It was massive. Had the structure not been built in space, it would have been impossible to view the whole of it at once. Even so, any being taking in the spectacle of its design would need to do so from a considerable distance and through a rather well-placed viewport. At a considerable distance from the closest sun, an incredible number of artificial light sources had been included in the construction in order to better illuminate the object as well as the surrounding stations necessary both in construction and operation. Smaller craft buzzed busily about in the vicinity but even the biggest of them were microscopic in comparison.

The magnitude of the galactic jump gate didn't disappoint.

The gate had been in the making for the last few decades and was designed to be a free-floating celestial object tied as loosely as possible to the gravitational field of a stable, if otherwise completely useless, as well as politically neutral, star. Many different factions, though at least superficially friendly ones, allowed the gate to be a joint commission. Despite this cooperation, the associated costs for funding such a project were unlike any single instance ever undertaken before, even after the financing had been divvied between the participating governments. The prospect of such a venture, however, made the cost seem worth to effort, at least to someone.

The purpose of the gate was to cross the incredibly large gap between galaxies in a relatively short period of time. The use of conventional star drives could travel such a distance, however such a trip would take longer than most species would remain alive. And although sleeper vessels were not unheard for taking on such a task, the probability of finding nothing immediately useful on the other side of the expanse of empty space was highly probable. The jump gate, though, exponentially eliminated the delay for a ship of considerably smaller size to make the journey. If this vessel was sent, subspace relays established, and scouting missions carried out, information could be relayed back to the Milky Way quickly. On top of that, if (though most governments were banking more on when) valuable resources were discovered, a sleeper ship with the necessary resources could then be sent to construct a galactic jump gate in the neighboring galaxy.

Of course there was no guarantee that anything found in these neighboring galaxies would be worth anything. Corporations were aware of this gamble and were hoping to make their profit back simply through franchising, advertising, and entertainment value over the course of the lives of those they send, not to mention the interest from debt accrued by the governments taking part in the venture. The crews themselves were assembled, perhaps a little haphazardly as a result of the corporate interference, mostly out of the few who volunteered. After all, if the crews couldn't find anything worthwhile on the other side of their jump point, they would be effectively stranded there, and, with limited personnel and resources, be unable to found a colony of any type. And even if a viable spot was located and either a government or a corporation made a push to send a sleeper ship, the crews of these scout vessels would be long dead by the time any colonists arrived.

In one large, rather overglorified event, more than a dozen scout ships were sent through the gate, each to their own respective galaxy. One by one, the gate turned on, an immense amount of energy was channeled through the system, a ship was pulled in and subsequently vanished into a demolecularized puff of atoms. The gate then repositioned, crews aboard one of the stations recalculated arrival points, and then repeated the process. Until, at last, they were all gone: the scout ships, the news crews, the old hat celebrities, nearly everyone. Then gate sat there, without further function required of it.

It became a massive ring of metal, floating uselessly through space.

***Scan of Nearby Star Systems Report #1***

1. G0-class main-sequence star. Planets: several probable.

2. T-class brown dwarf star. Planets: unknown.

3. F1-class main-sequence star. Planets: several probable.

4. O6-class Supergiant star. Prominent heavy elements appearing in spectrum. Planets: few.

MacTaggert felt sour. It was the only real way to put it. He was one of the only people who didn't want to be here that he knew off, he was from the Nexus Federation a predominantly military run faction in the Milkyway Galaxy and while he supported it wholeheartedly and served faithfully in the navy for many years this had to be some kind of a sick joke. After his years of serving on battleships throughout minor border conflicts and pirate raids he had finally been told he would be getting his own vessel. However he had assumed that this would at least be a Cruiser for which he was more than qualified to run given his experience commanding fighter groups with proficiency for years he had instead got given this vessel. A Scout ship to other galaxies. Of course he had not denied the posting, who in their right mind would? The honour it would bring to his family would be immense, the pay was considerable enough to get his children through whatever institutes they desired to go to and disobeying an order was tantamount to treason and punishable by the death penalty. In the end, his wife had reminded him. It was a command position and the Universe was a strange place maybe they would find a way back home sooner or later.

The crew of this ship, the crew was laughable. One defense specialist all rounder who would protect their ground team that consisted of one Xenobiologist specialist who at least did have some experience in exploration in unknown regions. He also had a communications expert and an engineer and that was his crew. The rest of the ship was fully automated and part of him wondered why they had even bothered with a crew instead of just letting the ship go out on its merry way and do its own thing. Other than for the corporations to get some nice juicy drama television shows running from each of the scout ships. For he had no doubt that even if it wasn't immediate security footage from the ship would eventually find itself being broadcast throughout the Milkyway Galaxy. At least he would be famous, even if he could never find a way to exploit it.

"A.L.I.C.E Update." A robotic female voice spoke, that what it was. "The Star system reports are in. Transmitting data to personnel." Alice, an AI. That what she was. She was definitely Artificial though her intelligence was as off yet to be determined. She was basically meant to make his job easier as Captain and Pilot of the vessel. She would plot complex navigational courses and give him updates as needed though as far as he saw her she was basically a fancy calculator, and she was meant to be his best friend for the rest of his life. "A.L.I.C.E, Record log.""Recording."

"Captain Thomas MacTaggert reporting. We have reached the designated co-ordinates safely within our target galaxy. There was brief disorientation upon arrival however there seem to be no lingering effects from using the gate to travel here. I have sent data on the local star systems to the personnel aboard. So that each member can review it. While I hold command authority I will in the nature of co-operation between the different unions we represent be willing to listen to their input on the matter. Especially Miss Buchanan from xenobiology. End report."

He pressed commands on his console, essentially his seat was surrounded by command consoles as he looked out into space from the bridge. Of course such a design was a tactical weakness however those that built the ship thought it necessary apparently that he could see where he was going with his own eyes rather than the trusted instruments off the ship. "Captain, shall I return the ship to Autopilot?""No. I'll retain control. Get me a full systems diagnostic, I want to check we got here in one piece.""Yes Captain."

Stupid worthless AI. He already hated this assignment.

