Space is a Hard Job

Your cactus, Myrtle

Right, how could you forget? You aren't the most responsible person in the world (this may be why you have no plans to have kids in the future), and most of the dogs and fish and even plants you've taken care of before in your life have either died or had to be taken away. Very sad, traumatizing stuff when you were like 12. However, a while later, when you were instead like 13, your parents gave you this cactus you named Myrtle.

It was perfect for you!

It's been over a decade and you've still kept this little cactus alive. What a trooper. You could never go on the year plus round trip without her.

Myrtle has been safely but ambiguously placed with your belongings.

Now that the most important thing has been taken care of, are you ready to suit up and go just yet or is there something else you'd like to do?

Yell "LATER, LOSERS" at the losers who don't get to go to space.

I think its time to get ready to go; you don't want to be late!

Get a snack before you go. Nutrients are IMPORTANT.

Get a snack before you go. Nutrients are IMPORTANT.

Well, alright. You grab a quick snack from your pantry just in case you really want to eat something quickly and don't want to wait for the hydroponics to rev up. A nice, fulfilling Granolalot bar should suffice. You place it in your luggage.

I think its time to get ready to go; you don't want to be late!

Yeah, it probably is! But first, you have to dress up in your nice and snazzy uniform.



Man, this thing makes you feel so... official. Like an officer.

You make sure not to zip the jacket up because, as fashion of the times dictates, this is simultaneously much more formal and chic.

Well, time to get going to the ship!







And here's the ship.

It looks like they've nearly finished loading everything into the cargo bay, so you'll probably take off soon.

go get settled in the CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS

Greet the rest of the crew.

Take one last breath of freshest fresh air before your trip.

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Make sure your luggage made it.

It... did make it, right?

> Also, your transcievemit. You made sure to grab it, no?

go get settled in the CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS

You're not the captain! You're merely an officer! Such a promotion is beyond you right now.




Of course, the door is not located on the aft of the ship—it'd be too high for you to reach anyway! There's a staircase over on the port side of the ship.

Make sure your luggage made it.

It... did make it, right?

You brought your luggage along on the entire trip in your hand, obviously. It was even right there when you were waiting for the tram.

It was just stealthy.

Greet the rest of the crew.

Well, you might as well enter. Just standing out here is kind of wasted time. You're trying not to make too much of a deal of this being your last time on the planet for a year; such attachments are UNNECESSARY for a UNIVERSAL CITIZEN OF THE UNIVERSE AS WE ALL SHOULD BE.

That's the ideology they pushed in the officer internship program, at least.

It's not like you won't be able to contact others, at least.

You head up to the previously marked clear front airl-

> Also, your transcievemit. You made sure to grab it, no?

Dammit, you knew you forgot something.

Well, at least you remembered it. At the latest possible time.

You go ALL the way back to your residence, pick up your transcievemit from your nightstand and come ALL the way back. It isn't a very long journey (especially compared to what you face), but it certainly is annoying.

Okay, back to what you were about to do!



You head up to the previously marked clear front airlock of the ship and place your hand on the panel to open it. It looks like it scans your hand and other fancy biometric stuff but it's generally fallen out of practice to put something so complicated and unnecessarily strict on a trade ship so it's really just a glorified button. You step on through the door and allow the airlock to unneccessarily, given you're still in the air, do its airlocking thing before proceeding into the ship proper.



You are immediately assaulted by the vivacious waving of... the captain! It's Captain Kalpana.

"Hey, you're the last officer left! Excellent! We'll be able to take off in a jiffy!"

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SUPER not happy with that last full image, but I needed to get an update out somehow. Two weeks. It's a long time to not update. I'm kind of hoping this adventure doesn't die out. Hopefully the dialogotron portrait isn't too big, because at least that I'm happy with.

Kalpana's only his last name, FYI.

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Regulations allow officers to wear short and roll up their sleeves on a flight? That's a little surprising.

How long is a jiffy?

> Break into the official salute.