For the next few hours, Angel took Reece through each of his systems. He was showing him how they worked, what their quirks were, and what periodic maintenance needed to be performed. It became clear that while Angel was extremely good at his job, there were a few things here and there that needed to be double-checked. They didn’t talk about themselves too much, Reece feeling that any friendship between them would be short-lived considering Angel's imminent departure.

Angel did mention that. He'd be departing in three days with Taylor, Solomon,and Aldo. The shuttle missions were designed to keep the right amount of people with the right skills aboard the station at any given time. In this case, they were swapping out a mission commander, an engineer, a biologist, and a pilot.

After they had finished, they made their way back to the mess hall. It was empty. Angel showed him where the station’s MREs were stored. They had just been replenished by the supplies that Reece and his crew had brought with them on their mission.

“Alright, where to begin...ahh," said Angel. "Thomas may have already explained some of this to you. Hopefully, I’ll provide some new information."

"So... the station has a waste processing plant that creates fertilizer and fresh water for a decently sized greenhouse that provides a bunch of different fruits and vegetables for when we start to get tired of the MREs, or to supplement them or whatever," he explained while they prepped their meals. "We even have a small chicken coop of sorts with half-a-dozen egg layers, so say goodbye to powdered eggs. Luckily, the suits reasoned that these additions were renewable, unlike the MREs. They also saved money for the space programs run by each supporting country. The station is well stocked. We even have vitamins, a small pharmacy, and a fully stocked med-lab.”

“Now, we do get a limited amount of freeze-dried meat too," he continued. "Enough for a meal a week for each of us. And it’s not that Mutagenic crap the bio-scientists cooked up to increase protein production in our livestock. I mean, have you ever seen any of those animals? I can’t believe the government signed off on approving them for human consumption. You’ve got your giant cows with actual fangs, not to mention the man-sized, beakless chickens. But the weirdest ones have got to be the four-thousand-pound hogs with human-like faces. I mean, that’s just freaky. Nah, everything we have here is one-hundred percent genetically unaltered.”

Reece decided that he liked Angel and appreciated the man for getting him up to speed with his last couple of days on the station. After the dinner... since they had worked through lunch, Angel showed Reece how to clean up after a meal. On a space station, there had to be a procedure for everything, or else chaos would inevitably ensue, and that could become dangerous.

“Alright Reece,” yawned Angel once they had finished cleaning up. “How about we get some rack. It’s been a long and eventful day, and I’m beat.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Reece, realizing how exhausted he was. “Hey, how long did it take you to get used to living up here? I mean, the days don’t exactly follow the traditional sun and moon, day and night cycle.”

“Yeah,” replied Angel. “I hear ya. To be honest, I never did get used to it completely. That’s one of the things I miss most about being on earth. The light of day and the dark of night. You may not have noticed, but a couple of years ago, one of the engineers adjusted the lighting system here to dim slightly at night. There are always people up and about. After all, someone must man the station. So, unfortunately, we can’t get too dark up here. But at least it gives us something of a familiar feeling of day and night. Better than nothing.”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” replied Reece. “And you're right, I didn’t even notice the lighting difference until you just mentioned it. Yeah, it does seem a little dimmer than when we first got here and met everyone. On that note, please... lead on, I’m about ready to crash.”

They made their way to the men’s quarters. All the men slept in a single bay of cots, as did the women in their own bay. Some of the cots were occupied, light snoring filling the room. Reece and Angel removed their suits in the dark and hung them up in the nearest empty locker. Reece grabbed an open cot, noticing that it was bolted down. Angel settled into his own.

“Goodnight man, and welcome to the team,” said Angel as he rolled over. “Oh, and tomorrow we do a spacewalk. I’ll show you the rest of the systems you’ll need to maintain. Get some sleep. You’ll need it.”

“Goodnight, and thanks for the tour,” replied Reece as he lay down.

“And thanks for mentioning we’re doing a spacewalk tomorrow,” thought Reece. “Now, how am I supposed to sleep?”

Angel pulled the sheets up over his head and Reece soon heard his soft snoring joining the other's. It had been less than a minute since he had spoken. Reece tried his best to fall straight to sleep, but he tossed and turned as more thoughts coursed through his head.

“I’m in orbit around the earth, thousands of miles from everyone I know. I hope everyone is doing well down there. I finally made it. I made it to space. And tomorrow I’ll be floating in it. Nothing between me and infinite emptiness but a simple suit.”

Reece continued to contemplate the surreal nature of what he had just accomplished when sleep finally managed to creep up on him.

He dreamed. It was about himself and something changing within him. When Reece awoke sometime later, everything felt just as surreal as when he went to sleep, and he couldn’t remember any more about his dream than the feeling of an internal change. It made sense to him. He knew that leaving earth and walking in space were both truly life-changing events. He was sure that was all it was.

