Proxima

by Chase Hildenbrand

  The safety protocol should have automatically triggered a wake-up of Jameson and other essential engineers who would then fix the problem before returning the ship to full speed. It was still unclear why that didn’t happen. Stacy was leading a team to look into it.

  The faulty part was easily replaced and the power flow restored. Electricity was routed back into the parts of the ship that had been without for centuries. The sudden surge unfortunately fried some systems and a team had to dedicate days to slowly replacing and fixing parts—a grueling time-consuming process.

  In the second week, Stacy’s IT team believed they found the root of why the emergency wake-up failed to trigger. She couldn’t prove it yet, but she believed that when the alien ship had attempted to hack into theirs after appearing behind them, they’d somehow managed to either purposefully or accidentally corrupt some software. This news allowed Liam to feel somewhat relieved he didn’t cause this fiasco from his foolhardy plan to attack the alien ship’s thrusters. But it was only a small comfort.

  As power was restored and fried circuits replaced to the passenger wing, Liam, Jameson, and Percy led the slow process of waking the remaining crew and passengers. They separated each wave of wake-ups into three groups where they filled them in on the situation. Like the crew two weeks earlier in the cafeteria, they took the news in a variety of ways, but were cheered slightly by a variation of Jameson’s rallying speech.

  By the end of week two, they were well on their way to Mars.

  Chapter 17

  ANN ALWAYS BELIEVED herself to be a patient person. She grew up in perhaps the most trying time in human history after all. Waiting for good things to happen never bothered her as much as her peers. However, the three weeks spent orbiting Proxima b without hearing from Liam or The Hawking was driving her mad. Surrounding herself with her work, her spirits were high during the first week. Every day after her worry increased exponentially. Now, weeks after waking up in the Centauri system, she lay on her bed an emotional wreck. Where was The Hawking? Rumors circulated around the ship that people knew other people on other ships who saw the alien fleet destroy The Hawking. Rumors. Unsubstantiated rumors. She refused to believe anything that didn’t come from an official source like a captain, and so far the word has been mum from them.

  She prayed that Liam’s ship was simply further behind than they all thought. Millions of reasons could have delayed them. Perhaps they were slightly off course? Whatever the reason, her work had begun suffering. Adam and Blaire picked up more and more of the workload, while she distanced herself from not just them, but Ray and Salena as well.

  The survivors of the human race were days away from taking their first steps on an alien world. Ann and her team were on the transit schedule for day one. Their mission was to land in their designated zone to begin setting up a camp and mobile lab. Once complete, they were to study an array of plant life nearby their camp and return even more to The Christensen after a week on the ground. The work would be strenuous and dangerous, leaving Ann little choice but to regain her focus and pull herself up from this slump.

  For now, she wanted faux-coffee. One step at a time.

  Grudgingly, she pulled herself up to plant her feet on the floor and made her way to the coffee maker. It was 6:10 am, Earth Standard Time and this was the morning they would begin packing up their Z48 with lab equipment for the surface. Adam needed her help, no sulking allowed. The smell of the filling coffee pot woke her up just enough to not completely fall over from fright when a series of knocks pounded on her door. Heart racing, she turned on her wall-screen to see who scared her so egregiously at this ungodly hour. It was Adam, and to her surprise, Ray. To her knowledge the two had never met.

  “I’m not dressed. Hold on,” she told them through the door. As she pulled on a robe the coffee maker finished brewing. Before opening the door she decided they could wait and she filled a cup. After a couple sips, she was as ready as she’d ever be for this odd meeting of work and personal lives. Her quarters were a disaster with clothing all over her floor and trash piling up on her counters, but she didn’t quite care.

  “Good morning, gentlemen.” Ann opened her door as the two men filed in. Ray entered first and headed straight for her cupboard to get a coffee cup. Adam stood at the entrance for a moment to take in the room—he was used to an orderly neat space, but his colleague had clearly let herself go over the last few weeks. Ann made her way back to her bed and sat on its edge. “I figured I’d introduce you two one day, but it seems you’ve already met.”

