I closed my eyes. “It probably wouldn’t hurt anything, but I guess I’ll play it safe. What are you checking for? We don’t have diseases on Felicity.”
“We check and sterilize anyway. You’ll find that spacers don’t usually have much faith in the pronouncements of planetary authorities. The system also looks for nanotech, microbots, stealth drones and quite a few other sneaky tricks.”
A brilliant UV light came on, along with a dimmer violet glow and a ton of other stuff.
“I see. Wow, we even get x-ray scans?”
That was really weird. I could see the x-rays, somehow. Not with my eyes, but with something hidden in the bones of my forearms and shins. Naoko was a translucent ghost figure, although her skull was almost as opaque as the walls of the airlock. She turned to me, and cocked her head.
“You can detect the x-rays, Alice?”
The scanner shut off. Aw, too bad. I was still trying to figure out what some of those hard shapes inside Naoko were. The computing core in her head was much better armored than I would have thought, and what were those things inside her ribcage? Power cells, maybe?
“Yeah, looks like I’ve got x-ray sensors. I’m not sure what that’s good for, since there’s never enough light to see by at those frequencies. I didn’t even realize I had them until just now.”
“Interesting. Perhaps someone on the crew will have an idea.”
The shuttle’s interior was just as strange as the outside. The decks and bulkheads were all bare expanses of charcoal gray armor, lit by glowing panels in the ceiling. Naoko led me down a narrow hall to a cozy little cabin with bunk beds.
“I’m afraid there’s only one shower,” she said. “Why don’t you go first, while I get the cargo stowed and begin launch preparations?”
“Thanks, Naoko.”
The shower wasn’t anything fancy. Just a little cubicle with a basic six-head shower system, and a dispenser with a few hundred soap and shampoo options. But the hot water was heavenly after a night spend tromping through the marsh. I scrubbed off the mud, muck and insect repellant, carefully washed my hair, and then turned the heat all the way up and spent two precious minutes just soaking under a massage spray.
I was tempted to stay longer, but the matrons taught us never to waste anything. Besides, it would be rude to make Naoko wait when she was doing so much for me. So I reluctantly turned off the water, and ran the dry cycle.
Naoko came back just as I was stepping out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy towel that had somehow pulled every drop of water out of my hair.
“Thirty minutes to liftoff,” she announced with a smile. “I’ve reserved a launch window, and the shuttle is running through preflight now. That should be plenty of time to have your things delivered, right?”
“I, um, don’t have any things, Naoko,” I admitted. “I didn’t exactly have time to pack before I disappeared. Even that dress came out of a public fabber.”
She blinked at me uncertainly. “Oh. Oh, my. Not even a companion android, or a utility bot? But that’s terrible! Did you manage to shift your credits to an anonymous account, at least?”
“Orphans on Felicity don’t have money, Naoko. The orphanage would give us ration tokens for the fabbers sometimes, but mostly we just make do with whatever the matrons issue us.”
The way she looked at me, you’d think I’d told her the matrons beat us every morning for fun. She took a step, and for a moment I was sure she was going to hug me. But then she suddenly remembered that she desperately needed a shower, and stopped.
“You poor thing. Well, I shall have to talk to the captain about that, but I can at least make you a change of clothes. Maybe a new dress, and some ribbons for your hair? I’d definitely recommend going for a young and innocent look, if you don’t mind taking my advice. That will get you much further with the crew than trying to look tough, or professional.”
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to trust you on that, Naoko. You know your community, and I’m not much good at that kind of thing anyway.”
“Then it is fortunate that you have me to help you. Make a left in the hall, climb up the first ladder that you find, and the fabber will be in the compartment right in front of you. I’ve given you guest access to the shuttle, so feel free to explore once you’re dressed. I’ll be along in a few minutes.”
I found my way up easily enough. The fabber was in what was obviously an engineering space, crammed into a gap between the port drive tubes and what I was pretty sure was the fusion reactor. It was a good-size industrial model, with an assembly bay the size of a closet. Serious overkill for making shoes and a dress, but at least it meant everything came out at once.
My new dress was a green that nicely set off my pale skin and dark hair, with a knee-length pleated skirt and ruffled sleeves. It came with matching shoes and white socks, and a ribbon I used to tie my hair up in a ponytail. I just knew the outfit made me look like a little kid, but if that was the plan I’d play along. I found a mirror, and practiced my soulful looks for a few minutes.
The thump of the fusion reactor igniting startled me. I felt the sudden flow of current lighting up the shuttle’s power lines, and other systems starting to power up one by one.
Yes!
I rushed back down to the lower deck, not bothering to use the ladder, and went looking for the bridge. Where would that be, on a ship this size? Maybe in the middle, where it would be hardest to damage?
The doors in that direction opened onto an office, and then a room full of equipment I didn’t recognize. There was a comfy-looking elevated couch thing in the middle surrounded by ceiling-mounted gadgets, and some kind of control setup with a chair to one side. Oh, wait, was that a first aid station in the corner?
It was. I stopped there for a minute to wake up the bot, and let it cover the long scrape on my arm with a layer of medigel. That brought a sigh of relief. I can ignore pain if I need to, but the ache in my arm had been bugging me a little.
Past what I tentatively labeled a medical room was a larger hatch leading into the cargo hold. That was taller than the other rooms, and stretched all the way back to the big hatch at the rear of the ship. It was mostly empty, although there were some heavy bots secured to the walls back near the exit. The hothouse boxes we’d gone to so much trouble over were attached to the deck next to a row of shipping crates, and a crew of bots bustled around making sure everything was secure.
No bridge, though. Alright, maybe towards the front?
There was a door labeled ‘Armory’ that didn’t open for me, and then a hatch at the end of the corridor that led into a cozy lounge area. That looked like a kitchen off to port, and a couple of big pod things to starboard. VR pods, maybe? Virtual reality is heavily restricted on Felicity, but spacers wouldn’t care about that.