It was easy to tell who was who just by looking at their uniforms since IESA and UNE uniforms were different. The flag of the nation the wearer was from were in a different location. Military personnel had their flags on the top back of their uniforms, while IESA had theirs on the shoulders. IESA uniforms were partly inspired by the uniforms NASA astronauts used to wear during the pre-war days, whereas navy uniforms were largely inspired by royal navy uniform used by the pre-war British.
Foster left the docking bay and traveled up onto the main decks within the central fuselage of the ship. Various people saluted her as she made her way to the rear habitat ring. A lengthy elevator ride took her up where she was graced with the feeling of the artificial gravity. She found the captain’s quarters and entered, it was bigger than her living room back in LA. Most of the furniture and her larger personal belongings were still stored in boxes. She had no plans on unboxing them just yet, they’ll just be idle for seventeen years anyways. She tossed her two duffel bags into the corner then exited, what was in the habitat ring was more interesting than her quarters.
She walked past an assortment of sections in the ring such as the gym and crew quarters. She couldn’t help but look out of the numerous observation windows as light from the sun slowly began to shine through. She saw Williams in the reflection of one window as he approached her from the side with the same mesmerized face she had.
“This is incredible,” he said.
“It is,” she said and pointed at a large construction scaffold above Earth in the distance. “Check that out.”
“What’s that?”
“New warship in construction already; they didn’t wait long. Apparently that one will take a lot longer to build than the others. It’s gonna have new fancy tech no other Earth-based ship will have.”
“Such as a QEC.” Foster and Williams spun around to see that Rivera had snuck up behind to join their conversation.
Foster smiled at her and began to introduce the two to each other. “Dom, meet our Chief engineer, Jasmine Rivera.”
“Nice to meet you, Commander,” Rivera said, shaking his hand as she put her holo pad away.
Foster whispered into Williams’ ear. “She’s single.”
Williams smirked and tried his best to hold in a laugh which made Rivera ask. “What?”
“Nothing!” Foster said, changing the subject. “So, about that new ship?”
“Yeah.” Rivera stepped closer to the observation window and locked her eyes on the construction scaffold in orbit. “It will be different from the rest of the fleet, Quantum Entanglement Communicator will be one of the biggest additions to it, and possibly an android version of the new EVE AI.”
“Android?”
“Still in the early testing phase, they aren’t even sure it will make it in time for the launch,” Rivera said. “Well, I’ll leave you two alone, I gotta see how engineering looks.”
Foster nodded to their Chief engineer. “Make sure we’re good for launch, we’ll be fixin’ to depart as soon as the last colonists arrive.”
“I hear music,” Williams said as Rivera took her leave.
Foster listened closely, there was indeed music playing. “That must be the recreation room.”
The sounds of the music led them near the entrance to the recreation room. Inside they saw a laid-back lounge set up, complete with a small bar, long tables, chairs, and couches. Lounge music played as crew personnel stocked the bar and unpacked several entertainment devices. It was the perfect place for the crew to unwind during their off-hours, especially during the first few years into their journey to the stars, as not everyone would be in cryo all the time.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Williams said, snapping his fingers.
“What’s up?”
He left the recreation room and waved for Foster to follow. His steps led her into the mess hall and then into the galley. Brand-new silver-colored cooking equipment was still wrapped in their shipping covers. Pots and pans hung from their hooks around the walls in a neat and organized manner. Foster heard someone in the rear food preparation area buzzing around as Williams guided her there.
“I got him,” Williams said as they turned the corner and saw a Jamaican man no older than fifty examine the food preparation area. He had short black hair, no doubt dyed black to hide any grey hairs, and wore a chef’s white jacket and black pants.
“This is Chef Demarion Bailey from the restaurant we had lunch at,” Williams said.
“Captain Foster,” she said, shaking Bailey’s hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Pleased to meet you too.”
“Settling in well?” Williams asked him.
“Ya mon, this kitchen is amazing,” Bailey said. “Gonna make some real nice food for you all.”
They toured the rest of the kitchen and noted the small cryostorage containers used for food, so that ingredients wouldn’t rot on their voyage, after all, what they brought aboard had to last, even after their arrival in Sirius. Livestock was brought aboard and placed into cryostasis as well, but it was reserved for the new colony once it was set up.
As they left the mess hall, two crewmen stopped and raised their hands to salute the two as they walked past, then returned diligently to their duties with data pads in hand. “I see you’ve been busy with recruiting, Dom.”
“We’re still short a lot of bodies compared to the other ships,” Williams said. “This was a last-minute addition to the fleet after all. Apparently IESA had scaled down recruiting and neglected to tell me.”
“Bah, so we’re running a skeleton crew?”
“Outside of the science and exploration teams yeah, we got the bare minimum with a lot of rookie transport pilots.”
“I’ll be sure to make sure only navy personnel pilots our transports for critical missions.”
Foster and Williams ended their hour-long tour of the ship at the bridge. The central sections of the ship that were not part of the habitat ring lacked gravity. It forced them to use handle bars on the walls to pull themselves forward or to stop their momentum unless magnetic boots were equipped. The bridge was the exception as gravity glued their bodies to the floor when they passed through its wide sliding doors.
“Gravity,” Foster said happily.
“Yep.” Williams gestured at the sole alien crew member of the ship who stood at the shipboard psionic station on the bridge. “There’s our shipboard psionic.”
“Rookie or the combat vet?”
“Vet. In the end he brought more to the table, that and the representative at the embassy really, really wanted us to recruit him. I figured he was trying to make sure we were in good hands.”
Foster eyed their psionic. He was a Javnis, though it was hard to see his four eyes beneath the dark cloak hood he wore. Like most psionics his body was implanted with cybernetic upgrades on his hands, arms, and across his chest. The upgrades needed to be exposed in order to ensure they worked correctly, so his green lizard-like body was on show as he wore only the cloak, and pants.
“Maybe the embassy wanted to get rid of him for reasons unknown,” Foster said.
Williams cringed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“I’m sure you made the right choice.”
“I can hear you,” said the psionic, as his four eyes remained gazing at the computer screen on his station.
“And he’s got excellent hearing, that might come in handy,” said Williams.
Foster and Williams approached the Javnis psionic as he continued to work on the computer. His cloak made it hard to tell what emotions were going through his body, if he had any at all.
“Captain Foster, pleasure to meet you.” Foster offered her hand for him to shake. The Javnis slowly turned his head away from the screen and looked at her, then her hand in a confused manner. “Umm, OK.”