If Earth Should Die Before I Wake

Mitchel helped with the bins of food, nodding at Cheri's explanation and getting everything back to the lounge area. He moved over to Commander Rivers, giving his report as to the condition of the hydroponics lab, and making his suggestion of expanding, when possible. Rivers, looking absolutely exhausted, being the only remaining ship's officer, accepted his report, nodding dully and telling him that they'd look into finding space for an auxiliary hydroponics lab.
 
Natalia

She didn't know how long she had been unconscious for, but the sound of people talking soon roused the injured woman from her sleep. Her face was bruised and part of her arm seemed to be in bandages, but her sore body moved well enough to know she wasn't critical. Raising a hand to her forehead she groaned, the dried blood and fringe stuck to her face enough indication that she had hit her head. She had a gash in her eyebrow, and a chipped tooth, but no broken bones. Her shoulder had been slashed open, a shard of the sleeping capsule removed by the good doctor. Overall, considering everyone around her specific pod had been crushed or killed, she was lucky to have survived.

"Ugh, I think I had too much to drink last night," she joked, pushing herself up off the makeshift bedding in the dining hall. She had regained consciousness briefly after the catastrophe, but had passed out within seconds. A groggy memory was all she had of the moment they had been stuck in the wormhole.

The room spun around as she slowly made her way over to sit at the table, the smell of food causing her stomach to rumble intensely.

"Quite a ride, huh, Captain..." she began, before stopping as she scanned those present. Where was that smile, that jaw, those ruggedly handsome overworked features.

Only a few people on-board knew about the 'plutonic and wild' relationship that the Captain and Security Officer shared. And for those who did know, that moment of realization would be awkward and sad. Nobody spoke for a second as Natalia's mind registered that her lover must now be dead.

"So he didn't make it, did he?" she said quietly, looking down at the table before sighing. Even before considering the emotional connection they had, he had been an excellent partner during sex. Some of those positions would blow your mind.

"So...Acting Captain," she began again, looking to Alex, "what's the damage? Is my office or room still accessible?" she asked. Wondering if the supplies they might need, such as weaponry and detainment devices were still obtainable. They had been delivering a fresh batch of pulse rifles to Terra Beta...if anything happened, she would prefer having that firepower at hand.
 
Mary stopped what she'd been doing, putting the pot and ladle down onto the table, letting them get their own stew as she turned her attention to Natalia. "You feel alright to eat? How's that chipped tooth?"

Meanwhile, her fingers prodded differing bumps and bruises, checked bandages, particularly, the head wounds, " You were knocked out cold for quite a long time. Let me know if you need anything after lunch."

When Natalia seemed to balk at the word Mary chuckled, "Yeah, lunch, and a late one too."

Alex sat down at the table, reports in hand, and addressed the assembled group. "We're on our way to that green blue planetoid. Sensors are indicating it would support oxygen breathing life and there's life form readings...could be animals. There's lush forests, mountains, sandy beaches...It's very Earth like, back when earth was pure like that...I think we got lucky to find a place like that so close. It won't go smoothly. We have no field dampeners to help us enter the atmosphere smoothly or cooly. Chances are, once we crash we'll have to haul ass to get out of our ship as soon as possible because it will get hot...and, yes, we will most likely crash land. This won't be easy. I suggest we spend time preparing a soft, safe zone on ship to ride entrance to the atmosphere out in, strapping down anything of value along with ourselves in full spacewalk gear just in case. We have a while though. At the speed we're moving we won't be near enough to that planetoid to get into gear for at least nine days." She took a bite of her stew and smiled thankfully at their nurse. They shared a nod. "Anything anyone else wants to share? Or, questions or comments?" Asked Alex.

Mary piped up, "Tonight's funeral...has anyone anything they'd like to say? I was going to do a short speech but I'm at a loss..."
 
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Sanne closed the comm link upon receiving the acknowledgement from Capt Rivers. She smiled slightly upon their accomplishment for it has been awhile that she had to work under pressure. She remember her early college years when the task of quick thinking in critical times were the peeve of every instructor, but now she was extremely thankful that she didn't toss in the proverbial white towel like so many of her classmates did. The thrill of on the edge thinking and danger looming in the balance made her feel alive, they say the best of skills comes out in the heat of the moment and there wasn't much more looming of death than non working engines.

She glanced over at Ray secretively and was thankful that he was at her side assisting her with the complicated repairs, although now the red faced event was over she still could not bring herself to look upon him directly. So with each step she took, her eyes focused upon the gages and digital readouts that lined up and down the corridor. "Ray, I want to thank you for you help." she tossed back over her shoulder towards him. She knew it was just an innocent moment, or was it? She instantly refocused her mind on the engines and their repair job ensuring that it was the best they could do with what they had. There was a few things that was borderline that she could change but it wasn't critical.

