The hallway running the entire length of the ship is shrouded in darkness and silence, the numerous shops, bars, cafes and restaurants along its length all closed. What else could they be, most of the people on the ship were still in cryo, there was nobody to work any of them.
Vanderbeek sighed as he walked its length.
So far the captain refused to wake up the rest of the people. He figured they didn't need to yet, as there was not a single planet in range to even scan yet, let alone send teams towards.
He hoped next week there would be at least one planet worth examining. They were a hundred odd years behind schedule already after all.

"How am I to perform if I have no audience?" Mikoto Mishida inquired while following him around, irritation in her voice.

"You are not," Vanderbeek replied. "You are not performing for a long while, if at all. CS-8 Marco Polo is not your personal stage."

"But then why wake me?" She followed up on her question in japanese. Vanderbeek didn't understand, but he could fill in what she was spitting out at him. This woman was beginning to be a handfull.

"First of all, I didn't wake you, the ship did, because it is broken. It wakes people up at random. People that would be better off still sleeping," he snarled back at her. "And second, all civilians are required to make themselves useful. Now, since you have no technical skills, no knowledge of weaponry, cant operate any heavy equipment and sure as hell don't have the stomach to help out in medical, you will be making yourself usefull right here."

"Here? But there is nothing here, this is... closed..."

"Yes, it is indeed," Jan laughed. "all of it, except for this place right here." He stopped at the facade of a store, right next to a selection of turbo lifts. It had a large sign above the sliding doors. It read: General purpose goods, bar and grill.
"You will get to work here. I will have some crew assigned to the kitchen and small restaurant, and you can work the store. Slowly more people will be waking up, and the soldiers will need a place to relax too, so we can open this business and get things up to speed here."

"But... I know nothing of running stores."

"Yeah well, I know nothing of exploring space, yet here we are... Catch" Vanderbeek tossed a keycard to Mikoto. It fell to the floor while she stared at it, perplexed. Jan turned and walked away, leaving her standing there.
"Have fun, and if there is anything you need, let me know."

Mikoto cried. How was she supposed to get this place up and running? She knew nothing of running a store, a bar or a restaurant, and this place was all three things at once. Sure, she could provide entertainment, she could sing, dance, give guests a good show, but if anyone asked to buy a pair of shorts, what should she tell them? So she cried. She cried as she walked through the ground floor, checking out the clothing, the stationary, the consumer goods. She cried as she toured the restaurant on the second floor, wondering how to balance a tray of drinks or carry multiple plates of food, she cried as she walked around the bar on the third floor, seeing the stage, knowing she would not be on it for a long time.
She needed help, that much was sure. Help she hoped VanderBeek would provide as soon as possible.

From: Chambers Quarters


Danny arrived at the Recreational Deck at 11:15 am.


He started looking to see if Jan VanderBeek had waited up for him, still mad about his own utter failure as a person.

<< From: Engineering

The arrival of the first drone was was unusual, but nothing compared to what would follow. It moved through the recreational deck in a methodical fashion, only getting as close to a surface as it needed to scan it effectively. Though the thing zipped around quite quickly, for it to be thorough it had to check out every nook and cranny. That meant that anyone that saw it work would see it for a few minutes before it had finally moved on.

Micaela's entourage was something entirely different. One drone, slightly larger and more elaborate than the others, kept pace over her left shoulder. Seven other drones followed behind them like sycophants and yes-men, their collision avoidance routines causing them to dance around, looking like they were jockeying for position.

Once on the main concourse she opened her PC again to check on the data feed, but she closed it a moment later once it was clear nothing was amiss. Then she started wandering the deck looking for anything that would help her pass the time.

"What do you think you are doing?"
VanderBeek quickly closed the distance between himself and Micaela as he entered the rec deck. Though he had noticed Danny as he entered, he had more pressing matters to attend, like someone roaming his deck with automatons. He looked at the drones, then at Micaela, then back at the drones, buzzing, doing their work."This place is off limits, only the central shop is opened. You have no business in these parts of the rec deck."

Micaela considered the response for just a moment before discarding it. She didn't like it, but she liked getting locked up less, so she toned her indignation down half a dozen steps.

"My name is Micaela Nieves and I am currently assigned to internal security as a civilian adviser. Given the current condition of the Marco Polo I am performing a test run of a drone reconnaissance flight on the orders of Lieutenant Jennifer Maxwell. She asked me to choose a location where the test drone would not interact with any of the crew, so this seemed a good option given that, as you say, most of the deck is still closed down."

Miss Nieves, Vanderbeek replies, While I understand your reasons for testing these automatons here, I kindly request you take them elsewhere. Perhaps the holds are a better place to have metallic globes buzzing around. We might be a civilian deck, but what little civilians are awake I still consider part of the crew. Thank you.

He then turned his attention to Danny, as if completely forgetting Micaela had ever been there.
Master Chambers, how nice of you to join me. How are you settling in?

"Hey man, sorry I'm late." Danny said , pouting.

He stumbled a bit, but couldnt make himself tell Jan he had wasted an extra hour playing a crappy video game.

"I am still eager to work here, think it would be fun... or something..." he trailed off

Obviously lost for words, he just put his head down and looked mad at himself.

¨Late?¨ vanderBeek looks at his wrist watch. ¨Oh yes, now that you mention it. Well, think nothing of it, I had not even noticed yet. Anyway, What I wanted to talk to you about... Obviously you have no scientific background, and clearly you are not military, but as far as I can tell you are a people person. How would you like to run one of the clubs around here? So far I have only one active, a diner, club and shop at the middle of what I like to call the recreational strip, and even though I have this young woman there to run it, I think sheś not really going to cope all that well. I need someone that likes to work with people to set up the place. Maybe thats something you like to help me out with?¨

Danny looked up excitedly, already perking up when he heard he could be talking with people all day, every day.

