"ARRIVAL TO THE USHAVEX NEBULA INBOUND. PREPARE FOR ORBIT AROUND MOVIUM 1XH. PRIMARY ORBITAL SYSTEMS ACTIVE."

Nova plugged her datascroll into the computer to upload her new schedule — each shift adjusted to near perfection of work, breaks, meals, and rest, along with small spaces for her to enter any notes for her use. It blipped with each registered block, and she left it to get into her work clothes, with a toolbelt and her last name plastered over the back of the black fabric. It covered her casual wear from any dirt and grime she was sure to confront on her first day of internship of shadowing another engineer while they prepared the droid launch. Nova adjusted the size of the belt and examined the small spots for handheld tools. I'm guessing they'll give me whatever I need when I get there... "Neo?" she asked as she grabbed her datascroll when it clicked its completion. "What's taking you so long?"

Nova scrolled through the schedule. Her first shift extended into several of her internship. To report to Droid Bay A — refer to Map. Nova clicked on the small block to open up the document and added directions. Report to... Thuni Horizol... Droid Engineering Division. Horizol? Her mind wandered and grasped for the sense of familiarity. Isn't that the engineering student Overseer Mikean mentioned...?

"I didn't mean to take so long."

Neo left the small hall to the wash station, donned in a much fancier lab coat then the dedicated school ones which had undetermined goop splattered in awkward or outright bizarre places. The spiral starmark of the I.A.R on the back of the gray fabric lined with snow white. He adjusted the cuffs and grinned at her, messing with the folds. He bounced in place and twisted his fists. Any other movements led to his inability to stand still. "How do I look?" he questioned with a small turn. "It does look official doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it almost doesn't fit you," Nova teased, then shook her head when Neo frowned and examined it once more at the waist. "I'm kidding, Neo. You look great." She grabbed the back of his collar to fix it when he tried to reach it, and she patted his back as he shuffled through the inner pockets. "Have you taken a look at your schedule yet?"

"Look what came with it." Neo ignored her question and tugged out a thick black rod which forked at the end. He extended it further, and touched the tips with his fingers after a moment of cursory hesitation and a lost fight to impulse. Nova took a large step back when he pointed it to the side. "Anomaly suppressor." He pushed his thumb on the top of the grip, where a strange shimmer of light wrapped around the shaft and forked points. "Neat."

"Great, they gave you a weapon to hurt yourself with." Nova scoffed.

"It's a safety measure — it only affects anomalies," he explained and touched the tip again with the base of his palm. Energy flowed against his skin, but never struck it. "Anomalies have unique wavelengths — this just... makes it so they don't misbehave to the point of no control." He smiled and turned it off, folding it back into his coat pocket. "You said something about a schedule?"

Right, back to the matter at hand, Neo. Nova pointed at his desk. "Shifts came in. I need to start heading to the Droid Facility Bay to meet with an engineer called Thuni Horizol," she said when he wandered over to pick up his datascroll. "I have a break between then if you want to catch up in the eastern mess hall." Unless something major comes up...

Neo examined his schedule. "I need to head over to the anomaly labs in central command for safety orientation."

Nova loomed over his shoulder, where he tested time when it beeped an alert for a chance of tardiness. Beneath the orientation shift, the training block in the range that Admiral Mythrai adjusted for the interns to take. Nova checked her own, with her training block sometime after her break before rest and recreation. "Guess we're both busy for our first day," she joked and sent her fist into his shoulder with a point at his schedule. "You might want to start heading to center command now before you end up being late." He remained still, and she pinched him. "Neo? Hello?"

"Oh! Sorry!" He gasped. "Right! Central command. I should be going." He unhooked his datascroll from the finished upload. On his heels, she raced out of their personal quarters and out of the intern's small section of the eastern resting units. Rainbows splashed across the metal walls of the space station, through the reinforced glass. Movium 1XH guided the station into orbit, a perfect, smooth marble of blues, greens, and purple grasslands, where the woven tapestry of the Ushavex nebula pulses and waved with the cradle of newborn stars. Neo rubbed the tips of his fingers with a widening, hopeful smile. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Nova said and patted his back when a bell rang for the incoming shift start. "Don't get lost, and ask lots of questions."

