Arrivals: One of several

Our flight from Hale's Moon to Ariel was, ultimately, uneventful. We'd each made the flight, often together, many times over the last few years. The only real difference this time was the sheer number of waves we got en-route. I usually flew with an active Cortex feed going and this time, everyone and their brother seemed to want to send their regards.

What had the last few weeks been for? You'd think by now they'd be tired of wishing us well, and hoping we had a grand adventure, and missing us, and, and, and. I couldn't really blame them. Any of them. As far as most of the 'Verse was concerned we were about to be dead and gone. Literally.

We weren't gone, yet, of course. There were still months of preparation left to do on Children of Earth, and nearly as many months of training for us to become her crew. We'd become part of a project far bigger than I think any one ever expected, both in scope and duration.

Decelerating to dock at the orbital yard, we could see the massive shape of Children of Earth in her gantry less then her own length from the platform. Structurally almost complete, she dwarfed the IAV Huygens, docked for maintenance, in length, if not bulk.

While Sabrina and I had been aboard a number of times, and Belize had seen the big sled before they moved her to the platform, the sight was still awesome. Her fuel talks and drives overwhelmed the rest of the ship, including the massive long duration fusion pile and the life section for her four hundred odd crew. All told, she was one of the largest speceships, no, starships, ever built by Human hands.

"That is one gorram big ship," I heard Bel say softly as we slid past the sled's gantry and backed into our spot on the platform. "Aye. More living space in there than we had in buildings on Hale's," I replied, hard docking Wave Equation to her cradle. "She'll be our home soon, if we don't decide to back out."

Sabrina let out a little snort of laughter. "Back out? As if."

I managed to suppress a giggle myself as a familiar voice came over the local intercom asking us to please hurry up and open the hatch because Uncle Elsoph was so glad we were finally here and he had so much to say and hardly enough time to say it because there was just so much that needed to be done and we had to start getting ready and don't forget to breathe before you run out of air because you can't stop talking.

I loved my uncle. I always had. He was the beloved, crazy, gifted, brilliant, uncle who was often hard to follow because his mind could easily, and frequently, jump tracks and you had to hope you could somehow keep up. He'd designed the last three spacecraft I'd called home and, spiritually at least, fathered Children of Earth herself.

Sabrina practically tackled him when he came aboard. Since meeting her, Elsoph had treated her like the daughter he'd never had time to have. But more, he treated her like a kindred spirit. Another natural Engineer. Never mind she hadn't had that much formal schooling when they met. Invention was in her blood, and the formal schooling was something she'd been able to add later.

Elsoph wasn't the only one who wanted to see us when we arrived. My parents and a handful of friends had come up to the Yard, probably knowing it would be a while before we had any time to go planetside.

In fact, it would be almost a week before we managed to get planetside. While we spent most of the first day or so visiting with family and friends, we very soon got into the details of what our respective roles would be during the upcoming mission. Something you never quite know until you you start doing it.

As Executive Officer, my duty would be to the ship and her crew first, while the captain, a former Alliance cruiser captain by the name of Mathew Gill, would be in charge and have overall command of the mission. His resume certainly looked good. Results driven. Attention to detail. A history of successful command. There was just something in our initial meeting that put me a bit on edge. Nothing I could put my finger on, really. But there was something about the man I just couldn't quite pin down. Usually, I could get a read on someone in a matter of moments, but not Captain Gill. Figuring him out would take time. But time was something we had.

Belize would be one of three actual medical doctors aboard. The chief of staff, and flight surgeon, Doctor Bernard Olson, was a former emergency surgery professor in a teaching hospital, with a background in 'space medicine' - the sub-field of dealing with the fā kuáng tián sè people encountered in space and on other worlds. Bel seemed to hit it off with him instantly, which was fortunate, given their wildly different backgrounds. Still. Belize was a real doctor now. Board certified and everything. But it wasn't the board certification that brought her here. It was the experience on the Rim, in the Wastes and on Hale's and other Rim worlds, working minor miracles with not much more than safetly pins and duct tape.

Where my world would be Children of Earth and her crew of four hundred odd souls, Sabrina's world would be Children of Earth herself. As chief engineer, hand picked by the big sled's designer, she already knew more about the ship than half the people who'd worked on her.

Long before she'd decided to accept Elsoph's request, he'd been sending details and exchanging ideas with her, nurturing her natural machine empathy with toys and data she couldn't get out on the Rim. It didn't matter there were still a few gaps in her formal education, there was nothing in the sled's systems she couldn't fix given time and tools. I wasn't quite sure how she'd have an actual staff under her, being used to working alone or with one or two hands, but we would worry about that over the next few months.

The next few months. So much to do. Honing skills, finding our place in the mission, coming up to speed on the myriad details already worked out over the years of planning already in place. It was going to be a busy eight or so months.

But at least there was a pristine beach only an hour's flight away...