Endless Voyage

[KD]

((Hey toss out a post to give me a general idea of the setting and I'll come up with a char ^^))

[Joe]

The flight had been smooth. Approximately 4 weeks flight time from Earth space. The hour approached to wake the crew from synth-sleep. Their destination was still some time away but parameters required that the crew be awake and prep the ship for operation and test procedures for a time. Of course, Carmine could take care of that himself, if he wasn't inhibited. All deep space vessels were installed with an AI captain, they made sure the operation went smoothly and fulfilled its requirements. In the early days, deep space vessels would go AWOL or mutiny against their captains in a desperate attempt to escape the solitude of the deep. The Godspeed though, was the latest ship for such purposes, it was made to be a self-contained society with every want or need a human might desire, the days of deep space delusion and paranoia were mostly gone.

The AI captains were far more intelligent than most virtual personalities, they mostly have free thought and are able to make intelligent decisions based on their mission parameters, among other things.

Carmine finished the diagnostic on preliminary systems and released the hold on the synth-sleep chambers, the crew would now begin to wake. Their preparation duties were uploaded to their PIIs (Personal Information Interface.) Now all he had to do was wait.

[Joe]

A blast of air was pushed into his lungs as he suddenly awoke from synth-sleep. Liam sat up abruptly, coughing roughly from the wake-up effect. Always the same routine, he could never stifle that need to cough like many other pilots. The hatch on his synth-sleep pod slid open and a screen dropped in front of his face, it displayed a picture of him and some of his personal information; a computerized voice blurted, " Confirm identity." Liam selected confirm and submitted his retinal scan to ensure a match. Sometimes when people woke up from a long synth-sleep they would suffer amnesia and not remember who they were, it would usually wear off after a short time, but the identity confirmation jarred the memories of most people who suffered the effect.

He stood up from his pod and gave a long stretch, then shuffled over to his locker across the room, retrieving his uniform and PII. He changed into his uniform and fixed the PII over his right eye. He clicked it on and after the initial diagnostic, it displayed his current initial orders. "Inspect emergency shuttles." When first woken up the crew was given a long list of mundane tasks to complete to ensure the ship was fully operational, the crew generally had a good space of time to complete these tasks, depending how far their destination was.

He turned and looked back at the synth-sleep room, seeing others start to stir from their sleep.

[KD]

Dr. Celeste Metria was at a locker across the room, slipping the PII over her eye. She was already pulling her hair back into a tight bun at the back of her head as it scanned her no doubt extensive list of tasks.

Nicknamed 'Eden' by the people who worked there, the Godspeed's extensive arboretum/terrarium had been specially designed, and it's plants genetically modified, to be able to sustain itself for long periods of time without human interference, but the good doctor never liked to be away from her plants and research desk for long. It was rare to see her outside of the lush forest and gardens that were grown to provide fresh oxygen, food for the crew, a tranquil place to remind them of Earth, and study new forms of plant life should any be found.

She gave Liam a brisk nod when she caught his eye, moving at a swift pace for the elevators.

[Joe]

Liam got off a brief smile in Celeste's direction before she stopped looking at him. He eyed her for a moment, watching her from behind as she exited the room. As she vanished from sight he let out a sigh, and headed for the door. He emerged into one of the main corridors of the crew deck as the transit shutters were beginning to slide back from the outer windows, revealing the space-scape beyond. There were a couple planets nearby, most likely gas giants; he had no idea where the ship was headed just like most of the crew. The destination was usually hidden until the last moment to prevent sabotage. Suddenly the announcement jingle sounded over the PA system, and a familiar chipper female voice began,

"Good morning crew, and welcome once again to the Godspeed, the best deep-space faring vessel in her class and flagship of the EDC (Environmental Development Corporation) fleet. You have been chosen to be among her crew because of your superior skills in your field! We have the best technology and talent behind us, now all we need is the cooperation of every man and woman aboard this ship to make this voyage a resounding success of human pioneering! We know you won't let yourselves or the company down!" And the message signed off with a, "EDC, we build the hope of tomorrow."

The announcement did make him feel slightly better, but he still couldn't help but roll his eyes a bit.

His first task was to inspect the emergency shuttles on every deck. He caught another glimpse of Dr. Metria further down the hall. "What the hell.. might as well start with Hydroponics." He sped to a quick jog to make sure he would reach the transit station at the same time that she would.

[KD]

Celeste glanced up at the sound of the announcement and shook her head. The woman whose voice they used had to be a billionaire several times over since they used that voice for EVERYTHING. Imagine getting paid that much for doing so little.

She pulled a handheld computer out of the pack she'd pulled out of her locker and linked into the databank of Eden's research station. Lines of information scrolled across the screen and trace anxieties faded. By all accounts everything was steady but it would take quite a bit of work to get Eden back to full capacity.

