Project Posiden

The vessel know as the Hermes made it's trek along the course which was plotted long before it had even taken off. The ship was not similar at all to space craft which we have grown acusstomed to, this ship was shaped like a flattened pyrimaid which fanned out in the back where the twelve engines were located. Each engine, controlled by the ship's navigational computer, emmitted a faint blue glow, propelling the ship ever closer to the moon. Travelling at around 5,000 Kmph it would only take the crew three or so months to reach their destination, they'd have to come into the moon's thin atmosphere slowly or else they could end up as another impact crater, and to those on Earth a glistening spark shower. The rest of the ship was not all flat, there were observation bubbles scattered through out the topside of the ship for the viewing pleasure of the crew, and to keep them sane.

In space it was very important to keep both physical and mental health at their peak, if people started to go crazy the mission would have to be aborted, all civilian casualties had to be avoided as one of the highest priorities of the mission, and that is why ten percent of the crew were specialized in the human psychology. The entire breakdown of the 150 person crew went as follows:
- 10 percent Psychologists
- 20 percent Engineers
- 15 percent Farmhands
- 15 percent Biologists
- 20 percent Environmentalists
- 10 percent Metalurgists
- 5 percent Navigational crew
- 5 percent Public realtions

Despite the seperation of the crew by talent, most of the members tended to stay together as one functioning unit, or so it seemed. The crew worked together in the flight simulator tackling all of the various problems that were thrown at them by the navigation captain Stan Edgemunt, a German in his mid 30s who was always on top of things, even if they weren't his to be on top of. Stan had tended to take the position of leader amongst the crew, for most of his fellow colonists this tended to be a bit of a nuissance, he'd always be breathing down their necks or giving orders over the intercom, even at the most cumbersome hours of the night. If anyone did complain he'd simply say, "Well now if it did happen you'd be ready," or something like, "We must win first before going to war, we cannot go to war and seek to win." Stan was always one to twist the words of another, and he was avoided by most, except for some of his other German companions and Jane, one of the representatives of the Asian Union.

In around 2008, after the Chinese olympics, all of Asia began to flock together under the two leading countries of Japan and China, and soon enough in 2010 the Asian Union was founded. The Asian Union did not seek power or influence, merely preservation and domestic as well as galactic expansion. The Asian Union agreed on the colonization of any planet within the Earth's solar system, anything beyond the sun was seen as rediculous and a waste of time. The AU need not worry about money for it profitted greatly from the olympics which attracted new business ventures, and now with the AU, UMO (United Moon Organization), and NAN (North American Nations), leading the space program, each one reaped more publicity than was expected. In result of this, most of the representatives on board the ship went as follows:
-30 percent Asian
-30 percent American
-10 percent German
-20 percent Russian
-10 percent assorted European nationalities

On the Hermes things were quite routine, in the morning at around 8:00 EST (Earth Standard Time) the crew would get up for a quick breakfast which lasted around half an hour. It was during breakfast that the colonists could clump together in their quickly forming bands and discuss their plans for the moon, and of course gossip about other colonists. After all, the colonists had been together for a while now and already the lust and romance of the ever nearing moon was getting to them.

"Thank goodness we've only got a month left on this ship, I can't wait to get out onto the moon for the first time and finally be able to call it home. I've always been to the moon on temporary visits and finally, we can stay," Diana commented with a sigh of relief, she'd always been one for preserving life on Earth and since Earth was near human depletion she hoped to call the moon her new home, and keep it as the moon and not Lunae II, the terraforming project.

"I know, I mean no one here is a real pain, except maybe the Germans, but I'm just about ready to get off this ship and start building history," Vlad added as he reclined further back in his sea foam green nylon chair until it was on two legs. Vlad, Diana, Rosa, Greg, and Janus usually clung together, all of them Russian except for Greg and Janus who were from Scotland and England. On board the ethnic groups tended to blend smoothly, although each one had it's own unique sense of character and the psychologists took this into account when planning on which crew members should be where within the ship and soon to be Lunar habitat, fighting was to be kept at a minimum, stress could only cause violence and blinded fury.

Amongst the clammor of breakfast winding down Stan stood up at a small podium on the far side of the room, behind him was a window which was nearly filled up with the approaching moon.

"If I could get your attention for a moment," Stan said in a booming voice, the commotion continued for only a few seconds more and reluctantly the crew members sat down again.

"As you've all noticed the moon is only about a month away and that means that once we land things will really start to change, we won't be stuck together like this. Most of us will be working on the habitats, some exploring and mapping, in other words we'll all have jobs to tend to. I think that we'll need someone to make sure we tend to those jobs, we need a leader," immediatly after mentioning leader there was a hum within the room, no one liked where this was going.

"Stan I'm not sure you should be a 'leader', we may not need a leader at all, we're coming to the moon to get away from the decayed system of life on Earth," Diana quickly commented over the quieter crew, who seemed to agree with her.

"I never said I would be our leader, I just thought that we should start to develop some rules when the time comes. The UMO wants a sense of order on the moon so that future colonists will be able to easily adapt to their environment," Stan rebuttled, silence followed.

"Well of course we're going to have rules, we've all been through this before, we all know you're just craving power. Once we get to the moon you'll see how things fall into place, just give it time, we're only people," Diana added before getting up from her seat and returning her tray to a small collection bin on the oposite side of the room, and then she left, the other crew members followed in her example.