  “Only just now. Adam showed up behind me on my way here. I thought he was following me so I rounded on him. Turned out he was coming to see you, too. I was primed for a fight. Kind of disappointed to be honest,” Ray said, winking in Adam’s direction.

  “You two do know it’s barely morning, right?”

  “Yes,” Adam said, “Sorry about that. It’s an important day for us, our work. Loading our cargo will take us all day as well as some of tomorrow.” He began to look anxious, like he’d almost rather not be here. “I understand your personal situation has been hard to deal with. I get it. So, I...thought I’d come ask if there was anything I could do for you.”

  “And you Ray?” Ann asked.

  “Ditto. I was hoping you’d like to join me for a morning run, or perhaps breakfast. You’ve barely been around the past week or two. Thought maybe you’d like some company.”

  Ray finished pouring his own faux-coffee and sat at the table, feet up resting on the surface. Ann couldn’t help but feel flattered that two of her friends cared enough to pay a visit, even if it was at six in the morning and Adam seemed motivated by work rather than friendship.

  “Thanks guys. It’s been a very long two weeks. I’m not going to pretend that I’ve been fine or am currently feeling fine, because I’m not.”

  “Liam?” Ray asked.

  Ann only nodded her head and focused down on her cup, the steam rising up and warming her face.

  “Look,” Ray began, “I’m sure he’ll be here soon. How far behind could they be? Any day now he’s going to be within range and you two can start planning your sexy rendezvous.”

  “And I hate to say this, but he wouldn’t want his delay to affect your work. The mission comes first,” Adam said.

  “I know. We knew this was going to be dangerous, even more so when the damn aliens showed up. I can’t help but worry. And I’m tired of waiting for him to arrive. And it’s not just him. There’s thousands of other people missing who are on that ship. I’m worried for all of them. We need as many people as we can to explore and colonize the planet.”

  “All you can focus on is you. You love him, so you worry. But it doesn’t do you, me, our team, or the mission any good if you let it consume you. We need Ann Caldwell back,” Adam said.

  “You need my genius expertise then?” Ann asked, cracking the tiniest of smiles for the first time in days.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Adam said as he smiled along with her.

  Ray joined her on the bed and took a seat next to her. “Whatever you need, just let me know. I joke a lot, but I can be serious when I need to—or at least pretend to be serious.”

  She pulled him in for a half hug. “Thank you.”

  Neptune’s substantial frame approached in the distance, still another day away—the only planet whose orbit they would intersect with on their voyage to Mars. The crew and even some of the passengers have worked tirelessly, and earlier that evening they celebrated getting the ship back to perfect working order. Jameson decided to keep the engines running at low power though as to not risk damaging them somehow on their way to Mars and eventually Earth. The engineers on board advised him that it was safe to travel faster, but fear of being stranded in space allowed caution to win over eagerness. “I’d rather arrive safely in six months than stay out here for years fixing our engines,” he’d told Liam one night at dinner. Liam couldn’t help but agree with the captain.

  Liam sat at th
e front window bay in the control bridge at the top of the ship’s spire. It was 1:00 a.m. and the majority of the crew and passengers were asleep. Recently he took to coming up here when he couldn’t sleep, a nightly fate that seemed to occur more often than not these days. Although it had been nearly proven he was innocent, he still held himself somewhat responsible for all that had happened to The Hawking and her residents. When he first woke up everyone was so busy and preoccupied he didn’t have the time to think over everything. Insomnia gave him that time and he began connecting dots in his memory. What could he have done differently in space and back on Earth when he was in charge of his STS campus? Maybe he could have done something sooner? Gotten them out to space a few days earlier? These thoughts circled his mind endlessly as he stared at Neptune, getting lost in its beautiful blue halo as the sun lit it from the other side.

  How he wished for a drink. The sorrows of thousands of souls weighed heavily on his shoulders. Just one shot, one beer, could ease that burden.

