Project: New Earth - Part Two

“Captain’s log, day two-five-two-oh of two-five-three-eight. Current speed is approximately six-thousand metres per second, fuel at one fifth of a tank, leaving us with an additional five days of travel if needed. Repairs to happen today in accordance with the oxygen filtration system and with switchboard number five-three-oh. End Captain’s log.”

I release my hold on the recording button before punching in a code that sends the voice message into the ship's archives. I stretch, sighing with satisfaction when the tension in my back releases. I unclip myself from my chair, pushing out of it to float away from the control board. The five other copilots nod to me in acknowledgment before turning back to their own works. I use various handles to push myself along the passageway. I have the option of turning on the ship's gravity, but the function is fiddly, and it takes a long time to find the right concentration most resemblant to that of the Old Earth. I could turn on my own body-suits gravity-suction function to make me stick to the floor, but for some reason I can’t be bothered. And floating is fun.

I find the food supply, a variety of different meals genetically modified into a paste that’s then stored into squeezy-tubes. It isn’t very appetising, but on a rocket in the middle of the universe, there isn’t much of a culinary selection. I reach a ladder going downward and I descend it, finding myself on the first of the twenty-six levels housing what are to be the occupants of the New Earth. Each level holds up to one hundred people, every one of them floating in an induced coma for the duration of the journey. Despite myself and the rest of the crew having aged six years, my own greying hair a reminder of it, the sleeping citizens on board haven’t changed at all. As I told them through the intercom just over six years ago, the serum suppressed their bodily functions, meaning that once they awoke on the New Earth, they would pick up from where they left off as though nothing had happened.

I wander through the rows of sleeping people, suspended in mid-air, encased in a glass tube. Blue light illuminates their features, making them look eerie and ghost-like. The light looked as though it were just for display, but when the serum had been concocted, some scientists had found that blue light enhanced the serum considerably, allowing it to be used for prolonged periods of time, and after vigorous testing, it was cleared and declared safe to use on the sleeping trainees.

I continue to wind my way through the ship's levels, watching the stars streak by through the thick windows. We are moving so fast that the twinkling pricks of light are smeared into lines. We pass the occasional planet, each beautiful and unique, but far too hostile for a human to survive even a second. The remind me of how badly I’d wanted to achieve the position I hold now, how much longing I’d felt when I saw the first image of outer space depicting the solution to the problem Earth had been facing for so many years.

I eventually find myself all the way down on level A. I could have ridden the elevators down here, but I considered it soothing, the long journey through the passageways, the continuous whir of the engine eventually merging with the silence, not unlike when you would have a fan blowing for two hours and only when you switch it off do you realise how loud it really was. In a minimum of eighteen days, I will experience that sensation again for the first time in nearly seven years.

The watch on my left wrist beeps, heralding the arrival of a new hour. It still goes by the Old Earth time, meaning that it’s currently three in the afternoon. I’d say I’d left the steering room at ten this morning. I’ve been gone five hours; what I would consider the standard time it took to reach where I am now. I turn and begin to head to the elevators, another five-hour trip back too long and tiring. But just as I reach the first of the nineteen elevators, a strange thumping sound catches my attention.

I turn around slowly, one reason because I hadn’t seen anyone else down here with me, and the second because I struggle to find purchase on the wall to help me spin. I scan the lobby-like room, finding no crew around. But the scuffle I’d heard was definitely real. And - there - in the fake-silence, I hear it again.

“Hello?” I call out, mustering as much authority into my voice as I could. I receive no reply, but I listen as the thumping continues. I find the button on my suit to turn on the gravity-suction function. Once I’m on the ground and regained my balance, I move forward, suspicious of why a crew member would act in such a manner. Then I hear a smashing sound, not unlike glass shattering. Concern growing, I round the corner, finding the answer as to why a crew member would be like this.

Because they aren’t a crew member.

I stare, astonished, at a woman with pinned back raven-black hair and icy-blue eyes in a heap on the ground, covered in glittering pieces of her broken glass pod cover. Tiny cuts bleed scarlet all over her body, and her hands have flown to her swollen abdomen, a protective move for her unborn child. She was one of several pregnant women on the ship, the serum having been deemed safe for the unborn babies.

“Ma’am!” I cry, helping her to her feet. She leans heavily against the wall, both hands still on her stomach, her eyes darting around, panicked. She begins to float upward, and I reach out to support her, to turn on her own suit's gravity, but she flinches away, obviously disoriented. “Ma’am, please calm down. My name is Jason Hunter, and I am captain of this vessel.” I indicate to the badge on my chest. “Please, what is your name?”

The woman eyes me up and down. Her gaze lingers on my badge and must decide to trust me, because she says, “V-Vieva. Vieva Matthams” and allows me to turn on her own suit’s gravity-suction.

