A Home Among the Stars

“Don’t make me take the watch, Little Allie, Little Allie. Don’t make me take the watch tonight. There’s ghosts at the windows and ghosts in the walls, and my grandfather’s spirit is running through the halls, don’t make me take the watch tonight.”

-from “Ghost Ship”, traditional spacer song

The Sun's Gold docked at Byforest Station with a thump that could be heard through the whole ship. Yan and Sylva were looking out the window and Yan was pointing out her family's ship in the distance.

"It just looks like a big chunk of rock to me, if I'm being completely honest," Sylva said.

"It's a big chunk of rock with a stardrive attached to it. That's what makes it special," Yan said. "It's not economical to build a long haul ship out of metal, so what people do is take a hollowed out asteroid and build all around it. The things are just laying around as mining remnants anyway. As long as you don't have to land it anywhere, it works just great."

"Yeah, but it ends up just looking like a big rock."

"Are you gonna spend a whole month complaining about the aesthetics of my family's ship?" Yan asked.

"Yes."

"Well at least keep doing it in your fanciest New Imperial so that you don't accidentally pick a fight with anybody,” Yan said. Sylva laughed.

"Let's get going- I can see the shuttle coming over now." As Yan said, there was a tiny ship lifting off the large asteroid in the distance and coming toward Byforest Station.

The two women were floating in microgravity, Yan as natural and graceful as a fish in water, Sylva much less so. Their luggage of a large suitcase each was drifting next to them.

Yan was wearing the work uniform of her family's spacer, happy to be done with the black cassock of the Academy. The uniform in question was an olive green jumpsuit, made of a lightweight but warm fabric, with plenty of zip pockets, a belt to attach things to, and extremely grippy boots and gloves.

Sylva, in contrast, was still wearing a black cassock, but accented with a bright blue cape, proudly showing off her apprenticeship. The blue color signified that she was in a theological apprenticeship, specifically one relating to arts. This was all despite the fact that she had not had a single day of apprenticeship yet, and wouldn't for another month.

"Do you have your transit letter?" Yan asked Sylva, patting down her own pocket to make sure she had hers.

"Of course,” Sylva said.

"Good, we'll need it in order to be let on station." Yan grabbed the handle of her suitcase and kicked herself off the wall the pair had been drifting near. Sylva attempted to follow, but ended up headed in a slightly wrong direction, and with a spin.

"Do I need to tie you to my waist like a baby? Get with the program, Sylva," Yan said.

Sylva obligingly pushed off a new wall, more carefully this time, and drifted towards Yan.

"Catch yourself on the wall with your hand, or you'll crash with your face," Yan warned.

The two successfully made it to the door of the small viewing room they had been standing in, and Yan led them through some of the narrow corridors of the Sun's Gold. Yan was quite familiar with the ship, having hitched a ride on it out of system several times over the years. It also helped that everything was well labeled.

At the end of the corridors, they came to the area where most of the passengers and some of the crew were disembarking onto the station. Yan pulled out her letter of transport and her identification. Sylva did the same.

The station agent smiled at them as they handed over their documentation.

"Headed for the Iron Dreams?" The agent, an older man wearing a pale blue jumpsuit, asked them.

Yan nodded. "It's my family's ship."

"Their shuttle should be docking in just a few minutes, from what I've heard on the radio. That just to pick the two of you up?"

"I think so," Yan said.

"Well then enjoy your very brief stay on the station." The man smiled at them and waved them forward into the station proper.

The area they were in was quite a large, empty space, since it alternately served to receive passengers and large cargoes for the station. There were magnets of moderate strength built into the floor, which Yan was able to use to simply walk across the floor, since her uniform shoes had magnets embedded in the soles. Sylva had a much more significant problem. In the large room there was nothing for her to bounce off of, and her shoes lacked such a helpful feature as magnets. Yan was forced to take her by the hand and pull her along through the bay.

"The first thing we do when we get on board Iron Dreams is get you a proper outfit. This isn't going to fly."

"I seem to be flying a bit too much, actually,” Sylva said.

"Just for that bad joke you can get your own self to the door. I'll be waiting over there." Yan let go of Sylva and walked herself to the door of the bay, leaving Sylva drifting only very slowly towards the door.