  Ann bordered his thoughts at all waking hours as well. He trusted that she was okay. She and the other ships got away safely, therefore if all went to plan, she was possibly even now building that beach house they talked about. Perhaps he would build his own wherever the coastlines of Earth ended up forming while they were absent from the birthplace of human civilization. He always wanted to run in the sand. Ann was strong, though. He knew her inside and out and believed she was capable of handling any obstacle that the mission threw at her. As much as he didn’t want to, he had no choice but to push her to the fringes of his mind. There were more people than her that needed him.

  While Neptune itself was another day’s voyage, a handful of its moons were much closer. He referenced the nearest navigation terminal to try and figure out which moon was which. Triton was the largest one. There was also Nereid and Naiad among others. He recognized Triton right away due to its size difference, but it was still too far away to make out the details. Still, he wanted a closer look. How often would he have the chance to see a moon up close? Plus, this gave him a much needed mental distraction. He thought if he could aim the external camera just right he might be able to get a gorgeous look at the moon and Neptune itself.

  Then a thought occurred to him. Why view it through a monitor when he could see it in person? He had access to space ships after all. What was stopping him? In the ride back down the elevator to the main body of The Hawking he ran the math. The Z56s should be fast enough to let him fly one out to Triton, take a look, and make it back to the ship before he either ran out of fuel or The Hawking passed him by.

  He double checked his cell’s battery because he knew he’d want to record video and take pictures. Seventy-three percent. The elevator doors opened and he exited with a bounce in his step. Passing no one on his way to his room, his footsteps were the only sound echoing off the dimly lit metallic hallways. At his room, he gathered food supplies in a pack, used the restroom, and changed into more relaxing clothing.

  Five minutes later, only one man greeted him at the docking bay, the guard on duty, who recognized Liam immediately and hurried to stand up, setting his tablet down on the now vacant seat, no doubt having been watching a video.

  “Good evening, sir. What can I help you with?” the guard asked.

  “There’s a minor equipment malfunction outside the ship. I’m going to take a shuttle out to fix it.” He had no idea why he felt the need to lie. He supposed it sounded better than saying he wanted to go for a joyride to see a moon.

  “I can call up an engineer if you prefer?”

  “No, that’s okay. I’m awake. I can handle it. It’s not critical.”

  “Very well, sir. Kailyn is inside, she will help you with a shuttle.”

  “Thank you,” he looked at the guard’s name badge, “Barry. Have a good night, or morning. Whatever time it is.”

  Kailyn, the woman in charge of logging any shuttle activities was sitting behind a desk also watching a video, an old twenty-first century film he thought he recognized. Setting her tablet down, she made no attempt to hide what she was doing as he approached.

  “Mr. Donovan, sir. I’m sorry, we don’t typically have much activity at these hours. Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Just a shuttle. Checking on some equipment outside the ship.”

  “Follow me.”

  She led him to a craft in front of Bay Door One explaining to him that in her opinion this was the best Z56 of their fleet, or at least the one with the fewest problems. She joined him just outside the single occupancy cockpit and gave him a quick refresher on how the shuttle operated. He knew all of this of course, but humored her anyway knowing she was just doing her job. She stood with him as he turned on the ship’s engines then wished him luck.

  “Kailyn,” he said as she was leaving the craft, “I might check out some other equipment while I’m out there to make sure all is in good order. So don’t worry if I’m taking a while.” She nodded her understanding and shut the cockpit behind her. A minute later the airlock door began opening.

  After making his way through the double doors of the airlock, he was on his way. Before doing anything else he disabled the craft’s tracking system, figuring he’d come up with an excuse later. The craft’s scanners made finding Triton easy and he beelined toward the moon at the top speed of a thousand miles per hour—estimating a three-hour trip to the moon. Triton itself, he learned while researching, featured a crust made of frozen nitrogen over an icy mantle. Its thin atmosphere was composed of nitrogen and a smaller amount of methane. The surface temperature of the moon hovered around an unconscionable negative three hundred and ninety degrees Fahrenheit. A space suit was packed away underneath his seat that could withstand those temperatures, but he didn’t think he’d have enough time for a stroll; not to mention he knew the suit’s production was rushed due to the time crunch near the end of production.

