The USF Samuel Adams was docked at a space station, refreshing its supplies and refueling the ship. Some of the crew were aboard the station enjoying themselves while others stayed back in the ship to do their assigned jobs.
"Why the f$ck is it always us having to take out everyone else's trash?" Daryl said, walking into the commons room and sitting himself down forcefully at one of the tables. He pulled out his PCD looking frustrated, breathing in and out slowly. His eyes were intensely focused, as though he wanted to harm someone.
"Well, if you quit complaining all the time, they would prolly f$ckin' let us go into real combat. They're not taking us seriously!" Edmund said in return, making sure his pistol holster had all its locks on.
"That's how they were on the very first f$cking day of us signing up, it didn't matter what they did, I just had to take it up the a$$ for them. Legitimately, they gave me my name patch and it said 'Bon' on it. My name is 'Jonathan,'" Jon complained, pushing his heavyset torso up against the counter he was standing at. He was looking at Edmund with a very dry expression. "Nobody has ever, once, called me 'Bonathan.'"
"They said your name was Bon and made it into a name tag?" Asked Edmund, breaking into a smile, though trying to remain polite.
"Yes. And Liam thought it was funny as f$ck. I didn't find it funny at all," Jon told Edmund and Liam, watching Liam walk into the commons room with his off way of stepping. Edmund started to laugh at what Jon said as he observed Liam's strange stepping, as well. Jon kept on with a serious face, "I found it pathetic that they wouldn't change it back to 'Jon' after three whole f$cking weeks. It took literally a whole month for them to approve of the name change and create my real f$cking name tag with the right name on it."
"Whyyy?... and whooo?... keeps doing sh$t like this to the fridge?" Liam asked, opening the refrigerator door and then closing it shut again, realizing that it was busted off the hinges.
"Who f$cking cares, anymore?" Jon said in dismay.
"Jon, the refrigerator is a very important part of our journey, and I would like to make sure that it stays intact," Liam said with an air of superiority.
Jon asked, "You're not going to f$ckin' blame me for it, are you?"
"No, I'm just saying that it's important we keep everything in the kitchen and everywhere else on the ship ready for use. If the refrigerator is broken, then we are going to be in deep sh$t," Liam answered, almost in monotone. He opened the refrigerator again and watched as it tore off the hinges completely. The display on the fridge began throwing error beeps while Liam handled the fridge door, setting it to the side. He sighed very heavily, though didn't intend to throw a tantrum about it, trying to hold onto manning up and doing the right things.
Edmund exclaimed then asked, "Ohoh, sh$t! The whole f$cking door busted off?"
"Yeah," Liam answered, exasperated.
"F$huhuck," Edmund reacted then said, "Well, get someone in engineering to come and fix it."
"You have to place a work order every time you want something repaired, so--" Jon began, throwing his hand up and knocking onto the table in agreement to Liam's interruption.
"So, basically, when you want something done around here, you have to place in an order, a work order, and then it takes time for it to get accepted, and when it gets accepted, it takes some time for someone to be selected to do something about it."
"This is why I miss my old job on the old ship, because... sh$t wasn't like this. We used to just be able to fix things whenever we wanted to do it ourselves," Jon supported.
"Where did you work before?" Edmund asked.
"It was on a cargo loader ship that had us transferring things back and forth between different stations. Unfortunately, the ship f$cking blew up while we were docked somewhere--I forget where," Jon said.
"Your ship blew up? How did that happen?" Edmund asked, cracking a smile again.
Daryl was reading the news on his PCD at a table in the commons when he remembered what Jon was explaining. He chimed in, "No, I read all about this. All about that. When it happened. Yes. Your guys's ships were all tagged by pirate raiders, and when the police forces in the area hit your raiders, they inadvertently caused the remaining raiders there to blow up everything else, pretty much, right?" Before anyone could answer, Daryl continued, "I mean, they didn't bother checking in with anyone first about it, thinking that their sting operation--they thought that there weren't any other pirates around, and that f$cked things up for you."
"Thaaaat's exactly right, Daryl. And I lost my job on that ship because of that," Jon said, placing everyone on pause.
Edmund resumed the banter, "I mean, you lost your whole ship, man!" He chuckled at the overall absurdity of how unlucky Jon had been in that situation.
"Right," Jon said, smiling and breathing out a sigh.
"Well, that's pretty f$cked up and terrible. They should have gotten a hold of you guys, someone in your command or leadership, whoever was in charge, essentially, and then let them know they were going to go ahead with the sting, preparing for counter-attacks. At the very least, they should've protected you guys," Andy debated.
Jon responded in passionate frustration, "I completely agree, and that's why I was so pissed off, because the police forces didn't even care about the damages. They f$cking raided the raiders and then allowed them to retaliate, and I say 'allow' because they f$cking left that part of their case wide open and told our leadership that we were supposed to have vacated the station until they let us know when to come back. I talked with the management team for hours about this the very next day after all that sh$t happened. The police forces handled the aftermath sloppily, but they got the pirate raiders... and I guess that's all that matters, not that thousands of people lost their f$cking jobs."
"Right," Andy said. He shook his head in dismay at the space police force and the government in general. He fixed the ear piece he had on and continued to read from his PCD.
"You know?" Jon said, sighing out a heavy breath again. "Like, from Earth to here and beyond, everything is capable of going to utter sh$t."
Edmund nodded his head in agreement, watching Liam scoop items out of the broken refrigerator to place them into the freezer or into Tupperware. He told Liam, "Why are you putting them in the freezer? That food is already cooked, it's going to go bad if you put it back in there."
"Does it look like we really have a choice?" Liam asked, annoyed.
"I don't know, I mean, I guess you could just fix the door yourself and pretend you made a work order for it," suggested Edmund.
Liam argued then explained, "No, I'm not going to fix it. You guys can. I'm going to sleep, soon, and I just wanted something to eat before I go to sleep. I had a long day and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow when I wake up. My woman wants something, too, so I'm going to take a few of these Tupperware containers of food with me."
"You sound f$ckin' homeless," Jon said, chuckling.
"Yeah, well, I sure do feel that way when people here bust the f$cking refrigerator doors off the hinges, break all the cups leaving us with only glass coffee mugs, and use everything up in our offices leaving trash for everyone else. Like, come on..." Liam said in response.
Jon said, "Yeah."
Edmund chuckled and told Liam, "Yeah, but at least we get supplies whenever we want if we place the work orders in. If that's all we have to do, then that's pretty simple. We wait and then they do the work."
"No, but he's complaining about how they don't fix things immediately. Just like my f$cking name tag," Jon explained to Edmund. "Everyone else outside of logistics has a problem with being expedient for some reason, and I've never been able to figure out how to fix that."
"That's how it's going to be forever, Jon," Liam said, sounding hopeless. He sighed and carried all the Tupperwares of food with him, leaving the commons room. "I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow, gonna hit the hay. And don't disturb me, I'll be unavailable until work again. Bye, guys."
"Alright, see you, Liam," Jon said.
Andy said, "Laters, man!"
Edmund told Liam, "Alright, see you."
The refrigerator door slid down more from the fridge itself, falling flat onto the ground, revealing that Liam had taken majority of the good food and left all the sh$t behind.
They all went back to what they were doing, Edmund watching Galaxy Satellite Network (GSnet) channels shows, Andy still reading from his PCD and drinking coffee from his coffee mug, and Jon pushing himself against the counter watching the same shows with Edmund while setting up to play Solitaire with himself. Nobody seemed to care that the kitchen was falling apart, so long as the commons room was still usable.
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USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01
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