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2024.04.06-2024.04.20
Earth.USA.Oklahoma.OsageCounty
by Redforkian
(ca. 5,750 words)
The floor of the shower was starting to rust through, and water was beginning to leak out onto the floor of Tanjemi Davidson's cubicle. Right now, it was just a small leak that could be held at bay with a towel, but soon she'd have to salvage a piece of sheet metal from somewhere to patch the hole. Perhaps she could trade a paper-good for it. She still had her mother's allotment of three paper books she was allowed to take aboard Sojourner, humanity's first generation ship to another sun outside the three main stars closest to Earth. They had been traveling for 32 years at about 1 million miles per hour. Tanjemi was 22 and had been born on the ship 10 years after launch from Earth orbit. It was the only home she had ever known.
Couples were allowed to have one child either by lottery or when a crew member was remanded into the ship with the crematorium. Adherence to population measures was not optional and birth control was strictly enforced. All the humans regardless of physiology were altered to eliminate the possibility of conception until a lottery winner was picked within that person's sub-group or, as happened with Tanjemi's mother, Tan Yakamouchi of the Asiatic Alliance, one becomes widowed or passes of old age.
Tanjemi was conceived when her father, Jimmy Davidson of the California region, died in a training accident involving ship to planet scooters as they were called. Her father's scooter had suffered a braking maneuver failure and crashed into another scooter. The other pilot had survived, but Tanjemi's father did not. A week later, her mother had her father's DNA inserted and she was conceived and born 9 months later. All of the mothers of the ship participated in the birth and Tanjemi had several god-mothers. Really, all mothers on ship were godmothers. All 1,081 of them.
Tanjemi was in the library's subgroup of caretakers. Her responsibilities included maintaining the ship's physical and digital records, as well as the forms of entertainment. It was, as oldFolk said, a "library." She spent the better part of her shipTurn inspecting the storage containers for items that could not be put on loan, such as important paper books and discs holding vital information for arrival to Sautorius, a star system some 130 light years away that was known to have a planet very similar to earth. Probes sent to Sautorius 4 had shown indigenous plant life and even small mammal-like animals. Toxicology reports indicated compatibility with humans, so a mission was planned out to visit and send colonists. Ship contained about 2,100 specialized colonists and 1,000 or so ship crew and workers to keep everyone alive in transit and on Sautorius. Farmers, carpenters, teachers, all the way to physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and other scientists. Every possible walk of life was represented, including children and young people.
"Tanji!" hollered Jennerfa bounding up the hallway to meet her shipmate and best friend.
"Why weren't you at the library today?"
Tanji sighed, "Oh, Jenner, hey! I wasn't feeling so great this morning's shipTurn. My stomach was still suffering from the fish dinner my mama made last night." Tanji looked around to be sure her mother wasn't listening. She smiled a huge smile and hugged her friend.
"Another boring day?"
"Gods, yes." Jennerfa moaned. "We need to come up with a faster way to test the integrity of those plastic-wrapped books. There are so many of them!"
"You know how they are about the books."
"Yeah, they treat them as though they are sacred relics or something." Jenner poked Tanji in the side. "Come on, my mama made some banana bread, you want some?"
"Yes! I'm starving. Let me tell my mom."
Jennerfa and Tanji walked arm in arm down the long hallway that ran parallel to the living quarters giggling and talking about things that girls their age talked about.
There were rows of "pea pods" like this stacked one after another in long rows. There were ten rows to each power "pole" around which the pods rotated to simulate gravity. These poles in turn were connected via a system of linkages to the main body of the ship where they received their power, water, and other utilities. In total there were twenty poles to a ship section and 25 sections. At the back of the ship were areas for power generation where power from solar sails were stored in batteries and subsequently distributed. If more power is needed, fusion generators can always be started up, as they are from time to time, especially during holidays.
