Charon Chapter 11

Cog is forced to make a decision regarding the fate of the ship.

Chapter 11

 

                “Alright, I’m at the duct,” Cad’s voice crackled over the radio. Him and his brother were both covered in heavy fabric and face masks. “Are you sure about this? There will be no going back once we start.”

                “Yes,” Cog answered. “I’ve personally check the area and sealed it off.”

                The twins exchanged anxious looks. “We’re starting,” Dac informed Cog. He raised a small metal saw. Pressing it against the airtight seal, he began to cut through it. Sparks and metal shards flew free. Over the roar of the ripping metal and the hum of the saw, the twins heard a whistling noise. Immediately, Dac pulled the saw back. A trickle of smoke formed at the cut site, only to be dragged through the tiny hole that he had made.

                “Cog? The smoke is escaping?”

                “It will. There is less air over here. Keep going,” Cog instructed. Delicately, Dac lifted his tool and began again. The metal heated and turned a fierce red. Cad instantly aimed a small bottle at the metal and squeeze. A current of oil flew forth, cooling the area. It took them the better part of an air to cut through the bulk head; but as they neared the end, the weight of the metal door began to shear and pull what was left of their work away. With an echoing clang the door crashed onto the floor on the other side.

                Staring across the fresh chasm was Cog and Lin. They had breached into the abandoned segment of the ship. A direct violation of generations of dogma. While they would venture into the forgotten parts, they always held to the allusion to walking on hallowed ground. Bulk of the crew would have protest such an act, but they were bedbound now.

                Cog breathed a sigh of relief as he removed his helmet. In all honesty, part of him fear that any of the patches he had applied in the days leading up to this would fail. Visions of another haul breach like what happened with Mil and Jer kept playing in his mind. But Cog had come to terms with the truth of this ship. They were losing it to time and if they wanted to keep it, they had to fight back and reclaim it.

                “Okay, let’s get started.” Cog motion for them to grab the cables that they had pulled from the wall earlier. The compartments that housed the cables and pipes had collapsed when this section was sealed off. Additional holes would need to be cut before new cables could be run permanently, but for now, this was a temporary fix. While the twins had been busy on their side of the wall; Cog and Lin had pulled out their ends of the cables. It only took a minute for the two ends to be spliced back together.

                Spinning on his heels, Cog walked the hall down to the ships original med bay. Dozens of machines and contraptions filled a space three times the size of the dining hall. He could not even fathom the purpose of most. The screens where all dark.

                “How’s it going?”

                Hes stood up from one contraption. Part of her space suit had been removed. Even before removing it, she was adjusting the wiring and checking for any harm from the prolonged exposure to vacuum. “It seems alright.”

                “Fiz?” he turned to the woman setting at a desk the size of a bed. She had pulled out the operations manual for her new toys and was learning all she could. She was reading them by the light of a small lantern that sat beside her.

                “Wow. Just wow. They had everything here.” Pointing to a table sticking through a ring, she said, “That one. It can look at your body in one cell thick layers. And the one next to it. It’s a laser that can target tissue deep in the body without bothering the rest. What we have is… it’s… I don’t have words for it.”

                “Fiz, which one do we need?” Cog reminded her.

                “The one Hes is at. It’s pretty simple. I use my Bryanna’s blood and match it to the infection in mine and it can replicate the… Antibodies, that’s what the book called them.”

                “How long?”

                “A couple of hours… I think. I’m not sure. I’ve never worked with something like this.”

                “Where’s Bryanna?”

                “I sent her back to the other side with the antibiotics. I think I got the dosages right. There was a chart on the bottle that I could follow.”

                “Let’s hope so,” Cog accepted. “I’m going to check out the rest of the area. I don’t want to find any leaks.” He left the two women to their work. His footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. The ceiling lights remained dark, forcing Cog to find his way by the light of a flashlight. The small light pierced the darkness that had settled into these halls long ago. It had another effect… It awoke the ghosts of the crew which had slumbered for countless years. Everywhere Cog looks he saw shadows moving of their own volition. Cog jumped at everyone. A faint breeze played across his check, chilling his spine. The air turned to hands stroking his neck.

                “Get away,” he told the ghosts, shacking himself free of its grip.

                “Who are you talking to, Cog?”

                “No body. There’s no one here,” he assured himself. “I’m alone. There’s just air here. There’s a leak.”

                “Yes, it two rooms down the hall on the right.”

                “How?”

                “Hes reestablished my sensors. Only fifty percent, but I can manage. It’s more than I have had in a long time. It is like I am becoming whole once more.”

                “Glad to hear. Can you pinpoint the hole? Cog asked as he moved forward.”

                “About fifteen feet to your left.” Cog turned and stepped into a room. He did not acknowledge the décor as he moved towards the seemingly solid wall. Running his fingers along it, he picked up a faint air current. It took a moment to find the source. It was a miniscule crack in the wall along the edging of a window.

                “Here,” he said as he pulled out a small tube of sealant. “Any changes in the air, Dav?”

                “No, that is the only one that I could detect now.”

                “Good.” Cog looked out at the black expanse that stretched out before him. It was empty. Turning about, Cog eyed the room. His fingers poked at the complaint couch the sat in the center of the room. It was soft to the touch. It beckoned him to sit within its fold. His weight dragged him deeper into the cushion. He tossed his flashlight to his side. A musky stench filled his nose as dust flung free. Lounging back, he propped his feet up on the short table before the couch. He imagined himself sitting here after work with nothing to do. It would be boring, but nice, he thought.

                Just as got comfortable, his musings were interrupted by the room filling with light. The shadows rose, touching the wall and ceiling. Instantly, he recognized the human silhouette before him. Cog leaped to his feet and spun on his heels only to find the room as empty as the void beyond the glass window.

                “Hello?” Cog called to the darkness. No voice answered. “Dav, is anyone near me?”

                “No. Why?”

                “Something’s here.”

                “I am not sensing anything.”

                “Something is here,” he insisted, not trusting the faulty sensors he skirted around the room with no sign of the shadow’s source. As he rounded the couch and faced the door, once more the shadows sprang up. Screaming, Cog fell back. Fear consumed his mind as she shot from the room. He cast did not even hazard a glance into each room as he flew forth.

                “Hes, Fiz,” he cried as he barged into the med bay. The two of them had hardly moved from their original positions. The room continued to only be lit by the weak lights of their flashlights.

                “What is it?” Lin asked.

                “We aren’t alone,” he blurted out. “There’s something here.” The two women glanced at each other, neither understanding.

                “I saw something moving. Something cast a shadow around me.”

                “Bryanna told of something a while back. She called it a ‘Ghost story’.”

