First Meetings (Open)

[~ ADMIN]

Annabelle's life was about to change completely. It had been a bit of a surprise when a government official had turned up on her doorstep and asked her to accompany him to the UGAP building for a briefing. She was just a Scottish armed forces officer with an interest in physics, what could they possibly want with her? What had surprised her even more was when they said that she was one of the World's best and brightest. She hadn't been able to hold back a snort of laughter, and had quickly stared down at her shoes, clearing her throat, trying not to be too embarrassed.

Ever since that briefing she had been prepped and organised in every way imaginable for the upcoming mission. She'd heard about the anomalies on the news, briefly, as they were quickly covered up or explained to be something else like training exercises gone awry. Yeah, right. But now she'd been full brought up to date, she was intrigued and excited to get the mission under way, to help out as best she could, and try to help figure out what the hell was going on.

Now that she was all set and ready to go, the first thing on the agenda was a meeting with the other members of the crew. It was supposed to be happening in the conference area of the flight deck, so that was where she headed once she was on board. She hadn't felt the need to change out of her normal clothes just yet, and so entered the flight deck with them on, her bag still slung over her shoulder. Looking around, she realised she was the first one there, so put her bag safely out the way, then glanced around. Seeing the front viewing screen, she wandered over to it and looked out across the star ship bay into space. This was the first time she'd actually been into space, instead of pretending she was in training simulations. It was amazing. She sighed, not hearing any one else enter.

[cap01]

Captain Michael Clarke always knew that there was something about the anomalies that he wasn’t being told about but then again he was a mere Captain in command of a starship he probably didn’t have the clearance to even know about it. Michael however was dead wrong he was contacted by the Fleet Admiral and was ordered to head back home to Earth. Confused about this order he arrived at the EDN Headquarters. Michael was then shown to a private room and two government officials were there waiting for him. They explained briefly about the anomalies which confused him even more. They offered Michael a new job and told him he was one of the worlds best of the best.

That was four days ago he was told that his First Officer Commander Sheppard was promoted to Captain and taking command of the Poseidon while he was taking command of the government starship Venia. At the main briefing Michael was told a lot more about that was going on and the mission that they were sending them on. Michael was confused about all this but slowly eased into everything. Michael hadn’t met any of his crew formally yet only seen them in the briefing thus a meeting onboard Venia would be perfect it meant that he could meet the crew that he would be working with.

Walking onboard Michael looked around, he was amazed it was nothing like the Poseidon, the Venia was much larger. Michael carried two bags with him, one filled with everything he needed the second had his model ships a small hobby he still couldn’t find a model USS Enterprise yet a 21st centenary American Navy warship. Michael made his way up to the flight deck were the first of many briefings would take place. It didn’t take Michael long to find the flight deck, he entered the briefing place and discovered a young female waiting there already. “Hello.” Michael said as he walked in further he placed his two bags down on the floor. “I’m Michael Clarke.” Michael explained as he introduced himself to the woman.

[~ ADMIN]

Completely lost in thought, Annabelle hadn't noticed when Michael had entered, so jumped when she heard his voice. She swivelled round to face him, wide eyed, controlling all combat reflexes as she calmed herself and managed to work her face into a smile. "Oh, hey," she replied, quietening her accent so she could understand him, "Annabelle McAdam, but call me Anna." The only people that used her full name were her parents, or her brothers when they were winding her up.

"Second first person here, so you must be the Captain, right?" she asked. Usually the Captain of the ship was the first to arrive, as they were generally prompt, good time-keeping sort of folk. She'd just been first because she was over-eager to get out there and see space. "I'm the tactical officer," she said, "although, I'm not sure why they really need one on this mission, not unless people are causing these things on purpose..." It had crossed her mind, and if that was the case, she didn't really want to meet these people, they had to be smart or powerful to be able to do something like that.

[cap01]

Michael grinned when the female span around and jumped when he entered the room he never had this kind of reaction to people before now. Michael was wearing his Earth Defense Force Navy uniform complete with the hat, he thought that it was best that he would wear the uniform during the briefing and while he was on duty on the starship. Michael guessed that Anna was Scottish because of her accent no that this was a problem for him at all. “It’s nice to meet you Anna. That’s correct I am the Venia’s Captain.” Michael replied back to her.

Michael turned away from Anna for the moment as he looked out into space, He rarely been to Earth well he stayed on Earth every now and then when he returned from a mission but those missions could last months even years before he saw Earth. Space was more his home than Earth. “The Tactical Officer? I joined the EDN as an Tactical Officer before getting command of starships.” Michael replied back to Anna. “From what I see they have brought the best of the best together, so you must be damn good at your job otherwise they wouldn’t bother.” Michael said. Michael wasn’t trying to be rude or anything he was merely speaking his mind.

