"Welcome to my ship, the engineers can go with Modred here, the rest, form a line please and have Maya take your Names and Jobs so we can assign you accordingly later"
Jack didn't even stop while giving out his orders. He just went by all the people waiting for him and entered the ship. Meeting new people was never his strong side, nor his favourite thing, so he just dumped the responsibility on his dear daughter. Inwardly he congratulated himself for the great Idea of "Showing her the ropes" so he could just watch and learn all the things that had not been in the game.
Maya stopped in front of the recruits, while the others entered the ship together.
"You got this."
"Look finally something to do."
"See, no need to question your old man."
Everyone had a little sarcastic remark or a not so helpful suggestion for the young girl, that had spent the last few days doubting the captain and bothering them with the same questions over and over again.
Two of the new recruits quietly followed the engineering officer while the rest of them looked at Maya expectantly. The poor girl tried to appear at least somewhat dignified but failed miserably thanks to her colleague's remarks.
In the end, she settled with clearing her throat a few times, hoping to end the awkward situation that way.
"Er, okay. I'm Maya, the security officer of this ship. You can call me Officer Halo until we get to know each other. Please step up one at a time and tell me your name and job, I will then assign you to a compartment and a sleeping quarter. Afterwards, you can explore the ship and get to know the rest of the Crew if you want. The captain will inform you as to when we will leave the station."
About an hour later, Jack received the report about the new recruits from Maya. He had retreated to the cockpit of the ship because that was always the place where he felt most comfortable. From there he could observe what was going on in and around the ship, had access to the cargo lists and could think in peace without anyone coming in unexpectedly and disturbing him.
The crew that the fat man had put at his disposal consisted largely of troublemakers and undesirables.
Giving them the option to join a Voidfarer was an easy way to get rid of people that would cause a commotion otherwise. Also, it was often the only possibility for common people to ever leave the planet they were born on.
In some of the more densely populated solar systems, the might be an option for the wealthy to travel from world to world, but in most cases, people simply were not allowed to leave their planet.
The third type of people that would join a Voidfarer were criminals. It was stated in intergalactic law, that by serving for then years as a Voidfarer one could get rid of any criminal history and begin a new life under the surname of Void.
Most of the recruits were probably planthoppers who would leave them at the next starport, but he reckoned that one or two of them would stay.
It generally took a few years to fill all positions on board with a permanent crew.
Seeing, that it would take at least a few more hours for the workers to load everything onboard the ship, Jack used his communicator, to call Maya over. If he wanted to keep using her training as an excuse to not do captain stuff he was not familiar with, he needed to spend some time reviewing said things with her or she would feel bad about them.
Maya was laying in her bed, musing the events of the last few days, when suddenly her communicator rang. To her surprise, it was her father calling.
"Yes, how can I help you, captain?"
At first, she had felt weird calling him captain, instead of father or dad, but she understood the importance of differencing between their job and how they communicated in private.
"I wanted to talk to you, about your experiences with recruiting people and some other matters."
"understood, I will come over at once."
Maya hung up before the man on the other end could answer. He wanted to talk things over on the phone, but she didn't know that and as a true awkward introvert, he didn't have the guts to call her again and tell her that.
Less than ten minutes later she arrived in front of the locked cockpit door.
She knocked with one hand and a few moments later her father opened the door. He looked a little bit stressed, but she could not make out the reason for that. When he stepped aside to let her in she immediately took the pilot seat for herself making it spin around a few times.
When she stopped rotating, her father had closed the door again and simply sat down on the floor, his back to the wall so he could see the vastness of the universe behind her. He somewhat awkwardly cleared his throat before starting to talk.
"So how do you feel about having to do some of my duties."
Somehow he sounded unsure and Maya immediately feared he would want to take the responsibility away from her again. She knew that the fight in the bar did not give her a good image and he otherwise may have intended to take her to the negotiations with the trader and other meetings on the station.
"Look I'm sorry about the fight. Normally I would have restrained myself, but I was so happy that you finally started to trust me more and give me a real task, that I drank too much. And then I wanted to prove myself when that farmer taunted me and I wanted to show you that I am a grown-up and can handle myself, but in the end, I was just a disappointment and burden."
When she finished and he didn't answer immediately, she felt tears welling up inside her. For a moment she tried to fight them, but the fear and the negative feeling won.
Jack was absolutely overwhelmed with the situation in front of him. Maya's outburst had caught him off guard and while he was trying to process everything she had told him there were already tears in her eyes and she started to cry.
He didn't know what to do, but somehow it pained him deeply to see her cry. He stood up slowly so as not to startle her and walked over. It took him a few tries before he found the courage to touch the young woman's shoulder.
She immediately threw herself forward, embraced him with both arms and cried even harder.
Jack instinctively wanted to take a step back, but she did not let go. He looked helplessly down at her for a few seconds and again did not know what to do. Finally, he began to slowly stroke her head with one hand, while looking out into the endless space outside the ship's window.
After what felt like an eternity to Jack, her sobbing became softer and finally stopped altogether. She sat up a little, without letting him go, move her head to the side and leaned against his stomach.
This time he was prepared and didn't freeze up or tried to get away. Somehow he could tell that she needed the body contact right now and denying it would be cruel. He had stopped stroking her head when she moved, but now he didn't know what do to with his arms. He could not let them hang down or put them in his pockets, because she was still embracing him, so he folded them behind his back for lack of an alternative.
"Dad, will you give me another chance?"
He had never heard someone sound so vulnerable and frightened at the same time. There was a big lump in his throat and he had to swallow a few times before he could answer.
"Of cause, you will get another chance."
He could not think straight right now and the situation was still too much for him to handle, but one thing was crystal clear to him, he would do everything in his power to help her and teach her in earnest.
"Thanks, Dad."
She pressed her head against him and for a moment time seemed to stand still as they just watched the stars together.
It was Maya who broke off the contact first. She let go of him and stood up. After wiping the last tears off her face she turned to Jack and hugged him again.
"Thanks again, Dad. I really needed that."
Jack didn't know how to answer, so he just continued to look outside, arms still behind his back, but luckily Maya didn't seem to mind. She embraced him another second, then she let go and quietly left the room.
As the door closed behind her, Jack could feel a great tension drop from him. He dropped wearily into his chair and continued to stare into the depths of space.