Opet and the Tales of Heroes

He turned to look at the gate jumper. The doors of the Opet closed up suddenly and quickly, almost startling him. Flight 66613 had completed its task and was now in the process of detaching from the Opet. The Opet's docking tube was retracting back into itself.

"Well.....I guess I will find out more about this later," he told himself. He turned around and began to look at the environment that he was now in.

It was like nothing that he had ever seen before. He was reorienting himself to gravity. It felt slightly less than Aphadus's gravity but nothing out of the ordinary. He was standing by the large airlock as a passageway had lain before him. It consisted of pearly white and gray all around him. It was incredibly spacious on the inside. The ceiling that must have led to the decks above him reached as high as thirteen to fifteen feet in height alone. You could have driven vehicles down the hallway alone.

He turned to look at one way, which led to the aft section of the vessel. It was a straight passageway that had a series of large sliding doors that led to various rooms. He could see the lighting, which illuminated everything incredibly well. There was some pulsing light that circulated on the sidewalls that went down the long halls. Like one giant array of lights, the colors would slowly shift to different colors of the spectrum.

It was seemingly pretty inside. To feel gravity underneath his feet alone felt like luxury.

He turned his head in another direction, and it was here that he saw a person approaching him. It was a single person.

He recognized her immediately, but her looks were seemingly off. She was still a little bit of a distance away, but he could hear her footsteps.

"Oniya?" Raavi asked her name.

"Raavi!?" the woman called out to him. It had to be her.

Raavi could notice her appearance. It didn't seem right. She was as the description told her as she was. What she was wearing, though, was different from that even Raavi noticed.

Oniya was, by Raavi's observations, a woman whose family was descended from Egypt of former Earth. She had almost a bronze skin tone to her. Her hair was black and braided, hanging down to one side. She was slightly chubby, but that wasn't the issue. She was wearing what looked like an officer's uniform. The typical UHN officer uniform was a perfect blend of red and blue. Red represented the familiarity to Mars, human civilization's capital, and blue represented Earth, the planet of the lost cause. The red topper would flow down the center with blue and gold like buttons. Her blue pants and red dress shoes also seemed to highlight her looks. She also seemed to be wearing some sort of multicolored bandana or headband on her head.

It was not what Raavi was expecting, but he had little to say on it. She waved her hand as she closed in on him.

"I am so glad to see you!" Oniya called out to him.

Her smile was contagious as Raavi even smiled upon looking at her. She was somewhat odd-looking but beautiful regardless.

"I get to finally see you up close and personal," Raavi commented to her as they walked up and hugged each other. "I hope I am not displaying something out of military code by hugging you."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Oniya replied as she patted his shoulder. They released each other from their hug as they stepped back and looked at each other.

"I.....I can't believe it," Raavi said as he lifted his hand to look at her body and frame. "You......you're an officer?"

She nodded her head and then looked down. Her smile came to an end as if she felt ashamed. "Yes.....I am. I am sorry that I misled you on that. I had told you that I served on the UHN Opet, but I didn't want to scare you if I told you that I was one."

"I can't believe it. You already know I have a sister that serves in the UHN. Officers don't scare me. Besides, I am a civilian."

"Hmmm.....true," Oniya remarked. "With me though, it is more than that......far more than that. Come......let me give you a tour of the UHN Opet."

She turned around as he followed close next to her. His eyes naturally scanned her again. It was the first time getting a chance to see her face to face finally. While she was naturally a little bit chubby, the weight went to the best places on her body. Her chest was slightly big, but the uniform covered it up. The same went with her stomach, which again was covered up by the uniform. Her butt, though, was slightly large, and that was something that the uniform could only cover up so much.

"I see you checking me out," Oniya said with a grin.

"I am sorry," he told her. "To see you up close, finally. You being an officer just took me off guard."

"It is alright," she said, waving her hand at him. "It is my fault for not telling you that before we finally get to meet each other."

"It seems like a pattern with UWAN dating. Somebody always doesn't tell the whole truth before seeing each other up close. At least this is a happy surprise."

