The First One's The Hardest

Posted by RA Legg Writes November 16, 2019

The First One's The Hardest

Obsidian Arrows

Time of our Lord Creatos 1540, Sunday the 3rd of February (Feb-ú-ar-ee)

The First One's the Hardest

We’ve been here two alunars and our luck… Strike that. We’ve been through hell and it’s far from over. Sweets managed to get us pass the two or three colliding asteroids or maybe small planets but that was nothing compared to what we fell into. This system was young, maybe a few million years and it was in such a state of chaos that it had what looked like a coalescing gas giant, but nothing definitive. A few actual planets. But most of the matter where small rocks, a few asteroids and lots and lots of gas. The star was on the small size and still blue. So we just fell into a waste of time. It would take another billion years for this place to amount to anything.

Clarish thought we may find some release from all the scatter debris if we tried to get off the solar plane. But the solar plane had not been developed yet. There were object orbiting this star in almost a hundred thousand different angles. It would be impossible to find a gravity neutral location and we are down to two probes and the only reason we have those is because we haven’t launched them.

Scout one was so beat up that we started using its parts to repair the Hōkūle‘a. We stripped its hull and everything that could be used. We then placed it in front of our ship and routed power through its mains so we could use its shield generator. It would give us just a little more protection than we have now. We managed to repair 90% or our hull breaches and we have the only fusion reactor up to one hundred percent. So life is bearable. Doing repairs in zero gees was no fun.

Cline and Sweets took Scout two, what would be down, according to our orientation and we were able to get some telemetry on the system. It was a doomsday report as we learned what was available and what was not. How this system managed to grab us and bring us out of the between we don’t know. The sun simply did not have the mass and yet here we are.

Scout two was six hundred thousand kilometers below us when we finally locked onto the gravity well that had pulled up from the between. There was a small singularity just a hundred light years “behind” us. It was the anomaly that pulled up out. But it was not very big and so we fell into this system. If we had the mass of the other ships, this may not have happened, again our size is working against us.

Our mission was lost. We needed to figure out an exit strategy. This system just didn’t offer anything that we would want or need. So now, it was just a matter of finding a place where we could deploy our gate. Some place that would be safe enough for the gate to sit while it search the galaxy for its brethren and connected us back to the world we came from. Through most of this we could keep watch, but eventually we would need to pull away so we could gain the necessary speed to “jump” back home.

By the end of Cellebros we realized that that this system did not have a helo pause. It would be hundreds of millions of years before that developed. So, the area just past the last of the debris of the system looked like the only place we could set up our gate. It would not be completely neutral, but it would be very close. And at this point in our adventure, that was as good as it was going to get. So that is what we set our hearts to. Get out of the system.

On February 2nd we lost Sweets. He was on a spacewalk to repair the last of the breaches in the hull. Our shields were up and every sensor we had was focused on all approaches. Sweets had removed the panel from Scout one and was headed back to the Hōkūle‘a when he literally exploded. No klaxons, no warning. And due to the energy transferred to him and his suite, we couldn’t even retrieve his body. By the time we could get scout two ramped up to go after him, his parts were scattered over thousands of square kilometers. The captain called off the recovery. She felt that the process would be detrimental to the mental health of the rest of us. She ordered us to stand down. Cline did not take this well, but once he was shown the field in which sweets was scattered in. He relented and went to his room. The next few days were difficult. Clarish and I decided to have a memorial ceremony for Sweets so that we could move on. It just seemed to bring the mood on the ship down, not up. Everyone realized what they had lost. Their pilot, the prankster and the only one that had a generally upbeat attitude. Almost every moment that brought them laughter was due to this one man. Now, even the ship, seemed sad.

Once that was done Tarinnish decided to finish the work started by Sweets. He was down in the demarcation room getting his suit on. Clarish was there helping him get into his suite. Helping him with the safety equipment and then the connecting himself to the MMU. She then turned off the gav. plate and helped him to the airlock. She didn’t say anything. She just help her husband in silence. Once out the airlock Tarinnish started his EVA, “Cleared the Hōkūle‘a and headed to Scout One” He no longer referred to his ship as the Defiant. It was as if it was dead and they were cannibalizing it for their own needs. It was no longer his ship, but a pile of spare parts. A very important pile of spare parts as they were thousands of light years from home and any type of manufacturing facilities. He quickly accomplished what he set out to do and returned to their ship. They would need at least six more walks to strip the scout of the things they could use, but that can wait. The Hōkūle‘a was as repaired as she could be under these circumstances. Now it was time to find a place for their gate. The faster they could set it up the faster they could leave or be rescued.

