2 Appaloosa GSSK-713

Celine sharp copper eyes rested on the dull metal of the inner-hull as she lay on her side in her coffin size sleeping rack. Her wavy dark hair finally out of the tight bun she kept while working. Celine's thin body was sore at the end of another days work. She was too anxious to fall asleep.

She had completed her six hour shift at the munitions magazine where she had been tasked with restocking 3 inch battery rounds for the starboard defense guns. The rounds were heavy, and she had to load them onto a magnetic sled. She would then transport them across to the other side of the passageway that ran along the centerline of the ship, and finally one level up to where the beam cannons were located. Her arms had not been worked so much in many weeks.

That wasn't always her job assignment, just where she was allocated today. Sometimes she was tasked to operate the Detection arrays or Ship defense systems. Sometimes she routed communication or plotting space debris on navigation charts. Those were only a few of the many cogs required to keep the spaceship operational.

"One crew, one Screw!" She could vividly remember Lieutenant Strauss telling her when she had first asked as to why she was required to learn so many jobs.

Lt.Strauss liked to say many nonsensical things. Celine had no idea what he meant when he said half the things he did.

He hadn't really answered her question, but she figure it was pointless to keep asking. She was already aware of the answer to her own question, she was just tired of having to learn so much.

On a spacefaring ship, One was expected to know how to perform many jobs. That was because, once the ship had left planetary orbit the only assistance you could depend on was the people already aboard.

In short, if the person next to you were to get impaled by a Trilone or if a compartment of the ship was breached and depressurized causing the people inside to perish, it was expected that any other person could fill their role.

She really hadn't needed to learn a whole lot when she had first come to the Galactic Fleet Ship Appaloosa, GSSK-713. She knew many of the systems already, only requiring to learn how to do stuff the military way. Procedure, procedure, procedure!

Celine's grandpa was the skipper of his own ship. Celine had been raised on her families ship Boerperd.

Boerperd was an auxiliary ship that had been retired by the military many generations before she had been born. It had been converted into an Asteroid mining ship. Additionally, it was home. Her whole family was its crew. Not just her parents and grandpa, but all of her many extending relations ranging many generations.

No one cared too much about 'procedure' at home. The focus was always on getting the job done. If everybody knew what had to be done and everybody did what the had to do, no one made any fuss.

She missed Boerperd. That's why she was too anxious to sleep. She was heading home, after nearly 5 years away. Closing her eyes for a moment, she focused on what her mother's gentle embrace would feel like. The corner of Celine's pink lips pulled upward in an unconscious crooked smile.

Celine hadn't been a day past 14 when here parents had sent her to complete her 4 years of obligated military service with the Galactic Space Force.

It was more commonly called the GSF among her fellow enlisted crew-mates. Many used the acronym as an expression of their discontent by twisting its meaning to 'Gigantic Sh*t Force'. Once she had overheard a particularly cranky older enlisted member reproaching a complaining newbie by telling him how low his 'Give-a Sh*t Factor' was. Her snort of laughter had earned her it's own reproach.

In her rack, she slipped her hand between the edge of her mattress and the grey metal wall. Her slender fingers slid up closer to where her face was and grasped ahold of a latch that would not be found by someone unless they knew it was there. Some of the sleeping racks doubled as access points into the exterior areas of the ship.

Not to the outside, but outboards of the people spaces. There was an exterior Hull still further beyond. Between the berthing where her rack was and the exterior hull were small crawl spaces and wire runs, piping, and much else that was not required to be accessed regularly. As such it was hidden out of sight.

Her knowledge of ships design was extensive from her life aboard Boerperd. Though Appaloosa wasn't exactly the same as her home, there were more than a few commonalities. Enough so that she was able get into places that no one else on board likely knew anything about.

It wasn't impossible that someone else could find out about her hiding spot. That is, if they were to find the details for themselves in the correct ship system's manual.

"looking for a needle in a hay stack" she had heard Lt. Strauss say more than once while trying to find specifics in one of the innumerable manuals. More likely, anyone looking would skim over the details related to her outboard hiding hole and they would immediately dismiss it as not worth remembering.

It wasn't a place that a normal person would even be able to get into. Celine could only manage it because of her petite frame. Also, there wasn't a reason to go to the spot except in very niche situation that Celine didn't know herself. In one of the many ships system manuals she was sure there was a purpose for it listed, but she didn't care enough to waste her time looking for it.

After sliding the panel away she used her arms to pull herself headfirst into a very small tunnel parallel to her rack.

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