Xenophobia - Chapter 30

    "Get out of that solar system." A'alan't 32 said with a mix of stern decisiveness and motherly concern. "Let events play out however they will. You're done there."
    "Ma'am?" Harris asked with a lit of surprise.
    "If the humans are gearing up, that's a third army that's mobilizing for battle in that same area. First the Tulgucks, then the Gorderians, and now them."
    Darrian and the other councilors quietly regarded her for a moment before she said.
    "It's not safe for you to stay there anymore."
    Harris seemed to consider this for a moment.
    "You're not wrong." He said after a thinking for a second. "But I'll have to decline."
    A'alan't 32 gave him a quizzical look.
    "Given your direction," Harris continued. "I'll offer those few individuals I have with me the opportunity to head home. But I, at the very least, will stay here until the conflict has resolved itself."
    "But why?" Cagool demanded, sounding quite confused.
    "Monstrous as the humans are in their design," he responded, "I've grown quite interested to see this played out until the end."
    "No matter the outcome." Harris finished with a glance back towards A'alan't 32.
    A'alan't gave him a small nod.
    "Thank you." she said softly.
    There were several other nods and murmured agreements from around the room.
    Harris regarded the room for a moment before saying, "I'll send you a quick report of anyone who is staying and anyone who is going. That way you know which of the survey team to expect back home."
    A'alan't 32 nodded once more before terminating the transmission. The holographic imager went dark and the room eerily quiet with it.

    Despite the fact that there was no real survey data to review and that they had no mediator, the councilors spent the majority of the cycle in the conference room.
    Some of it was spent reviewing the personnel list that Harris forwarded shortly after his transmission. However, the majority of it was spent discussing and pondering what this sudden preparation might spell for them and the impending armada.
    "Not to mention the galactic community." Darrian had offered stoically.
    The implication of what humans might infer from their first interactions with alien races being violent was not lost on any of the councilors. Given how war-like the humans tended to be, the thought of what might come from aliens being viewed as hostile was terrifying to consider. If these naturally violent creatures expected violence, they might enter the universe with the intent to do harm.
    The one thing they could all agree on, however, was that whatever happened on the next cycle would determine the future for the species. The Tulgucks would reach Mars and, three cycles later, Earth.

    "Do we know if the ships Harris mentioned will reach Mars by the next cycle?" Darrian asked.
    "Ships?" responded Ferris.
    "The ones that were en route to Mars."
    "I think so." Illiquina confirmed. "Based on the speed, they should actually reach there by early to mid cycle."
    "Just in time to meet the Tulgucks." A'alan't 32 said quietly.
    The four of them sat quietly, the implication weighing heavily on them. While the other councilors had left, they had stayed by Illiquina's request.
    "So you wanted us for something, Illiquina?" A'alan't 32 asked as she settled herself heavily at the conference table.
    "I did." she confirmed and drew out her datapad.
    It always bothered Darrian how she seemed to pull that thing from nowhere.
    "Did you find something new out?" he asked her.
    "I did actually." Illiquina repeated with a knowing smirk.
    She quickly tapped out a few commands on her datapad. To their surprise, the holographic imager powered up a moment later.
    "Oh wow." Ferris commented. "I didn't know you had access to the imager."
    "I don't..." she said, her voice drifting off.
    The imager hummed for a moment, glew, and, to the group's surprise, generated the image of a diminutive Gorderian.
    "Jin'thun!" they exclaimed with surprise.
    "I'm glad you're still in conference." he said growled out. "I was worried tha-"
    Jin'thun took a moment to regard the empty room.
    "It's just you?"
    A'alan't 32 nodded.
    "Correct. It's a long story."
    "You can tell me later." he said quickly. "Get the judge."
    "About that-" Ferris began.
    The group proceeded to fill Jin'thun in on the details that he'd missed: the Judge, the malfunction, the disappearance, and how they seemingly weren't being provided a mediator by the Merrenian government. They got the impression that Jin'thun was in a rush and tried to make the details short and to the point.
    "So who's mediating the meetings?" he demanded.
    "Officially...no one." Darrian offered. "However A'alan't 32 has stepped up to help try and lead us."
    "Good enough."
    "So what's the issue?" Ferris asked
    "We've arrived." he growled. "We're in orbit over Mars and waiting for the Tulgucks to arrive."

