Bri showed up for her first day on the job at 0645 UTC and was directed to wait in the lobby for Preston. She took a seat and flicked through the news on her armband. Bri decided to leave Toto at home for her first day. She stood up as she saw Preston approaching and greeted him.

“I trust your accommodations have been sufficient?”

“Yup, all settled in,” Bri said. Preston led the way as they walked through the USF Engineering building. Preston introduced Bri to the fellow staff. Bri noticed they all seemed to move a bit slower than people did on Earth. They continued to make their way through the building.

“As I mentioned during your interview, below the floor of the colony is where all of the machinery lives that powers it.” The door to a freight elevator opened, and the two of them stepped inside. “We refer to this section of the colony as the Basement.”

“Original,” Bri said with a chuckle.

“It’ll take a few weeks to fully understand how the Basement works. It’s responsible for nearly every critical function of the colony, from artificial gravity to maintaining our orbit around the Moon.”

Bri couldn’t tell if the elevator was in motion or at a standstill. Soon enough, the doors opened. The Basement was a series of well-lit metallic hallways with no windows. Preston lead the way through the Basement, which was chillier than the residential division the colony. Bri recognized most of the machinery, but some of the space-specific equipment was new to her.

“There’s a lot going on down here,” Bri said.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be learning it all soon enough. The Basement is where we engineers spend most of our time,” Preston said. “Something to always keep in mind is the purpose of this colony, which I tried to make clear in your interview. We are here to prove that space colonization is not only possible but is the future. Nothing can go wrong here. We cannot introduce any more doubt than what already exists.”

“That makes complete sense. I totally agree,” Bri said.

“The LSC is the most significant achievement of humankind this century. This is the future of the human race.”

Bri nodded her head in silence.