Incident B23347

A Story by David Butler

Several astronauts delivering supplies to a mars colony as a test trip for a brand new AI system end up in an unexpected situation that they have to get out of in order to survive.

Chapter 1

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SUBJECT: Interplanetary multipurpose vessel UNS Daedalus

LOCATION:2/4 OF the way from Earth to Mars

TIME: September,11th, 2076

Stan lifted his head gazing at the monitors on the screen. All seemed nominal, no major issues, he took a bite of his plain extra generic vacuumed chicken sandwich. He could barely stand that bland taste, was nothing like back at home, well, nothing in space was like at home.

The door leading to the main corridor opened up and a woman in a yellow/blue jumpsuit enters the cockpit her long brown hair weaving around in the ships low gravity enviornment. On her right shoulder a french flag can be seen and her name Juliette displayed on the front. She walks up to another console facing the central computer unit and turns to Stan speaking with her heavy french accent. ''You missed lunch, again, what's the matter

?''

Stan smiled in response ''No I just prefer to be left alone when eating, also there are things I need to focus on.'' he points at the screen.

Suddenly the computer mainframe activates and a screen displaying incoherent ripples supposed to represent audio begin to tremble. ''Are you sure you're alright Stan? After all isolation in space can lead to serious mental issues.''

Stan looks at the screen with annoyance ''Oh please Alex don't give me your crap I'm fine.''

''Whatever you say'' Alex responds before returning to his normal duties. Stan sighs ''I'm getting real sick and tired of that AI.'' Juliette smiles ''Oh come on Stan he is just trying to be helpful.'' ''Yea,yea whatever now let's get back to buisness.''

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Gazing out the window Dmitry saw nothing but black void with stars scattered around, occasional flash of the sun but that's it. He tried to comprehend the vastness of space, but failed like many before him. Breathing a deep sigh he turns around and prepares to head out of the fuel storage room. Admittingly he would love to have a nuclear reactor on this thing instead of the boring old chemical propellant. However there was no way a simple ship like the Daedalus was to be equipped with such an expensive power source. The only vessels that accomodated such things were military ships and the interstellar ships. He contemplated a bit more for amoment before heading towards the ladders leading to upper sections. Upon climbing out he was met by a man in a green/red jumpsuit with the US flag on his shoulder, it was Stan. Dmitry got up and welcomed Stan with a smile, then he began in his Russian accent ''Well met my friend, what brings you down to the engine section?'' Stan responds ''Oh nothing really, just checking up on everything.'' Dmitry crossed his arms ''So you gonna come with me, eat something?'' Stan waved his hand ''No thanks man I already had my share of generic space rations deluxe.'' This made Dmitry laugh hard as he laughed he tapped Stan's shoulder ''Ah that was a good one man, I know how you feel, well then see you later.'' as Dmitry walked down the corridor Stan looked at him seeing his white/red suit blend in partially with the bland white corridor. He turned around went a bit up the corridor and entered the sleeping quarters, they were empty. Inside were three enclosed beds and personal items of the crew and their lockers. Stans locker had a picture of his family, his wife Allice and his little daughter Rose that was merely 2 years old. He barely ever had the time to see her. He was a busy man, space travel took a long time. He wasn't there for her on many occasions, he did manage to witness her birth luckily, but she barely even knows him. Stan glanced the picture for a bit before opening his bed and snuggling in. Boy, eh couldn't sleep, what an unexpected problem, he thought. After some twitching and turning around tho he finally managed to sleep.