"... concludes the report," A.L.I.C.E. finished.  Her voice seemed to emanate from within and without of the small habitation space.  The only living occupant was laid out, suit half drawn down.  His messy brown hair - outside of preferred regulations - was every which way since he hadn't bothered to make use of their recycled shower water.  Dark circles around his eyes indicated that he was having trouble with the sleep rotation even with artificial sunlight.  Despite his half-lidded tiredness, his nearly sea foam green eyes were bright - not as a result of induced chemical reaction (sometimes brought on from whatever the passably edible "meat" product on board), but from the status of their mission and their progress.
 
The man paused a beat, still laying on his rack where he'd been tossing a stress ball - improvised since it started out its life as packaging from somewhere on this ship - at the low hanging ceiling.  With a smile in his tone, he said, "Alice, I love it when you talk dirty to me.  "
 
"The report is clean-"
 
Swinging his legs over the edge of the rack, narrowly missing the ceiling - something that he still struggled to remember despite having spent a formidable amount of time nursing his bruised head from repeated incidents over the last several days as they suffered through Gate travel- he cut the A.I. off, "Connotation of the statement; it was a joke."
 
"Jokes are not programmed into my behavior core."
 
"Yeah, yeah, we'll see about fixing that, sweetheart.  Don't you worry.  We've plenty of time to work with."  But Jason wasn't working at his personal station to remedy this, instead he was accessing the star report and confirming their location as well as the history of the system.  Maybe the others weren't as excited about this trip as he was, but this was damned exciting.  In fact, this system was interesting because of its historical value.  And he'd be able to remind others how he - they - were the first humankind to exist much less look in this quadrant.  Toggling the controls by his bed, the surface of his bed stiffened, turning into a secondary work surface, extending his desk.
 
"I am also incapable of worrying, Commo.  You are, furthermore, not authorized to tamper with my personality or basic behavior cores.  Also, your time is limited to approximately 60.3 more Earth years.  'Plenty' is inaccurate."
 
"Don't be so morbid, that's plenty by my estimation - Say my name, baby," he murmured.
 
"Jason Itztli," the A.I. said.
 
He couldn't help cracking a grin at that.  "Would it be absolutely ridiculous to love an A.I.?  You do so pet my ego well."  His hand curved over his abdomen and further, unselfconscious of the intent or who might be watching.
 
"Unless there is a nuance I am unable to interpret, it would be 'ridiculous' as there could never be any propagation of your species per your religious doctrines or biological programming for furthering your purpose in life by loving a computer program."
 
"Aw, baby, my purpose is you," he said distractedly as he typed in more code to begin building up the format for his first report to send back their sponsors and backers.  He'd have to go to the bridge at some point to extract the communications packaging in addition to looking for the information he'd requested shortly after they'd successfully made it through "The Gate."  He wasn't sure why he'd started mentally referring to The Gate as if it were something of importance, perhaps because of its relevance as a humankind project and a milestone in human history. 
 
"Your purpose is to maintain open lines of communication, receive communication bundles, maintain ship's drives for all chart-related activity, conduct reports and all other duties assigned-"
 
"No need to be coy.  I know my job.  I know what I've gotten myself into, but you'd think a man can't multitask."  Her silence tickled him; she had no feedback for him there. 
 
Sadly this was the extent of his social nature for the last few days.  He'd avoided a fair number of the crew mostly because everyone needed adjusting and he realized that he missed his friends more than he thought he would.  Being able to brag about his involvement in this project had been worth it before he'd been sent out so many light years away from his adoring public.  Now that he was stranded, he was more than a little irritable.  Fortunately there were some interesting potentially adoring subjects on board that he'd look into learning more about.  The files were thorough, but gave nothing of any actual importance.  What were their alliances?  What were their opinions of him?  These thoughts would soon occupy his mind.
 
Deciding to put aside his moping, he called out, "Alice, make ready the communications package.  I'll head up to the bridge to collect it.  Location of the capt?  I'll need to thank him for sending out the packets for me as well as brief him on any further news gleaned."
 
And as odd as he thought it, he felt as though her attention was elsewhere suddenly.  It was like a void, an itch in his mind.  He really needed to make friendly with the locals, Jason decided suddenly.  They'd love him.  Probably were achingly lonely without him to liven things up.  No more meals in his room, he decided there and then.  They must be bored without him around. 
 
"Affirmative, Commo.  Package is waiting for your arrival.  The captain is on the bridge," she stated.  Jason was relieved to hear her voice call out into his stateroom.
 
His quarters weren't far removed from the bridge since he was most likely to be called up to do repairs (rather than take away from their chief engineering officer's time) and take and make messages if the captain wanted to take his leave of the bridge.  Stepping out past the threshold of his personal stateroom, the hatch closed itself when it read that there wasn't anything blocking its sensors.  Jason pulled up his suit to look more presentable, brushed a hand through his hair uselessly, and picked up a brisk pace in the direction of the bridge.
 
"Permission to enter?" Jason asked out of formality, but he was already several paces into the space.  Typing away at his station, he physically extracted the message out onto his board to begin the decryption process, plugging in key variables with succinct code rather than verbally asking the A.I. to reveal the parts he already knew were more likely to be important.  Her priorities, while well intentioned and often accurate, left much to be desired from the human perspective.  "Thanks for sending on the Star Sys Rep, cap'n.  Sounds like it could swing either way for finding anything of relevance.  I'll have historical records out for you shortly to compare what analysts foresaw we might find, but has Buchanan mentioned-"
 
He fell silent, glancing behind him to ensure she hadn't popped up behind him. 

The trip through the Gateway had been rather uneventful. Morven had no idea just how long it took. Safety precautions had had them all in stasis both for the trip itself and for a short while prior to and afterwards, so for all she knew, anything from minutes to days, weeks or even years could have gone by without them noticing anything. It quickly became apparent that it was closer to the first than to the latter, though. She did not have much contact with any of her family while training for the job, nor did she see any reason to seek them out. They wouldn’t. or couldn’t, understand the reasons she had for joining the EEE. She did not mind overmuch.

