Leaving Only Darkness

It had been months since there had been any hope on the ship. Each day awake was a struggle. 

He had begun to long for the cryo-tank. 

The nausea that came with waking from a long suspension was no longer a concern for him. He suspected the rest of the crew felt the same way.  Being awake now was the worst part of waking from the long sleep.

The display on the wall in front of his tank didn’t help. 

Its stark red numbers made it clear how long he had been asleep each time he woke up.  It measured the actual time they had all been under - no contact with distant family, no contact with time at all.

He remembered the first time. 

Their first sleep had been pre-set to wake them within days of entering a planetary system their astronomers had considered “extremely likely” to include a planet consistent with supporting life.   

In those early days they were soothed by the sense of awe as they entered a new star system. Perhaps their new home would be here, and they could send that message back home to start the colony ships on their way.  Sadly, this sense of awe didn’t last. 

It was only after 4 suspensions that hope began to fade.  They came to realise that though they had been awake for a few months since they left, they had been gone for well over their people’s average lifetime.

Everyone he had ever known was gone.  There was no one at home that had seen him through living eyes, held an image of his face, or the sound of his voice, as a memory attached to a feeling of fondness.

None of the crew had children. They had been selected that way, for obvious reasons.

He remembered how the crew had originally spoken of whether they regretted not having children. They had universally agreed they did not regret this at all. How could they have this opportunity and had children? It just couldn’t work.

After a few suspensions, when the despair first began, some of the crew became upset they had chosen a career above family.  They had missed what they now saw as the important stuff, and there was no-one to remember them.

By the time they had been in suspension six times, more than 150 years had gone by.

Now the despair changed.  They realised that if they did have children, they would be gone now as well.

Like footprints on a sandy beach, time would have wiped these imagined children away. Even their fantasy grandchildren that brought hope and joy would be gone and long forgotten.

Each new solar system brought new despair.

There was no chance of life here. The heat was wrong, the gases were wrong, the planet had not enough resources, in the right quantities.  The colony could not be risked here.

  ****

No one realistically expected to run into any sort of advanced life out in the expanse of space either. He did fantasize about it, and he was relieved early in the trip to find out that many of the other crew had similar fantasies.  

Imagine that! Being the first to encounter a new culture. An advanced peoples so far from home.

He hoped these new people were more advanced than they were.   They will have perfected space travel and can warp from one part of the galaxy to another in a flash of light.  No sleep sickness. No time loss.

They could all quickly get back home.  Maybe there was new technology at home that had allowed people to live longer. Maybe his parents would still be there, or some of his friends.

He had had fallen asleep thinking of this fantasy the last few cryo-sleeps. No one dreamed in suspension, but it was still nice to think you might, as you felt the cryo-film wrap your body, and the world disappeared.

This is why when he woke this time, he had to check he was actually awake. 

As the lead engineer he was always woken by the AI first, to make sure the process went well for the rest of the crew as they woke.  

He would check the location of the ship, and the time they had been under, then make sure each of the cryo-fluids instilled for the wake cycles were in the right proportions.  A little variation was ok, it went better if someone manually adjusted the equation each time.

This time he had been woken earlier than had been expected. The ship had been on course to a system that included a star at its centre much like their one at home.   

The third planet from the sun had been identified on their long-range scanners many years ago as a possibly habitable planet. It should have the right mix of gas, water and heat that could mean this place was suitable.

The AI had woken him early. He soon found out the reason, and sitting alone with the hum of the ship the only noise he could hear, he knew he had to act.

With at least a month left before they were near the target planet, the ship had begun detecting radio transmissions from the planet. The ships AI had been able to assess the target planet was inhabited, and these inhabitants were more than simple animals.  

This had triggered the wake cycle, so the AI had woken the lead engineer.  

Unknown to the rest of the crew the lead engineer had also been briefed by their government about how to respond to such an occurrence.  He was to enact the Colony X Protocol but leave the rest of the crew asleep.

When he had first been told about the Protocol it had all made sense. He knew he would start the protocol without delay, and wait patiently for the Protocol to run completion.  His feelings about the Protocol came to change.

The Protocol was designed to make sure the work they had all done, the sacrifice, the costs in time and treasure, would not go to waste. No one thought it would be a likely scenario, but the social planners and the ethicists at home had finally agreed on how the Protocol would work.

