Warringer
09-20-2011, 06:42 PM
August 18th, 2011
The Toy Box stood in the center of the rather small worn concrete field that was the brand new ‘Raumhafen Rhein-Ruhr’ in Essen as the only fencraft serviced. Well, it was more of a landing field added to the small local airport.
It had caused quite some political fallout then the red-green government of NRW had managed to get it through the Landtag, the opposition not very keen on the prospect of a space port in NRW. ‘What if there is a handwavium spill?’ was one of the harmless questions.
Right now Naedial could see some protesters outside the small space port. Most likely the brown idiots who lived in the past...
"Be careful with that," she then yelled at the driver of a container truck as he tried to maneuver his machine under the open loading bay of the Toy Box, trying to ignore the firetruck that stood not far away to handle any possible 'wavium spill.
Hadn't the search of the ship been enough?
The driver glared at her for a moment, but did not respond, through Naedial was sure that it may have been not very friendly.
She winced as he narrowly avoided the back of the bay and then sighed as he stopped. There was a multi-million Astra satellite in there. She watched Danni hop down from the top of the loading bay, preparing to attach the container to the ceiling of the bay, while the driver detached it from his truck.
She sighed and shook her head. They had only wanted to pick up some machinery for their new ship, but Astra had heard about it and managed to get them to pick up the satellite for a hefty amount of cash. Enough to pay both the lathe and the high end 3D printer.
"Hey, Nae," she heard Terris call out behind her." Did we order these guys?"
She blinked a few times before turning around and face five young people who stared at her, carrying bags under their arms. She blinked again before she remembered.
"Oh our new apprentices..." she made and chuckled.
It was a new little test. When the Board of Whistler Orbital Services, meaning the crew of the Toy Box, had decided to build themselves a second much larger ship, Project Henry Whistler, they had realized that they needed some people to crew the ship. And people who could work in space.
So this little idea had been born. They would look for some people with good schooling, mostly math, physics and English, who had already been trained in technical jobs, like mechanics or electronics.
After posting a few ads into a few German newspapers, saying that they were looking for people who wanted to do an apprenticeship to become an Orbital Service Technician, there had been a large echo and several ten thousand of emails.
Thankfully SENECA had sieved through the mails, managing to catch a couple of thousand mails that were obviously fake or just fun, while others were just not qualified. Either bad marks or bad social skills. It had been good to ask for a criminal record and their favorite fandom.
So here they were, five young people between 19 and 25 years, three guys and two girls.
"That redshirt is a bit overkill," she noted at a lanky maybe 20 year old. "We’re not Trekkies. They are at Mars."
The guy in question blushed, while it managed to loosen up the others and get them away from staring at her. It made her uncomfortable. Bad enough that she was easily one of the most visually strangest biomod in cis-lunar space.
"I’m Naedial Warringer," she said and stepped up to them. "I’m the one who has to play boss for this bunch of fen. But you can call me Nae. This is Terris, our astro monkey."
"Oi," Terris made." I resent that remark."
"Hey, you are the trained astronaut in the crew."
The little barter between the two managed to loosen them up a little more and made them chuckle.
"Better loose that tension. Its not good for us up there. May get us all into problems."
That tensed them up again and Naedial shook her head, before waving her hand into the general direction of the Box.
"Come on, we get to the introduction in the Box. That way you don’t have to repeat yourselves."
The five nodded and grabbed their bags, following them towards the space ship.
"How do you get that into space?" a muscular guy next to the redshirt asked, making Naedial chuckle.
"Like this," she said and waved her hand.
"You... ‘waved it," the redshirt said, fumbling a little with the unfamiliar word.
"Pretty much," Naedial noted and looked over towards the truck.
The container was now hanging in the loading bay of the Box, cables pulling it up, while the truck driver gave them another dirty look before climbing into his semi.
Reaching the main air lock, she poked her head through it, before the rest of her body followed. It was a tad strange to get into the ship under full gravity when you were used to it being in mirco-gravity.
"Fee, call everyone up into the kitchen," she called out." We got our newbies."
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AN: I hope there is no problem with German being a liberal enough in 2011 to allow a small space port.
