The tour of the complex.

"As you can see that this bunker was not originally part of the Atlas silo," Director Neumann mentioned as the group stood in the loading bay beyond the second blast door. "The original entrance was essentially a concrete outhouse — albeit one that could stand a direct hit from an inbound nuclear strike — and past its blast door was a flight of stairs that lead to the launch control center about thirty feet below the ground. We'll show you that when we get to the third floor."

The NASA directors led the group through one of the two side doors and into the well-equipped contemporarily designed kitchen and dining hall.

"This is definitely better than the Navy's mess halls," Jonathan noted to noone in particular.

"It's better than my apartment's!" Zoe remarked while she and the other girls curiously inspected the cabinets, drawers, and appliances.

"Do you even know how to cook?" Natalie asked.

"No..." Zoe responded with a glare. "Do you?"

"Does ramen count?" Natalie shrugged.

"Okay, now let's head to the recreation center," Director Neumann shouted to get everyone's attention. He led the group through the door to a lounge with several comfortable leather armchairs and couches. However, it was the small theater that could seat twenty-four people that drew excitement from the crew. "You won't be working 24/7 so you will need a place to relax and entertain yourselves. You may not have access to streaming services so we've included a large library of TV shows and movies for you to watch at your leisure."

"Did you choose the titles, sir?" Jonathan wondered.

"Actually we sent out an email asking the crew which shows they want."

"I must have missed it," Jonathan shrugged. "I don't much free time to watch TV..."

"Now you will," Cindy smirked. "You can watch some romantic comedies with me!"

After the crew sat in the chairs so that the camera crew could take promotional photos and videos, the directors led the group through another door to the gym. The triplets squealed with delight and excitedly examined the exercise equipment and weights.

"Boring!' Zoe grumbled.

"Everyone will be exercising!" Crystal barked like a drill sergeant at Zoe and the engineers, startling them. "Daily!"

Zoe looked desperately at Lauren and Hane and then to the directors for support but they all shrugged. "Fine..."

"Well, you can always swim instead," Director Baumann remarked with a smirk as he led the group to the pool room that included an artificial sandy beach.

"Jon can teach us how to swim!" Natalie chirped.

"Oh my God, too bad we couldn't sunbathe here!" Kaylee remarked as she pushed some sand with her foot.

"Technically you could," Director Baumann chuckled.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Since you will be spending the next two years completely underground, sunlight will be piped into the complex via fiber optic cables to some of the lights so you'll get your Vitamin D and a tan if you want.

"Now if you don't mind following me, we'll head down to the next floor," the Human Research Program director led the group to the freight elevator in the center of the circular above ground bunker. "There is also a stairwell if you want to work on your calves but tonight we'll be taking the elevator."

"Déjà vu," Cindy whispered to Jonathan with a smirk as she pressed her breasts against his body. Jonathan just looked straight forward, ignoring someone's hand on his butt. He hoped none of NASA's leadership or the camera crew noticed the female crew had intentionally stood closer to him despite adequate space in the freight elevator.

"The second floor may not be the most glamorous but it's vital," Director Baumann announced as he led the group to a vast open room full of canned food, water tanks, and boxes of miscellaneous supplies. "Since the complex is not truly sealed and self contained, we didn't see the need to have a two-year supply of water. Nonetheless please be mindful of often you flush your toilets, especially since you'll be using bidets instead of toilet paper."

"Why no toilet paper?" Zoe wondered.

"The amount of toilet paper needed would probably fill a quarter of this floor!" the director chuckled. "Now let's head down to the medical bay."

The freight elevator doors opened to a small hygienically sterile waiting room. The directors stepped aside to let Lauren and Hane lead the group on the tour of the floor.

"This floor will be where Dr. Cheng, Dr. Chow, Dr. Lee, Dr. Sze, Dr. Le, and myself will not only be doing our clinical research in our offices but also tending to the crew's medical needs, both physical and mental," Lauren explained. "We do have an operating room should something medically dire occur."

"Luckily we have three medical doctors on staff," Hane smiled at Jennifer, Cindy, and Jonathan.

Before the group would continue their tour directors Neumann and Baumann pulled Lauren, Hane, Jennifer, and Cindy aside for a private chat away from the rest of the crew. The women listened intently to what the two men were saying, occasionally glanced over at Jonathan's direction, and then nodded. Jonathan knew something was serious by the look on the colleagues' faces but did not want to inquire until he could speak to them privately.

The group walked through the narrow corrugated steel access tunnel about a hundred feet from the refurbished missile silo to the command center, past the set of stairs that led up to the original entrance to the Atlas missile launch facility. The two storey cylindrical commander center was not renovated as much as the silo portion of the complex — it was mostly bare concrete except for a lonely station with a several monitors.

"Wow, this is very... spartan," Natalie muttered. "So this is where they could have launched a missile as part of World War 3?"

"Yes, and luckily we never needed to use the intercontinental ballistic missiles," Director Baumann noted. "Now let's show you your personal quarters! Your luggage and other personal items have been moved to your assigned rooms."

The fourth to ninth floors were the living quarters — each floor was divided into three spar-furnished rooms with a queen-size bed, a nightstand, a desk and chair, and bathroom, not unlike what one would find in a hotel suite.

"Why does Jon get the entire ninth floor to himself?" Kaylee asked inquisitively as the elevator lowered down to the tenth floor.

"We decided to segregate the sexes," Lauren explained with a wink at Jonathan. "We wanted to give Jon a reprieve for at least eight hours away from fifteen women."

"Floors ten, eleven, and twelve are the labs where most of the crew will be doing their research and experiments," Director Baumann explained as he guided the group through the biology, engineering, and robotics stations on the three floors.

"The next floor is the farm," Director Neumann announced. "Since the complex is not truly sealed and self contained and even though you have enough canned food to last more than the duration of the experiment, I'm sure you want to eat fresh vegetables, eggs, and protein."

"There are chickens here!" Zoe gasped, looking at the coop that housed about a dozen hens.

"And crickets," Kaylee added, giggling at Zoe's look of disgust when she pointed to the rows of tall racks that contained thousands of crickets. "They'll not only be used to feed the chickens but also we can eat them ourselves. I have some great recipes that you can try out!"

"The next floor is not very exciting," Director Baumann admitted after escorting the group back to the elevator. "It's the storage level so I think we can skip it."

When the elevator car finally reached the fifteenth floor, the group funneled out of the wide elevator doors. "And lastly we have the mechanical level," Director Neumann announced. "This is where all the water filtration, the batteries for the solar panels and wind turbine outside, the backup generator, and other machinery are housed."

"I guess Natalie and I have this floor mostly to ourselves," Allison muttered while she examined the industrial water filtration system.

Director Neumann noticed a couple of the girls yawning and looked at his wristwatch. "Oh, my apologies! It's getting late! Let's head back upstairs!"