of simulations going on right then. Some were assigned to squads in her department, many others were optional.
The Captain had opened the training database to everyone, allowing any crew member or civilian to participate in training scenarios involving the Triton and missions around the Triton. She doubted they'd be popular, there was a vast database of holographic movies and seasons upon seasons of serialized programming.
There were even interactive programs using the same simulation technology, not many mind you, they were expensive and Wheeler didn't spend much on his ship, but some of them looked interesting. To her surprise she was completely wrong about the popularity of crew running simulations in their spare time. The most popular preoccupation was running boarding and ship defence sims with friends, squad mates, or just as a single entrant.
She thought about joining a simulation instead of rolling around hoping for rest but put the idea aside. Her security teams were surprisingly good. Most of them already had military training, followed ranks that were already in place, and even showed a great deal of respect she hadn't had the chance to earn yet. She would, it would just take time and patience.
It was the intelligence department that irritated her every time she walked into security command. Cynthia wasn't responsible for all the issues. She didn't have the training to run the department and was very short on experience. Every time Chief Grady spent an hour in the department things got done ten times faster. Everything started falling into place and people found direction and confidence. He was the Chief of Engineering, however, and at the moment his engineering doctorates were more important to the ship. He couldn't spend his time setting up an intelligence department with a dozen military and a half dozen civilians. Only a few of them even had a realistic idea of how much computing power it took to crack an encryption, what kind of software had to be designed, and the rest were used to sorting through recorded wireless port traffic and interior ship transmissions. They had no idea how to research or scavenge actionable intelligence from the ocean of information they had access to from one day to the next. Liam was kind enough to give them a few of his filters, making getting to the most important information take less time, but few people actually took the time to look into how those filters worked so they could make them their own or specialize them for specific purposes.
The Captain was putting a lot of trust on all the department heads and helping everyone out as much as he could but his time was widely divided. To his credit he was becoming more and more visible, and at the same time he was giving everyone who was remotely qualified a chance at being the Officer of the Watch.
She was surprised there weren't more incidents between crew members. Only three fights had broken out. Her department had only had to put four people in the brig and two were already released. No one had been sentenced to be left at the next port yet, though she knew that would eventually happen. There was a secret list in her command and control unit of people Chiefs wanted left at port. So far Frost had the most, followed by Chief Vercelli, and Chief Grady had entered three names. Most of the crew on the list were notes as untalented and disinterested, or trouble seeking people. She didn't second guess any entries, but was happy that she had no names to add so far. Even her trouble makers weren't that bad, they only needed something to do.
Her thoughts wandered to Frost, but not because she was unsure of him handling his new people or getting the gunnery deck in order, but for some other reason. She couldn't stop running into him and Grace. There's got to be someone on this ship who can at least distract me. We just took on close to two thousand people for crap's sake. Stephanie thought as she looked to the nightstand. Her left hand command and control unit showed 04:17 and she sighed. The Triton would be out of hyperspace shortly.
“I give up,” she said to herself as she rolled out of bed. She walked into the shower, deciding to have a pulse shower instead of using water more for expediency rather than conservation, did her morning stretches, got into uniform, jammed her heavy disintegration sidearm into her holster and put on the new black long coat her materializer had made while she was out. It took three hours, and instead of being equipped with tools and spare parts, she had filled the extra internal pockets with containment vacbags, extra ammunition, parts for her assault rifle and sidearm, an autohack module for getting through doors, two full belts of various grenades and several other spare parts, utilities and incidental items.
The long coat felt too light on it's own, but with the extra items hidden inside it weighed on her shoulders just right. She had also added clips so it would hold fast to her gun belt on the sides, she found it allowed her to maintain more agility. Stephanie clipped her assault rifle to the inside of the long coat and tried to move. It slowed her down too much and didn't seem necessary so she left it behind.
The new vacsuit had several improvements passed down from the Captain as well as the new rank insignia. It had taken all day to materialize without it's command and control unit. The silver skull was printed on the chest of her vacsuit and long coat along with the five parallel bars that designated her as the Chief of Security on her cuffs. She caught her reflection in the mirror and nodded. Thank God I don't look as tired as I feel, she thought as she tied her hair into a ponytail. With the extra inch of height added by the soles of her combat boots, and the long coat stretching from shoulder to floor she actually looked taller, something she'd had difficulty with in the military, being at the short end of the line. Stephanie made up for it with dexterity, strength training, speed and by keeping her technical skills sharp, but she was always sensitive about her height.
By reflex she checked the amount of credits she had in her account. She'd done it for years, saving up for her retirement; a ticket on a Lorander colony ship bound for space well outside of the settled areas of the galaxy. This is twice what I'd need. After getting paid our share for the last job we pulled for the Aucharians the entire Samson crew could retire, except for Frost. She chuckled softly and shook her head. Of all the luck, the only job he skips out on in months and it's the biggest the Samson ever pulled. We needed him for that too. If he'd been controlling the maxjack Captain could have led one of the boarding teams himself.
Stephanie stepped out her door and started wandering the ship. Her first stop was the top level of the interior habitation area, the walkway overlooking the Botanical Gallery. She stepped out of the elevator right behind Ashley. She was in her black bridge uniform, leaning against the railing.
“Couldn't sleep either?” Stephanie asked as she walked up to the railing and looked down.
“Nope, too quiet. How about you?”
Stephanie pointed to her temple. “Too noisy.”
“Can't stop thinking about?”
“Security, simulations, communications, you know. Pretty much everything,” she leaned against the railing and looked down into the long, broad oval garden that stretched out for hundreds of meters below. The paths between the planting areas were like green and blue snakes winding between the large patches of black dirt.
In most places plants were already piercing the soil, reaching upwards. “The seeds and fertilizer have growth enhancers. This'll be fully grown in a week then they'll slow it all down,” Ashley said, looking down with her. “It's big enough for a few hundred people to get lost in with all the planters and extensions through some of the main hallways down there.”
“This almost makes up for the Lorander plan,” Stephanie said, smelling the earthy fragrance in the air.
“Are you thinking of leaving us again?”
Stephanie smiled a little. “Don't worry, I'm staying. Just tired.”
“Good, 'cause I think I'd have to go with you.”
“I don't think the Lorander Company would mind one bit. I'm not going anywhere though, I'm just starting to settle in.”
“Me too, after we left last night I did a couple more hours of tutorials and simulations. I'm getting good at flying Triton, better than flying the Samson, ” she sighed. “I love this ship.”
“You know even with so many aboard we still haven't explored half? Everyone's still filling into what we've cleared.”
“Really? I thought your guys would have the ship inspected and cleared by now.”
“All my people are too busy watching everyone else's people. If it weren't for the Aucharians we would have crew wandering everywhere. Nathan's pretty much given me the keys to the kingdom in trade for being my second in command. It's a good thing he wasn't with Jane's squad when they ran into that spy. We've lost so many people while taking this ship,” she crossed her arms on the railing and put her chin down.
Ashley looked at her friend. She could see her feeling low, tired, and it wasn't something that happened often. Stephanie often looked serious, even quiet, but she was also quick to laugh and an easy conversationalist with friends. “It's not your fault, Steph,” she said, putting her hand on her friend's back. “It's only been a few days and just look around. I stepped out of my quarters and took a shaft here. On the way I counted six guards in pairs.
