The entire galaxy was rushing towards the fringe of explored space withing just a few months of the relay becoming active, and at the spearhead of this rush was Cedric Heidel. He and many others were on board of an active military scout vehicle kitted with as much science as possible within a week, there were engineers still on the ship installing equipment even as they warped to their destination. Cedric managed to convince the higher up that Jeremy was needed on this mission and that he would be instrumental in providing a young perspective on any technology that might be found at the anomaly.
'The Comet' and her captain Silva Rainbow were about as small and sleek as its possible for a ship and a captain to be. The Comet was long and tear shaped with a forward shield that could shrug off flying straight through asteroid belts without changing course. Captain Rainbow was about as fierce as a human could get even with her small stature. She and her ship have served as lead scouts for over a decade and have battled everything from corporations to pirates trying to dominate a sector or two. As such, The Comet was geared with weaponry that was tried and tested by her crew and captain. Cedric was confident that they would pass through the fringe safely enough. They were expected to reach pirate controlled territory in a month. How long they would spend going through that treacherous zone of space was anyone's guess.
Cedric was tired after spending the day discussing simulations and astrophysics with some of his senior colleagues when he bumped into an engineer looking equally as tired.
"Sorry about that mate, didn't mean to get ya all mucked up" he replied hurriedly before Cedric could apologize.
"That's no problem, I was just heading back to get some rest before another busy day so you didn't cause any problem." Cedric smiled tiredly back. "I'm Cedric, nice to meet one of the people getting all my gear up and running" he stuck out his hand for a handshake.
"Jack, so ya the guy we have all this work to thank fa?" Jack raised an eyebrow and grinned.
Cedric chuckled a bit, "You're right about that"
"Let's grab a drink when I don't gotta work fifteen hours a day cause of ya yea?"
"Sure, I'd like to get some opinions from an engineer on some of our simulations."
"Throwin work on me even on my time off, damn fanatic scientist!" Jack's grin was still plastered on his face. "Why do ya think I am qualified for that?"
"If you weren't Jack Brandle, I don't know who would"
Jack's grin grew wider as he went past Cedric, "I'll see you in a week or so then Cedric Heidel" and waved once without looking back.
For the first time on this trip, Cedric felt that this was going to be an adventure.
For Jack Brandle, a feeling of unease suddenly came to him, an unease he knew to be that of long work days ahead. "shit" he muttered under his breath at this revelation.