Braxon's eyes shuttered, his breathing thin — the alarm. There wasn’t any. There was only blessed silence. Sweet silence. He was tired and found the silence a welcome relief. I should be alarmed. He struggled to think. I should be doing something. The hand holding his broken oxygen mask in place fell and with it, the last of his air slipped away.
He was so tired. But there’s is something else isn’t there? It was cold. Too cold. His eyes opened slightly, and he breathed in but there was no air. Panic. His eyes strained to open wide. His hand came up, slowly, moving forward, fumbling at the flashing control panel. The blinking orange and red, faded, replaced by blue and green. The cabin pressure returned, and with it the emergency alarm. Braxon took a deep breath and coughed, unclipping himself from his seat harness. A quick inspection of the cabin and he was satisfied the fire had been extinguished.
One more quick breath and he sprinted back towards the cockpit. It wasn’t a long run, his vessel was intended for short flights, shuttling people between the larger ships of the Unified Republic, and the spaceports that serviced them. The ship had a long-jump drive, but it was generations old and wasn’t top-of-the-line when it was new.
He slid into one of the two pilot seats. “Status report,” his voice was weak as he struggled to gather a long breath.
“Congratulations head-of-station Braxon, the fire has been extinguished. Unfortunately, long-range communications are being disrupted, weapons are offline, navigation is offline, defensive shields are operating at 20% efficiency, and we are still being pursued by two unidentified craft.” The ship replied, his voice entirely too cheerfully, “What are your orders, sir?”
“Show me the star charts of our last known position,” Braxon, settled into the seat, clipping himself in. He glanced down at the black box near the console. It sat, unopened, its titanium fittings, and seal still in place. The display shifted to show the constellation Pieuxs, and the nearest registered star chart, the ship was indicated by an overlaid graphic, its trajectory mapped out in a multitude of opacities deviating from a sold core, the best approximation of the probability of deviancy given the recent emergency cabin depressurization.
“There.” he tapped the hud, “What’s that no-fly zone?”
“That is a class IV asteroid field.” the ship responded, “I hope you don’t mean to fly me into that.”
Braxon tapped a few more controls, plotting his pursuers. The unidentified crafts appeared in orange and were closing. “Not much choice, they are gaining on us.”
“Then I should like to say, it has been an honor to serve alongside you, sir. And I would like to formally file a complaint with the Engineering corp of the Unified Republic, for what can only be the gross negligence you are about to subject me to.”
Braxon smiled, “Take us in.” The ship slid out of the quick-stream, into lower drive, the splash speed causing the nose to skip once before it auto-corrected and engaged the thrusters straight for the mammoth asteroid field. Braxon’s fingers slid over the control panel again before he looked straight ahead and began.
“This is the acting captain, and head-of-station for the Natuli sector, Engineer first-class Braxon Ahja. The Natuli forward station has been destroyed by a fleet of unidentified vessels. My entire team was killed in the ambush attack that took place on URC 1056, almost two solar cycles ago. I escaped in our science shuttle with our research and the prototype drive, but I was detected and came under fire.”
His fingers flew over the console, disabling the alarm. “In the attack, our weapons, and navigation was disabled. Our shields have suffered heavy damage. I have piloted us to a large asteroid field to evade capture. There is a good chance, with the damage sustained thus far that I will be unsuccessful.” Braxon took a breath and gave a nervous glance down to the black case on the floor before continuing. “I have encrypted the plans for the prototype drive, and our research results, they will be attached to this recording.”
Stolen story; please report.
As the ship entered the outer rim of the field, the large asteroids came into view, planetoid size chunks of rock, peppered by holes and craters from a millennia of impacts, came into view like competing mountain ranges locked into a violent dance.
“Dad. I’m glad I became what I am, perhaps my research can turn the tide of these continual conflicts. Tell mom I love her. Niam, if you’re listening to this, I’m probably dead. I hope you will move on, and find someone to love you, someone that will fill your life with good memories, that will cherish you as I have. Don’t be like me and become a recluse or hermit. I don’t want that for you.”
The proximity alarm blared as two smaller asteroids shattered off a larger one and headed toward him.
Taking the controls Braxon deftly piloted around the swarm of asteroids. “Still no communications?”
“Affirmative, there are heavy elemental deposits in these asteroids, even if they were not jamming us, we likely couldn’t send any long-range communications here.”
“That means they won’t be able to either,” Braxon pulled the shuttle deeper into the field, before setting down, landing in the crater of one of the larger asteroids.
“With any luck, we bought ourselves enough time,” He unclipped himself and stepped over to the black case. Using his handprint the case clicked the top parting to reveal the glowing prototype drive module.
Braxon pulled the module out and retreated into the shuttle, to the engineering access point, his free hand gripped the ladder as he swung down, into the belly of the shuttle, to the drive compartment.
“Sir, I hesitate to bring this up, because of the circumstances, but as you are no doubt aware, my systems are outdated and incompatible with your new drive technology. I’m afraid any attempt to use the prototype unit will lead to wildly unpredictable results at best.”
Braxon’s lips thinned, as he jumped from the ladder onto the engineering catwalk. He dashed towards the engine bay. “The way I see it, we’re about out of options. We can’t outmaneuver them, can’t lose them. If we don’t try we die.” He skitted to a halt and manually disengaged the door levers, before opening the drive module locks. The drive unit rotated away from the drive, allowing him to pull the previous module. It clattered across the floor as he discarded it.
“Course odds are pretty good we’re going to die using the drive in an asteroid field, but I’d rather die trying I guess, and who knows, maybe we will get lucky?“
The proximity alarm started again, the red flashing lights looked particularly sinister to Braxon.
“We have been found, sir. They will be here any moment now.” the ship reported over the blaring alarm.
Braxon slipped the black and titanium module into place, locked it down, and rotated the module unit into the ship’s drive.
“You’re going to have to take us out, there’s no time for me to get back up there.” Just plot a straight jump out of the field, you don’t need to use much power, this unit should require less than the last one.”
“Negative. I am unable to engage the drive with a person inside the drive bay. To do so would violate several safety protocols.”
“Override safety protocols, that’s a direct order.” Braxon retreated to the ladder and hooked his arms and legs around it to brace himself. “Now engage the drive!”
Light flooded the bay until there was only light. Braxon shut his eyes, but even through them, there was only white. Then came a warmth, not intense, a very slow warmth filling his whole body.
And then there was nothing.