That seemed to make Oniya happy to hear. She nodded her head as she pointed to the long passageway. "This is the UHN Opet. This is a transport ship that is registered and serves the United Human Navy. It is part of the New Olympian fleet."

"It is pretty," Raavi remarked as they continued walking. "I can't believe that you guys have gravity. How is that possible?"

"Hmmm.....," she seemed hesitant. "Normally, we don't allow people from outside colonies on our ship. It is too early for me to answer that question for you. For now, enjoy it."

He couldn't argue with that. It was better than having the awkwardness of relying on magnetic shoes, boots, or augmented feet to move you around.

"It is just funny," he told her. "I ended up falling to the ground when I stepped aboard. I wasn't expecting it."

Her head turned to him. There was a look of concern on her face. "Are you hurt?"

He gently grabbed his left arm and moved it around a little bit. "I am fine. I have some bruises, but it will heal."

"Well, we do have a medical bay here on the ship," she replied. "I have a wonderful doctor that can fix that right up."

As they would walk, Raavi could see little porthole windows on his left. Outside the portholes he could see space itself. They would continuously walk past doors on their right as they proceeded forward of the ship.

Eventually, there were no windows in the extended vast area.

"Why don't you have any windows in this area?" Raavi asked.

"That is because we have the rotating ring that is blocking the view."

"Oh yeah, I saw it as we were docking with the ship. You have the same centripetal rings as the other ships."

"Yes."

"I just find it odd that you have that, and yet you have gravity."

"As I said," she told him. "It will be best to explain all of it later. For now, it is best that I give you the tour."

Raavi nodded. He could hear the massive spinning apparatus. Like a giant drum, the device itself must have taken at least a third of the ship alone. It was somewhat harmonic. It almost made it sound like the spaceship was alive. The radiating colors of the rainbow made it only prettier.

"Are all the New Olympian ships like these?" he asked her.

"More or less," she replied. "We normally don't let others from the other worlds on this ship except for the very few.....like boyfriends or husbands."

"I thank you for letting me on board."

"There was no way I was ever going to prevent you from coming on board. You are....." she seemed a little bit flushed. She went and reached her hand to grab his. He looked down as she could see her holding his hand. "I couldn't say no to having you onboard."

It was a welcoming sight for Raavi. The warmth and delicateness of her hand were inviting. Apparently, there was nothing wrong with displaying some affection on a military ship.

She used her other hand to point to each of the rooms. "Most of these rooms are really just storage rooms or crew quarters, actually. We haven't been missing on anything important."

"What rank are you anyway? I do apologize. I am not much of a military person."

"I am......the captain," she hesitantly replied.

This caused Raavi to stop in his tracks. Oniya stopped as well as she looked over to him. He looked at her and was dismayed.

"You command this entire ship?" he asked her.

"Yes. I......I......I didn't want to tell you until you were here," she replied.

Raavi frowned a little bit. "I wish you told me all this stuff beforehand."

"I know.....," she said as her head looked down. She still gripped onto his hand as she put her other hand to it. "I just.....there is so much about me that you don't know, Raavi." She looked back at him. "If I had on my profile account that I was some Captain of a ship that was looking for a husband, I would have had way more responses than what it was going to be. I wanted to make sure that I found the right man for me....., you know?"

He felt like she was sincere, and the fact was that he wasn't mad at her. "Actually.....it is interesting to hear that you lead this ship. I can't be mad at you."

This caused Oniya to relax in her composure. She grinned and released her other hand from his. They instead resumed their walk down the passageway.

"How many crew members do you have on this ship?" he asked her.

"Eight."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, I don't need any more than that."

"This ship is huge! How do you?....."

"I will answer that question later," she said while trying to calm him down.

The more and more he heard things, the more and more things didn't add up. How does a ship have gravity like this? How does it have so little crew on it? He was no military man, but even he knew that his sister's ship required at least forty to operate it, and the Opet seemed like it was the same size.

"I apologize.....," he commented. "It is so much to hear about everything. It is a bit of shock to me."

"It is alright. I understand your feelings. It is best for you to experience all these things right now and get a taste of what was happening. I promise you that there is more that you don't know about."

