. It was getting late, and Hunter was getting impatient. He had been sitting there for what? Five, six hours? The meeting shouldn't have taken that long, it was only being held to formally launch the mission after all. Had something gone wrong? Was there a planning error? Or maybe some of the personnel had backed out of going and that was grounds for mission halt.

He was going over these scenarios for what seemed like the millionth time when the door to the conference room finally opened. Hunter stood as he watched the grim faced board members left and headed toward the elevators. Last out the door, was hunter's boss. The CEO and founder of Clements' technologies, John Clements.

He looked at Hunter, a little down, and slowly walked over with his hands in his pockets. Once he reached Hunter's side, he clasped him on the back and hung his head. "The mission is a go" he said in a low voice, and looked up with a mischievous grin. Hunter stepped away and punched his friend in the shoulder, but he could not help himself from smiling "really? We are actually going through with it?"

"yup, only took two decades of researching, developing, and testing, a few billions in funding and enough red tape to go all the way to mars and back." John said, " and there was that whole fiasco, you know, that kept you away for eight years."

Hunter's face fell and he let out a half-hearted laugh. "Yeah well, some things just couldn't be avoided. You know why I had to leave." John smirked "I know. Besides, I don't think I could have funded the project if you hadn't gone away. That brilliant mind of yours is expensive to keep busy, you know."

Hunter laughed, "so when do we leave?"

"How does next Tuesday sound? I know how much you hate the 10th, might as well put some kind of importance on it." "yeah, that sounds like a good day to me" Hunter said through a strained voice. John put a reassuring hand on Hunter's shoulder and steered him towards the elevator. "Are you sure you want to do this? You wont be able to come back until everything is ready. That's the only way this works." They stopped at the elevators and Hunter pushed the down button, then turned to look his friend in the eyes.

"you bet your ass I am."