===

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===  

(Hello Lovelies. So, I just wanted to apologize for the delay and let you know that it is related to our previous discussion. At the moment, I'm still undecided as to how we will proceed. However, no matter our direction, I need to return to regular updates. I deeply appreciate all the recommendations and will be considering many of them. Thank you. That said, I hope you enjoy!)

Xenophobia - Chapter 28

    The next cycle past without word from Illiquina or the Merrenian council.
    The cycle after that passed with equal silence.
    Darrian felt his nerves beginning to fray at the thought that time would simply pass endless while he wasted away in his office. Illiquina would accomplish nothing and the humans would die in a blaze of hellfire without any help from the outside.
    It was on the dawn of the third cycle, roughly one cycle from the supposed arrival of the Tulgucks at Mars, that he finally received a summons.
    And he was surprised to find that it was from A'alan't 32.
    "Report to the council chambers." was all the message said.
  
    Arriving at the conference room, Darrian approached A'alan't 32 and Illiquina stand at the far end of the table. However they quickly waved him away.
    "Not now." A'alan't 32 quickly said. "After."
    He looked around to realize that it wasn't just them. The other council members were slowly filtering into the room. Not only Ferris, but also Cagool, Cherryl, and Ugul.
    "What's this about?" Cagool demanded.
    "Oh, don't complain, Cagool." Ferris snipped at him as he settled at the table.
    "I'll complain if I want to." Cagool started in defense. "We don't even know where the old judge is or if he'll be joining us."
    Darrian had been wondering the same thing.
    So far, they'd requested the Merrenian council to provide a second middle-man for their council, but their requests had since been ignored. He'd considered it might be that someone behind the scenes might think it useless to assign a middle-man of the entire species would be dead in a matter of cycles, but Darrian tried to ignore that paling thought.
    Instead, he took his spot and looked expectantly at A'alan't 32.
    "At this point, it doesn't matter if the old judge is here." A'alan't 32 said to Cagool. "We have work to do."
    "Does it really matter? They're going to be dead in a couple of cycles. Then we find a new council."
    "Don't talk like that." said Ugul with a hint of sadness to his voice.
    "It matters." A'alan't 32 declared firmly.
    "Why?" Cagool asked again.
    "Because Harris and his team are still doing their jobs." she responded coolly. "The least we can do is return the favor."
    Darrian nodded and there were murmurs of agreement. Harris and his team were still out in a hostile, unforgiving solar system where they had to steer clear of toxic oxygen gasses, mutant plant monsters, and an incoming armada. The least they could do was review the information and send back responses.
    Or tell them to come home.
    "Just bring them back." Cagool snapped sharply, as if reading Darrian's thoughts.
    "No." Darrian said firmly. "If the old judge was right about anything, it's that we need to gather as much info as we can."
    "About those Guillae things?" Ugul asked.
    "About anything."
    There were a few sidelong glances, but it was clear that they were simply tired of the bickering and arguments.
    "Fine." Cagool said with resignation. "Anything's better than just sitting in my damn office all day."
    A'alan't 32 gave an approving nod and a smile and went about working the datapad. While she was not nearly as quick as the old judge with it and she needed to ask Illiquina for help a couple of times, she soon had the holographic imager running hot. A moment later, they were flipping through the messages from Harris.
    Many of them were so drull that Darrian regretted agreeing with A'alant 32.
    For all of the terrifying images that they had seen from Mars of Human-Guillae hybrids and the implications there-in, the data being sent in was almost non-existent. No video, no audio, and almost exclusively sampling and satellite imagery. Miles worth of long-range scans and data but nothing substantial. It was only after the hundredth orbital survey that someone finally said it.
    "They're not on the planet anymore."
    "You're right." agreed A'alan't 32.
    "But why?"
    Tense glances were exchanged, followed by a few unhelpful suggestions as to why the survey team might have retreated to orbit, but it was quickly agreed upon.
    "We have to contact them. Figure out what's going on."
    It took another few minutes of fiddling with the datapad before they got anywhere. Illiquina was talented and A'alan't 32 had watched the old judge, but neither of them really knew half of what he did up there at the front of the table. It wasn't until someone had the bright idea to reverse trasmit an old message that they got anywhere.
    A moment later, they were greeted with the steel-faced grimace of Harris.
    "Well isn't this a surprise." he commented. "Where's the old judge?"
    "We don't actually know." responded Ferris.
    The councilors took time relaying the incidents that occurred several cycles back; of the odd behavior and the sudden disappearance. Harris listened intently, but Darrian couldn't help but notice a twisting look of concern.
    "So that's it then? He just went crazy and ran off? No one's seen him since?" he asked in summation.
    There were a few murmured agreements.
    "Well damn." he groaned. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to proceed from here then. I'll have to try to reach out to the Merrenian council directly."
    "Good luck with that." mumbled Ferris.
    "Don't bother." Cagool said. "Just come home. No point in being out there."
    "I can't." Harris responded.
    A'alan't 32 gave him a sidelong glance.
    "Why not?"
    "It's the humans." he said, returning her gaze.
    "What? There are still survivors after that catastrophe on Mars?"
    "No. Mars is a wasteland...if you can call it that. Technically, there's already vegetation regrowing around the bases but the humans themselves have all been...converted."
    "Then why stay?" asked Darrian.
    "You might have noticed that we've returned to orbit?" Harris responded.
    "I was wondering about that." commented Ferris.
    "It's so we can keep a better eye on Earth and Mars." he said thoughtfully.
    "Why?" asked Illiquina bluntly.
    "Because I only have so many people." he responded in exasperation. "I can't send recon teams to both locations. I have to use long range imaging."
    "I think what Illiquina means," offered Darrian, "is why are you so focused on watching both."
    Harris remained quiet for a second before responding.
    "It's the humans. I think they've noticed the incoming Tulgucks. The humans on Earth are mobilizing some sort of counter offensive unit. They're preparing for the attack."

