Better on our own - English

Slowly settle in

I met Arnold down in the hall while he was storing the quadcopter in a storage compartment on the large turntable ladder vehicle.

"So? I see you survived?" he asked me with a grin.

"You were right. She's not bad at all," I replied with a shrug.

"If I were you, I would get used to it very quickly. Penny always likes to take advantage of an opportunity when she can have fun with it and this was her way of testing you," Arnold explained to me with a smile as he closed the shutter of the compartment and leaned against it. I immediately felt hot and cold.

"To test me? What did she test?" I stammered uncertainly - there it was again, my nervousness. Had I passed the exam?

"In all likelihood, how you handle authority and pressure, as well as whether you can stand up for yourself. She's not doing this to annoy you, she's simply getting a first impression of you and can use that to judge where she can position you in an emergency, you will be involved at the beginning. If you are afraid, you will probably not get any further than respiratory protection monitoring. If you are confident in yourself, you will probably be allowed to stand at the front with the nozzle. But that is all just for the beginning until you know everything and got to know everyone here and have proven yourself in the exercises and missions. Take it easy. Penny always says: There are no mistakes, they're all lessons!" he explained to me with a smile and my mouth fell open while I reminder of the conversation. So she had actually deceived me.

"She's remarkable. I've never met anyone like her. Her leadership style is also extraordinary," I stated, completely amazed at everything I had come to learn about Station Officer Morris by now.

"I hope you're not in the process of falling for her?! Penny isn't available. For anyone!" he replied with a grin and it made me sit up and take notice in horror. The thought was more than just absurd, but I couldn't help but notice that Arnold had given an almost sad look from the corner of his eye to the door to the upper rooms as he spoke.

"I'm not really into older women!" I replied to him, making a face of mock horror, which he responded with a laugh and a pat on my back. "She said you could show me the station?" I then returned to the actual topic and I was really looking forward to finally getting to know my new place of work.

"Sure, with pleasure. Let's start with this darling. You already know the Taliesin quadcopter and this is its storage compartment in Artus," he objected, pushing himself away from the vehicle only to use the palm of his hand hitting it gently. Another strange name."That is the name of this tank fire truck with a turntable ladder. The aluminum telescopic mast allows an operating range of minus 12 m up to 30,5 m and a radius of 16,5 m with a maximum load of 3 people. 8x8 All-wheel drive chassis, fully automatic transmission, 15,000 liter water tank, 1,800 liter foam container, 500 kilos of powder and 300 kilos of Co² system, but the best thing is the two engines, each with 800 hp. The baby here is the best that is currently available in terms of fire engines on the market." I noticed that Arnold was drifting off as he listed more and more facts and figures, his gaze dreamily focused on the emergency vehicle as we slowly walked around it. Even though I didn't understand everything or attach as much importance to it as he obviously did, I did sit up and take notice when he talked about the total output of 1600 hp. The baby was a monster and I really wanted to tame it!

"I guessed so. It just looks awesome! I can't wait to drive it," I interjected full of anticipation. I was excited like a little child.

"Don't get your hopes up too quickly! Before Penny lets you take the wheel of that one, you'll first have to prove that you have the other two under control," Arnold clarified with a smile and I immediately slumped my shoulders again, as we came around Artus and he pointed to the truck in front of us, which was actually nothing more than a normal, boring truck."Which brings us to the topic. This is Merlin, our 26 ton swap loader with a V8 engine and 560 PS. The containers for this are behind the station at the yard, so we'll get to that in a moment." V8 engine with 560 hp?! Of course that didn't sound bad either! But slowly the meaning of the names dawned on me.