Gordon opened his eyes abruptly, his pulse racing. He thought he'd overslept his alarm, but the alarm hadn't been set and he had no pressing matters to attend to. He'd lost track of time, a fairly common syndrome on spaceships and stations, but he still tried to close his eyes and sleep, though all sleep was gone. He opened his eyes and looked at his watch, stretching and chasing away the remnants of dreams. Gordon sat on the edge of the bed rubbing his face. Well, he thought, eight hours of healthy sleep, and the habit he had developed doesn't allow any more. Alice started fidgeting in the bed, apparently Gordon had woken her up. Which was quite surprising, given his periodic dithyrambs of snoring, which many could appreciate with him. He tiptoed toward the shower, business calling. He took it quickly and donned the standard dark grey clothing with the Phoenix worker's emblem on Hyperion that would be equivalent to the rank of sergeant in the army, if those ranks were applicable here. He cleaned himself up, shaved and scrubbed himself diligently backwards and carefully slammed the door to his quarters.
Gordon walked at a leisurely pace to the bridge, slowly coming to his senses. He stepped out of the elevator and walked down the last wide corridor, which gradually widened from the manual control areas of the Hyperion's subsystems to the main room, which was more like a concert hall in size, filled with various equipment. The room had a near 360 degree display that filled the room with purple ambient light overlooking Palmyra. In the middle stood Christian and was talking to someone on the comms. Christian noticed him and ended the conversation and beckoned him over with an inviting gesture.
They shook hands firmly in greeting "Good to see you rested" Christian said, inviting Gordon to sit down at the seat "As soon as you sent the information our scientists began to analyze it immediately." he continued and Gordon looked on with a questioning look. "Ah yes, I completely forgot to fill you in on further plans. The information that is now available to us has allowed us to understand the cause of the generator's unstable operation, which eventually led to the explosion. Our engineers pre-built the jump generator itself, and now with the information from the first prototype, have stabilized its operation by understanding what led to its destructive stabilization." Gordon nodded affirmatively, realizing where Christian was going with this "And how can my Apamea team be of any use?" Christian walked over to a panel and pressed a few keys on it, a hologram of containers appeared in front of him "As promised, this time I will need help closer to your normal work. These containers contain everything you need for Vega - mobile atomic generators and a new type of jump generator, an identical module to the Hyperion recently installed. We're going to jump on Hyperion at the coordinates of an automated SOS buoy calculated by our scientists. Your job will be to transport these containers from Hyperion to Vega. And to help their crew as much as you can with the hookup, since they're supposed to have a problem with the propulsion and or powerplant system." Gordon felt a little silly but wanted to make a remark "But none of us are good at engineering, especially on a ship like the Vega" Christian looked at him reassuringly "Don't worry, you won't be alone out there. There are people there who will take over the technical part, but the ship may not be fully functional. Several other ships will also be traveling with you to dock with Vega. We can't say for sure if her crew is alive, but as they say prepare for the worst and hope for the best." Gordon nodded slightly, imagining what horrors Vega's crew might have endured and if they had survived at all. "As I understand it, the Hyperion is jumping alongside the moored ships. Are we also still working on Alexandria? Well the most important question for me when do we move out?" asked Gordon. Christian walked over to the panels that were still showing the containers, made a few gestures and pressed a key, a schematic of the Vega's compartments and rooms appeared in their place "I've sent the Vega's schematic to your quarters. It is slightly different in the living section, as these are Gas Miners Guild blueprints they provided us with earlier. Study them while you have some free time, you'll need it. We're in the process of getting Hyperion ready for the first jump, so you've got a couple days." Gordon nodded, stretched without hiding a yawn "Will do, Chris. Then off I go to do the team briefing. Or anything else?" Christian waved his hand and the hologram disappeared, he turned to face him "Yeah that's it, can you..." a bell rang, another transmission for Christian to answer. Gordon nodded silently and headed back to his own, Christian had a tight schedule as he preferred to keep all major Phoenix matters under his personal control.
