//------------------------------//
// 2. Station Life 
// Story: Fuel Run 
// by iluvponies35 
//------------------------------//

"Attention crew, we are on final approach to Celestial station, approximately a kilometer out. Regulations say buckle your seatbelts three hundred meters out, till then, enjoy the view!"
The intercom crackled as it turned off once again. Starry Night hardly noticed what had been said, too busy gazing out the porthole at the station in question, her face flanked by Mint Chip and several other starstruck cadets.
Celestial station was, at least for now, the pinnacle of Equestria's orbital construction capabilities. Construction had started shortly before Starry was born, and she'd followed it ever since she was a teen. Purpose built to be a massive orbital hub and jumping-off point for all of the Equestrian Space Agency's planned and ongoing missions, it now resembled a tiny city in its size and facilities. Space for around 250 full-time residents, research, hydroponics, living spaces, engineering, a massive docking hub, an observation deck. Even a bar if the rumors were true.
Through the porthole, the station's form slowly drew closer and closer into view, allowing Starry to fully take in all the details she'd seen in books and the news. The heart of the station was a massive, thick disk housing most of its amenities, with a thinner outer ring connected to it via many spokes and tubes. In the station's early days the whole system  spun to provide artificial gravity to the station. Today though, improvements in arcanotechnology meant artificial gravity was provided to the entire station by means of a massive infused crystal that mages and scientists at the ESA had worked for years on to perfect. The ring still spun, but at a much lower speed, mostly for decoration.
Protruding from both ends of the disk was a long thick tube, which she heard contained an elevator to and from most parts of the station. The tube was a lot shorter at the 'top' of the station, ending in a large glass observation dome. Below that, in the spaces between, were a dozen or so long spindles reaching out, ending in docking bays where she could see other Wayfarer-class ships were parked, and some other different designs. Large metal trusses connected each bay, and each ship bay was surrounded by scaffolding that was part of the station and contained docking clamps. It wouldn't be long before they were parked in one too.
On the underside of the disk was the longer end of the central station tube. Here, large cylindrical drums protruded out in six uniform directions, housing most of the station's guts. Only hydroponics could be easily identified, from the vast number of windows and faint green tint about them. Besides that, the structures were known to contain research labs, engineering spaces, and lots of storage space for both physical objects and liquids, such as water and all types of different rocket fuels. Below all that, the tube tapered off, before expanding once more into a bird's nest of metal trusses, wiring, and general radio and communication arrays. Just before that though, four much smaller tubes extended out in a plus formation, a part of the station that was still 'under construction', though it remained to be seen what more could, or needed to be added. The one thing it truly lacked was construction spaces, though that was intentional, as the space required for orbital construction varied greatly, and was already handled by a hoofful of other space stations.
"Done hogging the view?" Mint Chip scoffed.
Embarrassed, Starry Night slowly pulled back. In her fascination, her head began to encompass the entire porthole, and everypony except Mint Chip was too nice to point it out. With an apologetic smile she went to step away from the window, only to remember gravity was no longer a thing, and gasp as she went slowly sailing into a support beam.
Starry sighed. This zero gravity thing would still take some getting used to, especially for an earth pony like herself. Unicorns had all sorts of telekinetic abilities to help orient themselves, and pegasi had wings to ease themselves along in pressurized environments, in addition to just being used to sailing through the air. Starry only had her four own hooves and whatever she could grab with them to propel herself along.
"Six hundred meters out from station rendezvous everypony! Stay sharp!" the intercom blared once more.
Unwilling to return to her seat just yet, and having drank in her fill of the station's sights, Starry decided to spend what time she had mingling. There was nothing saying she couldn't move between the ship's levels (well, excluding the bridge of course), and she'd been meaning to chat with Wind Catcher again. With a misjudged push off her support column, she barely grabbed the ship's central ladder in time, and slowly made her way down to the next level.
Emerging from the central spire into a room of flight seats identical to the previous, Starry looked around. Spotting nopony familiar, she climbed around to the opposite side of the spire and saw Wind Catcher chatting with an orange-furred, black-maned unicorn stallion. He caught her eye and waved her over, so she pushed herself off and floated over to the two.
