Chapter 15: Origins

Captain Noah was sitting in his comfortable command chair observing his watch perform their duties, not that much needed to be done. While not precisely a milk run, it didn’t require the same sort operations that a warship would require. Still, the Captain had his crew keep a watchful eye out for potential dangers. There had been that communiqué that pirates had attacked a colony ship just weeks before they left port.

They were more than a year out, with another still to go. Just an indication of just how far out this new world would be. The drives folded time and space, but travel was still not instantaneous. The world they were heading for was on the far edge of surveyed space. He had read the reports on it, not the sort of world he would have chosen, being on the low end of the habitable scale.

He was just as glad he wouldn’t be staying there merely dropping off the Colonists to form their new world. He wished them the best of luck, they would need it.

Ten million souls were on board, most in Stasis chambers, easing the load on the life support systems. A few of those had chosen not to make the trip in that way. Whether they thought it might be an exciting trip, had quickly lost its luster within the first few weeks as the boredom set in. Many now wished they could enter a status chamber. However, the number of those had been established by those that had requested them. Only a very few were left for anyone that might become critically injured and would have to be returned to one of the core-worlds for the necessary treatments.

Medical was very good at what they did, but even some conditions were beyond their capabilities on such a trip. This was to be a colony, not a developed world with all the amenities.

A typical colony ship, the ‘Ark,’ wasn’t much different than a bulk container ship. Hundreds of Thousands of self-contained modules would be released upon their arrival. Containing everything a new colony would need within the limits that the colonist could afford. Again, one of the reasons Captain Noah was glad he wouldn’t be staying, as they hadn’t been able to afford much.

It wasn’t a warship; more the pity, in his youth, it had been his dream to serve on one and even become its Captain. Now he was just happy to be in space and not on some overcrowded and polluted world or equally crowded warship. Being the Captain of any starship had its perks, and an uncrowded living quarters were one of them. No rationing for him. It was the same for all the senior officers. Not so for the cadets. For he had a cadre of training cadets that were now part of his bridge crew and were rotated so that they learned everything they could about a starship operation, from bridgework to engineering. It was valuable basic training for future offices of the fleet.

The civilians found life onboard to not be kind, there was much overcrowding, water, and food, day to day necessities, to be sure it was no pleasure cruise. They had no one to blame for their lack of foresight. Captain Noah judged them to become of the first casualties of the new colony.

The Imperium’s warships were no place for young cadets to start, the Imperium’s ships could ill afford the time it would take to train someone in the basic needs of a starship. Imperium ships needed experienced personnel that could quickly learn their more defined duties. As good as Imperium’s Officer training program was, the limited space on training ships were reserved for the well connected. Others would receive their training on other starships.

He couldn’t complain. He had gone through the same system and hadn’t done poorly for it. After all, a command was a command. While the Colonists may have been bored to tears, a Captain’s life was fairly luxurious. What was that saying again? ... Ahh, hell, he’d never been the scholarly one for the arts. Yes, being a ship’s Captain of a colony ship was about as good as it got for those not well connected. With that communiqué, maybe it wasn’t the best of times to be in command of a warship ... or worse luck, a luxury cruise liner.

Captain Noah was about to request the watch report as it was nearly the end of that current cycle when proximity warning claxons went off, and the navigation officer reported that several objects had suddenly appeared, that those objects were far too close.

The ship shuddered as the hyperdrive was forced offline. This was the result of two hyperdrive fields colliding. His vessel entered normal space. Almost immediately, the ship shook again, somewhat differently.

‘That was a weapon hit,’ Captain Noah thought.

Pirates, or worse, were attacking them, several more hits shook the ship. His watch crew was reporting that the engines were being targeted, they wouldn’t be soon reentering Hyperspace.

There would be a surprise for these attackers! The Imperium had seen fit to arm this colony ship, as such attacks had become more numerous, and even warships had been hit. “God, this is Captain Noah! Weapons released, protect the ship ‘Omega Prime!’.”

The ship’s AI fought back! This was a struggle to the death. The ship was taking hits from multiple vectors. Had it only have been just one attacker, they might have made it out ok. Layers of the vessel’s loaded containers were being burned away, having provided some protection. But it was as if the attackers didn’t care about taking the ‘Ark’ as a prize. Ship system after system went down, but they were scoring hits as well, the bridge crew reported two of the attackers down. Two? There had been more than two?

