An Excerpt from Star liner

(I thought I would offer up  a brief passage from Star Liner, where Jan gets introduced to his fellow entertainers):

Sara Bank wore a beige tunic and slacks and comfortable space shoes which I had noticed a lot of people wearing. When our group was fully assembled she said, “Hi, I am Sara, the leader of this little group. The first thing we should do is have introductions and say what your specialties are.  As I said I am Sara and I am a singer.”

The woman next to her had blue eyes and blonde hair and a wry smile. She wore a colorful sari that flowed about her as if it were made of water.  “I am Tanya. I am a dancer and a zero gee dancer, and a singer.”

“Ooh, that she is,” the man next to me said. He was tall with long brown hair that ran down his back. “I am Simon Jones. Magician and comedian.”

“Jan Stot,” I said. “I am a singer and I do theater.” 

The man on the other side of me was in his early 20’s with a roundish face and brown hair. “Hi, I am Redd Kir. Singer.”

“Seems like we have a lot of singers,” I said. 

“That’s alright,” Sara said. “It will work out as long as we are not all singing the same thing. I think we have a good mix. I do need everyone to submit to me your first five acts so I can see if there are any duplicates and I can make up a schedule. As we work through this and get to know each other, we can work on collaborative acts. Tanya and Simon and I have done this before. Jan and Redd are all new to this so let’s help them where we can.” Simon gave Redd and I a two fingered salute.

 “Remember to check your pads always,” Sara continued. “That is where you will find ship-wide announcements, Staff announcements and our crew announcements. And if you checked it since you got on board you will notice that there is a life pod drill tonight after supper at 2000. For this particular drill you will be assigned to a specific pod, so locate it beforehand. This is one situation where passengers, crew, and staff are all mixed together. So play nice.”

The crews all dispersed. I lingered and caught Tanya’s eye. “So zero gee dance? Is the audience in zero gee too?” I was intrigued by this and was thinking I would like to see it but after my experience on the shuttle I did not want to spend a second in zero gee longer than I absolutely had to. 

“No,” she said. “It is in theater space 2 on Deck B. There is a special pod section of the stage that can be set to nullify the gravity field.” 

“I’d like to see it.”

She beamed a smile. “I bet you would, you little devil.”

“Huh? No I mean . . .” 

“My act is very popular among certain types.” She winked at me and whispered, “I think they just like to see what zero gee does to my boobs.”

“Oh, I didn’t . . . I mean you are not naked are you?”

She laughed. “No not quite. Why? Do you want to see me naked?” I felt myself blush. I hate blushing. She laughed. “I’m just teasing you. I’d love to have you come to my dance.”

“Oh, but are we allowed? I mean Mr. Bragga said we are not allowed in those areas outside Deck A.”

“No, that’s just the recreation rooms. We should be watching each other when we can.  Eventually we will be collaborating during the trip so we have to see what each other are doing.”

“Oh good.”

“Well I’d better be going. Still got some settling in to do.” She wandered off and I made my way down to Deck A to do some settling in of my own.

Link to Star Liner