The Lone W.O.L.F. Saga: The Lounge
Here is another installment of The Lone W.O.L.F. Saga.
I am sharing it a little sooner than planned, but since the successful landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars, I felt inspired to write and share some more of this story. Despite all of the challenges and hardships we have faced in recent times, it is a thrilling experience to witness another spectacular accomplishment for humanity, that future generations will read about in their history books.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
The Lounge
“How was your trip to Euphoria?”
Balanced in a net hammock that sagged from the ceiling, Hack was loafing away in a corner of the room, with his headphones over his ears and a laptop perched on his knee. He greeted Linda after she strolled into the X.W.O.L.F.’s common area.
“Scintillating,” she responded in a monotonous tone. Without even lifting an eye to him the captain made her way to the couch that was stashed against the back wall, and sat down, next to Hack’s cocooned display. He gave Linda a quick glance while she picked up a magazine from the pile strewn about the cushions.
“Instead of wasting credits in there you could always save a lot of caps by letting me take you out on a date, at least once?”
Linda sighed.
“You know I am not-”
“‘-looking for any kind of commitment,’ yeah, I know.” Hack finished her sentence before he continued to tap away mindlessly at the keyboard on his computer.
“Then why ask?”
“Because why not?”
“Such a romantic and compelling argument, Hack.” Linda rolled her eyes and turned a page in the magazine she had chosen. “How can anyone resist your refined manners and charming personality?”
“I usually have to spray them off with some kind of repellent, but only you hold a special place in this rogue heart of mine.” Hack answered with an air of faux pomposity.
“How lucky for me, then.” Linda could not help but grin, however. “Anyway, what is going on with this new job Vex was talking about? He made it sound like it was going to be a big deal or something.”
“From what I have been researching about it, calling it a ‘big deal’ would be an understatement. You see…”
Hack was abruptly interrupted by Vex’s voice over the ship’s intercom.
“Is everybody in the lounge?”
“Yup,” Hack responded through the microphone in his headset.
“Okay, I will be right down. In the meantime, Hack, prep the projector and get it running. I already have a video cued up and ready to play.”
“Aye, aye, skipper.” The ship’s technician entered a few commands into his laptop. Then, soon afterwards, the lights dimmed, and a small device lowered itself from the ceiling. It was suspended in the middle of the room by an articulated arm that extended about a foot into the quarters. After a few more taps on Hack’s keyboard, a light shone from the lens mounted beneath the device, and a series of three-dimensional holographic images displayed themselves under the projector.
-At Panorama BioTech we strive towards attaining the penultimate in excellence for all of humanity, a soothing female voice chimed in when the company’s logo materialized in midair: It shimmered ephemerally in a bold display of sapphire colored script. We lead the field in bioengineering research and genetic study. From artificial limb replacement to organic computational systems found in many of today’s NeLiSp systems, Panorama BioTech, and its various associates, are the avant-garde in biomedical and space exploration. A picture of a man with a robotic arm playing with a puppy appeared in view, before the presentation cycled through the other examples of their achievements. Our predecessors laid the foundation to lead us to the stars, but here at Panorama BioTech Industries, we envision mankind reaching even further. Because, the future, is in our hands. -
After a brief musical interlude Hack ended the presentation.
“For a company proclaiming to be at the forefront of anything they can get their hands on, you would think they would come up with less of a generic pomotional video,” Hack scoffed.
Linda remained silent for a moment before she finally spoke up.
“I heard about them, recently. Are they not the ones trying to decode and clone some kind of ancient Martian DNA collected a few centuries ago?”
“Yes, and that is where we come in.” Vex answered her question after he had entered the room from a pneumatic lift behind them.
“So, I guess this new job of ours has something to do with this project of theirs?”
“It does. A representative from the company hired us but they refused to share any further details about our assignment until we meet them in person.”
“Well, that isn’t suspicious at all.” Linda tossed the magazine on the coffee table across from her before she leaned back in her seat.
“The guy I talked to was more worried about discussing any details over a public channel,” Vex took a seat in a swiveling recliner chair next to the coffee table while he explained. “Rather than hiding anything from us, they seemed more paranoid about competitors in the field listening in. This project of theirs has made them the envy of everybody else in the industry.”
“I swear, nobody trusts anybody these days,” Hack mused aloud, as he stretched lazily in his hammock.
“If everybody were so forthright with each other all the time, then our jobs would be obsolete.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Hack dismissed Vex’s logic with a wave of his hand. “I would rather live it up in Saturn’s Euphoria than remain stuck on this old, dilapidated barge of a vessel. Hey!” The technical engineer cried out in surprise, after Linda removed a cushion from the couch and threw it at him.
“Do not forget who owns this so called ‘barge’.”
“Geez, sorry.” Hack tossed the condensed piece of padding back to the sofa and massaged the spot where it had connected with his head. “I get no respect on this damn ship.”
“I already set a course to their headquarters. It’s located a few light-hours outside of the Oort Cloud.” Vex rubbed his temples and pulled out a bottle of aspirin from his jeans’ pocket. “In the meantime, Hack, pull up all the data you found and bring Linda up to speed on what we know.”
The trip within the rocky terrain of the Kuiper territory was simple enough for the ship’s computer to navigate. There were a few minor impacts that ranged from wayward chunks of softball sized ice, to, various high velocity micrometeorites that whizzed around the area. But it was nothing beyond what the ship’s thickened shell of a hull could handle. With engines that pushed the vessel to near light speeds, the ship glided itself safely through the twenty astronomical units of trans-Neptunian objects with ease. Assisted by the gravitational energy of the celestial bodies, also harnessed through the NeLiSp system they were sporting, they boosted their acceleration into the scattered disk region of the solar system. In relatively little time, the X.W.O.L.F. rode the cosmic slipstream of light and gravity. Past the outer regions of the Oort cloud—and into the open road of space—the crew made their way through the spiraled arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Straight towards the headquarters of Panorama BioTech.