~| Several weeks prior, supply shipments and berthing selections |~

Jason had been lugging his duffel bag aboard the vessel not long after he’d completed the training required to join the crew. Upon his acceptance, he’d been so eager to set up his workspace and claim his stateroom that he’d hardly seen the shorter being. His duffel bag, a long ancient leather-made thing of more sentimental value than of great use, had blocked most of his vision when he’d nearly bowled whoever over. Setting aside his bag, he was a bit peeved about the unforeseen obstacle.

“I’ll need you to make way, important crew trying to get on board this fine vessel,” Jason drawled in a tone identifying him as one of the many pace-side aristocratic. entitled. Some of his tone was prideful of the vessel, but there was a hard underlining of impatience to it. He was interested in seeing the inside and wanted to get around whoever’d been in the middle of the p-way (passageway).; so far he’d only seen holographic vids and pics of the vessel which might only give illusion of spacious quarters.

It was only in a double take that he realized the person was a female though given her clothes he couldn’t make sense why another scientist might be lingering about the entrance to the vessel. [He’d actually bumped into her.]

Morven didn’t much think for people trying to make her get out of their path. She never had. That was at least part of the reasons she’d joined the MWEC back in the day, to stay away from most of the more pushy folks. When the stranger spoke to her, she turned around, her pale lavender eyes rapidly taking in the scene, instantly calculating the width of the corridor and how much she had been using. “There is ample space for you to get by here.” Morven saw that he was probably a few years older than her, but not many. He was also somewhat taller and more heavily built. The occupation tag on his flight suit read that he was a cartographer, communications specialist & a programmer, so she just as quickly figured out his worth to the mission.

“You are not as critical to the mission as you think. Useful, but not critical. Without knowing what to put on the maps or to report back, you won’t have much to do. I will be taking care of telling you that.” Her voice was pretty smarting when she said this, but not really overflowing with emotion. Probably because several of her hormonal glands had long since evolved to be radically different from human glands. She still felt the same emotions, she just didn’t express them the same way.

Huh. A female as part of the crew? Clearly they’d drawn the short straw for this one. It’ll just gum up the works with some feminine presence aboard. “Everyone’s expendable including the middle man who might think they’re in charge of my position. Now if you’ll get out of my way I’ve things to take care of for prep,” he had an equally bored tone comparable to hers, but his was fashioned of years of cultural levity. Of course he’d comprehended her response - she apparently thought she’d be telling him what to include hereby asserting herself as part of the crew, but he seriously doubted this. Likely she was just trying to rub off some of his self-importance onto herself. Perhaps she wanted to rub elbows with him to feel important as well. Whatever the cause, he knew his importance and didn’t need some slip of a girl to tell him.

Heaving a put-upon sigh, he tried to move past her, uncaring if he physically jostled her as he did so. His vision was clearly obstructed and he’d made clear his intentions. Be it far from him if she would rather chatter about her position aboard the ship rather than heed his succinct message.

Morven pondered whether to react to his apparent indications of personal overestimation, but she fairly quickly realized that would be pointless. His kind, while fairly rare, would not easily be shaken loose from their outdated opinions. Especially not after a single conversation. She had encountered his kind in the past and had found the only reliable way to change their views, other than brainwashing (which was the province of the military), was to prove them wrong. In other words, it’d take time. When he pressed past, she was somewhat tempted to do something to embarrass him, but managed (barely) to restrain that urge. Besides, she herself had work to do too. Less than half the sensor packages she wanted had been loaded so far. Whomever had loaded them had no real experience in exoplanet processing & identification.

~| Several weeks later |~

By this time, Morven had met most of the crew. Other than the pesky attitudes of the communications officer, in which she showed her irritation through discoloration of the scales on her stomach (which was invisible to others), they were a nice enough bunch. Despite the massive size of the vessel compared the the typical MWEC ships, it would only hold a crew of five people. Should a target galaxy not hold sufficient planets of worth, that would mean less lives sacrificed, a decision she had no problem accepting. But then, Morven knew well how unlikely it would be for their target galaxy to be unprofitable. The biggest issue would be the massive effort for building a gateway on the other end and linking it to the Milky Way Gateway (MWG).

She slipped through storage section seven, marvelling at how the Government had chosen to build parts of the ship without artificial gravity, a feat she considered particularly impressive. Of all the ships she had been on, they were either ancient freighters without any gravitic generators or equipped with a gravitic generator array that engaged gravity for the whole ship at once, never just for parts of a ship. It did make sense to have it that way for the storage section, for it eliminated a lot of the need for extra powerful machinery in there. Even a child could move a crate in Zero-G that would in normal gravity weigh several tons. Though it was years in the past, she could still vividly recall a demonstration of just that.

Because she could, Morven elected to take a few somersaults in her journey through the massive chamber, which was still fairly empty. Later she knew it would be filled up with raw materials for the food fabricators and several other systems. Till that was loaded, the chamber was a nice place to practice ZG maneuvering.

A notification bubble popped into focus and started floating about the holographic display that Astrid was working on. She tried to ignore it, focusing instead on manipulating the design she had spent the last several hours editing, but the distraction kept appearing and disappearing from her field of view, and more and more randomly as she rotated the hologram's field of view on its three-dimensional access. Astrid had programmed the bubble to do exactly as it was, knowing full well that if it was any less irritating, she would continue to ignore it and find herself having to deal with any one or more of the crew members. Better to figure out why they were bothering her without actually having to be forced into face-to-face interaction. Not that some of them would let that detail stop them. It only took a few more minutes before she rolled her eyes, succumbed to pacifying her annoyance, and poked the cute, little bouncing-exclamation-mark-filled bubble.

