Exploring the Stars

Chapter 2 - And New Experiences to Go with It

(There are italicized words in this chapter that are foreign. Knowing their meaning isn't needed, but it helps know the characters using them a bit more. The final chapter of this book is a listing of these words with their meanings.)

Hari turned left out of the bridge, as he'd seen his cabin just abaft of the entrance hall as they came aboard. He opened the door and found a huge room. There was a spiral stair to the right, a lounge in front, a huge window on the far wall, and a door off to the right. Entering that door, he found a massive bedroom, 5m by 3½m, with its own window, a deep closet and private facilities.

He smiled at the huge bed, thinking back to the times he'd been in the 'roid belt on what was comparatively a tramp schooner with hammocks crammed in the galley for the crew's accommodations.

Going down the staircase, he found basically empty rooms, one below his living area, and one under his bedroom, also both with windows. The curve of the hull made them slightly smaller, but not enough to notice.

Going back to the main deck, he left and found Dannay. "Captain, is there a mistake? My room is ..."

She noticed a pause when he said this, so she decided to help out. "Huge? Ginormous? Tremendous?" offered Dannay. "Yeah, we had two options for this excursion – we could use a small crew and have huge appointments, like you are seeing, or we could have a much larger crew and lose out on some of the more focused testing we've been asked to do. Follow me, and I'll explain." She then led him to her ready room, off the back of the bridge, where she laid out some of the plans for their expedition.

– o O o –

Emeka smiled as he left the bridge. He loved this ship, especially after Dannay decided it was a good idea to go with the pool. He swam nearly every day, and tried to get a few klicks in during each session. He knew he wasn't a champion swimmer, but he was also not young anymore, so between this and walking the Atlantean islands, he was content.

He was sixth generation Atlantean. He'd been on all three islands, helping optimize their control systems. Clarke was under the first GeoDock, and Heinlein was the original home of the Atlantean scientists. But here on Asimov was where he felt most at home. Born and raised here, he'd helped hundreds of refugees settle into Atlantean life. He'd seen joy when some were allowed to remain, as well as the disappointment of those who were only transitory.

He dropped his thoughts of his past. As he went on to his suite, he saw the doctor walk into her own. He smiled as he figured she'd flip when she saw how large it was – that was what they'd hoped each of the crew would feel. Yes, the redundant power and drive systems enabled the huge size of the living quarters, but this ship could have been bogged down with 500 crew instead of five. He and Dannay fought to keep it minimal, if only so some very specific (and highly useful, in the long term) tests could be run. A larger crew would have made that impossible.

Thinking back to Gamal, when he and Dannay had picked the minimal crew a few months back, they were stricken with Gamal's. They knew of her assistance with the Sishi Clan's "fifth planet" discovery, from the remains of a planet they found in the asteroid belt. But in her résumé, under the requested "desires" section, she noted that she would love to voyage into deep space.

When Dannay told him she would take no other as her engineer, he was please and humbled. This woman, though, had dreamed of heading out to the stars for years. He could get behind that – and behind her was a nice place to be, too, he chuckled to himself.

"Thinking of the doctor, my friend?" he heard his wrist comp guess.

"Sherlock, as ever, your astuteness astounds me. How did you get that from my little chuckle?"