Dobbins arrived first in the briefing room. Because the Hyperion was brand new, the briefing room felt more Spartan than Dobbins was used to. At one end of the room sat a holographic projection area. Looking like a cross between a small stage and an ancient projection television, this system allowed the crew to bring up three-dimensional representations of objects and manipulate them in real time. The system also tied into the communications system, allowing for three-dimensional communication to be conducted with ease. The bare, tan walls softly reflected the glow emitted by the LED lights that were subtly embedded throughout the ceiling. A person entering the room who was unused to this form of lighting would find it unusual at first that there was no single source of light. Rather, every direction seemed to be equally bright, and shadows were non-existent. This omni-directional lighting gave the entire conference room an otherworldly feel.
In the center of the room stood a massive conference table. A computer embedded in the table received and sent data to handhelds with high efficiency, and the table surface itself had touch-sensitive control areas on it. Dobbins still remembered the first time he saw an inexperienced officer forget about the control areas. The man had grown tired of sitting during a particular long, boring report, and decide to stand up and sit on the edge of the table. Unfortunately for him, he sat on the light control and plunged the room into a few seconds of total darkness while also bringing up a copy of the movie shown the night before at the ship’s weekly movie night. By the time he frantically succeeded in restoring the lights and shutting off the movie, his face had turned a deep shade of red. That officer never sat on a table again.
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