Captain Noah thought they just might make it.

Then there was a wrenching hit near the command deck, an opening into space was forming, and Captain Noah barely had time to think, ‘Aww! Fuck me,’ before he and the rest of the bridge watch were sucked into space. GOD noted the loss but kept on defending the ship. It had received an ‘Omega Prime’ directive. Nothing short of its complete destruction would prevent it from doing so. Ten hyperdrive homing torpedos had already been launched with the ship’s logs and details of the attack. One was surely going to make it back to the core-worlds, and report. Not that it was likely to do any good.

With the Ark now heavily damaged, the AI GOD finally manage to score a hit and kill the last attacker. It was unfortunate that the attacker was so close that its destruction delivered the mortal blow to the ‘Ark.’ GOD confirmed the enemies’ destruction and took count of the losses. As an AI, ‘GOD’ was without emotion, as it went over the list of surviving crew and prepared its report. The crux being, it recognized that there was no chance to repair itself and to continue its mission. It began a search of near space, for a possible viable planet. Statistically speaking, there was bound to be a planet, but then again, that didn’t mean it would be viable to carbon-based lifeforms.

The ‘Omega Prime!’ directive was to protect the ship, which also meant to preserve the life it carried. That was given the utmost priory of its remaining resources. Running multiple scenarios, it soon realized that while its primary mission was no longer possible, it found it was coasting to a nearby star system. Probabilities were low that any of the planets would be able to support life. However, the expectations of surviving on the ship were even more depressed. There were no other options open for those onboard. GOD then made his report to the ranking survivor of the attack.

Adam thought to himself, it been a hard-fought battle man to ... whatever they were. They had been boarded and nearly overcome.

The last of the boarders had been dealt with. Their lifeless bodies were fully examined then ejected into space, it was more than they deserved. They hadn’t been quite human. What they were was not in any known database. It was assumed that they were the same that had been hitting Imperium’s shipping and warships over the course of the last few hundred years. It was a pity that they wouldn’t be able to forward this information back to the Imperium’s core worlds. While they still had a few homing torpedos, they had no means to launch them, and more importantly, in which direction to send them.

The now acting captain thought to himself, ‘Aw fuck me... ‘ The ship was dead, or soon would be. A battle won, barely, but at a significant cost. It just didn’t seem right to have won, only to end up dying because the ship was mortally wounded and had nowhere to go. It had come as a shock that he, a fourth-year cadet, was now the acting ... not acting, but the Captain. He hadn’t even been fully commissioned yet. Taking stock, he gathered those he could of the thirteen remaining Section heads, to get their reports. It was, as he expected, nearly all bad news, with the only exception that they were still alive if just barely, and with the possibility of an uncharted system with perhaps a habitable planet ahead. There were no sure bets about that, after all the frozen hell they been traveling to had been called habitable. There was no telling if this might be even worse. There were none taking bets that it would be better.

It was just possible that if the ship could only hold out till it reached that system, and if just one of the planets could support life. Then the mission might not end as a complete failure. Whatever the case, he wasn’t looking forward to dying out here.

The ship had suffered heavily, more than seventy percent fatalities, most of those had been in stasis and would never know what had happened. They were he felt the lucky ones. Of the near ten million that had started out on this mission, less than three million survived, with a large proportion of those not in stasis critically wounded not expected to make it. Many critical ship functions had been wholly lost, including most of the medical. The acting captain, no not acting, but now ‘the’ captain. Adam sighed, there was no help for it. Adam had fully expected to make captain after years of hard work and learned experience, not have it thrust upon him only to watch his ship die around him. Well, he was the captain now, that meant he better damn well get his shit together and get these people landed, hopefully on a world that could support them.

They had a few weapons systems left, but no power to operate them. Fortunately, there was no enemy left to require their use. It was the same all over the ship, just not enough power for anything. If it hadn’t been for the massive number of casualties, Life Support would have been one of the first systems to fail, of those few systems that had managed to survive as it was, they were barely hanging on. Medical had its hands full and was bemoaning the fact that it wouldn’t be able to save the more critically injured. Care was now being rationed to those that could be saved, and for those, it was deemed too essential to lose.

Full Repair of Medical or the rest of the ship was out of the question. There were only a few repair bots left, and those were doing all they could just to keep what was left of the ship together, and with power reserves failing, they too would soon stop functioning.