 ===

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Xenophobia - Chapter 26

    "What was that today?" Ferris demanded, glancing at Illiquina.
    They were once again in the darkened meeting room, joined by A'alant 32 and Darrian, standing in a small semi-circle. While there was a touch more planning than the last time around, they had still elected to keep the lights off and the door locked.
    Don't want someone thinking we're up to something. Illiquina had said.
    What? Like we're not at this point? Ferris had retorted.
    That hadn't gone over well given Ferris's annoyance and Illiquina's barely contained rage.
    Not five minutes later, it looked like they were about to start fighting again.
    "What do you mean by that?" Illiquina snapped back. "That damned 'bot is a lying piece of-"
    "No, no, no." Ferris quickly backtracked. "I'm not talking about your eloquent tantrum earlier today."
    "TANTRUM?!" Illiquina's entire upper body flushed.
    Despite her diminutive stature, Illiquina looked like she very well may try to tear Ferris clean out of his robotic exosuit.
    "Enough." A'alan't 32 stated firmly. "I've had enough of your fighting recently."
    "She started it." Ferris grumbled.
    A'alan't 32 pointed a single, transparent blue digit at him.
    "Are we done?" she asked flatly.
    "Yes." they both answered in conjunction.
    "But I don't understand." Illiquina interjected quickly. "What happened after I left?"
    The group took a few moments to explain everything to Illiquina. They went over the sudden change in tone. The strange observations that the judge somehow thought something different would happen and that it seemed like he somehow felt responsible for the deaths of the humans. They ended by recounting his sudden 'Insufficient Data' comment and how he near about fled the conference room.
    "He's a dirty liar." Illiquina griped. "Covering his tracks."
    "I'm not so sure." Darrian said hesitantly.
    "He's a robot." Ferris observed. "Sure, an old robot designed with the capability to learn...but still just a robot. He's got a base programming. He shouldn't be capable of doing something as implicit as outright misdirection."
    "Well, clearly he is." she snapped.
    A'alan't 32, who had taken and settled in a nearby chair during the earlier discussion, seemed to glance back over the table. Much like the old judge did earlier, it was as if she was rewatching the hologram of the altered human.
    "That doesn't make sense." A'alan't 32 said quietly.
    "Than what do you think it is?" Illiquina demanded.
    A'alan't 32 glanced over to the small Caldrax and considered her for a moment before glancing back.
    "I don't know."
    They stood in silence for a moment. In the low light, they all looked distracted. Concerned. Even Illiquina whose voice burned with rage still looked more upset than she did angry.
    Something didn't add up.
    "What's the old judge's programming?" Darrian asked, thinking out loud.
    "Come again?" Illiquina responded.
    "You said that he shouldn't really be able to do something like lie. It wouldn't be within the realm of his programming." he responded, motioning towards Ferris. "But what if it was. So again..."
    "What's his programming?" Ferris echoed Darrian.
    "Who knows?!" growled Illiquina. "All of that information was deleted! Did you forget the last time we were here? All we know is whatever is in that damned file!"
    "He's a diplomat." she started to count off. "He's a robot. He's part of a larger team of-"
    Illiquina suddenly went blank.
    "-of other robots...with the same purpose..."
    Darrian looked at her sideways.
    "Yea? We know that."
    "No." she said, her entire mood flipping in an instant. "No. no. no. no."
    Illiquina fished out her datapad out of seemingly nowhere and began tapping away on it furiously. Darrian couldn't help but wonder where she'd stowed it because he couldn't remember her coming in with it.
    "What is it?" Ferris asked, clearly confused.
    There was no response. Simply incessant tapping.
    "Illiquina?" A'alan't 32 asked.
    No answer.
    They stood there staring at the little Cadrax in silence as she pounded away on the datapad. Seconds drew to moments in utter quiet, filled only by 'taptaptaptap'.
    Just as Darrian was about to ask again, Illiquina let out a cheer.
    "YES!" she shouted far too loud. "Yes! Yes! Yes!!!"
    "What?" Ferris asked, clearly annoyed by the antics.
    "I have a way to figure out what the old judge was programmed for!"
    "What?" Darrian said, taken aback. "How? The archives were altered."
    "His brothers." she said with a growing smile. "We still have information on the other robots that he was a part of! We can figure out his real purpose!"

