Project Columbus: Omnibus

by J. C. Rainier

  “Thank you, Captain.”

  She stared at a photograph of a large archipelago near the equator. Haruka’s thoughts drifted to the planet out in the distance, somewhere in the void between Raphael and the tiny orange star. She wondered if the planet was warm and what kinds of life they might find there. She considered what the beaches of those islands might look like. Images of sunsets and warm breezes teased her senses, as if she could see and feel them from millions of miles away. She yearned to feel sand squeeze between her toes as she walked lazily along the shore.

  Now I understand why that’s what you’ve been looking for, Marco. Now we just have to find you a foofy tropical drink, and your dream is complete.

  Haruka rejoined her senses in her seat on the cold bridge when she heard voices muttering behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Emberley and Maynard engaged in a conversation, taking turns pointing at the command screen and making a discussion point. They were far enough away that their hushed words came to her as nothing more than incoherent babbling.

  “Captain Maynard,” she interrupted. His head snapped up and met her gaze. “Are the propulsion systems online?”

  “Yes, Captain Kimura. They’re all at your command.”

  “Thank you.” She turned and gave one more glance at the star ahead. “You might want to strap in, Captain. Some of these maneuvers may be a bit disorienting.”

  Haruka placed her hands at the edges of the screen and patted them as one might praise a dog. Let’s bring you home, Raphael.

  Calvin McLaughlin

  Date and time unknown

  Michael

  He opened his eyes slowly. The stench of body odor permeated the air. When Cal felt along his body, his hands became slick with sweat. His back rested firmly on the sleeper’s bed, and his restraints lay gently on his chest.

  Gravity.

  He reached over and clicked his clock on. 4-3-2058 14:37.

  Colonel Dayton honored my wish, he thought. Cal gently unbuckled his harness and opened his berth door. Bright light flooded his sleeper berth, and he was blinded for a moment. He recovered and slid out of the berth, dropping to the deck plate with a slight wobble.

  No, this isn’t right. He was supposed to wake me up for the approach cycle.

  The com system crackled to life, and Dr. Taylor’s somber voice came through. “Taylor to Cal. Please step outside of the ship. It’s time.”

  Cal’s feet steadied beneath him and he trudged out of the sleeper pod and into the fully lit backbone gallery. He looked in both directions, but saw no one. Even the gallery itself seemed devoid; no carts lined the sides of the massive hall. He marched forward awkwardly, his legs still not used to bearing weight.

  Where is she?

  A bright light from the lower gallery beckoned as he passed the great hole in the floor leading down. Cal swung himself onto the ladder and descended. To the rear of the ship, he could see a slash of green. He moved toward it, and realized that the rear air lock was open, and the outer ramp had been lowered.

  Cal jogged to the ramp, stumbling every few strides. When he stopped at the edge of the ramp, his eyes were greeted by the verdant glow of wild grasses, and the smells of flowers beckoned his nose. With renewed vigor, he charged down the ramp and somersaulted on the grass the moment he felt the blades touch his feet. He laughed and rolled onto his back when the maneuver failed.

  “Shhh,” hissed a chorus of voices from nearby.

  “What? We’re here. We’re finally here,” he cried out.

  “Shhh.”

  Cal rolled to his knees and looked around. Dozens of faceless men and women dressed in blue flight suits marched in two perfect columns from Michael to the top of a knoll directly behind. From there they fanned out precisely, in perfect silence, along the ridge.

  “What’s going on?” He sprang to his feet and sprinted to the hill, ignoring the angry hisses directed at him.

  He reached the top of the hill and jerked to a stop. Almost immediately he collapsed to his knees and screamed. The first scream was primal; meaningless other than to express his horror. The second scream was a simple “NO!”

  Spread across the far hillside opposite a shallow valley was a sleeper ship. Its pods lay scattered and burning, and the backbone had been broken like a tinder twig.

  “Oh, God no! We have to help them,” Cal screamed as he struggled to his feet. He started to move forward, but two arms locked with his and held him back. “Let go,” he yelled as he tried in vain to break free.

