<div class="floatleft">(http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Edward-in-Fight-Club-edward-norton-562446_1600_900.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Eric Blair<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Mars orbital space station, briefing room<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Shari; all others mentioned<br/><strong>Doing:</strong>Taking New Notes<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Eric initially kept quiet when Shari's offer to field questions was made.  He'd jotted down a few, and he did intend to ask them, but he wanted to see what kind of folks he was working with, and who had their head on right.  Given his situation, he needed to know what kind of perspectives and priorities his "teammates" had going into this job, and this was a great opportunity to learn that kind of thing.  He flipped a page of his notebook to begin taking a very different kind of notes, this time about impressions.<br/><br/><em>M: # of mia &amp; time</em>He nodded to himself approvingly.  Nothing particularly impressive about those questions, but they were relevant to the job and extremely relevant to her role in accomplishing it.  Given that she was doubling as Science Officer, he was hoping for a bit more variety, but he couldn't fault her too much for being focused on her primary role.  Teams need role players, after all.<br/><br/><em>K: elements mined, corporate interest, nearby settlements...too formal</em>He had mixed opinions on this one.  While technically it was possible that what they mined now is not what they had initially set out to mine, Eric thought it far more likely that the girl had simply not noticed the information on the slides.  Her next two questions, though, were much better.  Nearby settlements had seemed unlikely, but not ruled out.  Maybe she just liked being certain of facts, which wasn't a horrible trait.  Her question about corporate interest, however, was very unexpected, and also very similar to a question he'd intended to ask.  Unfortunately, though, he still saw another over-excited, rank-makes-right soldier, someone not to put faith in when a plan fell apart or an official explanation seemed shady.<br/><br/>He was getting ready to write down notes for the next person when he noticed who it was.<em>Holy shit,</em>he thought.  He let out a half laugh in his surprised exhalation upon recognizing Jay.  He made a quick attempt to remember how long it had been since they'd been on a mission together...at least six years.  He nodded emphatically as she asked about medical conditions prior to disappearance.  One of the things he'd always liked about her was that she was willing to look at hidden causes for events.  Too few people did that.  Though never particularly close, she was a very pleasantly familiar face, and he didn't need to take any notes for her.<br/><br/><em>Z: Resourceful?</em>He wasn't sure what else to gather from the man's question.  He was curious about comparing that log to the population now and seeing which names were no longer there, and, perhaps more importantly, if there were any new people there other than children.  Eric was skeptical about such information being available, but it did seem a worthwhile effort to make.  Aside from that, Eric wasn't sure.  He looked kind of cocky, but he didn't want to write that down yet.<br/><br/>Shari's answers weren't exactly helpful, other than to point out how long ago the message was received.<em>Why had the UWC waited so long to act?</em>Two weeks was a long time to put a crew together, something that could be done in a day...unless the person doing it just fucked off all the time "hand-picking" the perfect crew.  Incompetence seemed the most likely reason, but that two week delay was something he intended to ask Jay about.<br/><br/>Clenching his teeth, he shook his head at Evie's question, enjoying the schadenfreude he felt at her useless question.  Shari had just said that questions like that would have to be asked of the sheriff.  And she had been personally hand-picked.<em>Good pick, Shari.</em><br/><br/>Eric realized that everyone had piped up now except for him.  He flipped back to his briefing notes and consulted the questions he'd jotted down.<em>Request authority?  Primary customers?  Sustainability?</em>The first one had been answered, validating his patience.  He spoke up.<strong>"Two economic questions.  With their sponsor gone, who is buying their ore, and are any other significant businesses tied to them?  Also, how sustainable is this community?  Is the infrastructure falling apart due to lack of funds for proper maintenance?  Have they made efforts to work deals with other companies, or re-negotiate with the founding company?"</strong>