The bubble burst, and from it scrolled a list of planetary information. She heaved a sigh, put her hand right through the screen, and fervently swiped the report away. Like I care, were the first words that came to mind. She stretched her arms down, holding herself up from her hands on the console that projected the holograms, her neck completely relaxed and her head slumped down, chin to her chest. Astrid stayed there for a moment, trying to simply erase her irritation from her mind. The woman gave another sigh to the empty room, pushed off of the surface and spun around, long, dirty blonde hair flowing around her face. Her office was tidy, much cleaner than any office she had before, but then she had greatly enjoyed programming some adorable little robots that would come out and periodically remove waste from the floors and shelves or sort and organize various equipment that she left laying about. There was a flat surface extruding from one wall with a wheeled-chair by it that she sat in. On the table was a container of water that she absent-mindedly grabbed and put to her lips, only to find it empty. She sighed again, much more quietly and calmly this time, replaced the container, though keeping her hand daintily wrapped around it. She placed her opposite elbow softly on the table and set her head in her outstretched hand. Astrid's mind started to wander...

A few months earlier...

"Ms. Avila, please come to my office." The voiced chimed in and out of the speakers implanted so irritatingly over her work station. She had managed to get an entire office to herself, to finally be allowed to work in private, and they had to put the speaker right in front of her face. She knew that one of these days, she'd rip it right from the wall. She was tempted to sit there, not respond, and see if Mr. Bernard would just forget, but she knew better. Astrid rose, shifted her clothing, shook her head to allow her long hair to float more freely about, and swayed out of the room.

"Mr. Bernard will see you now," the secretary said with a curt, nasal tone as Astrid arrived to her boss' office.

Astrid gracefully threw the secretary a glance out of the corner of her eye, dropping her head ever-so-slightly to more clearly view the woman seated behind the desk. "Thank you, dear." Astrid responded with the smoothest tone she could muster. Astrid never halted her pace to receive any sort of response from the secretary. Her long legs continued to carry her forward. She appeared to move slowly, but her strides were lengthy and she managed to cover distances quite quickly, even in high heels. She said nothing as the see-through door slid aside and Astrid slipped through the entrance.

Mr. Bernard stood looking out at an impressive vista, an entire cityscape sprawled beneath him. As general stereotypes went, Astrid found there were two types of men in relation to her: predators and prey. Prey were simple, nervous, and easy to handle and persuade. Predators were confident, dominant, and often gifted with a literal position of power over her. Mr. Bernard was a predator. His physique was impeccable, his eyes were piercing, and if she hadn't grown beyond the ability to feel in such a way for someone, she might have considered himself attractive. He was also the reason why she had been recently promoted, and she knew quite well what her additional "duties" might entail. "Ms. Avila, welcome."

Present day...

Astrid blinked her eyes a few times, distracting herself away from her daydream. She shook her head ever-so-slightly. Closing her eyes for a moment, she opened them again, looking at her empty drink. She stared at it for a moment but, not desiring to fall back into her memories again, stood up from her seat, leaving the container on the table. She went to one of the consoles and input a few commands.

Within moments, another one of her mechanical creations came skirting around a corner. The squat robot leaped up onto the table with precision, grabbed the bottle and leaped back off. "Make sure to get something a little stronger than water this time," she called provocatively back at the little machine. It stopped for a moment, made some sort of whistle to register that it had received her statement, and shot off again around the corner and out of her lab.

He hated his job. He really did, he wouldn't trade the gruff Militaristic way of life he was raised in but this assignment was one of the worst he had ever been given. He was all right with working with crew from the other colonies and alliances that made up the Galaxy. Especially when he was told he would be working with the best and brightest, apparently that also meant complete pain in the arses with no respect for protocol or apparently chain of command. "It is common sense that when asking for permission to enter the bridge, Mr. Itztli." He turned back around to face the man who had entered the bridge. "I am inclined to take us to the first system on the list as soon as Miss. Buchanan has got back to me. I feel it is the best chance of us finding a habitable planet capable of sustaining human life. We can deploy a beacon and have it saved in case of a catastrophic failure of the ship and need to evacuate or alternatively if we find something important later in the Galaxy we will be able to relay the co-ordinates off this planet to be the main point of ingress from the Milkyway to act as a good base."

---

1 Year Ago.

"...It's a command. Your own vessel, your own crew. You'll be the boss with very little scrutiny from the higher ups. She'll be your ship Andrew.""That isn't the point." He leaned back in his chair looking into the face of his wife. They had met when serving together and after fighting together for several years the relationship advanced and now they were happily married with two kids and their first grandchild on the way. "I won't be coming back from this. That is the point in this.""But think about it, you'll be seeing things nobody else has ever seen. That no-one else has ever dreamed off seeing!" He chuckled at this slightly. "You almost sound jealous, you always were the explorer. This assignment should be yours and you know it." She waved him away at this. "I left the service years ago. They wouldn't take me back and even if they did I never had the aptitude score that you have, besides you know you need to do this." He shrugged. "If I deny this my military career is over but at least I will stay here. What about Sandy, she's about to have her first kid I can't miss that." She placed her hand over his, and he turned it up and squeezed her hand lightly.

"You'll always be able to see us, to speak to us. We're not going anywhere. You need to do this, think of what it will do for the family. The money, the fame. It will help the kids dramatically in their career. I know you hate that it works that way but it does. Family matters." He sighed, she played the family card. That would get him to kick it into gear. "I'll do it, but. I-" She smiled and he could see a tear at the corner of her eye. "I know."

Present Day

While he had been caught off guard by the reverie he shook it off as he turned his chair to look back out of the main view port, casting a glance briefly at an older photograph of him with his wife and two daughters. Smiling slightly as he did so he looked back out. "The real deal is we need to make sure that we know where we can call safe harbor and command is interested in finding anything useful and that includes worlds habitable and available to colonize. Some of the corporations have high hopes as they believe that there is bound to be something out here, so don't want us to find something then not be able to give them a target world to send the colony ship a soon as we find something of value they will likely begin preparations." He looked back at the console. "ALICE.""Yes Captain.""I'd like you to prepare a drill for tomorrow morning, oh-six-hundred hours.""Yes sir, what type of scenario would you like." He took a moment to think off this. "Hull breach scenario, engine failure." He wasn't really paying attention to the other man on the bridge at the moment but he cast his head in the mans direction. "I'll forward you my log later this evening. For now I want you to go to Engineering and get the full system report from the jump and compile it to send in our daily update."