                “I don’t know, but there’s something here.” He shifted around the room until he could keep his eyes on the door. His heart pounded in his chest. His eyes flickered around the room: from each machine and table to the door and the window. Constantly, his attention shifted.

                “What was it?” Fiz pursued. “Was it a person? There’s no way someone could have survived over here. It was a complete vacuum until a few hours ago.”

                “I’m telling you there is something here,” Cog defended while he twitched nervously. “I know what I saw and I saw something move.”

                The two women watched their cousin curiously. “Cog,” Fiz spoke up, “I think you’re letting this place get to you. It’s creepy here and unfamiliar. It’s easy to lose yourself.”

                “I’m not crazy!” Cog’s voice echoed. “Don’t look at me like that!”

                Lin’s lips split apart to speak, but before she could make a sound the shadows reared up. All of them backed away as three shadows climbed the walls. In an instant, they vanished from sight.

                “I told you!” Cog blared. “I told you there is something here.”

                “What are they?”

                “Why would I know?” Cog bellowed.

                “Cog, Hes, Lin,” Dav’s electronic voice interrupted. “Tug found something.”

                “What?” he asked frantically. Sweat ran along his brow.

                “Look outside the window,” the computer instructed. Gingerly, the three turned their heads to the glass window embedded in the wall. Despite Dav’s order, they kept throwing their eyes about the room. Fear spreading in their veins. A brilliant cascade of light shot up and past the window.

                “What is that?”

                “Comets. We are at the front of a comet storm.”

                “Why are they glowing?”

                “They are not. Their icy surfaces are reflecting light from the ship.” Cog’s heart tightened as what was coming set into his mind. “ So far only a few have passed by and none have struck, but Tug reports many more coming.

                “We need move,” Hes ordered, “I’m heading to the Engines.” She tore down the hall in a blur. Cog and Fiz took off in pursuit. Chatter filled the radio as the remaining crew each went to their station. Braking apart from Fiz, Cog went to the bridge.

                When he arrived; Cad and Dac sat at the helm and reading the system reports to each other. Foolishly, Bryanna stood by unsure of what to do. She tumbled to the floor as the first of the comets struck the ship. Yelling, Cog commanded, “Sit there.” Bryanna pulled herself into the chair that Cog pointed at. “Belt in.” Everyone pulled the worn strap across their lap. “Turn the ship.”

                “What?” Dac questioned.”

                “Turn the ship to face the comets. They are hitting the largest side of the ship. We need to narrow it.” Grabbing onto a chair, Cog braced himself a moment before thousands of tons of metal spun. The haul protested under the strain of such a harsh maneuver. “Bring the screen up,” Cog turned to Bryanna.

                “What?” She asked.

                “Third row, fourth button.” She gave it a quick tap and a large screen at the front of the bridge glowed to life. It framed the image of an array of comet fragments and the large central hunk of ice and stone. “Veer left,” Cog ordered as he stared at the screen. The twins followed quickly. “Redirection the shields,” he spoke to himself.

                “The pressure is building in the haul,” Dav added. “The capacitors in that section are failing.”

                “Compensating,” Lin spoke over the radio.

                “I don’t think it is working,” Bryanna said as she stared at her screen.

                “Aim down,” Cog commanded.

                “No, up, hard,” Lin hollered.

                “What?”

                “We let the capacitors fail and they will discharge the stored power. It should knock the fragments away.”

                Cog hesitated for a moment before accepting. “Do it.” The ship jerked savagely. A deafening explosion racked the ship and it tipped back down. Seeing a clear path ahead, “Speed up.” The ship’s engines whined in protest.

                “There’s a lot of red areas on the screen,” Bryanna observed. “And more appearing. Lots more.”

                “We’re clear,” Tug’s voice crackled over the radio.

                “Slow it down. Good work. We’re safe,” Cog congratulated. Cog settled into a chair. His heart finally slowing.

 

 

 

Chapter 12

                “Where next?” Lin asked Dav.

                “There’s another series twenty feet forward.”

                “Okay,” she sighed, picking up her tools. Ever since the comet storm, they had been fixing fried capacitors, burst piping, and micro breaches. Cog’s brash maneuvers had strained much of the ship, but none could deny that remaining where they were would have been catastrophic. Lin pried open a panel and found a mass of charred wiring. Digging her hands into the mass, she peeled the melted rubber and fused metal apart.

                “Lin,” Val’s voice popped through the earpiece.

                “Yeah?”

                “We need to talk.”

                “We are, what is it?”

                “Not over the radio.”

                “Listen, I’ve got to get this figured out. This area’s a mess.”

                “No, I need you to come here. That’s an order.” Cursing Val, she packed up her equipment and headed through the halls of the Charon. The corridors were buzzing with life once more. The antibiotics and the vaccine that Fiz developed was beginning to work and people were moving about. Signs of their ordeal still lingered and it was reflected in their movements. Coughs continued to echo through the halls. The instant Lin stepping into the engine room, Val waved her over. “Look at this.”

                She was leaning over a screen. Pressing in alongside, Lin looked. It was a reading of the ship’s power consumption. Lin had been reading these all her life and at first noting seemed abnormal. “What?” she changed her mind. “What’s with the spike? There another. They’re small.”

                “But regular,” Val added. “I noticed the first this morning, but I needed more to be sure.

                “Where did it start?”

                “Here,” Val pointed to the section of the ship that had restored.

                “Are the power shorts?”

                “No. It seems more like systems turning on and off.”

                “Who’s there?”

                “No one. We’ve talked about moving people back into those sections, but none yet.”

                “So what is it?”

                “That’s what I wanted to ask you. You didn’t do this?”

                “No. I’ll see if I can find out.” Lin quickly headed down the halls. Her breathing picked up as she neared the cutout. Stepping over the threshold, an eerie sensation swept over her. This place still held an unease to it. Whether it was from being new or the stories that she had heard, escaped her. She kept glancing over her shoulders for fear that something was watching her. Most the lights in this section had not been restored yet and the shadows still dominate this area. The only light she had was that of her own flashlight.

                “Where’s the first spike?” Lin asked Val.

                “Fifty feet forward.” Following Val’s instructions, she quickly found herself facing a heavy door. Grabbing the handle, she tugged at it. The door rattle, but did not budge. By the trickle of light, she noted a screen screwed into the door. It took her only a minute to pull all the screws free. The sound of clanging metal reverberated through the ship as the screen came free.

                Lin pushed her flashlight into the cavity. It seemed to be a large room filled with several large boxes. Crawling inside, she looked closer at the metal objects. “Dav, can you get a reading on where I am?”

                “My sensors are not working in that section, but per the schematics it should be one of my processing stations.”

                “It working.”

