2 Delivery

                  Venri checked the manifest list for the third time.

                  “Tell me they sent us more than one reactor cube this time,” said Raven, pulling her gloves off and tying her hair back out of her face.

                  “What do you think?” Venri asked, swiping through the itemized list of supplies.

                  The crew was just detaching the clamps from the orbital tug that had steered the shipping container down into the receiving bay. Shipments from back home, from the Sol System, had been coming every eight weeks.

                  “How the hell do they expect us to get anything done, let alone survive, if they can’t expand on the nodes they send us?” asked Raven.  “We’re lucky we’ve got enough components to keep life support functioning, let alone expand from this chunk of rock we call home.”

                  Venri surveyed the hangar walls, the departing orbital tug, the mechanized lift suit that Raven would be climbing into to unload the material command had sent through the Turing Tunnel. All modular, all AI integrated, all versatile in assembly and application. It was genius, if you asked him. Can’t move large craft or materials through? Invent a literal building block that could, with proper creativity and ingenuity, be used to create what you needed. Self-powered, adaptable. Cores and nodes  were just another example of humanity’s refusal to roll over.

                  Sometimes he didn’t know how the first four had managed to survive, let alone thrive. But here they were, pioneers, like his father, Cam, had been fond of saying. Venri pulled up the diagram of item 17 – relay transfer bridge.

                  “Check this out,” he said, showing Raven the schematic. “The new inversion coil alignment on the hydration condenser yields 12% more flow. Some egghead back there is thinking straight.”

                  Raven nodded. “Easier flow means less power draw. I’ll bet we can even free up another few kilowatts.”

Venri smiled. “Go on.”

Raven’s eyes lit up. “That freed up power can be diverted to the thruster array on Lily!”

                  Venri’s eyes wandered to the small exploration vessel in the back of the hangar. Expansion was just one of their missions here, in the Nexus system, but it came second to survival. They were only the second generation and there was a lot on their shoulders. If they could push out from here, find new systems, new worlds, they could really expand their resource base.

                  “Exactly,” said Venri. He smacked Raven on the shoulder.  “Okay, enough jawing. Suit up and unload the cargo, Raven. Max, Carmen, let’s get this inventory cataloged and accounted for. The faster we get it done, the faster we can head back to our quarters and kick our boots off. Tonight’s poker night and I plan on taking you all to the cleaners.”