A sigh of relief came to her once she spotted the door that lead into the cafeteria, for her inner battle was not going well as she continued to think of Ray and that moment. She hoped that being with the others would keep her mind on what is going on with the mission instead of what was slowly burning inside. She cursed herself under her breath for allowing that moment to start an ark ward situation. She looked at Ray just a few seconds before hitting the access button.

She quickly found a place to sit close to the Captain and waited silently for the meeting to begin...
 
Ray smiled to himself when Sanne thanked him for his help. He had been very surprised when he had been hugged by her in the engine room but he had to admit he had enjoyed it. Sanne was a very beautiful woman that he would normally have no shot at. The fact that she was also his boss would have also meant that he would not have been allowed to entertain ideas of trying to ask her out. The Organization frowned upon the same sections dating as they wanted to spread out the specially enhanced genes.

As he walked into the cafeteria he smelled the food and his tummy rumbled. Just because he could survive without food for days didn't mean he liked to. Luckily it was still warm and he grabbed a big bowl full and moved to the table. Eating it slowly he was informed of the meeting and he nodded and looked around. It looked like everyone was making there way here but at the moment he was enjoying the food way too much to worry about it at the moment.
 
Alex Rivers took a deep breath and found herself trying to be professional. Her willingness to learn and enthusiasm for science had been spotted at school when she was only seven years old and she was fast tracked through the education system. Always craving adventure and longing to have an athletic strong body to match her mind she was accepted for the academy while still a teenager.

Two days after her twentieth birthday she was commissioned as a Junior Officer and joined the crew of the SS Athena one of the new Hercules class explorers. While other crew members spent their free time in the entertainment area Rivers devoted herself to study and before long passed her senior examinations. After spending two years serving her title on various ships Rivers joined the Hawking as third in command. Little did she expect to be taking command so soon.

Now running on empty she knew she had to support her crew in their grave hour of need. Her mind went back to her training and the words of her mentor Admiral Kathleen Phillips who had worked her way through the ranks by sheer hard work and dedication. On the night Rivers was commissioned Phillips had said ‘There will come a time when lives will depend on your actions, your words and your decisions. When that time comes try to imagine what my actions would be’.

But Rivers never expected to be in this situation so early in her career and she doubted if Phillips had ever faced an incident like this. Of course her main concern was with the living but she also had to honour the dead.

Taking a deep breath she prepared herself for the service.
 
Sister Mary Grace sighed. Nobody really knew the others all that much and no one seemed comfortable giving any eulogy speeches for the dead they'd be sending off later. "I guess I'll try my best using the personnel files on each individual and take it from there." she thought aloud.
 
Natalia took her time eating as everyone talked about the funeral, there was a brief moment to speak once her plate was empty. "I'll work on something to say for the Security Department, I'm sure they would prefer hearing something personal...I'll also begin writing letters to their families..."

There was little chance that their families would ever learn what happened, but if they did, she wanted the tragedy to be fresh in mind when she began writing the correspondence.

Pushing back her chair, she headed out into the hallway, heading to where the security office had been located. What state was it still in?

((Short post, sorry))
 
The Crixus robot looked at Rivers spoke up "My memory banks have been brought in line withies of the master computer. Do you want me to supply a chronological history of all the deceased?"
 
Cheri glanced at Rivers, then at Mitchel. She didn't know if she wanted to talk in front of people about her boss. She wasn't really all that sure what to say about him, and she wasn't sure she could say anything without wanting to crumple into a crying mess. She really couldn't afford that right now. Glancing to Mirchel over her bowl of stew, the nodded, "You gonna say anything?"
 
Ray finished his food and went to wash his bowl. He had heard people talking about what they were going to say about the people who had died and he wondered if he should say anything about the other workers in his section. The thing was he hadn't known any of them. They had all been trained separately as the mortality rate was so high. At any given time a worker could die as their body rejected a new implant or augmentation. Even up to the last step Ray had heard of Trainees dying. People he had trained with the day before just weren't there the next day so this to him was just like that. Oh he knew it was different but he supposed there was some code in him somewhere that was allowing him to accept this very easily.
 
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Rivers smiled grimly and turned to the robot “I would be very grateful for any information you could give me. As you know I have been plunged into this situation of leadership and I have to show an example.”

The robot sent a cyber-link to the main computer and within seconds the life histories of the deceased were displayed on River’s hand held communicator. After thanking the robot the stand in commander approached Mary Grace. “Sister” she said slowly and thoughtfully “I’m not trying to pass the buck but you have some experience of religious services”. She handed the reports from Crixus to the nun “Would you be so kind as to help me in this service please?” She took a deep breath “If you feel you can’t I will understand but I hope maybe we can work together.”
 