[~ ADMIN]

His uniform would have been the big giveaway if she hadn't already guessed. "Nice to meet you too," she said with a smile. She saw the grin and stuck her tongue in her cheek, ignoring it. Two minutes on board the ship and she'd already embarrassed herself. Wonderful! What next? Tripping over one of the control consoles? Stubbing her toe on the sliding door? Oh well, at least he found it amusing and endearing rather than anything else.

"Ohhh," she said in response to him having been the Tactical Officer. That meant he knew how to do her job, shucks. A genuine smile broke out across her face at what she said next. "Shame the rest of the crew wasn't here to hear that compliment as well," she said. Tooting his own horn as well mind, but they had been told that several times throughout the briefings that they were the best, whether any of them believed it or not.

"So," Anna said, scuffing a foot on the floor, "any idea who any of the other crew members are?" She'd enquired about it, but got no answer. She figured that Captain had a better chance of knowing.

[idina]

Idina Petrov could feel her whole body shaking as she walked toward the large spaceship. It hadn't been long since the government approached her and asked her to join the team saying that she was special and one day would be a great woman. It still made no sense to her. She was just a sixteen year old girl some a small town. She was nothing special! However she hadn't fought with them about it, much to egger to get out of the town and away from her father, by this time tomorrow she would be miles and miles away from him. Finally free from his abuse. Hopefully she would never have to return to Vybrog, and never see her murderous father again. Sure she was sad to leave her mother behind, especially with her father. But there wasn't any time to worry about that. She had to focus on her new mission.

Of course she was no more than a laky, sent in by the government to make sure everyone stayed in line, which wouldn't be much of a problem since she had always believed strongly in rules. Idina knew she would be the man on the outs, after all she was young, have never been in space before, and though she was smart had no special training that would help her on the star-ship. She just hoped that this wouldn't put a wedge between her and the people she would be spending the next several years with, or how ever long this mission was suppose to last. (Or else how long it took the crew to fix the problem.) In the end she was a very likable person, but that wasn't always enough for people. However if that was the kind of people she would be spending everyday with she wasn't sure if she wanted to be their friend. And really didn't mind if she spent the time alone, she liked to be alone anyway. But in a spaceship their couldn't be much to do by yourself, and Idina was here for the adventure not to be bored out of her mind.

Idina made her way through the ship to the flight deck where she had been told to report and where she would meet her new crew mates. When she reached the door she stood looking at it a second, trying to prepare herself. She looked down at her blue and green t-shirt and plan blue jeans. She wished she had something nicer to wear, but this was as good as it was going to get. She pushed a few lose strained of her long curly brown, golden hair behind her ear. Some people had said that it looked Red for a far but up close it was easy to see that it was a mixture of brown and gold. Shifting her hand around her bag nervously she opened the door and stepped into the room. She felt completely over whelmed by what she saw. Her blue gray eyes soon fell upon the two people that were already in the room. Both much older than she was, though the girl looked to be in her twenties. Idina shifted moving into the room, trying not to look like a scared little puppy, but knew that she failed. Setting her bag down along the wall she looked between the two, the man obviously the captain. "Hi... Um... I'm Idina Petrov.... The... um.. observer..." She said hating that she couldn't keep her voice even.

[~ ADMIN]

Anna was distracted from her conversation by the arrival of another crew member. She turned to look at the new arrival and was surprised by how young she looked, maybe 15 or 16? And she was an observer? What did that mean? Maybe she was there to watch over them and make sure that they didn't get into trouble or something. Not that they would. They were just supposed to be investigating, how much trouble could they get into doing that? An observer couldn't exactly stop them from being sucked up by an anomaly or being hurt. She could probably make sure they followed protocol though. Might get irritating after a while, but she was willing to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. No point in judging her before spending some time with her. After all, she was shaking like a leaf.

"Hey," Anna said with a friendly smile on her face, "I'm Annabelle McAdam," she decided to just introduce herself and let the Captain introduce himself, "but you can call me Anna." She waved the girl over, "we won't bite, promise," she smiled again. "So, where are you from?" she asked, glancing at Michael, "you too. It's hard to tell exactly with Americans, you all sound alike to me." She was pretty sure all Americans thought Scottish people all sounded alike as well.

[cap01]

Michael stood there for a moment, he knew that there would be a while before the ship took off. There were much better Captain’s out there in the universe and Michael was lucky that the government offered him the job, but the government was correct they had gathered the best of the best here there were people here that were a lot smarter than he was. All Michael was here for was commanding the starship, this mission however was more important than anything else that he could be doing right about now. Michael laughed when he heard Anna’s reply comment to him. Looking up towards her he spoke a reply. “It’s not just a comment but the truth Anna.”