His people had learned the hard way that it can be difficult to share, and a habitable planet with an advanced life form, posed to great a risk for this endeavour of stellar exploration.   There had been years of debate but, in the end, the pragmatists won out.

The Protocol was a military procedure.  It was precise and efficient.  Once enacted it could not be reversed, and without fail it would achieve its aims.  The residents of their new home had to be removed.

His role was to complete final assessment of the new peoples the ship had found, and the environment of the planet, to confirm its suitability as a new home. 

The designers of the Protocol had agreed that given the significance of the decision the Protocol involved, reliance on AI was not reasonable.   A live oversight of the decision was necessary, and his role as chief engineer had come to include the arbiter of this decision.

Once his assessment had been made, he would send the authorisation code home and, eventually, the battlecruisers would arrive.

His assessment could be done at a distance, and he did not need to wake any of the crew for this role.  The Protocol actually forbid he wake anyone, for risk they may interfere with the Protocol’s application.

He looked at the viability of the planet.  

A planet with water and firm ground, no significant extremes of temperature. Its atmosphere was gaseous, with a good mix of oxygen and nitrogen, some other rare gases. Its gravity was mild.  

The planet had a blue green colour, a reflection of its life forms and the water on the surface.  Its land was in some places covered by plants, and rivers of water ran across some of its larger land masses.

He spent more time looking at the non-plant life forms on the planet.

He learned about them from the transmissions that had been reaching the ship now for months. The ship had logged and recorded hours and hours of sounds and images, and his review involved listening to and viewing these recordings.

They were an interesting people.

He fell in love with the music they had produced, and the AI had sorted these recordings, so he could observe how their music had changed over time. He learned that this music often talked of the things these people enjoyed, or the things they fear and worried about. 

(He particularly liked a type of music characterised by beating drums, shouted vocals, and a strange mix of other loud and varied instruments.)

They had produced writings about their world, and he came to understand the fears these people held about their lives, and the aims they pursued. His AI was able to differentiate these writings that were likely historical records and those that were like his own people’s legends or myths, or fictions just for pleasure.   

He needed to learn more about these people before he activated the Colony X protocol. He was short of time though. 

His government had written into the protocol a requirement that it be enacted within two weeks of the AI initiating the wake procedure.   Any longer and the ship may come too close to the target planet and risk the protocol.  

After two weeks the ship’s AI would send the authorisation code and destroy the ship.

He originally told himself he just needed more time, but knew he had decided he might not be able to enact the protocol.  He gave the appearance of finalising his research, whilst at the same time he worked out how to disengage the ships AI from the protocol.

He researched the history of these people hoping to understand where they had started, what they had achieved. They had a history not unlike his own people. They had started from simpler animals but had come to master their world.

They had learned to fly; they had built vehicles and ships to travel their planet.  He learned that they had organised themselves into larger groups. These groups built cities. They had spread their ideas and ways of thinking over this planet, and that had changed and challenged these people over time.

They had, like his own people, fought amongst themselves. 

After nearly ten days of looking at these people he even felt a tear run down his face as he learned the pains these conflicts had caused. He felt the shock from images of brutality that he viewed as if these had become his people.

He enjoyed their happiness when conflicts came to an end, and their hope this would be end of the fighting, a hope that seemed to survive in their literature, their films, their music, even though there always seemed to be more fighting to come.

Fighting between his own peoples had become almost non-existent.  On the day they had left, it had been over 50 years since any significant fighting had occurred between the peoples of his planet. 

His people had learned to talk, used technology to make sure more people could be heard. They had come to share more, both culturally and emotionally, and this led to a fairer share of the fruits of labour.

His own people now needed to find somewhere new to live, to grow, or there was a risk that their world of stability may begin to crumble. This was the purpose of his mission – to keep their own violent natures at bay by joining together in finding a new world to share and grow.

It had been so long though.  

The mission had taken longer than anyone had expected.  By the time he put the Colony X Protocol into effect, and home had learned of its activation, and the fleets from home had arrived to clean the new planet, it would be nearly a thousand years since the mission began.

He was still alive, but he knew that for the world at home, he was not even a memory.  At best he, and the crew, were abrief entry in a database, that a junior public servant confirmed each a year, and the world moved on.