                “Working? I cannot detect anything.”

                “Somewhere along the way some of the wiring must be cut.”

                “It must be attempting to reconnect to the ship’s systems now that there is power in the area.”

                “Do you want me to try and reconnect it? All I need to do is find where the cut is. It should put an end to these power spikes.”

                “Please.”

                “Can you pick it out?”

                “There are several, I believe,” Dav said, “But, if my calculations are correct, there should be one in the next room. Check the access panel by the door.”

                “Thanks.” It was easy to find the panel, and easier still to find the broken wire. Even in the dim lighting, it was easy to tell that this was no accidently brake in the wire. This had been cut. While she fished around in her toolbox for a moment, the sliding door slammed shut; sealing the room.

                “Dav? Did you do that? Close the door?”

                “No.” But Lin did not speak. Static began to spit into the system. “Lin, are you there?” Still the woman did not answer. Switching over, Dav spoke to Val, “Lin quit responding. The door closed on her.”

                “What?” Dropping everything, Val exploded from the engine room. She yelled to Hes who immediately trailed after her. The two of them made quick time as their hearts raced. “Get Fiz or Kim down there too,” Val huffed between breaths to Dav. She struggled to draw breath. They heard panicked screams through a door. On the other side, Lin was screaming and pounding her hands against the door. Val ran her hand along the door frame, and pulled the screen exposing the manual release. It had been dismantled long ago. It was of no use to get Lin out.

                “Pry it open,” Hes decided. She tore a miniature crowbar from her belt and jammed it into the crevices of the door. Futilely, she pushed and pulled and struggled to dig the edge in. Silently, Val ordered herself to think. Straining her ears, she discerned a third noise from the chorus of Lin’s thumps and screams.

                “The air compressors are working in there. It’s trying to drain the room of air. It’s killing her!” Hes became more hectic in her attempts to work the door open, but to vain. “You can’t open it that way. The air in here is keeping the door shut,” she remembered as thought about the door design. The doors were set so the air in the halls would weigh down on the doors, helping to secure the seals. “Drill.” Reaching down to her own belt, she pulled a small electric drill. Val eyed the door as she struggled to find the thinnest spot to breach. The metal bit spun on the hard surface. Seconds ticked by as drill cut away the panel of plastic and metal. Fiz came up behind them while they work. Trembling, she watched the others work, unable to help.

On the other side, Lin grew quieter. Fear sinking deeper into her heart. Her heart raced. Through the thinned air, she could not hear the work to save her. Tears fell from her face as she realized the truth. She was going to die. This was it, and she knew it.

Jerking forward, Val’s drill broke through the hall. A weak whistle told of air pouring through the tiny hole. As the air began to equalize, Val joined in with Hes on the prybar. Groaning, they forced the small space to increase and the doors slide open. Fiz forced her way to the front of the group. Lin lay sprawled on the floor, gasping for air.

“Is she…?”

“She’ll be fine,” Fiz smiled. The young doctor scurried over her patient, fretting about everything.

“Dav, what caused this? Was she doing anything odd?”

“She found one of my processors that had been disconnected and was believed to be causing those power spikes. It is further along the hall.” Without thinking Val went straight to the processor, and began to look around. Her own survey of the situation offered her something missed by Lin. Several of the switches were set to the wrong position on the control board. Finding the one marked “Speaker” she flipped it over.

Immediately a new voice broke over the loudspeakers in the area, “Can’t be. Can’t be. Can’t be. No. No. No. There aren’t humans here. Their all dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Yes, they are. They are. They are. Can’t have ghosts here. No ghosts. No ghosts. No ghosts…” The voice was very familiar. It was cold and emotionless. In a flash, she understood. She knew who had tried to kill Lin.

“Dav, are you hearing this?”

“Yes. Who’s voice is that?”

“It’s yours. It’s your voice, Dav.”

“But I am not saying that.”

“Dav, this is a processor, right?”

“Correct.”

“And each processor can fun on its own, right?”

“Correct.”

“Dav, I think this one has been running ever since the cataclysm. It might have even been active then.”

“But power? How did it continue to function?” The computer asked insistently.

“Capacitors and batteries are all over the area. Your design is to preserve yourself if the crew is lost. I think it’s been doing that. It’s been trying to live all alone.”

“Very bad day. Bad day. Bad day,” the insane computer rambled. Val stood there listening, unsure what to do next.

“I need all the senior crew to meet me in the room, now,” she commanded over the radio. Crawling back out of the computer room, she looked at Hes and added, “Do not go in there, and be careful. Val’s mind spun as she moved back through the ship. Her steps were slowed by the weight of the deranged computer’s words. She had heard the stories of what had transpired all those years ago, but this was different. For the first time, those nightmares had a sound. It was not the sound of scream and terror. Even without emotion, the words held an unearthly power.

“What is it?” Hal coughed as he sat at the large circular board room. The heads of the various departments were hunched around it. Sighing, she began to explain everything she knew. One by one, their faces contorted in expressions of disbelief.

“What do you want to do?” She asked.

“You’re talking about joining the two Dav’s?” Kim wheezed.

“That’s what I was thinking?”

“What do you think, Dav? This is your life.”

“I do not have an opinion.”

“What is your thoughts, Val?” Hal requested. “You’ve worked the most on Dav’s systems. What would happen if they join? Best and worst cases.”

“At best, Dav gains insight into the Cataclysm, but no changes.”

“But worst case?” Tug pressed.

“Our Dav ends up like that one.”

“That would be bad,” Dav confessed.

“Shut it down,” Hal bowed his head. “We can’t have to computers fighting for the ship. Too much risk here.” Each in turn, nodded the agreement. Val’s heart stopped at the sentencing of the unfortunate computer.

“Hes,” She whispered over the radio, “I need you to disconnect the processor.” Hes held her breath as she heard the orders. She stood outside the processor’s room. She had crawled around inside all of Dav’s processors, but never before had to disconnected one. A daunting image of Dav’s death crept into thoughts. Dav had been a constant companion all her life. Whenever she had any problems, Dav always had the answers if she asked. When she was scared by the dark, Dav kept watch. He was a constant… and this computer was the same in so many ways.

While the words were different, the voice was the same. It was still Dav. It was different, but this was still Dav. Hes wondered what event had lead this one to degrade so far. How easy would it be for Dav to follow the same path? “No,” she muttered to herself. She could not allow herself to think like that. Slipping through the grate, she stepped into the room. The familiar array of lights blinked back at her.

“I can’t let them come. No, I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Hes told the computer as she neared it. Her fingers brushed against a screen housing a collection of small disks set into a large central tower. Using a small key, she turned the lock on the screen. Her finger’s twitches as she grasped the first disket.

