Cold Shower

Jaff didn't know what to make of the Producers' Note, so he dismissed the window and continued to make his way back to the orientation zone. Once he reached the zone, he was greeted by another staff member who handed him a pair of overalls and directed him to yet another segment of the orientation zone that he hadn't visited.

He was surprised when he entered the new zone and saw that it slightly resembled a big public shower. It was a mix of a high school's public showers, and what he imagined a prison's public showers.

Only made with more metal pieces.

The familiar voice of the broad-shouldered man — aptly named by the extra scene script as "Burly Man" — rang throughout the showers and Jaff instinctively shrunk at the sound. He noticed that the Burly Man was at the other end of the shower cubicles and was loud and obnoxious.

Jaff quickly scouted an empty cubicle that was as far away from the Burly Man's cubicle and started to undress as inconspicuously as possible.

He was glad to take off the old basic Cryo clothing. The clothes stuck to his skin a little because of the dried Cryo fluids and he shivered slightly when he was completely naked.

Jaff looked up at the small thin nozzle and then down at the wall in front of him at the small button about stomach height.

He pressed the button and a weak flow of seemingly freezing water started to come out of the nozzle above his head. He almost yelped at the sudden coldness but managed to keep his mouth shut in fear of catching the attention of Burly Man.

A second, smaller nozzle started to spit out a white gel and Jaff quickly scooped up the last dregs of the gel when he realised it was some sort of soap. The gel was thick, and when he rubbed it over his body and face, he realised that it didn't soap up like the old soaps he used to, which creeped him out a little. It didn't smell, but it also got rid of the Cryo fluids that had dried all over his body and smelled.

Not even a minute had passed when somewhere in the cubicle, a series of high-pitched beeps was heard. The already weak flow of the water grew weaker and weaker and Jaff was only able to wash some of the gel off of his body before the water stopped.

He realised that the staff members hadn't given him some sort of towel to dry himself and awkwardly started to put on the clean clothes that he was given when he entered the showers.

The clothes were made of what he guessed was some sort of synthetic material that stuck to his wet skin and he picked at the most annoying parts as he walked out of his cubicle.

Luckily, the Burly Man seemed to have left the showers while Jaff was still washing.

He noticed other people from the same batch as his pass their old clothing into a chute near the entrance of the showers and he quickly collected his clothing and shoved them down the chute before he followed a small group of three to the next part of the orientation process.

Not much of the Job Placement Test had been explained to them, but from the little snippets of conversation that he heard from others in the orientation process, it seemed like a simple test that was able to discover the passengers' most suited career.

A few minutes later, the group reached the waiting room for the Job Placement Test.

To Jaff's dismay, Dexta had noticed his entrance almost straightaway and waved to him to come over in a way that Jaff couldn't pretend he didn't notice.

When Jaff sat down on the seat next to Dexta, he inadvertently stepped into a tense conversation between someone who looked like the stereotypical jaded veteran of some ancient war, and the over-enthusiastic Dexta.

"Used the N-HUD to teach 'bout JPT," Dexta spoke, "say that JPT use your personality and innate skill to give careers!"

The older man snorted in disbelief.

"Harshaik! That personality business be lie! For power over shaiks like us to keep in line!" the older man hawked and spat out a thick glob of spit on the ground next to Jaff.

Jaff shifted in his seat in disgust and discomfort.

"Harshaik? Why be here in SOL-2, if all is shaik?" Dexta asked the old man.

The man clicked his tongue and looked at nothing to the side, "Lessay bik debt in Ol' System. Bik debt mean no choice for me but be here."

The old man's head turned and he waved his hand in front of him before he cursed under his breath.

"Turn is here," he said as he stood up and begrudgingly made his way towards an automatic door next to a staff member who smiled politely at him.

The smile turned to confusion when the old man said something to him that Jaff couldn't hear, but he could imagine that it wasn't anything polite.