Chapter 2

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A violent explosion shook the ship. Juliette, who was at the cockpits consoles was pushed forward by the blast impacting with her guts into the console. She fell to the floor in pain, after a short time she got back up and witness the cockpit on fire! She quickly ran to the fire extinguisher and picked it up and shut off the fire. Afterwards she jumped to the console sirens blarring she activated the AI Alex. In seconds the screen lit up showing Alex. ''Alex, what is happening?'' she says distressed. Alex responded ''I....I....don't know.'' Juliette looked in terror at the screen, is it possible that whatever happened caused him to reboot or erased his memory? She quickly scrambled and picked up a book quickly flicking the pages looking for instructions, before soon she managed to find it in one section. She looked at him and spoke ''Alex, tell me, where are you?'' Alex contemplated for a moment before responding '' I am onboard an interplanetary multipurpose vessel UNS Daedalus.'' ''Good'' Juliette nodded ''Who am I?'' Alex quickly responded ''You're Juliette Beaumont chief navigation technician and backup engineer.'' Juliette let off a sigh of relief. ''Alex, run a systems diagnostic.'' ''Affirmative, starting system diagnostic.'' after around a minute or so he responded ''Ship integrity stable, mainframe damage, minimal, warning, fires in mess hall, engineering and lab, food dispensing system damaged, unable to interact with crew quarters, cargo bay integrity stable, lab equipment nominal damage, warning oxygen leak in fuel compartment, engine 2 has suffered heavy damage.''

'Oh god.'' she said stopping for a brief second before saying ''Alex, locate other crew.''

Alex responds ''Chief engineer Dmitry Harakov is in the mess hall, he appears to have passed out.'' ''S**t, uhm where is Stan?'' ''Chief computer technician Stan Carter cannot be located.'' Juliette gazed at the screen in terror ''He..he can't, oh God...I, I must, Alex open the door!'' ''Way ahead of you, hurry.'' Juliette rushed out to the corridor with a few fires sparking there too that were quickly extinguished by her. She opened the door to the mess hall to find even more fires raging there but she took care of them too. There was Dmitry on the floor unconscious with blood dripping out of his forehead. Juliette quickly dragged him out and into the medical bay that was luckily unscaved by whatever happened. She lied him on the Automated Medical Table, within a second Alex once again appeared on the screen of the medical bay. ''Alex, he's badly hurt take care of him.'' ''I will don't worry, now you must go and stabilise the situation.'' ''I will.'' she said before rushing out to the corridor and running down in an attempt to find Stan. However there was no trace of him, however, she remembered Dmitry said Stan vent to bed last night, that was it! She ran to the sleeping quarters door and was struck to see them locked up tightly. ''Alex! Unlock the doors to the sleeping quarters!'' Alex responded over the intercom ''I'm sorry Juliette but the door to the Sleeping quarters is blocked you'll have to manually open them.'' Juliette stopped for a second and approached the door and banged on it a couple of times, after a few seconds, her banging was responded to. She started to breathe quickly and ran to the airlock and opened the inner door, inside the airlock were three space suits each corresponding to one of the crew men. Amidst other things there was also a plasma cutter and a welding mask. She grabbed both and rushed to the sleeping quarters, she grabbed the plasma torch and activated it, the searing plasma contacted the metallic door and began cutting it up. After cutting it up she removed the metallic panel that was covering up the emergency release and pulled it. The door barely dragged itself open. Juliette then saw an afro-american man in a green/red jumpsuit standing there, it was Stan. They bot breathed a sigh of relief and ran towards each other hugging. After a moment of joy they backed off and Stan leaned against the door panting ''The explosion woke me up, barely got out, the power was out, I...I tought I was done for.'' he stopped for a second before asking ''Where's Dmitry?'' ''He's in the medical bay, he...he suffered serious head trauma, Alex is patching him up. Stan said ''Alright come on we need to straighten this up and figure out what hit us, let's move it.''

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The ship was relatively patched up, all the fires were out, mainframe and engineering were fixed up, the food dispenser wasn't that much of a deal and with the leak fixed the engine was the only real issue. The entire crew was hunkered down in the cockpit, Stan was analyzing the system, Juliette was silently staring at the void and Dmitry was leaned against the wall, arms crossed he luckily recovered from the trauma rather well and was able to join in with the repairs. ''So now what do we do?'' Dmitry said. Alex responded ''The ship has been badly damaged and we need to get it online, however I'm afraid that even if we manage to patch the engine up I believe our best bet is to head back to earth for repairs.'' Juliette asked ''Well what do you think caused the damage? A micrometeorite?'' ''Perhaps'' said Stan. Alex replied ''Negative, I have scanned the engine it appears that the exterior is warped and bent possibly from the impact but the interior has been fried under searing heat.''

