Six for the stars (An M/F+ RP for Dez Nul Void and Midnight Lass)

[Midnight Lass]

The Earth was fine and dandy.

For now.

But nothing is static, and foresighted people make preparations for what is going to happen, not what is happening.

A small group of scientists from across the globe was doing that right now in a bunker somewhere in the Rockies in North America.

A recent discovery had made Faster-Than-Light travel a reality. Unfortunately, the combination of rare elements necessary to make this happen limited just how many ships could be built., as well as how big those sips were. And there were other considerations as well. Manned flight had not yet gotten past Earth's lunar orbit. And now they were discussing building a ship to travel to other star systems. Even building a ship that small was going to take global resources, both material and intellectual. And there was one more consideration.

"You want the crew makeup to be what?" Gunthar said, incredulously.

Li sighed. Gunthar was as brilliant as any of the other scientists at the meeting, but he could be very conservative as well, and it took a lot of effort to budge him from a position once he had his mind set.

"Gunthat," Li began patiently, "It makes more sense to have a crew of five women and one man, rather than three couples. If it is decided, by our governments or fate to plant a colony, such an arrangement allows a suitable start to begin, until we can build ships to send more colonists."

"And," Atumba, another scientist at the meeting inserted, "As counter-intuitive as it may seem, five women and one man will be a more stable working environment in our spaceship than three couples, or any other combination. At least that's what our extensive psychological studies have proven."

"Great," Gunthar grunted, "Now we not only have to find five women brilliant enough in diverse fields, but they all have to be promiscuous as well."

"Actually," another scientist named Howard began, "That's not quite true. The studies show the best profiles for the five women would be for them to be sexually inexperienced. Virgins even."

Gunthar rolled his eyes. "Five brilliant virgins, willing to go into space, and willing become concubines....no, let us not use euphemisms...fuck toys to a man they have never met. And you expect your home countries and mine to blithely go along with this plan as they contribute to building this spaceship."

"Do not be stupid, Gunthar," a scientist said Lopez answered. "Of course we're not going to advertise for five virgins. We are going to search for five brilliant women with diversified expertise. And when we cull the group of candidates, we will discreetly...without the knowledge of our governments....select for the quality of sexual inexperience. In fact, it may be best that we do not advertise to our superiors that we have determined the perfect ratio for our crew is five women and one man. We'll make it seem like it is occurred by happenstance. This will be a theoretically short mission anyway, so we may even be able to promote the final choice as a victory for progressiveness."

"We will need to ensure that the single male crew member isn't a complete boor," a gentleman named Smythe argued. "This sort of relationship that we envision will have to develop gradually, on its own momentum. Otherwise, our lad will likely only have relations with Rosey Palm and her five daughters."

The last got a chuckle from the assembled crowd of scientists, even Gunthar, as they then began discussing the logistics for building an international spaceship.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Sofia Garcia was enjoying Orlando, Florida and, it could be safe to say, Orlando was enjoying Sofia, though for two different reasons. The twenty-one year old native of Madrid, Spain, had spent most of her life committed to her studies and to her sport. At the age of twenty-one, Sofia already had doctorates in aerospace engineering and archaeology. Very two different fields, but Sofia was a very diversified young woman. She was an accomplished pilot, rated in several different aircraft and had converted her favorite form of exercise, inline skating, to become one of the few gold medalist for her native Spain in the winter Olympics.

And she had made it into the final selection round for the crew of the Rimor, the internationally built and crewed spaceship that would leave the solar system. The prospect of being on the Rimor was both frightening and exciting, and Sofia wanted to bed on that ship.

Sofia had initially thought that her complete lack of a social life would have a negative impact on her chances of being selected, but it hadn't hurt her at all in the winnowing process. In fact, though she couldn't prove it, she sometimes suspected that maybe it helped.

At the moment, Sofia had a few days as the selection committee made their final decision, so she decided to do the touristy thing and go to Orlando and see all the amusement parks.

Orlando was enjoying watching the five foot two long haired beauty skating around its touristy spots, though a couple of sunglass wearing men trailing Sofia for her own safety made sure Orlando didn't get too interested.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Blushing slightly, Adimu Chiligati still stood up and waved at the round of applause she received before retaking her seat. She had flown down to Miami to speak to a colleague of hers concerning research in tropical diseases when she was talked into making an appearance at a local judo tournament. The twenty-two year old petite woman was something of a celebrity in both fields, being both a celebrated doctor and medical researcher in most of SubSaharan Africa as well as being a gold medal judoka (extra lightweight) for her native Tanzania. In addition, Adimu had a newly discovered flowering plant to her name as well, and had become a favorite among anti-poaching task forces across the African continent, not least for how easy she was on the eyes.

