Prologue: The Commission

[thepanda]

Chris likewise appropriates a schedule and heads to his room, hoping to check out what kind of connection the palace used. Killing time in the wired seemed the ideal thing to do, along with getting a few snacks to munch.

[Halbarad]

The rest of the day goes without incident. The four explorers settle into their new rooms with little trouble, and the two meetings scheduled for that day go quietly. Orientation is... typical new employee orientation, outlining the basic policies and procedures of working for the government directly. The tour, however, takes every last minute of its scheduled two hours, the trip a much expanded version of the visitors' tour for the palace.

The next two days are spent as a group. The first is getting to know the ship, the Silver Star. It's a modified saucer design, with an off-center cockpit and a connecting corridor running halfway around the inside. The outer ring of the ship has been subdivided into living quarters, with space for as many as eight people, as well as a single head near the rear of the ship. The inner part of the ring is a large storage hold, which itself can be sealed off and jettisoned if need be - although it's not expected that you'll ever have to make use of that function.

Day three is comprised of basic equipment training. Everything from the magical pressure belts and space suits to the null-magic artifact boxes is covered. Among the items included for your mission is a fairly large subspace pocket for food storage, mounted in a small frame for ease of portability. For living on the surface of a planet itself (since the ship is a bit on the cramped side), there are shelters and the atmospheric generator. The shelters are more or less tents that are magically climate-controlled, and the atmospheric generator creates a magical field that generates and maintains an atmosphere over a 100 meter radius - more than enough for a fair-sized campsite.

Day four sees the team separate. Each of the four explorers spends the day with a specialist in their own field:

An expert coder and systems administrator in the morning for Chris, and several hours with a mechanic in the afternoon.

A veteran geologist with experience in both Lunar and Earthbound environments for Arkian's morning, and a training session with a military test pilot in the Silver Star in the afternoon.

An all-day session with Cyprine and Ptilol, the twin sisters who head the Lunar government's magical research branch for Rowan - with a surprise visit from the Queen herself for a couple of hours late in the afternoon.

And a day in the library with Dr. Mizuno and the head of archaeology at the Royal Mugen Institute for Michael, reviewing both personal memories of Mercury as well as old documentation regarding the planet.

And then the team is given two days to rest and attend to business, the launch itself scheduled for 10 am on March 30th, exactly one week from the time when the four first arrived at the palace.

[Halbarad]

OOC: If you want to do anything in particular before you leave, you have two days. If you've got a suggestion for what you'd like to spend those two days doing, contact me on IRC and we'll split you out into your own thread for a bit.

[Jon]

Michael takes one of the days to go back out to the family farm and just have some quality family time. On his return to the capital, he decides to spend the rest his free time before the launch patronizing various bookshops.