Destroyer of world prelude

A Story by Thomas

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Destroyer of worlds

Thomas Richards

Imran walked down the noisy corridor to his com-link, fatigue making his pace slow as the lights of the bright ceiling beamed down upon him. He opened his dark eyes wide as he attempted to brush off his weariness, but even with his eyes wide open he failed to see his assistant Jude running around the corner, who in turn failed to see him.

“Oww,” yelped Jude as he rubbed his now bruised forehead. “Oh sorry commander Nico,” he stammered once he realized who he had run into.”I was just looking for you we’re needed in the comm-room sir, we…”

“Ok, ok,” said Imran cutting him off, “Why were you running?” Imran Inquired of his assistant as he simultaneously nursed his bruised chin.

“Um…well sir I didn’t know where you were and um…”

“Never mind” sighed Imran while holding back his annoyance as it was once again brought to the front of his mind that everyone here was always running and always busy. Work never stops on Mars thought Imran, and as the commander of humanities largest attempt at long term planet side colonization Imran Nico knew this all too well.

His cyber-link; a device implanted directly into his brain rang as a still image of his second-in-command filled his lower right field of vision.

“Sir, you’re needed in the comm-room, we have an urgent encoded message from Eagle one.”

“Alright, said Imran “I’ll get to you in a second.” Imran and Jude ran to the comm-room. It was not often that the crew of Eagle one; a new and improved version of the old space telescopes of the twentieth and twenty-first century, which was now orbiting Mars, sent something that was encoded so that it could not be immediately read, something was up.

“Hey, Imran there’s something I have been meaning to ask you,” said Jude.

“Can it wait, this seems important Jude.”

“Well…um sir, it’s been a long time since I’ve been home and I was just wondering if you would,” Imran stopped and turned toward him “rotate me out for a year or so…” Jude trailed off.

Imran sighed “You’ve been here a long time, longer than a lot, most even,” he contemplated aloud, a few years was a long time on Mars without seeing the sun or feeling real wind on your back. “Yeah I think I could get you rotated out, why not.”

Jude smiled wide, “that would be great, thank you sir.”

Imran smiled back, it was nice to give good news. Imran had not been back to earth since he had left for Mars’. There was nothing there for him, there was no need to go back to a life that was no longer viable.

“Don’t mention it.”

Imran with Jude in tow finally reached the communications room, they entered the large circular room it was swamped with computers both large and small with technicians able to multitask with only the need for a keyboard and a cyber ware uplink. But at the moment they were all focused on one task: receiving and deciphering more information from eagle one.

“Crew Chief Stringer what is your status,” asked Imran’s second-in-command Matthew McCormick through the main communications console, there was no response.

‘Matt,” called out Imran.

He turned from his console giving a crisp salute and shouting “Sir.”

This caused Imran to roll his eyes; since the turn of the twenty-fourth century NASA was filled with more hard core military types than ever, himself included, but Matt was zealous, perhaps overzealous. Imran and he had become friends over the years despite this.

“What’s the situation,” inquired Imran.

“We received an encoded Message from Eagle one at thirteen hundred hours about an unknown object entering Mars’ gravitational field.”

“Hmmm,” thought Imran “have you been able to contact them since then?”

“No sir.”

Just then they deciphered the rest of the message, and it sent everyone in the room’s hair on end. Pictures, it was pictures of an object which was massive in size and even though was still in the photographs was traveling through space at kilometers per second, the real clincher was the fact that this object was headed on a direct collision course with them.

“Listen up!” shouted Imran I want to restore communications with Eagle one that is now the project of every non-civilian member of this facility.”

The technical staff needed no further urging they quickly set to work.

“Jude, Ju…” Imran stopped as he saw his assistants face blanketed with fear

“We’re all alone out here,” he muttered lowly to himself “I knew something would go wrong…I…I…I…”

“Pull it together now is not the time, Jude” Imran hissed back angrily “Quick thinking is what we need and to do that I need people to follow orders and remain calm can you do that?”

He watched Jude as he closed his eyes and visibly breathed in deep, pulling himself together.

“I’m good sir.”

“Good, let’s get going.”

“Where to?” questioned his now serene subordinate.

“To the launch level, we’re abandoning Mars.”