The front of the ship had gathering places. These, of course, were immensely popular with the young people and were packed almost every evening during off shift. There were kinos, bars (no alcohol... officially), sports areas and one very large area that was only filled with air and used during monthly meetings of the council, crew and pod representatives. Occasionally, this large area was used on an emergency basis, for example if there were a serious accident or some kind of emergency that affected the entire ship. Emergencies were rare, and for the most part life was very predictable and stable on board Sojourner. The mission was on par for success.
Jennerfa Mehta's parents were both from the Indian Consortium of States of the Maharashtra region. They joined the mission through the Indian Space Agency. Her mother, Bhamini, was fascinated by old American baked goods, hence the banana bread, which was Jennerfa's favorite. Aarav Mehta was a graduate of engineering from Delhi University, which is where he met Bhamini. They lived in the city of Navi Mumbai where they both worked. They won the lottery a year before Tanjemi's birth, so Tanjemi and Jennerfa were about the same age.
Jennerfa sliced a couple pieces of banana bread for her and Tanjemi and they gobbled it up with a chaser of synthetic milk.
"Aaaahhh!" cried Tanji, "Tell your mom it's as delicious as always."
Jennerfa smiled, "I actually helped her this time, Tanji."
"Becoming a baker, are we?"
"Oh heavens no, but it's fun to make different dishes. The banana bread is quite simple, really."
"Can you show me sometime?" Tanji asked.
"Of course, I'll teleType you next time she wants to make some more."
"Good. Let's get some more of this coffee and head to the library."
As always, they were extra careful with their plastic cups and the lids, as they only got one per year unless it somehow got broken by accident. With young people this tended to happen frequently. Tanji and Jenner half walked, half skipped to the their shipTurn at the library. When they arrived, they met with their workmates and chatted until the shift started.
---
Robert Rodriguez was lying in his bed staring at the dull gray ceiling of his cubicle. His eyes were tired from the baseball game the shipTurn before. He played for the air scrubber subgroup's intramural team along with most of the other younger people.
Playing baseball was a challenge on the ship. The "field" was about half the size of an earth-based field, and there were no stands for the fans who instead were all at home in their cubicles watching the games. The ceiling of the playing field was loaded with sensors that determined the velocity and direction of a hit ball and would transport the ball to where it would drop in the same speed and direction to whoever happened to be there to catch it, if at all. In this manner home runs were calculated almost instantaneously with many calls causing an amusing ruckus as to whether a hit ball was, in fact, a homer or not. It made for good entertainment on the interVision.
Robert's parents raised him in the Regla borough of Havana, Cuba, and baseball was taught to him by his father and every other uncle in his family. As a child he and his friends would play in the streets of the neighborhood. At one point he was almost selected for the national team which was instrumental in that year's Olympic team. The only thing that stopped this was the fact that his right foot was slightly deformed from a birth defect that caused him to run more slowly than his friends. Of course, Cuba had one of the best health care systems in the world, and he was well taken care of-- as were all Cubans. Robert had a Cuban flag in his room on the wall. He was proud of his heritage even as his parents emigrated to the suburbs of Miami when he was just out of high school.
His parents signed up for Sojourner's mission along with Robert. His father, Manuel, and his mother, Maria, had their own linens shop in the burb's shopping district. They sold clothing, house linens such as towels and wash cloths, and had several commercial accounts for cleaning companies. It was a good business. They sold it to Manuel's brother to join the mission to Sautorius with Robert. The mission needed their skills and Robert's mother convinced them all to go. They could make a new life on the ship and on Sautorius as well as be a part of history.
Shelly Masterson, previously Sheldon, was one of the few single women on Sojourner. She transitioned to female at age 18 and worked as a journalist for a national newspaper out of Plymouth, England, her hometown. She attended Coventry University at Coventry and attained a journalism degree. She became interested in the Sojourner mission when she was covering a media event and representatives indicated they needed at least 10 journalists for ship news and to train others before arrival to Sautorius. She was immediately fascinated and applied to attend the training camp and was subsequently selected for membership on the crew.