  Cal looked to either side at the faces of those who would hold him back. Lieutenant Ceretti and Doctor Taylor ignored his pleas and stared stone faced across the valley at the wreck.

  “Hunter? Doc? Let me go,” he pleaded. “Please, we’ve got to help them. Someone might have survived, and they need our help!”

  “Shhh,” they hissed in unison.

  “What’s wrong with you two? Let me go!”

  “Shhh.”

  A motion from the corner of his eye caught Cal’s attention. He craned his neck further to see. Cal watched as Colonel Dayton marched past the shoulder of Lieutenant Ceretti, made a crisp right turn, and marched directly in front of Cal. The commander of Michael halted and sharply turned left to face the valley.

  “Parade… Rest,” he barked.

  Ceretti and Taylor released Cal’s arms. With a great stomp and clap, every man and woman in both lines spread their legs to shoulder width and clasped their hands behind their backs. Cal hesitated for a moment, turned to face the wreck, and duplicated the pose.

  What the hell? Are we just going to watch as they burn?

  “Men and women of Concordia,” Dayton called in a commanding tone. “Citizens and servicemen.”

  Cal looked around in confusion. What citizens? These people are all wearing uniforms.

  “Today we grieve the loss of our own,” Dayton continued. “Over two thousand innocent and brave souls have been lost.” Cal gulped and felt his heart plummet. “Some were friends and some were strangers. All of them were family, not of blood but of spirit. Every one embarked on a journey with us to a new world. In this world we hoped to build a new life and new peace together, far from the ravages of war. Though their lives may have been cut short, their spirit and courage will endure in each of you for generations to come. Live your lives in honor of those that were lost before you, both on Earth and Demeter. Keep your loved ones close, and live in honor and unity with all around you.”

  “Honor and Unity,” the crowd chanted in response.

  “May God watch over them in Heaven. Amen.” Dayton raised his hand with two fingers extended and drew a cross in the air. He turned to Ceretti and nodded.

  Ceretti stepped forward to the colonel’s flank. Dr. Taylor joined the lines of blue that stretched over the side of the knoll

  “Honor Guard, forward march,” Ceretti barked. Seven men marched in slow unison from the line, bearing rifles.

  Where the hell did those come from?

  “Flight halt.” The Honor Guard came to a crisp halt. Cal stared at their rifles. He could recognize that model anywhere. The M4 carbine was the standard rifle for most service members, no matter what branch they served in. He fixated on the motions of the barrels as the Honor Guard performed maneuvers that Ceretti barked out.

  All seven aimed at an exact angle over the valley. The terrible crack of seven rifles firing simultaneously made Cal reel and his ears ring. He knelt down on the ground and pressed his hands over his ears.

  The second round of fire was only barely less brutal. Cal tried to curl head first into a ball. He knew what this all meant, and the emptiness he felt inside was a chasm too wide for his mind to bridge after years of fighting his own demons.

  A final peal signaled the third round of the salute. Cal dropped his hands from his ears and into his lap. Through the ringing he could faintly hear the distant echo of the gunfire as it bounced off of hillsides all around. The blue-clad throng marched their way in neat lines ba
ck to Michael. Cal sat back on his heels and turned his head across the valley to the sickening red glow pulsing deep within the thick black clouds of smoke.

  This is no end for a family trying to flee war. He clenched his fists and looked skyward. He yelled with a defiant snarl, “Is this how you treat the innocent, God?”

  Cal tore at his chest and beat his fist into his skill as hard as he can. “Wake up, damn you. You need to wake up and warn them.” He jumped to his feet and bolted down the back side of the hill as fast as he could toward the burning wreckage. He could feel no heat from the flames at all.

  He ran into a burning pod and scoured within. He did not burn, nor did he choke on the smoke. Though Cal could barely see within, he saw neither people nor bodies. His strength seemed to sap from him as he staggered from the pod and back to the valley.

  Cal let out an anguished howl and collapsed into the cold, damp grass, sobbing. I’m trapped. Their death is on my hands.

