A NEW WORLD

Chapter Two

Tucker and Jennifer enter the ship's auditorium from behind the stage, Tucker puts on a microphone headset and then peeks through the stage curtain.  He  sees  over  a  hundred  people  sitting  in  the  seats  filling  up  the  whole  room,  and  he  sees  T.V    cameras    closer  to  the  stage.  Tucker  looks  at  Jennifer.  " What's with the  T.V  cameras?"   " Those are for the closed circuit T.V screens throughout the whole ship to let everyone who's not in here see you."   Tucker grins at  Jennifer. "Good thinking."  Jennifer puts on a microphone headset and then walks out on stage to quiet the audience.  Jennifer  switches  her  headset  on.  "Room attention on  deck!"  The room gets very quiet and everyone in a  USA uniform stands at attention, everyone else just sits in their seats quietly.  Tucker  walks  out  on  stage  and  switches  on  his  headset.  "You may take  your  seats."  The crew members that are there in uniform and not working sits back down in their seats.  Tucker  can  start  to  feel  the  heat  off  the  stage  lights.    "First  I want to say welcome aboard the USA  Ohio, we have a long journey ahead of us but we can do it together and as we grow together we will accomplish more than we ever dreamed possible."  Tucker looks around the auditorium at the people and then he looks at Jennifer.  Jennifer  smiles  at  him  and  that  makes  him  look  at  her  longer  and  smile  back,  Jennifer  switches  off  her  headset  and  whispers  to  him.  "Look at them, you're on camera."  Tucker looks at the audience and the cameras.  "I'll make this short and sweet, just follow my orders and that of the whole chain of command and we'll get along great, thank you."  Jennifer whispers to him again.  " Dismiss  them."   " You  all  are  dismissed."  Tucker switches his headset off and walks off the stage with Jennifer, after they get backstage they take their headsets off.  They stop to hand their headsets to a stagehand guy and Jennifer starts to walk away until Tucker grabs her gently by the arm.  The  stage  guy  walks  away  and  Jennifer  looks  at  Tucker.  " What  is  it, Tucker?"   " I know it's been a while since we've seen each other and I know you're married now,  but  I was wondering if you'll have dinner with me sometime."  Jennifer looks at Tucker surprised by the question and before she can answer him,  a man wearing a red engineer uniform and a young boy walk up to them.  The man holds out his hand toward Tucker.  " Captain I'm your Chief  engineer,  I'm  Tatto  Watson."  Tucker smiles and shakes his hand.  " Chief engineer Watson glad to meet  you."   The boy stands by Jennifer and looks up at her.   " Mommy  are  you  off  of  work  now?"  Jennifer looks down at the little boy and smiles.   " Not  yet  I  have  to  brief  the  Captain  and  show  him  around  the  ship."  Tucker looks at the boy then at Jennifer.   "No that can  all  wait,  go  and  spend  time  with  your  family."  Jennifer looks at Tucker with a sad look in her eyes.   " Captain  are  you  sure?"    "Yes,  I'll  see  you  tomorrow  at  zero  seven  hundred  hours  in  my  ready  room  on  the  bridge,  dismissed."   Tucker smiles at the three of them and then leaves the room.  Jennifer  watches  Tucker  leave  and  then  turns  to  Tatto.  " Are  you  ready  to    go    to  our  cabin?"  Tatto looks at her and smiles.  " Yeah  let's  go."  They leave going to their cabin.