Welcome To The Oddity

Fiction Fragment Friday

Ok this week’s story is just pure fun. It was fun to write and hopefully fun for you to read. I have a couple inspirations I could easily point to in the crafting of this story, but I have no idea where any of the character came from. I hope this is not the last time we see the setting because I feel like there is a much longer story here waiting to be told.

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               “Captain Moss, it sure is a pleasure to finally meet.  I’ve heard so much about you from home office.”

               “I can only imagine.”  Captain Jacob Moss indeed could imagine what the energetic administrator had heard and doubted much of it would have been true.  His trouble all started when he rejected the advances of the company owner’s daughter.  She decided to accuse him of inappropriate behavior not realizing that he was recording all their interactions.  It saved his job, but the embarrassment to her family led to heavy scrutiny of everything he did.  One big enough mistake and he would be gone. 

               “Well then Captain let’s show you to your new ship.” 

As they walked across the orbital dock a realization began to dawn on Jacob.  It wasn’t any one thing or an instant change, but gradually as they moved towards his new ship the orbital maintenance seemed to decrease in quality.  The deck was less clean, an occasional light was out, and the ships on the other side of the air locks were not quite as shiny.  They stopped at the very last ship in the line as far down the budget docking arm as possible.  Above the airlock the marque read “Odyssey”, and I could see through the port window that it was a Scuttlebee class small cargo vessel.    

“Is that really a Scuttlebee?  I thought they quit making those over fifty years ago.”

The administrator smiled at me.  “Oh, they did.  The Bumblebee class was based on it.  Same basic ship layout, but far less flammable than this one.  Are you ready to see onboard?”

“Well, I’m not going to get more ready.” 

The administrator walked up to the airlock and banged on it hard three times.  After he looked down at his hand now covered in a black grease. 

“Uhm, is there a reason you aren’t using the call bell?”

“It hasn’t worked in years.  Short circuit somewhere and your chief engineer can’t seem to find it.”  Jacob really hated the smug smile. 

The airlock opened and a middle-aged woman in an ugly olive colored ship suit stood before them.   “Administrator Seely a pleasure as always.”  The expression on her face made it perfectly clear that it was not in fact a pleasure.  “That must make you Captain Moss.  I’m Cargo Chief Marissa Louise.  Welcome aboard the Oddity.”  She stuck her hand out for him to shake. 

Jacob noticed two things about the woman immediately.  Her tone was far more welcoming for him than it was Seely, and her uniform did not have a spec of dirt on it despite the dock’s general appearance.  He gladly shook her hand grateful that it was not covered in grease.  When he let go her words finally caught up to him.  His eyes glanced between her and the marquee.  “Did you say this ship is called the Oddity?  They have it labeled the Odyssey.” 

Chief Louise laughed and it echoed through the open dock.  “Sorry about that.  Yep, this is the Odyssey, but nobody calls her that after the first week.  Why don’t you come aboard, and I’ll give you the tour.  Pablo already has your access setup using the biometrics on file with the station.” 

“Well, I think that’s my cue to head on back to the office.  Enjoy your new ship Captain Moss and good luck on your voyages.”  Administrator Seely turned before mumbling in a voice far too loud to not be heard.  “You’re gonna need it.”

Once the air lock closed behind them Jacob addressed his new Cargo Chief.  “What’s the story on the call signal?  I know this ship is old, but it can’t be that difficult to fix.” 

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with the call signal.  We just don’t open it for him.  In fact, when we know he’s coming Engineering Chief Lumsdon likes to step out on the dock and coat the lock with his own special grease.  Terrible lubricant, but man does it stain.” 

Jacob couldn’t help but laugh despite knowing it was setting a bad example.  He couldn’t help but be reassured by his first interaction with one of his crew that things were not as bad as they looked.  Walking through the ship to the bridge was very effective at killing that sense of hope.  The lock might have been impeccably clean, but the rest of the ship was not.  He found multiple bulkheads with dents in them he could not begin to imagine the origins of.  The few crew he saw on the walk all wore the same ugly green ship suits cementing it as the official design.  The worst part though was how small everything was.  The halls could not comfortably fit more than one person and even then, he had to turn sideways to fit through one door. 