Michael replied back. Suddenly another person walked into the room before Michael could respond back to Anna. Michael listened to the young woman as she spoke to them both, the girl looked only fifteen or sixteen Michael didn’t understand why the government allowed teenagers onboard the ship but Michael would have to get used to it. The new arrival announced herself to be India Petrov the ship’s observer. “Welcome onboard the Venia Miss Petrov. I’m Michael Clarke the Captain.” Michael replied back to her as he introduced himself. Michael turned towards Anna once again. “I’m hoping the senior crew would arrive soon before we get started.” Michael replied back.

[idina]

"Nice to meet you." She said to both the captain and Anna, some how able to keep her voice from shaking. She felt so out of place here, and even when Anna offered her to come closer she found that she couldn't. Her feet were firmly locked to the ground. And her blue eyes scanned every inch of the room, in awe at the equipment they had. Of course before coming she had read everything single thing she could find of space travel and starships, she wasn't stupid. But she had never even been up close to one until now, and now she was inside one just about to "blast off" into deep space. Of course Idina had already finished most her school, she had been planing on persueing more education because frankly she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. The one thing she hadn't been thinking she would be doing was going into space on a special mission for the government. Not in a million years. But here she was, and that was exactly what she was doing. Funny how the world worked.

Her eyes fell on Michael, who was waiting for more important people to arrive before he started. This caused Idina to look down. Of course he had meant no harm with the comment. And Idina knew that being an observer wasn't the most important job. Most the time she would be sitting in the side lines taking notes on what the rest of the team did when they got to a planet, and though there wasn't a rule that said she couldn't help out in other way, she would know she had memorized the thousand page rule book, she doubted that the crew would let her help, well Anna might she seemed pretty lax, and young herself so she might understand. But the captain, who was in charge, wasn't going to let her put herself in harms way. Which might not be a bad thing, after all she was just a teenager with no experience at all. And even if they did let her join in the "fun" she had no idea if she could actually do that. After all she was terrified just to be on this ship right now.

Her eyes slowly moved from Anna to Michael, not knowing what to say, but feeling like it was expected that she said something. The first thing that started to run through her head were facts. She had always been good at remembering things, that would be why she finished school so early. And they had always been her wall to fall back on. When in doubt, through out a fact. And that was exactly what she planed on doing now, even if it would come off completely random to the others in the room. But at this point she wasn't thinking about making a fool of herself, just breaking the silence that she thought was awkward, whether that was what everyone else though she couldn't tell. "Did you know at the center of a black hole, space-time has infinite curvature and matter is crushed to infinite density under the pull of 'infinite' gravity. At a singularity, space and time cease to exist as we know them. The laws of physics as we know them break down at a singularity, thus, making it impossible to envision something with zero volume and infinite density, such qualities of a black hole." Why she was thinking about black holes she had no idea. Maybe it was a subconscious fear coming out, she didn't know.

[Natalie Blake]

Natalie took a deep breath in a pointless attempt to slow her frantically pounding heart. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous; she had no reason to be. And yet she found herself hugging her father's leather jacket tightly around herself, drinking in the familiar scent in hopes of calming herself. Maybe it was the prospect of meeting the rest of the crew that frightened her? After all, she'd never been all that sociable.

Sure, working at the saloon when she'd been younger had introduced her to all sorts of interesting people, and hearing their wild tales had fascinated her, but Natalie had never felt the need to make friends. Then again, if she was expected to spend the next several years with these people, the least she could do was learn their names. And so she'd attend the meeting before retreating to the engineering deck and getting to learn her new home.

Natalie finally came to flight deck and paused outside the door, glancing down at her feet and sighing. Usually wearing old, worn runners, grease-stained jeans, a plaid blouse and her leather jacket would be perfectly fine, but she wasn't sure if it would really give a good first-impression to the rest of the crew. After all, the Venia's crew was supposedly made up of the "best and brightest" from all over. Would they be dressed as laid-back and comfortably as she was?

She shook her head forcefully and sighed. Since when did she care about her wardrobe? All the same, she did want to create a good impression, and so she rolled back her shoulders and held her head high as she pushed the doors open. There were three people already inside; a red-haired woman who appeared to be a few years older than herself, a man who was obviously the captain, and a young girl who was explaining black holes in detail.

Natalie waited until the girl had finished her explanation before speaking. "Hey," she greeted negligently. "I'm Natalie Fairholm, engineer."

[~ ADMIN]

Anna grinned at the Captain, whether it was a complimental, or a truthful one, her comment still stood, but she decided it probably wasn't best to argue with the Captain within the first hour of their meeting. Although, they did seem to be getting on all right so far, she'd made him laugh, that was always a good sign. It also helped her nerves a little. If the crew were going to be good people to spend time with, that was going to make the whole thing easier.