"As if that was ever in doubt — also, my sense of direction isn't that terrible," Neo said. "You too."

Colours painted across the butterfly necklace he kept around his neck, setting the tips of the wings in starry flames. Nova poked it, then raised it to his nose with a smile. "Don't lose this either."

"Never again," he assured.

One more shift alarm rang throughout the facility, a soft, but insistent and firm noise. Nova left him at the window and trusted his ability to somehow find his way right where he was meant to be. Okay, get to the Droid Bay Facilities and then report to Thuni Horizol... I have heard that name before. I think... Overseer Mikean mentioned him? Small universe if it's the same graduate. Nova shoved herself through the crowds to focus on her work, ignoring the sensation of a thousand eyes staring at her. Whispers filled her ears when she rushed into the tram station, where a couple of soldiers on duty sat on the benches. Their relaxed stature served to put her at ease far away from home.

"Eastern Transit to Southern Droid Facilities, Flight Arrivals and Departures," the tram AI piped up.

Datascroll and keycard at the ready, she rushed off to get the worst over with. Introductions were not her strongest suit, so she followed the maps on both her block and the large ones on the entrances deeper into the southern arm of the station. Engineers and mechanics disappeared into work stations or down lifts into the reactor cores. Droid Bay Facility A... Droid Bay Facility A. Her repetition guided her to a massive door with a giant A plastered on the front. Right... here I am overthinking things. Through the bulkheads, she came to a stop at the massive hangar. Three landing pads sat in a line, with three droids cleaned off and polished for the journey to undertake. One of them she recognized as her own.

Nova ducked out of the way of one engineer moving boxes of tools and parts out of the way and into a shuttle pod into the workshops. "Um," she tried to raise her voice, to grab attention the way Neo always effortlessly did, but no one gave her a second glance, too focused on their own work. Shit. One small step further into her dream threatening to turn into an embarrassing nightmare, she waddled over to her droid and the panel controls and hoped for someone to spot her distress. So much for that...

Nova put her datascroll on the terminal and checked the diagnostics.

"I'm assuming you're Nova Spacyn?" a deep voice almost threw her right into the terminal to escape the situation.

A broad-shouldered, tall engineer stared at her in curious confusion and a sense of uncertainty. His brow furrowed and she fought to find the words for a proper introduction. "Nova Spacyn?" she questioned, then longed to smack her own cheeks. "Yes, I-I'm Nova Spacyn. I was told to meet with Thuni Horizol... which appears to be you," she mumbled when she caught sight of his name on his pocket. "I'm sorry. You've apparently caught me at an awkward time."

"First time on a space station will do that," he said and folded his wide arms. "You're one of the Engineering Interns from Ivenium College, right?"

"Yep." Nova stepped to the side when Thuni checked the diagnostics. "Overseer Mikean mentioned you."

"He did?" Thuni made no other comment while he opened up other tabs. "I haven't talked to him in a while."

Ah... he's not much of a conversationalist either, it seems. Nova forced herself to relax. "Yes, so... how does this work?"

"It's just a bit of orientation until the people upstairs decide it's time to launch the droids." Thuni rifled through his heavy-loaded coveralls and whipped out his own datascroll, but unlocked an infopod from the side. "We had to make a few adjustments to your droid. Everything on there should tell you all you need, but if you have questions... I can answer them." Nova took the small docket into her hands, and Thuni nodded at the other door. "Since you're on my team in this Facility, I need to introduce you to someone before we get to work."

Oh, great... and I bet Neo is having the time of his life. Nova followed Thuni to the door, where he opened it. Several people sat at the computers, but he hailed down one who worked on an augment.

"Ulin," Thuni said with a quick wave as if he wanted to escape the conversation himself. "Nova Spacyn, she's the intern that'll be working with us. This is Ulin Fayzir, they're an AI Programmer. One of the best on this station, actually," he added under his breath.

Ulin lifted their head and got out of their chair to rush into their awkward tension. "Ah, this is the intern whose proposal caught the attention of some of the engineers," they said with an unassuming, but confident grace. "I had the pleasure of examining your droid core."

Her heart fell. "You didn't need to change it, did you?"