The last time he woke up, he was in his girlfriend’s bed back on earth. Well, his ex-girlfriend. He wasn't about to take her back, but decided one last night with her would be nice before the mission. She was hot, after all. However, now he was in space. Waking from a normal bed, in a normal house, in a normal neighborhood, even with a hot ex... well, that paled in comparison to waking up in a space-station floating far above the earth’s surface. He laid there a moment and attempted to let it sink in.

“Yeah,” he thought, getting up. “It’s going to take me a bit to get used to waking up in space. How long was I asleep, anyway?”

Reece noticed a clock on the outer wall that dimly glowed in the gloom of the bay. It showed a green "6:34 am". As Reece had no idea what time it was when he went to sleep, he got up and started to get going about his day as he tried to figure out the daily routine on the station. He decided to try out the small gym. He first made his way to the gym for a workout. After that, he would get a shower and some breakfast. He would track down Angel later...if the short-timer didn’t find him first.

The gym was a small module. In addition to treadmills, there was a 4x4 meter padded area, a heavy training bag for kickboxing, and a speed bag on one wall. The opposite wall held resistance bands and there were loops on the floor and the wall opposite the training bags to connect the bands. Like everything else on the station, all the equipment was either affixed to the structure of the station permanently or well-fastened for temporary storage.

But the most noticeable feature was the huge poly-resin window opposite the treadmills. It basically took up the entire wall section, nearly three meters across. The gym was immaculate, with the only indications that it was ever used being a few scuff marks here and there from normal wear and tear. It smelled faintly of cleaning solution and to Reece’s relief was unoccupied. Having just woken up, he wasn’t really in the mood for any company yet.

Deciding on a warm-up, he put in his earbuds and started his workout playlist as he mounted the closest treadmill. Starting the program for a brisk jog, the treadmill kicked to life just as the first notes of the first song on his playlist started drowning out all the ambient noises of the space station. As he got his rhythm, he realized that he could see part of the earth peeking through a corner of the heavy window directly across the room. The reality of where he was hit him like a sucker punch and a chill ran down his spine. Trying to ignoring it, he concentrated on the music and continued jogging.

After a bit, he sped up to a run. He was in the zone, though it wasn't long before he got the feeling that he wasn’t alone. A few seconds later, he noticed someone getting on the treadmill next to him. He stared straight ahead, but his peripheral vision told him that it was a female with long dark hair. It didn’t take her long to begin jogging on the machine, and she set a pace a bit faster than Reece’s. Glancing over, he saw that it was one of the women he had met when he had just boarded the station.

He thought her name was Aika. She was concentrating straight ahead of her and wore a similar pair of earbuds to his. The attractive woman had on a tight white tank-top and black shorts and was distractingly busty as she jogged, especially considering how toned she was.

“Oh well,” thought Reece to himself. “It was good while it lasted. I can’t expect to have the gym to myself all the time. She’s probably thinking the same thing, and I need to mind my own business before I get myself in trouble.”

Reece re-focused on finishing his run. His music spurred him on and after another twenty or so minutes, he slowed the treadmill down to a nice walking pace to cool down. Aika continued her run as Reece hopped off the treadmill. Exiting the module, he heard a voice behind him.

“Hey, new guy...” called the woman.

Reece turned around and saw that she had suddenly stopped her treadmill and was stepping off to approach him.

“What do you think of the station so far?” she asked.

“Aika, right?” asked Reece.

The almond-eyed woman nodded and smiled, seemingly pleased that he had remembered her name from the previous day.

“Well, it’s pretty early, and it’s going to take me a while to get used to it,” replied Reece, “but this is the most amazing experience of my life and I’m grateful to be a part of this crew.”

“Hmmm, typical answer,” said Aika dryly, suddenly acting bored, “and what do you think of the crew?”

This took Reece a bit by surprise, not something you usually hear in a first conversation. Clearly, Aika was trying to either make a point or make up her mind about him.

“So,” replied Reece carefully, “I can’t say that I’ve gotten a good read on many of the people here so far, but Angel seems like a good guy and Thomas is likable. You seem to be a straight shooter, but other than that I really don’t know anything about you. The rest of the crew I’ve barely met, although Naeva seems interesting. I just don’t know if it’s a good or bad interesting yet.”

Aika looked at Reece thoughtfully, “Well, you are right about me to some degree, but I’d like to think that I’m more than just no-nonsense.”

Reece immediately interjected, “I’m sorry if I’ve disrespected you, that was not my intent. I guess I should try to get to know you better before passing any judgments.”

“As you should be. And as for Naeva, here’s some friendly advice. She’s the bad kind of interesting.” And having said her piece, she walked out of the gym module before Reece could formulate a response.