"Fancy seeing you here, Star," Wind said eagerly. "Starry Night, this here's Countdown, we were just chatting."
Starry and Countdown exchanged pleasantries. "You in botany too?" Starry asked.
"Nah, pilot. I keep telling Wind he shoulda gone into that, but he's having none of it," Countdown laughed.
Wind scoffed. "Bah, everypony wants to be a pilot these days, might as well be playing the lottery to get accepted."
"You just don't have the leadership skills to be one," Countdown teased, eliciting an eye roll.
Starry giggled. "You two enjoy the ride up?"
"I did, he screamed," Countdown was quick to respond.
"O-only a little!" Wind stammered, face growing warm. Eager to change the subject already he asked, "How bout you? How's zero g?"
"Taking some getting used to," Starry sighed, "but really fun when I don't have to worry about getting from one place to the other."
"Well the station has artificial gravity, reckon you'll be right at home then," Wind replied.
"Speaking of which, you seen it yet? It's huge!" Starry beamed.
"I wish these portholes were bigger, but yeah. I knew it'd be bigger in person but...damn," Wind said lightly, sneaking another glance out the window in the process.
"Certainly is a marvel of engineering. Can't wait to look around inside, not many pictures of that on the internet," Countdown noted.
"Attention crew, we are on final approach to Celestial station, please return to your seats!" The intercom crackled, followed shortly by a jaunty guitar tune.
"Ah well, see you two on the other side then!" Starry waved her pink hoof goodbye, returning to the central spire and climbing back up to her cabin. She returned to her seat next to Mint Chip, and buckled in. As the rocket began to shift oddly from various course corrections, Starry leaned back blissfully, listening to the muffled lyrics of the song talking about a future not so different from theirs as she waited for them to dock.
	Gather round you colts and fillies, listen for a bit
I've a story of a spacer mare, a mare as tough as grit
Space station Annie was her name, or so the crew would talk
And she spent her days in the cargo bays, or occasional spacewalk!


=====


Docking, as it turned out, was still an arduous process.
Approaching the station after orbital insertion had been about three hours. From the time when they buckled back in to successful dock with the station was easily another hour. Back in the earlier days of the space program, a successful launch to a successful dock could take hours to days. Even though this was still a big upgrade, docking remained a tense and dangerous procedure, and so it was still painfully boring. Starry, Mint, and everypony else was required to stay buckled in for the entire time, safety protocol in case an overcorrection with the engines sent ponies flying, or in case of something much worse that Starry preferred not to speculate about.
At any rate, Starry was happy when it was over. A loud 'clunk' echoed through the spacecraft as it finally made contact with the docking port. The pilots could be heard chatting about some additional checks before the port was engaged and pressurized. A minute later more thunks echoed from outside as the bay's docking clamps extended and held the ship firmly in place. A minute later they were instructed to remove their helmets and unbuckle, approaching the central spire in an orderly manner and climbing up towards the docking connection.
"Alright everypony, listen up," came the pilot's voice through the intercom as Starry was climbing up. "Right now you're all still in zero g, but you'll start to feel the effects of the station's gravity gem kicking in as you climb through the umbilical. There's a nice big red line painted on the floor, try keep you hooves on that and you won't bonk your head."
The pilot continued to drone on about a few other safety considerations, though Starry didn't pay much attention; most of it was trivial or had already been drilled in at the academy. The only other notable bit of info was to wait in the main docking rotunda (the room she'd come out in) for a station tender and further instructions. She kept it in the back of her mind as it came her turn to head down the umbilical.
Though no space had been spared in the construction of the umbilical, it was still roomy, even to Starry, who figured some cargo had to come through it occasionally. Positioning herself above the red line, she grabbed on to a set of handlebars on either side of it and began climbing her way..up? Down? Forward? At least the transport shuttle made it clear. Fun as it was, zero g still hurt her brain.