"You have dream job?" Dexta didn't seem to be affected by the tense conversation with the old man and had turned his attention back to Jaff.

The sudden change in topic caused Jaff to pause and stutter a little.

"D-dream job?"

Dexta nodded enthusiastically, "Yah, job you want all life."

Jaff took a moment to try to remember if he had any dream jobs in his old life on Earth, but nothing came of it. He then tried to think through Jafferson's memories since they seemed a bit easier to think about and still came up with nothing.

"I just hope it's not something dangerous."

In the corner of his eye, he noticed that a CaSTE System notification appeared:

<63% —>65% (+2%)>

But when he prodded it to see if it would expand, nothing happened. Must be in a scripted scene right now, he thought to himself.

"What about you?" Jaff asked, but he didn't really care at first. He just worried that the conversation had hit a silent lull for too long.

"Oh, flying my frein!" Dexta beamed. His enthusiasm at Jaff's question was even more contagious than before and it even made Jaff smile a little.

"All my life, flying be it," Dexta continued, "was obsessed with spaceships since young, any type of flying, and I will be happy."

Jaff was still smiling when he said, "Let's hope you get it."

Soon after, Dexta seemed to get a notification on his N-HUD and excused himself before he jumped up and almost skipped to the doorway everyone in the waiting lobby had walked through.

Jaff smiled and he was surprised that it was a genuine smile. Dexta's overt friendliness and almost innocent excitement over the Job Placement Test had soothed Jaff's wariness of the situation he found himself in.

He attempted to open up the CaSTE System again while he waited for his turn to take the Job Placement Test, and it refused to work.

He sighed and crossed his arms while he waited silently in his seat, the odd conversations of random strangers all around him had created a soft soundscape that he found easy to get lost in deep thought in.

At some point, he was snapped out of his thoughts when he recognised a familiar staff member had walked up to the one that stood by the doorway to the Test room. It was the dark-haired beauty with 'R. Molwerk' embroidered on her uniform.

She spoke to her colleague quickly and he nodded at something. When she finished she turned around and noticed Jaff and smiled at him. A smile that seemed more than just a friendly one.

Jaff responded instinctively, but not from his memories, but from Jafferson's and gave her a cheeky grin and it seemed to have done his job as R. Molwerk blushed brightly as she walked away.

He was pleasantly surprised. He had yet to discover much of Jafferson's memories properly, but Jaff was impressed by Jafferson's natural charm.

An N-HUD notification popped up in front of him that announced his turn to take the Job Placement Test. He waved the notification window away and stood up.

As he approached the doorway, the staff member nodded to him and he politely nodded back. The doorway opened automatically as he stepped close to it and he followed the familiar metal hallways to another private room.

This new room seemed similar to the room that housed the machinery to implant N-HUDs and he was greeted by a staff member who was dressed like the doctor in charge of the N-HUD implants.

They motioned for him to sit in the angled metal seat that was in the middle of the room. He sat down without saying anything and the staff member approached him with some sort of eye drops.

There was no bulky machine in this room like in the N-HUD implant room but as he looked up at the ceiling, he realised that there was a compact machine that whirred on.

"The Job Placement Test is a virtual test as well as an eye-scan to officially add you to the archives of the ship." The doctor explained, "Depending on your career, you may have to use your fingerprint and iris to reach the areas of the ship that you're authorised to go to."

A nurse stepped up next to the metal chair on Jaff's other side, "The iris scanner sometimes leaves the eyes dry, that's what the eye drops are for."

The doctor handed the eye drops over to the nurse and the nurse walked out of Jaff's vision to put the drops away. The doctor looked back down on Jaff.

"Now, all we need you to do is to take a deep breath, relax as much as you can, and try not to move too much."

Jafferson nodded and took as deep a breath as he could.

The doctor reached down behind Jaff's head underneath the metal chair and something in his N-HUD activated. He sees a message window appear in his eyes that said:

[Job Placement Test v.6-a21ze starting…]

Then his vision went white.