As the probe six’s information poured in, the prospects were dwindling fast. This place was a mess, not so much chaos, but just full of debris from the thousands of impacts and collisions of all the matter that floated around the inner part of the system. Scout one suffered two more collisions and we were glad it was ahead of us. We were going to head out on a positive six degrees. By the time we were clear, we could be millions of kilometers above the plan. The only problem with this plan is that we could not use any gravity bodies from the system to help gain the speed we need to escape. Couple that with the fact that they only had one reactor, it would mean that the trips would take close to seven alunars just to place the gate. Then another two alunars to get the gate up to full power so that it would start its desperate search for others like it. At which point we would have to move away far enough to make our run. That trip alone would take more than a cycle. All the while the gate would be vulnerable.

Clarish was sitting in their room when Tarinnish came in. She had been crying. Her eyes were still swollen, but the tears had been wiped away. Tarinnish went to his wife, not captain and hugged her. “We’re going to die here.” She said in a whisper.

“I know.” Tarinnish said.

“I should have listened.” She said.

“Remember the linear and non-linear thought we talked about.” Tarinnish asked.

“No.”

“My God is non-linear and even though he knew that this was going to happen, he always had a plan to get us out.” Tarinnish said with hope in his voice. What he didn’t say was that in his vision, he was the only one that made it out or at least that was the impression he was given. There was no actual site of his salvation, just a feeling.

“So you still hold out hope.” Clarish asked.

“To the end.” Tarinnish hugged her tight. He then looked at the table that she was working at. He noticed and inventory of materials and it made him ask, “What are you working on?”

“I was inventorying our materials and based on what it will take to get us to the neutral point, conduct station keeping while that damn thing connects… Well we have enough protein materials.”

“So why were you crying.” Tarinnish knew there was something she wasn’t saying.

“We don’t have enough water.” The Captain said. Clarish, the wife, was now put away.

“How much time do we have?” Tarinnish converted the lack from materials to time as that was the most important.

“About four cycles.” Said the captain.

“Four Cycles!” Tarinnish said with disbelief.

“Five is we stop bathing.” The captain said.

“The med and ration packs have wipes that can replace some of our body cleaning needs, but we need to bath at least once a week. So that still puts us far shy of our needs.” Tarinnish was racking his brains for an answer.

“We need to go looking for water... or ice and we need you to keep a watch on the gate. You’re the gate guy now.”

The hair on Tarinnish’s neck went up. They would separate and… He did not want his brain to go there, but the vision flashed in his mind. Her dead body mangled by foreign objects and the signs of decompression.

“No. We will leave Cline to guard.” Tarinnish was going to die with his wife or live with her. He was not going to let the circumstances become what his vision dictated.

“If we are going to get out of here. You are the one we need to leave here to set up the gate. As it is, we have to spend two alunars slowing down to our gravity neutral location and then we have to turn around and head back. It’s going to take at least two or three cycles to find water and then turn around and head back. At which point our supply will be down to a minimum.” She paused not as the captain, but as the wife. “I need to go or we all die. And you need to stay or we all die. It’s just that simple.”

The logic was solid, but it meant that his wife would die or at least that’s how the equation working in his mind. Then he realized something. “We have the AI and it and Cline can set up the gate and perform station watch.”

Clarish shook her head no. “You will need the AI to complete your work.”

“You don’t want me to go.” Tarinnish said, more as a question.

Clarish didn’t say anything. She tried to put on the captain’s face, but she was hiding something.

“What are you not saying?” Tarinnish could feel the tension. It dawned on him what was not being said. “You know you’re going to die and you don’t want me there.”

“It fits.” Clarish said.

“You’re not going without me.” Tarinnish commanded.

“I’m the captain and if I decide to leave you behind then I will, God Damn! leave you behind.” Clarish was angry. She knew that if Tarinnish was right about them being here then the only way to get him back home to their child was for her to die. She would gladly sacrifice herself so that he could go home. Out loud she said, “If your God requires my life to make sure you live, then I’ll do that.”

“My God wouldn’t ask for your life like that.” Tarinnish said.

“How do you know?” Clarish asked.

Tarinnish didn’t have a good answer. He had read a story where a man was asked to sacrifice his son, so maybe this God would ask for her life. But why? It just didn’t make any since.

“I’ve made up my mind.” She said as she turned away. Then as captain, “I’m going to give you both AIs. Use then for the EVAs and to keep watch. I hear the Tiffany is especially good at social emotional needs.” She looked at the bulkhead. “We’ll talk via com link.” She was crying again. “We’ll…” she couldn’t say it.

“You will come back.” Tarinnish finished her sentence.

She shook her head yes, but her heart said no.

“Make sure you take advantage of the Astromech, he can fly the ship and do maintenance. They are not as capable as the humanoid AIs, but they can still be very helpful.” Tarinnish was going to give his wife every advantage he could.

They didn’t sleep that night. They just stayed close and held each other. It was another two alunars before they were going to part, but the void was already building. e. He then looked at the table that she was working at. He noticed and inventory of materials and it made him ask, “What are you working on?”