And now she was about to add "astronaut" on that list of accomplishments.

When the announcement for the recruitment for the interstellar spaceship Rimor was made, Adimu didn't take notice. That sort of thing was for others. And her life was busy as it was. Not her social life. That was virtually non-existent. But the rest of her life and involvements were nonstop. Even when her country and the leaders of the various NGOs she worked for began suggesting she should apply, she resisted. Finally, her colleagues and associates practically drafter her, and the socially shy Adimu found herself in the final selection phase for the crew of the Rimor.

And while the selection committee made their final choices, Adimu found herself as a VIP at a local tournament, wondering when the final selection would be made, an undecided if she wanted to be picked or not.

 

[Midnight Lass]

"On belay," Anaya Khatra repeated, a hint of amusement in her voice and on her lips.

"Huh?" the older man below her said, shaken out of his reverie. "Sorry. Belay on."

"Climbing," Anaya announced, with the confirmation "Climb on," from the man at the bottom of the wall. With that confirmation, young Anaya began her ascent up the rock gym wall.

The older man could be forgiven his daydreaming. Brilliant physicist and aerospace engineer she might be (the petite young woman had become the youngest person to win the Noble Prize in Physics by six months, with her expansion of knowledge of exotic materials), but the view from below as she easily ascended the wall was at the forefront of her climbing partner's attention.

Anaya was one of the finalists for selection as a crew member of the Rimor, but Anaya's selection was a foregone conclusion. The research behind her Nobel Prize had made the Rimor possible. It was safe to say that nobody on the planet knew more about the Rimor than Anaya.

The fact that Anaya share in common the two qualifications shared by the other finalists, i.e., virginity and at least a C-cup, only served to "seal the deal."

Anaya wasn't aware of the fact that the last two factors were serious qualifications. She only thought the selection process which had brought her to Cape Canaveral as focused solely on her academic and athletic prowess. So while she waited for the selection committee to make its final decision, she went to a local rock climbing gym and called up an academic colleague to help her kill some time.

Her colleague, for one, was certainly aware of her qualifying bust line, and would certainly have been happy to do something about her virginity, but such was not to be. For now, at least, Anaya was committed to ascending the rock wall and, eventually, ascending to the stars.

 

[Midnight Lass]

"No balls! No balls! No balls!"

"Jean!" Fernanda Silva admonished, blushing brightly. Jean just grinned at her friend as she continued taunting the pudgy academician at the plate.

Yesterday, Fernanda had been at Cape Canaveral, finishing the last of the tests and interviews NASA and other space agencies had designed for the final selection of the crew pf the Rimor. Now all the candidates would have to wait a few days for the selection committee to make its final selection. Normally, with a few days off, Fernanda would have found an adventure race to compete in. However, the selection committee had put a nix on that, saying that it could not risk injuries to any candidate this late in the selection process.

Fernanda was tempted to ignore the restriction. Granted, she had led the team that had created the programming language for the quantum computer being used by the Rimor. But she felt that didn't mean anything. After all, anyone could be taught the hardware and software of the Rimor's computer. And there was the fact that there were considerably more female candidates than male candidates. And all the female candidates were young, brilliant...

And very, very attractive.

Besides computers, Fernanda knew probability and statistics. And both of those fields said that there should have been some ugly candidates. But there weren't.

Another odd fact Fernanda had noticed were that most of the female candidates were 5'5" or shorter. At 5'8", Fernanda felt she was towering over the other female candidates.

Which was another reason Fernanda felt she was going to be cut from the final selection.

Still, Fernanda felt she should observe all the restrictions the Rimor's selection committee had put on her, at least until she was officially cut.

So for now, she had visited a friend in the computer science department of the University of Tallahassee, and had allowed herself to be talked into playing in an intradepartmental softball game. Fernanda wasn't that familiar with the game, but her athleticism allowed her to overcome her lack of familiarity with the game, and she was making a very good showing at third base.

