Routine

Posted on Fri Jan 15th, 2021 @ 8:12pm by

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 159 22h00
512 words - 1 OF Standard Post Measure

Elspeth sat silently in the mess hall poking at the small green salad on the plate. Salad was not her favourite thing to eat, and, she reasoned, Salad was supposedly good for you.

Picking up a limp lettuce leaf she wondered who had come up with that line and who they thought they were kidding. And as she took a bite, she reminded herself that she had promised herself that eating better would pay off. Who was she kidding? She wanted sugar. Not lettuce and tomatoes.

Lifestyle change. One cannot keep running around the decks if she kept eating junk food. Her one food weakness was sugary food. But she had made the choice months ago and she told herself she needed to maintain it. Silently she finished her meal, noting again that the area was empty, it was almost time for shift change and she needed to be on the bridge for the night shift, which explained why she was eating now.

Finishing, Elspeth picked up her tray and put it in the recycler and grabbed a mug of coffee on her way as she moved out of the mess hall. Elf had to admit, Night shift was not a bad thing. In fact it was quite nice. Minimal crew. No one very high up in the command chain, watching over your shoulder. And it gave her time to read up on Ships systems and such. Elspeth had studied the ship before but she wanted to make sure she knew how most things worked. She had, at Earth Space Dock, once pulled apart a shuttle pod and put it back together from the skeleton up so she knew how to build one or fix one if needed. She had gotten into trouble for that off her boss but the Chief engineer had laughed and said it was fine. A shuttle pilot knowing how to fix a shuttle was not a bad thing. But she could not very well strip down the Atlantis, so she settled for reading up on it's specifications and watching Videos of it's build.

She entered the turbolift. “Deck 1” She said as she did so. The lift began it's smooth ascent to the bridge. If she did not have coffee in her hands she would have walked to it by the ladders and corridors. But this was preferable to be sure. And, being on the Atlantis was way preferable to being a shuttle pod pilot at Earth SpaceDock. The Lift slid to it's gentle stop and she exited it silently onto the bridge.

She relieved the other Ensign at the helm and placed her mug of coffee on the stand provided. A quick glance over the systems had her nodding as the other explained the course and speed. Then she was alone at the helm. And silently looking out the viewport to the stars of this new sector of space. This vast unknown that they had arrived in. She let her gaze sweep the stars as she considered the new possibilities. And mentally complied her next diary entry,