Rupert hadn't been in the room to hear the chiming of the clock. The truth is he was running in order to get to it in order to avoid being late. 

While their new captain had seen fit to bring on an influx of new personal, the task of where to send them was somewhat more... complicated then one would originally think. The nations of [i]Pride of Praetoria[/i] were always generally welcoming of fresh blood after the the birth and short reign of King Charles the third of the Kingdom of the Portside gunnery decks proved the dangers of trying to 'breed pure' (He had actually seen a painting of the long dead king and it was a gruesome sight to see... if a well done painting. The fact that stories claimed that the painter had gone out of his way to clean up the King's portrait to make it more presentable only raised more questions about how bad the King had truly been to behold). 

There were a number of problems with introducing fresh crew through. To start with, while the crew nations were more then happy to accept a wave of fresh blood to help replace losses and give a boon to the local gene pool, the competition to secure the best and brightest could get violent and a Janitor presence was needed to keep old rivalries from flaring up into war. There was also the issues that always arose when introducing new people into the established political world of the nations of the [i]Pride of Praetoria[/i], the boarders between the nations and the various traditions and laws that each individual nation maintained and lived by.           

Rupert had spent most of the last twenty four hours managing situations before they could turn into full on fires that would require being put out. The fact that he needed to leave his home had nothing to do with the situation being resolved; the new Captain had requested a meeting on the station they were docked at and his training for his position had made it clear that the short term benefits of missing a meeting with the captain rarely outweighed the long term problem of letting them get ideas on how to try running the ship on their own.

So he had left the [i]Pride of Praetoria[/i], gotten lost on the station at least twice and was somewhat breathless as he finally arrived at the right door. Taking a moment to catch his breath so that he could at least look like he had arrived when he intended instead of having rushed, Rupert took a moment to run his hands down the front of his yellow jumpsuit to brush out any wrinkles, took a second to adjust his carapace breastplate and breathed deep as he checked his laspistol and chainsword were secured at their holster and at his side respectfully. It had felt weird to be so stripped down for a formal meeting, but he felt like the staff on the space station might have taken offense if he had come on wearing his protective goggles and breathing mask... and the flamer seemed a little much. 

As the door slid open and he stepped into a room that... honestly boggled the mind a little as far as unused space went, Rupert blinked dumbly for a second before shaking his head and refocusing. There was at least one person in the room beside himself, but his gaze quickly glanced over to the clock in the room to check the time. One minute past twelve. "Sorry I'm late, but helping the new crew adjust to the ship is a time consuming process." He apologized, hoping that at least having a professional reason for not being there early would have been acceptable as he walked over to the food table. Most of it he ignored; He had no idea what it was and it looked to rich for his taste anyway. Instead he helped himself to some of the simple looking but hearty stew. 

[@Hank]