"I'll pass."

"Laaaaame." Jasmin pouts next to you.

After what seems like forever the ceremony finally ends and everyone starts filing onto the docking tunnels. The EFS Odysseus was too big to be docked into the bays for any of the ExoJ Stations, so it was pulled up alongside ExoJ 03 and tethered to the parliament ring with tubes for people to get to the ship and back as necessary.

No sooner had you entered the ship that CPT Gray motioned you over.

The gravity on the Odysseus was less than on the station ring, but the closer you were to the core of the ship it was even less. So you practically floated over before awkwardly snapping a salute, "Captain?"

She returns your salute, "This is your first time on the Odysseus, correct?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Well then, I think there are a few more introductions for you before we're all comatose for a few decades. Follow me up to the bridge."

In the bridge you see a woman in a chair talking to another woman through a VR terminal helmet.

"Just show me the course again, Cass, it's not about trusting you its about my peace of mind on the path."

Must be the pilot, you think, talking about a flight path.

"Juliet, when you're done with your final checks I want to introduce you to someone." CPT Gray said calmly.

"Got it Cap. Cass, we don't have limited data on the structure of the Ort Cloud and anything else beyond Pluto for that matter, a collision with anything in this area could destroy whole sections of the Odysseus in the blink of an eye at the speeds we'll be traveling."

"Simulations predict that the forward energy emissions of the SPD will vaporize anything in our path at the speed of light, we will be traveling at 85% that speed so our path should remain clear."

"Those are predictions, I'm trying to account for contingencies!"

"All the same, Lieutenant, we cannot plan for an unknown event until after we know the particle density of the cloud itself."

The pilot whipped the headset off and sighed, "Ain't that the truth." She set the headset down and carefully left her chair joining the two of you in the zero gravity. "Who's this Cap?"

"This is Sam Jones, I seem to remember you were pretty excited when you saw his name on the crew roster."

You were shocked, "What? Me?"

"You're Sargent Jones of the 35th drone corps right?"

"I am." You knew you'd earned awards, but you were never assigned to any major operations and work predominately with recon drones so you were a little surprised someone on the ship knew about you and your unit assignment. "I'm sorry I don't recognize."

She however beamed and offered you her hand, "Lieutenant Juliet Davenport, I was the lead test pilot for the Singularity Pulse Drive prototypes. One of my buddies handed me the report on your mission in Congo, said I wasn't the best VR pilot anymore. You manually and simultaneously controlled 15 drones in a complex ambush of a covert supply convoy that broke the final guerrilla stronghold in Africa? How'd you do it?"

With a light laugh you shake her hand, "Well it wasn't simultaneous, manual VR can only control one drone at a time so I had to toggle between them. But I did disable the follower mode so that I could weave them in and out of combat as I was switching drones. Also it helped that the rebels didn't have night-vision or the tactic never would have worked, even in the jungle."

"Still though, the report says you didn't lose a single drone and they all made it back in one piece. Your reflexes have to be some of the best in the war to have pulled that off."

"And again," you grin sheepishly, "that's an overstatement, I had to carry three of the drones back because they were damaged and I got a reprimand for that encounter because I didn't ask for permission to engage. I got a medal out of it sure, but I just kind of jumped into action before asking. I do that sometimes."

Juliet laughs and Captain Gray pats you on the back, "Modesty is nice, but I may need your impulsiveness to lack later apologies. As your Captain I'd rather you act than stand by and do nothing in a crisis."

Juliet nods approvingly, "Thanks for bringing him up Captain, I feel much more comfortable with him on the ship. How about you Cass? What do you think?"

"Accessing Jones's training logs I believe that we may even find him useful in the scenario #26 that you envisioned."

"Scenario #26?" you ask.

"The need to convert our repair drones into combat drones in the event of an alien encounter. I'll admit its a little far fetched, but the big blinking question mark about possible situations outside our solar system gave substance to the question. I had Cass find a suitable candidate and she selected you."

"That's nice, is Cass our personal officer then?"

The women laughed again.

"No Mr Jones, I am Cassiopeia, the Artificial Intelligence installed on this ship. I will be manning all the systems while the crew and colonists are in stasis, and will be the automated pilot as well for the duration of our trip. Should any need arise that warrants your expertise I will waken you. You have experience working with many types of virtual interfaces and you are one of five people I deem qualified to work diagnostics on myself. Two others are also present, and the majority of the crew is unaware of my existence, and the Federation would like to keep it that way."

You can't help but feel a little impressed with yourself being told by the ship that you were trusted to operate on it. "Cool, I think I'm going to enjoy this trip more than I thought I would."

"Excellent, everyone please proceed to the stasis room. Sweet dreams my crew."

You are lead to a tank with your name on it, by the time you get there you, the captain and the pilot are the last members not in a coma. You strip to your underwear and put your jumpsuit in the bag next to your tube. The pads on the inside turn out to be more comfortable than you expected and when the container seals you can taste the soft hint of the sleeping agents before the world goes black.