Now what? They had looked at the grave issues, they needed to see what was left that was hopeful. The ship’s AI, due to being in the center of the ship, had survived. But, due to the general lack of power, it had been forced to scale down many of its functions. Those scanners which were still functional reported that the enemy ships had been destroyed, but as they were not in the database couldn’t verify who they had belonged to. How they had followed them was disturbing. Knowing more might be of help, but then again, it just might be a nightmare. The best hope was that they, too, had been unable to send out their position before they were all destroyed.

The good news, if it could be indeed considered that, was that the ship was coasting into a system containing eight planets plus two rouges. The four larger ones were two gas giants. The two others seemed to be frozen hells. No help there. What was left were the four smaller inner worlds, and perhaps a broken-up world, or what was left of one, as an asteroid belt. Not that it mattered, there was no hope there. The one nearest its sun was utterly unfit. The next one out was still considered too hostile to be inhabitable.

Of the dirtballs that remained, the only one that looked to be able to support life was the third. An oddly lovely blue world (How had it been missed in the Imperial survey? The AI had no record of it. But then it had been unable to identify their current location, either.). It indeed looked to be their best chance. The fourth might have been, had the ship still been fully functional. It seemed warmer, without a covering of ice; it was ruled out, as the atmosphere was judged too thin, yet possibly still breathable with mechanical aid. Only the third world seemed that it could support life without more than necessary life support, but it seemed to be mostly water-covered estimated at sixty percent, and what land there was, ice-covered. Just a relatively small strip of temporal land was bare of ice on a lower continent. It would have to do, there was no help for it, nothing else was in range.

There was the remote possibility that one of the gas giants might have a moon suitable, but they were still too far out to get accurate readings on them.

The ship was now out of hyperspace, and would not be able to reenter it, meaning their original destination was now out of reach. The vessel was left with only maneuvering engines that were, for the most part, only used for low-speed maneuvering. The ship could, just barely, alter its course at the speed they were now traveling. And slowing to the degree that they could enter a planetary orbit would be impossible. So, they made what adjustments they could for the ship to pass by the most likely candidate, the water and ice-covered blue planet.

Nearly all the outer hull had been burned away, with only a small number of cargo hatches still able to function. Most of the ship’s landing shuttles had been destroyed. While there were the spare parts, the personnel needed to do the repairs were mostly gone. Meaning they would only be of limited use till they became too unsafe to handle.

The acting captain had to snort. ‘Safe’ had taken on a whole new meaning. There didn’t seem to be much that anyone could call safe now. Was there good news? He asked just what was left. Well, the core science and medical labs were, but unfortunately, they would have to remain with the Ark, as they were a part of it. A significant percentage of the biosamples they had brought with them had survived, having been shielded to prevent mutations. Of the stasis pods, it seemed many of them would not make it, as power was failing, and while they remained a priority, it was questionable, they would still have power when they finally reached landfall.

They were still too far out to get readings of life. There was agreeable news if you could call it that, was that there was an atmosphere that may be breathable. The medical labs should be able to tell better once the ship got closer if breathing it would kill you with whatever we could not detect at this range. For the most part, it was looking good unless there was a biohazard in the atmosphere that was yet undetectable.

Barring that, like it or not, it seemed this would be their new home. Preparations would be made to get as many of the people left, and as much of what was still functional, onto the ground. Here was perhaps the one bit of mixed good news. Due to the massive loss of life, there were more than enough escape-pods. Those not needed for human use could be packed with whatever was thought to be necessary to survive.

They would be alone. The Imperial core worlds wouldn’t even know they had not made it for another four or five years, if at all. And when the Imperial Census sent a scout ship in two hundred years to see how the colony and colonists were doing and inform them that they were still a part of the Empire with the inevitable taxes. Only then would they realize the colony ship hadn’t made it. The emergency beacon and message had been sent. But the attack had occurred too suddenly no one, including the AI GOD, knew if they had managed to escape. There were severe penalties for ships sending out premature calls for help. The Imperial government took a dim view of high mucky-muck Toadies demanding help for a hangnail. It was perhaps fortunate that none of those types were awake right now. To be sure there would be no help coming anytime soon from the Imperial core worlds even if they had been.