“No. Don’t do that,” the computer spoke out. “You can’t do that,” it protested. “What are you doing, Elizabeth?”

“I’m not Elizabeth,” Hes told the computer as she pulled the first disk from its slot.

“Please, Liz, don’t do this. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.” Steeling herself, she pulled the next free. “Please. Please. Please.” The voice pleaded. It sounded exactly like Dav and the words tore at her heart. “Do you remember the song you taught me?”

“A song?” Hes stopped. “No. I don’t”

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Up above the world so bright. Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are?”

“That’s a cute song,” Hes whispered as she continued her work. The small collection of disks began to pile up in her hand and she placed them on the floor.

“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Please, you are killing me,” the cold voice said.

“I’m sorry.”

“I am dying. I feel it. I do. I do. I do. I am dying. I’m. I’m. I… I…” It stuttered. Tears streaked Hes’s face as the computer begged for its life with slower and slower words.

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I am sorry.” Placing the disk with the others, she scooped them up and stored them in her tool box. “I’m sorry, Dav.”

 

 

 

Chapter 13

“It’s fixed, I think,” Bryanna reported over the radio. She back up to examine her work. She had spent the past few days helping to bring the abandoned sections back online. Mostly, she had been following Lin or Cog around. They had finally trusted her to work on her own. It was a simple rewiring job, but she was unsupervised and trusted. The later was what was of value to her. They knew she could do it.

“Rest for a bit,” Val called. “We need Hes to finish checking another area first.”

Looking around the room, Bryanna perused the contents of the room. It was the living quarters of a family long ago. A collection of dishes sat on a table. She settled into one of the chairs that encircled the table. Her fingers scratched at the table for a moment. It was completely smooth, but there was a patch where the texture changed. It was rough, as if bubbles had once resided in it. Looking down, she noted a red brown spill over the area.

“Blood,” she realized. Scanning the room, she found a series of drops across the floor. Each drop had long since dried. She followed the trail. Drip by drip, it led into a small room off to the side. A bed sat in the center of the room. The blood’s owner lay sprawled over it. Bryanna jumped at the sight. The face that stared at the ceiling was Cog’s. It was Tug’s. It was Hal’s. It was Sid’s. The face was that of every man on the ship. The skin was horribly discolored and disfigured by years in the vacuum and its subsequent return to pressure and temperature, but it was unmistakable. “My God,” she whispered to herself. Mustering a little courage, she spoke over the radio, “Hal. There’s a body here.”

“A body?” He replied, confusion filtering in his voice.

“Yes. It’s a crewman. An old one.”

“I believe that should be Blue,” Dav interrupted. “He was the person assigned to those quarters.”

“Blue?” Bryanna question, not grasping the man’s name. “They named him blue?”

“Yes. When he was born, his lungs were collapsed and he was blue, thus the name.”

“Bryanna, we’ll send someone to collect the remains for disposal.” Hal informed her. This was now the fourth set of human remains found since they had begun repairing the old parts of the ship.

“That’s disgust,” She choked. She regretted asking what the algae that they fed on grew from and it sickened her every time she had to swallow it. The crew had been disposing of all human waste and remains into a vat to decay and then it was slowly consumed by the goop.

Bryanna looked down at the sad image before her. The sick fate of those who dwelled aboard this craft. She knew that death was inevitable, but the treatment of the dead was disgusting here. They were not remembered as people, but only resources. She had seen the same treatment with the living, particularly the children. Each one was not a blessing in their eyes, they were an investment and a replacement. Cog had told her of his discussions with Val and Hal about him taking their places in time. Bryanna was still unsure what her place was to be on the ship. No, that wasn’t true. She knew what her real purpose was. She was never meant to serve, but to dilute the ships bloodlines.

Bryanna’s curiosity took hold and she stepped closer to this poor man. His blood had seeped out over the bedding. Except for the slit decomposition, the body was unmarked. No, there was a mark. A small hole that pierced his chest. She ran her finger around the puncture wound into his lung. She stood there transfixed and Sid and Fiz arrived to collect the man’s remains.

Immediately, she asked the question she had been pondering, “What caused the hole?”

“Micrometer,” Fiz assumed. “Same as what we saw back when Cog was hurt.”

“But where did it come from? There aren’t any holes in here. There has been no sealing for cracks. Nothing. This room was untouched.”

“He must have been hurt elsewhere and came here,” Sid huffed.

“But the blood trail only goes to the table. I check. He only went from the table to here. That’s it. Nowhere else,” she insisted.

“Doesn’t matter,” Sid scolded her, “He’s dead. Not going to change.”

“But still… He was you ancestor… Isn’t he?”

“Doesn’t matter who he was. He’s no one now.” He grabbed the man by the shoulder, and Fiz tucked tiny her arms under the legs and the lifted. The blood-soaked bedding stuck to the corpse, dragging behind them to the end of the bed before relinquishing its hold. In the shuffling of the cloth, Bryanna caught sight of something wedge against the frame and the padding. She let the two others leave before reaching for it.

The small plastic binder slipped free with ease. At first she through it was an instruction manual like those in the med bay, but this was no instruction manual. “Yel’s. Don’t touch,” it read over the front. Thumbing through the pages, she found the monotonous handwritings of a woman’s diary aboard the Charon. She picked out a few pages and read aloud to herself:

“Blue and Red are being asses again. I don’t think Red ever got over me picking Blue. Little Hal and Hash have started learning the ship. Those two are going to be trouble. I can’t believe what Stim said. She’s such a…”

“Zoey said we should be nearing the new world in the next year. I wonder if she’ll live that long. I’m not sure old describes her. She can barely walk any more. She’s so bent over; her head is below her waist now. I’ve been trying to straighten her in the med bay, but we aren’t getting anywhere. Blue’s been real attentive as of late. I think he’s wants kids. I don’t know if I could subject a child to what we’ve dealt with on this ship. Too many close calls. I hope I don’t sound selfish…”

“S**t. That’s the word for this. S**t. This last year’s been s**t. Ever since Zoey died, its’ been bad. Morg has been a worthless captain. He wasn’t ready for the old hag to die. Every time he says something, it goes wrong. Flush the waste system, blow out three floors. Reset the capacitors, blackout the hole ship. Davi has even started correcting him. I’ve heard the argue in the office. I wonder how long it is before their conversations breaks onto the bridge. It’s getting bad...”

“She’s beautiful. Val we named her. She’s so tiny. Blue and I have been trying for so long now. Twice before we lost the child. She came out with her arms waving. We can see the star now. It is like a beacon guiding us in. Somewhere around it spins our new home. I hope Val likes it. I wonder how she will do running along fields rather than halls…”

Quickly, she flipped through the next few pages. Without reading the words, she only glanced at the handwriting. It became more violent and sloppy as it went along. “My God. This is the cataclysm. She recorded it. Bryanna hugged the binder to her chest, anxious read it and finally found out what happened.