Sanne remained silent to the topic that was being discussed about speaking about the dead. She knew a few as coworkers but that was as far as it went for she always feared that taking a work environment to another level only invited complications for in her job, competition was a major factor that normally tore up any kind of relationships, so it was best to stay at a working acquaintance level.

She looked up from her bowl to Ron, her just spoken words seemed to be on trial for she felt more than just a work acquaintance level with him. She felt the weight on her chest as she tried to place him into her working relationship theory. Damit, she whispered to herself while staring at him, forgetting about the hunger noise that rose in anger of her stopping to address other issues. Why now? She continued to look at him, why now do I have to feel? She asked herself as her body took over and she took another bite of her stew.

Sanne! Her small voice broke the stare and she pulled her gaze from him as he stood up and headed to the sink to wash his feed tray. Her gaze refocused upon her stew, however, her mind was still grid locked upon the hug and the closeness she felt working with him. She tried to push this feeling back into the frame of mind that they were in trouble and that the feel of being safe brought out that emotion of happiness. Well it sounded good to her for now, but there was that small dip in her stomach that she feared...

She looked over to the step-in commander and was thankful that a strong person stood up to take control. I level head was needed and so far she was the prime example of a calm commander. She didn't envy the task that Rivers had to finish, and with that she would make sure she would do everything she could to help out.

She managed to look up and catch Ron just as he was about to walk out. "Ron!," she addressed him to get his attention, "May I have a word with you?" ... She looked at him looking down at her, " Are you thinking about saying anything?" she was searching to see what position he was taking..
 
Ray looked down at Sanne and smiled. He was glad she had called him over as it gave him another excuse to be around her. He knew he didn't have a hope in hell of ever getting together with her but he could dream and he knew they would have to work closely together if they were going to survive. He would just have to be satisfied with that and whatever little touches she chose to bestow upon him.

"I'm sorry Sanne but the way we were trained meant we hardly knew one another. So many of us died in training it sort of became a running joke to say things like "If I see you tomorrow." They always had more people willing to sign on so they pushed us hard and they didn't care if we broke. They could get back their toys and try again. Oh I know how I sound and I am sure that is part of their design as well. I really don't care that my fellow workers are dead. I am more sorry about that guy I killed trying to hurt you and that sort of freaks me out a bit, but hey not much I can do about it huh," he said smiling sadly and shrugging his shoulders.
 
Bowl of stew set aside, Mitchel made notes on his computer. He had to figure how much room they could use and how to best exploit it with hydroponics, as soon as possible. The calculations were going slowly. It was going to take some real work to figure out how to maximize their chances of survival. Assuming they could get this ship to move anywhere. Because, if they were stuck in place, they were dead, sooner or later. And in that case, sooner might just be more humane.

He glanced up as Cheri addressed him. "No." He shook his head slowly. "No, that's not really my thing. I don't do public speaking. Everyone remembers the dead in their own way. And mine is quietly."
 
Ray had left little trace programs in the computers systems to alert him to any problems. His system may not be advanced enough for him to completely integrate with the ships systems but he could with it's maintenance programs. As he walked out of the room he pulled up a list of all the problems on board ship by priority. A long list started to scroll past his eyes and by the time it was past the 200th item Ray had stopped it. He needed to reset his parameters. He finally got them down to what they would need to do to make the ship survivable to land on world, by priority. It was still a long list. He then color coordinated it, Red being must be done, Blue very important, green might be able to get away with. Even the Red list was a Hundred items long. Some of them were very small and easy but many on the list would require a lot of effort. He needed to show this to Sanne and Captain Rivers and get started working right away. Even with the droids help and some of the crews, they would be hard pressed to finish the repairs in time.
 
Rivers addressed the crew together over the open communication system. “I’m not going to pretend we are not in a lot of danger but we’ve all been trained to cope with situations like this and we need to work together. Our time for mourning will have to be postponed until we are safely out of this mess. I am today ordering the Crixus Robot to decently release the bodies of our dead comrades into the void of space. Any of you who worship deities can commend them in the silence of your hearts and we will hold a service of remembrance later.

“Meanwhile Ray is working on a salvage operation. I’m placing the ship’s computer at his disposal and anyone who is not involved in caring for the injured must report to him and assist in any way they can.

“I can’t promise we will survive this but we are going to give it our best shot. Carry on Crew, and good luck!”
 
Sanne pushed the small wedged potato about with the tip of her spoon while listening to Ray. His answer to her was somewhat cold but was the truth, something that she appreciated,for that is what builds strong friendships, and with what was to come, starting anew, friendships was going to be needed.

She looked up from her stew and wondered if she could change his view of himself, for he wasn't a tool that was a dime a dozen, he was a human, yes, he was augmented but still a human whom bore the human weakness like everyone else, he had a heart and feelings too. She resented them for making him feel this way, but now things were different and it was time that he sees himself in a different way.

