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I realized quickly after the crew and backup crew arrived on Stratt's Vat that my role in the Project was becoming increasingly more bureaucratic. There was a lot of time where I'd just be sitting at my tiny little desk in my tiny little closet office looking through papers. Requests from the crew for this or that, forms Stratt needed me to sign off on, scientific papers she needed me to look over, etc. Paperwork didn't just stop when the world was ending, it seemed.
One day, I got a request from Annie Shapiro that surprised me. I mean, it really shouldn't have- it was common knowledge that she was Jewish. But I wasn't expecting her to ask me to approve time, space, and resources for a Passover Seder.
I knew a little bit about Seders. I had a Jewish friend back on lighting crew in high school, and he invited me to his family's Seder one year. I was pretty much lost the whole time, but the food was pretty good. I wasn't sure what exactly a Seder on an aircraft carrier would entail, but I approved the request. It was always good to boost morale.
~*~*~
Thankfully, Shapiro wasn't super religious (neither were the half dozen other Jewish people on the Project), so we didn't have to set up a whole new section of the galley away from any non-kosher-for-Passover contaminants- we just had to make sure none of that got in the kosher for Passover food.
I did, however, have to acquire cases of matzah, fresh parsley, non-powdered eggs, enough fruit and nuts to make one of the traditional dishes, horseradish, wine, a whole lamb (the list of requests just said lamb shank, but it was honestly easier to just get a whole lamb), an orange, and a beet. And that was just for the ritual bits- there was a whole other list of requests for the dinner itself.
(I was a bit confused about the orange and beet- Shapiro later explained that the orange was for gender equality, and the beet was for vegetarians.)
Shapiro had noted on the form that she already had most of the necessary non-food items, like certain cups, a special plate, books for the Seder that she called "haggadot", and candlesticks and candles. She also noted down that she had what she referred to as her "highly-secret stash of fruit smiles".
She had also, helpfully, provided a guest list- besides the handful of Jews on the Project, she had invited the main crew, the rest of her backup crew, Stratt, me, and the rest of Stratt's little inner circle.
I spent the next couple weeks before the date written on Shapiro's form making sure that I followed the requests to the letter. A conference room large enough for a couple dozen people, with a nice table and tablecloth, plenty of kosher for Passover food, etc. I thought I did a pretty good job, all in all.
~*~*~
Finally, the day arrived. I floundered for a bit trying to get ready- despite all the preparation, I hadn't realized I didn't really have any fancy clothes with me. There wasn't really a need for them on the Vat.
I went with jeans and the least blatant graphic tee I could find- a Star Trek shirt I'd had since college- and threw a sweater on over it. Hopefully that'd be okay.
I got to the conference room- sorry, dining room- way too early. I was the only one there, and the Seder wasn't supposed to start for another half hour. Thankfully, the books that Shapiro had mentioned in the form were already on the table, placed in front of each seat.
Fifteen minutes later, I was still the only person there, and I deeply regretted not having done more research into the Seder itself, even though I helped plan it. I tried looking through the books, and I definitely didn't know how to pronounce half of the words.
As I was busy trying to sound out the words in my head, people finally started entering the room- Yáo, Ilyukhina, and DuBois were the first to arrive (all in their crew jumpsuits- glad I wasn't the only person without a formal outfit), followed by Alimov and Kirilenko (Shapiro's fellow backup crewmates). Gradually, everyone else trickled in.
There wasn't really a seating chart- though I had had the strongest urge to make one- so I ended up sitting between Yáo and Rafi (one of the electricians working on the Hail Mary's systems). Stratt was the second-to-last person to arrive, as she was always perfectly on time to everything. Reminded me of Gandalf, in a way. When she finally arrived, she took a seat at one of the heads of the table.
Like usual, Shapiro was at least five minutes late. She rushed in and sat at the other head of the table.
"Sorry everyone, Jewish standard time- you know how it is." I didn't, but Rafi rolled his eyes and chuckled under his breath.
Shapiro briefly went over what the Seder was before beginning. She lit two candles in gorgeous silver candlesticks and recited a blessing- I didn't understand the words, but the melody was nice.
"Like I said, Seder means "order"," Shapiro explained. "So there's a set to-do list. There are fifteen steps- Kadesh, the first cup of wine; Urchatz, handwashing; Karpas, where we'll dip parsley into saltwater; Yachatz, which involves breaking a piece of matzah; Magid, where we'll tell the Passover story; Rachtza, the second handwashing; Motzi and Matzah, blessings over bread and matzah; Maror, the blessing over maror, better known as horseradish; Korech, where we get to make a nice sandwich; Shulchan Orech, the actual meal; Tzafun, the afikoman hunt, which I'll explain more later; Barech, the post-meal blessings; Hallel, where we'll sing; and Nirtzah, when we'll say the last prayer in the whole Seder!"
Talia, one of the Project's engineers, got up and began pouring everyone a glass of wine. Once she'd made it all the way around the table, she handed the bottle to Dmitri.
"Since Passover is all about our ancestors' escape from slavery, we don't pour our own glass of wine, we have someone else do it for us," she explained. Dmitri poured some wine into her glass.
Shapiro led another short blessing, and we all drank our wine.
The next couple steps moved by pretty quickly, until we got to the Magid portion. I'll be honest, I was partially to blame here- there was a whole bit called the Four Questions! And I had a lot more than four questions. It took us over half an hour to get back on track, and by that point I was getting really hungry.
Thankfully, the next couple steps involved food.
I had mixed opinions on matzah. It was nice enough, but bland. Like, really bland (and dry). The horseradish was a complete 180, though- my sinuses felt like they'd be clear for the rest of my life. Then we got to make a little sandwich with a fruit & nut paste called charoset. Shapiro said it was called a Hillel sandwich, and it was pretty good.
Then finally- finally- it was time for dinner. I ate a hard-boiled egg so fast I felt like a snake. The Chief Cook brought in a vat of soup and just… wow. It was hard to believe I'd been able to live a life before matzah ball soup. That soup was heavenly. It was liquid gold, and I honestly believe it could be employed as a panacea. I could subsist on a diet of matzah ball soup for the rest of my days and be a happy man.
~*~*~
Three hours later, I made it back to my room and collapsed onto my tiny bed. I was exhausted. My voice was already hoarse from singing at the top of my lungs (once I knew the words), and I was just about ready to fall into a food coma.
I really hoped I got to attend more Seders in the future. At least I could still eat bread for the next eight days!