Sylva looked at her petulantly for a moment, then simply used the power on her suitcase to propel it the remainder of the way across the room, pulling herself along with it. Yan laughed at the sight.

"Let's hurry up so we can meet the shuttle. I'm sure the whole crew is waiting for us so they can ship out," Yan said.

"That's sweet of them," Sylva said, following Yan into more narrow passages that led to other docking bays.

"According to my uncle, they were going to be parked here for a week anyway, just to deliver a shipment to this area, and get some downtime, but now they've picked up any new cargo and passengers and are just waiting for us. It's because I'm the most helpful member of the crew, they can't leave without me," Yan said.

"Sure, sure."

The pair made it to the docking bay that had flashing red lights above it, indicating that a shuttle was coming in to land. They waited for the whole cycle of depressurizing the bay, opening the outside doors, letting the shuttle in, re-pressurizing the bay to complete before they could enter.

There was another station agent already waiting with them for the shuttle, so that she could register the comings and goings of every person on the station. They made small talk about where Yan and Sylva were coming from and going to while the tedious landing process finished. The whole thing was slightly annoying to Yan: if she had been alone, she could have suited up and used an airlock to board the shuttle instead of forcing the station to go through the entire landing sequence. Unfortunately, Sylva had no suit training, so that was not an option. Finally, the doors opened, and the two women said goodbye to the station attendant.

The shuttle itself was a squat green craft that looked rather like if a bus had had a baby with a lobster. It had large claws coming off its front end that were capable of both moving large loads and fine maneuvering, a simple propulsion drive on its back for relatively short distances, and a universal dock for attaching to other ships. It sat on the floor of the bay, but only due to the magnetic skids that held it down.

As Yan and Sylva entered the bay, a door on the side of the craft opened and a tall man climbed out. He was dressed in a similar green jumpsuit to the one Yan was wearing, and there was definitely some family resemblance between them, though the man was much darker than Yan's brown skin tone. His hair was braided in rows all down his head, and the beaded ends of the braids floated loose in the microgravity of the station. He had a broad smile on his face as he waved them over.

Sylva was still struggling with the lack of magnets in her shoes, so Yan had to pull her over to where the man was waiting. It made for an awkward journey.

"Looks like someone has no idea what proper spacer attire is," said the man as they came within speaking distance.

"Don't be too mean, Uncle. This is her first time off planet," Yan said, letting go of Sylva and giving her uncle a hug. "Uncle Maxes, this is my friend Sylva. Sylva, Uncle Maxes."

Sylva awkwardly shook Maxes hand, though this was difficult from her floating position.

"I'm glad that you both could join us for your break. Your last one, eh?" Maxes asked.

"Yeah, no more gallivanting around in the Iron Dreams over my summers," Yan said. "Speaking of- how did you get permission to pick me up? I was under the impression that you were banned from flying the shuttle?" Yan started clambering inside the shuttle as her uncle loaded in their luggage.

"Banned is quite a strong word. You crash it into a cargo container ONE time and everybody's on your case about it for the next five years. Besides, who else was going to come pick up my favorite niece?"

"Aren't I your only niece?" Yan pulled Sylva into the shuttle and helped her get strapped in to a chair in the cockpit zone.

"No, but you are my only favorite." Luggage secured, Maxes climbed into the shuttle himself. He started to go towards the pilot's seat, but Yan made a pleading face at him.

"Can I fly it? Please?" Her expression was neither particularly pleasant nor particularly convincing, but Maxes laughed at it anyway.

"You promise you won't crash?" Maxes asked.

"I was the best pilot at the Academy," Yan said confidently.

"As far as I know you were the only pilot at the Academy," Sylva muttered under her breath.

"Maybe. But I have stayed up to date on my cert in the simulator." Her puppy dog eyes remained in full force.

"As long as you are actually certified, than I don't see why not, I suppose," Maxes agreed.

"Excellent." Yan immediately shoved herself into the pilot's seat and strapped in. Maxes slid much more calmly into the copilot's chair.

"You better know what you're doing," Sylva said nervously as Yan started flipping switches.

