fallingstar-wwmseries

[fallingstar-wwmseries]

Part/Episode — 01 —

“Long range Comms just went out,” Vok reported through gritted teeth, his hand pressed against his side to slow the bleeding. “Ninety two percent of weapons are down, the sub-light engines are battered and questionable at best, and we have power fluctuations all over the place.”

“How are the FTL drives doing,” Captain Conto asked while desperately trying to reroute every ounce of power he could find to the engines and life support.

“Alive, but barely. We can expect them to go at any time now,” Vok answered while shaking his head and scanning his console. “An hour, if we’re extremely lucky.”

Captain Conto sighed and slumped back in his seat. “There has to be something habitable we can make it to. A moon, or a desert planet, something.”

The Executive Officer looked at his Captain completely baffled, the thought of going anywhere but a friendly planet or military base hadn’t even crossed his mind. A warship carrying state or the art weaponry and tech, and being chased by relentless aliens, couldn’t just stop off somewhere to make repairs. The needed a safe haven.

“Sir,” he finally said, though hesitantly. “There are no bases in range, nor…”

“There’s something,” the Captain said in a tone that made it clear he wasn’t asking for an opinion. “So find it. Something with breathable air and some land. We’ll make due with that.”

He didn’t like it, not at all, but he did as ordered and pulled up the maps and scans of this sector. “There a moon thirty seven light years out, it wouldn’t be comfortable but we could survive there. But I feel it’s important to point out that the Routh will kill us far sooner than the environment possibly could.”

“But not as assuredly as staying here will kill us,” the Captain answered, his nerves clearly reach their limit. “Set the course, Vok.”

“Sir…” he hesitated, trying to find the words. “It is assured, it’ll just take longer and leave something for the Routh to find. Like tech, our weapons, maybe even some computers they can…”

“You have your orders,’ the Captain barked, then burst into a coughing fit that left him breathing heavy. “It’s a shit choice no matter what we do, but I’ve made my decision Vok. Make it happen.”

He looked at his Captain, a man he had long respected despite being such a hard ass, and decided he had no choice but to trust him. “Understood, sir,” he answered with a salute.

It took several minutes to get all the systems to to cooperate without failing but Major Vok managed to set a course to bring them into the system and take up orbit. The question was would the countless systems needed hold up long enough to get them there?

“Ok,” the Major said as he pressed the final command key. “Course is programmed into the auto pilot, but I’m guessing in the best case scenario we won’t be able to establish a stable orbit for more than an hour or so.”

“And not much will survive a crash landing,” the Captain said thoughtfully.

“Actually,” the Major said as he turned back to the console and started a search. “The planet does have large bodies of water. We’d have to get everyone off the ship, but most our equipment will survive. This beast was built for it.”

Conto smiled and sat back with a sigh. “Do we have enough pods and surviving birds to get everyone off the ship and safely landed on this moon?”

Major Vok stared back silently for a moment, then looked away in clear discomfort. “Well… no. Not quite. A good number of the escape pods have been destroyed or disabled, and we lost the primary hanger bay as well. We’re down to thirty two Phoenixes and four heavy transports.”

He looked at his Captain with horror on his face, and saw the look of near rage on the others face. “From the last report of survivors aboard… there will be twenty seven people left over.”

“Twenty seven…” he dropped his face into his hand and grumbled. “We can’t just…. Leave them behind… there has to be so,etching we can do.”

“The only thing I can think of…” the Major shook his head. “Even if we could find a way to survive the impact the ship would still sink. They’d be in an airtight room, but they’d run out of air before our transports could off load then come get them.”

“Maybe we could rig something up, using all the scrap parts around and a cargo crate,” Captain Conto said with a hint of wishing in his tone. “We don’t need anything fancy, just something to get them to the ground without dying.”

Vok looked away, letting himself hope and wonder for only a moment before the smoke in his eyes drove him back to reality. “No, sir. I’m sorry but that’s just not doable, not in the time we have.”

“Then let’s hear some ideas,” he said with a roar while jumping to his feet, then groaned as he held at his side.