“Alright, Vieva.” I say cautiously. “How did you get out of the pod? You are still meant to be asleep.”

“I-I don’t know. I don’t know if I was sleeping, just that suddenly I was aware of being in the pod. I’m claustrophobic, see, and-and I just had to get out. I don’t…I don’t remember anything from before I saw I was in the pod.” Vieva’s brows furrow in confusion or concentration, I can’t tell which. Something in the back of my mind tells me that what she’s saying isn’t right. I vaguely remember a doctor explaining the effects of the serum, the disorientation and the alarm, but I also remember the same doctor emphasising how each person injected with it should retain all past memories. Completely.

“Come on.” I say. I know something isn’t right. “I’m going to take you to the medics.”

I lead the woman back into the lobby, the sound of our boots on the floor ringing in the silence. We enter one of the elevators, and I hit the button labelled ‘+’ for the medical ward. The elevator ride is short, the medical ward being located only five floors up.

I press my hand up against the scanner. A light flashes green and there’s a beep before a voice says, “Welcome, Captain Jason Hunter.”

Every head turns in our direction as we enter the room, and I take it as an opportunity to snag the attention of one of the doctors.

“Mary-Anne.” I say after a glimpse at her nametag.

“Captain Hunter.” She returns. Then her gaze drifted to the woman behind me and her whole body visibly tensed.

“Mary-Anne,” I continue. “Can you please give this woman a full medical assessment? And where is the head doctor, Doctor Riven? I must speak with him immediately.”

Mary-Anne jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “She’s in her office. This way, ma’am.” She says, addressing Vieva.

I leave Vieva with Mary-Anne before picking my way through the tables and pieces of equipment to the room at the back.

I knock at the door, receiving a grunt in reply. I push into the room, finding a woman with her brown hair cropped close to her head bent over a folder.

“Doctor Riven.” I cough, clearing my throat. The woman scared me, for no good reason. “There is an urgent matter I must discuss with you.”

“I’m busy, Hunter.” She says with a wave of her hand. She was the only one who had no regard for my title. But I never corrected her. As I said, she scared me. “Speak to my assistant, Mateo.”

“What happened to Owen?” I ask, going off topic.

“He’s an idiot.” She says dismissively. “I fired him, gave him a small dose of serum and put him in a spare pod.”

“That’s actually what I came to talk to you about. The serum.”

“What about it?” Doctor Riven’s eyes flick up to me momentarily, before returning to her work.

“One of the trainees woke up, Doctor.” I say bluntly.

This gets her attention.

“I’m sorry?” She presses. “That’s impossible.”

“She’s here right now, getting assessed by one of your doctors.” I continue.

Like a flash of lightning, Doctor Riven leapt from her seat, sprinting out the door and into the main area.

“Where is she?” She growls, but as she speaks, her eyes land on Vieva on the far side of the room. She pushes forward, advancing on Vieva and Mary-Anne.

“How did you wake up?” Doctor Riven demands, snarling at Vieva.

“She doesn’t know, Doctor.” I say, wedging myself between the two women, despite the poisonous look Doctor Riven gives me. “She can’t remember anything.”

“How? Every test we ran told us otherwise.” The doctor asks, to no-one in particular.

“Is it possible her dosage was too much?” I ask, just throwing out ideas at this point.

“Impossible.” Doctor Riven spits. “Each dose was adjusted to each person exactly. We took into account their height, weight, gender, medical background, diet, everything.”

“What if there was something wrong with the serum? Is it possible the final product had been tampered with, or a mix up of ingredients?” I say.

Doctor Riven whips around to face me, fire in her eyes. “Are you accusing me of fucking up the serum? Because if so, how dare you. Twenty years of my life was dedicated to this experiment. Thousands of tests were undergone. If anything, you're the one who fucked up, Hunter. Don’t insult my work.”

“Sorry.” I raise my hands in defence. “Just throwing ideas out there.”

“Well, maybe think before you go around accusing people of screwing up, next time.”

I stand down, scared of the unspoken threat her words provide.

Silence descends on us, the only sound that of our breaths and Doctor Riven’s feet as she begins to pace.

No one says a word for several minutes, either too afraid to or they have nothing to say. It becomes almost unbearable, this silence, until it something shatters it.

We turn as one to the doors at the entrance to the medical ward, where they slide open to reveal a boy and a girl, the former with dark skin and hair and the latter with blonde hair and pale skin, being dragged inside by two crew members.

“Let go of me!” The girl screams, fighting her crew member.

The crew members dump them on the floor before heading over to us. The two of them scramble to their feet, making for the door, but it slides shut before they reach it.

“ELLIE!” The boy yells, banging on the door. The girl joins in, the both of them screaming and fighting.

“Found these two - OI SHUT IT, WILL YOU?” The first crew member starts. “Found these two out of their pods on H level. Said they woke up.”

