Unnamed story

April 10, 2018

Backstory

Home was my first ever attempt at writing a story. I was 19, and there isn’t too much to say about this piece. I wanted to write something, so I tried. I didn’t spend much time on it, and I wouldn’t say it is good. Nor is it necessarily ready for viewing: quite fitting for a failure.

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Chapter 1 - Rude Awakening

David awoke to the shrill maintenance alarm coming from his communicator. Still groggy, he checked his watch; four in the morning… must be another blown fuse, he thought. Rolling out of bed, David quickly changed into his uniform and headed for the shuttles. The gravity shuttle, made of specially tinted glass, showed the brilliant sight of a nearby star being used for a gravity fling.

Arriving after only a few seconds, David was greeted by a frenzy of engineers clustered around the fusion controller.

“David! Over here!” called Oleg, the engineering coordinator and an old friend of David. “What’s going on? This looks far worse than the blown fuse we had last gravity fling,” said David as he looked over the fusion controller readings. 

“The fusion core is destabilized,” replied Oleg, “we need your credentials to take a look at it without putting the ship into emergency mode”.

“Sounds easy enough,” David said. Being the head engineer, he was used to dealing with the complex structures involved in interstellar travel. Oleg and two other engineers followed David over to the fusion reactor chamber entrance. David scanned his palm, opening the security door leading to the fusion reactor’s magnetic stabilizers.

Walking into the small room, they were greeted by the state-of-the-art systems invented by the greatest of minds during the space era. The fusion core, no larger than a beach ball, was levitated by powerful magnets, inducing a magnetic field that channelled the energy from nuclear fusion in the direction of a plasma receiver. It was vital that the core’s emissions be directed at the center of the receiver, or else not enough energy could be extracted to power the ship. Any miscalculated movement in the magnetic stabilizers could risk a meltdown of the core; this could set the crew back up to a week to fix assuming the damage was not catastrophic. Luckily, David was well experience with these types of cores.

“Just as I thought,” said David, “passing so close to such a large star spun the stabilizers out of alignment.” Paying ever-so-careful attention to the holographic display on the window viewing the magnetic stabilizers, David slowly adjusted them such that the core of the fusion reactor was aligned perfectly with the plasma receiver. While the on-board artificial intelligence system was perfectly capable of making these adjustments itself, the Interstellar Exploration Council made very sure that no artificial systems had power to interfere with something that could potentially cause fatal damage to a ship.

“Well done!” exclaimed Oleg, “If only I shared your expertise, we wouldn’t even need a whole engineering crew,” he joked.

David, happy that the ordeal was over, began making his way back to the gravity shuttle. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m heading back to bed. I’ll see you at breakfast.”

Back in his room, David started taking off his uniform, but something caught his eye. It was the picture of him with his parents during when graduation from the School of Interstellar Engineering. Getting into bed, ready to get only a few more hours of sleep, David couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness that it may be a number of years before he gets to see his parents or his friends back on Earth again.

Chapter 2 - …

This time, David awoke to his regular morning alarm. He put on his uniform, and got ready to begin his day. Like any other day, his routine first consisted of eating breakfast with the other high-ranking engineers, then heading to the command center for a meeting with the other department leaders where he would be given his tasks for that day.

Arriving in the cafeteria a little later than he would have liked, David spotted Oleg and their friend Chris in a corner table, seemingly discussing something important. David picked up his food and made his way through the crowded cafeteria to Oleg.

“Morning, David!” said Oleg upon David’s arrival, “Listen to this; Chris here says he saw something last night while he was fixing things up after our reactor incident.”

The engineering higher-ups consisted of David, Oleg, and Chris who was responsible for the ship’s outer systems which included shields, thrusters, accelerators, and energy relays. He was a small guy, especially next to Oleg. Coming from Norway, Oleg was six foot four and pure muscle. He was often jokingly called a viking based on his appearance. Chris, conversely, was short and skinny, making it difficult to take him seriously at times especially with his higher-pitched voice. Despite this, Christ was not his calm, usual self. He looked very serious.

“David, I know you won’t believe this, but I think I saw another ship after the reactor was destabilized.” Chris stumbled over his words, clearly emotional over whatever he saw. “I was fixing an overloaded power relay when I saw what looked like an asteroid out in the distance. The problem, though, is that after I went to a surveillance station to check it out, it was gone!” At this point, Chris was speaking rather loudly. Not wanting to draw too much attention, David signaled for him to calm down.

“Then it could have been anything,” David responded, “another ship would have been picked up by our sensors.”

“That’s the thing!” blurted Chris, pounding the table, “It disappeared! That can only mean that it was stealthed, and only military craft are equipped with cloaking systems.” Pausing for a brief sip of water, he continued, “I know what I saw. We’ve been out here for nearly a year, and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like that--”

“But,” chimed in Oleg, “this was at six in the morning. You haven’t had any sleep and none of our cameras or sensors detected anything.”

“I’m with Oleg on this one,” David reasoned. “For a military craft to get out here, there would need to be a space station or colony nearby, and the Interstellar Exploration Council would not be sending us out here if there was already a colony.” David assumed that Chris was seeing things and likely needed to rest. “You know Chris, you have been awake for over twenty four hours at this point. Maybe you should take today off, and we can handle this situation another time,” he suggested.

At this point, Chris looked defeated. “All right,” he said in an exasperated tone, “I won’t deny that I need some rest, but I know what I saw.” With that, Chris got up from the table and left. David stood up as soon as Chris was out of site, exchanging a look with Oleg.

“If that really was anything to be concerned about, I’m sure someone will bring it up at today’s command center meeting which I need to head on over to.” With that, David headed for the gravity shuttles.

After the quick trip, David scanned his palm and entered the vast space that was the command center. Numerous members of the Commander’s cabinet kept watch over the massive ship, ensuring that all was functioning optimally. Large monitors and holographic displays illuminated the space in a light blue, almost making the bright overhead lights unnecessary. Sitting at the large angular table in the middle of the command center was the Commander herself, a woman who had proved herself worthy of commanding such an important mission after leading nearly one hundred reconnaissance missions to planets much closer to the Earth. By her were the chairs for each department head; David’s was the last to be filled.

“Good to see you, David,” greeted the Commander, silencing the quiet conversations being held. “Now we can start our meeting.”

The Commander proceeded to speak of the reactor’s issues stemming from the gravity fling, prompting a discussion between the head physicist and the Commander. David, exhausted from the already eventful day, couldn’t keep his focus on the discussion as he kept wondering about his talk with Chris and Oleg.

… commander or someone interrupts his thoughts...

…

Making his way to the command center, {Name} was jarred by yet another explosion. His mind racing, unable to comprehend the situation, {Name} spotted the command center doors. Racing through the hallways, illuminated red by the flashing emergency lights, he reached the doors. They were locked.

“I’m here!” yelled {Name} as he pounded on the door. He could barely hear his efforts over the blaring warning sirens. He knew the doors would not be opened for him. He made the decision….