The taunted historian at bat hit a grounder to Fernanda, which she converted to a triple play. With a cheer, Fernanda's side exited the field.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Yi Wu rubbed her eyes before looking up at the clock. Eleven p.m. She should be getting to sleep. She should be able to get to sleep. She had spent the week after the final tests for the Rimor's crew selection down in the Florida keys. She had been wind surfing, sailing, scuba diving and had even entered (and won) a local aquathlon. Her body was certainly tired enough. to go to sleep, but her mind was still racing.

Tomorrow the selection committee would make its announcement of who would be on the Rimor for its maiden flight, and Yi Wu wanted to be one of those six. The twenty-six year old Shanghai native had spent her adulthood, not to mention a good deal of her teenage years, collecting doctorates and making her indispensable to the international scientific community's search for life. If a probe detected microbes along a volcanic trench in the deepest part of the ocean, Yi Wu was not only there to look over the data, chances were she had a hand in the design of the probe. If a lander sent to Mars found the building blocks of life, Yi Wu was not only there to interpret the data, she was the one who designed the algorithm to find the places to look. If someone went looking for life in an exotic place, Yi Wu was their "go to" girl.

Yi Wu put her book down and laid down, trying to go to sleep. As she fell into a fitful sleep, she mumbled a mantra over and over. She had to be selected. She had to.

 

[Dez Nul Void]

"Out of the question." Gunther looked over the male candidate. "This," He waved the folder in the air, "Can not be our best option."

Li sighed. "He passed every test with flying colors."

"He's an idiot." Gunther opened the folder and referenced different parts of the biography. "GPA 2.5. In high school. He hardly has any college credits. You know what that makes him?
A college drop out. We can not have a college drop. Do you know what that will look like to the press? What kind of image that will put us in? We will look completely incompetent, every last one of us. He also has no recognizable accomplishments to make up for his lack of intelligence. No awards. No medals. No nothing."

"I wouldn't say he has no accomplishments." Atumba added.

"I said no recognizable accomplishments. Winning 'eating champion' at a county fair isn't front page material." Gunther pointed at the list of accomplishments listed under the male's name.

"That says food cultural advisor at cultural festival in Japan." Howard overlooked the folder. "Most of this accomplishments are from cultural events all around the world. If you review his test scores you'll find that he is remarkably intelligent. His problem solving and survival skills are completely off the charts."

"His IQ score is only 110. Barely considered intelligent." Gunther mumbled.

"That's just the IQ, facts and information." Li pointed out. "When it comes to creativity... well he wrote essay after essay on multiple choice answers detailing how the options given could be both right and wrong. He is not a linear thinker. He thinks so far out the box he probably sees it as a plaything. This is exactly the kind of person we need of this crew. He can anchor the rest of the crew. He can make split logical decisions on his feet while under pressure without any pre-obtained knowledge on the issue. You should review the recording of the obstical course test. Every candidate was informed that there would be limited room for this voyage. Yet, he inspired most of the other candidates to work together. It's very inspiring and exactly what we need in a caption."

"Are you mad? The press will have a field day if they find out. Making a Caucasian male caption over a crew of female minorities? We would be made to look like some kind of misogynistic supremacists."

"How about a test?" Atumba proposed. "To satisfy you of his capability and to solve our media problem. We bring him in and ask him how he would solve this issue. We simply inform him that it is a hypothetical problem. Something to ensure his seat on the crew."

"Fine. If his answer is reasonable he can stay. However, if it isn't then we look for a new candidate." Gunther tossed the folder across the table.

"That would delay the launch." Li caught the folder, preventing it from falling to the floor.

"That's hardly a concern. We can simply claim we are double checking safety issues. A perfectly reasonable excuse. As for this new 'caption', where is he now?"



Alaric "Eric" Balti sat on the beach under the warm sun, a sand castle towering over him. "There, a model of a Buddhist in China." He dusted his hands of sand.

"Thanks, mister." A child stood over him with a pale and spade in hand. "That's awesome."

"You did most of the work. I just put in the details." Eric stood up. "I think you should have a good chance at winning the sand castle contest."

"How do you know what so much about this place?" The child looked the sand sculpture over.

