OUTWORLD: Stellar Evolution Pt. 1

OUTWORLD: STELLAR EVOLUTION

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Kate Holloway (female Jack Russell, age 15)

CREW OF THE AAS FALSTAFF
Captain Erika Miller (female Poodle, age 46)
Science Officer Gareth Hassan (male Cat, age 31)
Navigator Kate Hutcherson (female Lemur, age 27)
Engineer Aaron Davis (male Tabby Cat, age 25)
Medical Officer Agnes Dawson (female Red Panda, age 23)


15th MARCH 7072, SASKATOON STATION ORBITING PLANET SUMMERKIN

Kate Holloway was scared.
It wasn’t how she wanted to feel, either. Graduating from the Summerkin College of Applied Engineers at the age of fourteen, achieving maximum marks along the way, getting the Platinum Award for Outstanding Student at her award ceremony… she should’ve been thrilled! What was wrong with her?
 Instead, here she was, standing in the departure lounge of the Saskatoon Orbital Station with an overstuffed holdall and a good view of Summerkin to remind her of the world she had been born on – the world she was leaving behind.
 And a head full of panic.
 “You okay, sweetie?” a voice behind her enquired; it was as warm as a hug, and Kate knew it was her mother, standing just behind her. Her father was there, too, and her sister. She didn’t want to turn around; if she did, she might just burst into tears and call it all off. This was what she had been waiting for – a position on a real spaceship, with a real crew, in real space!
 She couldn’t mess it up now.
 “I’m fine,” she sniffed, trying not to let the tears come. “Just a bit nervous.”
 Millie Holloway giggled, putting a chubby paw on her shoulder. “Aww. Kate, it’ll all be fine. You’re an amazing girl, and this is just one more thing you’re gonna be great at. You just wait.”
 Kate felt herself smile. Her mother was right. She was going to be fine.
 Her father chimed in as well. “Go get ‘em, honey,” Rufus Holloway grinned.
 Kate was confident enough to slip a glance at her sister. “Anything to say, sis?”
 Rebecca Holloway’s extended tongue was enough for Kate, and she felt her smile widen. “Love you, too.”
 “Kate Holloway?” This was a new voice, female and deep, with a thick layer of experience and world-weariness, and Kate turned to see a middle-aged Poodle weaving her way through the small crowd that was hanging about in the departure lounge. She wore a light blue jacket and black pants, which looked to Kate like typical shipboard wear. As the Poodle approached, Kate made out a small circular logo on its breast pocket; a side-on view of a telescope formed the backdrop for the words “AMATEUR ASTRONOMY SOCIETY” and “AAS FALSTAFF”. Kate mentally nodded to herself; this was her ride. “That’s me,” she spoke up, raising a paw.
 The Poodle held out hers and smiled. “Erika Miller. Captain of the AAS Falstaff and senior astronomer.”
 Kate took Captain Miller’s paw and shook it. “Captain Miller. Nice to meet you.”
 “Pleasure’s all mine,” Miller replied easily, glancing behind her. “Mr and Mrs Holloway, I assure you both that your daughter is in the safest hands on my ship. My head engineer is highly trained and experienced, and she will learn a lot from him.”
 “That’s what we want,” Millie Holloway yapped, a giggle in her voice. “What Kate wants.”
 Thanks, Mom, Kate thought, her cheeks reddening. She decided to add some measure of assent, though, and so she said, “Yeah. Sounds great.” Assent, not stupidity. She decided to keep her muzzle shut unless absolutely necessary.
 “Do you want a moment to say bye?” Miller was asking her, and Kate felt her legs deaden. This moment was coming, unavoidable, and she regarded her family with great effort.
 “We love you, Kate,” Rufus Holloway told her, and she found herself smiling. Her eyes flicked to her mother, her sister, back to her father again. “I love you too,” she responded. “Even Rebecca.”
 There was the tongue again. Kate chortled. “Missing you already.”
 Then Miller was leading her away, and she had to go.

