First Shift (2)

Jaff held against a massive handle attached to a wall in the airlock as he felt the slight inertia of the shuttle slowing down to a stop.

Instructions appeared on his N-HUD that he groggily followed. He looked around and saw the cabling that he was supposed to attach to the hook at the his waist around where his coccyx is and he hooked it on like he was instructed to. The cabling was also used to direct the metal he collects while on his spacewalk back to the shuttle's airlock.

He stepped into the pair of company-provided booster boots. These would shoot compressed air to boost Metal Pushers to the direction that they want in conjunction with the boosters placed on his back. All controlled by the N-HUD and its connection to the Metal Pushers' thoughts.

The booster boots jolted on and started its automatic sealing over Jaff's feet and calves.

Jaff attempted to view his CaSTE System Window, however a small notification appeared in the top-left corner of his N-HUD.

That makes sense. In scenes like these, you usually show the character's first attempt on-screen before a montage or a cut to the end of the sequence, Jaff thought to himself.

He decided to just take a few deep, slow breaths as he waited for his first shift as a Metal Pusher to start.

A high-pitched beep blasted through Jaff's N-HUD and he flinched in pain as the airlock opened up.

At a simple thought, the maglock on the boots deactivated and Jaff found himself starting to float. One part of him started to freak out, but Jafferson's memories and experience in simulated space walks started to filter through and managed to calm his mind a little.

"W-We're here. Make sure you clip o-on the cabling so you don't get too far away fro-m the ship." Krehg clumsily reminded.

"Shit," Jaff cursed under his breath and he spun his body quickly to grab on the cabling but the movement was so sudden and the boosters on his legs and back responded to his subconscious thought of 'Turn' and he started to spin wildly.

He started to panic a little but a certain memory of Jafferson's popped up in his head and he started to slow and stop spinning when he said with a somewhat-resolute, "Stabilise!" 

He floated for a second, positioned in a way that he was upside-down compared to the orientation of the shuttle. It was an odd sensation. The brain freaking out that what it always thought as 'floor' and where feet go is directly above your head, and yet the weightlessness in the vacuum of space meant that Jaff's insides felt loose and float-y.

If he hadn't already vomited everything up from the night before, he might have thrown up again in his helmet. Jaff was thankful of that, at the very least.

He looked up and saw that the cabling and hook was right above his head and when he reached up, he just managed to reach it. He locked the hook to the section around his waist and sighed in relief.

"Oh sheik, they've noticed that you haven't technically left the shuttle airlock yet, so they've given us a warning!" Krehg moaned through his N-HUD.

Sure enough, a notification popped up in front of Jaff's eyes a split-second after Krehg started to speak.

[Citizen ID: 59781130-03 - Jafferson Palmount 

First Infraction Warning!

Please proceed to perform your duties as Metal Pusher before your first infraction is finalised and a penalty will be issued.]

"Geez," Jaff groaned, "Okay, okay."

Jaff didn't want to know what the penalty was. A blurry inkling of what the Infraction System entailed came into mind as he remembered vaguely that Reeanen had attempted to explain to him last night before...their night.

With a single thought, the boosters nudge his body forward. He could feel the rough ridges of the cabling rub against the hook around his waist and it made his guts feel weird. He fought against himself and prevented another vomit from coming up.

Something beeped inside his head and a bright red target appeared on his N-HUD with a caption of [SCRAP]. He looked down at his gauntlets and squeezed them into fists multiple times to test the reactivity of the machinery and once he was comfortable and seemed to have gotten used to the slight lag between his own hands and the gauntlet's reaction to their movements, he pushed himself forward to the piece of scrap his N-HUD had picked up on earlier.

For once, Jaff was thankful that Jafferson's memories had helped out as he relived the experiences that Jafferson had when he was training to be capable of a number of different jobs. One of which was Metal Pusher training.

A particularly vivid training memory pushed itself to the forefront as he continued to approach the piece of scrap.

He saw Jafferson sitting on the kerb in a dark alley, his hands rubbing his eyes. They were bloodshot and teary. His father exited the building behind Jafferson and stood next to him, albeit a metre away from him.

"I heard what happened," his father said in a quiet voice.

Jafferson didn't say anything. He was only around 17 years old during this memory, Jaff realised.

"I know that you have a lot of pressure on you, but it's the only thing we're able to organise." His father continued. Jafferson didn't look at him, but he could instinctively tell that his father was not even looking at him. He had never been a very personable person, even to his own family.

"There's just a lot to remember," Jafferson's dry, raspy voice quietly said.

"We don't know where they'll place you once you board the Cryo-Ship," Jafferson's father reasoned, "we have to be prepared for all the possibilities."

"Why do we have to do this?" Jafferson asked, but he already knew the answer. He had heard the answer many times before growing up.

"Because there's something suspicious happening out there. The push to inter-galactic space travel stagnated for over 500 years due to human limitations, but then, we suddenly receive first-contact with a benevolent alien race that seems to have unlocked exactly what we needed? Doesn't that sound a little convenient to you?"

"You sound like a consp—" Jafferson mumbled under his breath.

"I don't care if I sound like a conspiracy theorist," Jafferson's father interrupted, "there's plenty of evidence out there that shows that the series of events is suspicious, and I'm not alone in this belief. I'd appreciate it if you trusted me and listen to all your instructions as the date of the Cryo-Ship launch come closer."

Jafferson could hear a shuffle next to him and when he looked up, he saw that his father had stepped a little closer and sat down on the kerb next to him.

"You need to be ready for whatever happens out there." Jafferson's father said softly. For the first time in a long time, he was looking at his son directly. "I need you to be ready. We all need you to be ready."

Jafferson looked at his father and nodded slightly.

"I will."