Although the voice for her Crewkin, Renna is socially inept on a personal basis with outsiders, so her job results were predictable as shown in these six paragraphs.
Two ships later, Renna sat in a station eatery on Port 53, unemployed. Her prospects looked dismal. If she landed another ride with similar results, she’d lose her rating. Two releases after successful runs for the ships earned her black marks in the hiring registry. She had read the captains’ notations. The first wrote ‘crew finds her freakish, too different to accept, even with her qualifications,’ and the second, ‘skillful, yet disruptive habits, too submissive, and unwilling to improvise.’
She found norms strangely erratic—disrespectful, defiant, disorderly, argumentative, and hostile—with peculiar ideas about crewkin. Her last crew boss ordered his team to shave her head after he saw her crewkin’s composite in the ships’ licensing log. When the captain noticed, he smiled, dismissing the episode as a prank. “They’re just hazing you.”
Renna shuddered. She pushed her untouched food away. Her failure. She’d been unable to treat them with crewkin respect or to adjust to their baffling expectations.
“You Renna Markham3?”
She froze. The voice was abrupt, a little too loud, and startled her. Crewkin training prevented any improper reaction. She looked up. “Just Renna.”
The man shrugged, snagged a chair sitting by her table. Ragged blond-brown hair, a bristle-lined face, and creased spacer’s overall proclaimed him a norm spacer. “Heard you crewed.”
~ * ~
Two ships later, Renna sat in a station eatery on Port 53, unemployed. Her prospects looked dismal. If she landed another ride with similar results, she’d lose her rating. Two releases after successful runs for the ships earned her black marks in the hiring registry. She had read the captains’ notations. The first wrote ‘crew finds her freakish, too different to accept, even with her qualifications,’ and the second, ‘skillful, yet disruptive habits, too submissive, and unwilling to improvise.’ She found norms strangely erratic—disrespectful, defiant, disorderly, argumentative, and hostile—with peculiar ideas about crewkin. Her last crew boss ordered his team to shave her head after he saw her crewkin’s composite in the ships’ licensing log. When the captain noticed, he smiled, dismissing the episode as a prank. “They’re just hazing you.”
Renna shuddered. She pushed her untouched food away. Her failure. She’d been unable to treat them with crewkin respect or to adjust to their baffling expectations.
“You Renna Markham3?”
She froze. The voice was abrupt, a little too loud, and startled her. Crewkin training prevented any improper reaction. She looked up. “Just Renna.”
The man shrugged, snagged a chair sitting by her table. Ragged blond-brown hair, a bristle-lined face, and creased spacer’s overall proclaimed him a norm spacer. “Heard you crewed.”
~ * ~
Renna has just met her new captain, Jake Terran. She is about to join her strangest crew yet.
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