"Everything all set?" Yan asked, running down the preflight checklist. "Hatches closed, passengers secure, freight secure, bay clear, engine check, fuel check, systems check..." The list went on, Yan checking off each item as she went down the list that was taped to the dashboard. Finally, she was satisfied with the safety of the shuttle, and radioed the station control.

"This is Iron Dreams shuttle two requesting depressurization and outside access in bay A3 for passage to the Iron Dreams. Are we clear for exit?" Yan asked the Byforest Station control.

A moment later a reply came through staticy speakers. "Iron Dreams shuttle two, you are authorized for exit. Depressurization will begin in 60 seconds. Please stand by for route information."

Outside the shuttle, they could hear the depressurization alarm begin to sound and see the warning lights flash, signaling that the bay needed to be cleared. Since the bay was already clear, they simply had to wait out this period. After a minute, the alarm fell silent and the pressure in the bay began to drop as the atmosphere was pumped out into holding tanks. This process was quite tedious, and Yan spent the time showing various controls on the dashboard to Sylva, who had never been in the cockpit of a shuttle before.

"Unfortunately, this thing is really not built for high speed maneuvers, but back on the Dreams we do have a couple dogfighters that we sometimes need to use to chase away raiding parties-" Yan was interrupted by the radio crackling to life and the bay doors opening to space.

"Iron Dreams shuttle two, you are cleared for exit. Up to date navigational information for local space has been sent to your onboard computer. As construction work is proceeding in the northwestern part of the station, please stay at a distance of at least seven thousand meters from that quadrant after exit." Though they were on a space station, which had no magnetic field to speak of, and thus no north and south, it was convention to assign navigational beacons to different directions.

"Wilco Byforest Station, we're clear for exit and are staying at a distance of seven kilometers from the northwestern quadrant," Yan repeated back at the station controller. As she said this she flipped more switches and pressed more buttons, and the engine on the shuttle roared to life.

Yan effortlessly guided the shuttle out of the bay.

"Byforest Station, we are clear of bay A3 and are proceeding on the marked course to the Iron Dreams." The shuttle’s navigation system was communicating with the station control, showing the path that Yan was going to take.

"Thank you, Iron Dreams shuttle two, your course is clear. Safe travels."

Yan took the shuttle on a smooth ride until they were quite far away from the station. Flying the shuttle was not difficult for her. She had learned how to do it over one summer when she was fourteen, and had kept herself in practice on the simulator while at the Academy.

"Want me to do some tricks?" Yan asked.

"Absolutely not," Sylva said.

"No," said Maxes. "Not that I don't trust you, particularly-"

"I don't," said Sylva.

"-But the captain would not want you messing around with one of his precious shuttles. Especially since Shuttle One is out of service for repairs," Maxes continued despite the interruption from Sylva.

Reluctantly, Yan continued their smooth transit to the station. As they came within approach distance, Yan radioed out again.

"Iron Dreams, this is Shuttle Two requesting a landing vector. We are currently about one hundred kilometers away from the station with a lead time of ten minutes, please advise on bay availability."

"Welcome back Shuttle Two, you're scheduled to use bay B3. There is no other traffic, so you should have a clear shot in. Wait for the all clear to approach," Iron Dreams control sent out vocally. Yan recognized the voice of her first cousin, Rumon.

The shuttle also received a text only message over a private channel.

< yan PLEASE tell me you're up to date on your shuttle cert. capt will kill u if u aren't

"Wilco, Iron Dreams, we are waiting for the all clear for bay B3."

"Can you respond to that?" Yan asked Maxes as she fiddled with the shuttle controls for the landing. "Like I've been saying, I am up to date."

Maxes typed out a response as requested.

> yan claims she's fine- Maxes

It took several minutes for the reply to come, presumably due to the amount of time it takes for the landing bay to be cleared.

"The bay doors on B3 are open, you are clear to come in for a landing." This time, Rumon sounded slightly relieved.

"Understood, Iron Dreams. We're on our way in to B3." Yan used the navigational controls to plot the smoothest course to the bay. By design, Iron Dreams and Byforest station held constant positions relative to each other, which made plotting a course between them quite easy. Yan could have come in even if Iron Dreams was spinning or traveling at some sort of relative velocity, but it was much easier for everyone this way.

