7170 APPROACHING R-23649
Nishan sighs. In his 16 years of life, he had heard many announcements like this one. The announcement meant that the ship was nearing an inhabitable planet. When he was younger, he got excited whenever he heard it. But when he was 9, his mother got drafted
to explore the planet RW-3332. The crew weren't to know that RW-3332 had poisonous rain dropping down almost constantly in its tropical climate. Since then, any announcement made him feel miserable. He stands up, and walks to his compartment.
Sakura hears the announcement too. Awake in the dark underbelly of the ship, she's working on fixing a water generator. It's a very important job, seeing as if it doesn't get fixed about 1000 people will become severely dehydrated in a week. Her mechanic
squad, consisting of herself, her parents, her aunt and two cousins work to fix these generators. It's the "family business" her grandfather jokes. Her whole family work as mechanics, and the family are one of ten mechanic specialty families. Sakura's
uncle married a doctor however, and so she had 4 cousins who were a mix of mechanic and doctor. Of course, in 7170 you are free to work wherever you choose, but many work with their families.
"Did you hear that?" Sakura asks her Dad.
"Yeah. That's interesting." Her father seems unimpressed.
"Maybe we can work on biomechanics."
Her father laughs. "You'd need to be more of a scientist."
The cogs in Sakura's brain start turning. Hmm. Perhaps she could work on those if the planet was inhabitable.
Mia Warren was asleep when the announcement was made. No doubt when she woke up her brother Max would say how he'd be the first one to walk on the new planet. He'd be celebrated. Mia wouldn't mind too much, because she isa gardener in Greenhouse
8 and an inhabitable planet means she can work all around her. She also works part time as a soldier, just in case there are "aliens". It means she won't get drafted full time, and that she can work on her garden.
Julian hears it while working out late at night. He's a full time soldier, and he's here so his family (Momma, Poppa, and Hope) can be kept safe from anything. He's with his best friend Max, and together they're working on boxing.
"That's my time. My time, you hear?" Max pants.
"Go for it man. You're a great soldier. You'll be great," Julian pants back. As the #1 (Max) and #4 (Julian) ranked soldiers, they give everyone else a run for their money. Of course, money isn't a thing anymore.
"You know Payton? She's going to be all over me when I get back from the planet." Max grins.
"Man, you sure like her." Julian rolls his eyes and sends a punch Max's way.
"Heck yeah I do." Max dodges it and tries to hit Julian who was definitely expecting it and jumps to the side.
"I think you could have any girl you wanted even now."
"Well, Payton doesn't like me!"
"Yeah, because you smell bad." Max landed one on Julian, causing them both to laugh.
Truth is, Payton doeslike Max but she's playing hard to get. Julian asked her a few years ago, and Payton told him. Her crush on him hasn't faded, nor has his for her.
Payton's watching from behind a treadmill. She swoons whenever Max lands a punch and when he wipes the sweat off his chest, she wishes she could be his towel. Payton's a chemist, and she works on creating food that can regenerate itself, just in case
there's a problem with the generators. She works with her best friend Kallie, who interestingly enough is also a writer. Of course, everyone has to do an important job but hers provides entertainment so she needs to do chemistry on the side.
"Payton's sweet though. Really sweet." Max talking about her makesher grin. What a cool guy.
Kallie's asleep, but when she wakes up she'll get an earful from Payton about how hot Max is and the announcement. Kallie, as usual, will be jealous of the fact Payton prefers watching Max to talking with her. But as Kallie doesn't have many other friends,
Payton is all she has.
Ace is a cockpit novice, and is learning how to fly the ship in case of emergency. He also has the keys to an emergency getaway pod, seeing as he knows how to fly it. As he wakes up, he hears the announcement and mentally prepares to ask his captain about
it.
Shane is going to bed when he hears the announcement. As a messenger with a huge crush on his partner, he'll hear plenty of goss about it later. From his very gay partner, and from the messages sent.
Wes is Shane's partner, who's only a messenger because he has no other skills. Secretly he works out, but that's about it. Wes is quite lazy, and so he's asleep when the announcement happens. But he'll get woken up in the morning by his roommate Autumn,
and she'll tell him about it.
Autumn is a food harvester, so she goes around the food generators and gets the food from them. It's never very good, but she hears a lot from the other harvesters. She's working when the announcement happens, so she asks her partner Ellie what it means.
"We might be going ontoa planet!" Ellie gleefully squeals, giving Autumn a big hug.
"Nice!" Autumn gives Ellie a hug too, and they both get back to work. Ellie is also a food harvester, but she is a part time soldier too. Ellie's quite sweet too.
Chase is asleep during the announcement, but as his Dad is the captain he'll know all about it when he wakes up for textiles work. Chase makes clothes, and also works on making dye too from the dye generators. It's a good job for him.
Talia and Tariq are both training when the announcement is made. They're also pilots like Ace, but they're working on the pods. They switch between maintenance and piloting, so they're a great asset, and a great team.
"Sounds interesting," Talia comments.
"Yeah, maybe we can learn to fly as commercial pilots!" Tariq looks excited.
"You read too many novels," Talia frowns. "Anyway, which one's the altitude control?"
Tariq sighs, then laughs. "On the left here." He guides her hand to it, and she smiles at him.
"Thanks bro."
"Big bro to you."
"I definitely came out first!" Tariq and Talia are twins, but they're not really competitive. More like a team of two bodies, and almost one mind.
Hannah and Logan, riflemen (woman in Hannah's case). Asleep in their shared compartment at the time of the announcement. Neither of them are aware of it, and they'll probably find out in a few days when there's an update.
Koh is up, doing some workouts. She's the #2 soldier on the ship, and the only reason she's in it is because she needs her grandma to get the medication she needs. She hears the announcement, and rolls her eyes. Like Nishan, she lost a parent to a planet.
Both, actually. But she was cool with it because her mother was always doing her "physics" and her dad wasn't really at home much. They were like strangers to her. Kohisn't really a science or planet person. Saying that could get her sent to
cleaning work, but she wasn't really into that. She doesknow Nishan though, because he works with her grandma as a nurse.
Who knows what the new planet will bring?