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The Commander was walking
around his cabin on legs that had not born his weight for many years.
The Ship was gently briefing him on all that had transpired since he had
gone into stasis.
Gently because the Ship had to tell him how the fleet of four ships, fleeing
their evil enemy, had been whittled down to one.
Gently because they had only planned on a journey of some 5 years. All
the fleeing and hiding had taken them much longer.
"We may be all that is left. We simply do not
know." the commander stated to the meeting of senior officers and
engineers.
"But we have been unable to contact any other ships.",
the Commander added.
There was an air of shock in the meeting room.
They had all expected losses but not on this scale.
The Commander stood up and assumed a heroic and meaningful stance.
"I know this is difficult to bear but we do have a responsibility
to those who survived with us and I suggest that we concentrate on that
for now".
He paused.
"We have been in stasis for a very long time, we are far from our
enemy who may not even exist now, and we have a large number of suitable
planets to evaluate."
The Commander sat down and nodded across the table to a another
officer, "Survey", he said.
The Survey Team Leader stood up and walked across to the
display screen.
The new galaxy was displayed.
She outlined an area in the western spiral arm of the galaxy.
"Ship has identified over a thousand possibilities in this area alone".
"I have prepared a list", she said, nodding towards the papers
on the table, "of the best prospects."
She paused looking somewhat thoughtful.
"There is no evidence of any space faring civilisations",
she said, looking at the Commander.
The Commander nodded. She returned to her seat.
"What was the failure rate of the stasis tubes?"
the Commander said looking across the table at the Doctor.
"0.3%", was the reply.
"Considering the battles, and extraordinary length of time we spent
in stasis, this is not too bad", said the Commander, "but it
still represents a substantial loss of life".
There was silence for some time.
The Chief Engineer felt obliged to comment.
"Some tubes were lost in the missile attacks, and some were the result
of Ship's self repair bots being called upon to do more than they were
designed for and over a much longer period"
"The ship is badly in need of maintenance".
The discussion continued with contributions from the other
Section Leaders.
The many problems so exposed affected more discussion that became quite
animated.
The Commander held up his hand for silence.
"Our first task is to prevent the loss of any more tubes and return
Ship to a space worthy condition".
"Engineering - We will release a further 300 technicians from stasis
to get this done".
A pause.
"All other departments will concentrate on bringing their facilities
back up to a high level of reliable efficiency"
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