Milla’s breath caught at the panoramic view the windows provided. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

“Yeah. I like this place. Normally, you get quite a few people up here, but lately, we’ve been a tad busy.”

Stephanos led her through the room, sidestepping tables that were bolted to the floor as they approached the glass. “The tables and chairs are remnants from the early design stage. There were plans to incorporate an artificial-gravity system into the Odyssey. They even built the main bridge about two decks up before they realized that the artificial-gravity systems drew more power than all the rest of the ship’s systems combined.”

Milla looked out at the starry expanse through the huge windows. “So you do have artificial-gravity technology.”

“Well, no, not really.” Steph frowned. “I don’t get it all myself, but the technology they were going to use is based on the antigravity tech that we use in the Archangels. It’s not true gravity, but a way to simulate it. The system was only activated during construction. From what I hear, the workers used this level as recreation area.”

“I can easily understand why—it’s a lovely place to be. But if the power drain was so bad, why was it used?”

Stephanos shrugged. “Probably because the reactor was online and none of the other systems, except limited life support, drew power. The Odyssey’s reactor outputs a constant amount of power, so if it isn’t used, it’s lost. The work crew wouldn’t have had any trouble securing permission for the expenditure.”

“I see. Lucky for them, I suppose,” Milla said absently as she continued to take in the view.

“Definitely,” Stephanos said. “This was the only orbital place they had, at the time, with a gravity field. The construction was based out of the old International Space Station at the same time as the new orbital platforms were being built.”

Milla smiled. “That would provide the workers with a sense of home, I would imagine. It has been a long time since our ships were forced to travel without gravity. Even our small fighter craft have gravity fields.”

“Really? I would think that gravity fields would hamper the response times in a fighter. We expand the field that provides us with antigravity to eliminate our own mass along with the fighters. No mass equals no inertia. Gravity is inconsequential once inertia is dealt with.”

Milla shrugged. Ship design wasn’t really her specialty.

Steph sensed that she didn’t have anything more to say, so he just turned to look out over the rotating drums of the main habitats.

Sometime later, the sudden blaring of the ship’s PA system startled them.

“Ithan Chans, if you wish to be present on the bridge during the transition, you should make your way to the bridge now.”

Stephanos looked up and replied, “All right, Commander Roberts, we’ll be heading straight there.”

“Very good, Lieutenant. The captain is waiting.”

Stephanos closed the connection. “Translation: Get our backsides up there—now.”