Lauren awoke in the middle of the day, or night she could never tell she wasn’t even sure “day and night” applied. At least not when you’re orbiting Mars in a large yet cramped telescope, but that wasn’t the most pressing matter in her mind. The most pressing matter was the giant object flying toward her home. It had been a few hours since she had sent the encoded message back to command on mars. Lauren encoded it because the object sent out a strange signal and she did not want it to be intercepted, yet in the back of her mind she did not think it was any sort of spacecraft it was far to massive, maybe an old probe or satellite had crashed into it she thought as she got up and... Floated, Lauren had never really liked working in zero gravity, but what else could she expect in space.

She then pushed and pulled her way along a cramped corridor to the command and observation deck. When she arrived there her two other crew members were there waiting for her, the three of them slept in roughly 8 hour shifts and it was time for Rico to sleep.

“Get some sack time Rico,” she told him groggily.

He stood there shaking his head, staring at the data about the object on the screen. Lauren sighed things were tense they had all seen the data. Lauren stood next to Rico and stared right along with him. The object was totally smooth which was odd, but not completely unexplainable, it was red hot and traveling directly at the colonization facilities on the surface, most of which were underground. The strangest thing was that the object gave off a signal that was probably also disrupting there communications with the surface.

Lauren and Rico leaned against the wall, while the third crew member, Silvia sat; all were glued to the data.

“So,” Rico spoke first “what are we gonna do about it.”

Lauren’s mind raced but no answer came to mind.

“There’s no way,” Silvia quietly whispered. “It’s only a couple hours away from our colonization facility god knows

how it got anywhere near this close without us knowing , there’s just no way…” she finished.

“No way what!?” Rico raised his voice turning toward her.

“No way we can do any f*****g thing Rico it’s just…to…late” she snapped back tears in her swollen bloodshot blue eyes

“Oh what the hell do you know! There are plenty of things we can do!” he retorted.

“No there really isn’t Rico,” Lauren added.

“Then are we just gonna sit on our asses and watch people die! My family is down there!” he spat back.

“We all know people down there,” Lauren answered.

“Then what are we going to do?” said Silvia tears now streaming freely from her eyes down her chin.

There was a long pause the tension was thick they were in cramped quarters but they were all far away from each other lost in their own thoughts…Then there was something, faint at first but it grew in intensity a constant sound like the beat of a drum or a heart. It grew loud so loud Lauren could not even hear her thoughts, and just as her mind had just begun to comprehend that it was there it was gone.

Lauren looked at Rico and Silvia to see it they had heard it but they still seemed lost in thought.

She decided to break the silence, “We can send command updates on time of impact and help coordinate the evacuation,” Lauren said “It’s the best we’ve got the rest is in Commander Nico’s hands.”

“Like that psychopath cares about anyone stationed here,” Nico said aloud more to himself than to anyone else.

“Open a communications channel” sighed Lauren, pushing back tears.

“Commander Nico, we’ve regained communication with Eagle one,” Informed McCormick telepathically over their shared cyber-link.

“Gotcha, what’s the deal any new information?” asked Imran.

“I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”

“Hit me.”

“Alright,” Matt paused “we’ve got approximately an hour until impact… The good news is we’ve also got dynamite insurance so it’s all good.”

“Ha ha,” cried Imran “Mind keeping this relevant Matt?”

“Yes sir, what are your orders?

“I want constant updates on time of impact; also send all of this information to Earth there gonna need to know what happened, and Matt?”

“Yes?”

“Evacuate sections one, two, three, four, seven, and twelve get all civilians to the launch level and immediately commence evacuation.”

“What about the civilians in the other sections sir?” Inquired Matt.

“Don’t even inform them, there’s no time to evac everyone in the other sections.”

“But they’ll die sir.”

“I’m fully aware of that that thank-you Matt,” replied Imran

“Um…Yes sir understood sir,” Matt stammered before closing the comm-link.

Imran drifted along the access strip brooding to himself I never asked for this he repeated in his mind as he walked into the launch loop bay. Its size was beyond belief for someone who had never laid eyes on it, hundreds of spacecraft lined up for use, in an underground bunker miles long beneath the surface. But the largest object in the bay was the launch loop; miles of magnetic track meant to accelerate objects up to escape velocity and into space, where the craft would be propelled by rocket boosters.