He turned away from the man. "Dismissed."

[OOC: Sep, your character's tirade about entering the bridge seemed like a sentence fragment. Don't worry about altering it, I'll just have Jason ignore it anyway as part of his "disinterest in comprehending 78% of what the captain says" flaw. ;D]

It wasn't a secret that the captain hated his job. Jason extracted his package, pulling it onto a portable data tab that was flexible and annoyingly orange. Jason liked the color, but few others in his trade seemed to. Perhaps that was why he'd chosen it. It was proportionality thing. The more grotesque the object the less likely others would nab it. -Perhaps the captain would like his job more if he tried to talk and walk and act like he didn't have a large, metal, spiked rod stuck up his-

"I'll make a note of the first system and start pulling up further star data for Buchanan to work with then," Jason concluded, ignoring most of what the captain said and responding only to what was relevant to his position. When Jason had glanced over his shoulder to see if the Captain had heard his words he saw the man staring out into space or at a wall or something - Jason wasn't entirely sure what he was looking at from his vantage point. The man wasn't even bothering to try to make eye contact with him. Likely expected him to go and ready the beacon and do a PMS (preventative maintenance schedule) check on it, too.

As a joke, Jason asked him, "Don't you find it odd that we're outnumbered by females on the ship? Even the robbit is a female." He was referring to Alice. "I mean, not that I'm complaining, just figured you'd want to divvy the loot before things escalated as they inevitably will," he added self-satisfied with where he stood in this ratio chain given that it was also well known that the captain was married, but separated.

These words, too, were lost on the captain it seemed. Unconcerned, Jason began muttering work-related nonsense to himself as he pulled up the star chart and began a spectral analysis of the light and viability of life based on predetermined vectors and reports already keyed into the system as a result of Buchanan's department's initial uploader. Established facts. It was meant to save her time and give his chart more functionality.

Keying in several lines of code, he began manually adding the most recent report's information. Most of it would later on be confirmed and logged by the ship as they traveled through those spaces, but for now it was better to build up a reliable system of information off of what they already knew. To prevent sabotage from beyond the gate, the patches sent to him wouldn't be spread, initially, throughout the ship's system. Virus scanners and Alice's thorough "eye" would check the information and disseminate to the appropriate departments which were segregated to, again, prevent widespread contamination, corruption, what-have-you.

Abruptly the captain spoke out again. Jason couldn't help the small start he made which input a line of wrong code inadvertently. Cursing, uncaring of his company, he immediately recalled the line and revised it appropriately, ignoring the numerous error messages that began popping up on his display. "Some warning before you inconvenience me again, cap'n."

The man began to drone on about the mission, stuff that Jason had heard recited ad nausem. In an effort to finish the star compilation and have it running while he went to go grab some coffee and chitchat with Skokie (who seemed to have the most personality on this ship second only to him), Jason ignored the captain and quickly processed several more lines of code. It was the change in the captain's tone that drew Jason's attention back.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Jason asked. The other ignored him, apparently talking to Alice instead. So we're having a drill. Oh. Goody. The sarcastic enthusiasm in his mental tone was painful even for him to hear. This was why he had left the military. Why in the world - (ship?) - did this need to be done at the crack of dawn ship time? Why couldn't it be during their working hours rather than prior to when they'd all have gone through hygiene measures. At least he'd know it was coming. That was preferable to waking up to those infernally annoying alarms without any warning.

"But I was going to decrypt our comms package from back home to start passing them out by din-"

"Dismissed," the captain said, turning away from him.

Jason narrowed his eyes at the other. Snatching away his portable data tab, he logged out of the chart to prevent others from altering his work. As if going to engineering couldn't wait until later. I've at least four hours before the report needs to be reviewed by him anyhow. Storming off of the bridge, Jason made his way to engineering.

He braced himself and placed a palm on the door to find that the way had been barred, again. Sighing, he banged on the door uselessly, slow, apathetic hits rather than anything more excited since she was unlikely to hear it through the metal frame. Sighing once more, though this one was full of resentment due to needing to apply more effort than he wanted into any given task, he pulled out his data pad and connection cable and began trying to hack his way through the engineer's palm scanner, but every attempt failed under her protective programs. He wasn't actually expecting to get in through this, but she'd see that someone was attempting to get through her door and likely be bugged enough to open it or at least figure out why someone was trying to bug her.

"C'mon sweetcheeks. Captain's sent me to do business in engineering and I certainly can't do it if you're always locking the place up tighter than a prized companion."

Skokie was not sleeping, she was wide awake. With her eyes closed. Lying in bed. Picturing a microbe that can pass itself off as the host's; like cancer, but without any indicators of disease. Then it triggers death, no natural immunity, no countermeasures, the world dies-off in a matter of months.

This was her fear, her nightmare.

Ever since nanotechnology offered instant cures to nearly any medical cause and symptom, the study of micro-biology and biological warfare had largely stagnated except in the hands of crazy people. Skokie was one such crazy person, often claiming that like HIV, there could be a disease that tricks the nanotechnology to attack healthy tissue. This cross-training in nano-technology largely meant she used to be responsible for developing software-patches for firmer diagnosis, and ability to treat without such nasty side-effects like making clone-armies, memory-wiping people suffering from minor headaches, or trying to re-define the human race to match a single person (although she could think of a few cultists who'd just LOVE that).

Her reasons for joining were largely simple. -IF- her thesis were correct, then the entire human race would be in oblivious danger, however, to get anybody to get off the asses and develop the required patches to safeguard against a nano-biological 'Trojan horse' she would have to prove such a disease can exist... which means she needs to obviously infect something, and prove current remedies do not work. However, she and her benefactors believed that if such a thing ever did exist, they wanted work done on it as far as humanly possible from Earth, for obvious reasons in case they fail to find a cure for this undiscovered incurable disease.

