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Chapter 36

Chapter 36

January 27th, 2158

Logan was initially relieved when he had successfully passed the OMS to the NBS.  The stress and tension that he had felt were gone, only to be replaced by a new type of anxiety.  Now Logan was burdened with the wait.

He was sure that the NBS had picked up the OMS, but was unsure weather the NBS and the old contractor would take him up on his offer.  He couldn't even guess if they would contact him back.  All he could do now was wait.

Two days had passed and life on the station had continued as normal.  Logan and Mike continued with their daily training.  Every morning, Logan awoke to new items in the box.  Then the two would exercise before going about the daily business.  In the evenings, Logan and Mike would spar as Logan described the items in the box.

As Logan got better at describing the items from the box, Mike came up with new ways of making the challenge more difficult.  Now, Obasi was throwing hard foam projectiles at the pair.  The projectiles hurt but caused no lasting pain or damage.  Not only did the projectiles work to test Logan's balance, but his surroundings as well.  Last night he had fallen twice because of a misplaced step on a projectile.

Training in the ring had continued as well.  The team was now training two different times a day for three hour intervals.  On occasion a team member would need to breath from an oxygen-depleted tank, but there had been no more incidences.  Logan could feel himself becoming more familiar and comfortable with the atmosphere in the ring.

Modifications on the various suits continued, and Logan helped out where ever he could.  For the most part, work on the lingua suits had completed, and now Logan as well as any other member of the linguistics department could train in them at any time.

The language translation program had passed its alpha phase and was now in it's beta testing.  Several personnel around the station now had the program as well as a little hardware attached to their DNAC's.  The product was far from it's final state, but they had made a great step forward towards a program that could take in language, learn it, and translate it for it's user.  Almost everyone on the station was bilingual, and everyone was encouraged to use any language other than the common English, which had become the nations and companies official language.

Today, there would be another development for which Logan was excited.  Today, he and his team would watch as another team went through the tunnel to their exoplanet.  It was late in the morning station time when Mike ushered him to a little observation room overlooking the first "human made" tunneling machine.

Logan and his team were among the first to enter the observation room, which quickly filled up after them.  The last to arrive in the little room were a who's who of important people.  Lieutenant Scott was one of the first of the VIP's to enter the room.  Doctor Dorian Reed, as well as two other Board members followed him.  Neema Furaha, Head of Foreign Affairs, tall dark and beautiful she carried herself as if she were royalty.  And Anton Osinov, Chief Engineer of Infrastructure, a gnarled old man who's favorite weapons were his eyes.

Logan assumed that it was not too uncommon that three Board members would meet outside of a Board meeting.  However, it was very uncommon for any of those meetings to take place anywhere outside of the secured and comfortable areas of Brazzaville.

The last to enter the observation room was a very nervous looking Daris Hassan.  As the logistical commander, he was feeling all of pressure associated with sending six humans through a quantum tunnel to an unknown exoplanet.  Daris took his seat and began working on his DNAC.  His holo was a flash with information, as constantly new and updating information was presenting itself.