"That sounds like a solid plan to me. I'll be studying the data we have on the system and the planets and try to pinpoint a good location to begin our exploration. But of course we need to deal with all this pointless ceremony first. Would you kindly stand over here for a moment, so I can get a proper scan of you to put on loop for the broadcast? It'll be enough if I have to listen to them droning on and say a few empty words. No need to interrupt your preparations more than necessary."

Rolak suddenly sneezed as he made his way to the Bridge. He quickly took a look around himself to check if anyone was there and, seeing nobody, continued on his way while mumbling to himself about stupid allergies.

((I haven't been gone, I've just been waiting for the best moment to show up. The conversation between the captain and Ylona was just something I felt would be bad to inturrupt at the moment. Rolak will arrive soon.))

"Sounds like a plan, Captain.  I'll submit a recording when I'm ready.   For now, I need to resume my checks.   Wouldn't look good for the cameras if all this Sophon tech disintegrated as soon as we fired the drives.   Angel, out."    

The engineer flipped off the commlink without further comment as she too a quick inventory of her cramped "office."    The low ceilings sure made it obvious who the designers were, all right.   Same with the crystalline conduits that could be easily shattered.   Sophon tech usually had durability issues once you were under the armor.

Still, she had to admit,  the people under her seemed competent enough which was a rarity on such endeavors.   She was used to seeing all sorts of wannbe heroes on PR events like this;  idiots who'd get themselves killed due to bravado.  So far, she hadn't seen those particular traits among her people, at least.

Among those on the bridge, however, Angel had reservations....

(been really busy with work lately, sorry)

Yerem was silent for over a minute after Ylona asked about their mission, seeming deep in thought. When he answered, his words were pronounced with great care. "Zealotry has gotten me to many places in my life, very few of them good. While I would like to find Tor for the knowledge we can gain from such a place, I do not regard that mission as holy, nor do I believe it should be held above other pressing matters. In the end, the Endless are not who will fix our problems. We are."

Luckily for him, any further questioning was cut short by the communicator. "Well, I imagine that Angel or our absent doctor might disagree about the pecking order, but yes, our scientific staff does include a Sophon. And I'd much rather have a seeker of knowledge like them than a glory seeker. If I recall correctly, you might get some valuable information about all our possible destinations from him."

((My apologies for disappearing for a few days. With the upcoming EA release of ES2, I've been so busy with testing and in the VIP forums that I never made time to get here. That's entirely on me, of course, and I hope that finally remembering to subscribe to the thread will help prevent that in the future.

Also, that FTL drive metaphor is as Sophon as it can get. I love it.))

Carefully, Skeler made her way through the twisting narrow maintenance passages near the core, noting how things became more comforting and familiar the further away from the Sophon "improvements" to her design.   The little buggers couldn't resist tinkering with perfection.  She'd learned long ago it was best not to argue;  just smile, nod and make sure to triple-check anything they touched.

After several security hatches few besides herself could open, Angel finally came to the core itself; the beautiful, swirling mass of golden Dust within the carefully crafted, exquisite containment unit.  With a smile she ran her hand along the surface, watching the Dust within follow her movements.   Few aboard likely knew what powered the ship and she intended to keep it that way at least until they left port.    She didn't want to answer too many questions.   Questions caused....complications.

With a grin, she backed away from the core, placing her hands against the bulkhead and concentrating;  a torrent of data filled her senses in a moment.   Every seam of the hull, every creak of the deck as the crew moved within,  every electronic circuit that flowed through the vessel, it all was known to her in a moment.

Taking on a prideful step, Angel returned to her station; let those on the bridge think they were in charge, but it was obvious who the ship's true owner was.  After all, no one could ever know her better than her engineers and, well,  Angel had a leg up on the rest of even them.

"Crewman Kelly,"   she thumbed a control on her wrist, causing the image of the younger female mechanic to appear behind her glasses,  "I need a diagnostic for microfractures on hull section 17 Alpha Niner.   Shouldn't be anything that aborts our launch but keep an eye on it would you?"    The woman, who'd worked with Angel before, simply nodded in reply.  She knew how things worked around here.

"Angel to bridge,"  the chief engineer stated as she found her seat among conduits and toolboxes,   "Everything's green down here.  Just waiting for you to give the go ahead for launch."

Sighing under her breath, Ylona switches comm channels and answers: "This is Bridge. Understood. I'll send you the acceleration schedule soon, so you can check whether it's okay on the core." She pauses, but then remembers: "In the meantime, why don't you record that hologram to get you out of ceremony duty? Bridge out."

She switched back to the old channel, where the Sophon probably waited impantiently for an answer. Of course things had to happen all at once. "How about you come up to the bridge and we discuss these course changes here. This way you can meet the captain at the same time."

