New Ship, New Life

They hurried down another set of stairs and came to a large hallway with openings off of it, with a glowing sign above each opening. Tom pulled her down to one opening where they joined a few other couples, and a family, in a short line which terminated at a boarding collar.

While she waited for the middy at the front of the line to finish the id checks he was doing on the people in front of them, Illoia looked around curiously. This area was so different from the first class areas she was used to.

Take the walls. Not only were they bare metal walls, but there were pipes, some small pipes and some large pipes and even some cables, running through the walls along the walls, up where the walls met the ceilings. Indeed the lights were shining from cables that ran along the ceiling, bright but obnoxious lights.

The floors were metal, but with some kind of abrasive… not coating, it was the way they were made. Probably so little children wouldn’t slip.

More and more soldiers, their wives, and their children came behind them. “Did we get here early?” she asked, wondering why they had had to leave the restaurant so quickly.

“Yes. Leaders are in an awkward position. Sometimes there are not enough leader’s rooms and I doubt you want to bunk with the lower ranks.” Her eyes widened and she followed him up to the front of the line. The middy seemed to not have noticed them until they got there, but his eyes widened at Tom’s uniform.

Tom hurried her past the middy after she had her finger checked, down the docking collar, into the ship proper and then, with a few checks of his comp which she would have to learn to do, through a series of corridors and up to a line of leaders, all standing in a cooridor waiting their turn to go up a ladder. A line which moved out of their way with something of a groan, and not a few speaking looks.

“No room!” she heard one of the men above her say, as she started to follow Tom up the ladder, her uniform skirt, she noted interested, clinging tight to her legs as she climbed. How Article IV! After the briefest of pauses and a muttered Article I violation, she saw Tom continue to climb. “Sorry, Ma’am”, one of the other leaders said, a leader standing, red faced, at the top of the ladder.

“I quite understand,” she said, sliding carefully past him in the narrow hallway and following Tom who had stopped in front of a purser.

“Room 4e,” the purser said, sounding almost nervous. It was funny. Tom was young, and not big or anything, but he here again he wore his uniform set on black, with his three medals flashing gold out of it. Tom just nodded and pushed past him. “4f,” she head the purser say to the next couple.

“Here,” Tom said, one hallway and four doors later. “Let’s key our door.”

Seconds later the door was keyed and Illoia, peering in, saw a room identical to the one she had shared the night with her husband on the liner. If anything, it looked smaller, and definitely smelled stronger. Sweat. She couldn’t imagine how, with the trip back being basically empty, this room could still smell of sweat. There had to be somehow she could clean it.

“I’ll get our bags,” Tom said. “I’m sure you want to visit with your lass friends.”

She stared after his departing back. His communication style was so odd! But just then she saw Eukles and Eudoria coming down the hallway. “Oh, Eudoria,” she said. “Are you busy?”

Eudoria looked at Eukles, who looked disappointed, but pushed her toward Illoia. Eu followed Illoia into her room. “These rooms are so small!!” Eudoria said.

“I know! But that’s not what I want to talk about! How is it going with your husband?”

“Oh, he is wonderful,” Eudoria said, looking at the couch, shaking her head, and then plopping herself down on the floor, Illoia sitting across from her. “He loves to talk, although he is kind of shy. But we just sat and talked for the longest time today. Some of that was because we were ‘in line’ for everything. We had to wait to get my uniform, wait to get my initial training started. I kind of wish he had 17’d me earlier in the trip, but he just couldn’t bring himself to.”

“Aren’t lads silly?” Illoia agreed.

“What about yours?”

“He’s impossible to read!” Illoia said. “Just picking me was something I can’t imagine any other lad doing. Well, except maybe Rociennen.”

“Oh, him, but he is rich and spoiled. A little bit of humility would do good for him. I think he actually thought your father would agree to let him marry you, in spite of the fact that everyone knew you despised him.”

“Papa despised him, too,” Illoia said. “I thought he would kill him when…”

“When he tried to push you into that empty room?! It was a good thing for him you didn’t have him up on Article 4 charges!”

“Oooh, I was mad, but Papa told me it would be a political disaster.  For me, that is. Accusing someone of Article 4 means that you have been compromised, in the common mind. So they would all be wondering if I was increasing!”

“Oh, Illoia!!” Eudoria said, giggling. “But, seriously, tell me about your hero lad!”

“What’s to tell? He is all business. He hardly talks to me at all except to tell me what to do.”

“Sounds like your papa.”

Illoia thought about that. “I hope he doesn’t have Papa’s temper,” she said, sounding nervous.

“Oh, I don’t think he does!” Eudoria said. “Eukles says that he is really, well, that he spends a lot of time alone and with the lower ranks, but that they tend to like him, and that he… he is known for cutting people to pieces with a very quiet word, not yelling.”

“Well, I guess that’s better. The good thing about Papa’s temper was that it was always short. He would get mad, maybe hit you, and then, after a few minutes, would be done. And he tended to be pretty fair, mostly. The lads always caught it worse. And he would support you against anyone outside the family.”

“I can’t believe that we are both leader’s wives!” Eudoria said, after a pause.

“I certainly can’t!” Illoia said… “Oh! Enter!”

The lasses jumped up as the door opened and Tom and Eukles walked in, Tom with their two bags. “I have all of our stuff put away, my love,” Eukeles said. “We put them in there first.”

“We should eat,” Tom said, putting their bags in the closet with a thump. “The dining hall is likely to get full soon. The cooks will have had a lot of time to prepare for this meal, but things might get busy.”

“Yeah, sure,” Eukles said, gripping Eudoria’s hand tightly, “That would be great.”

Illoia, pleased at this hint of socialising, took her own husband’s hand, “Where is the dining room?” she asked.

Tom looked between Eudoria and Eukles, a flash of confusion on his face. “It should be down this hallway to the left. Your comp will tell you these things.”

Illoia gripped Tom’s hand a bit harder, trying not to show her anger. Here she was trying to build him up as the person that knew things… but he just didn’t get it. He said he didn’t understand social situations, and it seemed like he hadn’t even understood that he had invited Eukles and Eudoria to eat with them! How could she possibly deal with such… it wasn’t that he was stupid… He had all of those awards, and everything military. But socially!!

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Von