  Brev Capt Haruka Kimura

  30 March 2058, 09:15

  Raphael

  Demeter dominated the left side of the bridge canopy. Brilliant blue oceans and vibrant green land masses darted in and out of cover from fluffy white clouds. Haruka felt butterflies in her stomach. For the first time since Earth, they were from excitement rather than worry or fear. She smiled and looked to her left at Lieutenant Julio Morado. Her new nav partner seemed just as pleased, his broad grin unable to hide his slightly crooked teeth.

  Haruka’s body ached, but her hours in the chair no longer fatigued her. After Raphael cleared the dark, near moon that Emberley had dubbed “Arion”, and used its gravity to dip into the approach plane hours earlier, Haruka had been riding a near constant euphoric energy. The bright sphere of the other moon, which had been named “Persephone”, was trying to slink behind Demeter, but the speed of the sleeper ship had kept the moon in sight for the approach.

  Here we are, within an hour of atmospheric entry. She looked forward at the massive, encroaching planet. All those setbacks and problems are history. There’s the planet. There’s home. She bit her lip. Here’s Dad’s dream, and Marco’s.

  There was a slight bitterness to that last thought. Travel to Demeter was never Haruka’s dream. She had always wanted to be a combat pilot. She was stunned when she was groomed for space flight just weeks after she had started combat flight training. If the rumors are true, Dad had everything to do with that.

  “Captain Kimura,” Emberley called from the command chair. “How is our course looking?”

  She glanced down at her screen just as Raphael rumbled with a slight jerk. “Course is true, Major. Captain Maynard can shut down the main and braking plasma drives at any time. I still need plasma thrusters, and it’s only a few minutes before I’ll need to switch to chemical thrusters.”

  “Understood. Maynard, prepare the drive systems for entry.”

  Raphael shook again. Haruka heard a confirmation from Maynard.

  “Emberley to Lieutenant Mancini.” There was a momentary pause. “Are the final inventory checks completed and entered into the mainframe?”

  Haruka could not hear the com system over the increasing noise in the cockpit. She reached for her headset, but a jerk from the ship made it slip from her fingers and clatter at her feet in slow motion.

  “What about pre landing resource distribution?” she heard the major ask.

  “Major, we’ve got gravity again,” she yelled as she retrieved the headset and positioned the boom.

  “...fully stocked with the standard supplies on the checklist, from stem to stern. I’m also shutting down the second redundant server as a precaution, Major.” She heard Mancini’s voice through her headset. “It’s starting to get a bit bumpy and I don’t want every computer on the ship to fry if something goes wrong. Mancini out.”

  “Emberley to Doctor Nelson,” the major’s voice rang clear through the com.

  “Nelson here.”

  “Status of the final passenger checks please, Doctor.”

  Raphael rumbled and jittered. “...confirmed that biostasis system is offline. No alarms from station monitors. It’s getting a little rough back here so I’m going to sign off and take refuge in medical pod one.”

  “Emberley to Lieutenant Singh.”

  “Singh here.”

  “Did the radio marker buoy land at the target site?”

  “Yes sir. Confirmed that the buoy is transmitting on all frequencies. Michael and Gabriel should be able to pick up the signal in a few days, if my calculations are correct.”

  “Kimura to Emberley,” she said as she grabbed the boom with her right hand. “Major, I’m picking up a slight port roll. Firing thrusters to compensate.”

  “Understood.”

  “Maynard to Kimura. Main and braking plasma…”

  Raphael shuddered violently and began to roll to the starboard.

  “What the hell was that?” screamed Major Emberley.

  Haruka fired her starboard elevation thrusters on full burn. The roll slowed, and she backed off until it was neutralized.

  BRRZT. BRRZT. BRRZT. BRRZT.

  Oh shit, she thought. Not again.

  “Major,” Maynard yelled through the com. “Reactor core temperature is rising. Generator two is overheating, and I’m reading a pressure loss in service corridor eleven. I think we’ve lost a heat exchanger in the drive section.”

  “Can you reduce reactor power to bring the temperature down?”

  Haruka’s heart pounded and her palms began to sweat. She glanced at Morado. His eyes were locked on her in terror. She smiled and mouthed the words, “Don’t worry. I land these all the time.”