Yan brought the shuttle closer and closer to the rocky face of the ship, then slipped the shuttle into a small set of open doors. Behind her, she heard Sophia let out a deep breath. The shuttle bumped into the floor of the landing bay, perhaps a little harder than strictly necessary, and the magnets that would hold it to the floor engaged.

"Iron Dreams, this is Shuttle Two, we are inside bay B3 and are safely on the floor," Yan said.

"Acknowledged, Shuttle Two. Please wait for re-pressurization to exit."

Yan went through the shuttle post flight checklist as they waited for the bay doors to shut and the whole area to be filled with breathable air. The process of refilling the bay with air was much faster than the process of pumping it out into storage tanks. At first they could only see the warning lights flash and the bay doors close, but eventually the rush of air pounding against the side of the shuttle became clearly audible. When the rush subsided, Yan still made them wait for the all clear from control to open the doors.

"Bay B3 is fully secure, welcome aboard."

"Thank you, control," Yan said, flipping the switch that would open the side door of the shuttle. She was about to turn off the shuttle's power completely when the radio crackled to life once more.

"Yan, the captain requests the presence of you and your guest at dinner tonight in his stateroom at 1930. My mother says that you should please remember to dress accordingly." Yan rolled her eyes.

"Thank you, control. I'll do my best." Before any more embarrassing personal chitchat could come over the radio, Yan killed the shuttle's power, unstrapped herself, and shoved out into the large and empty landing bay.

Maxes had already taken Yan's luggage out of the shuttle and was trying to help Sylva get to the other end of the bay. Unfortunately, his main method of 'helping' seemed to be giving her completely impractical advice.

"Here, the shuttle is anchored to the floor, you can push off it now, just pretend like you're jumping. And once you're in the air, you need to turn yourself around so that you can hit the wall with your legs," Maxes said.

"How do I turn myself around?" Sylva asked, struggling to even orient herself against the side of the shuttle.

"Sylva, this is not the best place to learn how to do this. Ignore what he's saying," Yan said absentmindedly as she closed the door of the shuttle. "Either pull yourself around like you did before or wait for me to help you."

"What if I want to try to scoot around right now?" Sylva said, testing the waters by very lightly kicking off the side of the shuttle.

"We've been invited to dinner with the captain later, and if you smash your face on the wall it won't be a good look." Yan gathered her luggage and began the trek towards the door of the bay. The landing bays were so large so that they could accommodate even moderately sized ships and cargo containers. This particular bay did not connect to the cargo area of the Iron Dreams, but many of the other bays did. However, in an emergency, this bay, along with many of the others, could be used as storage for cargo or multiple small ships.

Sylva chose to grab onto Yan as she walked and was dragged along. Yan was grateful to exit the wide open space of the bay and head into the more confined spaces of the corridors. Inside she saw one of her aunts, a tall black woman named Eman, who had been clearly standing around waiting for the group of them.

"Yan! We've missed you so much," Eman reached over and gave a quick squeeze to Yan's shoulder. Behind her, Sylva sighed, encountering for the first time that casual conversation aboard the Iron Dreams took place in Terlin, the language of the planet where Yan's family ship had originated, many decades ago.

"It's good to see you too, Aunt Eman. This is my friend, Sylva from the Academy. Sylva, Aunt Eman." Yan, attempting to be polite for Sylva's sake, replied in Old Imperial- a common language among most spacers. Old Imperial was at least mutually intelligible with Sylva's native New Imperial.

Getting the hint, Eman switched to Old Imperial. "Pleasure to meet you, Sylva." Eman raised her eyebrows at Yan and in Terlin said, "She doesn't look much like a spacer. What's she going to do on the ship?"

Yan rolled her eyes and continued speaking in Old Imperial. "Sylva's come to see what life on a spacer is like. She's excited to help out with odd jobs. Maybe work in the kitchen."

Maxes butted in on the conversation in Terlin. "She's probably not as useless as she looks... You know." Maxes wiggled his fingers in a joking impression of using the power.

Sylva looked a little frustrated with everyone at this point.