"Do you have everything here for me?" he asked her. "I did what you asked and brought nothing with me."

"Raavi, we have everything for you and more. Ask, and you will receive, my love."

The words seemed to assure him. It was comforting for him to hear that.

"Heh.....," he remarked.

"What?"

"To hear, you say that."

"Would you prefer it any other way?"

Raavi could see the edge of the passageway ahead of him. It was leading to a dead end with a large sliding door at the end right. He could see the windows and space again on his left as they walked past the ship's rotating drum.

"This is the forward hangar bay," Oniya said as she pointed to the large door. Inside is where cargo and stuff are moved around when we need to. We also have a shuttle inside to help move things when needed."

"Ah....that is that large box-like structure you have in the front of the ship," Raavi commented.

"Yes. We used the UHN Osiris as a sort of blueprint for making these ships. It is smaller and does the same job without having to build something so large in the process."

"What you have in that fleet here. Those ships are enormous. They must have cost a fortune to build them."

Oniya shrugged a little bit. "Hmmm.....not entirely."

"Not entirely? How did......"

His question was cut off the moment the doors to the hangar opened up. It slid open to reveal a tall man that walked out. He, unlike Oniya, was wearing a different uniform. He had some sort of blue and red coveralls over his black boots. He didn't appear to be an officer but just a regular worker on the ship. His attention was focused on the man.

The man himself appeared to have a slight bronze complexion to him. He had a very light black mustache but nothing else. At first, Raavi had thought that the man might have come from Aphadus, but his facial features didn't completely match. He had black hair, almost as if he was......

"Hello?" the man addressed to Oniya and Raavi in a broad North American accent. "Captain.....is this the hu.....I mean, the person from Aphadus?"

"Yes," she said with sincerity in her voice. "Raavi, this is Nanook. Nanook, this is Raavi. Nanook is the person who takes care of security and transporting things on the ship."

"Nanook.....an interesting name...." Raavi remarked.

"Yes," Nanook replied with some annoyance. "My name comes from the Inuit of former Earth. It is a name I am most proud of."

"Interesting," Raavi said as he held out his hand to him. Nanook hesitated but extended his hand and shook it in response.

There was not much smiling that came from Nanook that Raavi could see, but it seemed that he was not a hostile or aggressive person. Nanook instead focused his attention on Oniya.

Captain, everything is good with the hangar. I fixed the problem with the door."

"Oh, thank you, Nanook," Oniya replied.

There was not much else said with the tall man as he began to walk away. Raavi simply watched as he gave a brief glimpse at Raavi before he left both of them. He turned to look back at Oniya.

"Not exactly the most charming of individuals," Raavi remarked.

"I would give it time," Oniya replied. "Nanook has his reasons for being the way he is. Here is the hangar bay. "

Oniya walked up to the door as it opened up automatically. The sliding doors were quick and responsive as both Oniya and Raavi stepped in.

Inside the hangar bay, Raavi had a chance to see the internal layout of the room. It was quite huge. The bay itself was seemingly a sizeable gray room. There were two doors, with one being from which he entered. The other was on the other side. The bay itself was the size of a football field, with most of it seemingly empty.

There was something oddly peculiar with the room that Raavi began to notice. The bay had a single shuttle inside it. Raavi was familiar with the shuttle as they were the standard spaceship shuttle based vehicles. This one was an unarmed civilian type of vehicle used to move cargo from ship to ship. These shuttles were usually quite large to help ensure that there was plenty of space for survival gear, moving, and evacuation personnel from an area. The bay's uniqueness stemmed down to it being huge in size and the colors that were depicted.

For some reason, the hangar bay was devoid of the myriad of the white and rainbow-colored spectrum of the passageway. For all intents and purposes, the place was mostly empty. A large door was positioned in the front. Behind him was another enormous door.

"This is the hangar bay," Oniya explained to him. "This is essentially the most important part of this ship. We are near the forward most section of the ship. Behind me is another massive storage bay. The entire front section is all devoted to storage room for moving supplies, equipment, and even people from one location to another."

