Captain Oddas Aria: Contemplation

[Nicholas St Gabriel]

((Captain's Quarters, Deck 2, USS Juneau))

The center room was projecting the Ring, or at least a giant section of it.  She had set the overview to scale the z-axis of the ring to be as wide as possible, meaning the Ring appeared as a ribbon, as wide as her table, curving up and out of her view.  From where she was standing she could see the 'surface' of the structure, normally towards the sun, was reaching toward the ceiling.

Specifically, she was looking down at the research station and the surrounding area.  The station itself was located in a city, but another nearby city almost dwarfed it.  Connected by bridge it appeared as if either the larger city had outgrown itself and created the smaller, or the inhabitants of the smaller complex had decided to move for whatever reason.  The Research site had been chosen because of a large concentration of interconnectivity to the Ring, but the larger city seemed more elegant, more crowded, and more lived in.

In an odd way it reminded her of Hathon, always a city girl she had been drawn to the center of the city and the bustling knots of strangers.  Looking at the city below her she could imagine a young Aria and Alea pushing through the crowded streets for the latest dance hall the latter had discovered.  

She sniffed her drink - in awe at all the things that had to go right in order for her to be standing here, looking down at a structure millions of years old, and to be reminded of home.  As the sweet coffee invaded her taste buds her mind moved to the Engineering.  Once in her career, before her career actually, she had argued with a professor about the usefulness of a very large telescope.  At the time her argument had been that the telescope was still valuable, useful, and with a little bit of resource allocation, it could go on to do great things.  Privately she felt that old, massive, useful things shouldn't be destroyed just because something shiny, new, and more compact had come along.  

Ring 42 and the City made it seem someone had agreed with her, at least enough to see the usefulness of the structure for many years - longview thinking she could get behind.  

Her door chimed causing her to stand upright, pulling her body off the pillar that had been supporting her.  She caught her heart fluttering and spent a second considering if it was a her imagination or a side effect of her recent surgery.

Oddas: Come!

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Any: Response

Oddas: Come on inside, I was just reviewing some of the city below us.

Any: Response

TAG, TBC

Captain Oddas Aria
Commanding Officer
USS Juneau, NX-99801
E239305OA0

Sense is never common. -Robert Heinlein

Wiki: https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php/Oddas_Aria