Imran strode past the confused and scared civilians who had arrived, being ushered by the station personnel to the loops command deck. Looking back on the civilians he saw how few of them would be able to evacuate in time.

“Damn it,” he said under his breath, he opened his comm-link and gave his last order “All remaining staff evacuate to your shuttles.” He then narrowed the comm.-links focus, “Jude,” he called.

“Yes sir,” Jude replied.

“Give the final launch codes and meet me at my personal shuttle.”

“Alright, meet you there.”

Imran closed the comm-link and headed toward the staff evacuation bay which was in a different part of the facility. Along his way he passed through section seven, it was abandoned; personal items lay scattered across the area. The civilian sectors of the colony looked different than the staff sections, more of a “home” and less of a “facility” it mimicked the suburban family life on earth as closely as possible, now it mimicked a ghost town.

He was almost to the other side of section seven when he heard a sob; he stopped to find the source of the noise. He came across a small child, a girl no more than a toddler.

“What in god’s name are you doing here?” he asked.

“I…I can’t find my mommy,” she stammered.

“Damn,” whispered Imran. He took her hand and decided to have her come along with him, he couldn’t leave her there.

They exited section seven and came upon Imran’s shuttle, Jude stood in front of it already in his life support suit, helmet in his arms.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” said Imran. “She’s coming with us,”

Jude nodded and looked at the girl, “now what’s your name?” he asked smiling at her.

She stared up at him sucking her first three fingers she removed the long enough to say “Alya,” before returning them.

“Well we need to get you good and strapped in then don’t we?” he said rhetorically.

Imran watched as Jude took her inside the shuttle to be put inside a life support suit of her own. They were running out of time there was only minutes until impact. He himself hurried inside to put his own on, It was a jumpsuit more or less with an accompanying helmet once on, it left little to the Imagination as it was just about skin tight.

They strapped themselves down to their seats, Imran was in the pilot’s seat with Jude next to him, and Ayla was strapped to the seat behind Jude. Imran began the launch, “five…four…three…two…one…he started the main boosters they were pushed back into their seats as they reached escape velocity, it was intense but passed quickly as they slowed to a more comfortable speed.

“Look,” Jude said pointing to the viewing screen. There were other personnel shuttles ahead of them that had already launched. Just then the corner of the viewing screen flashed warning impact imminent the object had hit the atmosphere and pieces had begun to break off. Imran took evasive action trying to avoid the red hot house sized shards. The shuttles ahead of them never stood a chance they watched in shock as the pieces ripped apart most of them undeniably killing their crews and passengers. More of the debris broke off and came there way every second.

“Watch out!” shouted Jude as a piece careened into the side of the transport, the side was ripped open as the air in the shuttle surged out of the side Imran struggled to activate the air lock, Jude’s helmet cracked. Ayla screamed as her seat was mostly ripped off its hinges; it hung on by a thread.

“No!” shouted Jude he unbuckled his seatbelt and moved slowly toward Ayla by grabbing on to the ceiling, he reached one hand toward her and hung on with the other she grabbed him and unbuckled her seatbelt. Just as she did so it tore off and flew into space. He was now stuck with one arm holding Ayla and the other, the ship, Jude could not move. Imran unbuckled his seatbelt, just as he did so they all simultaneously saw the massive object bearing down upon them, its size dominating their entire view ahead of them, they had to move now or die.

“Oh God,” Jude sighed. He threw Ayla at Imran and the force of doing so sent him almost into space but he held on to the ragged hole in the side of the ship.

“Hold on!” Imran yelled at the top of his lungs he wanted to reach for him but he could not do so and hold on to Ayla and not fly out of the ship. Jude’s helmet finally broke open exposing him to the void he instantly released the ship, Imran turned and reached for the airlock finally pulling it shut as it began to close as a secondary hull came down to close the tear. Imran looked back out into space through the closing hole and saw his assistant and friend for the last time, his face a dark shade of plumb, eyes bulging out of his head, mouth opened wide in a silent scream, the air in his lungs quickly forced out of his body into the cold dark void, condensing his rib cage to the size of an umbrella. Imran turned away and tried his best to forget Jude’s final ghastly visage.