Chapter Text
Shapiro
The wind was a soft crisp, and smelt of the sea.
I stepped off the helicopter, excited to finally meet THE Dr. Ryland Grace– A man who is just as infamous as he was notorious in the science community and now is the world's lead Astrophage expert and Stratt's second in command. The blonde man stands at the platform, flustered and obviously struggling with the helicopter's blades still spinning.
My cohorts and future crew members (should anything go wrong with crew one, God forbid), Christopher and Seika look out onto the vat, just as giddy as I am. Crew one's helicopter is planned to arrive after us, and as much as I would have liked to meet them or share a helicopter ride over, we have some strict rules from the higher ups about redundancy and safety procedures (boo!).
Ryland, a very obviously tall man is hunched over near Stratt, hidden away and whispering towards her, like a little kid. I wave a friendly wave, and the man just looks at me, anxiously.
Geez, a girl signs up for one suicide mission and now all I get is people staring at me like I have something growing outta my head. Ugh.
My crewmates and I greet Stratt and the others, Dr. Grace standing back, and observing.
The crew and I wait as the second helicopter lands. I already knew of the people in crew two, but I was still slightly frustrated that out of all the people on Earth, I wasn't put on crew one, but crew two. I mean, for crying out loud, I invented THREE different enzymes for genetic splicing and developed a new method that they literally named after me for a PHD THESIS!
I mean, c'mon!
I did a bit of research prior to getting my phone taken away and this Dubois guy isn't even a Biology specialist! Yeah sure, he might have three separate doctorates in physics, chemistry and biology, but he gets priority over me? A literal specialist? The man is probably insufferable anyways.
I scowl.
"Still fuming over your crew placement, Shapiro?" Chris asks, "We aren't that bad. You're stuck with us, might as well get used to it."
I roll my eyes. Probably should have hid my emotions a bit better from the start, but I really can't stand people like Chris– or Christopher anyways. He immediately reads me like a book and calls me out on my thoughts.
What is he, some kinda mind reader or something?
"Yes, we need to get along well if we are going to work well together."
Seika says with her can-do attitude.
"Also, not a great way to make a first impression if you're scowling all the time, you should probably smile a bit more, darling."
I glare at Chris. A wave of disgust washes over me as I hear him say the most disgusting thing a man can utter. Or at least, one of the more disgusting things. Men have a tendency of saying gross stuff.
The members of Crew one climb off the helicopter, and of course Dr. Grace goes to greet them, instead of Crew two. Typical.
As my crewmates and I are busy in conversation (I'm definitely listening to), and talking to different team members, I watch over my shoulder as Ryland walks towards who I assume is Dubois, and the other two crew members (I don't know their names, only cared about Dubois and figuring out why he was chosen over me). As the two walk towards crew one, I make eye contact with Dr. Grace and Stratt as they then point at me, and I whip my head back around.
Oh they're talking about me.
I turn back around still see them talking and occasionally staring back at me as Dr. Grace proceeds to make a face of shock at me, but then turns to Dubois.
Oh so he gets to talk and meet with Dr. Grace? Really?
I make eye contact with Dubois, and he smiles, nodding his head towards my direction.
"Annie, are you there? Earth to Annie? Hello?"
Chris waves his hand at my face, pulling my attention back to the conversation.
"Ah, what, sorry, I was listening."
"No, you weren't. Don't lie," Seiko muttered, "Please focus."
"Right, as you were saying."
Oops.
The man they were speaking to, Dmitri, was going to be the Teacher for both Chris and Seika and crew one's mission counterparts, Yao Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina. He explained how we needed to take specialized "classes" for our training, even though we are already the best in our fields. He had been working on the ship and spin drives since day one and would be teaching them all the nuances behind everything on the ship to the Pilots and Engineers of the Hail Mary.
"Wait, why am I not in the same class? What am I going to do?"
Why am I not included with the main group?
"Oh, sorry," Dmitiri added, "You and your science counterpart for main crew, Martin Dubois, will be with Dr. Grace. No need for class from me. We will have a basics training day where we will train both crews on basic for the mission, but other than that your 6 will be in separated with main crew of pilots and engineers and science crew"
"So it's just going to be me, Dr. Dubois, and Dr. Grace? For our classes?"
"Is there a problem Dr. Shapiro?" Dmitri asks, not in an accusatory way, just in a curious sort of way.
"No, no problem. Just felt odd."
And I don't wanna be in a class with two people who already don't want to work with me.
Dmitri smiles and waves, going over to the crew one group, which was now surrounded by more people, and scientists, all laughing and shaking hands.
She feels childish for this, but she knows now that this job is definitely going to be rough.
Dubois
I take a step off the helicopter, and am immediately greeted with the site of a man in his 30s. Blonde, messy hair, and glasses askew. This man appears unprofessional, but most scientists I've met have a tendency of being unprofessional. He appears to be speaking to a woman in her 30s as well, shorter in stature with a black cap and red long hair. Dr. Grace and Director Eva Stratt I presume.
The man points towards a group in the distance, also on the deck of the large ship, crew two, based on their uniforms and back towards me.
Yao leads, with Olesya and I, following behind him.
"Ms. Stratt," Yao began, bowing slightly, "It is an honor to finally meet you." He pauses, placing a hand over his heart.
"Please accept my deepest gratitude for selecting me as the commander for this critical mission."
Stratt waves him off.
"Nice to meet you too. You were the most qualified for this mission. I don't need any thanks."
Olesya lunges forward and hugs both Dr. Grace and Stratt in a bear hug.
"Hello! I'm here to die for Earth! Very awesome, yes?!"
I pinch my brows, this is not how I wanted to meet with the leaders of the mission we are supposed to be working on, but it is what it is. Lucky for me, Dr. Grace and I seem to have the same feelings on the matter, as well as other similarities that I was briefed on prior to the helicopter ride.
"It's an honor to meet you," Dr. Grace begins, "I can't even begin to comprehend the sacrifice you're making, I– Wait should I even talk about it? Not talk about it? I don't know, I–"
The man obviously flustered at his own choice of words.
I treat him with patience and kindness, just as my father taught me, and smile.
"It's quite often on my mind actually. We don't need to avoid the subject. Besides, you and I seem to be birds of a feather."
One of our mission briefers told us about our back-ups, rules, and back-ups to the back ups. There aren't many people with the coma-resistant gene so my back-ups are Dr. Annie Shapiro, and Dr. Grace.
"I guess so," He shrugs, "I mean, you're WAY more advanced than me, but I do love cellular biology."
What? I don't think he understands.
"Yeah, sure, that too, but I was referring to the coma resistance we all share."
"What?" He seems flabbergasted, "I do?"
I raise a brow, "They didn't tell you?"
"No!" He turns to Stratt and some other scientist and stares at them now, fuming in anger and disbelief.
"Odd." I muttered, wanting to already change the subject.
This man, who apparently is going to be my supervisor of some sort, is very temperamental.
I finished speaking with Dr. Grace, and turn to my left to see a young woman in a similar crew uniform to my own, perhaps on crew two, staring at me to my left. She's scowling at me. Scowling? What did I do wrong? Perhaps she isn't scowling at me, but at Dr. Grace instead? I test my logic and smile and wave at her.
She looks even more offended, and turns around.
A few more scientists come over to greet us now, all friendly and excited about us and our mission, but all I can think about is the woman on the ship deck and what I could've done in the brief moment of eye contact we had to upset her.