The admiral put his hand on John’s shoulder. “My boy, you don’t need this old relic helping you out there. It's young minds that is going to help the EXODUS be a success. I made my decision long ago and determined this is the best arrangement. The council can imprison me or execute me. The two of you, and this ship, is all that matters.”
There was a prolonged silence in the room. Neither Julie nor John knew what to say. Despite feeling guilty for forcing the admiral to explain himself, John felt more at ease taking command of EXODUS. For better or worse, he was going to be in charge out there and wouldn't have the admiral to fall back on for support.
“It’s late and tomorrow is a big day,” said the admiral, breaking the silence.
“We better get some sleep, John.”Julie got up from the table. “Thank you for the dinner. We'll see you in the morning.”
“Yeah,” said John as he followed Julie out the door. He stopped before heading out. “You didn’t have to tell us about your son. You could have lied.”
The admiral nodded to John. “You deserve no less than the truth, commander.” John smiled being called commander.
“Good night,” he said, leaving the admiral’s quarters. The admiral turned and looked out the window. He was pleased that he was able to maintain his composure during dinner.
“I told you the angel wouldn’t allow the kingdom to fall,” he said aloud. "He knows his destiny." He went to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. He took out several bottles of medication used to treat psychiatric disorders. After gulping down about fifteen pills, the admiral looked at himself through the mirror.
“Just one more day, then you can have me.”
While John and Julie retired for the evening the rest of the senior staff were still enjoying their downtime.
"I'm in," said Alex'sis as she tossed two blue chips to the center of the table. Poker night happened to fall the day before the launch. It would have made sense for tonight's game to be cancelled to ensure the officers got a good night's rest. But poker night was serious business and only a disaster of major proportions could stop it from being held. The gathering allowed the participants to vent their stress. The single rule for poker night was that rank was checked at the door. Everyone was an equal at the table and therefore first names only.
Tonight's gathering was being held in Alex'sis' quarters and Kevin, Bret, and Thomas were present for the game. They were seated at a circular table which was littered with cards and poker chips. So far Bret was leading the group with the most chips.
"So what do you think of our new commander?" Kevin asked Alex'sis as he mulled over his hand of cards.
"It's only been a day," she replied.
"In, and raise you five," said Bret, throwing a chip in the pile. "You spent a good portion of the day with him. You have to have some opinion of him."
"He's just as the admiral said; open and direct. But he's undisciplined and has no field experience."
"He's only a cadet," said Kevin. "Of course he's going to be at a disadvantage."
"You don't think he'll cut it as ship commander?" asked Sandoval.
"I'm not going to speculate on his chances," said Alex'sis in a stern tone. "He's our commanding officer and our job is to support him. We have multiple hurdles to overcome besides an inexperienced commander."
"Geez! Relax Alex'sis," said Bret. "We're just talking." He felt Alex'sis was trying to avoid defending John's abilities when all they were doing was making conversation.
Sandoval tossed his cards down. "Out. It seems to me that you already have a favorable opinion of him."
"That's your opinion, Thomas," replied Alex'sis, looking at the security chief with a defiant glance. Kevin could feel the tension between the two strong-headed individuals. Both had solid personalities and often clashed openly when they disagreed. Kevin decided to speak up to break the mood.
"I had the chance to spend time with Commander Olson; very professional and by the book. She was quite knowledgeable about TERRA procedures."
"Good to hear," replied Bret. "You in or out?"
"Oh, out!" Kevin had forgotten they were in the middle of a round and tossed down his cards. "She seems to be a nice individual."
"So she must be a great officer if she's nice," blurted Sandoval sarcastically.
"I was just making a general observation," said Kevin. "She did meet Professor Donavin today."
"Poor girl," said Alex'sis, tossing in a couple more chips. "I hope he wasn't too hard on her." The professor's reputation was well-known throughout the ship. No one wanted to deal with him if they could avoid it.
"No, no! She actually handled herself quite well and managed to put the professor in his place," said Kevin.
"Sounds like good officer material to me," said Bret as he looked over at the chief. Sandoval was surprised to hear about Julie's handling of the professor. He assumed the department heads would be walking all over her and John.
"If that girl can take on the professor, maybe she's the right person for the XO job," said Sandoval.
"Sounds to me that you have a positive opinion about Commander Olson," said Alex'sis mockingly. Thomas didn't give her the satisfaction of responding and simply ignored her.
"Call," said Bret. "What do you got?"
"Two pair," said Alex'sis, showing her cards.
"Full house." Bret threw his cards down triumphantly for all to see.
"Take it," Alex'sis said as she took a sip of her drink. She had a fondness for mixed cranberry and vodka which she always had during poker games. However, with the launch tomorrow she omitted the vodka and was just drinking the cranberry juice. The others assumed she had liquor in her drink, but she felt no obligation to tell them otherwise. "Have you all made your final contact with your families," she asked as Bret collected the pot winnings.