But she still needed to infect an organism. The crew would be left-out of the equation, as she brought a batch of fish, small, and likely to become severely inbred after enough generations if their gene-pool isn't altered on occasion to removed defective mutations on an irregular basis. These fish increased the carbon-footprint, so the algea-scrubbers had to be spliced to improve efficiency, which was a bit more than expected and allowed for a garden-space after adding a compost/fermentation center from disused algea-tubes 43 and 48 respectively, while the garden occupied tubes 44 through 47 and the spaces in between. In the garden were also a few hens and a rooster to lay eggs, the eggs were mostly to provide an incubation-medium for her diseases before subjecting them to the rigors of infecting a host with an immune system (natural or artificial).

Getting out of bed, she finally saw ALICE was trying to get her attention as she picked up a toothbrush, picturing her mother scolding her to "clean your teeth with nanobots like a normal person". Rebelously, she flicked on a recording, well... not really a recording so much as a playback program.

Being a small crew, the ship had payload to spare, and she made sure to bring a load of scrap drives and other electronics for research, in case they plan on building some sort of working 'welcome-center' she wanted to be able to build her own computer from scratch with whatever was out there if necessary, 2d silicon disc-drives instead of 3d aluminum aerogel holographic drives. These older ones had served their original purpose, now they were more of a warning. She managed to rig the drives to a radio-interference controller, essentially giving meaning to every gesture into a drive making its own unique noise.

By this time ALICE chirped, one of the few noises Skokie had not firewalled, although she did set a flood-limit for obvious reasons.

Groaning, she sulked to a datapad and purused the information from the AI's newest report.

"The last one. Drop a probe on the others." She answered to her mute electronic servant as she scribbled a note and placed it alongside one of the disc drives (#4) just after it shattered in the middle of a high-note, it read: This will be you, Alice; in 6 years.

She then returned to siphoning alcohol from the fermenting-tank, and prepared for the usual guests to ask how work was going in the funny farm.

It would not be inconceivable to think that being one of only five humanoids in an entire galaxy would ensure a person with a certain amount of time to themselves. Of course, the unexplored territory could reverse that particular statistic, if other humanoids were to be found, somewhere out there. Astrid couldn't care less, one way or the other. But she did feel that every time a moment came when her inspiration had sparked, her progress had momentum, there was some irritating factor nagging at her from which it seemed impossible to escape. One of the main reasons Astrid had taken the posting on the forsaken voyage was because she wanted to be left alone. Because she didn't desire interaction with other humanoids. Because being within reach of only a few, despite whatever imagery was being piped back to their home galaxy, was far more preferable than suffering amongst masses.

And yet, here was yet another notification bubble floating around her periphery. This one contained a live, holographic feed from just outside her lab, the view of which was dominated by a human male, one Jason Itztli. Astrid resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. She swished the bubble away once or twice, she did not keep track, doing the action almost unconsciously. It wasn't until A.L.I.C.E. came into view beside the bubble that the woman took notice.

"Jason Itztli wishes to gain entrance to the engineering compartments," the V.I. plainly stated.

Astrid smiled and titled her head to look upon her creation. The programmer designed not only many of the key functionalities but also the visual representation of the V.I. interface. The program more or less ran the ship, with input, updates, and grand decision making being the only real purpose of the ship's crew. As for the interface itself, Astrid had modeled the image after her own self-image. Though the two were not exactly similar, due mostly to Astrid's slight disposition against what she saw as a fault in her beauty, A.L.I.C.E. and Astrid did share many similarities, despite Astrid's being physical and A.L.I.C.E.'s being holographic.

"Did he send you to tell me that?" Astrid lilted. In some ways, it felt like speaking to a little sister, one that would never argue, be disagreeable, or jealous, or any other number of completely irrational emotions.

"No," the interface gave a plain response.

Astrid raised an eyebrow when no further explanation was offered by the interface.

"I was obliged to notify you due to Jason being ordered here by the captain."

"Aahhh," Astrid purred. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason working at his datapad to try and hack the door open. "What would you wager his chances of success at breaking my encryptions?"

A.L.I.C.E. hardly skipped a beat in its calculation. "At his current pace and strategy: 10.3 % in 9 minutes, 31.1% in 24 minutes, 46.5% in 37 minutes, 67.7% in 41 minutes and after that the encryption keys will recycle and he will have to start from scratch again."

"Hmmmm, let's see just how much you can do, Jason." Astrid said, quite softly.

Why she insisted on keeping the door locked was beyond him. She could've been sleeping, he mused peevishly while he checked the time and continued working his way in. About twenty minutes ago he'd begun putting serious efforts into the hacking of the door instead of continuing his lackadaisical button-mashing approach. He suspected she was playing hard to get quite literally. Probably teasing him and having a good laugh about this right now behind this metallic door. He dropped his hands, his data pad in one hand by his side and he leaned forward towards the camera. He knew the angle would make him seem a bit... impressive, so as suave as he could he angled so she'd see his jaw and eyes, but not up his nose and gave her his best beseeching, simmering look.

He dropped his voice an octave, "C'mon, babe, won't you just let me in? The encryption keys are about to reset and I'd much rather maximize time spent with you rather than without." When the door suddenly opened he thought he'd scored and was quick to slip through before she changed her mind. However, he saw one of her trademarked bots roll just a little ahead of him. Quick-footed, he caught himself before he tripped over the little bugger. Leaning over, he took the drink from it, "I'll take it from here, champ. Rest your little appendages."

Then he stepped around the corner and into Astrid's workspace. "Good afternoon, sweetcheeks," he called out cheerfully. He held out the beverage container to her, waiting for her confirmation that she had a grip on it before letting it go. Rather than heading directly to the engineering spaces, he decided to linger to chit-chat with her.

"Hello there," Astrid responded to with the slightest grin on her face. She looked down at the little robot that had incidentally opened the door for the man. She would have to write a new subroutine into the programming for her companions to prevent such accidental entrances for future circumstances. The cute little thing hopped up and down behind Jason with two clasps outstretched, as if pleading for the drink back to finish its assigned task. Astrid delicately removed the drink from Jason's offering hand and then bent over to pet her metallic creation. Astrid gave the robot a big smile, her eyes squinting in the process and said, "Thank you," with a little giggle added for good measure. The robot whistled a few disapproving tones in Jason's direction but several "I'm happy you're happy" tones back to the woman. It scuttled off to some other odd place in engineering, out of sight.