No one had told Starry how long the umbilical was, but she guessed it had to be around a hundred feet. Or maybe it just felt that way. With a pony at her front and back, stopping was not an option, so she put her head down and inched forward. Soon she began to feel gravity kicking in, as she had been warned, and transitioned from using the rungs to trotting along. At first it was awkward, still feeling way too light, but the gravity quickly improved and she was quickly trotting down the umbilical much as one would expect down on Equestria.
Starry and the rest of the crew eventually exited through an open hatch and came to the rotunda that had been talked about, a massive, circular, and mostly featureless room where each of the umbilicals exited to. The walls were all an identical off-white, and the floor was a giant metal grate with poorly-hidden wires and electronics underneath. At the center of the room, however, most of the space was taken up by what was not one, but multiple elevator entrances. Perhaps she had glossed over it, but she didn't remember there being more than one elevator, although now that she thought about it, a place this big needed them.
As the astronauts gathered round the rotunda, one of the elevators suddenly dinged and opened to reveal a pair of ponies, one white unicorn stallion and one green pegasus mare, each wearing noticeably more casual navy blue suits. "Evening rookies, hope you all had a nice flight!" announced the mare. "My name's Flight Deck, and this is Coffee Break, Chief of Operations and Chief of Personnel respectively. It's our job and pleasure to welcome you all to Celestial station and get you acquainted with the station and its facilities. Now as soon as I'm done yapping at you all I'm gonna pile myself and as many newbies as I can into this lift and we'll head on down. Coffee Break will stay here and coordinate the rest of you, then when everypony's accounted for we'll start the tour. Questions will come later. Get to it!"
Being near the front of the line, Starry was one of the lucky first inside the elevator, bunching up tight while still giving Flight Deck room to breath, lest she reprimand them somehow. The elevator ride passed in silence, although Starry almost groaned when she realized even the elevators on a space station played easy-listening muzak. Whether it was a deliberate choice, or cruel sense of humor she'd never know, only that she hated it. When they arrived at their floor and the doors opened though, she couldn't help but gasp.
Before them was a massive, tall room, many times the size of the previous one. Her immediate reaction was that it looked kinda like a Manehattan train station, with its multiple levels, wide open space, and numerous desks and doors to unknown rooms lining the walls. Directly before them was a sizable seating area, with an information desk in the back, flanked by private offices. To the left and right it opened up into large hallways where she noted signs for a cafeteria, lounge, dorms, and bathrooms, among others. In the corners of the current room were metal staircases leading up to a second level with what appeared to be more private offices and staff areas.
Right in front of them though, in the middle of a seating area, was a life-sized marble statue. Three ponies dressed in space suits, one from each pony race, stood tightly together with their heads turned up towards the heavens. Detail was lacking on all but the most central features, perhaps on purpose. Behind them, a much more detailed sculpture of Princess Luna stood, smiling down at the three with her wings outstretched. At the foot of it all was a golden plaque, too far away to read for now, but Starry knew it would probably bring her to tears if she read it; the statue and the message behind it was already giving her a warm, fuzzy feeling in her breast. "Beautiful..."she whispered to herself.
A minute later, when all were accounted for, Flight Deck and Coffee Break once again took to the front of the group. "This room we're in right now is, well, arrivals and departures," Coffee Break started to explain, it finally being his turn to speak, "it's not very active right now save for us, but you'll see more buzz whenever the ESA has something big going on." He pointed behind them, at the two offices Starry had seen earlier. "That's my office on the right, and Flight Deck's on the left. The two of us jointly handle mission assignments, so when you're called on a mission you'll meet with one of us first thing."
After a short description of some of the station's history and other trivial locations in the current room, the group headed down the right hallway. Coffee Break and Flight Deck began trading off pointing out each of the station's facilities, laying down rules and guidelines, and giving historical tidbits. As they traveled clockwise relative to the elevators, they passed the cafeteria, kitchen, lounge and game room, bathrooms, hospital, and requisitions desk in that order save for corridors to the outer ring where dorms were, before coming back around to arrivals. This time there were a few more crewmates waiting with clipboards and boxes.
"-And that concludes the tour, everypony," Flight Deck finished. "Any additional questions, stop by our office. For now, our assistants will get you checked in and assigned to a room, just form an orderly line."
