1 An Origin of Small Proportions

Jessie, was bored. Bored of waiting for this station in the middle of nowhere galactic space for refueling and an upgrade for the computer system. It had already taken two days and one of the random engineers of the station, Jim she thinks his name was, told her that it might be another fifteen hours.

"I was told it would only take six hours" she grumbled to no one in particular while sitting in the captains chair, well the only chair on the command deck. She would describe it as the command chair, especially since she was the only one on the ship anyways.

"Well best get to work before I go mad, as much work as I can do WITH My Ship being stuck at this stupid dock" she started down the only corridor of her ship which was only about fifty feet long, as she walked past her room on the left and the utility room on the right, which went down most of the corridor since it contained life support, grav unit, and other miscellaneous equipment. She walked past the second door on the left, the unused guest quarters. At the end on the right was the small kitchen and on the left a storage closet both were about 5 feet wide and extend 25 feet from the hall.

"Alright what should I make" as Jessie turned to the right into the kitchen. She looked through the pantry and decided on something a bit spicy "curry then, better start soaking rice".

The days of freeze dried food and highly compact foodstuffs have long gone with the production of the great hydroponic space stations that could produce enough food for tens of millions. With almost every populated system having at least one food is one of the cheapest things on the market, not even the pirates attack them because the company that built them all is also the one who builds the most guns. 'They really make their food an add don't they' Jessie thought as she pulled out all the ingredients she would need, all labeled with when same bold Listrums' Weapons and Organics on all tags and boxes.

Although she said work this is all she has left to do after the first day is make her own meals. She already tried some of the local 'cuisine' which wasn't great. An hour or so later she finished voicing and sat at the two person table further in and started eating with a grinning a bit at the disparity between the local cooks and her own ability. Once she finished, she packed up the leftovers and shoved all the dirty dishes in the cleaning unit. Jessie turned right and then left to exit.

"Let's go see how it's progressing" as she exited from the right side of the ship. As she walked around to the front of the ship past the name 'Chip' with the number 5 right next to the name. She thought it was a bit of a silly name but that name's gotten both her and the ship through a lot of space and problems. She's a long ship meant for hauling sensitive equipment and that's usually part of the cargo and then a lot of it is mostly long tubing of various materials that are difficult to make in some systems. Jessie thought about this cargo of equipment, it being almost entirely a single order, five long tubes with a military science logo from one over the few galactic governments that rule over this sector of the galaxy. She doesn't know what's in it but she doesn't really care either, they paid well. It did limit her though because it did take up five sixths of the four hundred foot long cargo space that connected the head of the ship to the engine and fuel containers. Jessie turned to look down the length of the ship at the exposed cargo suspended by specially designed connectors to keep the cargo stable and equal temperature. She continued to the front of the ship and came to the open panels and looked in to hear arguing.

"Man I don't know what the hell is going on there's so many things out of place I don't even know what's happening"

"Just don't start pulling stuff like you did the first time, that was horrid fixing that"

"I know!"

Jessie smirked hearing them, she had gotten Chip modified before and every part of the ship on the inside was like that, a jumbled mess that makes no sense but works. It works better than it's supposed to too, somehow in all that mess.

"How's it goin" Jessie called to the guys working in the tangle of wires.

"Horrible, first this systems old then it's like, this" as he waved his arms in the direction of one of the larger jumbles.

"Why do you want one of the newer holographic systems anyways? Its not like it will help all that much considering this ship doesn't even have level three AI to make use of it" the other said.

"I don't know, I feel like she has a lot more to say than she lets on" as Jessie patted the side of the hull.

"Besides I can afford it now" she grinned.

"Good for you, now let us get back to work so we can never see it again. Jim will tell you when we're done"

"Have fun!" Jessie yelled back to them as she left with the sound of grumbling in the background.

'What should I do now?' She thought while starting to wander the station. It wasn't that big of a station with only two docks large enough for a ship Chips' size and a dozen or so smaller ones. The people were friendly though, and that's why she liked to come to the small stations even if the food wasn't as tasty, she did find gems every once in a while. Jessie strolled and eventually found a noodle shop stuck in a corner.

"Yo yo what's on the menu?" She said as she stepped up to the counter. The lady stirring and cutting didn't even turn around as she yelled "Noodles what did you think?!" A random guy who was walking past laughed "V you can't go treating every who isn't from here like that"

"Like hell I can't!" V yelled back

'Perfect' Jessie thought as she grinned "I'll have a bowl"

V raised an eyebrow but got her a big bowl and added noodles broth and a slew of vegetables that were chopped so fast they almost didn't rest on the cutting board, and soon enough the bowl was in front of her. Jessie was surprised at the lady's agility considering she looked like she could be sixty or so and without augmentations to boot. "Smells delicious, thanks" and it did. Jessie tried the first bite then became wholeheartedly focused on the noodles and promptly scarfed down the first bowl. "Damn that was good, can I get another" V smiled and made a second bowl in the same almost magical way. This one Jessie took her time on and savored it much slower. V didn't say another word until she was done. "Five credits" V said smugly using a spoon to point at the price sign above her saying '2.5 a bowl'. A lot of money Jessie thought for two bowls, but not unreasonable. If she was tight on money it could have been difficult, but she was a cargo captain for class 8 equipment and could afford a hologram module for her ship costing nearly 50,000 credits. Jessie smiled seeing what V was doing.

"Here ya go" and transferred six credits to Vs' credit block and smiled even larger at Vs annoyance to her provocation, and started walking back to Chip. Once she got back it was starting to get late so she took a shower and promptly passed out in bed. The next morning she woke up to the sound of Jim buzzing the com of the ship. "They're probably done" she said as she pushed the button to answer "what?" She said groggily.

"The upgrade on the ship is complete the engineers said you just need to set up the hologram system to your preferences, and you've been refueled, you're clear to leave dock once you've contacted control" Jim responded

"Thanks" she replied half heartedly.

"Your welcome, thank you for coming" He primly responded.

"Best get ready then" and got up to get dressed in a double layer one piece that was durable and capable of withstanding a beating if needed bit was really soft of the inside, which she preferred to only wear briefs and a snug bra underneath. Next was her hair which was a mess of natural red and fairly curly which she pulled back in a loose ponytail, she washed her face at her sink and saw herself in the mirror with dark brown eyes and red eyebrows. "Alright let's head out Chip we still got a long ways to go"

"It isn't the longest journey we've had" a small voice said from the entrance to her bathroom. Jessie of course jumped at the voice and quickly turned toward a little girl standing nude at the door with a doll like complexion of pure white and neon blue eyes and hair that trailed around the corner so she couldn't see how long it was. "Who are you?" Jessie said surprised but a bit easier seeing that it was a small girl.

The girl playfully smiled.

"I'm Chip, duh"