Inquiry

Andrew happily stated after 3 days' worth of work, "Good job teams B16 and G78, for superior morale and shortest assembly time. The rest of you, congratulations to you as well," he paused to take a breath. "we are now at 94 percent completion. I'd say this calls for celebration."

Tapping the holopad on the left wall of the space crane control pod, he removed 25 Earthen minutes from the work schedule and repositioned it to the "lunch" section.

Strolling to the other side of the pod, Andrew firmly grasped a lever in hand. Firmly shoving it downwards, he lifted a small plastic safety box nearby with a red button underneath, bordered in caution tape. Quickly tossing a helmet over his head, he recoiled backwards as the bright, cyan HUD flicked on, showing navigational information and vital signs.

He slammed on red button in glee, as deafening hissing from the right side of the pod slowly quieted due to the airtight nature of the helmet and the air fleeing the pod. Unstrapping himself from his seat, Andrew slowly began drifting out of the now-opened airlock. Making sure to pull another lever and push another button outside of the pod, he flicked a rocker switch of the side of his belt.

His back roared to life as it began spewing small flames, guiding him through the blackness of space.

The behemoth of a starship came into view as he sharply inhaled. Seeing it in reality was much, much different than a monitor. The white and gray plates perfectly fit with each other in equally perfect symmetry. It was breathtaking.

The massive prism shaped metal shape was only missing small, insignificant things. Even its "ugly" outside radiated pride and strength. The various sizes of rectangles and triangles and circle fit together to make a giant jigsaw puzzle, a huge mosaic of steel and varied alloy.

Kicking his jetpack to 100% throttle, Andrew raced to the giant starship before quickly slowing to open an airlock. With nearly 200 rapid clicks, the circle in the middle of the door hissed and slowly opened to reveal an unrealistically white airlock chamber. Pressing a button behind him, the door began to shut as the chamber pressurized with air. Removing his helmet, Andrew took a long, deep breath of the cold, filtered air.

The door directly in front of him repeated twice as many clicks and revolutions as it opened even slower. Andrew quickly stepped into the main room as soon as he could. The interior only did the size of the ship justice, the cold steel bars and tubes running across the ceiling above him as he slowly walked forward. Returning his gaze to head-level, he began to walk under a 14-foot wide trapezoid arch leading into a corridor. The sign above him simply stated, "Living"

Stopping in his tracks, the foreman walked in circles to observe the blueprints become a reality. Quickly sprinting out of the corridor, he began his trek across the massive main area to the "Flight and Command" deck. He removed a thick, airtight glove as he put his hand against a scanner to allow him access.

With two quick beeps, he walked into a room full of consoles and holographic screens. They were all powered off, of course. The solar arrays were the other 6 percent of the ship. All of this meant nothing to him. Andrew stared out the massive, titanic window as he realized it towered hundreds of feet above him. With a proud smile, he removed a mobile holopad from his pocket and marked every single category with an "A".

The "Inquiry" was nearly done.

It had been two weeks since the massive starship was completed. Humanity was already 2/7ths of the way to their new home.

And Joseph was completely and utterly bored. He thought that he might wait out the 7 weeks, but quickly succumbed to boredom after 1 and a half. Taking a final bite of his nutrition cube, he slipped into the cryogenic pod and closed his eyes, imagining what all the wildlife might be like on the Haven Class-A planet, dubbed Hugrart-24b.

It seemed as if he'd hardly been in the pod for 3 seconds before it hissed open again. 5 weeks had passed, according to the display on the opposite side of the room. The titanic sound of warp drives had stopped since he last slept. Heading toward the "Science" wing, he opened the gray steel door to Lab 204.

"Hey guys, I'm bac--" He quickly stopped talking as he noticed the absence of any living thing in the room. Pulling a holopad from the wall, he quickly read over a major notice on the main menu.

ORBIT SUSTAINED. CIVILIANS ARE NOW PERMITTED TO RETURN TO MAIN DECK.

Quickly tossing the holopad back onto its magnetic holder, he slammed open the door and sprinted to the main deck.