===

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200: A Space Odyssey

    A cold wind whispered through old oaks and tall birch trees, playing across their leaves in the darkness of the night. They rustled softly, producing a calming music that drifted across the hillside where Ferdinand laid.
    However, he didn't much care about the song of the trees. His eyes were fixed elsewhere.
    High above him, the stars glittered and glistened. In the black expanse, the ceiling of the world seemed so close, and yet so far away. It seemed that if he could only get high enough he might be able to touch it, yet his efforts had always been in vain.
    Heaven's Gate. He thought to himself.
    His friends and family who had taken notice of Ferdinand's love of the stars above had questioned him several times as to what drew his attention. The answer was always the same. During the day, the sun threatened to burn him, but at night it seemed to be Heaven's Gate. Holes punched through darkness that shone through with divine light. A promise of what was behind the black canvas of the night sky.
    Many of them had told him to forget it. To focus on his farm and on his work, but he never could really listen to them. No matter how hard he tried, the beauty of those glittering dots above always drew him back til he found himself lying in a field or sitting in a tree looking up at them.
    If only there were some way to get up there. he wondered.
    He had tried climbing every tree he could, but to no luck. He had climbed atop the village buildings and jumped up to try and reach it. Once he even built the tallest ladder he might and propped it up. He fell and broke several bones, but his will was not shattered.
    Instead, he found himself once again under the stars, staring up at them. He had tried so many times yet failed.  
    What am I doing wrong? he groaned angrily.
    Reaching down to a loose rock nearby, he grabbed it and threw it as hard as he could into the sky. He watched it soar up and moments later, disappear. For a moment, this didn't occur as strange to Ferdinand. Clearly he had just lost sight of the rock...or did he?
    Picking up another, he threw another rock hard into the sky, only for it to disappear up into the the starry darkness. He tried another and yet another, each time sending them hurdling up into the sky and each time losing track of them in the black.
    I've got it. He thought to himself.