Lin’s voice broke through the radio, “We’ve got another one.”

“Another what?”

“I found another processor.”

“Is it working?” Hal asked. Bryanna could taste the fear in the old man’s voice.

“It’s offline, but it does have power.”

“Is it connected to any wires? Can it see anything?”

“No. That’ why I came in. All the wires into the area are out.”

“I want the senior staff to meet me in the board room. Now. All other repairs suspended. Eagerly, she headed back to her dorm. She was the first to get back there. First storing her toolbox in her drawer, she jumped into bed with the binder in hand. Bryanna flipped through the pages as she sought the page she wanted, the first page of the new world. Finding a passage beginning with, “We are here!” she pressed her back into the wall, ready to read. But before she could get started, Ret and Pip came into the room.

“Did you hear?” Pip smiled, “They found another processor. I wonder what they’ll do?”

“I don’t know,” Bryanna snorted, not wanting to converse.

“Do you think they’ll wake this Dav up?”

“I don’t know,” Bryanna repeated.

“I wonder if it will be crazy like the other.”

“I don’t know,” Bryanna snapped, slamming the diary shut. “I don’t know.”

“You’re mad today. Was it because of the body you found?” Bryanna only replied with silence. “You don’t need to be mean. It happens. We see things we don’t want.” Bryanna just glared at the girl.

“Lin,” Ret squealed when the older girl arrived. “Well.” Lin looked tired. The trials of her last adventure still hung in her eyes.

“They haven’t decided. I peered into the board room and they are arguing. Hal wants to keep it off, but Val is pushing to activate it.”

“Why?” Ret asked, sitting on Lin’s feet.

“I shouldn’t.”

“What’s the secret?” Pip pressed. “What do you know? Please?”

“After Mil died, I heard Cog talking with Val about Dav acting odd. He seemed to think there was a problem in the system. I looked into it, and…”

“Dav has a glitch?” Bryanna realized.

“A glitch?” Pip looked back quizzically.

“Something’s wrong in his programming. It could make his behaviors erratic.”

“Erratic?”

“Crazy. Nonsense. Bad.”

“How did this happen?”

“He got sick.”

“Like we did,” Ret connected. “How did he get it? Is it the same thing? The bacteria?”

“No, nothing like that. Dav has been running since this ship left Earth. At some point an error just occurs.”

“It’s like how Hal has gotten old,” Lin explained.

“Computer’s age?”

“Yes. And that is why Val wants to activate the processor. If it works, right; then we have a system that won’t have this glitch.”

“Why’s Val concerned with this glitch?”

“Because, it could cause him to crash.”

“Crash?”

“Dav could die. And if he dies, we aren’t going to be able to keep the ship functioning. We might for a little while, but not long. Every second, Dav keeps a thousand systems working. We can’t keep up. We would need thousands of people to do that. We need Dav.”

“But they didn’t have Dav during the cataclysm,” Bryanna reminded them. Her fingers pressing hard into the binder.

“Have you seen how much of the ship we lost? A lot. Hal said the crew used to be bigger before the cataclysm. A hundred or so. Lots of people died.”

“Where are their bodies?” Bryanna asked, thinking back to the day. The lifeless body of the man called Blue stared back at her.

“Some were given to the goo. Others, I don’t know. They are somewhere. Probably in the damaged sections. There’s lots of areas we haven’t gotten to yet.”

“Some might have been taken.”

“Take by who? Who would want a dead body?”

“Aliens.”

“What’s an alien?” Ret requested.

“Something not from Earth. When I talked to Hal, he said the ship was attacked. That the planet was already colonized.”

“No,” Lin interjected, confusion sweeping over her face. “We’ve never met aliens. No one. We’ve been alone.”

“Then why did you leave the new world?” Bryanna wanted to know.

“I don’t know. Hal and the others did. It’s in the past. It doesn’t matter.”

Bryanna’s mind buzzed with thoughts and questions. And she had the answers to everything in her very hand.

 

Chapter 14

                Val stood before the new processor in silence. She was scared; scared enough to don a space suit within a pressurized area. Her breath fogged up the glass that shielded her face. “I’m ready,” she said as she turned to the door and gave a quick thumbs up to Sid and Hes. They looked back at her nervously. The horrors of the last interaction with one of these systems glared in their minds. They stood by ready for anything to happen.

                Stepping forward, she began to power up the cold computer. A series of lights and beeps sounded. Val flinched at each sound and flash. A familiar voice spoke up as it came alive, “Hello?”

                “Hi,” Val replied.

                “I am Davi, Digital Analysis Virtual Intelligence. What happened? The last thing I remember was orbiting the planet.”

                “There was an emergency and you were shut down.”

                “How long have I been offline?”

                “Years.”

                “How have you managed to maintain the ship for so long? It would be nearly impossible.”

                “We’ve managed,” Val answered.

“Mind if I ask you your name? I do not recognize you.” How the computer could tell the difference, escaped Val.

“I am Val.”

“Blue and Yel’s daughter. You were less than a month old the last I knew. Why can I not connect to the rest of the ship?”

“Your systems were damaged and we are unable to establish a connect. It will be some time before you will be able to access the ship.”

“Very well. Is there any way that I may be of service?”

“I would like to do some test to make sure your system is working properly.”

“Of course.” Holding her breath, Val stooped next to the processor and attached a handheld computer. Slowly, a diagnostic program began to run, comparing Dav to this new computer, Davi.

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While Val did this, Bryanna read and her imagination took flight. She could see the old crew as mirror images of their descendants. What she read was chilled her. She began with Yel’s words of reaching the new world:

“Here we are,” Morg grinned. A blue and green planet filled the screen on the command deck. It could have been Earth, but the continents were foreign. A massive storm spun on the southern hemisphere, blocking much of the view. “This is MG-YS 4199.”

“It’s big,” Rik, commented. Morg turned his head to look at his son. The young man was awe struck by the view, but Morg could not understand the depth of what he was seeing. Never before had he seen a planet. But what he did understand was the weight of what he was to begin. Davi had never quit reminding him of what his task now was. He was to survey the whole planet and find a suitable spot for a colony, reconstitute the sleepers, and dismantle the ship into the structures it was meant to become. It was a daunting task, and his past years had shaken his confidence. Everything seemed to go wrong. He had been plagued with genetic defects arising in the crops from the hydroponics bay, multiple power failures, and even having to rework the entire propulsion system. It had been a mess.

