I was made for this job

Jacy stood in the center of her *quarters* and looked around. She could almost touch all four walls from here if she stretched her arms out and the cave of a room felt even smaller for its low hanging ceiling and lack of any external viewport. The crew sling was quite cramped by the time she managed to cram her luggage in . It was an alcove wider than it was deep and accessed via a descending ladder off the forward hallway in the *neck* of the ship. She had hoped to spend as much time as possible away from the rest of the crew, but isolating herself here was not looking like a cheerful alternative. Perhaps later when she’d had an opportunity to unpack some of her things she could make it feel more comfortable. She turned and climbed the ladder up to the deck (there was no hatch or barrier for privacy) and made her way back to the main cargo hold, taking in as much of the ship as she could in the process. She needed to familiarize herself with the vessel if she was going to be of any help as a deckhand. She’d also need to lift heavy stuff, but that was an entirely different set of issues.

Jacy leaned against the newly loaded crates and listened in on Riley’s conversation with the rowdy mechanic. That one might give the Captain a run for his money around the whiskey bottle. The inept deckhand scooped up the paperwork Riley had begun to forge and looked it over. She clicked the writing instrument and finished filling it out in big looping calligraphic penmanship. She could hear Riley doing another stand-up job of vetting potential crew, but that same ineffective process was all that had allowed Jacy onboard so she couldn’t hold her to any fault there.

As the captain came speeding in alone on his work mule Jacy ducked partially behind the crates and made a show of checking the straps, testing the cargo and the securing clamps with plenty of thumps and boot nudges. Still obscured behind the cargo she tossed an all-clear thumbs up at the captain and waited for his footsteps to wander off before standing up straight and looking around. Thomas Devron was negotiating to collect the finders fee on himself, ballsy.

Jacy moved over to the mule Captain had parked haphazardly and decided it was parked straight enough. She peered around for nearby straps, but they were all the way across the deck hanging up in orderly rows and it seemed like a shame to mess up such an orderly display of preparedness. Instead she prodded a block of...something heavy with her foot until it was loosely wedge behind one of the wheels. She stepped back and dusted off her hands even though she hadn’t actually touched anything. Deckhanding wasn’t nearly as difficult as it sounded. She was actually pretty good at this.

She walked up behind Thorne and tried to sneak off the ramp, holding a finger up to her lips to silence Thomas who was following her with his eyes. Riley noticed and turned around to catch Jacy mid-sneak. “Where the hell are you going?!”

“We need some supplies for the galley,” Jacy offered as she stood up all the way and continued down the ramp casually.

“You mean foodstuffs and edibles?” Thorne asked.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Jacy made a gesture of bringing silverware up to her mouth.

“Have you got a list?”

“All up here,” Jacy tapped the side of her head twice.

“Christ, we’re all going to starve,” Riley rolled her eyes and pointed down the ramp. “Go, get out of here. But hurry back so’s we can be ready to burn on the Captain’s signal. I’ll leave you behind, you know I will. That goes for both of you.”

“I’m sure you’d try, but we’re a crew now, Flygirl. I might need some help loading all this stuff when I get back.” Jacy got to the end of the ramp and looked left and right a few times before shrugging her shoulders and moving off to the right.

“Your other right, idiot!” Riley was helpful as always.

Jacy coolly turned around and headed back to the left, tossing Riley two cheerful thumbs as she passed the ramp.