    The next day found Ferdinand waking bright and early. While his thoughts should have been on his crops and his cows, he could not escape what he had seen the night before.
    What if the answer is not to climb, but to soar? he mulled over while he sat upon his straw bed. To soar like a bird to the stars and the heavens above?
    Ferdinand was not a learned man and had no use for writing instruments or any real instruments of measure, yet he felt he needed them. He would need a machine of some kind. A creation that, much like his hand might throw the rock, he might be thrown to the heavens and to God's doorstep itself.  Ferdinand made his way off into the countryside, forgetting his farm duties completely.
    That afternoon, he arrived at the monastery several miles away. He was well received and soon was speaking to one of the monks there with regards to his idea.
    "A machine. Nay, a fist to hurl men towards the sky." Ferdinand said with a smile he could not contain!
    "It is not the place of men to expedite their trips to Heaven." the monk told him. "To do so is to damn yourself to Hell."
    Ferdinand left the monastery crestfallen, but not defeated.
    He arrived in the little village where he lived a short while later. It was there that he found his brother. He explained his thoughts to him as well.
    "You're a fool." said his brother. "You will soar to heaven! When you smash upon the rocks!"
    With a sigh, he left the village and returned home once again. His crops were ignored. His cows were forgotten. Without so much as a look at his farm, Ferdinand went to sleep.
    The next day, to his surprise, a strange man came to his house. He was notable smaller in stature and shorter in height. He wore strange robes in a style Ferdinand had never seen and spoke with a strange accent that he had never heard.
    "I look for place to sell toys." said the man in the thick accent and the strange robes. "You know where sell toys?"
    Ferdinand was about to suggest the village when he saw the cart that the man traveled with. It was decorated with all kinds of wooden imaginations. Automatons that bent and tops that spun and every other toy of wood and stone that Ferdinand had ever seen or heard of.
    "I know of a place nearby," said Ferdinand. "But before I give you directions, let me ask you a question."
    And so he shared his idea. A great and powerful machine to hurl men to the stars to greet God at his feet and see the heavens not as pinpricks in the darkness but in divine light and holy favor. The man listened, clearly confused often but attentive nonetheless. It was only when Ferdinand finished that he responds.
    "Yes. I have thing like that. Small. Need big though."
    And in exchange for directions to the village, the strange man with his strange robes and his strange accent gave him a small wooden toy. It had a bucket on one end and rock on the other that was supported by a beam in the center. When he touched a small lever on the side, the rock dropped and whatever was in the bucket was flung away.
    This is what I need. He thought to himself.

    The next months dropped away with Ferdinand almost completely engulfed in his project. His crops failed. His cows died. It didn't matter though. What little food he had left was enough. Once he visited the stars, it would be all worth it.
    With the unwitted help of other members of the village, he slowly gathered the pieces he needed to construct a much larger version of the toy the man had given him. The towering behemoth stood nearly three times as high from head to toe and the bucket that it had could easily toss any of the dead cows that were quickly piling up.
    There was only one thing left.
    On that final day, the day before he traveled to the stars, Ferdinand said goodbye to his family. He said goodbye to his wife and his kids, who begged him to stay and farm. He said goodbye to his mother and his father. He said goodbye to the monk at the monastery, his brother in the village, and anyone else who would listen. Whenever they asked why, his response was always the same.
    "I'm going to the stars." he said.
    His heart caught in his throat as the sun sunk below the horizon. His elation only intensified the darker it became. In the failing light, he quickly checked his machine once again to make sure everything was right. Everything had to be right. With the growing pitch of darkness, Ferdinand climbed into the bucket.
    Holding a long rope that he'd tied to the lever, he stared up at the stars once more as he had that fateful night before.
    Here I come. he thought with a smile.
    There was a yank and a jerk from below and, within the space between heartbeats, Ferdinand was flying. Flying towards the sky. Flying towards the stars. He extended his arms, ready to grab hold of the sky and pull himself up into Heaven.
    Several hundred feet away, his remains were unceremoniously splattered across a little hill under the stars near some old oak and tall birch trees.


(I hope you all enjoyed. This was a dark little diddy inspired by a silly Facebook post. Originally it was just a one sentence joke, but I had to run away with it. Huge build-up to one punchline, but what can I say? :P )

Untitled / Sci-Fi - Chapter 2 - 05.08.16

 

http://i44.tinypic.com/21pvlx.jpg

    Aryana woke several hours later. With the exception of the occasional beep and a few flashing lights from the control panels around the bridge, it was completely quiet. Just outside the viewfinder, the frozen darkness of space continued to drift by. Indifferent. Endless.