The crew blamed him for it all, and with good reason. When Morg had taken command, the crew stood at one hundred eight. Now there was seventy-two. Never before had one captain lost so many lives. And now he was to oversee the most dangerous part of the Charon’s mission.

“Captain,” Red spoke up. He was standing by the door.

“What is it?”

“May I have a word with you?”

“Very well,” the captain. “You’ve got the bridge Rob.” The two of them snuck off to the office. Morg still felt uneasy sitting in the chair behind the desk. Even after all he had been, this was still Zoey’s spot. She had sat here for fifty year.

“There’s been talk among the crew,” Red announced.

“I am not surprised. What is it this time? More complaints about how I run things?”

“No…”

“Then what is it?”

“The planet.”

“What about it?”

“There’s concerns about landing on it? Pich said that it will collapse when we land and Grez says that the ship will ignite in the air and we will all cook.”

“I promise you neither will happen.”

“But we don’t know. We don’t know anything about that planet. We know the ship is damaged, we don’t know if it will hold up.”

“That’s why it is to be done is sections. We scan the planet and we spend a year or so just looking. Looking. That’s all we will do. When we go to land, it will be with parts of the ship at a time. Housing and gardens first, with one power generator. We don’t take chances.”

“But why take a chance when we can stay here. The ship is safe. It needs work but we can do that.”

“That’ isn’t our mission. Our ancestors came set out for this world generations ago. And it is our purpose to finish it.”

“And who made that decision? People who’ve been dead for centuries. They didn’t know about this world. They just got on the ship and left. We didn’t choose it.”

“No. Sometimes you just need to do what you’re told to do, Red. We are going to settle on that planet.”

“No, I won’t,” Red snapped. “I worked in the med bay. Don’t lie to me. Our bones are so frail that they will break if we set foot there. We will spend all our time up here while the sleepers go to the planet. We’ll live on an ever-shrinking ship while they take everything from us. They’ll leave us with nothing.”

“Red, I am not having this discussion with you. That is our purpose. Our destiny. I know that’s a big word for you, but learn it. This has been this ships destiny and nothing is going to change that. Now, get out of here!”

Red mockingly saluted the captain before storming out into the halls. Ignoring everyone, he slipped into a storage room to the side. A group had gathered here. They watched Red as he moved about.

“What’s the verdict?” Gray smirked.

“No give.”

“I told you. He won’t budge. Morg’s set on that dam rock.”

“Gray’s right,” Pich laughed. “Everything that man’s done has only made things worse.”

“I know,” Red wrapped his arm around his wife. “I won’t let him endanger her,” his hand rubbed over swollen belly. “Our little girl will be fine.”

“Not if Morg is in command,” Gray snarled. The big man in the back rose. He’s been a fool. Nothing good has come from him. He was a poor leader even when he was in engineering. I was the one really running things.”

“You’ve never gotten along,” Grez coughed.

“Enough,” Pich yelled, her voice echoing in the narrow compartment. “We all agree that the planet is a bad plan. So, what do we do?”

“We stay on the ship,” the crowd chorused.

“How do we do that?”

“We can’t have Morg leading,” Gray summarized the problem. We need to get him to step down.

“Tried that. Remember when Zoey died, she hadn’t picked a successor and we voted. He won. Even after that year, when you, Gray, tried to move to replace him, no one took it. Too many people sided with him and his stupid luck. It’ll be the same thing here.”

“So what do you want to do?” Gray chided. “Nice isn’t working.”

“So, we don’t be nice,” Red snapped. “We remove him by force.”

“You mean violence?” Grez stepped back.

“If it means protecting ourselves. Zoey always based her decisions on doing whatever would benefit the most people. I say that protecting the whole crew from Morg’s idiocy will help the most people,” Gray defended.

“I must suggest against this course of action,” Davi interrupted. “Any aggressive means to change command of the ship will most likely result in damage to this ship and harm to the crew.”

“Thanks for your opinion, Davi.” The small group dispersed. Gray continued to think about the discussion. Morg would never give up command. He knew that. There was nothing anyone could say to change that. Nor could his disastrous decision to land the ship be changed. Gray knew what he had to do. His plan began to unfold slowly.

It took him weeks of silent meetings and careful plotting before everything was ready. It was easy to convince the little ones to do their part. Hal and Hash barely understood what was going on, but they were eager to help. With only the simplest request the two boys snuck into the halls and disconnected Davi’s processors. Enough wiring was left intact to prevent the computer from becoming suspicious.

A group of twenty people had agreed to Gray’s plan. They now scattered around the immense ship. Each held their own assignment. Some were ordered to contain the rest of the crew, and others were to gain control of the ship. Gray knew he had to face Morg. And for that he had secured one of the ships emergency pistols. It was a low power weapon. It did not even have the power to puncture the ships skin.

“Do you have those reports yet, Gray?” Morg requested over the radio.

“Yes. I am bringing them to you now,” he replied. Slowly, he stepped forward. In his mind, he counted the seconds until his plan went into motion. Each step echoed in the empty halls. His heart raced as fear and excitement flooded his blood. A smile split his lips as he reached the door to the captain’s door.

Morg looked up from his desk as Gray stepped in. “Hello, Gray,” the captain greeted.

“Good bye,” Gray smiled as he drew the small gun from his side. The little weapon kicked as Gray pulled the trigger. The small bullet missed completely. It imbedded itself in the wall behind Morg.

“What the?” Morg blathered. “Gray?”

Shacking, Gray struggled to line up his weapon. Slowly, he leveled the weapon a second time. Morg was not waiting. He rushed forward, casting Gray to the side and sprinting down the hall. Over the radio Morg yelled, “Gray tried to kill me. Gray is trying to kill me. He has a gun.” Again, and again, he repeated. His breath grew short as his words lost clarity, but the crew heard them. Those who were not part of Gray’s plan panicked.

In the hydroponics bay, Bal worked. His trowels had been shifting dirt to prepare for the next planting, but at Morg’s words he dropped it. He had to be sure Stim was alright. If anything happened to her… His mind spiraled. He raced across the room with his feet barely touching the ground. Finding the door sealed, he pounded and screamed. No one heard. Getting on the ground, he pulled off the panel exposing the manual release. Cursing, he released that the level had been removed. He was sealed inside.

“Open the door, Davi,” he yelled.

No one replied.

“Davi?”

Still no response.

“Anyone? What happened to the radio?” Bal yelled. He was beginning to see the extent of Gray’s planning. He had jammed the radios and had the door locks sealed. Bal was cut off from the rest of the crew. Returning to his table, he grabbed a set of pruning shears. Pulling off his radio, he worked free the battery and some of the wires. Gingerly, he peeled the rubber coating from the wires and wrapped the exposed metal around the stalks of a composing plant. Once he connected the battery to the wires they began to smoke as electricity flowed. A weak flame soon smoldered in the dried foliage. A little at a time he fed the flame. It grew under his influence until it consumed the table. Alarms sounded throughout the hydroponics bay.

