Assets Chapter One "You are sitting aboard the Hindenburg k720, the fastest, largest freight carrier and warship in the Western quad. In the same instance as delivering peace aid and supplies to a war torn planet, the Hindenburg can eviscerate a platoon of pirates in a matter of seconds. 80,000 men, women and Venusians serve and live upon her at this exact moment." General Emilio, leaned in close, pressing his nose up against Pierre's. He inhaled deeply through his large nostrils. "You, son, make it 80,001. And I'm not awful fond of odd numbers on my ship." He flecked the term odd with a venom Pierre had never heard or wished to hear again, swallowing hard he looked around the hall he was sat in. He was alone. The induction room usually held upwards of 5000 new cadets, engineers and inductees, however Pierre was different, and very much the only one trapped in a large room that was beginning to feel far too small. The windows by the far end behind the stage didn't help either, as he vast emptiness of space begun to surround them, Pierre watched Earth shrink ever more into blackness. Emilio's voice snapped him back into reality, his jaw, which had been slack, clenched shut. "Am I boring you son?" There was a long silence. "Yes." The General looked taken aback for a moment before a small smile formed in the corner of his leathery face. "You're honest boy, I may learn to li..." "..ke you, let's head out on the tour and we'll talk more then. Excellent idea sir, and thank you for the compliment on my hair, I agree, I look rather dashing today." Pierre stood and lightly slapped the General's backside, winking at him as he walked to the door. as he did he thought to himself that the last bit might have overstepped a boundary, and as the General drew closer to him he got his answer. Cocky son-of-a-bitch He'd blown it. Submissively he bowed his head and General Emilio cautiously walked ahead of him out into the grandeur of the Hindenburg. The main foyer was literally teeming with #life, hundreds of personnel bustling about the main and top levels, brightly lit gangways and elevators adorned the tall walls, never stopping for a second. For a moment Pierre stood, mouth agape, staring at the glory of the Hindenburg, he felt the General step back to his side. "It's quite a sight isn't it?" "Absolutely." Pierre turned to look at General Emilio, a twinkle in his aged, watery brown eyes. "This ship means a lot to you doesn't it?" "More than you could ever know son." "Oh, you'd be surprised..." Pierre smirked and the General led on after a moment of thought. Placing his eye against a retinal scanner, the main doors opened up onto a large walkway and the General ushered Pierre ahead of him. "This gangway is the hub to all of the nav centres on the ship, crew named it "The Spine." "Because of it being the nervous centre, yeah, clever." "Don't jaw me boy, short hand phrasing like The Spine will likely save you time in your day to day routine aboard the Hindenburg, otherwise you're gonna have to memorise yourself a whole bunch of old Earth Latin names and a few Venusian longhand's too." Pierre rolled his eyes and took a cautious step towards the edge of the gangway, peering down into the long light adorned drop below. The General's boot clanked past him as he stared down. "Onwards then Mr DuPont." Pierre winced as his surname fell from the stern mouth of General Emilio and dragged himself up to follow him. "On the Hindenburg are several R and D stations, looking into cloning, robotics and gene splicing, be careful when transporting the cargo labelled with a biohazard sign as the contents can range from human embryos to...prehistoric ones." "Hold on Sir, are you telling me there are Dinosaurs on this vessel?" "No, I'm telling you there may be cybernetic prehistoric reconstructions abo..." "ROBOT DINOSAURS." Pierre's voice reached a decibel higher than it ever had, it bounced off every metal wall in The Spine. General Emilio turned slowly his right eye twitching slightly, leant into Pierre's face, grabbed his cheeks between his thumb and index finger, dragging Pierre in closer. "Yelling is not tolerated aboard the Hindenburg. You will keep your voice at a tolerable level at all times." Emilio hissed the sentence at Pierre, his breath whishing across his face, who nodded and was subsequently released from the General's death grip. They exited The Spine at a brisk pace, Pierre taking 3 steps for every one of Emilio's. "I'll take you to your station DuPont." "Ah yes, fantastic. Now the interview wasn't very clear, a little hazy in fact. What exactly am I doing here? Comms work? Psych division?" "Air lock son." "Aha. Hahaha. Fantastic sense of humour there Sir, for a moment I heard the words air lock." "You're hearing is immaculate Pierre, unlike mine since your little screeching escapade." "Sorry...but no..." Pierre jogged up to the General and grabbed his arm, he turned his head indignantly to stare at Pierre's trembling hand clasped on his decorated veterans medals adorning his forearm. Pierre snapped his arm away. "Air lock duties? As in, the part of the ship where, at the touch of a button, a pile of garbage gets sucked into the big empty nothingness out there?" "Oh good, you're familiar with how the air lock works, that saves me 20 minutes of orientation time." "I can't do this General, I'm clumsy, I'll end up out there. I'm terrified of the dark. I could list more but you look enraged so I'll stop my sentence here and just salute...pretending to be okay with this." The General nodded and patted Pierre into a small maintenance elevator and pressed the button on the outside. The door whisked shut and as it slowly lowered into the dark abyss of the Hindenburg Pierre pressed his hands and face up to the glass and waved a slow sad wave at the General.