    She reached down and grabbed the datapad to check the calculations and, to her surprise, found that it was dead. She tapped it a few times but it was completely non-responsive.

    Battery’s probably dead. she thought.

    Getting up from under the warmth of her blanket, she crossed the cold floor to the datapad’s docking station and plugged it in. It gave a reassuring beep and the screen flashed to confirm it was charging. It would be at least a few minutes before it let her activate it again.

    Leaning down at the closest console, she flipped on the screen to check the course layouts.

    While she waited for the readouts to come up, she couldn’t help but chuckle at the toys strewn across the top of the console. It was covered with a number of small action figures wearing spandex. Brown, her navigator, was a huge fan of the 20^th and 21^st centuries and apparently these toys were “wrestlers” from some entertainment program back then. She had always been a fan of “The Rock”, as Brown called him.

    The computer blinked and started scrolling numbers across the screen. Thousands of lines of calculations, hundreds of variables and numbers were accounted for, all flashed by in an instant. She could have manually checked them, but right now she was more interested in the overall.

    Course stable. Flashed in green at the bottom of the screen.

    “Good enough for me.”

    She flipped off the screen and made her way back to the rec room to make herself some dinner. While she waited for it to cook, she came to the conclusion that she’d have to wake her crew. It would be jarring to be woken from hypersleep for such a short period, but it would be a lot harder to explain when she woke them up just to make them refuel the ship.

    The next while was spent choking down the poor excuse for a meal that she had tossed together. It was bland, tasteless, and made from what she could scrape together without rehydrating any food stores, but it filled her belly and that was good enough for the time being. She could have a real meal later.

    Afterwards, back in the cryo-chamber, she went about thawing her crew. She started with Duncan. Duncan Kilborne had been her second mate for four separate ore-runs into the Capulet sector and a good guy. Next was her navigator, Hammond Brown, who always preferred his last name to his first. This was followed by Rebecca Lee, the Quartermaster, Richard Sanchez, Pilot, Danisha Folami, the ship’s Mechanic, Yoko Xi, Danisha’s Assistant, Howard Moore, the ship’s Doctor, and Franklin Toss, the Cargo Master.

    The tubes opened one by one. Cryogenic gas poured out across the floors and the cool mist filled the room. Arayana couldn’t help but shiver, immediately regretting having left her blanket on the bridge. It was already cold. Adding the contents of eight freezers to the room didn’t make it any better.

    For a few minutes, nothing moved except the pluming white and blue gases. Then, groans. The sound of sporadic movement. Finally, Dick was the first to speak up.

    “Are we there yet?” he muttered incoherently.

    No one answered.

    Slowly, painfully, the crew went about climbing out of their tubes and making a beeline for the nearby showers. Men and women alike stripped off their cryosuits with no regard to the others around them and basked under the hot water. The water on the ship was rarely used and had been recycled more times than they could count but none of them cared. The hot water helped to blast away the delirium and slimy feeling that cryo sleep left them with.

    Aryana waited calmly for each of her crew. None of them took too long, but she wouldn’t rush them even if they did. Waking from cryo was a horrible feeling and she had just done the same not too long ago. She couldn’t fault them for the toll the process took on their bodies.

    It was only when the showers had stopped and the crew was pulling on fresh clothes that anyone spoke again.

    “They ain’t paying us enough for this shit.” Frank grumbled as he pulled on his pants.

    “Not enough to wake up to your face, Frank.” Dani shot back without even looking over.

    “Good morning to you too, shitface.”

    The two chuckled and soon the eight of them were making subdued small talk amongst themselves. Lots of insults and more than a bit of colorful language, but none of it angry. The only one who didn’t join in was Aryana, and Howard was the first to notice.

    “I can’t help but think we didn’t get to enjoy the sight of our Captain’s fine ass in the shower today.” He said as he finished pulling his shirt over his head. “What do you think Becca?”

    “You’re right,” the spunky little Quartermaster agreed. “I was wondering why I felt so tired. I just realized I didn’t have my coffee this morning.”

    As if to empathize her point, Becca looked over at Aryana and playfully licked her lips.

    “Now, do you suppose it’s because she just doesn’t like us anymore?” Howard asked, pouting his bottom lip.

    “I think it’s because I had to wake up early this morning while you assholes slept in.” Aryana snapped back with a grin.

