11 Chapter 10

The ceiling of the hall Hiro and the other crewmates were in was quite high and it was playing a video of moving clouds and flying birds. The seating arrangement was like that of a theatre's and Hiro and Nikki were in the middle of the sixth row. More people were still coming into the hall and the number showing on the huge screen facing the seats kept changing as they walked through the door. It was at '39' now so they still had to wait for sixty-one people before the welcome program started.

"It looks real... sounds real too," Nikki said as she stared up at the ceiling and Hiro glanced at it. He didn't know if it sounded real since he had been four when the particles were released into the air so he didn't remember what they sounded like.

His eyes went back to the foldable tablet in his hand and he studied the map of the huge spaceship which was showing on its screen. After they passed the doors that had shown them their room numbers, they got a foldable tablet and a watch from a chute in the hallway and then followed the arrows in the ground to this hall.

There was a green dot in the map and Hiro realized that was him because it was in the place labelled as 'Great Hall'. It was either the watch or the key card that was tracking his location and he wondered if someone could track another person's location with it. There was a search box at the top of the screen and he tapped it to see what it did.

'Where do you wish to go?' popped up on the screen and he raised his brows before typing in his room number, H2, and the map immediately showed him the different ways he could take to his room with the time they would take.

"Cool," he muttered just as the number on the screen facing the seats changed to '48'.

"Hiro, Nikki," a voice called out from behind them and he and Nikki turned around to see James standing there with four other people. A smile grew on James' face while Hiro took in the faces of the two women and men standing next to him and realized that James was definitely a very social person.

"Man, I thought I would never see you guys again," James said as he hopped from the back row to their row and squeezed himself into the space between the both of them, stretching the legs on the back of the seat in front of him, before they scooted to make room for him.

"We're literally on the same ship," one of the women stated as she hopped into the seat next to Hiro and flashed him a smile, dropping her tablet in her lap as she held her hand out, while the other woman sat in the seat next to her and the two men sat next to Nikki. "Hi, I'm Ashley Ramirez. Astronaut."

The corners of Hiro's mouth instantly quirked up because of her profession and he shook her outstretched hand firmly. "Hiro Tachibana. Scientist."

"Ah, smart," she announced, her smile growing even bigger as she glanced at the others and Hiro let out a small laugh because she was most likely smarter than him.

James suddenly swung his arm over Hiro's and Nikki's shoulders as he sat upright. "Guys, meet Hiro and Nikki," he announced and there was a chorus of 'his' and 'hellos' from the others before James faced his left. "The buff guy's name is Thaniel Klien but you can call him Niel. Don't call him Than though, he doesn't like it because some of his friends on Earth say 'rather than Than' so don't call him Than."

Thaniel snorted as James continued, "And the guy that looks like a ball of sunshine is Elyas Mallory. He behaves exactly like how he looks... sunshine. I think he's on drugs though." He loudly whispered the last part and Elyas burst out laughing. "He is slow to anger but you definitely don't want to piss him off. Trust me."

He faced his left as Hiro and Nikki furrowed their brows at him, wondering how he had quickly found out all the things he was saying because they had all basically come to Boundless without knowing any of the crewmates and they were only let out of their rooms a couple of minutes ago.

"You've met Ash already. Top of her class in Hartman. She's an astronaut, a very beautiful one obviously. Just like Nikki here." He glanced at Nikki and she laughed when he waggled his eyebrows at her before gently pushing his head to face the other women again.

"And Bethany Anderton there. She's a scientist, Hiro. The best at the Gordon institute. Oh, Niel is a Mechanic and Elyas is an Engineer. We're basically a group of every profession on the ship since Nikki is a doctor."

"Oh, wow," Hiro said because he mentioned that they were a group. He didn't think he would actually join a group this soon... or at all when he was still in his room in the crew capsule but he was glad that he was in one now seeing as everyone else in the all were also quickly forming groups and being a loner wouldn't be cool.

"Nice to meet you guys," he and Nikki said in unison and got the same response just as the number on the screen facing the seats changed to '99'.

"What's your room number?" Ashley asked Hiro and he turned to face her.

"H-two."

"Oh, I'm also H-two," she replied and the corner of her mouth quirked up as she leaned close to him to whisper, "Coincidence? I think not." She winked at him and his brows shot up when he understood what she meant before she grinned at him, leaning back in her seat.

He also leaned back in his seat while James, who was now talking to Nikki, Thaniel and Elyas, removed his arm from his shoulder and the door to the hall slid close.