Starry Night sighed. Even up here they couldn't escape bureaucracy. She parked herself in line, and a few minutes later was on her way with two more objects in her possession: The first was a key to a designated dorm, hers number 157 out of the 250 or so on the station. The second was a data pad with digital screen that slipped around one of her legs like a cuff. It reminded her of something she'd seen in a piece of media ages ago, but couldn't quite remember the names.
Trotting down a hall into the station hub's outer ring, Starry found herself in front of the living quarters, doors as far as the eye could see (not that far due to the outer ring's curvature), on three levels with railings and several staircases. Opposite the dorms were scattered bits of furniture to make it seem more homely; desks, chairs, benches, potted plants, and paintings. It took her a second to take note of the door numbers near her and deduce which way her room was, then set off down the hall.
A short walk later, Starry came to room number 157, and inserted her key. She wasn't sure what she expected, but the inside of the dorm was somehow much less than she figured. The room was cramped, reminiscent of a broom closet. To her immediate left was a closet and some drawers built into the wall, while on her right was a door to a even tinier bathroom. She opened the door and was dismayed to find little more than a toilet, basin and the smallest shower known to ponykind. Beyond that, a bed just barely big enough for her form was built into the wall at the far end of the room, and next to it was a small desk with a few writing utensils and a radio. If there was any consolation, it was that instead of a wall next to her bed, there was a full-size window to view the stars from. At least she wouldn't go completely crazy.
After getting her bearings and taking stock of all the clothes and toiletries the room had been stocked with, Starry finally felt the day's excitement catching up on her. Yawning loudly, she stepped over to her bed and flopped down, spending the time before she fell asleep getting acquainted with her data pad.


=====


Starry Night awoke many hours later to a loud buzzing sound above her head. She rolled onto her back and was mildly surprised to find the ceiling above her bed had a digital clock display built in, with some buttons to set an alarm. Didn't notice that before...The clock read 6 AM sharp, prompting her to groan and haul her carcass out of bed. After going about her morning routine, she finally changed out of her grimy orange flightsuit and slipped on a more casual blue uniform. Miraculously she managed to slip it over her earth pony form, though it clearly wasn't meant for her, as it came down way short of where it probably should have, and was uncomfortably tight. Something to bring up with requisitions probably.
For the time being though, she was hungry. There was still plenty to do and get acquainted with, but right now she needed food in her belly. Gathering what little she had, she left her room and briskly trotted down the hall towards the station's cafeteria. There she found a long line of ponies, but no sign of anypony she knew yet. She didn't have high hopes for the food; but when all she got on her plate were two different color piles of mush, a bowl of the saddest looking leafy greens she'd ever seen, and a juice packet, she knew she was in for a long haul.
While she waited for somepony she recognized to arrive, Starry sat herself down at the vacant end of one table, and began poking at her 'food'. Save for the juice, it was all practically tasteless, with only the faintest vegetable flavor. The texture reminded her of mashed potatoes, which one of the piles probably was, and while not particularly offensive, she wasn't looking forward to eating this on the daily.
"Hey there, you're one of the newbies, right?" Starry looked up at a jet-black pegasus mare with a silvery mane looking at her from across the table.
"Oh, yeah. Name's Starry Night, yours?"
"Docking Bay. Everypony calls me Doc though," she chuckled, reaching a hoof out which Starry reciprocated. "I'm on my third tour right now, so I got plenty to share, and I know  a newbie like you has questions."
Finally, somepony to show her the ropes. "Well, for starters..." Starry looked down at her plate, "Just what in Celestia's name am I eating?"
Doc squinted. "Looks like you got mashed potatoes and carrots with a side salad. Though anypony who's been around more than a week calls it nutrient paste. It sucks, but you get used to it."
Starry stuck her tongue out. "Would've at least preferred an MRE."
"Oh you'll get to eat plenty of them, don't worry. Hydroponics just had a good harvest recently and nothing goes to waste here. Should be a cargo shuttle soon with some provisions. Maybe if we're lucky they'll actually cook something!"
