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The Application:
That was when you first found the job. The posting was almost invisible, and you almost missed it. It was floating in a sea of scams, and crap-jobs friendlied up to appear as something else. In fact, you were reserved about even handing your information over to your current employer, half expecting there to be no response but an assault on your means of contact with a million salesmen peddling nothing that you wanted.

However, sure enough, there was a quick response, a quick interview, and eventually a quick job-offer. The men who interviewed and hired you were two fold. The plump and very bald (not even eyelashes) Victor Vincent, triple Ph.Ds in theoretical physics, quantum theory, and nuclear physics. Though he had every rite to lord his doctorates over you, he was a humble and quiet sort of man who seemed more nervous about hiring and interviewing than you were. His associate, Daubs McFarrell was a diametric opposite of Victor. Tall and gangly, covered in a beard and extra hair, and wore glasses that were probably manufactured in the 70’s. He had a lot to say (often coming across as accusatory) and never seemed satisfied no matter how eloquent your answer was.

These two had just gained numerous patents, and Victor was running this little dream child from infancy, and therefore was not a very well funded or well established business. Whenever questions arose about duties or operations he would simply answer. “Well, you would be the first.” or “We haven’t exactly got to that point yet, it is still in the experimental stage.”

However, they had budgeted a large amount for some really good healthcare and great pay considering your background was pretty unremarkable. But, still, life had opened a gap that let you land into this new job without any better options, regardless of how mysterious it was. Therefore when the phone call came back to you, and the offer was on the table; money seemed to be transfigured into oxygen and you could breathe and pay your bills again without that nasty acidic flavor in the back of your throat.

The Training:
Your first week at work was remarkably normal. You were to be part of an expedition, might be out of contact for as long as a year. So the pay was actually non-taxable as well (which was totally awesome) the prospect of a year away from your comfortable lifestyle was a little disconcerting, but you were assured that the year was only if everything that COULD go wrong, DID go wrong. More accurate predictions was that it should last a month or less depending on how successful the trip was, but to be prepared if there were any complications.

Your training was in an empty machine shop that was rented. The cement floor and large garage door was the only permanent fixtures. Everything else was rickety desks, some aged office chairs, and dusty computers probably handed down from someone who had upgraded to the latest and greatest. Here, you were run through a series of simulations and explained how to handle various problems. Most of it was tackled via computer, but some of the tasks involved swapping out modules of equipment that you had no clue as to its purpose. Many of the parts had pieces of wood or poor welding jobs that screamed of hand-crafting. You were usually alone in your training, occasionally someone else sat at a station immersed in their own duties. When you showed a quick mastery, Victor was well pleased and assured you that your efforts would not be alone on the ship.

The ship? Well, of course the idea of a spaceship raced past your mind. In this day and age why wouldn’t it? It was possible, much of your tasks were out of the ordinary and you did not suspect that it would be a naval vessel since swimming and nautical terminology was blatantly ignored, such as references to “left” and “right” rather than “port” and “starboard.” But if it was a spaceship, where was there to even go for a month? The moon? Mars? Maybe a half-month out and a half-month back with NO destination in mind just to test out a new form of travel? This statement alone seemed fantastic and shot your assumptions into believing it a watercraft again, but not really settling on the idea.

The Expedition
After a few weeks, Victor explained that everything was ready... that the expedition was going to commence. All that was lacking was orientation, and then departure. It was arranged to meet at the workshop in order to meet with the crew and then the rest of the day everyone would be free to pack and get their last minute affairs in order (your hourly wage was on Victor’s dime.) Then, the next morning, everyone was to collect at the workshop with luggage so that they could take a shuttle to the airport together without having to pay for parking.

And so our expedition begins. On that day, the sun seemed reluctant to rise and stubbornly lurked behind the rocky mountains to the east. Though late spring, it was far from comfortable at this time, it was down right cold. Even so, the temperature for your speck in Colorado was to shoot up to mid 90s once the sun had a chance to roast everything in its path, unencumbered by atmosphere, latitude, humidity, or clouds. Everybody clustered together at the locked doors, waiting for either Daubs or Victor to come along and open it for you... with doughnuts and coffee as promised.

The young freckled red-head shivered in the cold, wrapping her brick red hoodie around her as if it could somehow battle against the frosty air. Nose and cheeks red, she tried to get her mind off of the cold. She wasn't very tall or built to begin with, so when she scrunched up as tightly as possible, this made her seem even smaller. She sniffed back the relentless mucus flow that always seemed prevalent in cold air. Then promptly rubbed her arms trying to keep the skin from complaining so much.