"Interesting," Raavi commented. "It is odd looking at this room. It appears to be.....different than what I have seen from the passageway. It feels so......I don't know how to describe it,"

"Yes?"

Raavi simply didn't have the answer. To him, the room just felt different. It was almost like it was a mask for something. The dark gray interior seemed so generic and backward in its looks. Even the shuttle was a dark gray color to it. It didn't have the white coat of paint that the New Olympian ships had. He was no expert with this, and he decided to drop it.

"It seems so empty," Raavi remarked.

"It is," Oniya said. "We are currently on standby in case we are ever needed. The space can easily be loaded up and ready to go at a moment's notice."

"I see...."

"I will take you to go and see our medical officer," she said as she retook his hand. "Come on."

She gestured him to follow her out the door. They left the massive hangar bay as Raavi once again noticed the vast difference between the passageway and the hangar bay. A part of him wondered if all the rooms looked like the hangar bay or not.

Oniya guided Raavi back down the passageway. He could see the white and rainbow colors pulsate in color slightly as he kept an eye down on the sliding doors to his left.

"After we get past the doors to the storage bay, we will be heading to the elevator that leads us up to deck 1," Oniya said.

"What deck are we currently on?" Raavi asked.

"Deck 2. Below us is deck 3."

"I imagine that I will get a full tour of the ship. Do I need to worry about pulling you away from your duties?"

Oniya shook her head. "No. My crew barely needs me as it is. Don't worry about it."

Raavi seemed convinced of that as they proceeded down the long passageway. It was evident that the next set of sliding doors was the massive storage room that would connect to the hangar bay. Her hand felt soft and smooth to the touch. He felt a sense of happiness wash over him.

"I can see it in your face," Oniya remarked as they walked together. "You are happy to be here with me."

"My words can't describe it," Raavi happily replied. "At first, I wondered if you were trying to fake your pictures when I first saw you."

"I know.....UWAN daters have a tendency to over-exaggerate their appearances or their physical looks. Don't worry.....I am genuine. Tell me what you feel when you hold my hand."

"I feel the warmth of your touch. When I spoke to you so many times on the chat, I still never imagined being here up close to you."

She used her free hand to pat her stomach. "You don't mind my weight?"

"I admit, I am not used to seeing a woman with extra weight to her. Seems like everybody always has this perfect diet or maintains the perfect exercise regime or something."

"Are you saying that I don't take care of myself?" Oniya asked as she gave faint scorn to him.

"I didn't say that. Besides.....your chubbiness makes you look cute and adorable."

His eye went towards her breasts for a short moment that he looked away quickly. Her eyes would catch him, in fact, but she said nothing and smiled in response.

"I would like to bring you to meet our doctor," Oniya explained. "The place we are heading into next is our sickbay."

Their walking continued until it reached the spinning drum of the ship. Raavi could tell that they were nearing another set of doors on his left. Oniya began to slow down as she pointed to the door.

"This is the elevator?" Raavi asked.

"Yes," she said as she released his hand. She walked up to the door as it slid open.

The elevator itself was just as harmonious and pretty to look at as the passageway. The color's white purity radiated the myriad of other colors that flowed up and down like a waterfall. It was large and circular in its interior construction as they both stepped into it.

"Where is the panel or interface to.......?" Raavi asked.

"You don't have to," she replied as the doors slid closed. "Say where you want to go."

"Deck 1."

The moment that he said that, the elevator began to travel up as the entire waterfall of colors began to flow upward. There was no inertia or feeling of weight being pressed down upon him as the elevator traveled up.

"Wow. This is the smoothest elevator ever," Raavi commented.

It didn't take long for the elevator to come to a stop. The only indication was that the elevator resumed showing a series of colors that flowed up and down. Raavi now understood what the colors and their motion meant. The doors slid open to reveal a similar passageway that he had seen before.

"Here we are, this deck one," Oniya commented. "This deck we have a science lab, my quarters, quest quarters, sickbay, one of the weapon's rooms, and the bridge."

Raavi noticed that the passageway was very much the same as the previous passageway. He looked back and forth to see the layout and could see the series of sliding doors that line inward to the ship.