Saga One
Episode I
Chapter Seven:
Joseph Martin gave his harness another tug making sure he wouldn't be torn from his seat by the immense force of the shuttle launch. "Run those engine checks again" he spoke into his mic, "I don't want any those last minute surprises Star Labs seems to specialise in." Joseph's co-pilot, seated next to him in the cramped cockpit inclined his head towards him. "Really Joe? We're going to be fine." "Famous last words Eric." Joseph responded, wiping the back of his hand across his damp forehead, the atmosphere in cockpit dense before the a/c could be activated. Eric rolled his eyes, "You'll see Joe, everything'll go like clockwork. We'll go up to the station, finish the repairs and return home again. It'll be so routine it'll be boring." Joseph shook his head, "I wish I had your confidence Eric." Eric gave his friend a slight shake of the head, he trusted Joe's ability as a pilot and astronaut. "Still has those paranoid tendencies though" he thought to himself, swallowing the seed of doubt Joe's voiced concerns had planted in his head. "Everything'll be fine. It'll go according to plan."
Lex Luthor's brows furrowed as a speedy torrent of dialogue bleared out of the Cadmus cell phone he had pressed to his ear. "I'm well aware this is highly irregular, but you need to understand the importance of this mission…" he began before once again being interrupted by the speaker on the other end of the line. Emil laughed to himself as he watched Luthor out of the corner of his eye. "So, can't take no for an answer huh?" he thought as he watched Lex knead an eraser into a pile of shaving on his desk. "The moment he had met Lex, Emil had taken an instant disliking to the tall man, a dislike that grew stronger with every moment he spent with him. "I need to be careful around him, watch my back. He's one of those power hungry types. Uses others to his own benefit without a thought as to how it might affect them. "Do I need to remind you director of the debt your little institution owes to Project Cadmus?" came Lex's irate voice from across the operation centre floor. "You will have those astronauts in orbit ahead of schedule and you will grant Cadmus full access to the shuttle's resources. Do I make myself clear?" The air in the dimly lit operations centre grew tense as Emil and the centre's technicians waited with bated breath for Star Labs response. "Thank you director, you've been most helpful." Lex finally said after several tense moments before calmly ending the call and turning his face back to the monitor sitting on his desktop. Hurriedly, the centre's technicians returned to their work, breathing an inaudible sigh of relief at a possible hurricane diverted. Emil glanced back in Lex's direction catching him swiping the crumbled pile of former eraser to the centre floor, "He's dangerous." He thought grimly trying to focus his mind on the task at hand. "Very dangerous."