"I'm guessing that you're all part of the team, right? I saw you doing something at one of the stations," she addressed Tank. It was true, she was puttering around somewhere in back where there were a few cabinets... and she was at it for hours, but far enough away and supervised closely enough that not so much as a greeting was shared. For the most part the others had experienced the same. One or two faces stood out (usually the more predominant ones) as someone who had been there before but who had no contact with them."I bet you all are like super experts at what you do, but I have no clue. Thus far I've replaced a bunch of things with other things. I mean I now know where every JJ8 is, where it goes, and what it looks like, but I couldn't tell you what it does. Am I the only person here that's clueless about this? I honestly don't even know what sort of ship this is. I figure that maybe it's like a drone submarine or blimp or something like that, but I'm kind of hoping it's a space ship."

Upon saying this she nodded to herself.

"Maybe it's a drone space ship." She thought a moment and then introduced herself.
"My name's Arrow, by the way," either she was the daughter of a hippie as was the fate of many a "Rainbow" or "Waterfall" or it was a street name. Or maybe she was just making it up.

The tall blonde shivered slightly and pulled her long grey southwest patterned sweater tighter around her, wishing she'd grabbed her jacket as well instead of relying on an old faded maroon tee bearing the Woodleaf Outdoor School logo that she'd had forever and her sweater. She pulled her black knit hat down over her ears and stomped her feet to warm them, regretting her choice of boat shoes despite knowing that it would be warmer later in the day. Evie looked up as the younger redhead began speaking.

"I don't know about 'super expert' but I definitely get by." Evie gave a kind smile and reached out to shake the younger woman's hand. "Nice to meet you Arrow, I'm Evelyn. But you can call me Evie." She considered what she'd been asked and shrugged. "I honestly don't know if it's a spaceship or drone, or exactly what it is. Some of the information seems contradictory and they're being very secretive about the tech specs so I guess we'll have to wait and see." Evie gave a wry smile to the younger woman. "Not one of my stronger suits to be sure. But as far as I'm concerned, as long as we're all good at our assigned jobs it doesn't really matter what it is." Evie shivered again, blowing into her hands and wishing that Victor or Daubs would show up and let them into the relative comfort of the warehouse. And this early in the morning she definitely needed her coffee to fire up those synapses.

"Henry, but everyone calls me Tank. And I have absolutely no idea what ship this is gonna be."

The big man stood outside in the cold, wrapped up in almost four layers of clothing. Undershirt, tee shirt, a jacket and a parka. And yet the cold wind still found ways to seep through the fabric and against his flesh.

It fucking sucked.

"Well it damn well better be a good job. If our employer's making us wait out in the cold like this, he'd better be prepared to have a couple of snowmen and snowwomen for employees."

He folded his arms and huffed a cloud of water vapour. It was way too cold for this kind of waiting.

Kyle sat in thebuilding once again going through the computer to see if there was any information on it. Once again all he found was some old Facebook and Youtube posts, and a save game of Civ 5. Well, I guess I'll find out what's going on soon enough. he thought. They really were paranoid of someone finding out about this project if they won't even keep the information on a networked computer. Still, he had to admit that it was a sensible precaution. One could never be too cautious where industrial espionage was likely.

He checked his cellphone, an Android that had a few modifications to enhance its security, to make sure it was charged, then went through his bag once again. PSP and games, check. Harddrive with games, movies, music, etc., check. Most people would waste their "personal affects" allotment on clothes and toiletries. Their employer would provide all of that, though, so why waste your space on it? The one thing he was certain to bring, however, were several bottles of soda syrup, as he doubted they would have any onboard. Every computer tech needed their sodas.

After he was sure that he had everything, he zipped up his backpack, turned off the lights and computer and walked to where the others were. "You guys do know you could have waited inside the building, right?" he said to the people gathered there.

The dark and vacant building made the small group entering seem like a calamity as footfalls were multiplied by echoes. It sounded like an army had entered. The reason why nobody was able to get in was because the door would automatically close and lock and only be opened with a key or from someone inside. This was the low security end, however, for there were also 3 boxes that nobody had been inside of (even Daubs so far as anybody could tell.) There were also big stickers warning of high voltages and high-powered lasers, cautioning for hard hats, and only properly trained individuals being permitted access. Around these were steel cages with at least 3 padlocks on the door, and another lock on the box itself.

Kyle managed to be inside, because he had never left the night before. The simple lock system, while relatively simple to bypass if you had the right equipment, could not be electronically hacked. All he had to do was stow himself in the empty office, tucked behind the ancient couch that had been picked up by a dumpster, and the coffee table that had a leg that would fall off as soon as any cross force was applied. Ah... the break room.

The promise of a heated building was an exaggeration. Being mildly insulated, it was able to retain some of the blazing heat from the day before and release it slow enough so that it was tolerable before the sun blasted it again. The big difference was that the wind rattled the massive garage door instead of worming its way through clothing.

It wasn't much longer after that with people having pointless conversations about nothing in particular such as "being tired" or commenting on the lack of anything around their job site. Then, there came the distinct noise of the door being opened and other people entering. It was Daubs and Victor accompanied by a rather professional looking woman (who was poorly dressed in high heels and trying to walk across the gravel parking lot.) Nobody had seen the lady before. Sure enough, bright orange containers held doughnuts, coffee, and some other treats.

