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Looking around my new, fairly spacious, accommodations, I took a deep breath of the sterile refiltered air. I could see that there was one bed, made up with standard issue linens, built into the right wall. There was a footlocker at the end of the bed. Next to the bed on the back wall of the room was a wooden desk, and chair. The desk also served as a night stand. I was somewhat surprised to see a wooden anything on a starship; normally everything is metal, or plastic. On the left wall, there were some clothes hanging from a few pegs, which were over a pallet on the floor. A few of Sarah's personal belongings on the desk, and a picture of a woman with a close resemblance to Sarah hanging on the wall completed the room's adornments.
"I had Tina, the Chief Engineer; make up the pallet for you. That will have to do until something else can be made." Sarah said as she walked over and started to take some of her things off of a couple hooks. "These hooks will be yours, and I'll look into getting you a foot locker as well."
"Thank you," I replied, "I don't know what to say. I haven't had a place that I could even remotely call my own since I was 16." Just then there was a beeping sound from a console beside the door.
Sarah walked over to the panel and pushed a button, "Yes, Sarah here."
A musical voice came back over the intercom, "Please report to the captain's ready room, she would like to meet him."
"Acknowledged; please inform the Captain that we are on our way. Out" Sarah replied. "I guess showing you the rest of the ship is going to have to wait."
We left her room and started down a long corridor with door openings at regular intervals. As the door closed I took note of the identification on the door; C12 LtCom MD S. Fortwrite.
As we went down the corridor the door markings were going up: C14, C16, etc. Soon we came to a junction, where another corridor went off to the right, and another door was on the left. The door was marked LIFT 8 C DECK. Sarah called the lift and when the doors opened we went in. Upon commanding "Bridge" the lift started moving.
Soon the doors opened into a small room. To either side of the lift and a door straight ahead were armed guards. Sarah pulled out of her pocket an access card and the guards waived us through. I was kind of surprised with the security on the ship. I wouldn't have thought that the Medical Officer who was ordered to the bridge would have to show identification. One of the Guards escorted us to the captain's ready room.
As we were being directed to the Captain, Sarah said, "Jon, one the guard opens the door, we'll walk in three paces come to attention, and salute. The Captain is very particular about such etiquette. Stay at attention until ordered otherwise." I just nodded in reply.
Due to the layout of the bridge I was not able to get a look at it, as there was a wall between the door and the bridge proper. There was another guard outside of the ready room, who announced that we had arrived, and ushered us in.
The Captain dismissed the guard, and once the door closed, returned the salute. "A Procreator standing at attention and saluting: what an odd sight. Please sit," The Captain indicated to the chairs in front of her desk, "As I'm sure that you have guessed by now I am Captain Jessica Fortwrite. And I know that you have met my sister Sarah."
"I'm not sure how much Sarah has told you so I'll start from the beginning." Jessica explained. 'Now unlike most of the rest of the crew Sarah and I were born to the same mother. And every person on this ship Procreators included has the same father. The reason for this is that situations like this on have happened in the past and the ship's crew made use of an available procreator, and unauthorized birthing was taking place. So as a counter measure the Matriarchs issued the orders that only brother Procreators and their sisters could be on the same ships. As such I'm telling you this once, in case you are some sick bastard; you are not allowed ANY sexual contact with any member of the crew. Understand?" Jessica asked.
"Yes ma'am."
"Good." She replied, "So what's your name?"
"Jon ma'am"
With a nod she turned to Sarah, "So he checks out? No ill effects from coming out of stasis?"
"None that have shown thus far; I'll keep monitoring him though just to be sure." Sarah replied. Then the Captain and Sarah started talking in some detail of other things, both medical, and otherwise. It seemed as though I had been forgotten altogether. I tried my best to follow the conversation; however when you are being ignored and the topic of the conversation is the number of people that have the sniffles, and how many toothbrushes were issued, the mind wanders.
While waiting to be remembered I examined the room. I could tell right away that the Captain was definitely an organized person. Everything had a place, was in it and was clearly marked.
Once again I was surprised to see that the desk was wood, although all the chairs were plastic. The Desk was placed centrally in the room with a chair behind it. On the desk was a computer screen, with a comp-pad. In addition to the two chairs Sarah, and I occupied there were two more against the right wall. In the right back corner of the room there was a filing cabinet, but I could think of no reason that one would be needed. To my knowledge all records were kept electronically. A large picture hanging on the left wall, of the same woman that Sarah had in our room, and a flag of the Confederation completed the room's adornments."
Hearing my name snapped my attention back to the other people in the room. "Sorry what was that?" I asked the captain after realizing that I had missed the question.
Smiling, "I asked: what are your interests?" Jessica replied.
"I really don't know ma'am." I responded, "When I was younger we, myself and the other male boys, were discouraged from doing anything other than learning about what it was to be a Procreator."
Sarah volunteered, "I was reading through some histories the other day; ones about the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They said that the men in that society were the workers, and that most were good with their hands. They were the engineers, and builders of things." Looking from me to Jessica, "Perhaps Jon could work with Tina, or one of the other engineers. Maybe he/you would enjoy fixing things."
Jessica looked to me, "Well what do you think?"