Free A Princess of the Aerie by John Barnes

inner wall of the docking body we are moving at about
     six hundred kilometers per hour; we will be matched to local surface velocity and secured in our berth in about twenty minutes.
     Final crew rendezvous and dismissal for off-ship leave will be ten minutes after we reach our berth and will begin at that
     time exactly.”
    Jak pulled off his headset and saw that his two toves were doing the same. “How about we get to Muster Deck A? That ensign
     sounded serious.”
    They were there in plenty of time, and because no one wanted the dismissal to run one second more than necessary, a lieutenant
     came by to make sure the CUPVs knew what to do, though for some reason he made Ensign Petrawang give the actual instructions.
    “All right.” Petrawang looked about as bored as was possible while keeping her eyes open. “Stand here. Salute when the Senior
     Techny shouts ‘The Captain,’ and make sure the knife edge of your palm cuts across your sternum, singing-on forty-five, have
     your thumb in line with your palm, and you want your left arm behind you at a ninety degree angle that you could use to navigate
     with, fist squared and rolled
tight
. Hold the salute till the Captain says ‘Rest position.’ Then stand in rest position till he approaches you.
Do not look around, not even a little bit.
That’s one of his particular precessors.
    “Salute again as soon as you can see him in your peripheral vision. Hold the salute while he makes small talk with you. Agree
     with everything he says, appear to be pleasantly surprised by all of it (and look like none of it ever occurred to you before),
     and do your damnedest to convince the whole world that you enjoy it.
    “The techny walking behind the officers will tell you when to go back to rest position. Stand in that until the Senior Techny
     shouts ‘Captain going out,’ then move to salute, hold that until the Senior Techny shouts ‘Per captain’s instructions, you
     are dismissed.’ And at that magic moment, you get to turn and walk off the ship; your bags will be in the receiving area;
     and once your back foot leaves the gangplank, you are no longer auxiliaries in the Hive Spatial, and you can resume your normal
     lives.” She turned to the lieutenant. “Shall I ask the CUPVs that question?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “Why did you put in for CUPV? Passenger fare is the same, and you’d only have had to stay in your cabin. As a CUPV not only
     did you spend all your time on tube maintenance, but if a war had broken out with us in flight, you’d have been in for the
     duration. I haven’t been able to speck what you were thinking, or if.”
    Myxenna answered. “We’re PSA cadets all headed for the special branches. Union points are useful, since we may be called on
     to join the ASU, and we’re supposed to get as much different experience as we can.”
    The officer supervising Petrawang spoke. “So you’re going to be spies or agents of some kind?”
    “If we pass, sir,” Dujuv said.
    “And you’re on some kind of training mission now?”
    “That’s as close to the subject as we’re allowed to go, sir,” Jak said.
    “You see, Ensign Petrawang? There
are
at least three people on this vessel with a more absurd job than yours. Under the terms of our bet, you owe me all I can
     drink tonight.”
    “I do, sir.” The lieutenant airswam away, clearly pleased. As Petrawang pushed off after him, she said, quietly, over her
     shoulder, “Think seriously about taking a merchant ship home.”
    The general attention siren whizzed twice, and the Senior Techny shouted “The Captain!” The CUPVs jammed their feet into the
     parade straps on the floor and snapped into salute.
    Once the Captain began small talk, it became immediately apparent why Petrawang and the officer had gone out of their ways
     to prepare them. The captain was an ange, like Dean Caccitepe, but even taller and at least two hundred fifty years old, maybe
     three hundred. When the Captain