The International Space Station had grown way beyond it's original configuration and had been used as a jumping off point for many planetary missions within the solar system. Mars missions, Mercury, Venus, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. Mars had become a secondary starting point as more and more material and people moved there. Manufacturing had also recently started on Mars and was reaching orbit. The Sojourner mission, however, was started and worked on by the ISS in Earth Orbit. It would rendezvous with Mars to pick up passengers and some material, but other than that it's point of origin was earth.
Shelly met Robert on the International Space Station during Sojourner basic training. Basics of space living were learned such as oxygen supplies, power generation and consumption, water storage and transport, centrifugal gravity, and other basics that were found on large scale human spacecraft.
Shelly had been viewing the space station's air scrubbers and ran into (literally) Robert who was in the middle of exchanging air scrubbing canisters for recycling.
"Oh, my, excuse me, sir."
Robert smiled broadly and with a slight accent said, "No worries, I'm just a cadet like you."
He was pointing to the small Sojourner logo on her uniform jacket. The logo was actually an iconic version of one of the first Mars missions. Sojourner was also a Mars explorer rover launched at the end of the 20th century. The uniforms were a nod to the enduring determination of humans to spread into the galaxy.
"What are you doing there?" Shelly asked.
"Oh, I'm just practicing changing out these scrubber canisters. Sojourner will have several thousand of them."
"Can you show me? My turn on these is coming up in another basics training module."
"Oh yeah, what will your main duty be when it's all said and done?"
"Journalist extraordinaire." Shelly smiled with a twinkle in her eye.
"Really? Didn't know we'd have a newspaper on board, not with the teleType printers we'll have."
"Well, somebody's gotta be there and take pictures and show up on the interVision every once in awhile," Shelly chuckled.
Robert handed her a standard crescent wrench and showed her how to unfasten the scrubbing canisters from their beds. She helped him replace about ten of them before making her departure. They agreed to meet at the ISS cafeteria for trainees later that evening.
The Sojourner cafeteria was almost identical to that on the ISS. Tanjemi, Jennerfa, Shelly, and Robert always tried to meet at the 11:30 am cafeteria period. Today's menu was Shelly's favorite. Small red potatoes with a choice of salad or bread.
Most everything was either bolted down or lightly magnetized to avoid mass chaos should the centrifugal gravity ever fail. Tables were bolted down with one bolt. Chair legs were magnetized and also had small hooks that could attach them to the floor. Humans living in space was inherently messy, so everyone knew the rule to secure their chair after they were done with it. Most people helped out the cafeteria crews by cleaning their own tables and sweeping up after themselves. It was a win win. It also increased the chances that people would volunteer for the cleaning crews once a month.
The four friends sat at a table nearest the oval shaped bay windows that looked out toward the front of the ship. Looking forward was far preferable now to looking back toward earth's sun which was now just a magnitude -2 blip of light. It was still bright enough to be easily distinguished from all the other stars on the backdrop of black velvet.
Visitors could watch the ever-dancing plasma lights caused by the shielding on the front of the ship which would occasionally deflect a larger piece of stellar dust with spectacular effect. The shields could easily deflect anything up to the size of a basketball, but luckily they've never had to put that to the test due to the sheer, vast emptiness of space.
Tanjemi and Shelly were giggling about who knows what and Jennerfa and Robert were discussing the possibility of volunteering to do extravehicular activities (EVAs) to clean and fold up the solar panels until the ship got closer to the Sautorius system. The solar sails needed inspection and repairing, as well.
"One of the engineers at the engineering peaPods said the EVA vehicles were super easy to use around the ship. You just had to be careful not to fly into anything," Jennerfa said to Robert as he gulped down a mouthful of salad.
"Are the scooters ever used for these repairs?" Robert asked. "I'd like to get my hands on one of those."
Jennerfa lowered her voice remembering Tanjemi's father, "I don't think so. They're for certified pilots only. The EVA vehicles are pretty much idiot proof. They even have built in avoidance systems, and you can't go much faster than 2 mph."
"Two MPH?!"
"Robert, we don't need 20 EVAs out doing races around the ship," Jennerfa laughed and took a sip of synthMilk.
