It was close to midnight on Cloudbase, and Grey was on monitor duty, pecking away at the pile of paperwork that dayshift had left, between reviewing the different screens and monitors. He liked the night shift; it was dim and calm, and on nights when the atmosphere was a little disturbed and Cloudbase shifted on her keel to compensate, he almost felt like he was back on deck on one of the coastal patrol boats he’d started his career on. Even better, the skies were almost completely clear of clouds and the radar was largely quiet tonight; there was just enough traffic from the Fireflash route off to port to keep him from being bored, logging the contacts as they came into range and popped into life on the radar screen with a soft ping.
On Cloudbase’s internal security monitors, he could see the astrophotography club was setting up on the Promenade. Curious, Grey checked the logs to see what they were searching the skies for tonight. “Ah, Jupiter is rising soon”. He made a mental note to keep an eye out for the photos of that on the base intranet; his niece loved the night sky and its occupants. He’d save some of the good ones (with permission) and print them out for her on his next leave.
In Sickbay, he could see that Doctor Burgundy was also on night shift and had her own pile of paperwork to do, judging by the folder she was working on. The hangar was empty aside from some maintenance bots scouring the deck for loose debris. A handful of people were taking advantage of the night-time lull to work out in the gym, and Scarlet was wandering the halls like a ghost, his common habit now that he needed far less sleep. “Reminds me of Sue,” Grey mused to himself, thinking of the family dog he’d had growing up. The mutt, a rescue, had taken her duty to her ‘pack’ very seriously and patrolled the house every night, visiting each bedroom and checking on the occupants before she turned in and curled up on her rug in the lounge.
Absently tracking his progress on the internal security monitors between flagging anomalies in fuel consumption reports, Grey watched as Scarlet visited the gym and paused to have a word with someone about their technique on the rowing machine. Next was the cafeteria for a hot drink, which he took with him to the Promenade. He spent a good half-hour with the astrophotography club before continuing his trek up through the base, though he bypassed Medical completely. “No surprise there,” Grey mused. Scarlet always avoided the place if he could.
Grey waited a few minutes, then reached for the door control and tapped it just after the chime for access. Scarlet nodded to him as he entered and wordlessly took a spare seat and a sheaf of the paperwork. They worked in companionable silence for a good hour, before Scarlet handed back the completed paperwork and left as quietly as he’d entered, continuing his patrol of Cloudbase.