Unmoored

A ship this size and this age sometimes just loses power with no warning. We generally call these ‘brown hours’ for obvious reasons, normally the power comes back in an hour once you apply enough percussive maintenance but sometimes it takes a little bit longer. 

Like today, the three of us are sat in the depths of the ship as it creaks and whines around us. I can see the fear in Jamy’s face in the dim red emergency lights. We’ve been stuck out in the depths of space for months, a skeleton crew transporting medical equipment, construction supplies, entertainment to wherever needs it. 

It’s hard work, with bad equipment and worse training. The company is run by cheapskates who only care that the merchandise arrives in good condition, the crew can be replaced much easier than specialised medical equipment. There are three of us now, but we didn’t start off that way. Some we lost to the cold vacuum of space, others jumped ship at various spaceports, one just vanished. Now we’re just down to Jamy and Athen and myself.

The ships doctor, a mechanic and I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. I had one of those ‘all-purpose’ degrees that technically meant I could do anything, in reality, it was far too generic far too often. 

Before our ship, the Morningstar decided to stop working, again. We were on our way to a tiny planet on the outskirts of the Cassiopia System. A mining planet with a small side operation of manufacturing and some agriculture. A pretty standard operation, nothing worth dying for, but it seems like that wasn’t up to us. 

I never planned to live out the last of my days squatting in the bowels of a rusty ship, failing to deliver equipment to an unimportant little rock. When I was a child I dreamed of being a captain, or maybe a movie star. I had big dreams, but life, as it so often does, got in the way of those dreams. 

The same could be said of my compatriots, Jamy never made it to the prestigious medical school which would have ensured her the best training in the Commonwealth of Planets. Likewise, Athen had plans of working on some of the best starliners, but their less than auspicious background meant that it just wasn’t possible.

‘We’re going to die here aren’t we’, Jamy said, her head in her hand’s voice muffled.

It didn’t look good, Athen had their head buried in the back of the engine. They were swearing softly and banging loudly. The lack of updates was the most concerning thing, usually, they would constantly talk about what they were working on when something was being fixed. It helped them get into the ‘zone of concentration’.

‘No we’ll be fine’, I lied. 

What else could I say? 

‘You’re so full of shit’, she produced a flask of something potent from her pocket. Normally, I would chastise her for drinking on the job, but considering our circumstances.

‘Pass me that’.

I took a long swallow, it was not smooth.

‘Smooth’.

Jamy laughed at me, she could always see through my shit. We joined the company at the same time, I was so desperate to ‘prove myself’. It was so embarrassing to think I could ever ‘make a career’ out of this garbage job.

Jamy had already been with them for three years, before the Morningstar she had worked on a medical ship, ‘The Glowrey’. She spent three miserable years travelling between outer rim planets providing care to colonisers, workers and staff. I still remember when we first met, I was wearing my uniform, perfectly dressed and cleaned, and I swear to God I saluted her. 

She laughed it off pretty quickly, I remember thinking that she was so perfect and elegant. I suppose I still think that, despite the fact that she has the worst taste in liquor in all of the Commonwealth. None of us had the ‘correct’ family to ensure that we had the best positions, but we got by.

I was suddenly filled with anger, I wanted to break this shitty bottle of bad liquor. I wanted to go home, I’m tired of a shit job, with shit pay!

‘Yeah well join the club’, Jamy said in a tired tone, pulling the bottle from my hand.

I didn’t mean to say that out loud, I apologised. She waved me off, taking another swig.

‘I knew that one of these days this stupid hunt of shit was going to kill us, honestly I thought that it would be a fiery explosion. Ya know? Really go out with a bang, but I guess it’s suffocation in the ass crack of the universe’.

We sat in mutual silence, the only sound was Athen softly banging away in the depths of the ship. I wondered if my family would ever learn what had happened to me? Would they get some kind of payout or would they blame this whole mess on us and charge them some kind of fee? 

You never hear what happens to families after they lose loved ones in the expanse of space, sometimes they’ll be some kind of mention in the newspapers if the family pays for it. My thoughts turned morbid, would anyone ever find my corpse? Would future archaeologists pick apart my bones, sift through whatever belongings survived and know that this was not my fault?

Would the company let them? Or would they cover it up, like they undoubtedly hushed up dozens of other floating coffins?

Jamy had no family to go home to, no family to mourn her. I didn’t know anything about Athen’s private life, maybe they had a partner, kids a huge extended family. I suppose I didn’t want to know, I was so tired.

Maybe I’ll just have a little nap, just until Athen fixes the ship. Jamy was still drinking away, making her way steadily to the bottom of the bottle. A little nap wouldn’t do any harm, I could deal with all of this later. Yeah, a little nap.