Shelly, still giggling, said, "Robert didn't you do the EVA sims on the ISS? Those things were slooooooooow."
Tanjemi agreed, nodding her head.
Robert got a sheepish grin on his face, "Well, yes, but I removed the speed limiter on mine more than once. Damn near got kicked off the mission."
"Oh. My. God. That was YOU? I totally heard about that," Tanjemi started giggling again.
"Jesus, you're the little speed demon from hell over here," Shelly snorted.
"Weeeellll..." Jennerfa's voice trailed off.
Everyone stared at Jennerfa as if to coax her to speak.
"Ok, fine. He had a little help, but we are NOT doing that here, are we, Robert?" Jennerfa punched him in the shoulder.
"Baby boy and I have had a long talk about following the rules after that baseball game the other night," said Shelly with a knowing voice.
"OK, come on, guys. I promise to be good!"
Shelly pointed at his nose a few times, then kissed him on the cheek.
Talking resumed, and Tanji, Jenner, Shelly, and Robert made plans for the upcoming weekend. None of them had extra shifts, so they planned on making special plans. Maybe even dress up for the occasion.
Shelly entered ship's library to meet with Jennerfa. She had been working on a special interest journalism piece about the library's regular workers. Besides being the managing editor for the Sojourner Star, she was also one of its journalists. Tasks and duties tended to be open sourced to all members of the paper's staff. It worked out well for everyone and kept things interesting.
Shelly's interest in the library was obvious as she used it frequently for stories she wrote. Mostly for background information but sometimes also to write full pieces on a subject that the crew was interested in at the moment.
A citizen had asked her about the library's workers and what they do, and that prompted her to do a piece on the workers there. She had done a similar piece with Robert and air services who kept the air breathable with the thousands of air scrubbers all about the ship.
Jennerfa had been at her desk going through a list of paper books she needed to inspect. Paper books, while antiquated in their use were still a very important source of information, even for Shelly in this age where everything was mostly digital. Sometimes nothing could beat knowing you carried full knowledge of a subject (or a good story!) in just an inch or two of paper.
The books were stored in air tight containers void of any chemicals that might degrade their quality. They were really quite magnificent. Paper books these days were prized among one's top possessions, and people demanded unparalleled quality. Most manufactured books these days if carefully stored and used with care would last thousands of years.
Jennerfa welcomed Shelly with a hug and a cup of coffee.
"Hey you!" she said while beckoning her to take a seat opposite hers at the desk. "You're early and I haven't caffeinated myself enough."
Shelly chuckled, "Me neither, girlie. Oh wow, this is delicious where did you get it? Tastes Cuban."
"Your talented boyfriend has his own stash that makes it onto the market sometimes, don't you know? Of course, you're my special connection. I'd snort the shit, but I'm afraid of what would happen." Jennerfa shrugged and beamed.
"Oh my gods, what? I think that wouldn't be very good for your health, yes, he grows his own beans in the hydroponic bays, I know. I have to help him in there sometimes." Shelly smiled, and it made her happy, because Robert worked so hard on this side project. In fact, a bean farm was one of his goals when they reached Sautorius 4. A grove of bean trees was his goal, along with a baseball team, of course.
"Well, it's delicious and very hard to find! So what kind of questions do you have for me?"
"A lot of folks are wondering exactly how the books are preserved -- paper and digital -- and what is involved in inspecting the paper books," Shelly left the statement open ended.
Jennerfa said, "As you know, we use the savaBook technology to keep our books 'fresh', so to speak. They are wrapped in a plastic bag or container and the air is pumped out. The resulting package is then stored at room temperature in a dark storage room that has it's air pressure reduced. This keeps the books from degrading between uses."
"An inspection requires that a book be tested at least once a week for leaks to be sure it is sealed. We can usually tell if a book has become unsealed by a very slight raise in the rooms ambient pressure. Of course, that doesn't tell us which book, as we currently do not network the books together, but inspect them manually on their outside pressure gauge. We have enough people to do the inspections as it stands now, so there are no plans for networking which would cause significant labor and alterations to computer routing and power."