She nodded her understanding to his answer whiling allowing her gaze to fall back to her stew. Her mind now playing back what happened earlier. She wondered how many more would break under the stress of this situation, that was one thing among many that but a little worry into her.

"Thank you for your help." she managed to get out before he headed out of the room. She cursed his training, while it was the right thing to be doing, but people needed a moment to breath, to relax even tho the repair list was extensive the ship was out of immediate danger and so it was the right time to let the people vent their feelings and fears, however, she wasn't going to voice this fact to the acting Captain for she knew it would come to her soon enough.

She pushed herself up from the table, having finished with her meal, it was time to recheck their repairs of the engine. Not to mention that Ray would be down there as well. A slight smile formed over her face as she departed the room. Her mind going over her own list of important repairs that was needed and the major one that worried her was the reentry plating of the exoskeleton skin of the ship. She shuddered over the though of space walking!

She went to find Ray and wondered if he had been trained in that skill, for if not, she would have to do it by herself and that would take a very long time. Time that they really didn't have, but it was necessary if they wanted to land the ship on the planet.

She spotted Ray a little way down the corridor ahead of her, "Ray." she spoke aloud in hopes to bring him to a stop..
 
Ray slowed and turned around when he heard Sanne's voice behind him. His eyes lit up upon seeing her but he kept his expression neutral as she approached him. Once again he could feel his heart rate soar the nearer she got, as the twin desires of his need to protect her encoded into him and his human desire for her caused his body to react.

"Yes Sanne what can I do for you. I was just on my way down to the main engineering section to get my computer up-link upgraded. Then I will be able to fully access the entire ships schematics and second by second data, so I can see what really needs fixing now. I have a rough idea but I need to really prioritize this list or we may not survive planet fall. I am hoping to get people working on some projects very shortly so it's just not left up to us and the Androids."
 
Crixus opened the air locks after arranging the bodies of the dead crew members in order. The hiss and chug echoed as each was respectfully placed in order. As part of his programme he made a final examination to ensure everyone was indeed dead before pushing the eject buttons.

In a private communication to Rivers he said "Commander, all life is extinct in the bodies in the air locks. I have just ejected them into space and await your further instruction. Crixus out."

With those words he stepped back and awaited his next order.
 
Sanne looked into his eyes for what she seemed like an eternity before dropping her eyes down to the hard grid flooring below them. She had to swallow hard to ensure that her voice would come out soft when she spoke. She hasn't felt this tense since the Graduation Ball of her college years, and that was a nightmare in itself.

She gathered her thoughts to that of a professional whom had important business to go over. Looking back to him, "Yes, I was wanting to talk to you about the exoskeleton of the ship. We need to check the plating for any damage to them. For if there is any we will have to repair or replace them. You know what would happen if we had reentry with damaged ones." her brow arched over her eye. "Cooked goose!" she answered herself.

She took a glance down the corridor before continuing, "So I was wondering if you had any zero G training. Along with the many other skills you possess." her gaze going back to his eyes. He had comforting eyes that seemed to draw her in with each gaze she had for him.

"If you do would you mind taking a walk with me?" she smiled brightly.
 
Cheri nodded to Mitchell and shrugged. "I'm private about that stuff, too. " As she listened to Rivers over the comm system, she decided she'd just mourn on her own, in her own way. "Shall we are about setting up the auxiliary hydroponics, or something, anyway. I suck balls at cooking, and anything domestic, but I'm also a bit edgy and need to keep busy. "
 
"Probably should. Better to be working than dwelling on our situation. Probably should clear it with the Commander, though."

Mitchel stood, dropping his bowl into the reclamator, and making his way through the crowded room to Commander Rivers.

"Commander, with your permission, we're going to see about setting up an auxiliary hydroponics bay. Might increase our chances of survival. And it'll keep me from going mad, if nothing else." Mitchel smiled in a self deprecating way.
 
Ray smiled back. "We were taught the basics of zero G work and have trained in doing it, but as it was thought we would not be doing a lot of it we were only given a weeks training in it and the rest was dumped into our minds. However as you say it was number one on my list of things to check and I am glad someone else has the knowledge and skills we need to be able to do it. I am really glad it is you Sanne." Realizing what he has just said Ray blushes and looks down.

"Ahh while I am getting upgraded I might get the computer to throw in a little refresher course on spacewalking as well, just in case,"He mumbles just a little embarrassed. "Why don't you go down to the maintenance airlock and make sure we have everything we need while I head to the engineering and take care of this. I will join you shortly and we can start. While we are out there we can check the antenna arrays, the solar panels and the hatches as well. I hope I will not slow you down too much Sanne," he smiled.
 
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