Tyler wondered if this was what it was like to ride the subways of old back on Earth. Like she imagined her ancestors may have, knowing that her Mother’s family had hailed from New York. She was dressed in civilian clothes and set out to really explore what it would be like to live on Starbase 86 assigned there as a pilot. Though she was primarily a fighter pilot she was told her unit, in particular, was also called upon to pilot other craft for more sensitive missions, and to be honest while she found flying shuttles and runabouts a lot less fun the purpose could definitely change that.

She had only been aboard the station for a little less than forty-eight hours now arriving at an odd hour that had caused issues in gaining her quarters and getting settled. It led to a lack of sleep but luckily she’d been given some time to recover from that and explore before officially beginning her duties here on the base and in the space around it.

Tyler had never served on such a large base before that had required something like a tram to transport you around and frankly she thought it was cool. Her previous flight assignment had been training, planetary based, or ship-based. She essentially figured that her duties would be much the same as they’d been when she’d been assigned to a planetary base but with the flair of sort of feeling like she was aboard a ship as well.

So far she had decided that it had not felt anything like a ship, it was too large to feel that way, instead, it felt like a small city. Perhaps a city that was on a planet not meant to hold life, a planet that required a dome, as if maybe terraforming was taking place just outside… her imagination was starting to get the best of her as she realized that she had not gotten off at her stop and the tram was now moving forward again. She sighed… once more around, she figured.

When she finally made it around in the circuit to the stop she had intended on getting off on she was sure to quickly disembark standing at the door waiting. Afraid that somehow the doors would close on her before she could get off and require yet another ride around the facility. To be honest, if that were the case she would have likely just returned to where she had started and called it a boring night. She got a few strange looks from others who saw her hasty escape from the tram. She smiled at them and then looked at some signage before selecting a direction and heading that way.

When she finally made it to one of the major promenade areas full of civilians, businesses, and few uniforms she took a breath. It was just like the air anywhere else on the station but somehow it seemed more satisfying… this would certainly be more fun than being on a ship for this reason. She liked the missions of shipboard fighter units but there was just so much you could do outside of a holodeck. Here the possibilities were much greater and she appreciated that.

Back when she was in Flight School her classmates when talking about assignments they were looking for dreamed of being on a ship with a large group. Some thought Tyler was odd that she hadn’t found that appealing but quite frankly she liked space she liked having options. She didn’t mind being on a ship but she preferred being in control. She didn’t want want to be on a bridge being told which way to turn, pushing buttons because she was ordered to, she wanted to be in control of her own craft and make her own judgment calls. She knew that eventually in her career she would be ready to move into starship operations but in a manner that would allow her to prepare for command and make those choices for an entire ship and for many people, not just her.

Seeing a business she was somewhat interested in she came to a stop to browse through the window, an item in it catching her eye, she was about to turn to walk toward it when the person walking behind her collided with her. She turned and smiled at the annoyed-looking woman who was about her height and size.

“Sorry about that,” she said, with a grin. “Newbie…”

“Well we move to the side before we just stop walking in the middle of a passageway here, got it?” she said, boldly confident.

“You bet,” Tyler said, motioning the grumpy woman past her. “After you…” Tyler followed behind her as the woman continued on to wherever her destination was. “What’s the best place around here to hang out and meet some new people?”

“Do you not know? Are you new too? Or do you not like friends?” Tyler continued on.

The woman came to a stop to turn and give Tyler the evil eye but Tyler ran straight into the back of her as she had been glancing through yet another set of windows as they walked.  She grunted when she collided with the woman and then it was her time to scowl.

“You know you should really not stop short like that, people will walk into you,” Tyler said. She watched the woman’s expression changed trying to decide if she was about to get hit, yelled at, but then she smirked as the woman shook her head and a smile appeared.

“Five doors down on the left,” the woman said, before reversing her course and going in the opposite direction of Tyler. Clearly, she wasn’t taking any chances about running into her again. Or dealing with her questions or at times overbearing personality.

Tyler watched her walk off wondering what she did on the station, would she collide with her again, and then turned to begin walking again almost colliding with someone coming out of the business. “Excuse me,” she said, blushing and she started off going to the fifth business on the left… wondering what she’d find there… and hoping to find some company.