Shelly looked genuinely interested. "So what happens if you find a book that has lost it's seal?"
"Pretty simple," replied Jennerfa, "the procedure is followed. We note the book and time it was found. We then remove the wrap or container for refurbishment, inspect the book for damage, then reseal it in a new wrap or container. In all it takes probably about 15 minutes for the entire procedure."
"How often do you find a seal failure?"
"Not as often as one might think. We're up to about 6 months without a single failure now. Containers have at least a 10 year shelf life, the wraps are about 5 years. Our record is a little over a year without a failure."
"That's impressive!"
"Yes, ma'am! Thank you. We strive to keep our books well-preserved for all to use."
Shelly asked her one last question, "Who can check out books?"
"Oh, anyone!" exclaimed Jennerfa. "All you need is your shipID. Now there are restrictions with paper books. Most patrons are referred to digitized copies of books for personal use. In some circumstances, a crew person can ask to look at a paper book. What we do then is allow the crew to use the book as a reference, but they must use one of our specialized rooms and have an attendant turn pages for them. We are a bit protective of the paper books, which is understandable, but they are accessible!"
Shelly was pleased with the information, "That is great, thanks, Jenne. If it's OK, I might stop by after lunch and do a walk through on the reference book check out procedure. That sounds very interesting."
"You bet, baby girl! You joining up with us at 11:30?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"OK, see you then," Shelly waved as she departed the library through the double autoDoors.
---
Tanjemi and Robert
"I appreciate you doing this for me!" exclaimed Tanjemi to Robert as they walked through the autoDoors to the ship's custom baseball field.
Tanji's mother, Tan Yakamouchi, was originally from Japan and had a love for baseball that she had passed on to Tanjemi. They had watched many games on what was then called television. Her father, Jimmy Davidson, used to take Tan to baseball games in Los Angeles. Tanji, of course, didn't remember this or her father, as he was killed in a ship to planet scooter training accident before she was born. She was sad about this and frequently looked at pictures of her mother and father together. She bore a striking resemblance to Jimmy.
Nevertheless, she had inherited her parents' love of the game. Robert was more than happy to give her a tour. Not many crew members got the time or were interested in a tour as they usually watched the games on the ship's interVision systems.
"I don't mind at all, Tanji. It's not often I get to give a tour, but you're a good friend, so I'm happy to oblige! I like to come down here if I don't get to see Shelly during lunch break. As you can see, other players come down, too, as all of our shipIDs will open the doors."
"It's really neat. I didn't expect the ceiling to be so low. Is it true the ceiling catches the ball and instantly calculates the trajectory it would take the ball and then simulate that by dropping the ball at the same velocity and direction it would be going on a regular field?"
"Yep, it sure does. I'd let you see the system of magnets it uses. Our baseballs have a special metal alloy finely tuned to the electromagnets we use to transport the ball, but it's off limits to the general public. Maybe Shelly could get special permission to do a piece for the paper, huh?"
"Oooh, yes, that would be really neat. I'll have to tell her to take a video camera with her!" Tanji said. How did you two even meet? You're from Cuba and Miami, and she's from the UK?"
"We actually met on the International Space Station. We had a lot of the same training classes together."
"That's so sweet. You two really are a good match and look cute together even if you're both technically oldFolk." Tanji gave him a look to let him know she was teasing.
"Ha! Old! That'll be the day, won't it?"
The both laughed and continued their tour before heading to the lunch room to meet up with Shelly and Jennerfa.
---
Tanjemi, Jennerfa, Shelly, and Robert all gathered at their usual time at their lunch table in the cafeteria oval by the plasma shields. Robert had got them all vanilla synthMilk to sip on while they waited on their orders to be prepared.
Shelly announced, "There is going to be a hilarious piece in the Sojourner Star next shipTurn, guys."
They all looked at her as if to prod her on with smiles.