She looked back round at Idina who hadn't moved an inch. Boy, she was nervous. It wasn't like Anna could force her to relax, but she wanted Idina to feel comfortable on the ship. She'd originally thought she would be the youngest, but obviously not. She listened to Idina talk about black holes and smiled. So, she was an observer, but she bet Idina could probably match most of them in smarts. "Doesn't stop people from imagining though," Anna said, "you know, like the people who believe that if you go into a black hole that you can time travel, or that you'll be transported to another Universe. What do you think about that?" Idina was obviously interested in that sort of stuff, maybe they could start up a conversation about that.

Another face appeared on the flight deck, Natalie, an engineer who looked to be about a similar age to her. "Hey," Anna replied, giving her a smile, "Anna McAdam, tactical officer." Maybe they should have waited for everyone to arrive then gone round in a circle or something saying their name, where they were from and a random fact about themselves. It might have made things easier, especially seeing as she had no idea how many times today she was going to have to introduce herself. "Nice jacket," she grinned, "good to have you on board." Maybe that was something that the Captain was supposed to say? Oops. As for what he'd said about the senior staff arriving, "you would have thought they would have been the first to arrive."

[idina]

Idina was starting to feel a little better about this. She was in her element now. Facts and things that you could actually know. She was very glade that Anna was going along with her like random fact moment, and though normally she might think that the person was just humoring her she had a feeling that Anna actually meant it. After all she seemed to know a lot about black holes, enough to actually understand what she had just said. That might mean that they were a few years apart in age they could get along nice and well. They had least had one thing in common so far, but is she was smart enough to have read up on black holes and seem to have a interest in time and multi universe travel she must have read other stuff that Idina herself found interesting, which wouldn't be much of a stretch because Idina read up on just about anything and everything. She had a lot of interests and was a fast reader. As well as had a good memory and could remember just about anything after reading it once.

And though Idina wasn;t the kind of person to believe in things like time travel, she had to admit that it could be possible. Of course there was no evidence to suggest that it was even possible, and plenty that said that it wasn't. Most the time this would be enough to convince the young teen that it wasn't possible. But something about the thought of time travel made her hold on to hope that it might be possible. Whether a black hole was portal to such things she had looked into a lot and made her own theories on the subject. "Actually the infinitely dense interior gives black holes potential for space and time travel because inside the very fabric of the universe is collapsed into a point of infinite curvature, meaning that it is possible that this could lead to time travel. Of course because their is no way for us to document what happens in a black hole we can't tell. And even if someone was to be sucked into one and sent to another time, there would be no way for any one but that person that knew. I mean sense we haven't been able to invent a communication device that can span over another time period." She said as plan as if she was talking about her day.

That's when someone else walked in the room. Idina turned her attention to her for a moment, and for a moment wondered if their could possible be more girls on this ship than guys, at this point it seemed so. That would be odd, though, especially since it was very important mission, and one thing that hadn't changed in 500 years was that males were still more "important" than guys. After all they were more cut out for the "hard" emotional and physical tool that just a mission could bring on them. But of course this was a mission for the best and brightest, which had female written all over it. She flashed Natalie one of her famous fake smiles right after Anna introduced herself, half noticing that she introduced herself as Anna, and not Annabelle this time. Though of course it had to get boring saying her full name and nickname over and over again, though it had only been twice so far. "I'm Idina Petrov." She said also noticing that Natalie was again several years older than herself, at about Anna's age, maybe a years older since she was an engineer, and it took a little longer to be trained for that job. Of course she hadn't been told what Anna did, so she was just speculating now.

[cap01]

Michael just looked around as a new person entered the room. Listening to her as she introduced herself Michael waited for a moment as everyone introduced themselves to the new person. “Michael Clarke. The Captain on Venia.” Michael explained as he introduced himself to Natalie. Michael kind of laughed at India as she mentioned the black holes. “I remember one mission a few years back now. My ship the Poseidon had just defended ourselves from an alien attack and we we’re being pulled into a black hole. It almost tore our ships apart. I wasn’t really looking at the center of it to be honest. If it wasn’t for my chief engineer and scientist working together I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.” Michael explained remembering another encounter of those aliens that attacked them.

Michael stood there for a moment as he listened to the conversations around him. Michael wondered if they would be in fact going to a alternate universe or time traveling now that would be an experience of a lifetime to actually be able to see those things first hand, though Michael would just have to wait and see for himself. Michael just listened after that, science wasn’t really his strong suit give him a ship to command and a weapon in hand well that was a completely different story. “We should be right in a few hours the ship will make it’s maiden voyage.” Michael explained to the crew. Michael couldn’t wait for the ship to take flight for the very first time.