The ship’s intercom system buzzed on, a voice sounded through the entire ship,
“Good evening everyone, your current time is 09:35 June 21st, 2213, my name is Captain John Royal and I am your commanding officer aboard this magnificent vessel. I hope you’re all getting settled in and ready for the long journey ahead of us. In about 23 hours you will be entering Cryo-sleep for the entirety of our journey to Andromeda. A handful of the crew, myself included, will remain awake to maintain and manage the ship along its journey. It will take 15 years to get to Andromeda and once we get there your Cryo tubes will automatically begin to wake you up; oh and don’t worry about the 15 years aging your bodies, when you come out of Cryo you won’t feel a day older than when you went in.” the Captain chuckled a bit, he always had an odd sense of humor, before clearing his throat to continue speaking, “I ask that you all be ready to enter your Cryo-tubes tomorrow at 0900. Thank you, everyone.”
The voice on the speaker faded, now the only sound Leon could hear was the hum of the elevator as it quickly climbed up higher and higher towards the bridge of the ship. The elevator slightly jerked and made an audible bumping noise as it continued along its path. Leon closed his eyes as he leaned up against the back wall of the elevator and exhaled, his anxiety was beginning to rise.
*Its fine, nothing’s gonna happen,* Leon thought, *This ship’s been being built for a couple years now, I’m sure some parts just aren’t used to being used.*
“You heard about that ship that crashed into the Alpha Phi 15 station last week right?” Fura said, “120 people died, such a tragedy…”
Leon grumbled, “Fura…”
“Mhmm?”
“Shut the hell up..”
“Wow, rude! I was just messing with you, geez. But seriously don’t worry about it. I ran tons of diagnostic tests on the ship’s systems when we came aboard and everything is completely and totally safe. So don’t be such a baby!”
“Sorry, let me just get right over my irrational fear…” Leon replied sarcastically.
“Ok ok ok, I’m sorry. But seriously, this ship is bigger and more advanced than anything else out there, nothing bad can possibly happen aboard this beast.”
“Yeah you might be right, thanks.” Leon replied.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open as it reached its destination. Now revealed was a short dimly lit hallway with another door at the end of it. Leon stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hallway. As Leon approached the door it quickly slid open, a bright light poured out, it was a jarring change from the dimly lit hallway causing Leon to wince as his eyes adjusted to the light. Before him lay the bridge, it was a huge and very expansive room. There was a platform that ran into the center of the room, raised above everything else, with a large holotable in the center of it. Around the holotable stood 3 men, one of them was Captain Royal. Below the platform were hundreds of terminals, holotables, and other computers and equipment that were used in maintaining the ship.There must’ve been at least 200 people running around and working down below, many of them at terminals, some of them running around with tablets and diagnostic work, and the rest conversing with others. Above all the terminals and computers spanned a massive, open view of the outer space. The massive windows gave roughly a 190 degree view of everything going on outside the ship. Leon gazed in awe at the view, he could see Earth, it took up a good portion of the view and could be seen in vivid detail, and all its polluted, dark atmosphere.
*Such a pity, Earth. Our home. I’ve only seen it this close-up in books and videos, it always looked so lush and beautiful, but now, it’s so…* Leon thought as he began walking to the center of the platform.
Fura cut off Leon’s thought “Pathetic, disgusting, deathly?”
*Not exactly what I was thinking, but… yeah.*
“I’ll never understand how you humans could take for granted the gift you had. Earth was the perfect planet, an Eden of sorts. And your species destroyed it.”
*It’s not like we did it on purpose and it’s not like it was us all as a whole. Just a select greedy few that were able to take over and run things with their fortunes.*
“But the ones that weren’t ruling could have stood up against those that were, and changed everything.”
*That’s not as simple as it sounds.*
As Leon approached the center of the room the Captain motioned for the other two men to leave, turned towards Leon and said,
“Ah Major Wilkinson, hello.” He had a small smirk, it looked out of place on his stern face but was reassuring nonetheless. “Its nice to finally meet you in person.”
Leon quickly stood straight and saluted at attention.
“You’re too formal…” Fura said.
“Ah, you’re too formal, boy. At ease.” Captain Royal commanded.
“Wow, that was weird.”
“What do you think of the ship?” Captain Royal asked.
“Its… nice, sir. I’m not the biggest fan of space ships so I’m a bit biased.” Leon replied.
“Ah not one for the stars are you? Well that’s fine, in a days time you’ll be in the deep freeze, then you’ll have your boots on Andromeda. We’ll be there before you know it.”
“Can’t wait, sir.”
“Yes. Well anyway, I just wanted to meet you and get acquainted before everyone went into Cryo. After all, I can't command one of my guardsman without knowing who they are," the Captain chuckled.
Leon chuckled back, "no sir, you can't."
"Geez would you stop being so formal. Call me John, enough of this Sir crap."
"Sorry sir I don't know if I can. It's just been drilled into me, my parents were in the service and formalities are all I've known my whole life," Leon replied, "but I'll try."
"Good," Captain Royal replied happily, "listen, tomorrow I'm gonna want you to help other personnel into their Cryo tubes before you yourself goes under. I think it'd help a lot of them feel better knowing there's a trained professional guiding them through the process and watching over them. So get down there a little early and help everyone out."
"Will do, sir."
"Great, now we have to deal with a bunch of civis who're worried about going into the deep freeze. That'll be annoying..." Fura said with a hint of irritation in her voice.
Leon grimaced at Fura's comment, *Would you quit it. It won't be that bad.*
Noticing Leon's change in expression, Captain Royal questioned, "something wrong, boy?"
"Oh no no, it's nothing, sir!" Leon replied, hastily, "I'll make sure to be down there tomorrow nice and early, before everyone arrives! Oh sir, where are my quarters going to be? I don't recall being given my assigned quarters in the message I received a few weeks ago."
"Oh yes, you'll be in room AG0013. It's in the military crew quarters but it's one of the nicer rooms. You've got your own private weapons and armor storage, along with a few other perks. Your weapons and armor should already be there, if they're not, just go swing by the cargo hanger and talk to one of the officials down there. Cargo's been a bit hectic with everyone coming onboard these last few days."
"No problem. Oh what about the..." Leon began.
"Yes, the special computer parts you requisitioned should be in your room as well," Captain Royal cut off Leon as he turned towards the holotable.
"Thank you, sir," Leon saluted, turned, then began to walk away.
The Captain turned back around and yelled to Leon, "and stop being so damn formal!"
Leon flashed a thumbs up as he continued out of the bridge to the elevator.
"Well that was... Interesting." Fura said.
"It was. It's good to know he's not such a "I'm the Captain listen to what I tell you" sort of guy. Maybe I'll be able to actually stand serving under him," Leon replied, "what room did he say?"
Fura sighed, "Room AG0013..."
Leon laughed, "what would I do without you?," as he pressed the button in the elevator that went to his floor.
"Ya know, I ask myself that same question... You'd probably be dead or at the very least you'd be constantly lost." Fura replied.
With the doors closing Leon let out a big laugh as he replied to Fura, "You're probably right!"