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Chapter 5

Chapter Five

March 19th 2157

            Dinner was served at the normal time on the stations cycle.  The station ran on a twenty-five hour day, to more accurately parallel a human’s circadian rhythm.  The crew had all gathered around the table while Luca finished preparing the meal.  Several conversations were battling for supremacy.

            As Luca brought the first of the trays to the table, the talking all but died down.  The last tray was sat down; there was a mix of freshly steamed vegetables, along with synthesized chicken.  Mathews spent a significant amount of the food allowance on fresh vegetables.  This price was made up with the purchasing of cheaper synthesized meat.

            Synthesized meat was technically not meat; it was never part of a living creature.  Instead a computer would control a matter synthesizer, basically a three dimensional printer.  The synthesizer would take protein and amino acids; mix them with several other chemicals to give the desired texture and flavor.  It looked like chicken, it tastes like chicken, but it wasn’t chicken.

            “Ok,” began Mathews.  “Thank you everyone for coming together to this meal.  Lets have our moment of silence.”  The room went silent except for the faint humming of electricity.  Mathews began every meal with a moment of silence.  Jafta, Salim and anyone else who might prey or bless their food, could take this time.  After a minute Mathews broke the silence.  “Thank you everyone, now… dig in.”

            Without a word everyone began to fill his or her plates with the trays of food that Luca had prepared.  Jake enjoyed talking to his fellow crewmembers, and he wanted to get to know each of them.  “Salim, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling me how you came to work for the company?”

            Salim stopped half way through scooping some peas onto his plate and looked up at Jake.  His mouth opened and closed without a sound escaping.

            “I’m sorry, forget I brought it up,” Jake quickly said when he saw the expression on Salim’s face.  He didn’t want to put anyone in an uncomfortable place.

            “Uh, no,” Salim managed to stammer.  “I don’t mind.  I guess my story would begin with getting a job working for the British Empire.”  There was a pause as he realized that everyone was looking at him waiting to hear his story.  “This will be the first time I have told this story.”

            He paused again; there was a look that was a mix of thoughtfulness and sadness.  “The Royal British Empire hired me, along with several other people, to investigate the changes occurring in the North Atlantic Current.”

            “My wife, Dina and I rented a small flat in London.  My two boys, Khaled fourteen and Youssif seventeen enrolled in the local schools.  My work would take me to the offshore lab.  I was hired as an engineer to keep the deep-sea machines working.”

            Salim once again paused, and for a moment seemed a little confused.  “Jake, what do you know about the wars over the past century?”

            Jake was not expecting to have been asked a question.  “Well, um, excluding small wars involving only a few countries.  There was the Desert War of 2032, a war over drinking water involving over sixty countries.  Um, next would be the Religious Riots, I think that was in 2041.  Some called this the Ninth Crusade, uh… after the assassination of Eliyahu Hamutal, Christians from all around the world flocked to Muslim countries and killed as many Muslims as they could.  Hundreds of thousands lost their lives before any governments or armies got involved.”