Miiya was a few weeks into her rotation through Blue Heaven, and she had mixed feelings about the posting. The work--if you could call it that--was great! Essentially she was just a liaison with the Genetic Markers being brought up from Terra. Her “job” consisted of socializing with the newcomers and helping them adjust to life as a GeneCorp ward. She was not even responsible for arranging schedules or transportation--that fell to a pair of full-time employees. When on shift and not with the GM’s, Miiya was the gofur. That had her running around the station doing odd pickups, deliveries, and occasionally setting up or tearing down events for the GM’s. None of the work was difficult, and most of it was pretty fun. Further, she had now had a pretty good sense of Blue Haven from all her comings and goings.
While the work was good, the environment was not. Miiya did not like life in a tin can or a hollowed out rock. Blue Haven’s warren of skyless decks, pods, towers, and lifts brought back memories of home, and those were not welcome. She really wanted to be out under the sky again--or at least somewhere you could fly without drawing attention. It was still fun to aviate in narrow spaces like Blue Heaven’s interior, but changing decks by flying felt like showing off, so she often took the lifts during the busiest hours of the day. Which sucked.
She also did not have a lot of down time during which to visit Cahron. Even when she wasn’t working, she was often scheduled to be on-call or at least present on the GeneCorp campus. When she did have empty time, she was encouraged to spend it with her half-dozen charges. That was all well and good during the honeymoon phase when everyone was fresh-faced and full of wonder, but as she and the GMs became more comfortable with one another, some conflicts of personality arose. On the whole, the Aeros girl was glad she would only be here for two months.
Even if she didn’t like the environment, or if she sometimes groused to her brother about having to play nanny to the Terrans brought up by the corporation, Miiya never showed her disquiet to her charges. She liked them all well enough--even the somewhat bossy ones, and Aishe in particular. The Ughyr girl--though she basically grew up in a prehistoric agrarian village--seemed like a kindred spirit to the city-born flyer. Though they both shared a deep resentment of the circumstances of their upbringings, each still possessed an unshakable core of filial piety. This kinship made for quite an excess of complaining that would sound eye-gougingly whiny to any eavesdropper. Their
Miiya was delighted, then, when Aishe’s quarantine came to an end, and she was allowed on escorted outings around Blue Heaven. “I have SO much to show you!” She bubbled when Aishe approached her about leaving the Genecorp compound together during her free period. “So, there’s a group attending the opening of Zafiro hotel--yeah, boring, I think so too.” Miiya interrupted her own suggestion as Aishe cocked an eyebrow. “Or, I can show you the best spots on the promenade.” That got a smile. “I mean, there’s docks, external station tour boats, and other dumb shu, but we can do them another time.” She nodded when Aishe suggested they visit the bazaar. “Right! Let’s do it!”
The GM’s were not allowed out without an employee--Miiya did not count--and the GM handlers were busy, so the pair had to wait until security could detail them an escort. In the meantime, Miiya listed the places that--in her opinion--were the best for food, fun, and shopping, which stores had the hottest clerks, which pubs had the most lax door policy, and the like. Somewhere in there, she thought she probably mentioned security and how to use the nets in case there was an emergency or they became separated. Maybe.
They were about thirteen paces from GeneCorp’s front entrance when the PA system chimed.
“Attention; Due to a disturbance in the station, the campus will be sealed until further notice. All employees are requested to observe status Charlie. Youth program participants please return to the core areas. Nonessential personnel are released for the day.”
Miiya scowled as she looked up “at” the disembodied voice. “Ahh… Frett me! Really?” She folded her arms, feathers louvering involuntarily in annoyance as their escort excused herself and headed for the security desk. “Welp, there goes that plan.” She could see--beyond GeneCorp’s glass entryway, station alert lights flashing blue and red. “Wanna head back to the commons and see what’s up?” She suggested to Aishe.