Galactic Core - Starship Vitality
I wake in a coffin. Crammed in a stone obelisk. Can move a little, but not enough.
“Why am I awake?”
A tiny speaker relays a cheery voice. “We’re approaching the packet. Wanna see?”
“Fuck ya.”
I burst from my coffin. Give Vi a smile and a wave. She smiles and waves back in perfect synchronicity. Makes me a vodka and vicodin.
I give it a sniff. “Is this made out of Gary?”
“Not yet. The recycler has chucked a little mass, but I made it up with space dust. Gary’s just trapped in a deeper class of slumber. Still intact.”
That’s good. Not particularly worried about Gary, but I’d rather not drink him. I prefer recycled urine with a space dust back.
The huge hemispherical screen of the Vitality shows the packet against the galactic core’s clusterfuck of stars. We’re pulling up next to it. A complicated orbital maneuver planned decades ago.
This is the twelfth time that we’ve serviced the packet. It was built to last, but every couple centuries we like to update its broadcast with our ever expanding guide to the galactic core.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Vi and I have surveyed millions of planets - including several thousand that are almost perfectly Earth-like. By any reasonable metric, we’ve far exceeded our mission parameters. We could stop, but why?
The human race is very, very, late. One could almost assume they’re not coming. It’s not that surprising. The plan to save humanity was always futile. Mathematically stupid.
But just because they aren't coming, doesn't mean nobody is. The galactic core is still the best place to point your worldship if you're a doomed species needing a new home. So we uploaded the first contact protocol to the packet. Then added every scrap of data we could glean from the center’s millions of stars, planets, and moons. Cause you never know what people may need.
Sometime in the next million years, they’ll cruise in - packed tight, low on food, with just enough fuel for one last maneuver. Basically doomed. Then they’ll get a transmission telling them where to go. Salvation.
Ironically, we’re better equipped for this than our original mission. The ship's design makes a lot more sense if you change its purpose. Humanity created the perfect tool to find a new home planet. And when we couldn't use it, we gave it to the galaxy anyway. Maybe that was the plan all along.
So we keep moving. Cruising the core, getting more and more data. Our plan is to find everything and map everywhere. Give everyone the best chance to keep on. It’s an impossible task, but we have a self healing ship that can turn space dust into Immortalis. Entropy can get fucked.
But that’s tomorrow’s job. Today, Vi and I watch the packet receive its latest upgrade. 300 years of planetary surveys. After a couple hours, the packet fires back up. Its antimatter powered broadcast drumming out the secrets of the universe.
Vi and I both nod. Finish our drinks. Shows over I guess.
“Wanna go back to sleep?”
“No. Let’s stay up for a bit.”