''But we can fix, it right?'' Dmitry said.

''Most likely, yes we can but it might take some time, I can't say how much but the thing is we can do it.''

Stan turned around ''Well somebody is gonna have to patch the damn thing up, I'm a computer engineer I ain't no expert with propulsion systems.''

Dmitry got up from the wall and stepped forward ''I'm going, as a chief engineer it's my responsibility.'' Juliette looked at him with a concerned face ''Dmitry, are you sure?''

''Don't question my decision Juliette, what? Do you think you can handle that? Not a chance in hell!''

''Alright, alright calm down. I didn't mean to...''

''Yea yea I know, let's just do it and get over with it.'' saying that Dmitry left the cockpit and went to the airlock.

Chapter 3

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Dmitry got inside the airlock, inside were three suits just like before. He grabbed his suit and carefully put it on. Once he was inside he grabbed the helmet and put it on. The oxygen circulation system activated instantly along other systems. He then grabbed tools: plasma cutter, superglue gun, power wrench, laser welder and several others. He faced towards the outer airlock door and ordered depressurization, when all the air was out the outer door opened.

''Good luck, Dmitry.'' said Alex over the intercom. Dmitry responded to it ''Hey Alex, don't turn on the engines while I'm outside.'' ''Do not worry about it.'' said Alex.

Dmitry stepped outside into the cold black void, instantly what little gravity there was on the ship. The cold black expanse of the void was peppered with dots of light, in the distance he could see a pale red dot, it was Mars. Earth was being blocked by the ship but Dmitry could still imagine just how much of a pale blue dot it would be this far away. But there was no time for that, he had to get the engine online. With a little bit of jet-pack boosting around he managed to reach the very back of the ship. There, were the thrusters. He saw that the one to the right had sustained heavy damage. It was time to fix that. Approaching the hole Dmitry could spot that the outside plating got cut up badly and that the insides were pretty badly twisted. He grabbed onto the hole and pulled himself closer. He pulled out his tools and began working on the damage.

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Inside the ship things were surprisingly calm, Juliette was in the mess hall attempting to repair the food dispenser. Stan was still in the cockpit, partially following Dmitry and partially mending the ships systems. Then Alex popped back out ''Stan, I'm afraid we have a problem.'' ''Well, what is it?'' Stan asked.

''It appears to be that the emergency escape shuttle is undocking from the ship.''

''How?'' Stan was confused and it could be seen.

''I don't know the shuttle can be activated only manually and I can see Juliette's signal in the mess hall.''

''Then what is it?''

''I wish I could say, go down there and abort the launch, and be careful.''

''Will do.'' Stan rushed outside and ran towards the small set of stairs leading down to the emergency shuttle. Descending down into the small hatch he could see that the undocking was still undergoing. He quickly pressed the big abort button and stopped the undocking. ''Alright then, let's see what we got here.''

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Dmitry was done, the plating was patched up, the fuel lines were replaced and thermal plating was back in place. There was little more that he could do but it was still a lot better than nothing. He jetpacked back to the airlock and stepped inside, the door closed behind him and the pressure was restored. He took off his helmet and too a deep breath. It was good to be back onboard. After stepping out of the suit he saw Juliette standing in the hall. ''Dmitry, did you fix the engine?''

''Of course I did.'' he turned to Alex who also appeared there on one of the monitors. ''Let's get this circus done and over with.'' ''Understood.'', Juliette entered the cockpit with Dmitry standing there.

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The doors to the shuttle opened up and outside popped out a man in his thirties or so, he had blonde hair and 80s style beard and mustache that was wearing an orange/white jumpsuit accompanied by his red framed glasses. Stan backed off for a second before the man lifted himself up, both of them were obviously terrified about the current state of affairs. Stan was the first to talk ''Who are you and what are you doing here?'' he said with a menacing gaze pointed towards the stranger. The stranger lifted his arms up and said ''Please don't hurt me I mean no harm.''

At that moment Alex showed up also rather surprised by the new arrival. Stan continued ''Well then what the f**k are you doing here?''