Kate followed Captain Miller through the concourse towards the subsidiary docking area. All around the station, transport shuttles swarmed like insects carrying multiple classes of cargo from warehouses on the surface; Summerkin was a transport world, and was the midpoint for a lot of supplies making their path to any number of planets in the vicinity. Despite that, it was otherwise a green forested world with a mostly rural landscape; Kate’s family lived in a farming district on one of the smaller continents. Her home had disappeared into the night-side of the planet now as the sun came sweeping through to darken the viewports of the station.
 The sun. Kate realized she’d miss that, too. Mornings without a sunrise. It frightened her.
 “So listen, Kate,” Miller said suddenly, pulling her out of her reverie, “when you get onboard, I’ll get you acquainted with the rest of the crew. Our engineer is a guy by the name of Aaron Davis. He’s a nice guy; I think you’ll enjoy working with him.”
 Kate nodded, deciding to vent her innermost feelings. “I hope so.”
 “No need to hope,” Miller chirped. “They’re really looking forward to meeting you.”
 The AAS Falstaff was docked nearby; a linear-built vessel, it looked to Kate like some persuasion of medical implement, an impression propelled by the ship’s colour scheme, all whites and light blues. About sixty metres from bow to stern, it was among the smallest of the craft docked at Saskatoon, but it still looked pretty massive to Kate as she approached it, and she still felt a little intimidated as it loomed over her through the docking bay viewports.
 “You’ve done work in simulated ship-grav, haven’t you?” Miller was asking her, and she blinked to focus herself a little. “Yes, a bit,” she said, hating the tremble in her voice.
 Miller nodded, her small floppy ears twittering. “Don’t worry too much about it. Ship gravity is pretty much the same as station standard, ‘cept your steps will feel a bit lighter. It’s kinda fun.”
 “Yay,” Kate mumbled as Miller punched the release for the docking hatch. Two station techs nodded to her, gave her the “okay-to-proceed” signals, and the hatch opened into the boarding tube for the astronomy vessel. Kate felt her stomach flutter a little as she passed the gravitational boundary between the station and the ship, but as she walked on the effect was negligible. Although, she had to admit, her feet did indeed feel a touch less heavy.
 She tried not to think about the fact that her family were a whole gravity margin away, and followed Miller into the ship.

Kate’s senses went into overdrive as she stepped inside the AAS Falstaff. Smell, sound, sight – it was all different. It was like travelling to a different country, as she had done back on Summerkin a few times for the holidays, but it happened so fast and it left her reeling a little.
 Miller seemed to notice this. “Are you okay meeting the guys now?” she asked, giving Kate a concerned look. “You can just make yourself at home and I’ll tell everyone that you want a bit of time to acclimate.”
 Kate shook her head. She was fifteen now. She had to act grown-up. “No, it’s alright. Where will everyone be?”
 “In the crew cabin, most likely,” Miller remarked. “Unless Aaron’s mucking about in the bilge, he’ll be with them, and I don’t see why anyone else wouldn’t be there.”
 Kate nodded and followed her again, feeling every bit like a puppy. The ship was indeed as small as it looked on the outside, Kate thought to herself. It wasn’t quite like that police-box ship from classical television. However, it was very well looked after; it was kept clean, and everything seemed to be running smoothly.
 The crew cabin was a short walk from the boarding tube and, from what Kate could make out from an immediate scan, contained a seating area with a table, an information terminal and a set of lockers.
 It also contained several people, whom Kate surmised to be the crew. They were a motley assemblage; Kate was relieved to see little in the way of uniform. Her own mix of jersey, pants and light boots would have made her look somewhat odd otherwise.
 “Hey, Miller,” said a gruff-looking male Cat from behind the table, where he was currently engaged in emptying what looked to Kate like a bag of potato chips. He caught sight of Kate and smiled. “Ah, our newest recruit,” he chortled. “Take it this is our trainee engineer?”
 Miller nodded in affirmation. Another crew member, this one a female Lemur sitting beside him, grinned widely. “Welcome aboard,” she beamed.
 Someone let out a loud squeal, and Kate was momentarily blindsided by a reddish blur haring in from her right. Said blur coalesced into a female Red Panda, who stopped short of bowling Kate into the nearest bulkhead. “Oh, she’s so cute!” she cooed.
 From the back of the room ambled the last occupant; he was a male Tabby Cat, and looked to Kate’s immense relief like someone who viewed every event of his life with a terminally laidback attitude. He nodded to Kate. “Hey.”
 “Hi,” Kate replied, slowly appraising the keen expressions being aimed at her, and felt a little embarrassed. “Nice to meet you.”
 “Introduce yourselves, then,” Miller snorted. “You haven’t even told her who you all are, and you’re staring at her like she’s fallen out of the sky.”
 The Cat with the chips started the introductions. “I’m Gareth Hassan,” he opened. “I’m the science officer; I handle all the boring mathy stuff. Pay me no mind; I tend to ramble.”
 “Okay,” Kate acknowledged.
 “I’m Kate Hutcherson,” the Lemur said next. “I’m the navigator of this fine ship, and so everyone relies on me to get out there and home again. Don’t worry; I keep a map in the glove box.”
 “Ah,” Miller cut in. “Our guest is also named Kate. Kate – no, not you, I’m talking to my Kate – you’ll need to go by Kate H for a while.”
 “I’m, uh, also Kate H,” Kate the Jack Russell said.
 “Okay, we’ll call you Hutcherson, then, Hutcherson,” Miller amended hurriedly, speaking to her own crewer.
 Kate Hutcherson seemed fine with this.
 “Hiya, sweetie!” the Red Panda giggled, grinning enthusiastically at Kate. “I’m Agnes, and I’m the doctor here.” She stooped a little to meet Kate at eye level; Kate was regretting her small stature at present. “You just come to me if you feel unwell, and I’ll make you all better again. How’s that sound?”
 I’m fifteen, Kate thought, but she decided to simply smile and nod. “Cool.”
 “I’m Aaron,” the Tabby put in. “I’m the engineer here, so I guess you’re working under me on this trip.”
 Kate was somewhat relaxed to find that her immediate superior was the quietest of the crew, and she shot him a genuinely happy smile. “Hi.”
 Aaron responded with a cool nod, and Miller took charge. “Alright, everyone, meet-and-greet’s over. We need to get outbound in fifteen. We’ll have time to get friendly when we’re underway. Kate H – Hutcherson – let’s get to the cockpit and get going. Gareth, double-check the settings on the telescope; Aaron tells me he fixed it. Aaron, take Kate aft and show her around. Agnes, go check our supplies; I don’t want to stop off at any outposts on the way.”
 Amid a miasma of mumbling, the crew began to disperse. Kate waited patiently for Aaron; Miller turned to her and smiled. “Aaron’s just taking you down to the engineering deck.”
 Kate nodded and smiled dutifully as Aaron approached; the Tabby returned her smile. “This way, miss,” he said chivalrously, motioning to a hatch nearby, and Kate followed him.

