the night. But it's space. So what's night anyway, you know? (and yes, i did have to ban shark from bringing his whiskey)