The human was highly recommended by everyone the crew asked when it came to being a security officer. They were diligent, highly intelligent, made friends easily, in fact many of the crew still talked to them from time to time. The only caveat tended to be, they didn't want normal crew quarters to sleep in, they always asked for a storage bay. Why? Well, they collected blades. But not all blades, only unique ones. But that wasn't the only reason.
I decided to go see for myself why they always asked for a bay and walked inside. There was the human dressed in skins and protective layers of what looked like leather. They were pumping a large handle heating steel before bringing it, glowing hot, to another large hunk of metal and began to hit it with a hammer. -- Anon Guest
Heat management detected an anomaly in Human Stef's quarters, which was Storage Bay Three. Using wild Humans from the Edge was always full of certain levels of weirdness. Up to and including the fact that wild Humans and standard personal habitats didn't always mix. Given that Human Stef was twice the size of a standard bunk on the Wandering Inquisitive, they could understand why the Human would prefer to retrofit a storage bay.
Now that there was a heat anomaly in there, there was the concern that a wild Human was possibly cooking their food on a fire that they had built inside a closed vessel. Fire was always a terror in space and Humans loved fire beyond all logic and reason. SO it was that Companion Gorx hurried to Storage Bay Three to check on Human Stef and whatever they had going on in their habitat.
Human Stef had blades on every wall. Including the wall to the sanitation facility and, in all likelihood, inside it as well. This was a Human after all. In the largest space of Human Stef's habitat was reserved for a large chunk of metal and an electric heat element inside heavy shielding. Human Stef was wearing something that scanned as animal hides and repeatedly hitting white-hot metal with a hammer.
As far as Human behaviour was concerned, this could well be normal. It was hard to tell with just one data point. Therefore, companion Gorx moved around to Human Stef's field of view and said, "What in the name of all Powers is this?"
The metal gained a few more strikes before it entered a vat of semi cohesive gel with a bubbling hiss of steam. "Oh hey," said Human Stef. "Did I set off an alarm? I swear I hooked up the heat sinks properly." Dials turned, and the electric brazier died down as the heat bled off it.
"You did set off an alert," allowed Companion Gorx. "Is this one of those Terran 'hobbies' I have heard about?"
"Ohyeah. I blacksmith." Human Stef grinned. "I collect all the interesting blades from all over and then I have a go at reproducing them for other collectors. If there's ones with cultural significance, I only copy the techniques. It's fun to learn things, but cultural appropriation is a no-no. Our lot spent centuries learning that. Well. Most of us spent centuries learning that. There's still people who choose to be ignorant. Poor sods." Human Stef said all of this whilst stripping off their protective gear. Gloves. Apron. Sleeves. Chaps. Boots. Until nothing was left but their Skins and a sheen of perspiration. "Can you tell what set off the alarm? I don't want to upset the rest of y'all."
Which meant that Human Stef counted the non-Companions as "the rest" of the crew. Companions were trained to deal with the Human capability for bovine excrement. Others... were not. The fact that a wild Human was willing to accommodate this was something of a minor miracle.
"It was an alert," repeated Companion Gorx. "Not an alarm. Something of concern, but not anything to act upon."
"Oooh, that explains the lack of fire teams. Sorry. So used to setting off alarms with this. Okay. So. How did I mess up enough to set off an alert? Like I said I don't want to scare anyone with my stuff."
"This alert was in the detection of temperatures not amenable to your acceptable living conditions on file. There was the potential that you may have lit a fire inside a controlled habitat, so they sent me to check."
"Aah. So the sensors picked up the brazier. Hot enough to make metals malleable definitely qualifies. Is this fixable by a permit level of stuff or do I need even more protective heat sinks?"
Companion Gorx recognised the problem of a Human hobby that could continue to cause alerts unless otherwise protected from the relatively hazardous collateral effects involved. The true problem being the sensor directly above the electric brazier. "It may be a permit thing. It may need continued negotiation," Gorx allowed. "You put your brazier right under an environmental sensor array."
Human Stef looked up. "Aw shoot. And this was the best place for the logistical setup involving all the heat sinks. Dag. Flakk. Okay. I won't blacksmith until it's completely safe for y'all."
"Thank you," Companion Gorx said, already starting things moving on adjusting the settings of the overhead sensors.
"Thank the Powers I can still do cold metal forging while I wait," chirped Human Stef.
...so there would still be intermittent noise complaints. Gorx inserted a passage about proper sound dampening to the memo to administration.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ToKa74]
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