“Real smooth,” thought Reece to himself. “Way to sound like a jackass.”

Reece simply stood there for a moment trying to understand the strange comments. He also left the gym module for the showers as he contemplated the short meeting. Maybe spending all this time in space with only a handful of people to keep you company must change your behavior. He was no psychologist, so he decided to force himself to think about other things. First, he concentrated on the task at hand, quickly cleaning himself with minimal water and a few squirts of the foam soap they used in space. As he finished that, he started thinking of the day ahead.

He and Angel still had a few systems to check over and get the rundown on...the external systems. These all required a spacewalk to access them and spacewalks came with a certain level of danger. Therefore, there were numerous protocols that they would have to go through before, during, and after the spacewalk. Reece was both excited and anxious. He had always had a mild fear of heights, but this type of thing was the absolute epitome of heights. Reece needed to bring his A-game to safely navigate all his duties for this particular day. Reece finished his shower, dressed in his black and grey form-fitting under-gear for the upcoming spacewalk, and proceeded to the mess hall for some breakfast.

Like everything else on the station, the food was stored in fixed containers latched into the overall structure. This minimized loose items flying or falling from changes in the gravity on the station. Changes in gravity could be triggered by anything from routine maintenance of the six-motor drive system that made the station’s ring spin, to various anomalies that could crop up with several of the systems. A bad motor or motor/spin controller, problems with the 'attitude' control system, or even a malfunctioning GPS receiver could cause problems with the artificial gravity on board. Reece suppressed a shiver as he inspected the breakfast choices.

For a space station, the selection wasn’t half-bad. Both fresh and reconstituted eggs, tea, coffee, apple and orange juice, freeze-dried sausage and bacon, rice, powdered milk, bread (a recent development), and even ‘old-school’ tang. But best of all, thanks to the onboard garden…a modern horticultural miracle, there were fresh fruits and vegetables. Even tree fruits had been developed to grow with minimal special requirements. Red and green apples, pears, oranges, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes all made up the astronauts’ fare.

Reece decided on an egg and sausage scramble, a red apple, and some tang to drink. After grabbing each item, Reece noticed a wall readout with his name and every item he took was listed below it. The automated rationing system was mainly a formality, unless something catastrophic happened and they needed to do actual rationing. It also came in handy when they needed to decide what to grow or have shipped up next, similar to an old-fashioned grocery list. He brought everything he had collected over to the small kitchenette set into the wall.

He mixed the fresh egg and sausage together in a bamboo bowl, added some water, and placed it in one of the microwaves built into the wall of the module. After ten seconds, he had a ready-to-eat breakfast. He grabbed an aluminum fork and made his way to one of the large metal tables. No one else was in the mess hall, so he grabbed the nearest one. He detached a chair from its harness against the wall and sat down to eat. Just as he took his first bite, he heard a voice from behind him.

“There you are,” laughed Angel. “I was wondering when you wanted to get to it today.”

Reece finished chewing and swallowed his first bite. It was a bit bland, but not bad.

“As soon as I’m done here,” Reece replied before asking, “Hey, do we have any pepper on this station?”

“Sure,” smiled Angel,” I’ll grab you some and brief you on the walk today while you finish up.”

Angel went to another drawer that Reece hadn’t noticed before and opened it. Inside were several small aluminum containers labeled salt, pepper, cumin, and a bunch of other spices that Reece had never heard of. Since it was an international space station, they needed foods that appealed to a wide variety of nationalities.

Handing the pepper container to Reece, Angel went and grabbed himself a chair, setting it opposite Reece at the table. Reece added the pepper which helped a lot and Angel went through the EVA, or Extra-Vehicular Activity, safety briefing with him. Reece chuckled to himself over the odd term. The government couldn’t just call it a spacewalk, they had to come up with an “official-sounding” acronym for it instead.

Angel finished the briefing, telling Reece to meet him at the rear airlock of the station. He got up and returned his chair, leaving with a quick wave. A few minutes later, Reece finished as well. He cleaned up after himself, placing his tableware in their appropriate containers and locations. Once he ensured everything was cleaned and replaced or disposed of, he put his chair back and left the mess hall to meet up with the engineer he would soon be replacing.

“Okay,” Angel greeted him at the airlock. “Are you ready for this? There really is nothing like it. Come on, let’s get ready.”

Reece nodded and replied, “As ready as I can be. Let’s do this.”

Angel pressed the intercom button and spoke into it, “Control, we’re ready for today’s EVA, can you prep the station?”

“Control here, copy that Angel. All personnel prepare for Zero-G and sound off.”

One by one, the entire crew reported their readiness for Zero-G. Once everyone had reported in, Control gave the final warning. “All personnel have reported in, deactivating artificial gravity. Zero-G in 4 minutes.”