“Sir…” the Major shook his head with a grim look, hating himself for it but knowing there was nothing to be done about it. “We have no options, we’re torn apart and missing half of… everything. If not more. I’m afraid…”

“That we have to just sacrifice them and be on our way,” Conto all but shouted as he took a step closer, rage on his face as he pointed accordingly at the Executive Officer. “You know if someone is going down with the ship…”

“It’ll be the two of us first on the list,” Vok came back a growing aggression. “I’m well aware of it and ready to do so. It’s the bullshit reality of where we are… sir. And frankly, at this point the formality of Command are out the window. You need to wake the fuck up and accept it, we are going down with the ship and we have ask for twenty five other volunteers. If we don’t get them, we go by lottery. Let’s the computer decided.”

The Major didn’t wait for an answer and spun around to work his console. “I’ll have the list in a minute then make the announcement and ask for those volunteers. You need to organize the evac and landing plans, then pick someone to take over when we’re both dead.”

The Captain glared at his second in command with simmering anger, disgusted he would be so flagrantly disrespectful and insubordinate; but it quickly faded into disgust with himself and mounting pain at the reality.

“Yeah… yeah, do that. And make sure everyone knows this is volunteer, I don’t want anyone feeling any pressure at all. I’ll…” he turned and started moving through the debris’s and bodies to head for his office. “I’ll start drawing up landing and survival plans, and organize the leadership.

“When you’re done, start securing anything that’s not destroyed, they’ll need everything we can save to survive.”

The Hyperspace window flickered and spun rapidly, unstable as the mammoth vessel passed through with a ripple in space time then collapsed with an unusual burst off eagerly that washed over the crippled vessel. Within second a violent explosion ripped the back section of the ship apart but didn’t take the rest of the ship with it.

Captain Conto struggled to pull himself up, a fresh stream of blood running down his face and a growing stain in his uniform. It took a lot of effort to drive himself up to his knees where he looked around in a haze, his eyes blurred and the room filled with smoke and sparking consoles.

“That…” he bent over as he coughed up blood. “That should… killed us…. Stat…. Status?”

The Major didn’t answer, all he heard was popping electronics and power lines, the one or two surviving alarm speakers, and crackling comms. He tried to look around and find his second, but he couldn’t see anything, and he was in no shape to go searching.

“Well,” he said to no one, not sure what to do or even really think. “Everyone else knows the plan…” he grimaced in pain while struggling to force himself to his feet, but stood with wobble or tilt while his head spun.

“AI…” he called hopefully, but not really believing it was more than a fools hope. Surprisingly, it answered.

“Captain Conto,” the AI spoke with a good imitation of regret and hesitation. “I am unsure what help I can offer, but if there is something I’m eager to provide it.”

“Will… will the ship, the crash landing, and the evac… will it still….”

“It will work,” The AI answered the question unhappily. “The crew is aware and fully informed, we’re still on plan, though it will be more difficult now.”

“The Major….”

“He’s…” the AI lit up a screen next to the Captain to display his avatar and his pained expression. “Alive, but not for long. I’m afraid we can’t help him.”

“Then what…” Conto dropped into his chair and slumped, nearly limp in the seat and breathing hard. “What’s next? What… what do we need… to do,?”

“Captain… there’s nothing to do… given you blood loss and head injury…” the AI paused, it’s voice imitating pain and grim hesitation. “Everything is as ready as it can be. You don’t need to do anything, Captain.”

He laughed but quickly Mae himself stop given the pain it caused. It was true, he knew there wasn’t anything more he could do given his condition. Conto was sure the AI was being nice for one reason, it wouldn’t be long before he joined the Major.

“I guess… I should… make some kind of announcement.” He smiled softly as his eyelids began to droop, growing steadily heavier. “Give them a pep talk while… saying my goodbyes.”

“I’m afraid there’s isn’t enough time, Captain. We’ll be in range to launch our first evac flights in just under an hour, and the crew has a lot to do before then. I suggest…”

“That a dying man’s ramblings would just be a distraction?” He said with amusement, his eyes nearly closed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. So, tell me, can you still send out one final status update back to Command?”

“I’m afraid with our nearly nonexistent transmitters the best I can do is an IFF ping and signal SOS.”

“I’ll… I’ll take it.” Contyo whispered, his eyes now closed as his head sagged.

“Would you like to record a message? The Block Box will save it.”

It took some time for him to muster enough strength to force out an answer. “No… what’s… what’s to say, huh?” He gave a weak chuckle then forced his eyes open. “It’s not really my stile. But thanks.”

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Captain?”

“Just, uh… just play some music… something… soft.” His eyes fell shut again and he went limp in his seat, his mind consumed by the sound of a full orchestra.

BY Josiah Lux