    “Such are the privileges of that fat little bonus on her paycheck.” Dani said with a laugh as she tried to dry chocolate mop of hair.

    “Wait a second, you guys get paid?!” Brown said with playful panic.

    “Like I said, not paid enough for this shit.” Frank muttered again.

    Dani reached over and smacked him in the back of the head with a laugh.

    “Alright, alright.” Duncan said calmly. “Clearly something’s up. What’s going on, cap’n?”

    The crew fell silent and, for a minute, Aryana hated Duncan. He always had the crew’s attention in an instant and now all of them were silently staring at her. She’d much rather just listen to everyone bullshit amongst themselves than give them the bad news.

    She let out a long sigh.

    “As you know, sometimes we receive orders that dictate when we need to make alterations to our course. And, despite being your captain, I have no say in those alterations…” she said. She couldn’t help but to feel defensive. “Well, it would seem that we had to make a change.”

    “What kind of change?” Yoko asked, her brow furrowing.

    “As it turns out, the course that we were previously heading on would have taken us through active pirate space. The company felt it in our best interest to redirect us around that quadrant.”

    They all remained quiet, staring. They knew more was coming.

    “They...” she scratched the back of her head and sighed again. “They’re sending us up towards Waystation Kappa-34.”

    “Kappa-34?!” Frank said. The huge man stood up to his full height in anger, dwarfing those around him.

    “That’s going to add months onto the trip!” Becca said, gritting her teeth.

    “Yea.” Aryana agreed. “Six months out, we get to stop and refuel. Followed by another six making our way around.”

    “A whole year?” Duncan asked quietly.

    Her heart felt heavy as she looked at Duncan’s calm, but darkened expression. She couldn’t say anything to him. She just nodded.

    The crew stared at each other silently for a few minutes. None of them wanted to say what they were all thinking. The year of their family’s life that they were going to miss out on. The extra year in the freezers to play havoc on their bodies. The extra year where anything and everything could go wrong in the reaches of space.

    “I know this sucks, guys.” Aryana said finally. “But it’s either that or get buttfucked by pirates in your sleep.”

    “I, for one, was hoping to meet a nice upstanding gentleman.” Brown said snidely. “However will I meet him if not through barreling blindly through pirate territory?”

    Dani proceeded to smack Brown this time. Frank chuckled. Dani smacked him too.

    “I figured you guys would rather know this way than when we got to the Waystation to refuel. So, if you want to go back to the freeze right away, you’re more than welcome to. If you want a few hours to stretch your legs, I get that too. One way or another, I want everyone back on ice within a day.”

    “Let’s get this shit done sooner rather than later.” She said sternly.

    They all nodded in agreement.

Untitled / SciFi Chap 1 - 05.03.16

    Beep.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    Aryana glanced over at the flashing indicator light which accompanied the endless beeping on her datapad. It had been blinking incessantly since the moment the computer had woken her from Cryo. She had ignored it for the last hour while she showered and got a cup of coffee, but now it was staring her in the face. In some way, she hoped that if she kept ignoring it, it would just go away. She just wanted to enjoy her coffee in peace.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    Looking back out the viewfinder, her gaze wandered aimlessly amongst the black, freezing abyss just beyond. Her parents were never a fan of space travel. Hell, her dad always said that the only way to ever get him off Terra was to forcefully strap his ass to a rocket. She hadn’t been nearly as sentimental about that floating rock as he was.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    In a way, it was the quiet.

    Beep.

    The stillness of space.

    Beep.

    The way that no one could both-

    Beep.

    “OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE.”

    Aryana reached over and slapped the screen of the datapad. The blinking and beeping stopped immediately. Instead, the monotone sound of her shipping coordinator, Jonathon Hinkey filled the cabin.

    zzzT! “This is a priority two message. To all ships traveling within the Capulet sector, most notably through F1, G1, and G2. We have had multiple reports of pirate activity taking place within a ten light year radius. Several ships have been attacked and pillaged, with a number of reported injuries and casualties along with billions worth of stolen cargo. Please review the following attached trajectory adjustments and input them as promptly as possible. Affected ships include as follows: the Apollo, the Magellan, the Deathclaw, the Falcon, the Merced, and the Charon. Please respond to acknowledge course revision. Respond code Gamma-Epsilon.” Zzzt!

