[Moose]

  He wasn’t entirely sure what his plan was.

  His rummaging in the crates that had been brought onto the deck level had turned up what he could only describe as an over-built futuristic stapler. He had no idea what its actually purpose was, but he sure hoped it wasn’t what he used it for.

  It sucked at that.

  He had attempted to staple himself a kilt. Something nice and easy that would at least cover him up. He had realized in the recent disciplinary action that it was very difficult to act stern and authoritative when your junk is hanging out.

  It ruins the vibe.

  Using the stapler thing seemed like a good first start. His initial test wasn’t promising, but it held the fabric at least. Whatever metal or other material the staple was made out of was very rough on skin though. Especially skin at and around the sensitive bits. Not a great place for irritation.

  He had employed some creative folding after that, doing his best to get the fabric to take the brunt of things. It worked pretty well… so long as he didn’t wear it. It turned out that the staples weren’t very good for the fabric either. It didn’t take more than a few steps for his new wardrobe to look like he fished it out of a dumpster full of moths. Holes everywhere. Not effective at the intended job.

  ‘It kinda just becomes lingerie at that point.’

  He tinkered a bit more but ultimately gave up on the project. He was clearly using the wrong tool for the job, no sense ruining more bed sheets. If he had to keep fiddling with a garment to keep it decent, he would just have to practice being stern while naked.

  ‘Our ancestors managed it, right? They didn’t have clothes from the start.’

  He had so many more important things to focus on. Dealing with the nudity would just have to take a back seat if he couldn’t solve it in his free time. Between finding and harvesting more asteroids and finishing his detailed exploration of the ship, poking around at fashion was the farthest down his list. The only reason he even bothered this time was curiosity and learning about the new tools.

  They might actually be important one day.

  ‘I wonder if that stapler can staple metal. It looks beefy enough.’

  He hoped he could find a mechanical room soon. Nothing ran flawlessly without some kind of maintenance. He didn’t know how long this ship had been going before he woke up, but chances were some of that maintenance was going to come due. For now, he was working from the automation area. There was a bench and a few tools that seemed made for the robots there.

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  He had tinkered with one of the robots. It had been blinking and was staying at the area near the bench, so he could only assume that meant it needed to be looked at. While he might know his way around the insides of a computer, the robot eluded him. It was still in pieces on that bench, awaiting further tinkering.

  He would poke at it from time to time, when he needed a break elsewhere.

  ‘Maybe one of those newbies has some experience with robots.’

  Something to ask. If he ever got a chance to. Between Kitty’s determined campaign against his spare time and Pup’s sudden realization that she liked him more than her friends, his chances to talk to everyone while they were awake were minimal. Not to mention Kitty would have to be there regardless.

  It did baffle him that they slept so much. Kitty made sense. She only took cat naps. She would only have a full sleep if he was there and even then would get up and wander in the night. It had gotten to the point where he just joined her, sleeping twice a night for a shorter period while being awake in-between. The others were not that though. The two newcomers seemed to sleep the same as Pup, though with their room closed they could be up and fooling around all night for all he knew.

  Pup though, very much slept all through the night and even needed a nap during the day. It was short, no more than an hour, but she slept like the dead all night even with that. She even refused a bunk to herself near her buddies. He figured she would enjoy a room for herself where she wouldn’t be disturbed by them getting out of bed at odd hours and could have her friends over, but when he offered it, both her and Kitty had looked at him like he was insane.

  It had taken him some time to shake off that particular mental attack.

  He hoped they weren’t both teenagers. He didn’t think his psyche could handle such an assault.

  He was lucky the room had good climate control. With Kitty crawling all over him to get at whatever she was after and Pup deciding that curled up ‘nearby’ meant close enough to touch, sleeping got very warm.

  ‘I suppose the upside is that I don’t need to wash any top sheets. They are pretty redundant.’

  Watching the computer finish the jump calculations always gave him plenty of time to ponder at least. It always took several tries to get the math to where he agreed with the computer, which he guessed was the point, so it almost always took several hours of sitting and doing calculations or letting his brain wander to recover from doing calculations.

  ‘Maybe I should just grab one of those tablet things. Maybe one has a map?’

  It would be nice to know what they would find before he spent all that time doing math. He did want to at least try and get the others situated with their contact before he went wandering off again. It would be the height of assholery to ignore them when he didn’t even know what he wanted for himself.

  ‘Well, that’s not true. I am perfectly happy exploring unknown systems and learning as I go. But that isn’t really a destination.’

  Once they got into warp again, he would finally have some time to go back and read more from the hidden lab. He had been putting it off as he felt learning to fly the ship was more pressing. With his first docking and some money to his name it was time to dive back into learning about the rest of the ship.

  ‘I just have to figure out how to distract Kitty and Pup.’