Science Technition (male)

The EFS Odysseus was the talk of your lifetime, even while the war was raging the worlds first interstellar ship was where you wanted to be. You'd been drafted into military service at 18, never even given the chance to apply to an academy, but that's what happens when you're not born to a rich family.

However in the military everyone in the same rank is equal and you earn your place in the service. You soon proved that you had a real knack for maintaining and training combat drones during basic training and that got you sent to a tech school that would keep you away from the front lines, but somewhere you could get combat recognition.

Your VR combat time ended with more than one award for valor, and a few more for leadership. By the time the war ended you were a flight leader with the respect of all your superior officers. So when names were being chosen for the most elite people on the planet to be selected for the Odysseus you somehow made the cut for the crew.

Your record wasn't anything exceptionally special, so you didn't even get an officer position on the ship, but you were one of three people assigned to the section that controlled the external service drones for the ship. And you were the only one of the three with experience using VR remote control in combat. So your coworkers started calling you "Ace" as a nickname of respect.

Jasmin Holler's family owned one of the companies who built the drones, so she had a better working knowledge of them that anyone else on the ship, and could talk for hours about the bugs that needed to be fixed before they could secure the contract if you let her. And while she was used to an easy life her parents had done a decent job of keeping her from becoming a spoiled rich girl, however the nickname "Princess" still stuck among the three of you.

Patrick "Lucky" Flannigan, on the other hand, had no connection to drones in either their use or their production. But he was insanely brilliant and somehow managed to diagnose problems without even looking at them. He earned a full ride scholarship to his first college at the age of 7 and showed an interest in astro-engineering. he'd consulted for several sections of the ship design from the super secret drive to the stasis beds and even the external power arrays. The only reason why he wasn't in a higher leadership position was because of his age, being barely into his twenties he was almost too young for the trip. Even so he had asked to only be place in charge of the structural maintenance team, and it was he who hand-picked you for your place on the team.

Your team was technically assigned to the maintenance department under the leadership of Lieutenant George Hapfield, but so were the teams responsible for the medical services, the cooks and the greenhouse atrium. In addition the engine staff and other technical services for the living quarters were also under his authority. LT Hapfield wasn't a real people person, but he was good at keeping things ship-shape for the Captain.

Captain Beatrice Gray, known in the war for turning more than one suicide mission into overwhelming victory was one of the most decorated officers in the Federation and asked for the assignment because it "sounded like fun". In reality she loved throwing the rule book out the window and this was a good assignment to get her out of the way of before her famous mouth got her in more trouble than her war record would protect her from. She wasn't stupid, she was simply savage and decisive, and like to make everything personal.

She only had 50 crew members to keep track of, so in the month leading up to the launch she took the time to meet with each crew member separately so she could get to know them. You had scored a dinner, which lead up to a dance club because she refused to let you politely decline. It had been a success in her mind, and she told you so before you went home. She even remarked that she was glad to have another combat soldier on the ship, someone who could make a hard decision for the sake of the mission. You had tried, in vain, to remind her that you held no leadership position or athority on the ship, but she refuted your modesty by declaring that once outside of Federation space you would have however much authority she gave you, no more and NO LESS.

But right now, as your mind returns to the present, standing on this platform for the launch ceremony with a hundred cameras streaming live footage of your face to every household on earth as the Federations Prime Minister winds down in his lengthy speech about the greatness of moment you can't help but feel overwhelmed.

On a separate platform below you where you cannot see is a mass of people who are going as colonist. Chosen because they are the 2500 most genetically superior people on the planet between the ages of 20 and 35. As a member of the crew it will be your job that they are unaware and undisturbed from now until they get to your new home.

"Hey Ace, Princess," Patrick whispers besides you, "If we take a small detour on the way to the tanks we can peek at what a 'superior life-form' looks like you in?"

Jasmin suppresses a smile, "Sure, I'd love to see how the big brains define perfect skin."