by Ivan Kal
Mathias changed course and started towards the coordinates programmed in the shuttle. After putting in the course, he deleted the coordinates. They spent the next few hours going deeper into the asteroid field. The only thing they saw out of the cockpit were rocks. They were now deep enough that they couldn’t be detected through all the interference. Mathias suddenly grinned; he was free. He looked at Gloria and saw the same expression on her face. He knew that they might die. The shuttle had food for only a few days, and if they didn’t get picked up by the resistance, they would be forced to either starve or go back. But it didn’t matter to Mathias. He would never go back; he would rather die free.
“Look, is that it?” Gloria pointed. Mathias followed the direction she was pointing at. At first he didn’t see anything, and then he noticed it.
“Is that a ship?” he asked slowly.
Gloria only nodded, not taking her eyes from the ship they were now approaching. Mathias didn’t see her nod as he also kept his eyes glued to the ship.
“That’s not Ra’a’zani,” Gloria said.
“No.”
They spent the next few minutes trying to find a way in, and then finally they found an access hatch. The Ra’a’zani shuttle had an adaptive hatch tube, so they managed to dock with the ship. As they docked their computer let them know that there was air inside the ship. When they entered, the first thing they noticed was that the air was stale. Then as they stepped deeper inside, the lights came on. Immediately, they noticed writing on the wall; it was a schematic of the ship, showing all the compartments and the routes to them.
“This is written in English!” Mathias exclaimed.
“Wait, I think that this is its name—‘Olympus Exploration Ship Star Gazer,’” Gloria said, pointing at the writing at the bottom. And then she frowned. “What’s Olympus?”
“I have no idea,” Mathias said. “This says bridge; let’s go take a look.”
Two minutes later, they entered the bridge. It was powered down like the most of the ship.
“Do you think that it still works?” Gloria asked.
Mathias opened his mouth to respond when suddenly the light turned on. Suddenly, there was a figure standing in the corner on a small floorplate. It looked human, but for a second before the image sharpened, Mathias could swear he saw an alien with four hands.
“The ship is still operational,” the newcomer said.
Gloria jumped back. “What the hell!” she exclaimed.
“Relax, Gloria, that’s a hologram. The Ra’a’zani have them as well,” Mathias said. He then turned to the hologram. “Hi. Mind telling me who you are?” he asked. He reasoned that it was an interactive program, probably modeled on another person.
“My designation is Autonomous Survey Unit Mark 77321, but my friends gave me the nickname Asumy.”
***
May 2164
Tomas Klein was the first one to step foot on the new world. There was only around a thousand of them who were awake. There was no need to wake the others until they built the structures for them to live in. They chose a high plateau for their landing, and also for the spot of their first city. It had ample access to water and was on the part of the planet with a mild climate. Tomas looked at the night sky; it was a lot different than Earth.
There were no stars, and the night sky had a teal tint to it with streaks of purple and red. It was the nebula, and it completely surrounded the system. The few bright spots in the sky were the other planets in the system. The two small moons that orbited the planet were a lot smaller than Earth’s Moon, but were also a lot closer, and so appeared bigger. He looked around; it was dark, with only the light from the transport illuminating the surroundings. He knew from the images they’d taken earlier that the plant life had a teal tint to it instead of green as on Earth, and that trees tended to grow much higher than those back home.
No, this is home now, he corrected himself. The air was of the same composition as on Earth, but without the pollution. It had a sweet taste to it. He took a deep breath. Yes, this will be a good home. Seo-yun walked out of the transport to stand beside him. She looked around, taking in as much as she could.
“Any thoughts on a name?” she asked.
“Yes,” Tomas said. “Let’s call it Sanctuary.”
*** END ***
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Rise of the Empire series
Olympus
Sanctuary
Out of the Ashes
Warpath
Inheritance
Onslaught