Like the rest of the ship, the stairwell to the engineering level and the engineering level itself were very well kept. There were no strewn-about tools or patches of grease. “You keep it tight,” Kate complimented Aaron as they walked.
 “There isn’t really any other way to keep it,” Aaron said with a short laugh. “It’s a small ship, anyway, so it’s not like I have whole decks to manage.”
 They walked past a row of compressed power cells, which were humming contentedly, and Kate noted the neat wiring. “So, what’s the mission?” she asked him.
 “We’re just heading out near Sedalia Station,” Aaron said. “We’re taking hi-res pictures of the Ammarkan Star. Apparently it’s just entered its yellow dwarf phase.” He shrugged. “Not my concern. I’m just here to keep it all running.” He eyed her. “And now so are you.”
 Kate offered him a cheery salute. “Happy to help.”
 “We don’t really have much down here,” Aaron went on. “We run a standard Omita KES-98 power pack, along with a T7-Voltaic drive system. Not too fancy, but it gets us from alpha to beta.” He pointed straight upwards with both hands and swung his arms back and forth; Kate followed his gesture to a series of pulsing cells on the ceiling. “The ‘98 runs power to the life support and ship systems through a VX-9 regulation and distribution network. I’m sure you worked on more advanced stuff in your training.”
 Kate wobbled her head; this was pretty basic compared to her studies, but she reasoned that her skills would be more than sufficient. “Yeah.”
 Aaron nodded approvingly. “You’re already overqualified. Nice.” He walked to a terminal near the power cells and nodded again. “Okay, the drive’s ready to power up to get us out of here.” He motioned to Kate. “Come here a sec.”
 Kate followed him and stood beside him as the screen flickered and displayed various symbols. “Can you run a systems check for me?”
 Kate’s paws found the keyboard for the terminal, and one quick glance had her familiarized. She cycled through each symbol; they were standard hazard and systems notation, and she found everything was in order. “Coolant’s at a nominal level,” she read, getting that from no more than a symbol and a flurry of fluctuating bars. “Power pack is fine, no change in output from reasonable parameters; drive is contained; life support at optimal level… we’re okay.”
 Aaron grinned widely and hit the intercom on the wall nearby. “Bridge, this is engineering. We’re good to go, on the advice of our new recruit.”
 There was a chortle from the other end; it was Miller. “Roger that, Davis. Thanks for the report.”
 “It’s a regular party boat here,” Aaron snorted. “Good work, Kate.”
 Kate felt her anxiety slip away a little. At least she’d made a good start.