One
“You know the drill, Violet. Unless a person dies from something sharp and pointy or y’know, a bullet, to the brain, then we’ve gotta’ do the honours post-mortem. I know it’s gruesome as shit but this is the way it’s been for what, seven hundred years or so?”
“Doesn’t make it any easier, Dad,” Violet replied, swallowing back a mouthful of vomit and not for the first time. “Man, I’m really gonna’ throw up soon.”
“All you gotta’ do is point and shoot. One shot, it’s simple. After that you can go throw up all you like.”
And Violet did just that. No sooner had the single gunshot sounded did she run from the morgue with her hand clamped over her mouth though despite her best efforts, she could not prevent a little bile from seeping between her fingers.
***
It was later that same day during the communal evening meal that the Leaders prepared to address the dining hall, filled to the bulkheads as it was with some two and a half thousand souls.
There was quite the din as was usually the case at feeding time. The evening meal was the only occasion when the vessel’s entire crew gathered daily, after all, and the vast majority of people took that opportunity to talk about their day with their friends and fellow crewmates.
Today was different though and there was only one topic of conversation, which is exactly what the Leaders were about to address.
“Ladies! Gentlemen!”
Anders’ voice boomed from the far end of the mess hall. The acoustics of the large room were such that given enough volume his words could be heard throughout.
His authoritative tone slowly but surely quieted the mess hall, though it did take the better part of a full minute to do so.
Violet sat quite literally on the edge of her seat. Just as everyone else on board, she knew exactly what Anders and to a lesser extent, Yasmine and Kristine were going to say, but that did not dull the excitement of the moment a single iota.
“As you are all well aware, a little over three hours ago our ships entered the Alpha Centauri star system and in seven hours, we will begin our descent through the atmosphere of the planet designated Proxima Centauri b.
“We will hold station a half-mile above the surface of the planet for a further year - that’s an Earth year, of course - to allow the terraforming programme to run its course and thus, make the planet more suitable to our needs.
“And then, all being well we can begin our lives anew. I know many of you have never set foot on land and for those of you who have, like myself, it’s been far too long. Forty years is too long, by anyone’s definition so eat, drink and be merry, my friends. Our long journey through the never-ending night is all but over!”
“My question to you, Anders, is how do we even know the terra-forming equipment we have is even going to work?” Kristine, the eldest of the three leaders, a woman approaching seventy years of age, asked. “I was there with you when we pulled it out of the remains of Bremerhaven. Hell, I was there with you when we got everything we have from those remains.”
“We pulled the plans and schematics for our ships from Bremerhaven did we not, Kristine?” Anders said in reply. “All nine of them and all twenty-nine thousand souls aboard them… Had it not been for the work of the scientists there, hundreds of years ago, then what we are doing now would not even have been a possibility. Instead we would still be fighting and scrapping, scraping a living on an Earth infested with zombies who will not die.”
“Anders is right, Kristine,” said Yasmine, quietly. She was the youngest of the three and the only one amongst them to have lived her entire life in space having been born, quite literally, in Neptune’s shadow. “And it doesn’t matter… Soon we will know if the equipment works or if it does not. If it is the latter we will carry on, and find a world that is suitable to our needs.”
“It’s not as though we’re going to run short of food or water, what with the waste recycling systems all nine of our vessels have though I’ll admit,” Anders paused as he shuddered involuntarily, “it’s definitely best not to think about where our food and water come from.”
The three leaders’ conversation was interrupted by the voice of the Chief Engineer over the tannoy, declaring that they were simply waiting for the final of the nine vessels to announce they were in the correct place, and that once that announcement had been made the countdown to dropping the terraforming equipment would begin.
Even in their executive lounge, an area they could freely discuss the goings on of the ship without fear of being overheard, the cheer from all over the vessel sounded incredible. So joyous and loud, so deafening and heartfelt, that it shook the vessel to its very core.
That shaking continued though, for much longer than it probably should have and soon those joyous and heartfelt cheers of delight turned to shrieks, yells and shouts of both anger and fear.
Anders was first to his feet although Kristine and Yasmine were hot on his heels, heading straight toward the engine room. There was no command station, as such, as the vessel was not designed to have one. Instead there was the engine room where the ship’s systems and computer terminals were readily accessible.
“What’re we looking at, Scottie?”
Anders knew of the cultural connotations behind Scottie’s name but that genuinely was his name. A few years prior to leaving Earth, he and his group had watched every television programme, documentary or movie they could find, that referenced space travel and obviously there had been several well-known and much-celebrated franchises in that mix.
“What the fuck does it look like, Anders?” Scottie retorted, doing his very best to remove an access panel. “Something’s gone seriously fucking wrong… Everything was fine ’til we went drop the T-Form and then…”
“It was a solar flare,” said Yasmine, her voice raised loud and high over the din as she pored over a computer screen and hammered away at the keyboard. “The star is massively unstable and this deep in the atmosphere, without the Earth-like atmosphere we need to survive that’ll protect the planet from the star we’re probably going to get hit like that again, over and over… Even if the terraforming does take, it might be too late for us!”