    The Charon…

    With an aggravated sigh, she reached over and grabbed the datapad, stopping it before the message could play again. Swiping it aside, she pulled open the new course adjustments that were attached and let out an audible groan of disgust.

    “Are you kidding me?” she said loudly, her voice echoing metallically through the empty halls.

    The new route wasn’t only cautious, it was downright lunacy. Not only would it take her a good hundred lightyears around both the F and G quadrants, but the course adjustments would actually force her to stop at the Waystation orbiting Walton’s World in order to refuel and keep going.

    “This shit’s going to add at least another year to our timetable!”

    She tossed the datapad to the side with another groan and went back to her coffee, trying to ignore her responsibilities for the time being. She’d have to make the adjustments soon so that Jonathon didn’t keep bothering her, but he could wait for now.

    God…the crew’s gonna be pissed.

    Coffee in hand, she made her way back to the cryosleep chamber. Her tube still hung open, dripping with condensation from her recent slumber. The others however, remained firmly sealed. The eight members of her crew continued to sleep peacefully.

    “Lucky bastards.”

    She considered whether she should wake them or not. While she knew that none of them would complain, except for maybe Rat, she also knew how jarring it was to be woken from cryosleep just to be given a message and put back in the tubes an hour later. Cryosleep was bad enough on the system.

    Still, she could only imagine what it would be like to be woken up only to find that you have to run a refueling process a couple million light years from home instead of actually being home.

    She slowly went from tube to tube, looking from face to face.

    She’d have to think on it.

    Slipping away from the sleeping forms of her crew, she made her way back down the cold halls of the ship. With the majority of the crew in sleep, the ship kept life support at a minimum and she could definitely feel it. She stopped by her quarters and grabbed her favorite blanket from stowage.

    Back on the bridge, she downed the last of her cofee, grabbed the datapad, and wrapped up. She had always loved this blanket. It was heavy and warm and faded red with time. Her father had given it to her. He called it a “Shock Blanket”. While she wasn’t sure where the name came from, possibly Old Britain if she remembered correctly, it had stayed on her parents’ bed for as long as she could remember and was only given to her after her mother passed.

    At that time, she was young and impetuous and didn’t care much for the “hand-me-down gift” as she called it then. Now, it was easily her most prized possession.

    Aryana turned the datapad back on and got to work. It was already linked to the ship’s computer. She quickly began inputting the new calculations and adjustments to the ship’s trajectory. Each one would have to be checked and double checked by the computer. Even if the big-wigs back home knew what they were doing, space travel was dangerous and any little adjustment, if wrong, could send them barreling through a sun or into a planet while they were sleeping. She wasn’t worried though.

    The computer would make the final call.

    After just a few minutes, she finished and the computer reported that it was calculating their route. Aryana sent a quick confirmation message back to Jonathon confirming the adjustment and set the datapad down next to her. She knew that once it was done, the ship would correct its course automatically. There wasn’t much she needed to do.

    She pulled the blanket closer to her throat, trying to keep out the cold of the empty ship.

    Once again, her gaze drifted back out of the viewfinder of the little cramped bridge. Out to the stars and the oceans of darkness. To the planets and moons and asteroids. To all of the unknown that space travel promised. And, most importantly, back home.

    She hadn’t seen her father in well over five years. While it barely felt like three months for her because of cryosleep, the dilemma of space travel was that those you left behind continued to age while you stayed frozen in a pod.

    Aryana had heard the horror stories of men and women coming back to find children fully grown. To find parents dead of old age and lovers long forgotten to the passing of the clock. Towns and cities changed, love ones gone forever, and the world passing them by while they drifted frozen through space. Such was the risk of traveling for so long.

    She pulled the blanket even tighter to her chest of thought of her father back on Terra, trying to thrust the thought of coming home to a tombstone. Her mother was long gone and while he was a stubborn son of a bitch, there was no doubt he was mortal. She fell asleep staring out into the void and worrying what she might be missing by being out here for another year.

    Little did she know, a message flashed across her datapad:

    “Calculations incomplete. Retaining original course.”

(Another bit I'm working on, hopefully with more chapters soon to come. Keep an eye out.)