Banji, Bei Hwang An Station, 4.050

The Staff Room was quickly crowded, even with only seven people present. At least, the officers thought, there hadn’t been undue effort to make the Command Staff’s lives any easier than the General Crew’s. More than one resolved to tell their subordinates about it, if only to give the lower ranked Gossam some small satisfaction.

“I’m not late? Oh thank you,” Polu sighed, shuffling and twisting his way to a seat at the table. “Ah, there’s tea! Please, pass it along.”

“How’s it going in systems?”

“Eh?” Polu glanced up from where he was pouring milk into his tea, to find the table had quieted and was looking at him. He glanced down at his tea and blinked, before continuing to mix his tea. “Well enough, I suppose. This assignment gave me the pick of the class and Fleet, that’s for sure. Smart kids, quick on the uptake too, even the prep grads.”

He took a long and visibly enjoyable swig from his cup.

“Ah, and they sprang for good brews as well!” He started taking another long drink when Mazhen and Xui entered the room.

“First Officer is present!” Xui called, and Polu nearly spilled his tea while trying to drink and stand at the same time.

Mazhen Lu stood and regarded them all for a moment before nodding and gesturing.

“Sit, sit. We’ve all been very busy getting Banji ready for the first cruise, and I’m sure I just interrupted your first break in a week.”

Mazhen sat in the head chair, and Xui sat to his right. The rest settled and the tea was passed around.

“Ah, everyone’s arrived!” the officers all looked up to see the cooks file in with large plates piled with small sandwiches and finger foods. Xun Yo, an older Gossam with a wide mouth (“The wider the smile, the more teeth you can fit into it.”) bowed and set his dish down. “Perfect timing. Please, enjoy.”

The cooks filed out, all bowing, and the door slid shut. Xui stood and locked the door with a few button presses, and sat down again.

“I hope everyone has made good progress over the past week,” Mazhen Lu began as he stirred his tea. Xui placed a few sandwiches and small condiment dishes to the side on his plate, and he nodded in thanks.

“Yes, First Officer,” the officers intoned.

“Lieutenant Ma?” he asked. The seventeen year old jerked and his jam knife clattered to the table, causing a few of the gathered officers to laugh quietly. Mazhen simply fixed the boy with a staid, if interested, expression.

“Y-yes, First O-officer,” he said, taking a deep breath. “E-everything’s p-p-proceeding smoothly. We w-won’t have too m-much training u-until we s-s-set out.”

“I agree, but I hear your staging some interesting training regimens in the cargo bays?”

The boy looked at Mazhen with a blank look, and Xui leaned forward.

“Yes,” he said, and Ma looked at him with gratitude. “He managed to mock up some very convincing holograms and scale models of Banji, and set his helmsman obstacle courses with time limits. From what I’ve been told, they were made to be as convincing and close to true conditions as possible.”