Chapter 12: Chapter 11
The number on the screen facing the seats was still '99' so Hiro wondered why the door to the hall was closed. Everyone should be here by now because most of the doors opened at the same time and the rest opened seconds after so was someone removed from the program before they boarded the crew capsule? Was the last person still locked in their room because they failed the medical test that was meant to unlock the door? ...If it was the latter, what the hell will happen to the person in the room?
"I thought we were meant to be hundred," James stated, voicing out Hiro's thoughts, as he furrowed his brows while staring at the screen and a couple of people muttered the same thing behind them before the screen became dark. When everyone in the hall was finally seated, the video of moving clouds and flying birds in the ceiling stopped playing and the lights became dim.
Hiro thought about where the last person was for a little while more before he shrugged. They would find out if the person is still on the ship after they leave the hall. The screen became white just as the anthem of the ASM – Aeronautics and Space Management – began to play and their logo appeared on the screen.
They all assumed that some sort of welcome to the spaceship video was going to be played along with a tour of the ship but instead, what started playing was a video of people in what looked like a conference room, focused on the tablets that were in their hands. And they weren't just random people, they were the presidents of different countries. They weren't much because the
Excited murmurs rippled through the crew members and the people in the conference room looked up from the tablets before they adjusted in their seats as they dropped the devices on the table in front of them.
Ona of the men cleared his throat and the hall became quiet so they could hear whatever he wanted to say. "Welcome to Boundless. We're delighted to have you onboard the spaceship, doing what no one else has ever done... Finding out if Planet Z is fit for human habitation. By the way, we're really sorry for naming the planet that, it was all a misunderstanding," the man stated with a glint in his eyes and the people in the conference room began to laugh.
They were trying to lighten the mood seeing as a lot of the crew members in the hall weren't really happy to have left their lives on Earth to come live on a spaceship for months but none of the hundred people laughed because they didn't get what was obviously an inside joke. The man cleared his throat again when he realized no one in the hall was laughing with them.
"Is this live?" James asked as he faced Hiro and a woman leaned forward in her seat, tucking her hair behind her ear while a smile grew on her face.
"Yes, Mr. Taylor. We're live," she responded and James instantly faced the screen again while Ashley and Nikki snorted. He cleared his throat as he removed his legs from the back of the seat in front of him and adjusted in his seat.
"How did she hear me?" he whispered while looking straight ahead and the woman pointed at the screen, making him furrow his brows, before she realized that he couldn't see what she was pointing at.
"Your elbow is pressing the mic on the armrest. It's a black button," she said and James glanced at the armrest. He pressed his lips together as he cleared his throat again and removed his elbow from the button.
The man that had been speaking earlier glanced down at his tablet with his forehead creased and lifted his eyes back to the screen. "I, uh... I see you're only ninety nine in the hall. Do any of you know where the last person is?" he asked just before the door to the hall slid open and a guy – an angry looking guy – walked in. He stood by the door and stared at everyone in the hall for a little while and it was obvious that he didn't want to be on this spaceship.
A lot of people were not really excited to be on the spaceship, including Hiro, but this man looked really angry... like he had been kidnapped and thrown into the room he had spent two months in on the crew capsule.
"What's up with him?" Ashley muttered next to Hiro as the man walked over to the seat in the first row and plopped down on it. He didn't have a watch or a foldable tablet with him and they assumed that he either didn't see the instructions next to the chute that dispensed them in the hallway or chose to not get them.
"Okay, now that we're all here," the man started after a couple of seconds of silence while Hiro still wondered where the last crew member had been when everyone was in the hall. "President Ballard..."
A blonde woman sitting on the left end of their round table perked up, looking a bit surprised that the man had called her name. She seemed frazzled and out of place and she placed her hand on her chest, silently asking if he was actually talking to her.
"Why don't you take it from here," he said as she stared at her and her eyes widened slightly before she nodded. She placed her hands on the table, intertwining her fingers as she took in a deep breath, and lifted her head with a smile on her face.
"I will tell you the whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done and are going to do for us. The people that went before- I mean the people... the people..." she trailed off as she took a deep breath again to compose herself. "Just know that we're all very... very, very grateful."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone