The Eden Project

1.2 : Survey

The voice of authority came from Hannibal Burke, Admiral of the fleet and leader of the Eden Project. Standing around the large holo-table, everyone attending the meeting joined the Admiral in staring at the belated doctor.

Along with the Admiral, roughly twenty people were attending the meeting. The heads of nearly all the scientific branches stood on the right side of the table, while the left side was filled with staff from numerous departments. Engineering, supply, navigation, security, and more were there. Even the Project's lead pilot stood there next to the head of security, his seemingly sun-darkened skin standing a shocking contrast to his pearly white teeth that were on display clearly thanks to his irritating grin. What really stood out to Shea however was the figure standing a couple spots further down.

Standing roughly equidistant between the grinning Wing Commander and the admiral, the figure wore slate blue combat fatigues with a pixelated digital camouflage pattern, and on each of their epaulets stood three chevrons and two rockers stitched in a bright silver thread marking them as a Sergeant First Class. However, when Shea's eyes came across the emblem on her cap, his eyes shot wide and his hackles began to raise. 

He stared intently at the two wings bracketing a downwards spear and the circular, knotted emblem at its top. "And why do we have stray dogs at this meeting Hannibal? I thought this was supposed to be worth my time, yet you bring me this?" Shea could almost feel his upper lip climbing as if he were about to bare his teeth in a snarl.

"You will give our guest all the respect you would give me, or I will dress you down right here and now Doctor, regardless of your station!"

The Admiral's rebuke at Shea's behaviour was immediate and harsh. Enough so that it snapped some sense into Shea as to the scene he had just caused, or nearly so. The tall figure of the Admiral, all six feet and four inches brimming with warmth and smiles to go with his firm and decisive leadership style, was now a block of unshakable obsidian. "You and I will speak about this once this meeting concludes, and until then you will comport yourself as the model representative of this fleet and as one of your station. The INC has sent a representative here under my invitation, and they are our guest. Do we have an understanding?" His tone brooked no challenge. Even for those who knew Hannibal Burke best, it was never easy to stay a course on the rare occasion he grew angry. {4}

"Yes Burke, we are understood." Shea lowered his head to the Admiral just ever so slightly before settling in to listen.

"With that out of the way," announced the Admiral, "Doctor Zelenka, would you please lead us off."

— — —

"... So as you can see, Planet SP-137 is a seemingly arid and lifeless world. Or so we had at least assumed." Zelenka stood at the center of the table edge, commanding the images above it with a combination of swipes on the large tablet he carried as well as in the open air above the table. The hologram of SP-137 spun and zoomed as he discussed different features of the world, not only ones that they had managed to simulate from the long distance scans they had made from where they had jumped in at the edge of the system, but also from scans they had made even in the last few hours. They were all being composited together to make as accurate a simulation as possible by one of the many supercomputers tucked away in the astrophysics lab a few decks below.