"I'm sure you must've missed me so while you've been cloistered up in your office," he said, convinced. Astrid was their resident bombshell and certainly someone he wanted to spend more time around if she didn't always seem to be too busy for him. He made a mental note to make more effort to stop by.

She stood slowly back upright. Had she been wearing something more revealing, Jason would most certainly have had a clear view down her shirt. Unfortunately for him, she was wearing a rusty red colored, almost form fitting, turtleneck under her white lab coat. But Astrid was sure he would look anyway. She relaxed her big grin from the one she had given her cute pet back to the slight grin she had worn when greeting him. [/b]"Of course, dear,"[/b] she said, taking one very slow step in his direction, crossing one leg in front of the other without separating her thighs, feeling out where general space ended and his personal space began. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" she asked in sultry tones, though A.L.I.C.E. had already given her the answer before he managed to enter.

***With a guest writing appearance by the incomparable Kessa***

As she worked upon making the computer construct estimated appearances of the planets from the sensor data, Morven thought on the time six years earlier when her body still looked mostly human. These days, she could hardly imagine being so primitive, reliant on muscles to show emotions, with fragile skin and bones. Now she was so much better. If she thought hard, she could still use her facial muscles to show emotions, but that no longer felt natural, or happened instinctively. The muscles still existed, but they lacked the same purpose as they held all those years ago.

Like everyone else on the ship, she had been charged by the government to do various things. She would do them, of course, but she felt no incessant urge to do as ordered. She had joined this expedition more to have time to figure out why she had changed and what it meant as she had out of curiosity about this galaxy. Getting away from bothersome relatives from back when she was human was just as important a goal as understanding the changes. If she first had to stay here for the foreseeable future, she might as well figure out if there were any good planets out here. For while the ship is capable of staying out nearly indefinitely, there is something intangible that worlds have and ships lack. That same intangible thing was why she had chosen to join the MWEC in the first place. She had hoped that, by visiting as many worlds as possible, she could figure out just what it was. So far, however, there had not been any luck.

Slowly the projections of the planets took shape. There were numerous blurred zones were the computer had to extrapolate appearance, but they were small and far between. Using the algorithms she had developed over the last couple of years, Morven could actually reconstruct almost all of a planets backside just from the full sensor sweep of the front. Provided the planet had a sufficiently thick atmosphere and interconnected ecosystem. A multi-sided scan would still be more detailed, of course, for though topography and climate could be reconstructed that way, it was not possible to reconstruct deeper geology or other things not directly linked to the ecosystem. There was also the fact that no orbital or extra-orbital scan could reveal genetic details of the biological life on planets. Sensors simply could not yet be calibrated that finely. That was one reason Exoplanetists always went down to planet surfaces if there was even a hint of life on them.

She chose not to pay much attention at all to the rest of the crew. Not because she didn't like them, but more because they weren't all that relevant. They had their missions and purposes, she had hers. Other than convenience or in the potential need to go down to a planet would she have any reason to interact with any of them. They would send their relevant data to her and she would send hers to them. There was no good reason for her to interact more with the humans. No reason at all. The computer bleeped as the projections finished up. She tagged the sectors according to precision, made a quick listing of probable resources, then sent it to the others.

Jason ignored the robot's clamoring for attention until Astrid bent down to tend to it. Anyone else might think to remark how odd it was that her robotic creatures enjoyed the physical contact of her praise rather than voice acknowledgement, but Jason certainly didn't mind it. Specifically, he didn't mind what it yielded to his own pleasure... by that it was how said physical gratification of her robot pet positioned her in relation to his happy body. He could kiss the little bugger if he weren't so captivated for the moment. He stared at the back of her head eyeing her hair - those lush locks - missing that rare, truly happy smile she graced the 'bot, but Jason was not the least bit bothered in his ignorance of it. Her slow return up and the way she turned her eyes up as if to watch his face as she straightened up, his eyes dropped from the back of her head to her eyes with a peripheral sight of what her stretched turtleneck highlighted and a slight, absolutely insanity-inducing curve of her lips, stirred something in Jason. He ignored it, shifting his weight to accommodate his discomfort and throwing his hands into his jumpsuit pockets.

Unlike Astrid, Jason wore the suits provided to him by one of the many select corporations that knew him and his role on the ship. As the communications officer, if he opted to transmit any video record along with his audio, he'd often, advertently, provide "air time" of said corporation's logo for reuse back where others might watch said recordings and cut to their specifications (because all information was on a particular need-to-know basis with only the highest levels garnering access to the actual information transmitted.) As a result, he often had only the most comfortable and high-tec of outfits. It was like wearing PJs and every corporation that had their thick fingers in the project strove to give everyone on the ship things to encourage their use of their objects. Even the walls were adorned with some slap-happy "graffiti." Here, Jason settled for a plain dark grey undershirt tucked into the darker jumpsuit which was unzipped to just above his pelvic bones. No skin was showing, of course, but it hardly mattered since everything was so form fitting. The arms of the jumpsuit were limply folded and tied in front of him, acting like an additional loincloth. The undershirt clung to his body comfortably, providing ample theater to what muscle mass Jason insisted on not losing. He took his physical appearance very seriously.

When Astrid stepped forward, he stood, unmoving. She wasn't yet close enough for his (human) comfort, but he let her come to him rather than closing the distance further.

Ooh, he's confident, isn't he? was the thought that crossed Astrid's mind. She would never say so out loud, and she didn't think Jason needed her to tell him what he most obviously exuded. Astrid had no interest in the man, to be sure. She was on this pleasure cruise for only one purpose: her research. The woman had long since passed her interest in human interaction, finding the social obligation others placed upon her to be insufferable. Inevitably, she had played along, but only after she realized that every new face she met would assume the same about her. She followed their whims at first to try and diffuse them, but inevitably, she shifted the purpose of her social interactions to using people. The more attracted to her beauty they were, the easier they were to manipulate. Astrid could hardly remember what her human interaction was like before she developed her flirtatious nature.

