Working title?! – 1000 words a week

03-12-2012

“Hello readers, a short one this time. The busiest time of the year finally got to me and the assignments plus preparations for the courses seem to pile up faster then I can work ‘m down. I wish I had more time to spend on writing and I didn’t even manage to post last week. But I promise that there will be second blog post this week additional to this one to compensate for last weeks shortcomings.  Also I have been thinking to start some other sketches other than the Orb-e stuff and I haven’t figured out how far to advance into the story of Orb-e. Because I might spoil huge parts of the plot if I go much further with this part of the book. Maybe I’ll start on a different point in the story or another book all together. Tell me what you prefer to read! Start at a different point in this book,  do a sort of prequel to this point in time or write other stories entirely? Well as usual, suggestions are more than welcome and I hope you enjoy this small bite. Greetings Peter”

The next days went by with a heartbeat. The graphic representation of the ship got closer and closer to the set destination. The approximated time of arrival was just a few days ahead. After five weeks of traveling we were ready to leave this ship and feel some solid ground beneath our feet. Smell some unfiltered natural air in our longs and see as far as the horizon, instead of the ship hull. Hopefully the sight of the planet alone would energize the crew, because nobody knew what we would find. It had only been the second planate they had investigated so far. His expectations were null. For all he knew the sight would have noting valuable. That way it could only surprise him. He also tried to dumb down the crew’s expectations. For he would be the one to be blamed if they weren’t met. But anyone knew what they would be going into before they joined him in his–seemingly futile—quest.

Jake raze the blanked from his bed and faced himself in the mirror. He looked terrible. Sleepless nights really did a number on his eyes and the zombie on the other side looked nothing like the face he was used to. He yawned and picked up the energizing gel he always used to power himself. The stuff worked like a charm and he could already see the improvement after some rubbing. The gel was quickly absorbed by the cells of his skin and started to restore as fast as they could. While Jake was waiting for the gel to do its work, he started to wash himself in his personal shower. That was one of the fine advantages of  being a captain of a ship this size. A personal shower, a personal room, a personal everything, well almost. He was not the only one, Robert had his own room to. Not as big as his, and he didn’t have his own shower, but he didn’t seem too jealous. Though the fact that he liked to show off his trained body to the other crewmembers was likely a Couse of that. I would have to agree, he was definitely not the ugliest guy on the ship. Once in a while rumors would spread that yet another crewmember had a crush on him. But he knew all to well why there was a policy against that. A spaceship is no place for relationships. And no place for breakups either. it would cause problems beyond my imagination. A machinery malfunction was bad, but nothing compared to a relationship breakup. Not that these wouldn’t happen anyway, but he did everything in his power to keep them away and as minimal as possible. He had even arranged that a psychologist would be staying on the ship.

It was well know that the clamped area of a space ship had severe negative effects on the human psychological condition. In some cases people started to become very depressed or develop cases of claustrophobia. He valued them almost as much as a nurse or a doctor. The man was quite busy, since he had a double job. When he was free of work he would assist the engineers and perform calibrations to the guns and the shielding system. Also he would sometimes supervise the gym. He was well respected by the crew for always being at work and never seeming to catch some shuteye or a break of sorts. Jake admired the guys determination, but sometimes needed to order the guy some rest. He couldn’t afford the guy to become overworked, since there would be nobody to help him.  He always kept a close eye to the man’s agenda and supervised it personally. The man didn’t seem to mind, and Jake got the feeling that the man liked to talk to him once in a while. Mostly about how the crew was doing. He would know everything going on with the crew. Like a huge database of rumors and latest developments among the crew, but was known for his secrecy. He never let on something that was told to him to anyone else than the captain. But he as well knew that he would need to keep his mouth shut. He wouldn’t want to be on bad terms wit any of his crew, and so far all had been well.

He walked back to the closet to get himself some clothes, he was still, a little underdressed to go and face his crew this way. Equipped with only a pair of boxers and socks he would look quite interesting. I wondered what would happen. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.