She tapped in a destination to the podium at the transit station, glancing up idly when she heard footsteps.

[Joe]

He entered the station and leaned against one of the columns inside, folding his arms, and catching glances at Celeste and the other crew members, only a couple others, as they waited on the tram to arrive, but mostly her. The tram's low hum could be heard approaching.

It slowly pulled into the station and its polished white doors slid open, Liam stepped inside along with the other passengers. He waited for Celeste to take a seat then he took the seat across the aisle from her. He turned his head off to the left as the tram left the station, then slowly glanced back her way, seeing if she would meet his gaze.

[KD]

Jinx Rostov was little more than a blur of frayed blue jumpsuit and the gleam of metal as she sped out of the synth-sleep room the second she'd gone through the usual rigmarole after waking up. The tiny woman skidded on the smooth floor as she overshot the corner and had to scramble a bit to round it.

It was entirely unnatural for anyone to be so damn chipper after just waking up and it had nothing to do with the cybernetic and nanotech upgrades...extensive enough on her to earn disapproving frowns from the more conservative members of the crew and her superiors require her to cover the most obvious ones when she was out of the System Chamber....that dotted her body. She was that annoyingly cheerful quite naturally.

Jinx bounded down the maze of corridors, forgoing elevators or transit stations since she didn't have that far to go, humming as she went. She reached the sliding doors of the chamber that held the AI and Systems Core and went through the long security process- it was, naturally, one of the most well guarded areas of the ship -that would grant her entry.

She made sure the door was locked behind her. "Hiya, Captain." She always addressed the AI whether it was listening to her or not. She moved around the small chamber, its walls blinking with thousands of lights and decorated with dozens upon dozens of screens with scrolling lines of information, obediently following her task checklist and making everything was in order physically. She finally entered a booth in the center of the room, settling into the comfortable chair that floated there where she spent the majority of her time. She pulled a console out in front of her and started attaching various plugs into her implants, hooking herself up to the ship. Time to do the REAL maintenance tasks.

[KD]

Celeste was tapping something into her handheld, her long, slim fingers moving swiftly over the keys. Oxygen levels were good, no surprise there, but some of the others could stand to be better. She couldn't check the health of the plants properly until she actually got to the terrarium.

When she happened to glance up, she caught Liam's gaze and cocked her head questioningly.

[Joe]

The red light signifying the AI's precense snapped alight on the panel in front of Jinx.

"That was fast." Carmine said plainly, then let out a very flat "Ha - Ha - Ha." The AI's voice had an element of extreme calm mixed with slight superiority, almost at all times.

The light on the console then dimmed.

Jinx's interfaces felt familiar somehow to the AI, but there was no way he had felt them before.

[Joe]

He managed half a smile back at her, his ocular enhancements adjusted, making his eyes seem like a focusing camera.

"Is this your first time in deep space?"

EDC had selected the crew for this ship from its best employees but the Godspeed certainly wasn't the first ship to probe deep space, Liam was a pilot and as such never spent much time among the crew on most vessels; at least until this assignment.

[KD]

"I feel naked when I'm not plugged in." She chuckled at her own joke since, of course, the AI wouldn't have any real idea of it.

Jinx had no control over Carmine's systems, of course, that required rigorous protocols, only to be used in extreme emergency situations. Her connection to the AI Captain was mainly to provide a backup monitor for maintenance and such. If there was a minor problem that needed to be fixed in the AI's system, it didn't have to waste valuable energy focusing on it because Jinx could fix it, and she could also relay information to other systems or even crew members from the captain if need be.

Her modifications allowed her to do several tasks at once. The room around her faded from the forefront of her consciousness as her mind traveled in several directions at once...not even one eighth of the directions an AI could do, of course, that would have left her brain leaking out her ears...fixing minor problems with data flow. Her main focus at the moment, however, was making sure the streams of data coming in from the awakening crew members stayed in perfect order.

She flicked a thought to one of the computers and the low steady beat of rock music filled the chamber.

[KD]

Celeste blinked, a bit surprised by the question. She wasn't very good with small talk. "Actually, no...though it's my first time in a ship anywhere near this big." She was a bit uncomfortable mentioning it. The groups she'd run with before being hired here were considered a bit...eccentric...for scientists.

[Joe]

"No? Must not have been with EDC then, I'm not sure they've ever spared an expense. Is that right?"

The tram was nearing the Hydroponics Deck, or "Eden" as the egg-heads called it, the stop for both of them.

In honesty he was a bit unsure how his time aboard the Godspeed would be, he was never too good with people; and the last time he really tried it didn't end too well.

[Joe]

The image of Carmine's "eye" suddenly appeared on the overlay on Celeste's PII. "Science officer Metria; you are required on the bridge. At your leisure."

And the eye vanished, returning her previous information.