  “Negative, Major,” Maynard responded. “The temperature is rising too quickly. A core breach is imminent. If we try to land, the friction will aggravate the cooling issue and we’ll just explode somewhere between here and the ground.”

  “Damn it all.” The com went eerily silent as Raphael careened toward the planet. “Kimura, Maynard, get back to the propulsion room and transfer all control to the workstations when you get there. We’ll keep us afloat until you get back there.”

  “Sir, what do you intend for us to do when we’re back there?” Maynard’s voice was nearing panic. Haruka’s stomach was in knots.

  No, I don’t want to go back to the reactor. It’s going to blow.

  “Try to bring us to emergency drop range. We’ll scramble the crew to the ESAARC pods and prepare for drop.”

  Haruka nearly fainted at the words. An emergency drop was the worst possible scenario for any of the ships, and her commander wanted her in the propulsion section instead of an ESAARC pod. There were escape pods in the rear section, and the control room was directly above an emergency launch vehicle as well, but the critical state of the reactor terrified Haruka.

  “Once the pods are away,” Emberley continued, “pull Raphael back from the planet for as long as you can before ejecting yourselves. Lock onto one of the pod beacons and follow us down. We’ll try to make for the landing beacon if practical, but our first priority is a safe landing.”

  “Yes sir,” Maynard shot back.

  “Sir, why me?” Haruka cringed as the words came out of her mouth without thinking.

  “I need my best pilot to steer this wreck away from the pods. Now go, Kimura.”

  “Yes sir.” She unbuckled and stumbled down the bridge. Gravity was present, but it was lighter than normal. She tumbled down the stairs and slammed her shoulder into the deck plate, grunting in pain. For a moment, Haruka froze on the ground. The impending destruction of the glowing monstrosity at the back of the ship was almost more than she could bear.

  “C’mon, Kimura, get up,” Maynard yelled as he clumsily sprinted past her.

  Haruka forced herself to her feet and ran after the engineer.

  C’mon, Kimura. Don’t you know that heroes get themselves killed?

  Gabrielle Serrano

  Civilian

  30 March 2058, 09:32

&n
bsp; Raphael

  It was very dark, and strange noises startled her every few seconds when her bed shook. A faint red light looked at her from the darkness, like an evil, winking cat. She could move her arms, but she could not get up. Something held her in place.

  “Mama?” Her voice was weak.

  Again her bed lurched and threw her against whatever it was that held her fast. A deep rumble echoed in the tiny space, and Gabi’s lip trembled.

  “Mama,” she repeated as her voice quaked.

  Gabi groped around in the darkness, trying to feel anything around her. Across her chest were some straps, like those on her car seat. She tried to find the latch to take them off, but it was too dark. She looked to her side at the menacing light. With no warning, it flared brighter, and she let out a shrill shriek.

  A man’s voice came from somewhere in the dark. “Attention passengers, this is Major Nathan Emberley of the sleeper ship Raphael. We are about thirty minutes from landing. For your own safety, please remain in your assigned berths with your safety restraints on. Do not remove your restraints or open your berth until you are instructed to do so, or you are assisted by a member of the crew.”

  Gabi traced the straps on her chest with her tiny fingers. That man says I need to keep these on because it’s not safe. I’m going to keep them on until Mama takes them off.

  Gabi heard the man’s voice again. “All crew report to ESAARC position two. Com flash when ready.”

  After the voice went away, the scary eye dimmed. It still looked at Gabi through the darkness. Fear grew within her. Her bed lurched and rumbled again.

  “Mama,” she screamed. “Mama, Mamaaaaaaa!”

  “I’m here, Gabi.” Her mother’s voice was muffled and faint, like she was yelling through the walls of their house. “It’s okay, Mama will get you out when we land.”

  “Mama, I’m scared,” Gabi wailed.

  “Don’t be scared. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Gabi flailed her arms around to find her mother. “Mama, where are you?” She waited for her mom to answer. Panic set in as she searched the darkness. Above her was nothing but a cold wall. The tips of her fingers brushed against something cold and metal to her sides. Her mom was nowhere to be found.