"Ok," Shelly grimaced, "Two of the farmers in one of the animal pods had to move some farm animals out of it, because the centrifugal gravity had failed. Well, needless to say the animals' bowels loosened and the soil turned into smelly projectiles. By the time they fixed it, the poor farmer's looked like something out of a shit war. I feel so sorry for them!"
The rest of them stifled laughter until it burst out.
"Oh my god, can you imagine?" asked Robert. "One moment, you're blissfully taking care of everything, the next everything goes to shit." He chuckled.
They all talked for a bit hoping their food would get there soon.
"Well, all that said, I do have some even more interesting news." Shelly announced.
"They're supposedly prepping the auditorium for a big meeting for tonight sometime after the shifts are done." Shelly plainly stated.
"Oh wow, there went the game for tonight. Have they pumped air into it, yet?" asked Robert.
"Well, my source says they aired it up and pressure is almost full stable now. It'll be ready. I've got word in for a meeting, and one of our reporters has been invited to a pre-meeting."
"My, oh, my," said Jennerfa while Tanjemi shook her head. "They haven't done this in a long time. Last time was like what, two years ago when the shifts were completely revamped to make them more fair? That was just a labor issue, really."
"I bet it has something to do with the mission," piped in Tanjemi.
"I'm almost certain it does, too," from Shelly.
"Damn," brooded Robert.
Right then Robert's name was called, and he walked away to pick up their food. Everyone just sat there in a thoughtful silence. What had changed? Nothing seemed different. Everything was operating smoothly. No surprises had happened recently. What could it be?
---
Turns out attendance to the auditorium meeting wasn't mandatory, but at the least viewing it was, so people gathered all over the ship in different places. The library, the mess hall, cubicles, anywhere an interVision device was to be had.
Tanjemi, Jennerfa, Shelly, and Robert met at a library cubicle to watch whatever announcement was forthcoming. Shelly brought her journalist regalia with her to document the announcement and to record the event. She had already scribbled two pages into her notebook. She wasn't technically on assignment as two of her co-journalists were at the auditorium, but the other eight of them were spread out throughout the ship to document and record.
Captain Ahmed Jeffers took the podium and brought the meeting to order in the auditorium and as viewed on interVision throughout the ship. He began by thanking the ship's crew for past, present, and future service. He made the usual introductions of Ship's Council and labor representatives.
"The announcement and news I have today is surprising and certainly on some level distressing for some, but rest assured I and the council and all these representatives are working hard on your behalf to be sure our and your interests are protected. One week ago, we were contacted by Earth regarding our mission and status."
"What came next was very shocking to not only me, but to everyone that heard the message and the subsequent follow ups, and to all involved. In short, and I will not beat around the bush on this, my fellow crew members, we have been ordered to alter our mission in the following manner:"
"1, we are to rendezvous with a second ship from Earth. The name of this ship we will be meeting is the Astrape. For those of you that don't know, Astrape was the Greek goddess of lightning. And you'll see why when you read the material we'll be sending out to everyone in the interVision. This ship is faster than light, my friends.
There were shocked gasps and loud rumbling and talking as people showed their shock and disbelief. A ship faster than light! How is that possible?!
On the one hand the news was astounding and exciting, on the other hand it left the Sojourner suddenly looking like a derelict lazily floating through space.
ASTRAPE (Ἀστραπή)
The Chief Integration Officer, Lyubov Petrova of the ship Astrape, sat in her launch position looking at the interVision display. There were 3 minutes to hyperspace jump. She checked her wristwatch and absent-mindedly noted the time. It was about 10am ship's time for the Astrape. This would correspond with the Sojourner's time, as well, so talks could begin immediately. Lyubov Petrova had already sent greetings to Sojourner's crews the day before and announced her intention to come on board and meet with them. She would be accompanied by Subordinate Bolin Chang who was her sub and assistant. Bolin looked at her as the clock ticked down.
The ship's automatic voice announced two minutes left to hyperspace jump.
Bolin looked at Petrova, "I don't think I will ever get used to jumping into hyperspace like this. I know that it technically is instantaneous, but it still feels like it lasts for half a minute."
