Now that Moonie had a purpose, she was more than happy to get up and get dressed. They were excused from lab duty today, since their project had ended and they were being reassigned, making it pointless to assign them a new task for a single day before they left.
Unlike Max, who had only been here a short time, and had barely purchased anything, Moonie had been here for nearly two years and had made herself at home, assuming that she would be remaining at this lab for the majority of her Military Career.
That meant that she had an abundance of personal items, clothing, lamps, bedding, and so on that she would have to sort through to see what she could fit in the storage cases and what she could not.
Fortunately, Nico and Lilith had woken up much earlier and were well prepared for this scenario. They had sent a new duffel bag and two storage cubes to Moonie’s room, which was more space than she had expected to get allotted as a Corporal. Since they were researchers and not active duty combatants, the Fleet had made exceptions to move them all to officers’ quarters, giving them individual rooms of two by three meters, only slightly smaller than the ones the lower ranked researchers like Moonie were currently in while stationed in the Lab City.
But the level of decoration that they had done in the base simply wasn’t going to be possible aboard a transport ship, so Moonie had a lot of cleaning house to do.
“It’s only the team from the Mecha Projects going, under a hundred of us out of ten thousand, so I’m sure you could just donate some of the good things you collected to others. There are still a bunch of new arrivals here. Would you like me to send a message?” Lilith suggested.
“Oh, that might be good. Once I get everything I can take packed, you can send a message and arrange for them to pick anything that they like.” Moonie agreed.
Downsizing wasn’t easy, and a lot of these things had sentimental value, so it was a slow process for Moonie that afternoon, and it became even slower when Nico showed up with Vacuum bags.
“These self deflate, sucking out the air so you can pack soft items like clothes and stuffed animals into a quarter of their original space,” Nico explained, looking at all the stuffed decorations on the bed.
Nico didn’t know that most of Moonie’s collection was already filling her transport cubes until the blonde popped it open and fluff practically exploded from every seam.
“It looks like I made the right call. I will let you two work now that you can deflate the stuffies. Don’t worry, once the vacuum is released they will gain their shape back in only a few hours. You can also use them to pack clothing more tightly, they are designed to sit in layers inside the cube, so pack as much as you can.” With a swish of her long raven hair, Nico was out the door again, headed to assist other team members she had worked with on the X109 Fast Attack Heavy Mecha project.
They were the original X104 Crusader Replacement Project team as well, so most of them had been in the lab for almost a decade, making the moving process a hard one for them. Fortunately, other than the coding team, they were all officers or assigned to officers dorms aboard Abraham Kepler, so everyone who was going got a second storage cube to go with their duffel bag worth of space that even the lowliest of privates in the infantry were allotted.
Some packed light, others had hoarded until their rooms were packed and were having trouble deciding what to take, so the whole first day was insane for the teams that were moving.
Max and Moonie had finally packed all her favorite clothes, about half her stuffed animals, plus her duffel bag full of Military Uniform standard items and undergarments when the doorbell rang and the security camera showed a group of younger female staff members milling about outside, one with a takeout bag in her hands.
“Sister Moonie, let us in. We brought dinner for you and that super hunky pilot boy.” The leader called while the others laughed.
Moonie opened the door to keep them from making a scene in the hallway, or at least any more of a scene than they already had, and the girls rushed forward to give her a round of hugs.
“Greetings Major Max. I don’t think we’ve met, since we’re all in the food service division and you don’t live near our floors, but we all arrived here on the same shuttle as Sister Moonie here. But we’ve been friends a long time and just heard that the whole Mecha team is being sent on an extended research mission, so we came to say goodbye.” One of the girls explained to Max, bringing him into the group hug.
“It’s good to meet you as well. The mission is a full change of posting and not a research trip, so Moonie has to clear out her dorm here. Which of course has way more than a storage cube can contain. If you ask nicely, I’m sure that she has a few things left over that need loving new homes.” Max suggested.
That was exactly what the girls were hoping for. “Dear Sister, I don’t suppose you had room to pack all your clothing did you? Aboard the ship you will need to wear a uniform every day, and you’ve got such great fashion sense.”
The girls pleading made Moonie smile. They had often exchanged clothes with each other in the past, to find just the right outfits, and they were right, she had stacks and stacks of casual clothing in her room already.
“That wardrobe was expensive you know.” Moonie gave them a fake pout, not wanting to give in too easily.
“We have prepared a credit transfer for you. It’s two months’ wages, not enough to buy everything new, but it should help you start to replace the things you lost here when you get to another lab assignment.” The leader explained, setting the food down on the small kitchen counter in Moonie’s apartment.
“You didn’t need to. I already knew I had too much stuff to transfer with me. I’m all packed now, so feel free to take what you like, even the fluffy comforter. I packed one with me, but the second simply wasn’t going to fit, even vacuum packed.” Moonie laughed.
“Not so fast young ladies, you’re not Moonie’s only friends you know.” Someone called from down the hall, and Max realized that the door was still open, due to the abundance of people in the small space.
“Auntie Margaret. I saved you the potted plants.” Moonie called, and the old woman’s laughter rang through the hallway.
Slowly the well-wishers came from all through the building. Moonie’s gentle disposition and shy personality seemed to have made friends with everyone she interacted with over her time here in the Lab. Many of them left with small items, stuffed animals, trinkets, or a particular clothing item in the case of those around her size and fashion sense.
By the end of the evening, the girls from the food department, Moonie’s first friends here, left with an armload of clothing each, and the room was clear of everything but the issued furniture and bedding.
“Well, that went smoothly. I thought we would be cleaning for hours, but they even brought someone from maintenance to vacuum the floors, so that the automated system would have an easier time of things and not dock you credits for excess energy usage.” Max told Moonie while picking her up in a hug.
“Yes, it went perfectly. I totally didn’t expect that Big John from security would love hydrangeas so much that he would argue with old Auntie Margaret over them though.” Moonie agreed. The flowers were hard to get on the station since they weren’t native to the planet, but Moonie got the seeds from another new arrival, who had packed them in his storage cube.
“Since your room is now clean and empty, let’s head to mine and not mess it up,” Max told her, picking up the transport cubes so that they wouldn’t have to return here in the morning to load them for shipment to Abraham Kepler.
“Lead the way, Sir Max.”