Space is a Hard Job

On a planet that may seem a tad familiar (though not by name) sits the galactic federation known as the United Sol Conglomeracy.

This is where our story begins, although due to the nature of it, it won't remain here much longer.






An irritating collection of bleeps and bloops plays out from the device over there. The young woman here groans in response. It's not like she's not going to have plenty of opportunity to take a nap an hour or two from now, but that won't stop her from allowing every complaint to bolt through her mind for the next ten minutes.

But before she gets up and takes the burden of the vessel of this narration, there are two important questions you must answer.

1: What is her name?

2: What is the color of her hair? (This is the future you're looking at, you've got the entire electronic rainbow of colors to choose from in terms of hair color.)

SpoilerShow

guys guys guys this is like my first adventure i've made in years and it's the first GOOD one so i hope you enjoy it.

I've put some actual thought into the plan for this one. The beginnings more or less solid, but there'll be a ton of freedom after that, so don't worry.

If you already follow me on Tumblr, one of the characters that will appear here shortly SHOULD be vaguely familiar in the terms of I've posted them as an OC up there, so don't be surprised when they show up and be like, "wow what an awful author cameo," alright? I've only drawn them like twice anyway."

>$1.72
>Octarine

1. This Space For Rent, or Rent for short

2. Headvertising-brand Liveprint digidye, currently set to Headvertising Default white-with-moving-neon-streaks

1. Janna
2. Her hair is infrared.

1. Advanced Universal Theoretical Unified Magentic Neural Net, or Autumnn for short.
2. Transparent

1) Amma
2) Starlight holo-synth

1. Kallidiopaea
2. Yollow

Amma

Yes, her name is Amma. But in terms of hair color...



Look at what you've done to her! You've given the poor girl a migraine. Either you've missed out on understanding what the "electronic rainbow" consists of, or you are a truly malevolent group of tricksters.

Try this again. Give Amma a hexcode hair color. Quickly, before you end up leaving her bedridden.

#JUSTICE

>Alright FINE! #ff00f8

#de00ad

#AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

#OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIAMAGHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTT

#rekt

#00GG00

#aa11aa

#de00ad

Alright then, hot pink. A very respectable hair color.



You are Amma Kalpana and it is exactly 6:46 AM according to your transceivemit. In an hour and twenty-nine minutes, you are slated to step on board and take your first official job as an officer on a trade ship. Of the space variety, of course, but that's obvious nowadays with how sea trade has been made redundant.

Technically, this won't be your first job, but it will be your first more-or-less independent one. You've gone half a year as an apprentice officer alongside some peers under a ship manned by a few mentors, so you already know your away around your average ship. But those trade trips were peanuts, really—they were the majority small skips across the pond to the Gilese Commons, only a few tens of lightyears away. That's just a week trip with the current hyperhop technology (which is still in its infancy, mind you, according to top scientists). Not even a month long both ways. This new trip to the Interconnected Configuration of Serpentia is apparently somewhere around a thousand lightyears long, or an estimated 7 months. That's a long time to be stuck on a ship! It sounds grueling at first, but honestly, you're pretty excited about it. You promise. It doesn't look like it now but give yourself an hour and you'll be smiling. And anyway, it pays very very well. Trade between Serpentia and Sol is booming under recent diplomatic conditions, even with the massive gap of space. It seems like astrotrade is a brand new golden age for all of universality, and the ramifications are enlightening.

You've already packed up everything you need to go. Your toothbrush, your toothpaste, a cyberlibrary with a ton of books you still need to get to, your lapceivemit, six identical versions of the officer uniform for this trading company (Paiji and Sons, Co.), and floss. Probably other things too. Notably, your transceivemit is still on your endtable, so you might not want to forget that. Now, honestly, you've got time to burn. You've got to change into your one uniform that you haven't packed up, obviously, but since transit over to the spaceport will be like five minutes, that clearly won't take up all your free time. So, what to do?

Your brain recommends "get a damn coffee, or tea, or a caffeine supplement or something."

But maybe don't go outside in your underwear.

Get a coffee and a tea and mix them together. Failing that, get them both, put a straw in each, and drink them simultaneously.

Pack extra things! 7 months is a long time.

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breakfast. breakfast sounds nice.

What an incredibly versatile shirt!

breakfast. breakfast sounds nice.

Indeed, breakfast does sound nice. However, you may note that this is not some apartment you're sleeping in, it's a sailor's holding. Since this is built for officers and captains to reside in between trips temporarily, the amenities built in to the rooms are stark in number. This includes having an extensive kitchen set. The only real food you've got that you could make into a breakfast is some bread and butter to transform into toast.

It's generally common practice to go out to eat instead; there are numerous restaurants around the nearby area just for this reason. Your selection isn't very limited in that sense.

Of course, as mentioned, you're probably not going to want to go outside like you are now.

Get a coffee and a tea and mix them together. Failing that, get them both, put a straw in each, and drink them simultaneously.

However, you DO have a coffee machine and some teabags right here at your disposal, so why not use them as hastily as you can?



You toss a couple nice herbal teabags into the coffee machine and watch the water near instantly boil. Ah, nice hot neon-baked cofftea. Your only regret is that you don't have any soft drinks to complete the caffeine-filled beverage trifecta.



Well.

That was quite a sobering jolt.

Pack extra things! 7 months is a long time.

These bigger trade ships built for such long travel times are actually outfitted with quite a lot of stuff. Of course, living in such enlightened times, food variety is rarely an issue with specialized speed hydroponics centers, a necessity on any good trade ship. Certainly it doesn't produce a whole lot of excess, but it's good enough for the handful of people on board. And if you need anything less organic, there are 3D printers to use upon permission from the captain. You don't really see what else you'd need to pack.

...Unless there's anything... sentimental you forgot? A brooch or necklace, perhaps? Or a journal, something along these lines?

Don't you normally keep a sketchpad?

Your cactus, Myrtle

You've got a ukulele! Practicing your music helps you pass the time.