  Triton’s icy surface reflected seventy percent of sunlight so he knew he’d get a good look when he arrived. Despite his eagerness, he managed to take a much needed nap on the way. He hadn’t slept in twenty-two hours and insomnia could only come out victorious for so long. Sleep washed over him as he lay back in the cockpit’s chair. His body took its chance to recharge and when the alarm woke him up two and a half hours later, he opened his eyes fully ready to go.

  Parched, he fumbled in his bag for a bottle of water. While in there, he also grabbed a granola bar. Triton emerged on the horizon. He was still on the far side, but it shouldn’t take long to orbit around so he could see the surface. Still, it wasn’t a bad view to enjoy while eating his make-shift breakfast. By the time he chased down his last bite with a swig of water, the first light from the moon’s sun-facing surface began to glow.

  Liam brought the craft down to just above the moon’s thin atmosphere. The surface was littered with craters and featured active geological features like volcanoes and geysers. His sensors picked up volcanic activity a hundred miles away so he decided to bring the ship through the atmosphere and skim the surface trying to find it. The ice was so shiny the bottom of his craft reflected below him. The moon’s surface was one of the more beautiful things he’d ever seen.

  Smacking himself, he realized he forgot to be taking pictures and turned on his cell’s camera. With the autopilot activated, he panned the camera around recording video and taking stills of every landmark he found exciting, which was nearly all of them. There was one crater that must have been a mile deep.

  Several small geysers erupted some kind of gas with enough force that if his ship had been over it, he would have launched back into space. Through the camera’s lens he laid eyes on an active volcano. Frozen nitrogen and methane erupted a mile high. It was a compelling sight. The volcano’s elevation must have been two thousand feet. He parked his ship on the ice below it and watched until he lost track of time. The view was entrancing, casting a spell over him until another alarm broke his trance. The alarm clock on the dashboard told him he’
d been on the planet’s surface for an hour. Not wanting to risk his math being wrong, he figured he better start getting back to The Hawking.

  The Z56 lifted back off the ice and Liam flew around to the backside of the volcano for one final look. Coming around its side he noticed something odd on the surface, not as shiny as the surrounding ice. He hovered the craft in position studying it. It looked metallic through a layer of ice, almost man made. Only about five feet high, it was small but long. Starting near the base of the volcano it stretched out hundreds of yards before curving to the right and getting lost from his view. Its shape was that of a giant ring. He lowered the craft without landing and slowly flew above the metal ring. Frozen tubes extended out of the ring back inward to its center. They looked to Liam like pipes.

  As he rounded the volcano he saw more objects that had no reason to be there. Structures rose from the ground covered in ice. If it wasn’t for the rectangular shapes, he would have mistaken them for large boulders. The structures spread thin here, but as he looked inwards, still inside the metal ring, the density of the structures grew more and more thick with some towering up to fifty feet.

  He flew closer to one of the structures trying to see more detail. The one in front of him was twelve feet high and maybe forty feet wide. He tried to look inside it, but the sheet of ice that layered it from top to bottom made it too difficult. With nothing to lose he grabbed the trigger joystick and fired at the structure causing an explosion of ice to fly in every direction as the thick ice broke apart. When it all settled he was peering inside a freshly made hole into the remains of a building.

  What the hell was a building doing here on a Neptune moon?

  He repeated the ice blasting on the nearest two structures then finally the largest one he could find revealing more ruins of a long gone city. It was impossible to determine the age of the frozen ruins. He recorded more video panning from building to building then kept rolling as he ascended to get an overview of the entire layout. There must have been around sixty to seventy buildings below covered in ice.