"I suppose you'll do fine, once we get some proper clothes on you," Eman said, finally using the common language.

"Thanks," Sylva said, sounding to Yan like she was trying her best to be ungrudging. "It's nice to meet you."

"So, do you have any plans for the day?" Eman asked.

"I was just planning to get back into my room, maybe give Sylva the tour, and then the captain invited us to dinner later," Yan answered.

"How exciting. I'll have to see about getting you back on the duty roster. Can't have you lazing about for a month," Eman said somewhat abruptly.

"I wouldn't want to, anyway. Can you put me on patrol duty?" These words were accompanied by a pleading expression from Yan.

"Only if you can show me actual proof of your flight certifications. It's more likely we'll need you in cargo, though. We've been doing massive restructuring of the bays to improve loading efficiency."

"That's fine too, I guess." Yan was a little disappointed, but everyone knew that patrol duty was the most hotly requested duty in the rotation, since taking the dogfighters out to check the area for evidence of raiding parties was easy, fun, and an excuse to get off the ship for a while. "When are we jumping away from Byforest?"

"At sixteen hundred, barring any delays. The stardrive is having routine cleaning done right now," Eman answered.

"Sounds good. I should take Sylva and get her set up in my room," Yan said, attempting to end the conversation.

"Alright. Have a good dinner with the captain," Eman said. "I'll probably see you tomorrow for duty."

With that, Eman headed down the hallway, deftly navigating the corridor using the handholds built into all of the walls. Once she was out of sight, Yan switched back to New Imperial and told Sylva to follow her.

"I have to get back to my duties," Maxes said. "I have a shift in the farms starting in an hour and I need to get changed."

"Have fun with that," Yan said. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, enjoy your dinner, I'm sure it will be exciting," Maxes called back as he started to pull himself away through the hallway.

"So. Which way is it to your room?" Sylva asked.

"It's right near cargo bay 16, which isn't too far from here. I got moved into the no-grav section after I went to the Academy, since I wasn't going to be here most of the year. I hope you don't mind."

"No, that's fine. I'm honestly shocked you have a room to yourself at all." The pair navigated themselves through the corridors, with Yan in front. Yan's suitcase was held against her stomach with one arm, and with her other she pulled her way along the handholds in the corridor. It was the safest way to travel in front of Sylva, she didn't want to trail her luggage behind and risk hitting her, or push her luggage ahead and risk losing control of it.

"Well there's plenty of room on a ship like this, we've only got a couple hundred crew, and the asteroid Iron Dreams is built of is massive- kilometers long. A lot of it is taken up with cargo bays, but there are plenty of empty spaces."

"You can just pressurize any area of the ship you want?" Sylva asked. Yan didn't reply for a moment.

The pair were traveling through the corridors at, in Yan's opinion, was a slow speed, but Yan tried to slow down even more as they turned a corner. Sylva still ended up hitting the wall with a bit of force, probably enough to bruise.

"I do not think I'm going to get used to this," Sylva complained, righting herself and following Yan again.

"It's easier without a load. Do you want me to take your suitcase?"

"No, I've got it," Sylva said. The main problem that Sylva was having was controlling her speed. She would grab the handholds on the walls to course correct, but then would end up pushing off and gaining unintended speed.

"Anyway, like I was saying, most areas of the ship can be pressurized, but it's not economical to pressurize the bays most of the time. The only time that I can remember that we did was we had a whole shipment of live cargo- farm animals for a new colony. That was a miserable delivery. But all the living quarters and the hallways and stuff, they're modular, so you can close them off or build new ones really easily and just connect them up."

"Why was shipping animals miserable?"

"God... So many reasons. For one thing, getting enough air to pressurize the cargo bays is expensive, so we cut pressure over the entire ship to minimum levels. The animals had to all be sedated and strapped down the entire time, of course. And animals smell so, so bad."

Sylva managed to make the rest of the journey without crashing, even when Yan had to stop them and key in her entry code to open various fire doors. After about a ten minute journey, they had arrived at Yan's room.

Yan pressed her security code into the lock on the door and it slid open. Immediately, the pair were assaulted by various pieces of floating clothing that swirled out the door in the slight breeze from the ship's ventilation.