Daubs was less than pleased to see that people weren't outside freezing. Upon noticing the group, he looked surprised, then glanced back at the door, then back at the group and his face turned beat red. His gangly frame stomped toward everyone almost with a comical edge.
"Alright! which one of you is the ghetto rat?" He accused, glaring around the room challenging anybody who dared to take pride in the fact. His gaze fell on Arrow, "It was you wasn't it?"

Her finger shot out, pointing prominently at Kyle.
"Don't bother denying it, people like you..."
"Okay, okay, teamwork day, everybody," Victor interrupted. Though quite a massive fellow, his voice was far from bass and didn't really seem to fit him. However much Daubs was enraged, he let the issue drop, but not without an "I'm watching you" gesture to Arrow.

Victor took center stage, promptly pulling a document out of his pocket and skimming through it. "Oh, right. So, yah, none of you know each other yet. So, I guess we should get that out of the way then.
I will be functioning as your captain as well as the senior engineer
Daubs, here, will be our doctor”
He began pointing around the room as he made introductions.
“We have Kyle Johnson. Kyle you will be our N-Dimension Specialist as well as our Quartermaster
Our junior engineer as well as being in charge of Reactor and Drive Systems Operations is Evelyn Ayers
Tobias... Tobias... I can’t remember his last name. He will be taking on the positions of Scopes as well as a Research Assistant
Tank Dellinger will be our Isolation Control Specialist and Field Medic
Jacqueline Richter is our Navigator as well as Tactical Support
Adah Christo will be our Pilot and Botanist
So, there we go, everybody knows everybody now. Oh, right, except for Pammy. Pammy here is a team-builder counselor something or another. So, she’s super good at getting people to intimately know each other and really work well together without biting off each other’s heads and stuff like that.”

It was clear that Pammy didn’t care much for the introduction, but she plastered on the most overdone (and easily seen through) smile you have ever seen. “Wow, it is so great to meet each and every one of you wonderful individuals. Today we are going to have great fun, and we are going to learn to trust each other too...”

She began droning on and on about superficial business rules to try to force random people tossed into the same lot to like each other. There was patronizing worship of mundane accomplishments of everyone that made it quite clear that she had no clue who any of you were and that she had no clue the sort of social dynamics that were in store for all of you.

The guy who had been standing in the back silently suddenly jumped up in excitement and started shouting like a maniac. "Wooooo! Research assistant. And scopes, whatever they are!" Thobias was clearly way too excited to be a research assistant. Not like he cared what he would be, but doing some actual stuff after switching fuses and other shit in garbage quality equipment is a refreshment for the soul. He clearly didn't care for the woman with the fake smile talking about some idiotic thing called "team building". Who builds teams anyways? Aren't they formed? To this thought he froze mid way in the jumping and quickly put up a troubled face. He has to ask this for sure!

"Excuse me weird lady, I thought teams were formed and not built. So how is it?"

Thought the others were freezing, and he got angry stares for stopping the talkw hilst tehy were still in the room, he simply didn't care. And he didn't really notice either. How can all these people freeze when he is pleasently warm in just a shirt. So they should stop acting.

The squeak of a utilitarian folding chair sliding a few inches was the first announcement of her presence that Jacqueline gave. Presumably she must have entered with the group, though between not having said a word and dropping into the first available chair, it's not surprising that she was overlooked. Rising to her feet, a lack of sleep was plainly visible on her face and in her tone of voice.

"Excuse me, Victor? I got lost trying to find this place for the first time, and that was with a map. I don't know where we're going or what we're riding to get there, but I'm probably not going to be help with much except getting lost fast." Abandoning the comfort of the cheap chair, she hefted a surprisingly compact duffle bag and shuffled over to join the rest of the group a bit more directly. "Team building exercises though, that sounds fun. Come on then, let's all learn to trust each other with the jobs none of us know how to do, hm?" Her somewhat sardonic tone lost its edge to the yawn she fought to suppress towards the end of her sentence. Now standing with the others, it was quite apparent that she was not someone who was managing to hold down any sort of sleep schedule. To her credit, she seemed to be pushing her way through to the best of her abilities, and the smell of black coffee on her breath implied that however out of it she may be, she was likely worse before.

@Deserted
"Ghetto Rat?" Kyle asked, "do you mean because I decided to guarantee I was here early by not leaving?" Then some woman showed up and Victor started handing out work assignments. A woman then started talking about team building exercises in a too-exited voice. The way she said it, though, left him an opportunity to joke around a bit.

Kyle raised his hand. "I assume we're going to get additional training. I kind of need to know what an N-Dimension is before I can specialize in it." He stepped next to one of the women there. "A far as getting to know my team "intimately", I'm not into guys." He looked at the woman beside him. "But some of the crew I wouldn't mind getting to know a lot better." Then he addressed the woman he was looking at. "So, what's your name?"