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The Warren // Habitat 2-A // The Ring
Once upon a time, this pub had stunk of sweat and dirt. Now, people were no longer required to do their own manual labour. Instead, it just stunk of piss and vomit. Huddled in the corner of a room a group of friends of various ages, genders and backgrounds sat. Their pints sat untouched, the liquid approaching room temperature. In the same as every other crevice of the room, all people wanted to talk about was the gateway. [I]"I hear that there are apparently dozens of gateways that have re-opened. The probe sent to it apparently connected with it, whether by design or by accident it interfaces with our technology perfectly. Probably some piece of obscure code left over from the old days."
"Have the board sent anyone through it yet?"
The original speaker shook his head. "No. Though the Endurance is set to depart-" the man turned his head down to his watch "-within the hour."
An old woman who was sitting with them spoke up. "Then our job is finally done here."
"What do you mean old-timer?"
"Our people came here to do a job, and we've done it. Now people can come through the gateway, inhabit the planet and we can move on. Move elsewhere and do new jobs, and build new projects. If the gateways are truly open that's a wealth of opportunity for us."
"Why would you want to leave?"
She chuckled slightly. "Oh you young ones, you often forget where we come from. They used to call us Spacers back on Earth, my grandfather told me the stories. We travelled through the solar system in great convoys, we constructed facilities in the belt and on various moons and planets. Yet we've been stuck here for the last three hundred years. We'll have room to grow, and too prosper."
"I feel like we would have been better if the gateway had never reopened."
"Don't be foolish. You've read history books, about how revolution, famine and war used to be a staple of humanity. Why do you think we don't have that here? Everyone has a purpose and we all get what we need when we need it. This is becoming harder for the Ring to provide though, no. New places to go means more opportunities. This can only be a good thing for us."
The Endurance // The Gateway // Sol System
The ships hull groaned slightly as it settled back into real space at the other side of the gateway. All Commander McCrorie was concerned about was that if the myth was true that the gateway had some temporal properties, then there was every possibility he would never see his family again. All around him the command centre was a buzz of activity as people moved between stations, it wasn't as well organised as it should have been. Then again until recently, this ship had been left adrift in a graveyard with its sisters. With the reactivation of the gateways, the Board felt it safer to bring the ships they had back online, rather than wait for something new to be constructed.
The process had been mostly successful, even now drones scoured the hails repairing wiring but all the essential systems were fully operational and at the end of the day, that was the important thing. Even if he had little idea how to command a military vessel.
He spun around trying to remember what officer was the communications officer. The layout was all different than that which he was used to, with additional stations compared to the freighter he had worked on for thirty years. This wasn't as exciting as he thought it would have been when he applied. Giving up he just spoke up. "Communications. Broadcast on all frequencies."
"Ready for broadcast sir."
He nodded. "This is the Lorne Administration vessel Endurance. We come peacefully on behalf of the board in the hopes of reconnecting with our lost brothers and sisters, establishing trade and finding the heirs to the world that has been within our charge for three hundred years. We request to send a representative to the leader of the station we are picking up on our scanners so that such a dialogue can be-" he struggled to think of the word. Public speaking was never his thing. "-had. I await your response." He nodded to the officer who had identified themselves as the communications officer. She flashed him a reassuring smile.
Atleast they were all in the same boat.