Starry Night started drilling Docking Bay with questions as she tried to eat, asking about everything she hadn't been briefed on, or caught her curiosity, and getting an answer for most of them. At some point she finally noticed Wind Catcher and Mint Chip had finally came in for breakfast, with Countdown in tow.
"I take it you all know each other?' Doc observed as Starry's acquaintances took seats next to or across from her.
"Reasonably well," Mint replied. "Me and Star mostly, and those two," she pointed at Wind and Countdown. "Enough to stick together so we all don't lose our heads up here."
"Smart, making friends is more or less required up here. Operations tends to play nicer when assigning missions to ponies that know each other."
"Speaking of which, how does mission assignment work anyway?" Countdown piped up.
Doc raised an eyebrow. "They didn't tell you yet? Ah wait, you all probably haven't had orientation yet. At any rate, operations has a mission list available from your data pads, updates daily and gives some details on the job. Give it about a week or so for you newbies and you'll get called into Flight Deck or Coffee's office for a mission assignment. Not much choice in the matter starting out besides who you do it with, but get a few under your belt and see what happens.
"Orientation? Yeah I think we're having that after breakfast here. Arrivals lounge, right?" Mint asked. Starry nodded.
"By the way, what specialization did you all go into?" Doc wondered.
"Engineering," Mint and Starry said simultaneously.
"Pilot," Countdown smirked.
"Uh, botany," Wind ginned nervously.
"Good, good, good," Doc droned. "Botany though? Sheesh dude, no offense, but you'd be lucky to get much more than a crew transfer to another station."
Wind laughed. "Yeah I kinda figured. I don't mind though, seemed like one of the more relaxing jobs up here. Glad I didn't go into service though."
Doc narrowed her eyes. "Hey buddy, I work service, requisitions specifically." Wind gulped. "But eh, I know what you mean. Just remember though, nopony's gonna notice or care when I throw your limited edition Daring Do comic out the airlock."
"Heh, sorry," Wind rubbed the back of his neck.
"Could still be worse though. You could work construction," Doc laughed.
"What's so bad about construction?" Starry asked.
Doc whistled. "Hoo boy, that's about one of the most dangerous jobs you can get up here. Spending all day in zero g, working with heavy equipment, massive metal panels, and all sorts of electronics and fuel lines. Just last week I heard a construction worker had their leg, ah, 'forcibly amputated' getting it caught between some panels." Everypony at the table shivered.
"...One of the most dangerous?" Starry decided to ask. "What else?"
"Engineering." Doc grinned.


=====
6 Days Later...


BZZT BZZT BZZT.
Snapping awake, Starry Night groaned and reached a hoof up to turn off the accursed alarm above her sleeping space. With a yawn and a few smacks of her lips, she rolled out of bed and trotted over to her bathroom for a morning shower. As she cleaned herself off, she reflected on her time here so far. Going on a week into her tour, she was finally starting to make sense of the station and its methods. Docking Bay had been a great help in assisting her and her friends with all the stuff that hadn't been gone over in training. She had even confirmed that, while the station did not have a bar, requisitions kept a stash of liquor, only available to those with something to barter or a favor to cash in. 
With a week under her belt, Starry was due for a beginner assignment sooner or later. She'd heard it was also possible (though it hopefully wouldn't happen to her), to spend a week down in the station's engineering spaces, monitoring equipment and making the odd repair, all while getting a more hooves-on feel for all the equipment up in space. Beggars couldn't be choosers of course, but she still hoped for a long haul mission; the station was already feeling stuffy and she longed to see some of the facilities and constructions around the moon and the outer planets.
Emerging from the shower feeling refreshed, Starry dug into her limited wardrobe and donned a fresh new uniform. After checking her data pad (nothing new), she trotted off down the hall for some breakfast. The menu still hadn't changed at all, and her heart sank as two slops of nutrient paste, a juice, and some limp greens fell on her plate. As she went over to the tables she found Mint Chip and Docking Bay had already beaten her there, though she didn't engage in conversation immediately. Instead she absently looked around the room.
