Space Shift Stories: McGuffin 46

Swift 2.0 Tour

Celestine looked at me. I smiled. "Julia you didn't tell me that these are the people you want to feature on the documentary" Celestine asked her cousin.

"Well I posted an advert about this. And out of all the people Strife was the only respectable one" Julia replied kindly. Strife winked.

"How about the other guy?"

Julia looked at me "Him... well. Alright I guess"

"I'm guessing we're gonna get our ship repaired which means we have to stay here in the meantime. Correct?" Strife asked Celestine.

"Probably. But I'm hoping this won't take long" Celestine replied.

"Ship tour?" I asked Celestine. Looked at Julia.

"No" Celestine rejected the idea quicker than I could offer it.

"I'm not thinking of anything stupid. I just want to see what changed with the Swift." I raised my point. Celestine looked at me with suspicion.

"Still no" Celestine replied. Her cousin did not say anything.

"Hey Julia look at me." I ordered Julia. She looked, I stared at her body. She gave me a weird look. "As you have seen earlier. Our ship got ambushed by unaccounted parties. Luckily, Julia called her cousin, Celestine. And now we are safe and on board the Swift." I pointed at Celestine. I then gave a quick reluctant pause. "Celestine's ship. We are currently finding a way to repair the Carpenters. So here's to hoping"

"What are you doing?" Celestine confusingly asked.

"Oh, we're still doing the documentary. Which means we still have the body cams on record. And it's unfair if the people didn't know what happened." I replied with a smile. Strife laughed under his breath. I stood up out of my chair. Went to where Celestine is sitting. "Do you mind showing us around the ship that rescued us." I joked at her.

"Funny" Celestine replied in anger.

"You know Rover, you could make it as a media personnel." Julia complimented me. "Very assertive" She added.

"Thanks" I replied.

"Say, Celestine. Is it okay for you to give us a quick tour. If you won't mind." Julia asked her cousin. It was the most politest thing ever said in the ship.

"Only because you asked nice." Celestine granted her cousin's request. She looked at Strife. "You can handle this right?" She asked him. He just nodded a signal for them to move along. Celestine stood in the middle of the cockpit.

"Hold on" Julia told her cousin. She pulled out her camera and started to record. "Rolling. And. Go" She signalled her to start.

"This is the Swift. And this is the cockpit. There are four chairs, two for the pilots. The other two are for the crew and another on the captain's chair" She pointed to the respective placed. I was sitting in the captain's chair. "It's positioned higher for the captain." Celestine walked towards the back of the captain's chair. "There's an access stair going down. We could go there first if you want" She asked Julia.

"Is this the only access below?" Julia asked.

"Yes" Celestine replied.

"I think we could go down."

"Okay" She smiled. "Before I forget. On the left side is the fridge with microwave and thermos" She pointed on the left. There was a mini fridge, it was a tall one. On top of the fridge is a small microwave and a thermos. "And on the right is the toilet" She continued and pointed.

The three of us went down. The stairs were changed. On the old Swift this was just a regular one person straight stairs. Now it's on a small one-turn spiral stairs. We reached the lower level landing on the right side of the ship.

"Behind the stairs is the toilet, shower room." Celestine continued. She opened the door. We saw a vacuum flush small toilet and the ceiling has a circle shower and lights combo. "And over there is the medical supplies. First-aids, defibrillator, vaccines and other medical tools" She pointed to a drawer with a red cross on it. I gave a face of discomfort to the fact that it's not originally there. Celestine move to the left side of the stairs. "Here's the kitchen, a two induction stove with microwave and freezer-fridge combo" The kitchen was clean, as expected of Celestine.

"Do you cook here" Julia asked.

"Sometime. Mostly I just use a meal packet." She replied. "Anyways, over there is a small table and a few chairs. I usually get coffee there, they say it has a games built in the table but I haven't tried" She pointed to a round coffee table with a holo display glass on top. There are three chairs connected to the chair.

"I assume these over here are the bunks for the crew?" Julia pointed the camera to the bunks. There are three bunks on each side, with overhead lockers. Totalling about six bunks. There's only one bunk that show proof of being occupied.

"Yes" Celestine smiled.

"And I could also assume that is the back door?" Julia pointed at the back.

"That is not the exit." Celestine replied as she walked near the rear. She pointed at two exit doors. "This is the escape pod" Celestine said pointing to where she is standing. "Incase of an emergency. This section of the ship, along with the few select parts over the sides will be released, and the detached section will transform into a pod"

Julia and I looked amazed as evident to one of our brows raising.

"Complements of the council I guess?" I asked Celestine.

"Uh huh" She simply replied. "I think we're done here. Let's go back up." She led the way, back upstairs. As we got up we still saw Strife driving. "Right, the back." We continued and on the back, I was surprised to see that the holotable was not in the right orientation, it was the first thing you see. And it had five chairs. "This is the conference table. Everything, from research to client communication happens here." Celestine activated the holotable. "C.H.R.I.S. is the A.I. that operates the entire operation, he is also my co-pilot"

"Course Hazards Reduction Intelligence System. In case you're gonna ask" I told Julia. She smiled.

"Right and there are a few drawers here. That side is the weapons" Celestine pointed to the left. She didn't open it, which made me more curious. She gave me a disgusted look. "And that side is the space suits, and extra storage of things I found" She pointed at the right. "The last part of my 'ship tour' is the engine room"

Julia was about to ask but I interjected. "It was a typical hydrogen reactor but added a quartz lined warp charger, which basically means the ship can complete a travel warp a half the time it takes a normal ship within the jump axis and third times fast outside the warp. But now..."

"It actually still is. They only repaired what was broken and reposition it to give the ship more power." Celestine told me. "Well I hope you saw everything in my ship good and clean" Celestine said to her cousin.

"Of course. Thank you so much" Julia said as she ended the recording. Celestine walked back the cockpit. Tapped Strife's shoulders and sat back on her chair to continue this quest to repair our ship, The Carpenters.