Snippet #2022613

Clyde - Bridge

It didn't take Clyde long to realize that the ship was not, in fact, taking off. Quite the opposite- the crew had decided to absently wander the ship for a while. It was going to be a long nap. ... Or was it? No, there were more interesting things to do than twiddle one's thumbs on a ship full of extraordinary strangers. But who to take an interest in? There were quite a few characters.
But Clyde was not a normal person. He didn't have to choose. He would simply watch all of them from his perch at the bridge. There were computer terminals every few feet along the ship, each one capable of receiving input from people nearby. Clyde sat back, hooked into the computer system, and watched everyone on the ship mill about at the same time.


Adriana - Research Lab

"Attention all military personnel. This is Commander Atomsk Dunaway. Meet in Barracks one in forty-five minutes."

Adriana jumped at the sudden interruption of her concentration. Her latest project rolled off of her work table and shattered on the floor. She didn't know which annoyed her more- that some idiot was calling a meeting two days before boarding, or that her project laid in pieces on the floor. She began to sweep up the broken glass and wondered how long it would be before completion now. It was a mirror ball. Not the normal sort of mirror ball- it wasn't for parties. It was ammunition for Stanley, her laser rifle. It was designed so that light could pass into the ball, but not out of it. It would be charged in the chamber of the gun and then fired. It would shatter on impact and let out all of the energy stored inside of it... provided it made it that far. Adriana sighed and poured the garbage into the incinerator.

She was tired, disheveled, hungry, and disappointed. There would be time to work on the shells later. Someone named Dunaway had called a meeting, and she was curious to know who she owed the destruction of her pet project to. She swung Stanley across her back and headed out into the halls. Adriana wove between crew members going about their business, doing some calculations in her head about the time it would take her to redo what she had lost. Minus all the blunders she had made, all the calculations, the occasional break... Eight hours. Eight hours? How long had she taken the first time?

Adriana stopped in the middle of the hallway, and grabbed the nearest crew member by the arm. "What day is it?" She asked, without even looking at him.

"It's the fifth. We're heading out in a few hours. Where have YOU been?" He answered.

Then everything fell into place. "... Right... here..." Adriana had been in the lab for three days. She didn't even notice, she was so focused on her work. She remembered the name Dunaway now. But not Atomsk. Something closer to... John? She had worked on a few suits a while back, she didn't know how long. Adriana stopped at a computer terminal and pulled up Commander Dunaway's file. The new ground commander. That's who it was. She closed off the files and started walking to the barracks again. There was a lot of work to do after this meeting, starting with reading all the crew files to find out who she was going to be working with, assuming she ever saw them. It was going to be a busy voyage.