As was expected, most of the ponies on the space station were either unicorns or pegasi, as they usually had the easiest time living and working up here. She did notice a few earth ponies, surprisingly, though including herself she didn't think they numbered more than a dozen. In one corner she noticed an odd looking pony, fuzzy ears, bright yellows eyes, and...Oh wow a bat pony? Don't see them often, much less up here, she thought to herself.
"Hey Star, how you holding up?" Mint asked through a mouthful of breakfast.
"Hm? Oh, fine I suppose. We're due to be assigned to something today, holding out for something good." Starry replied wistfully.
Doc was busy tapping away at her data pad, but still found the time to interject. "Relax, it's honestly pretty unlikely you'll be assigned to a station shift. Space is busier now than ever, lots of spots need filling. By the way Chip, that cargo shuttle's coming in later. I'll see if I can sneak you some cream and sugar."
While Mint and Doc hashed out a business deal they had made earlier, Starry returned to her food and attempted to stomach it. As she did so, she was interrupted by a sudden chime from her data pad and brought it up to find a notification. "Mission Assignment for First-Time Astronauts". Well now, that was promising. Opening it up, she started reading some of the details.
"Yo, you get that too?" Mint asked, suddenly leaning over Starry's shoulder.
Doc looked up. "Finally getting assigned to something, huh? I gotta get going in a second here, stop by requisitions afterward and tell me how it goes though."
Starry nodded in return, and looked back down at the notification as she began to read aloud. "If you're reading this, congratulations on surviving your first week on Celestial station, very funny. Uh, at 0800 hours head to arrivals, form groups if desired with other crew, and prepared to be called into our offices for assignment. Not all members of a group are guaranteed slot on the same mission, blah blah blah..."
"Hmm, pretty straightforward. What do you reckon, should we ask Wind Catcher and Countdown?"
"Of course, better than getting some stranger." Starry smiled.


=====


After finishing breakfast and sitting around for a bit, Starry and the rest of her newly-minted friend group found themselves in the middle of arrivals, mingling with dozens of other ponies, while Flight Deck and Coffee Break went around gauging who wanted to be grouped, and who wanted (or had) to be on their own. They passed the time with some small talk until, after half an hour of being there, a spot opened up in Flight Deck's office and she called them in.
The green pegasus glanced up at them, brushing her yellow hair out of her eyes before addressing them:"Alright, let's get down to business. Just to make sure, you're all hoping to get assigned together?" A chorus of nods. "Alright, occupations?
"Engineer."
"Engineer."
"Pilot."
"Botanist."
"Botanist?" Flight Deck frowned. "That might be a liiiiittle tricky, stay behind when we're done here and I'll see what I can do. As for the rest of you, I have a tanker full of liquid hydrogen docked at Luna station that needs to get to Polaris station in orbit around Thraxis ASAP. About three weeks round-trip, should even out your first month here nicely. I'll have uhhhh, Chart Topper as mission CO, he's been around for a few tours." After tapping a few things into her data pad and writing down a note, she finally looked at the group directly. "Any questions?"
The group exchanged glaces. "No ma'am."
"Good. Wind Catcher stay behind, rest of you I expect to be ready and waiting in arrivals by 0600 hours tomorrow."
"Well that kinda sucks," Countdown complained once they were outside the office. "Hope they don't send him too far."
"Should be easy enough to keep in touch, still sucks though." Mint stuck her tongue out. "Fuel run though? Yuck!"
Starry grinned. "Aww cmon, it's better than sticking around here! We'll finally be going places! And we'll be in space!"
Mint raised an eyebrow. "We're already in space."
"Yeah but...ah, you know what I mean."
"Mmhmm. I've just never seen somepony so excited to haul fuel before," Countdown snickered.
"It's a chance to see the Equestria system! Meet new ponies!" Starry insisted. " Think of it as an adventure!"
Mint and Countdown remained partially unconvinced, but deep down everypony was looking forward to some different sights and experiences. For now the trio parted ways, with Starry heading to the gym. Excitement consumed her thoughts for the rest of the day, and she slept restlessly that night, eager to take a few more steps into the cosmos.