[center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/52/98/d8/5298d846c14c3bd3b6001ecf3a34403f.jpg[/img][/center] [right][b]BOARDROOM // THE RING // DELTA-4 ORBIT[/b][/right] Once upon a time the boardroom had been the command centre of the station, formerly known as Habitat-1. As the station had grown over time to encompass the planet, adding room for more people, facilities and storage the command centre had become unfit for purpose. That's when it became the home to the board and all their meetings. While it couldn't control the entire facility anymore it did give them direct access to communications and a readout on every system within the space owned by the Lorne Administration, which made it perfect for administration work. Division heads took up several floors below the Boardroom, with various staff and facilities all catered to their own needs. Entertainment even had its own offices, albeit not an official division under the previous CEOs leadership it had flourished. This was why Tyrell was now taking the pressure to allow them to have their own voice on the board. [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/63/f9/8063f951a27035036b7a9f2c1423d91f.jpg]Tyrell Lorne[/url] straightened his tie as he stood in front of the holographic display showing the gateway in its now active state. The five cruisers sat protecting it, they certainly weren't pretty and to his understanding having re-activated them after so long there were significant maintenance issues. Oversight from the previous CEO who had thought that they would never be needed. "So, does anyone have any thoughts?" It was [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4e/f0/15/4ef01504384d869a5f7d472abcaba9c6.jpg]Augustus Feltch[/url] who spoke first and as was expected for the head of the military it was a violent solution. "We should deactivate it from our side. Send in a swarm of dismantler drones and from what we understand we could have it out of commission in a couple of hours." "You can't just dismantle it." [url=https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/008/265/652/4k/siwoo-kim-546-max.jpg?1511612503]Doctor Raidne[/url], head of Medical. Obviously the first one to but in against Augustus. "We have no idea who is on the other side-" "Which is exactly why we should dismantle it." "It could be our clients." "It's been three hundred years, I don't think they're coming." Tyrell raised his hands. "We could go in circles with the debate over how long it's been on the other side of the gateway-" He nodded at Raidne. "I understand the theory that it may have only been three hundred years on this side of the gateway, due to some form of temporal displacement error but let's not get bogged down in [i]what ifs[/i]. The gateways open. I need options." He turned to face Madeline Ulrop, an aging woman with silver hair and more wrinkles on her face than anyone else. By all means, she should be living it up in one of the retirement centers, but instead, she was still here working to this day. That said it was rare for teachers to retire, most of them kept going as long as possible. "We should send a ship through." The little side bickering and conversations came to an end as she spoke. Not everyone agreed with her but her voice still carried weight. When she spoke, people listened. "We have been alone for three hundred years. By all means, we've completed our mission here, our people are happy but we lack the drive to do more. We're builders, miners, and engineers. Not colonists. If there are colonies out there we can do our part to build them up, give our people something more to do in life other than building more drones, to build more ships, to make new mines. Hell, we can't even add to the infrastructure down on Delta-Four! Add anything else and we tip the ecological balance we've worked too hard to maintain. So not only do we owe it to our people to find them purpose, but we owe it to our predecessors to see people [i]living[/i] down on the planet."