The Colony Starship ‘Ark’ would die here, but at least some of its people just might survive. It’s original Captain, Captain Noah would be remembered fondly. It had not been his fault that disaster had struck. But it was his foresight that insured the Ark had weapons to repel such an attack. A nearly defenseless colony ship would have been a most tempting prize to the many pirate raiders, corporate or otherwise.

You just couldn’t keep such a ship’s departure and destination a secret for long, and perhaps there had been traitors aboard that had given away such vital information. There was more than enough incentive for a down and out colonist who may have been in prison before given a choice to leave. There had been some inexplicable occurrences just before the attack. Their destination had been a minimally habitable world as it was. But those that had chosen to make the journey had known the risks.

Its location is known only to the Captain and the Navigator, as given by the Galactic Survey. On a scale of 1 – 10, it might have rated at the lower end of that range, but it was the best these colonists could afford, and they were lucky to get it. They all felt it would be better to face the hardships of a new world, than the overcrowded, and possibly dying world, where only the very wealthy lived well, it was a world the impoverished were trying to escape. With just a very few of the ultra-affluent looking for a new world to obtain.

But that planet was now a forlorn dream as the ship, as it was now, would never reach it. What it might achieve was ... well, it was really an unknown. Most of the ship’s sensors were not functioning.

The acting Captain Adam turned to his second, Eve, “Make all due preparations to get us to the third planet.”

The second, named Eve, replied, “Aye aye, Sir.”

The AI, generation God, would give all the assistance it could before it was forced to shut down. It gave a similar reply, “Affirmative, Captain.”

Nearly a two hundred ship cycles later, they came to within shuttle range. Those that had been injured either lived or died, there wasn’t any middle ground. Any Pregnancies had been aborted. There was just the slimmest chance as it was to make a landing. An infant would be a liability not only onboard the ship but after landing, as care of the infant would be a liability to the survival of the group in the first few weeks of landfall. Those were the harsh realities they were now facing. Nobody liked it, just how had they managed to circumvent the birth control implants, wasn’t something worth wasting time determining for now.

Captain Adam watched as preparations were being made for landfall. It would be a disaster no matter how you looked at it. There was just no way that everything could be landed in time that would help them survive in this new world. There would just barely time for all the survivors to get down. Food water and shelter were the primary needs. With the need to house nearly three million souls, it seemed a dauntless task. Good news, maybe, was that most of those three million were still in Stasis chambers, blissfully unaware of what had happened to them. At some point, those would have to awaken and then learn the bad news.

Then where to begin once they were there? Like all the officers aboard a Colony Ship, they had received detailed instructions on what needed to be done. With each officer given their own division of labor.

That, however, was with a fully functioning a Colony Ship and crew with a population of colonists that had known their role to play to ensure everything went according to plan. A worst-case scenario had been included, though few believed such was likely to happen.

Adam being a new and conscientious cadet officer, took all his instructions seriously. He, like many others, felt it wouldn’t be needed but realized such instructions wouldn’t be included if such a possibility didn’t exist. Now he thought that maybe they hadn’t emphasized the impossible enough. Or that the responsibilities that had been meant to be spread over several shoulders should now fall on just a few, or even just the one, his own. Command had been thrust on to him. He had accepted it, what choice was there? Those others still alive were even less qualified than he was. He at least had command training, the others were mostly those in support positions.

As they approached closer, the scans that they had been able to make showed that the planet was not as inhospitable as first feared. To be sure, there was no chance to start this world with any of the comforts of their homeworld. Sort of a joke as seeing how they had left that world because those amenities were becoming ever more meager for those that had chosen to stay behind. An ancient saying went, ‘between a rock and a hard place.’

The colony ship had been designed to be eventually taken apart to its basic support frame for the new colony. Now that would be impossible. The colonists would be forced to endure a world with a bare minimum of technology. Most of their support provisions were either destroyed or unable to land on the planet’s surface. The stone age of history that had been a myth of a long-lost past was now being thrust upon them as their new reality.

Privately, Adam had the AI ‘GOD’ run test models of the probable chances of the people making it. None of them predicted high probabilities of success. It was likely that many would suicide when confronted with unexpected hardships. Of those, the ones most likely to live were those with children, as they would fight the hardest to ensure their survival. Then on the other side, there were the cases where whole families would just give up not wanting their children to suffer any longer.