''I agree with Stan, answer the question.'' said Alex.

The stranger slowly lowered his arms and began to talk ''My organisation was trying to get the government to approve of us launching our own missions into space to search for extraterrestrial life. But no they didn't wanna listen. With a lot of money and some good people who work for ISA I managed to hitch a ride onboard here in secret. I brought some of my equipment too.''

''That is impossible.'' said Alex ''your weight and the weight of the equipment would've changed our flight parameters and we would crash moments before take off.''

''Ah but you see.'' said the stranger '' we are not so stupid, we removed a few things from the shuttle to balance the weight.'' Alex paused for a brief moment and then said '' Shuttle has been scanned, the fuel cells, primary gyroscope and secondary electronic components are missing.'' '' Well good f*****g job, the shuttle is useless now!'' said Stan with anger. ''B...but it's not my fault, I...I never thought anything like this would happen!''

''Well it did, now get over here.'' Stan grabs his arm and takes him outside.

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Sitting in the cockpit Juliette and Dmitry were prepping up everything for ignition when Stan walked in dragging the newcomer. Both Dmitry and Juliette were confused over what is this man doing here. Stan explained them everything as they listened to it none of them could believe.

''I suggest we start the engines and get going I doubt we should waste our time sitting on our asses here.'' Dmitry said.

In a couple of minutes everything was ready, Stan was studying the cameras on the exterior of the ship with Alex. The newcomer who presented himself as Edwin was leaning against the wall looking at the floor.

''Engines online, ignition in 3....2.....1'' Juliette activated the thrusters which turned on and started propelling the ship forward. ''All systems nominal.'' said Dmitry. Everyone in the cockpit made a sigh of relief. Juliette got out of the chair ''I'm gonna finish the work with the food dispenser I'm sure you all are hungry.'' Dmitry went off to the sleeping quarters and Edwin said ''I'm gonna see if I can get some food my stomach has been gurgling for quite some time. Stan was, yet again, alone in the cockpit with Alex.

Dmitry entered the quarters and looked outside the window, he could see Earth, with a smile he said ''I won't let you down father.'' he then slid into his bed and decided to take a well deserved rest.

Stan was looking at the cameras still but nothing interesting was really happening.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere the ship was rocked yet again by a violent blast! Everyone was knocked down and sirens were up and blarring yet again. Stan quickly got up ''Alex, what the f**k just happened!'' ''I have no idea Stan.''

Suddenly Juliette ran into the cockpit yelling out of her mind ''guys, did you see that! It was a laser, a f*****g laser!'' Stan looked at her in shock, ''Wh.....what do you mean?''

''Jesus Christ Stan someone shot at us with a laser!''

''Well who the f**k is stupid enough to shoot an ISA ship?''

''No one'' said Alex ''I got an update on the flight data 5 minutes ago, there are only two ships travelling between Earth and Mars, our ship and the Nebraska, but it barely left mars's gravitational pull.'' ''There are a few ship in orbit of moon and Earth but they are only military patrols which rarely leave the Earth-Moon corridor.''

''Then what is it for f***s sake?'

''Stan, Juliette.... I believe this might be the first contact.''

Chapter 4

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Juliette was gazing into blank space trying to comprehend in horror at what is going on. Stan grabbed himself by the head and sat down. At that moment Edwin and Dmitry ran into the cockpit, both of them were out of breath. ''What the f**k is happening.'' Dmitry yelled. ''Calm down'' said Alex '' I believe we've achieved first contact.''

''Woah, woah easy there'' said Edwin setting his glasses back into place ''do you mean that aliens are shooting at us?''

''Most likely'' Alex simply stated.

Juliette sat down and burst into tears ''Oh god oh god why? Why did this have to happen on my flight? Oh god they'll board the ship and kill us all!''

Dmitry came to her and put his arms on her back ''don't worry it's all gonna end well we just have to do something.'' he turned to Alex and Edwin ''what if they aren't trying to kill us?''

''What do you mean?'' Alex asked

''Well don't you think that if they wanted us dead that they would've destroyed the ship ages ago? They only disabled our drive perhaps they don't want us to die.''