"Yes, the same here," replied Petrova with a heavy Russian accent. "This will be my 10th time, and the previous nine were uneventful except the first when I emptied my stomach shortly after."
"You're not the only one," Bolin agreed. He had been on 5 previous jumps, mostly to Mars and Titan.
Earth's largest military base was on Mercury with outposts all the way out to Titan and Pluto. Extrasolar human presence right now consisted only of Sojourner heading snail mail's pace to Sautorius 4. Earth aimed to change this. The first phase included two bases in the Alpha Centauri system, and one in the Sautorius system. While Sojourner was technically a colonization mission, it was still under mostly military jurisdiction and so could be ordered to either abandon ship or continue with a skeleton crew with most of the crew going on to Sautorius 4 with more crew to follow via hyperspace.
Ship's voice counted down. Three.. Two.. One.. Activating hyperjump.
Everything went white.
Petrova and Bolin immediately felt like they were being yanked, pulled forward at incredible speeds then suddenly stopping. Then the feeling reversed itself to being pushed to another point where the blinding light suddenly ceased. A minute later, the stars changed ever so slightly, the sun was a bright -2 magnitude behind them and Sautorius was the same in front of them. About 50 miles to the left was a pinpoint of light that blinked steadily. That was Sojourner's warning lights. They held steady to allow for area communication to take place and to coordinate the meetings.
---
Captain Ahmed Jeffers of the Sojourner and Captain Marcia Oliveira of the Astrape met between their two ships in the captain's scooter from the Sojourner. Lyubov Petrova accompanied Captain Oliveira, and Shelly Masterson was with Captain Jeffers as documenting journalist. Petrova had recommended a journalist be present to record and take notes for the official meeting. After formal introductions, they all took seats in the captain scooter's round room.
Captain Oliveira sipped on some ice water and asked, "So how are you taking the news, Captain?"
"The Earth United Armed Forces will get no problems from me, Marcia, it's the diverse population we have on our large ship that you will have a problem with. I don't think they will take too kindly to having their ship transformed into a hyperspace vessel, not after all the work they've put into it for so many years."
Captain Jeffers took a sip of his special stash of Bourbon he kept for very special occasions, of which this was one. While he had heard and knew about development of hyperspace, he never thought it would advance so quickly as to make scrapping his original mission a viable option. But so be it.
Jeffers continued, "I take it Petrova will be our go to with all things integration, right?" He nodded at Lyubov to comment.
Petrova said, "That's right captain, my assistant and I have been working on this problem for 5 years now. If possible, we'd like for you to loan us four people who are diverse but get well along with each other."
Shelly coughed slightly.
Captain Jeffers smiled at Shelly and said, "Ms. Petrova, we read about the request and Shelly and I think we already have a good group for you to do your work with, Shelly being one those, which is perfect, as she is a journalist. She can assign some of our other journalists to your ship and to your captain, but I'd like her and her friends to work on this team with you."
Marcia nodded her head in agreement, "I think they are good choices. Four people from the people would have been my choice, as well. If we need more people or input from other specialists, we'll certainly call up on them as well. Petrova will coordinate with your office, Captain."
"Sounds good to me," said Jeffers, "with that, I'd like to propose a toast to our continued success and to work together to the betterment of all humanity."
Glasses clinked with smiles all around.
And so started the great change for Sojourner that most on board never saw coming.
To be continued
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NOTES
Thanks for reading my story. It's one of the first long(ish) short stories I've written, and I must say that I had a lot of fun while constructing it. If you'd like to be notified when part II of this story comes out, please see my contact page. You can also send me comments (even if you didn't like it, as long as they're nice) All that is required is an email address which will be used for no other purpose but to update you when I post a story or to reply to queries. You can of course simply reply "stop" and they will immediately cease.
I'm also writing a glossary and dramatis personae mostly for myself (I need the practice!), and I'll post these when I get them completed as they pertain to part I.
Thanks again for reading.
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Redforkian by Red Forkian is licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Made with Kate
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