"I managed to get a hold of my father," said Kevin. "The conversation was just as brief and unimportant as always." They knew Kevin's relationship with his parents was shaky at best. Kevin's father wanted a career in TERRA, but never qualified to enter the Academy. So he lived vicariously through Kevin, who was never given the option if he wanted to be in TERRA. His dad pushed him hard when he was young through all the preparatory courses. He routinely bragged to anyone within earshot how it was he who encouraged Kevin and got him into TERRA. All his father ever wanted to talk about was TERRA and it infuriated his son. The anger and frustration that had built up in Kevin over the years finally exploded in a spectacular argument. Since the blowup his father had been distant and cold to his son. If Kevin didn't take the initiative to call they would have stopped speaking years ago. His mother was never attentive and loving towards Kevin and they hadn't spoken in fifteen years.
"Bret," said Alex'sis.
"Yup," was all the young man said. "Said all my good-byes."
Alex'sis looked over to the Sandoval. "Thomas?"
"My business is done." She hated that he seemed to never answer a question directly. He always threw out some vague statement to pacify people. Out of everyone at the table Sandoval was the individual they knew least about, despite his years in the EXODUS Project. Alex'sis wanted to chalk it up to him being a private person, but she wasn't entirely convinced. She hated secrets and wanted to know everything about the people on the senior staff.
Alex'sis held up her glass, quickly dismissing Sandoval's comment. "Well here's to a successful launch tomorrow."
"And that we get out of the system in one piece," added Bret as he held up his glass.
"I'll drink to that," said Sandoval.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The liftoff for EXODUS was scheduled to commence at 11:05 PM local time. Although it gave the crew the entire day to prepare for the launch, both the ship and ground staff were instructed to finish all preparations by noon. People were scurrying in and around the ship like ants finishing up final tasks before the launch.
It had been another sleepless night for Julie. She went over in her mind all the technical
specifications she had read, trying to retain the information as best she could. But she was finding it difficult to concentrate. Her mind kept dwelling over the admiral's son and how he must have suffered losing him. Julie thought about her father and how much he must have suffered when her mother died.
John, unlike Julie, slept soundly through the night. Any notion that this whole proposition was some elaborate trick had faded after last night’s dinner with the admiral. There was nothing left for him here and he was ready to leave the Earth behind and explore the galaxy.
Despite his deep sleep, John woke up early and was anxious to get his day started. After donning his TERRA uniform he took a walk through the ship to get more familiar with its layout and burn off some of the excess energy he felt due to his building excitement of the launch. He did not consult the ship's computer as to where he was or where he was heading, instead choosing to randomly walk down the corridors and catwalks. He eventually wound up in Central and meandered around the floor level, looking up at the buildings and layout of the area. He was amazed how walking around Central reminded him of being in the city. The streets, sidewalks, and city lights all contributed to the illusion. The only indication he wasn't on a planet was the ceiling far up in the distance overshadowing the area instead of blue sky.
As he slowly made his way along the main street, he saw the Stardust cafe opened. Large square pots lined along the white gate that outlined the café’s outdoor seating area. The pots were filled with various colorful plants and small trees, none of which John could identify. He wasn’t the gardening type. To him a tree was a tree and a flower was a flower. Overall, the café’s exterior had a French design to it, as if it had been plucked from the streets of Paris.
The café's owner, Mario, had opened his establishment at 5:00 AM. John could smell the aroma of eggs and bacon drifting from the establishment and decided to take the opportunity to have a nice breakfast and enjoy the atmosphere of Central. Once he got to the command deck he doubted he would have another chance to eat a meal today.
As he took a seat at a table outside the cafe John watched some of the morning crew walking down the main street, heading towards their work areas. Many of them acknowledged John with a nod or a hello. One even called John captain which made him chuckle. It was already an unusual situation going from a cadet to a commander and John had no doubt the crew needed time to adjust, despite the admiral's assurances. John believed Admiral Johnson would have been pushing his luck if he had promoted John to captain.
An orange bot passed John’s table and emptied the garbage bin near him. John watched as the bot's dome head opened up and it dumped the garbage inside of it where its internal compactor squeezed the collective trash into a compact cube. The process took only seconds and before John knew it the bot's dome closed up and it continued on its way sweeping up the area.
Mario watched John through the window for a few moments before going out and taking his order. A few minutes later he returned with a hot breakfast for the new ship commander.
“Here you go, commander,” said Mario, placing a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast in front of John. It looked and smelled divine. John could hardly resist diving in and swallowing the meal in one gulp, but etiquette told him otherwise.
“Thanks," he said as he took a moment to enjoy plate's aroma. "And you can call me John. Only the military calls me commander.”
“Lieutenant Brandus made it clear the senior officers should be called by their rank by both military and civilians.” Sheesh! That girl needed to relax a bit. John couldn't help but roll his eyes.
“I understand where she’s coming from, but that’s not how I operate,” said John. He realized as ship commander he could now call the shots on which protocols he would choose to follow, and TERRA had a lot of protocols he didn't like. In John's opinion, civilians were under no obligation to address ranking officers by title and he wasn't going to force that particular protocol on them.
