"All crew members report to mess hall. There is terrible news to announce" The voice of my captain in the radio stops me from brooding in bed playing games and hearing music that will probably never get updates or new releases.
The sleeping quarters are already inside the gravity emulator cylinder. I just need to walk to the room across from me and i would reach the mess hall. Other grumpy people get off their beds. The beds are one of the only place you can customize. They get really comfy, when you get used to them. you would never want to leave them.
I get to the mess hall. The captain is standing next to a box and he is wearing a formal suit. Solemn faced, he gives me a nod. As i am one of the first people to get here, i give the box a long look. Until realization sets in, this is a coffin. The possibility of death on board isnt an insignificant possibility. We launched with coffins in the case of death, to allow the body to be preserved until we finished the mission. To help give a proper burial, when we returned.
Keeping quite. I try to puzzle out whose funeral it could be. What happened. There isnt much to do other then wait for the rest of the crew to show up. As the captain seems to stay quite. Not saying anything until everyone shows up. A little bit later, the full crew of 40 people shows up. I guess its 39 now. The mess hall wasnt designed for everyone to be in it at the same time. So its a little crowded.
"Hello everyone, I am sad to inform you that a loved and respected member of our crew has passed away. Miss Paula Rinaudo the ship custodian has been with us for 4 years in the duration of this expedition. During this time, she was a force of unstoppable good. Loved by everyone. No one could say a single bad thing about her. But this wonderful person has sadly decided to end her own life." He continues for a bit longer and ends it shortly after.
What the fuck. I spoke to her just yesterday, what could have driven her to do this. There is still some suspicion of whether this whole situation is true. What could have driven a relatively cheerful person to do this. Someone could have said something irresponsible and convinced her we are all doomed. There are some dick heads that just went full doomsday. But you didnt have to believe them. White knuckling, i turn to leave.
"Not to upset you all the more, but now that we are all here. I would like to relay information that sheds some light to our current situation. As all of you already pieced together. The sun and earth are both gone. Signals from earth seem to have stopped at the same time as the disappearance of mars. Taking into account the time for the signal to reach us to the stop time is exactly the same with a 20 second variance range. The sun was clearly gone minutes after the mars incident." There are a few murmurs, but everyone doesnt show any surprise. Knowing this on their own. No one in this ship is an idiot.
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"Now for the new information. The scientist have theorized that all stars and planets have experienced the same fate as mars. Previously visible stars that are closer to us have dissipated, all of them coinciding with the exact time of the other disappearances and the time for their earliest photos to reach us. Laser scans of distant planets, show that they have moved positions. Even calculating the inertia of the planets, when they lost the gravitational field of the sun." Now the room is deathly quite. If all the stars are gone, then its a big joke having solar panels in the first place. If there are no planets, then we are stuck in space. If were stuck in space, then energy would be the least of our worries.
"we atleast have some good news. As random laser scans show, the normal levels of space debris and Some of the moons of our solar system. We dont know why they weren't take in the same fashion as the planets and stars. but at this moment they are our last hope."Atleast not all is lost, but this is still horrible. we definitely dont have enough food to last long.
the moons of mars Phobos and Deimos have small space stations on them that have been heavily stripped down in fear of orbital war strike on countries. a consequence of a war, that we are experiencing the downside of. Even to this day. What valuable materials we can get from them is likely to be redundant and lacking compared to the quality of our ship. A possible extremely valuable commodity would be food. As even space stations are expected to hold people.
"We will set off to Deimos and hope to establish contact with TRF anti-extinction flagship. This ship has the capability to sustain 3000 people. Because of the unexpected situation their crew size should not exceed 600 people. their ship has communications cut off, in case of enemy operatives. Their position is also obfuscated for the same reason. The only way for us to establish communications without being shot down, would be to wait on one of the moons or a Mars trojan. It is also possible for other space vessels. private or government owned to orbit the moons."This is good, a solid goal. Previously, everyone was just stewing in their own anxieties. Now we can hope for tomorrow.
"Captain how long do you expect us to stay out of contact with other ships." Thats a good question, everyone could temper their minds to expect how long they should last. How willing they are to work. Managing their expectation.
"Thats a good Segway for my next topic. From now on, i am imposing ration controls. Everyone will have their food consumption halved. We will be building spare parts for the ship onsite, as there will be no replacements sent back from mars. We will start treating crime more severely, as the consequence of your actions effect everyone. The prison rooms will finely get to be of use, so behave your self. Its important for us to suffer now, so we dont die later. There are no guarantees, there could be threats to the mission. But as the captain, i will not allow those threats to originate from us. I will not allow us to fail, We cant fail" The energy in the room seems to manifest physically. as everyone is getting fired up, nothing can stop us we are unstoppable. We cant fail.