 “Captain on bridge,” Chief Lousie announced as they stepped into a small room filled with screens.  A young woman in her twenties and a middle-aged man stood from their stations and saluted.  “Captain Moss, may I introduce you to your pilot Royce Southerland and your systems engineer Pablo Tunica.”           

“At Ease.” 

The man approached Captain Moss.  “Welcome aboard Captain.  I have your new tablet right here and you can access any system from the arm of your chair there.”  He pointed to a chair at the back of the room.  It had swing arm mounted monitors on the side and gave a perfect view of the other three stations on the bridge.  Jacob couldn’t help but notice a spring sticking out of the chair that just might draw blood from his right butt cheek if he didn’t sit carefully.

The woman after the salute had gone back to her station and was not acknowledging anyone in the room.  Wondering what would require that level of attention while they were docked, he stepped over to her station and glanced at the screen.  Instead of ship readouts he found a book on the screen.  “What are you reading Miss Southerland?”

The young woman jumped in surprise to be addressed.  “Oh, nothing Captain.  Just editing my novel.  Captain Rogers didn’t seem to mind as long as I didn’t have anything else to do.”  Her voice held a note of challenge in it. 

“Most of our time in space will be boring and if it isn’t then it would be terrifying.  As long as it doesn’t impact the ship you can read, write, or sing a song at your station for all I care.  Actually, I’m going to need to hear your singing voice before I can sign off on that last one.” 

“Captain?” she asked. 

“Oh, you do not want to sign off on her singing.  That girl is as tone deaf as the come.”  Jacob turned to the door and found a large man standing there who looked like he should be in a gym instead of on a spaceship.  He couldn’t help but wonder how he managed to get through the ship without banging his head or getting stuck.  The man stuck his hand out to shake.  “Engineering Chief Lumsdon at your service.”  The handshake involved far more pressure than it needed to.  Jacob only managed to avoid wincing by sheer force of will.

Captain Moss pointed to his chair.  “Chief, do you think you could snip off that spring for me before I try sitting?  I have a feeling I do not want to try out the medical facilities onboard just yet.”

“I could replace the whole cushion if you like.  I’ve had spare for the last six months.  Was just waiting for Captain Rogers to ask, but that woman was stubborn.”

Jacob wasn’t sure how he felt about his Chief Engineer talking poorly of the previous captain.  “Chief if you know something is broken and you have the parts to repair it I’m going to expect you to fix it without waiting for me to ask you to.  Consider that a new standing order.” 

“Yes sir,” he said with a smile that made Jacob wonder if he had opened himself up to some sort of malicious compliance. 

“Now do I have an office or a meeting room on this ship somewhere?”

“Yes, sir captain.  It’s right over here.”  Pablo was up out of his seat and across the room pointing at a door Jacob had somehow not noticed.  The door only partially opened so he reached in and grunted while trying to force it open.  “The door just gets a bit stuck sometimes.”  When it finally slid open Pablo lost his balance and fell into the office. 

Jacob stepped into his office and found it had a desk facing the door.  There was a toggle on the wall labeled table, so he flipped it.  Part of the deck rose up to form a table, but he noticed there were no chairs.  “Am I missing something?  Where does everyone sit?”

Chief Lousie spoke up first.  “Well sir Captain Rogers had them tossed out.  He didn’t really like meetings so when he had to have them, he would just have us stand facing his desk.”

“That sounds awful.  Ok as Cargo Chief can I assume you handle ship restocking as well?”

“Yes sir.” 

“Good, because I need some chairs ordered for in here and I have a feeling that will be just the beginning of our orders.  Once they are here then we need to have some meetings.  I need to know what we are working with here.  Oh, and is anyone onboard particularly fashion conscious or artistic?”

Marissa was taken aback by the question and hesitated before answering.  “Uhm, probably Dillon.  He’s on mess duty this week.” 

“Excellent could you please have him work up three or four proposed ship suit designs?  That olive green makes me want to vomit.” 

“Yes sir,” she said as she left his office.

Jacob sat at his desk and turned on his tablet.  He created a new document titled To Do before setting it back down and really looking around the room.  “It’s not going to be easy, but I think I can work with this.”  As he leaned back in his chair something gave way and he found himself laying on the deck staring up at the ceiling.