Rolling Out The Welcome Mat
There were many surprising things Douglas Hayden had learned over breakfast, and none of it from actually talking to people. Simply through sitting back, enjoying his meal, and listening to the conversations of the people around him in the Monaco’s mess hall he could learn a great deal about the state of the ship.
There was all the normal stuff, like who was dating who, who was fucking who, the usual rumor mill feed, but occasionally some truly gobsmacking stuff came along. Like how the 6-4 had apparently discovered an IMC mole aboard one of their ships and still hadn’t managed to catch them yet. Or the illegal after-hours dronefighting ring in the hangar bay that had managed to persist for the last seven months (Doug’s bet; Captain Stacker had some bets he wanted to win).
Or, in this case, how “the squad of Pilots we roll with is finally getting an eighth man.” That nearly made him choke on his egg. Despite feeling the incredible urge to bolt up, head over to Cecilia’s room, and ask if they really were (and if so, why she hadn’t told anyone), Douglas was determined to handle the problem in a civilized manner, so he finished eating his breakfast and deposited the tray in its proper position before bolting over to Cecilia’s room.
“Yep,” Cecilia drawled, clearly as shocked as he was. “Wait, how the hell did you know...?”
Cecilia quirked an eyebrow. “Stop joking around, you fuckass. I just got the email when I checked my terminal. 6-4′s got a couple new recruits, and seeing as we haven’t found a replacement Pilot for Voyager in the past couple months, we’re being assigned one. Gates stamped the order herself, says we need to get back to full strength.”
Douglas thought for a moment. “You don’t suppose the guy I heard say it is the mole?”
Cecilia got up, making for the armory. “What a start to my morning. I am going to need so much coffee.”
Unfortunately, in the chaos of taking a prisoner of war after a chase through the ship’s hallways, and making sure he was properly locked in the brig to make sure he wouldn’t be feeding any more classified data to the IMC, and then sadly chatting with Cecilia about how the mess hall was probably just going to become a boring romantic comedy from here on out, Douglas fell into autopilot. Instead of asking for further details about their new hire, he checked the time, realized I need to maintain VEGA, and headed off towards the hangar bay.
“You seem distracted, Pilot.” Even when he couldn’t move and was standing still as a brick, VEGA possessed extraordinary insight. (Really, it was probably the biometrics implants). And there wasn’t much use lying to his best friend.
“Yeah,” Douglas confirmed, as he started closing up VEGA’s right-side missile pod. “You know we’re getting a new number eight?”
“Yes,” VEGA noted. “Cecilia sent out a communique to all squad members informing us of the new hire.”
“Oh, good! You get any details?”
VEGA paused for a moment. “His arrival is imminent, Pilot. I suggest you embark.”
Douglas swore, and took the two or three plates and the five or six bolts he still needed to reinstall to complete maintenance on the missile pods. VEGA popped the ejection hatch open, and he slid into it and fell into the seat. The Titan sealed to internal oxygen just in time for the hangar bay sirens to go off and for everyone who didn’t wear vacuum suits to start heading towards the airlocks.
Figuring it was probably better to meet them when they came in, Douglas watched courtesy of VEGA’s cameras as the hangar bay vented atmosphere, the vac-suited workers continuing their task like nothing was going on, before the hangar bay door on one side slid open. Blitz, the ship’s Goblin dropship, sailed into the hangar, hovering over the dropship pad that Doug hadn’t noticed was empty until now, and touched down.
A minute later, the hangar bay door was closed, and with the return of breathable atmosphere came the return of the workers who had left. Opening VEGA’s cockpit hatches, Douglas slipped out of his Titan, making sure to pocket his parts and equipment, and headed over towards the dropship to meet their new hire.