As Ylona was coordinating with the rest of the crew, the captain had been quietly conversing on the comms. Though he was checking if launch preparations were proceeding as planned outside, he was mainly trying to find any information on the whereabouts of their medical officer. Unfortunately, so far he seemed to be near impossible to locate, though he probably would not have been hired on a track record for unreliability.  There was still some time. Yerem just didn't like to cut it close.

"Bridge to all. Mission control claims all systems are go on their end. We're clear for launch as soon as we sit through the whole spiel about holy missions and enabling scientific breakthroughs."

He turns off the comms, rubs his forehead, and takes a deep breath, then chuckles. "This whole ship is going to run at a wholly different level of smooth operation as soon as we can actually properly get to work. Are your people as stuck on the proper ceremonies?"

'Showtime I guess' Rolak thought as the bridge doors swished open in front of him. Looking around he sighed to himself, Sophon bridges always looked far to clean to, surgical, to him. He'd rather take the rough buisness-like design of his own people. Buuut beggars can't be choosers. Making his way over to the captain and Ylona, he gave a quick salute to his superior officer, "Captain Yerem, Ylona. Where are we on our launch schedule? I need to get to the armory and size up what I have to work with manpower wise."

"I wouldn't know, Captain. Obviously, giving a new ship a proper send-off is important, but we don't do this 'holy mission' stuff", Ylona answers, "Well, except for that ship searching for Auriga, but that was launched by the Zolyas. Their idea of a proper send-off ceremony is to—"

Whatever dismissive comment she was about to make about the other clan is cut short by the bridge door opening and Rolak followed by a nosy Sophon marching in. She returns his salute with her usual gesture and then answers his question: "We are, machine-wise, ready to launch, but not all crew is aboard yet, and obviously we have to wait out the ceremony. So you have, I guess, still several hours. Oh, and when you count your men, you might want to sort them into three teams, because we'll be running a three-party watch. You're also one of the watchstanding officers on the bridge, so you should remember that when planning training schedules."

Then she turns toward the Sophon, leaving Rolak to discuss matters with the captain, if need be. The little alien looked exactly like she had imagined, all dressed up in a lab coat. She also greets him by putting her fist to the shoulder, then asks: "We'd all like to know your name, for starters. And then I want to know what you think is wrong about my trajectory."

Yolna listens with crossed arms to the Sophon's speech. Of course, the first thing he does after assuring her the trajectory was fine is to mess around in it. Once she is done, she energetically steps to the console and reverts his changes. "First off, no matter what you think is in the way, we are not making a 'blip' around it. We'll be going over 200 at that point, and Alice is going to kill me if I demand the engines pull that tight a curve. Except she won't have to kill me because the exploding engines will have already", she adds under her breath while she changes some numbers at other acceleration nodes. The course shifts slightly so that it remains in its smooth shape, but clears whatever obstruction Dhanyl wanted to steer around with the same distance.

"Also, what makes you so sure it's supernova debris. It could be any random dust cloud, or leftovers from the Tianquitzly nebula that hasn't dissipated yet. Maybe even an ancient fleet that some super weapon has vaporized thoroughly." She checks something on the console, then reassures the Sophon: "If you want to take pictures out of the windows while we're flying by, be my guest, but if want us to slow down for thorough measurements, you'll have to take it up with the captain. It would add something like a day and half to our journey to drop below c and then accelerate back up again", she concludes in a slightly louder voice so that the captain can certainly hear that, too.

((Note to non-astronomers: Tianquitzly was never a nebula in anyone's lifetimes. It's been a star cluster for enough billions of years to have habitable planets. Ylona refers to the fact that a dense cluster like that most likely originated from a single interstellar nebula, the remains of which get blown off by the solar winds of the igniting stars.

Second Note: The unit of velocity Ylona is omitting in the above explanation is c. Don't think about that too hard.))

He had just been about to speak to Rolak about the shifts and potential training when he overheard the brief discussion.

"Whatever the reason for your course correction, I won't approve sudden shifts like that unless absolutely necessary, and it seems neither will she. The techs may tell me that the ship can take it, and I know she is much more sturdy than she looks, but this is a long term mission, and I am not going to put her under unnecessary strain. If you believe that debris is of any value to our mission, say so now and we will plan to move past it at lower speed so you can investigate it. That will be more efficient than having to return."

He leaves the details to be sorted out by Ylona and Dhanyl as he turns back to Rolak. "You already know the shift rotation you'll have to set up. But I want to ask you to make sure there is some time both for R&R and for training in that schedule. A stressed crew leads to disaster, but I want to be sure we can rely on everybody performing even under adverse conditions. Zero-G and EVA training, and some weapons training, but most importantly cross-training so important positions can be filled by somebody else if need be. I hope that won't be necessary, but I don't want to leave anything up to chance if I can help it."