The Toy Box stood in the center of the rather small worn concrete field that was the brand new ‘Raumhafen Rhein-Ruhr’ in Essen as the only fencraft serviced. Well, it was more of a landing field added to the small local airport.
It had caused quite some political fallout then the red-green government of NRW had managed to get it through the Landtag, the opposition not very keen on the prospect of a space port in NRW. ‘What if there is a handwavium spill?’ was one of the harmless questions.
Right now Naedial could see some protesters outside the small space port. Most likely the brown idiots who lived in the past...
"Be careful with that," she then yelled at the driver of a container truck as he tried to maneuver his machine under the open loading bay of the Toy Box, trying to ignore the firetruck that stood not far away to handle any possible 'wavium spill.
Hadn't the search of the ship been enough?
The driver glared at her for a moment, but did not respond, through Naedial was sure that it may have been not very friendly.
She winced as he narrowly avoided the back of the bay and then sighed as he stopped. There was a multi-million Astra satellite in there. She watched Danni hop down from the top of the loading bay, preparing to attach the container to the ceiling of the bay, while the driver detached it from his truck.
She sighed and shook her head. They had only wanted to pick up some machinery for their new ship, but Astra had heard about it and managed to get them to pick up the satellite for a hefty amount of cash. Enough to pay both the lathe and the high end 3D printer.
"Hey, Nae," she heard Terris call out behind her." Did we order these guys?"
She blinked a few times before turning around and face five young people who stared at her, carrying bags under their arms. She blinked again before she remembered.
"Oh our new apprentices..." she made and chuckled.
It was a new little test. When the Board of Whistler Orbital Services, meaning the crew of the Toy Box, had decided to build themselves a second much larger ship, Project Henry Whistler, they had realized that they needed some people to crew the ship. And people who could work in space.
So this little idea had been born. They would look for some people with good schooling, mostly math, physics and English, who had already been trained in technical jobs, like mechanics or electronics.
After posting a few ads into a few German newspapers, saying that they were looking for people who wanted to do an apprenticeship to become an Orbital Service Technician, there had been a large echo and several ten thousand of emails.
Thankfully SENECA had sieved through the mails, managing to catch a couple of thousand mails that were obviously fake or just fun, while others were just not qualified. Either bad marks or bad social skills. It had been good to ask for a criminal record and their favorite fandom.
So here they were, five young people between 19 and 25 years, three guys and two girls.
"That redshirt is a bit overkill," she noted at a lanky maybe 20 year old. "We’re not Trekkies. They are at Mars."
The guy in question blushed, while it managed to loosen up the others and get them away from staring at her. It made her uncomfortable. Bad enough that she was easily one of the most visually strangest biomod in cis-lunar space.
"I’m Naedial Warringer," she said and stepped up to them. "I’m the one who has to play boss for this bunch of fen. But you can call me Nae. This is Terris, our astro monkey."
"Oi," Terris made." I resent that remark."
"Hey, you are the trained astronaut in the crew."
The little barter between the two managed to loosen them up a little more and made them chuckle.
"Better loose that tension. Its not good for us up there. May get us all into problems."
That tensed them up again and Naedial shook her head, before waving her hand into the general direction of the Box.
"Come on, we get to the introduction in the Box. That way you don’t have to repeat yourselves."
The five nodded and grabbed their bags, following them towards the space ship.
"How do you get that into space?" a muscular guy next to the redshirt asked, making Naedial chuckle.
"Like this," she said and waved her hand.
"You... ‘waved it," the redshirt said, fumbling a little with the unfamiliar word.
"Pretty much," Naedial noted and looked over towards the truck.
The container was now hanging in the loading bay of the Box, cables pulling it up, while the truck driver gave them another dirty look before climbing into his semi.
Reaching the main air lock, she poked her head through it, before the rest of her body followed. It was a tad strange to get into the ship under full gravity when you were used to it being in mirco-gravity.
"Fee, call everyone up into the kitchen," she called out." We got our newbies."
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AN: I hope there is no problem with German being a liberal enough in 2011 to allow a small space port.