"Fundamentally? No, no," Ulin assured. "I just had to do some more advanced upkeep so it matched the standards set forth by the B.H Supernova — if it's your... honestly rather complex anomaly scanner you're worried about, I left that unchanged." They rubbed the back of their head with a calm smile. "So, how are you enjoying the space station?" Their eyes widened, and then eyed Thuni. "You did ask her if she experienced any space sickness symptoms?"

"I'm sorry she didn't walk up to me and burst into tears like the last one did, Ulin," Thuni grumbled. "How am I supposed to handle that? I didn't want to make it worse."

"Not staring at them and asking if they're okay is a start."

Nova jolted. "No! I'm fine. No symptoms so far." She laced her fingers together and shuffled. "What work are you going to have me do?"

I need to get my mind off the fact that Neo won't always be around to just... keep the flow of conversations going. I can do this. One more breath. Yeah, this is a learning opportunity that I've wanted, can't get cold feet now. Nova put the docket onto her datascroll to bring up the list of adjustments on her droid. "So we won't know the launch period until later?"

"No, but everything's ready to go," Thuni explained.

Nova flicked through the list of changes, nothing she couldn't adjust her blueprints to in another file. "It doesn't look like you changed that much," she said with a point.

"Just some deep space coating and general maintenance with its arrival to the space station," Thuni said with a stoic nod.

The last of her tension left her crunched heart, but she frowned at Ulin. "You said the anomaly scanner was complex? Because most of the specifications came from—" She tried to find the right words. "Actually, they're from an intern who came with me, though they're in the Anomalous Science Division. Top of the class at the Collegiate," she said. "If there's something wrong, I can talk to him about it. I'm sure he'd love to chat specifics about it."

"I'd love to talk to him about it, more out of curiosity than anything. You see, the big guy here has an anomaly scanner on his droid too." They pointed at Thuni with a wide smile, who pursed his lips and looked away. "We've been stuck on how to up the efficiency for deep scans. He took one look at your proposal and got very interested, along with the glowing recommendation of your school's Overseer."

"I don't... really want to talk to any anomalous scientists unless I have no choice." Thuni shuffled closer to the door. "If I can help it."

Nova frowned at Ulin, who hid a growing smile behind their hands. "Have bad experiences with Anomaly Scientists?" she questioned.

"I just think some things are better left alone and anyone who wants to stick their nose into things they maybe shouldn't..." Thuni shrugged without another word. "If he's willing to talk about it with Ulin, then all the better — we need my scanner up to my specifications if we're to get the most out of this mission. You can bet the I.A.R won't stand for anything less than concrete data." He threw his hands into his pockets. "Well, with that out of the way, let's show you where you'll find most of the tools we use in this facility." He threw his hand around the programming room. "You can find Ulin here if you need anything to do with your droid AI core." Thuni took her out of the programming room. "You saw the workshops on the way here, right?"

"I did," she said, finding it easier to talk.

"There are other things we need to do on the space station. If you're shadowing me, there's not much you need to worry about. I do general maintenance around here, sometimes go down to the nuclear reactors to hand in reports of energy levels. Someone might come complaining to you about the coffee maker being clogged—" He raised a finger. "Tell them to stop putting the grounds straight into the injector and that should solve most of their issues."

That sounds like a common occurrence. Nova followed him to the back storage closet, and he handed her a wrapping of tools.

"Just keep these on your person or in your room," he instructed. "Until launch, we're just sitting around trying to keep our hands working. If anything comes up with your droid, I'll let you know."

"Why are they taking their time with the launch if everything's ready?" she questioned.

Thuni's shoulders stiffened, but he sighed. "You mentioned you had a fellow intern in the Anomalous Research Division? You might want to ask him. Especially if he's working closely with the senior team."

"You don't know?" she asked in realization.

"Not a clue. No one in here knows," he said with a quick glance at the nearest person, who lounged on some boxes and tinkered with a small device. "Don't worry about it though. It's not that unheard of. We are dealing with what they refer to as an unknown class anomaly in the Ushavex Nebula. I suppose I should just appreciate the sense of precaution." He huffed. "Forget that, though. Let's get you situated on how things work on a space station instead of in a shop classroom."