She halted her progress at one step when she realized that he wouldn't flinch or cringe out of nervousness.

"You know," he cleared his throat gently, it deepening a little as he continued, "We'd have the most beautiful babies." He waited a beat before continuing, enjoying the physical strain he felt on top of the mental temptation. He wanted to touch her, reach out and caress her angel face and maybe lower, but wouldn't give her the pleasure. After all, she'd not sought him out since they'd blasted through the gate and she hadn't opened the door for him moments before.

When he delivered his incredibly odd pick-up-line, she held back a full, out-loud laugh. She almost succeeded but had to cover her mouth with one hand, tilting her head downwards and making a soft chortle into her palm. She was a little surprised at the restraint he was showing, but then he seemed incredibly vain. Add that to his high-horse confidence ride and there was one guy that she would not be able to control without some serious investment, which she was more than happy to simply avoid. She would tease him nonetheless, though, knowing full well what her own charms were capable of doing. Then again, a pick-up line containing the idea of babies isn't exactly charming, is it?

He leaned in, just a scant inch closer to her, eyes half-lidded and murmured, "But I don't have time for that right now, dollface, I need to gather basic diagnostics for the coms report. So, if you'll excuse me-." He stepped around her, knowing that he was leaving her panting and wanting, and made his way to the door that would bring him to the output screens by the equipment running their ship. While they could pull this data up on the screens in her office, he enjoyed going down into the large, sterile engineering spaces. Mostly, he enjoyed knowing that she would likely follow him, if not physically, then he knew for a fact she'd have a camera on him to make sure he didn't mess with any of her automations down in the spaces.

As he leaned in, she made sure to tilt her head forward ever-so-slightly, as if to receive whatever it was he thought he could serve. When he moved around her instead of carrying on the conversation, her shoulders drooped, her face took on a slight pout, even if it was only a conditioned response to a denial of sorts.

She kept her position still, waiting until the door whooshed closed behind him. She sighed softly before allowing her face to go blank of any emotion. She crossed her arms, pivoted her weight from hip to hip, took a sip from her drink, which she only then realized was missing a gulp or two, and rolled her eyes. Astrid set the beverage back on the table which extended from the wall and moved back to her console, her work loading automatically before her as she got closer.

A.L.I.C.E. phased back into the display once again. "Would you like to keep an eye on Jason Itztli?"

Astrid waved a hand dismissively. "Just stop him from touching anything he shouldn't be griming up."

"Very well."

***

"Just a bit of biological programming," Jason murmured as he jogged down the ladder wells, congratulating himself. He knew he'd had an effect on her. He pushed his hands onto the last set of railing and let himself slide down, his feet catching himself at the base of the ladder well with practiced ease. Jason made a show of looking all about him, his adoring public and took a bow. And then he took off on a slow jog through the machinery, fingers gently trailing over the large structural heat sinks. The air down here was hotter and soon enough he was perspiring, though it felt good to exert himself.

After a short while he came to the data screen he needed to access. He wiped his palm against his chest, struggling not to stare up at the camera that was likely following his every move, and pressed it against the reader.

....And found that access wasn't granted. Astrid certainly was making his life difficult today.

"Alice?" Jason chirped cheerfully, though there was an undertone of annoyance.

"Yes?" A holographic image of Alice's face appeared on the screen before him.

"I need access to this data."

"Access is not authorized," she intoned unhelpfully.

"Yes, I see. Grant me access? It's not a secret why I'm here," he continued on impatiently.

"One moment please..."

Jason waited. It lasted for all of two seconds before he spoke up at the camera. "C'mon Astrid. Don't toy with me. I want to get in and get out... if you know what I mean." He couldn't help the last comment and grinned nervously up at the camera, knowing that this plaintiff tone wasn't sexy, but unable to do much more without her access.

When Alice returned, Jason smile more broadly, certain that he was going to be finished with this sooner rather than later. "Access is not authorized to the data streams. Recommend spectral amalgamation of data optically."

Jason's mouth dropped and he sputtered, "You- you've got to be kidding me. That'll take me-"

"Three hours, thirteen minutes, twenty-eight seconds, four mi-"

"No, Alice. I'm not going to read every gauge. Dial in Astrid. I'll speak to her direct," he curled his hands into fists, channeling his irritation into that rather than taking it out on the data service center where he was evidently not going to be granted access.

"The chief engineer is currently busy and cannot take your message. If you leave a message with me, I will notify her as soon as her schedule is-"

"No! No. You know... screw this."

"I am unable to comp-" Alice began.

"Just stop," Jason fumed, knowing that she was purposefully mistaking his colloquialism as something slightly more literal.

The hologram disappeared and Jason was left to his own rage. She couldn't be busy; she was likely watching him stew in his own sweat and anger right now. Sparing only one glancing glare at one of the cameras, he stormed back up into Astrid's office. Once there he hadn't a chance to even see if she was still at her desk; he was ushered out, rather forcefully, by several security lines.

Huffing, Jason straightened up just outside of the engineering office, glowering at the door. If looks could burn, the metal alloy would've been a puddle seeping its way rapidly to the skin of the ship. He'd half an impulsive thought to kick the door to make a point, but abruptly had another thought impede on that one. One, that it'd likely hurt his foot. Two, that he knew someone on the ship that he could console himself in. Twisting around, he took off for Skokie's domain.

Unlike Astrid's he found nothing barring his entrance into her area. However, even in entering, he wasn't quite certain which of her vast spaces she might be in. "Hello? Skoke-baby? You didn't become plant feed in my absence, have you?" He joked, already feeling his irritation ease off after his jog through the corridors to this side of the ship.

[OOC: This is a collaborative post between myself and our fearless gamer master, Jorj.]

***Planetary System Report for G0-class main sequence star designated EEE2-0001***

Planet 1:


Planet 2:


Asteroid Belt

Planet 3:


Planet 4:


Asteroid Belt