"Whoops." Yan said, momentarily abandoning her suitcase to try to collect the wayward garments. "Must have forgotten to secure my drawers when I left last time."

"Want any help?" Sylva asked.

"Sure, just get the suitcases in the room so I can shut the door."

Obligingly, Sylva wrangled the suitcases into the room. It was fairly spacious inside, a testament to the fact that the Iron Dreams had room to spare for its crew. There were no windows, since this was a completely interior room, but the lighting was gentle and not unpleasant. In terms of furniture, the room was sparse. There was one large television embedded into a wall, chests of drawers 'beneath' it, a mirror, some cupboards. A skinny door led to a bathroom. Much of the wall space was covered with pictures: drawings, photos, and posters. Sylva smiled when she saw that a good number of the photos were of Sylva, Anni, Genna, and Harbin, along with various other Academy friends and acquaintances. Other places on the walls were covered with velcro and bags, presumably to store random items.

Yan finished collecting all of her floating clothes, mostly a collection of undergarments and green jumpsuits like the one she was wearing, and shoved them into a drawer, which she firmly latched.

"I know it's not that much to look at, but here's the room," Yan said. "Grand tour: tv, toilet, storage."

"Where do you sleep?," Sylva asked.

"Free floating in the rest of the room," Yan said. “I have a sleeping bag that I use.”Sylva made a face.

"Space travel kinda sucks," Sylva said jokingly.

"You're the one who practically begged to come," Yan said.

"Where should I put my stuff?" Sylva asked, returning to her suitcase.

"Good question. I think I have some more velcro strips around here somewhere." Yan started fishing around in her drawers and eventually held up a pack of sticky back velcro. "You'll probably want to put one of these on your computer, phone, anything else you want to have out." She sent the pack sailing towards Sylva, who caught it.

"What about my clothes?"

"Either keep them in your suitcase and strap that to the wall or I have some drawer space free. But to be honest, we're going to have to get you a real uniform because that," Yan gestured to Sylva's outfit, "Really isn't suitable for work."

"They can stay in the suitcase, I guess."

Yan took her own suitcase and began opening it, putting the clothes into her drawers. The suitcase itself was quite a clever design, and when she had finished she was able to fold it down into a flat sheet, which was then wedged in a small space between the drawers and the wall. Sylva was busily attaching velcro to all of her possessions and hanging them on the walls.

"What size shoes do you wear?" Yan asked abruptly, as she lounged in the air and looked at her phone.

"Nine and a half?" Sylva said.

"I'm gonna bump that up to a ten because your feet are probably going to swell. I'm putting in a clothing requisition for you."

"Oh, thanks." Sylva finished putting away her things and sprawled in the air.

"Give me your phone, I'll hook it up to our system so it's not completely useless for you," Yan said.

Sylva batted her phone towards Yan, who snatched it out of the air. Yan spent a moment navigating to the settings, then entered the commands to connect to the Iron Dreams' internal communication network. Yan tossed the phone back.

"Obviously there's only ship wide communications, but you can contact me and access the ship's message board and whatever. If you look at the message board hub the duty roster should be right in front- you'll need to keep an eye on that," Yan explained.

Sylva took the phone and looked at the message board for a second. "Look, you've already got duty assigned to you," she said.

Yan groaned. "What and when?"

"Says 'Cargo coordination', eight hundred hours, tomorrow. Whatever that means." Sylva tucked the phone into her pocket.

"Eman did warn me that she was putting me on rearranging the cargo bays."

"Who was she?" Sylva aksed.

"One of my aunts. My mother's oldest sister. She's mostly in charge of arranging shipments with customers, but when we're en route she can't do that, so she helps out in cargo a lot."

"She seemed... interesting," Sylva said.

"That's one way of putting it." Yan checked the time on her phone. "We've got a while before our dinner with the captain. You want to take the grand tour?"

"Sure. The sooner I start learning my way around this place the better," Sylva said.

Yan swooped towards the door. "We'll have to come back here before dinner so I can change into better clothes, but we can stop by the dispensary and pick up a uniform for you."

Yan opened the door and pulled herself out into the hallway. "And hey, the more we move around in here the faster you'll get your space legs."