"Yeah, I'd for sure be interested in doing that with you"

"It'd gimme something to do when I'm not playing Video Games from one hundred years ago"

Danny felt better about being late, and it showed on his face.

"What kind of jobs would you want me to do? I'm a quick learner, so I won't need a lot of training"

¨Well, you be running a shop slash restaurant slash club. How you do that is up to you. Its the three story contraption over there.¨ He points at the build in the middle of the deck. Its bottom floor is a sort of general store, selling mostly clothing of all sorts. The second floor would be the diner, where mostly simple fast-food should be served, if they had cooks available. The upper floor, the club, with a nice bar, a large dancefloor and state of the art DJ set.
¨The only catch is that for now, I only have you and Mikoto to staff it, and Mikoto seems to only want to perform. She used to be some high class japanese popstar back in her day, or so she says. Personally I have never heard of her...¨

"Yeah... that does seem like a problem..." Danny said referring to the fact they had only 2 civilians to host it.

"Well, it will be a challenge" Danny said, "But I'm in! Though it would be nice to know what kind of hours the place will be open... To see how much I'll have to work."

He continued , "As an idea, we could open a single floor first, the more people who volunteer to work with us, the more floors we can open, but we should start small"

¨Thats a deal then, the shop is yours. I´ll leave the details to you.¨ VanderBeek gives Danny a friendly pat on the shoulder as he turns to leave. ¨Miss Mikoto should be in there somewhere. I´ll message her that you will be managing the place. She´ll like that I think. If you need anything the supply bays refuse to provide, let me know.¨

"Oh boy, oh boy" Danny said, barely able to keep his excitement in.

"A whole management job to myself!" he said happily.

Composing himself, he thanked Jan, and asked if he knew where Mikoto would likely be at this time.

He decided he would go find her and give her some good news he had for her.

Mikoto Mishida was trying to fold shirst, starting again on the same one over and over again. She wasn't cut out for this. She was a performer, she belonged on stage. Not in here, a shop on some ship, stuck trying to sell stuff to people that were asleep. She understood she needed to do something, to help out where she could, but surely there was something more usefull for her to do?

Chambers' arrival startled her, causing her to drop the shirt she had finally managed to fold properly.

"Hi," Danny began, "I'm Danny Chambers".

"Are you Mikoto Mishida?" he asked friendly.

Message for Micaela Nieves from Lt. Maxwell

   "Miss Nieves, this is a high priority assignment.  I need you to equip a drone for opening padlocks in a way that won't destroy the contents of the locker that they are protecting.  Once you have the drone ready, I need you to pilot it and a pair camera drones with recorders to cargo bay four."

Micaela couldn't help but roll her eyes. First she was being yelled at for being somewhere civilians shouldn't be, then she was being yelled at for all of the harm she would be doing to the civilians that shouldn't be there. But she didn't voice her displeasure, knowing it would get her nowhere.

So this is how liberty dies, with incessant nagging.

"Unit zero one, recall. Looks like we are upsetting the..." then she trailed off as the urgent message came in from Lou. Once she had listened to it she turned her attention back to Jan, but he had already moved on.

She sighed, wondering what she could do to fix the situation. It had been a little funny at first, but now it was just tiring. She couldn't spend her life on eggshells, but it constantly seemed like she couldn't piss without asking permission first. But she would have to pursue that challenge some other time.

To: Cargo hold >>

Mikoto cursed aloud, language not befitting a popstar of her alure. She quickly gathered herself and looked at the newcomer. He was young, early teens at best. Still, it was someone she had not met before. Who knew, maybe he was a fan.
"I am Mishida yes. Who are you?"

Danny had already mentioned his name, but without being patronizing he segwayed and said again "Im Danny Chambers, Im a civilian and I've been put in charge of a three-story building on the Rec Deck" he said.

"As im sure Jan , the guy who runs that place, has talked to you before about working here...", he took a breath and said "I remember he told me you didnt really want to, you'd rather perform or something...", now he was getting to the good news "I was wondering if you'd come work here to do so, of course there would also be some dish duty," he smiled quickly, "But mostly you'd be singing songs or whatever you like to do up on stage" he said cheerfully.

"Whaddya think?", "I could sure use the help "

Mikoto's face cleared up immediately.
"Yes, yes please. No more folding clothing. It sickens me. You run this place yes! Good! I perform. Sing for everybody." She tossed the shirt aside, her whole demeanor changed. Danny could easily see the diva she was now, as opposed to the little unhappy mouse she seemed to be.
"Where we start? We need a DJ, soundcheck, I need personal assistant, stage assistant. I want dressing room with champagne and salad. Perform three nights per week yes?"

"Um.... yeah..." Danny stuttered, "Well, we can work these things out, I'm sure you can do fine singing without a DJ, sountrack, champagne... and uh.. the other stuff" he said


"I haven't really decided when you'll be performing, but I'll tell you once I sort out everything else"

"Dont worry, I'll be back to you with details, let's say around 3 pm eh?", "How's about we meet at the recreational deck, the building im working at is near the middle of the deck, and it's got 3 floors".

"Then we can get yu set up to rock, er... whatever kind of music you do, sound good?"

"Is this building yes?" Mikoto gestures widely at the shop they are currently standing in. "Is lousy building too. No character. You see club upstairs? No atmosphere. Need paint, decorating, lights. Looks like ship, not nightclub."

"You seem to have good taste, we can talk about remodeling later, at our 3 pm appointment" He says.

Danny says goodbye, and leaves, agreeing to meet back in the rec deck at 3 to discuss technical information.

He has a lot to sort out first though.

Danny >> Chambers Quarters

Danny arrived at 3pm back to the building he had talked about meeting at with Mikoto, hours earlier.