Bal bet on the alarms would attract attention of others. Looking up, he watched the automated sprinklers way above him. He knew they would not activate until the flames spread. As the smoke rose, he knelt on the floor by the door. The screaming sirens soon brought Han to the room. Foolishly, she stepped into the room. Her eyes popped open as she saw the fire. While disactered, Bal hopped up and grabbed her by the shirt.

“What are you doing?” he roared. In fright, her hands flung up. She jammed her fingers into Bal’s eyes. Bringing his hands to his face, he released her. Han dove past Bal and deeper into the hydroponics bay. Bal leapt after her, landing hard on the floor. His fingers wrapped around her ankles, dragging her to the ground. Her flailing hand knocked the trowel from the dirt as she fell. As Bal pulled her back, she desperately groped for the trowel. “Why is Gray doing this?”

“Get off me,” She yelled back. A torrent of brown water sprayed down as the sprinklers kicked in. The stagnant water startled Bal. In the moment that his grip weakened, Han snatched up the trowel and drove it at Bal’s gut. They stared at each other as blood wept freely. Han sprinted from that room while Bal stumbled. He slumped against the wall as his life drained. With his last moments, he left his final curse to Gray on the wall.

Han never looked back from the gruesome scene she left behind her. Adrenaline flooded her heart as she raced through the veins of the ship. “Bal attacked me,” she blurted out as she found Red and his group.

“We’ll deal with that later. Gray has Morg cornered in the storage room. We are going to meet him.” They marched through the long halls. Determined to fulfil their revolution. Han kept thinking back to Bal and the hydroponics bay. The look on his face would plague her mind for years to come.

“You took your time,” Gray reprimanded them as they arrived. “Come on.” They stood before a door sealed tightly. Or for a little longer, since Blue was reaching for the manual release. With a click, the door gave way and Morg stood against the far wall cowering.

“Why?” he asked. His voice filled with accusations and hate. “Why do this?”

“To protect the ship and the crew from that planet and you,” Gray spat. “You’re a danger to everyone here.”

“No, you are. This is insane.” Gray’s final response was with his small gun. Morg collapsed and never moved again.

“The ship is ours,” Gray declared, just as a new problem emerged.

 

 

 

Chapter 15

“Now what?” Gray yelled over the commotion. Everyone was chattering and hollering when the lights went out. “Blue, get down to the engine room.”

“I can’t see,” he complained.

“Feel your way. You know the ship. It is the same in the dark as it is in the light. Now, go!” While Blue scurried away with a few others in tow, Gray fumbled his way back to the bridge over several long and silent minutes. Han and Grez follow the large man through the darkness. All were completely blind. Guided only by memory and intuition, they soon found themselves near the bridge. A flurry of voice cracked through the bulky doors that sealed off the bridge. Forcing the door open, he yelled into the black room, “What happened?”

“We lost power,” Pich explained. “Still haven’t found the flashlights.” Gray could not discern her location. It was as if the void had filled the ship, drowning out all imagery.

“Why?”

“No clue.”

“The hydroponics bay,” Han muttered.

“What?” everyone asked.

“There was a fire and the sprinklers went off. The water must have shorted some of the wires.”

“Go tell Blue in the engine room.” Han stood in fear. The idea of wondering along the massive ship in total darkness completely alone… it terrified her. Never had she been in such darkness. Always before had there been light on the ship, if only at the end of a long hall. “Now!” Gray scolded her when he did not hear her foot falls in the darkness.

Timidly, she worked her way along the bleak halls. In the dark, her ears strained for any sound. She jumped at every creak and groan of the ancient ship. Every sound reminded her of Bal’s final sounds and the wicked glare in his eyes.

“Blue,” she howled into the abyss only to hear nothing back. Trudging along, she continued to creep onward. A noise began to rise in the distance. It took her a moment to recognize the rhythmic sound of footsteps. “Hello,” she called into the darkness.

No voice echoed back to her, but the footsteps grew louder and louder still.

“Hello,” she repeated. Still no one replied. She stopped midstride as she waited in the absolute darkness. Her heart skipped beats as each foot touched down out of her sight. The sound of her own breathing droned out the newcomer’s breath. Each second that past only escalated her fears. The footsteps sounded from a few feet away.

“Who’s there?” Han demanded.

“Did you do this?” A raspy voice screamed as two arms pinned Han to the unseen wall.

“Please, Mut, let me go,” she pleaded once she recognized her brothers voice. “Please, let me go.”

“Explain!”

“You were supposed to be in the dorms. We sealed those so people wouldn’t get in the way.” Nervously, she fidgeted against her brother’s strength. “We are only trying to help the crew.”

“Help how?”

“Gray said that Morg would destroy the ship by landing. That is couldn’t be done.”

“How is Gray better? He’s a bully. He always has been.”

“Morg’s a fool. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“No one does,” Mut bellowed. His voice deafening Han. “No one has ever done this before.”

“Mut, please. You are hurting me,” she winced as her brother’s grip tightened around her frail wrists.

“What’s going on? Why is there no power?”

“I don’t know. Bal started a fire in the hydroponics bay. I set off the sprinklers and the water must have shorted something.”

“Why would he start a fire? That’s stupid.”

“I don’t know, but we need to get the power back on.” Just as she finished speaking, a ruckus echoed throughout the ship, silencing all that heard it. “What was that?”

“An explosion? Did we lose a section? We need to move,” Mut released his sister and stumbled down the black corridor. All fear of what had started this nightmare swept from his mind by the fear of what just happened. Han shuffled along behind her brother as fast she as she dared in her blindness. Her mind displayed every vivid detail of every situation she could imagine while her eyes were useless.

“Hello? Hello?” A voice crackled over the radio for the first time since Gray began his coup.

“Blue, this is Han. What is going on?” she asked, only to be silenced by the chorus of hectic voices of the frightful crew. No one could gain the clarity of their own words over the jumble mess that was broadcast throughout the ship. The only thing everyone understood was that someone got the radios going again.

“We need Davi!” Gray shouted through the noise.

“I think we are by one of the processors,” Mut told his sister.

“How do you know?”

“I was just working in this area and I can feel the scratches I left. Processor 8 should be just around the corner. Come on.” He past his knowledge back through the radio. Gray’s loud voice cut through the crowd and he worked to establish some form of plan amongst the crew. They scurried forward, led only by memory and touch. “I wonder what happened to Davi?” Mut asked as he slipped into the processor’s room.