Maybe things at home had changed, maybe home was now a mess, maybe they had taken to long. Maybe none of this was now worth it.

He could now see a future before him. Though these ‘people’ looked different to him, he had come to feel close to them.   He felt he could understand who they were, and he had come to think they would understand him.   

Perhaps he and the crew could help these people gain the peace and cooperation his home had enjoyed, even if it might have now fallen into disrepair.

The mission could be better served by not enacting the protocol. It was obvious to him now. Instead, his people would survive by meeting with this new people, merging their histories, learning new ways to grow into the galaxy.

He had learned how to disengage the AI and, after so much deliberation, it was psychologically easier than he expected to put an end to the Colony X Protocol.  None of the other crew knew of its existence, and he swore himself to keep this secret forever.

He planned what he was going to tell the crew when they were awake and felt a sense of peace when he realised that he was once again happy.  It had been so long, but he felt a new future was there for them.  They had made it to the New World.

He rushed to get them all awake, so he could tell them of these new peoples, how similar they were, and tell them of how this new planet was going to ensure the survival of their own peoples, and their way of life.

       ****

Major Michael Jones stared directly at his commanding officer, awaiting his reaction to what the Major had just confirmed.  There was no answer, so he spoke again.

“Sir, we have confirmed the location of the object, and that it has arrived from outside of our system” he said again.

General Tsang looked back at his subordinate and nodded.  Major Jones continued his report.

“It’s also most definitely not natural” the Major said, “Our analysts all share the opinion that this vessel is large enough to be considered either a military vehicle, or a major logistical ship, sir.”

“Perhaps an exploration vessel?” the general finally spoke.

The Major nodded and the general continued, he had wistful look in his eye as he turned on the display screen on the wall behind.

“You know Major” the general continued, turning to look at the display “after looking at these images, and the reports from our experts, you know what this reminds me of?”

The Major stood at ease but did not answer. The general continued whilst he pointed at the image of a strange vessel that was now on the screen.

“It makes me think of the ships of old, the sailing ships” he said.

The Major remained blank faced. 

“You know, they appeared over the horizon, off the coast of some then undiscovered land, and the people living there had no idea what was to come” the General said before sitting at his desk and motioning to the Major to also sit.

The Major sat and finally spoke. 

“Yes sir” he said, “before I joined the United Nations Defence Force I came from Australia.”  General Tsang raised an eyebrow, and it was clear to the Major he did not understand.

“Well sir, our Indigenous people had no idea what was to befall them after the English crossed the horizon” the Major explained.  

General Tsang slapped his hand on the table.

“Exactly Major” he said “the ‘Indians’ of the former United States, the native victims of the Conquistadors, your Australian Aborigines. If only they knew”

The room was silent for a brief period as the general peered back up at the ship still on the screen.  He finally spoke.

“And we have confirmed with the General Assembly we are to enact the Colonising X Protocol” the general final said looking at his Major. 

The Major nodded. 

The General nodded back. “Very well” he soon said “make it so.  It is for all our best interests”. 

The general stood, then unlocked a safe below his desk. He removed an envelope from the safe and handed it to the major.

“Take these to the control room Major, and authorise the missile launch” the general said. Major Jones took the envelope, stood up and saluted before he left the room.

The general sat again, turned in his seat and looked up at the ship on the screen briefly, before turning the screen off and turning to sit quietly at his desk.

     *****

The chief engineer had woken all the crew and told them of the planet now so close, and about the people there that they would soon contact.  He had spoken for a long time to about what he had learned and the hope this discovery had given him. 

There was some resistance, some anxiety and fear, but he had spoken with those who were fearful, and soon the whole crew were as excited as he that the mission had succeeded and it was coming to an end.

They had agreed the engineer should make the first contact with these new peoples the next day.   There had been a vote about what they would ask of these peoples, and what they would be able to offer. 

When he had disabled the AI, the engineer did not realise he had also disabled various alert functions in the ships navigational and security array.  The expanse of space is such that, without these, it is difficult for any person to keep a close eye on all that is happening.

The chief engineer was the only crew member still awake when the missiles hit the ship. His excitement about the next day, and the impact of the decision he had made, alone, had made it hard to sleep.

The blinding flash of light as the missiles tore the ship apart, and the searing pain the engineer felt, were over almost immediately. 

Leaving only darkness.