"Oh, I just read a lot." Eric didn't like talking about himself all that much or what he had throughout his life. To himself he was pretty boring. Sure he had done more than just read about this temple. He had actually been their and even spent a week of meditation with the monks that made it their home. However, he didn't see why a kid would need to know about that. The Junior Sandcastle competition was about the kids after all. Volunteering for the event as an adult partner to a randomly selected child was just an excuse to enjoy the beach. Besides giving a child a reason to read was far better then giving them an reason to explore far off places. They could get hurt.

At the end of the competition and his team declared as first place, he checked his phone to a voice mail from the space exploration program. He hadn't even given it much of a second thought after all the tasting. When he heard about it just went for it. Space exploration just seemed like something fun to do. Talking with the others during the testing and finding that all of them were well decorated geniuses with multiple doctor degrees, he didn't think he would ever be called back. That didn't stop him from giving it everything he had. This was Space Exploration after all. An opportunity to go where he hadn't been before, the 'final frontier' as it was called. He may be under qualified but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.

Alaric Balti, named after the first Visigoth king that took Rome. His parents would tell him that story all the time growing up. A classic tale of the underdog, but this one was history. It really happened and marked a defining point where Rome began it decline. The name was just too exotic for his taste and so he went by the more modern version, Eric.



"Thank you for coming in on such short notice, Mr. Balti" Gunther sat behind a desk with his other colleagues.

"No problem. Thank you for giving be a call back. It was unexpected, but I like surprises. What can I do for you?" Eric sat in a single chair in the middle of the room. A table of scientist at one end of the with a dim light over them and a bright light over the single chair Eric sat in would have been unsettling for most people. He on the hand felt completely calm and his posture reflected that.

"As we are making our final decisions for our crew we have come up a hypothetical scenario for candidates to answer. As you may guess, exploring space can involve unforeseen variables both is dealing with alien civilizations and environmental conditions. Each candidate the position we feel you would be best in is being asked a random that relates dealing with a compromising situation. Your scenario is this. How would you deal with a situation that challenges local beliefs in order to preform the greater good?"

"The greater good? Is there specifics?" Eric looked over the panel of scientists.

"Yes." Li leaned forward. "What my colleagues neglected to mention is that in this experiment you are allowed ask any question pertaining to the issue."

"I wanted to see what he would without that information as a veritable." Gunther leaned back.

"You find yourself on a planet where locals are questioning who among the crew is the leader." Atumba explained. "Among your crew, you by appearance alone draw attention to yourself. This makes the locals assume you are the leader. However, they apparently very displeased by this. Being able to speak their language how would you solve this problem without computerizing the crew."

"I wold explain there is no leader among us." Eric shot the answer as if it was common scene, as if a child was being asked the answer to two plus two.

"Please elaborate." Howard asked.

"As you have said space is hostile environment. I explain this to them, that is of course depending on if that is allowed to say we come from a different planet. Having to endure such a unyielding situation using a chain of command may slow down valuable reaction time. It is better suited if everyone skilled in their duties perform them on independently on instinct rather than waiting for instructions. Furthermore, have a defined leader would only weaken a potential bond that a small crew could cultivate during their travels. A bold that would vital during extreme life or death situation. During such situation having a friendship bond similar to that of a family where you know exactly what your crew member will do in order form a strategy to make a safe recovery is uncountable that the most prime situation. Having a chain of command would only compromise this bond. Crew members customize themselves to look toward their leader for solution rather then training themselves to problem solve. In a crew the size you are planning there really shouldn't be a leader. That of course is up to you. This is just how I would answer this situation."

"Thank you, Mr. Blati. That will be all. Please see yourself out." Howard waved the candidate a farewell and he replied the same.

Eric thanked the scientist for their time and left.

"With out a caption what exactly would he be doing then anyways?" Gunther proposed.

"He would be caption is name only it seems." Li proposed. "Everything he proposed falls exactly under the role of a caption. Crew moral, crew responsibilities, crew duties, work load, reaction to an alien society, it's all their."

"Don't any of you feel guilty for the lie we told him." Howard pointed out. "He is the only candidate and we only had that one question."

"A pool of one with a draw of one, statistically is still random." Li defined. "The outcome maybe define but it is still technically random."

"Regardless it seems as if we have an answer for the press when the time comes." Atumba announced. "Its time to assemble the crew."

"He's going to need a hair cut." Gunther added.

"Why?" Li objected. "The female crew have long hair. Why shouldn't be allowed as well?"

"Oh never mind." Gunther grumbled. "Just throw guy into the rocket with five single women already."