Amazon CE4693: Zero Gee Transition Althea walked slowly to her assigned locker just inside the transition area. She carefully stacked the hardware parts of her body armor on make-shift shelves she'd cobbled together over the last year and pondered her next action. Her quarters? Kiha's office? Communal showers? A reminder message from the captain appeared, beamed directly onto her visual cortex. There were only 20 chrons before all hands were expected to assemble on the ship's mall level. Showers it is, she thought. With everyone headed to the Tourist Trap for the big mission kickoff, Althea was pretty much guaranteed to be alone in the showers. If she was quick and the Rocinante IV's AI was especially busy now, she might even squeeze in an extra 5 minutes of hot water over the ration. The transition corridor ran the entire length of the Rocinante IV and served as the ship's elevator. Even with the virtually infinite power available to the vast transport vessels of Rocinante's design, significant savings were to be had by not enabling artificial gravity in specific areas. Some ship captains even disabled it in crews quarters if the last gig had gone sour. Althea was appreciative that Captain Roaouh wasn't that sort of commander. She had no sooner set the shower controls to their "Be Careful" setting when her message app chimed and displayed a ping from Kiha. He wanted a meeting as soon as the meet and greet was over. He had new information for her and needed a debrief right away. Althea sighed and let the water run over her for another moment before sub-vocalizing her acceptance. The 5 minute warning chimed just as she stepped out into the booth to have her body dried and hair braided. The scars where her left breast had been itched as the water dried away. Althea tied a red ribbon into her braid as she walked back to her locker. She'd worn her hair that way as far back as she could remember. The ritual of it reminded her of a simpler life. Back at her locker, Althea selected her dress jacket and slipped it on. Even as she put her arms through the sleeves, her nanosuit assembled itself around her and snugged up to her form. She walked back to where she'd left her boots, just inside the doorway to the transition corridor. An orange waiver message appeared and she flicked her right index finger to signal her acceptance that she was about to enter a zero gravity area that she absolved the captain, the ship, and all other crew of responsibility for any mishaps she might have incurred. She stepped onto the ledge and into the transition corridor. Althea loved that first jolt of freefall, especially when in the relatively wide open space of the corridor. She kicked off the opposite wall and vectored toward the handles protruding from the wall. With a well practiced grasp and flex motion she reoriented herself and passed into the doorway. She barely needed to adjust her balance as the artificial gravity made its presence known. Two minutes to spare, she grinned as she walked the circular corridor and through the crew's doorway to Rocinante's Mall. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Moving the plot along. See Amazon CE:4693 for the beginning. The corridor was modeled in Carrara and textures created using FilterForge. DOF added in GIMP. Thanks for having a look, and hopefully a quick read as well. Have a fine weekend, everyone!