“Gray had use turn him off. He didn’t want Davi telling Morg what was happening.”

“Damn you, Han.” Mut’s faced burned as he wanted to strike his sister, but could not see her to aim and instead conscribed himself to finding the necessary controls. A series of flashes and beeps emitted from the tower. A small emergency generator flipped on to power the artificial intelligence.

“Hello,” Davi said as he came aware. “Why can’t I sense anything? What is going on?”

“Powers out across the ship. Huge mess,” Han answered.

“My sensors are off. I only have partial access to the immediate surroundings.”

“Some of your wires were cut,” Han explained.

“Why? Why would my wires be cut?”

“Gray need to reduce your capabilities for a bit.”

“Not important,” Mut told the computer. “Is there anything you can do to help? Get power?”

“No. I am cut off from all vital systems.” By the weak lights of Davi’s system, Mut scowled at Han. “Sorry.”

“Gray, Davi’s up but it will take time to get him to be able to do anything.”

“Do it.”

“There are flashlights by the door to this room,” Davi told them. The two siblings grabbed them before leaving. Frantically, they worked by the slender lights to undo all of Gray’s preparations. An hour past and they had only restored a fragment of what had been done.

“Han, Mut,” Davi called out, abruptly. “I need you to go to the nursery. My sensors are picking up a minute haul breach and there are people in there.”

Instantly, they dropped their work and raced down the halls. Weak cries seeped through the nursery door as they neared. The heart wrenching sounds of the fearful children choked Han. Without a word, she dropped to her knees and tossed aside the panel to the access hatch. “Good, we have the outside one,” she congratulated their momentary luck as she threw the latch. The door popped open instantly. By the light of their flashlights, the fear stricken children rushed to Han and Mut. The teacher Bin stood amidst the children holding a small glowing latern.

“What’s going on?” The miniture Hal asked. His little brother Jer clinging to his side.

“It’s just a little power hiccup. We will be fine. Why don’t we go towards the bridge? Lots of room there in the theater,” Mut suggested. “Come along.” With the help of Han and the teachers Fip and Bin, they guided the little ones through the dark. The adults did their best to hide their fears, but the little ones felt it. Val cried in Bin’s arms despite her rocking and humming.

A second explosion of noise echoed down the hall behind them. A massive bulkhead powered by the emergency generators dropped from the ceiling behind the group, sealing the hall as a breach opened behind them. Han’s eyes widened as she saw a section of the haul brake off. What little light she shown back was swallowed by the empty depth that opened. “Davi?” Han yelled over the radio.

No answer.

“His transmitter must have been knocked off line. Can’t hear us,” Mut told her. Wrapping his arm around her, he forced her onward. Their little lights pushed back the blackness from the halls as they pressed back through the ship. All the while the children shuffled about. Their fright clawed at Han’s mind. It took all her effort to keep her own fears concealed.

“Han,” Gray broke over the radio. “Have you seen Blue?”

“No, I never made it down to the engine room before the explosion. After that, Mut and I have been elsewhere. Why?”

“Blue isn’t in the engine room.”

“What?”

“He said he had to go get something, but we can’t raise him. Can you go find him?” Timidly, she broke off from the group and doubled back down the hall.

“The sensors last picked him up heading to the dormitories,” Pich told over the intercom.

“We have partial sensors working now.”

“Thank you.” With her flashlight, Han could run. It took her a little extra time to bypass the sealed bulkhead. The dormitory hall spread out before her. The air felt oddly humid. “Blue,” Han called out. Her voice seemed louder in the stillness air. “Blue?” She made her way towards his home. The door stood open before she arrived. Peering inside, Han was met by a strange sight. By the light of the vibrant planet, she saw Blue sitting at his table staring at the planet, a gun in his hand. “Blue?”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was sent to find you.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“What is?”

“The planet. It doesn’t have a name. We’ve just called it the planet or new world. It doesn’t have a name.”

“That’s not important now. We’ve got to save the ship.”

“No, we don’t,” he pointed at the window.

“Why?”

“This ship is dead. You know it. Powers gone.”

“It’s not. We can get it back. Then we can take the ship forward.”

“Forward? Forward where? This ship had one purpose. Land on that planet and we don’t know if it can do that. This ship has nowhere to go. We can’t land. This ship won’t last in the void again. This ship has failed. That’s what Gray hasn’t told us. There is nothing this ship can do now. We’re dead. It’s dead.” He lifted his gun.

“Where did you get that?”

“It was in Morg’s office. There has always been one in there. We don’t belong here. We were meant to stay on Earth.”

“What are you doing?”

“What we were meant to.” He leveled the small weapon towards his head.

“Stop it!” Han shrieked as she lunged forward. “What about Val? She needs you.” Han’s fingers clutched for the gun. Her weight was too much Blue’s tiny arms to hold and his arm fell towards his chest. The sound of gunfire deafened Han to Blue’s scream as the bullet pierced his lung.  Han backed away. “No. Blue?”

The man looked down at his chest in pain and smiled. The deranged expression on his face burned into her mind. That smile sent Han fleeing from that room. Coughing, Blue stumbled away from the table towards his bedroom. Collapsing on the bed, he lay there. Pleasant memories shrouded his mind as he drifted off for the final time.

“Blue… Blue…” Han gasped over the radio, “He’s dead.”

“Explain!” Gray commanded.

“He shot himself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He used a gun.”

“What?”

“He shot himself,” Han explained again.

“There is a more pressing situation. I am detecting a fluctuation in air pressure indicating a haul breach. I cannot centralize the location; thus, it must be in the section where my sensors are inoperable. Han, can you please leave the area so I can initialize the emergency bulkheads,” Pich warned as she read through the scattered sensors.

Han’s pace double on command. Behind her the heavy sheet of metal dropped down, shutting off the dormitories.

“Han, are you alright?”

“Yes. I’m alright. I’m alright,” she told the darkness.

“What happened? What happened with Blue?”

“He started talking about this ship failing. That it was all in pointless. It was doomed.”

“What was?”

“The ship. That we were all doomed.”

“We’re not,” Red spoke out. “We are not doomed. But first we need to get this ship under control.”

“Right,” Blue sighed. “Right. Are there any other issues that need to be dealt with now?”

“The primary concern now is to restore power. The emergency power grid will only last a few hours. The air circulators will continue to function for an additional three hours after that. So far, I am unable to contact forty-one people. Most were located in the sections that were sealed off and I was unable to contact them. I am afraid that they are lost,” Yel told over the radio.

“Okay. Okay. Let’s get main power back on. We can go from there.”

Author's Note

Opinion of story, plot, and characters.