John quickly looked around and saw Mario had no other customers so he decided to try and learn about the café owner. He wasn't about to spend the entire trip socializing with just military personnel. The sheer thought made John want to slice his wrists.
“So what brought you to EXODUS?” asked John.
“Well, if you’re up for a story...,” started Mario. John smiled and motioned him to join him at the table, which the café owner was more than happy to do.
“I'm here because I needed something to do. I ran a successful chain of restaurants in Chicago for twenty four years. I opened my first one when I was twenty-two. Married, raised three kids, divorced.”
“Except for the divorce it sounds like the ideal life,” commented John.
“Oh it was,” said Mario, wiping back his grey streaked hair. “When my kids got older, I decided to turn the business over to them. I had plenty of credits put away for a good retirement, even after the bitch tried to clean me out." John almost spewed his food out from laughing at Mario's bitch comment, but managed to maintain his composure. "Boy, what a mistake that was. Those kids managed to run the business right into the ground in just a few years. I tried to give them advice, but like any young person they thought they knew what was best. So when the restaurants failed and I wouldn’t give them any more money, they stopped talking to me.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Are you kidding me? Those kids were good for nothing brats. I still can't believe I'm related to them.” John was amused how unapologetic Mario sounded. “I guess it's my fault for not teaching them the value of a credit. But what irked me even more was retirement. I wasn't happy sitting by playing golf or doing some other hobby. I was restless. I wasn't about to reopen another restaurant, the bitch would have tried to get a piece of it. But a restaurant is the only thing I've ever been good at. Oliver...., Admiral Johnson offered me the opportunity to open up a restaurant on this ship. It was a challenge too good to pass up.”
“And he knew you wouldn’t have a problem with the ship leaving the system?”
Mario leaned back in his seat. “Please! We should have been flying out in space years ago. Olivier used to come by my first restaurant every weekend and we’d sit there talking about the merits of interstellar space travel. I have no problem defying those scrawny Screen aliens. Far as I’m concerned they’re nothing but a bunch of pussies.”
John had to swallow his orange juice quickly otherwise he would have spewed it everywhere. “Interesting point,” was all he could say between coughs. He’d never heard of anyone describing the Screens as scrawny, let alone pussies.
“As soon as we pass the boundary line, I’ll bet you they’ll turn and run like rabbits.” Mario was so animated in expressing his feelings, waving his hands around.
“You sound confident about our chances of making it.”
“Listen commander, I’m 56 years old. My kids are ingrates, the ex-wife’s a bitch, I probably eat too much fatty food, and I'm too old to be having affairs. I ain’t got much to look forward to on this world. If we don’t make it, so what? I lived a full life. If we do make it, great! I’ll be the first aging Italian running a café out in deep space. I look at it as a crap shoot and it don't matter to me which way it goes.”
John took a bite of the eggs on his plate. “Well, with food like this I’ll make sure we make it.”
Mario knocked on the table. “Glad to hear it. I'll stop gabbing so you can enjoy this meal. It’s the only freebie you get.” Mario got up and walked past John, patting him on the shoulder. “Next one will cost you the fourteen credits.”
Although he was watching the increasing crowds of people walking through Central, John didn’t take too long in finishing his meal. Once he was done eating he headed out of Central up to the command deck. He purposely took the long route up as it gave him an excuse to see more of the ship. John noticed the one thing missing as he walked through the corridors and that was a lack of bots. He had only seen the one bot while he was eating at Stardust.
>
TERRA capital ships were stocked with bots who handled many of the routine tasks, freeing up ships' personnel from having to perform low priority tasks as cleaning and minor maintenance repairs. John was told it would have taken up too much room to store all the necessary spare parts to maintain a dedicated bot group on EXODUS. And unlike the bots on Earth, Luna, and Mars that ran on solar power, ship bots ran on batteries that needed recharging from the ship. Such power consumption was deemed too high for the benefits of having a large bot staff for EXODUS. So only five maintenance bots were actively used for the entire ship, all working in Central. This allowed the merchants working here not to worry about cleanup or trash disposal. However there were six hundred bots stored all over the ship within hidden bays in the corridors. In the event a catastrophic event occurred on the ship these bots would be activated to assist the crew in making emergency repairs. However, once they were damaged or broken there were no maintenance parts available to fix them. It was odd to think a ship this large and sophisticated had to forgo such a basic convenience found in everyday life.
John found himself on the same deck where the medical bay was located. He strolled past it and took a quick glance inside as he passed by the entryway. When he spotted Doctor Myers, John decided to speak with him for a few minutes. It was another chance to learn more about a senior staff member.
“Hello doctor,” said John. As soon as Myers looked up and saw the new commander he smiled.
”Commander Roberts,” he said in a gracious tone. John liked the sound of that title, especially coming from the doctor's mouth, with his slight accent given it a hint of royalty. He couldn't tell what the accent was. John was never good as discerning them. “I hope your morning is going well.”
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