Doctor Riven and I look at each other, before making our way to the two escaped trainees.

“Excuse me!” I yell, getting their attention. “Thank you. My name is Captain Jason Hunter, captain of this vessel. May I ask, how did you get out of your pods?”

“For the fifth time, we don’t know!” The girl shoots back. “We woke up, we busted the glass, we floated around for a bit before those two grabbed us and dragged us up here.”

The boy steps forward. “Please, Captain, we need to go back to level H. Our friend, Ellie Craddock, she’s still down there, we need to get her. Please.”

“If she is still under the effects of the serum, there is nothing we can do.” Doctor Riven says coldly. “Unless she wakes up of her own accord, she stays in her pod.”

The boy begins to protest, but the girl remains silent, her attention on a spot somewhere over my shoulder. She seems frozen, and I’m tempted to shake her or something when she launches forward, shoving past me to the people behind us. The boy follows, his urgency building when he sees whatever the girl sees.

“Vievie!” The girl cries, sprinting toward the pregnant woman.

The other woman’s eyes light up with recognition. “Tish! Thank God you’re here.”

“Vievie,” The girl - Tish, Vieva called her - wraps Vieva in a hug. “Did you wake up too?”

“Yes, I did.” Vieva replies. “I don’t know how, and I don’t think anyone else does.”

“Vieva, hi.” The boy says, also hugging the woman.

“Noland!” Vieva says, giving him a squeeze.

I watch the exchange with a mix of confusion and mild happiness. They continue speaking, but my hearing goes funny, almost as if…

…Almost as if a giant engine had been shut off.

Then, suddenly, I’m also aware of the slight vibration beneath my feet ceasing, and a few seconds later a massive shudder runs through the floor. My heart pounds.

We shouldn’t have stopped. I think to myself. We can’t have stopped.

“Hunter, what’s happening?” Doctor Riven demands.

It takes a few tries, but I eventually choke out my answer. “I think the engines have been cut.”

Doctor Riven looks taken aback. “How? I checked this morning. We still have over two weeks of travel left.”

“What’s the big deal? Can’t you just start them up again?” The boy asks from behind me.

“No.” I say. “No, the engines aren’t controlled by us. They are automatic, only to shut off once our destination has been reached. If we were to have reach the destination - which we physically can’t have - there would have been an announcement to remain seated and a protocol read out. And you would know we had landed because you would see the planet and looking out the window there -” I point to a small window on the other side of the room which showed nothing but stars “- All I see are stars. So, in other words…our engines have, by some impossible flaw, stalled, and we are currently floating through space.”

Now, everyone adopts my panic, and murmurs ripple through the crowd.

“You idiot!” Doctor Riven suddenly cries. “Get to the cockpit! Now!”

I take her advice, running from the room and to the elevators. But just as I reach them, the worst happens.

The lights flicker out, and the quiet hum of machinery separate to the engines dies completely, creating a silence so heavy it’s painful.

We’ve lost all power.

I turn and run, the elevators now useless, bee-lining for the ladder at the other side of the level. I don’t stop when I reach them, climbing straight away even though I’m short of breath. The cockpit is on the top level, level 30. I’m on the Medical ward level. 21 levels below the cockpit.

Needing to go as fast as I can, I switch of my suit's gravity-suction, using my arms to propel my weightless body up the ladder chute. It takes just under ten minutes to reach the cockpit, and when I do, it’s chaos.

Alarms too far away to hear down on the medical ward blare here, loud and unbearable. People run in every direction and multiple people are barking orders at multiple people. Someone shouts, “Where’s the captain?” and I turn my suit back on, diving headfirst into the commotion.

“SILENCE!” I scream, catching everyone’s attention. They all turn to me. “What the hell is going on?” I demand.

Everyone is silent, unsure of the full answer.

“Well?” I prompt them.

Still, no one answers.

Sighing, I look around before pointing at a random person. I don’t like talking like this, but it’s the only way to get a straight answer. “You, red head, tell me what’s going on.”

“The engines have shut down.” He replies. It’s a more confident answer than what I expected, but I’m not complaining. “We’ve lost all power. And the backup engines have also failed.”

“Where’s the engineers? Why has this happened?” My voice is rising to a shout.

“Captain, the engineers have reported to the engine rooms. We are expecting a report any minute now.”

I drag my fingers through my hair, stressed and confused. Then a noise from the corner catches our attention. As one, we turn to the ladder entrance I just entered through, watching as a head, followed by a neck, torso, waist, hips, legs and feet crawled out from the chute.

Another trainee.

Voices start up all around me, exclamations of “it’s a trainee!” to “that’s impossible!” to “but how?”.

But it’s the voice from the escaped trainee that manages to reach my ears, loud and clear.

“It’s crumpling.”

Then, all at once, the ship implodes.

And there’s only darkness.