I guess you can go home again

[LadyPhoenix]

Three weeks later, Amy messaged me that she'd been able to arrange an extended period of time away from her job. I packed up my things and said goodbye to my home once again, hitting the trade lane to Mojave and then setting course for the Texas jump hole. I had a friendly relationship with the Junkers on the other side and this way I wouldn't have to screw around travelling through New York. I wouldn't bring Amy back this way. She wasn't ready to go off the beaten path just yet.

I moored at Houston once again and took a shuttle down to the surface. I missed being able to land planetside but the ships that were small enough to go in atmo were also too small to carry the amount of cargo I was hauling these days. I grabbed a cab to Amy's apartment, walked up, and rang the bell. I wasn't sure why we called it that when it was just pressing a key on a terminal but someone had once told me that it referred to an ancient Earth custom before they had computers. Amy opened the door.

"Good to see you, Jen," she said, seeming to have a bit more pep in her step than usual. "Today's the big day, huh?"

"Well you certainly seem excited, Amy," I told her. "If you're all packed, we can go. Not like we have to wait on a commercial flight." I gave her a mischievous grin.

"I am," Amy replied. "Let's go." We loaded her things into the waiting cab and headed back to the spaceport.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Amy?" I asked her.

"As sure as I'm ever going to be be," she said. "It's an adventure, right."

"Maybe not this first run," I told her. "We're just going to New York and California. But after that things might get a bit more interesting."

We took a shuttle back to orbit and walked to where my ship was moored. As I opened the air lock, I made a grand gesture toward Amy and said "Welcome aboard the Ruby Phoenix, your home away from home. After you."

After we were both aboard and I'd closed the air lock Amy took a look around and said "I'm guessing most transport vessels aren't this nice inside."

"Generally, no," I said. "That costs extra. I bought her in the Ile-de France system, had everything re-labeled from French into English, and then flew her to Manhattan to have her made over with some good old Liberty luxury aesthetic. In the crew quarters, galley, and bridge at least. The engineering and cargo areas are more utilitarian. Luxury just isn't practical back there. And don't worry. I've stocked the galley with some Liberty Ale for you, even though I can't stand the stuff. Hands off my Rheinbeir though."

"No worries there," Amy said, making a face. The entry corridor ended at another wider one that went off to the left and right. I pointed right. "Bridge is that way," I said. "All the way at the end. Those two doors before are my quarters on the right and the galley on the left." I took a few steps down the left corridor and stopped at two opposing doors. "Men's bathroom is on the right, women's on the left. Not that it matters yet. Next door on the left is you." I opened the door and showed Amy into a spacious cabin carpeted in the same navy blue as the outer corridor. "You've got a bed, nightstand, table, chair, bookshelf, dresser, closet, and personal computer. If you need anything else, just let me know.

"No bathroom?" she asked.

"I already showed you. It's out in the hall. Only the captain gets her own bathroom."

"I see. Like you said it's not a big deal right now."

"Go ahead and leave your stuff here and I'll show you the rest," I said. We walked further aft and came to a bulkhead with a door. I opened it into a corridor that was decidedly more about function than form, unlike the fore of the ship.

"Now this is more what I expected," Amy said. After about 10 feet the corridor opened up to the both sides and the engineering bay was visible.

"This is where we end up when stuff needs fixing," I told Amy. "The next hire I make is going to be someone to man this part of the ship full time. This is also where most of the defensive systems are. We've got two CT-401 pulse turrets up top, two CT-402 Charon class turrets down below, and two SW4-T Spiker class turrets, one port and one starboard, Liberty's take on the CT-403 Iron Hammer class. The power draw on these is slightly less. The shield generator is also housed in this part of the ship." We continued walking down the corridor. I pointed to a door on the left, larger than the ones in the front of the ship. "This goes to the starboard cargo bay," I said. "There's another door further aft. This door on the other side of the corridor goes to the port cargo bay and also has another door down there." I pointed down the hallway.

Finally we reached the stern of the ship. Amy asked "What's this?"

"This is the aft gunnery station. It's an M0-3H Sacre Bleu class turret, the finest Gallia has to offer for transport class ships. I can man all the guns from the bridge but this one is kind of a pain in the ass to target from up there. So it can be operated manually as well. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Now, it's getting late. Let's have some dinner, get some sleep, and head out in the morning."

"Sounds like a plan," Amy said. "And now that you mention it I'm hungry."

I really hope she decides to sign on. I could use a first officer and even though I'll have to train her, there's no one else I trust to do the job right now. We'll head out for New York in the morning.