They were on schedule.
Somehow.
Mayler had gotten his people into their rooms and up with communications.
Brandi had messaged Finley on her private channel to ask if she wanted them fully on comms or if Brandi need to put some blockers in place. Finley's temper had cooled enough by that point that she could do her job without being unprofessional, so she'd refused, but she'd appreciated the offer.
An hour before they were scheduled to launch Finley called the entire Command Team to the conference room set aside for them, for an update briefing and one last check to make sure everyone was on the same page.
Now they were all seated around the table and Mayler had made a point of sitting at the opposite head of the table from Finley.
Thankfully, no one gave him much of chance to speak as they went around the table reporting their sections as green, within acceptable limits for launch.
The main concerns, that the entire crew was accounted for and on the ship and nothing was going to explode at an inopportune time. The issue with engine two was resolved, apparently it had just been a minor tear in an O-ring and wasn't that such ironic issue to have when they still taught about the Challenger explosion in the academy.
Thankfully, evolutions in engineering had rendered that particular failure less than catastrophic, but most of the lessons taught from the Challenger were about leadership and integrity and never giving up. Dick Scobee was one of the largest portraits in the Academy's Hall of Honor and Finley had written a paper on him in one of her leadership courses.
"All of the preliminary runs were solid, and supplies are accounted for." Evan scrolled down his checklist. There were still a couple of streaks of grease on him, but since he was the busiest one out of all of them, no one bothered to point it out. "We can make it all the way to Pluto if we need to, but we're scheduled to stop off at the station on Titan. Do you want to change course?"
Finley shook her head. "No. There's equipment on Titan I want to pick up."
Evan's eyes narrowed, because she hadn't mentioned that to him before, but he nodded.
No doubt adding it to the list of things to lecture her about later.
Finley looked around the table. She wasn't a big fan of long meetings. Or meetings in general, so she cut to the chase. "Anybody have any last-minute concerns they want to address?"
Mayler's hand went up immediately.
"About the launch." Finley clarified and he lowered his hand with a scowl.
"I assume you will be available to discuss expectations after we are underway."
Finley gave him a bland smile. "I'm always available to discuss legitimate concerns." Evan kicked her under the table. "If you want, Martinez can put it in the calendar so it's on record."
Mayler nodded, appeased and his eyes didn't leave Martinez until she'd finished entering it.
"Just to be clear, I am the only Captain on this ship." Finley looked at each person seated around the table. "I know everything about this situation is uncharted territory and the new government hasn't been completely forthcoming in their…plans, but from the very beginning of the planning for this mission, I was captain. There was a short period where they considered having co-captains, one Federal and one Republican."
"That's a terrible fucking idea." Burst out of Harriman before he could stop himself and he immediately flushed. "Apologies."
Finley waved it off. "It was a terrible idea. That's why it never came to fruition. There are a significant number of studies illustrating why there's only one captain of a ship and they are all available for anyone who wishes to read them." Evan looked like he was gearing up to kick her again. "I didn't choose any of you randomly. General Abernathy and I spent months pouring over the files of everyone who is on this ship. Admittedly, there were political considerations taken into account, but none of you were chosen solely because of that. It's no secret that Angel, Russo, and Marx have served with me before, but you'll see very quickly that they are extremely well suited to their positions. Just like the rest of you. You came with glowing recommendations and impressive evaluations. I choose you because I believe that together we are the best possible command team for this mission. All of you should feel free to speak your minds to me and I expect all of you to understand that we are all responsible for how well this crew meshes and works together. I know there will be a period of adjustment, one that is likely to be incredibly challenging and frustrating, but we are no longer Federalists and Republicans. Now we are one. The war is over. Now we're Spacey."
Rubenstein grimaced. "God that's awful."
The rest of the room stared at him in surprise.
"The name! Not the being one thing, the nickname." He shrank in his seat a bit. This was his first time as Chief Medical Officer though he held smaller commands before.
"I'm sure we'll all get used to it." Aiko offered.
"It can't be worse than some of the names we came up with for each other during the war." Russo pointed out, because he loved to cause trouble. "Spacey doesn't slur as well as Federal or Republican."
Finley scowled at him. "Great, now you've jinx it."
Brandi nodded in agreement.
"And on that note." Evan put his tablet down and turned serious eyes on Finley, which was never a good thing. "You need to give a speech."
"I gave one already."
"You need to give a better one. From the Command Deck."
"It was that bad?"
Russo shrugged. "It wasn't horrible." Evan glared at him. Russo was almost as well known for his dislike of talking as he was for the lack of real information about his personal life.
"It was short." Beau agreed and it gave Ookami and Aiko the courage to nod in agreement.
"It was terrible." Brandi and Evan said together, and Finley gave up. The two of them together were possibly the only force more stubborn than Finley herself.
"Fine. I'll give another speech."
"Do you want me to write some notes?" Brandi reached for her tablet.
Finley scowled. "Because I don't know how to talk?"
Martinez, Ookami, and Beaumont shared a concerned look.
"This'll be interesting." Leroux muttered.
~ tbc