Leon stood on the edge of a burbling brook, the cool clear water cascading over small pebbles and causing small splashes and mist to wet the moss and algae-slicked rocks along its banks. The air was alive with the scent of nature and the air was crisp and cool. The sun shone through the branches of the trees to cast dappled shadows that danced along the banks of the stream like spirits.
Leon looked around, this seemed so familiar, and yet he could not recall ever having visited such a place before. The trees around him were strange, tall and dark, their branches covered in tiny almost bud-like growths rather than the broad leaves of the trees he was used to. He looked closer, each petal of every bud seemed to be as complex as a map, the surfaces etched with innumerable symbols and diagrams.
He reached for one but blinked in surprise as the sound of snapping branches reached him, he whirled, tense and alert for the source. But the dark shadows between the trunks revealed no hidden enemies, no secrets. He looked back to the branches and cursed as he saw the trees were now bare, their branches dry and gnarled. He whipped his head to look at the stream, where there had once been life was now death. The stream was bone dry, the algae and mosses desiccated beyond hope and the rocks cracked as if they had undergone a great heat.
Standing, Leon looked for a sign, some direction he could go. After a moment he decided to follow the stream, it must surely lead to a clearing of some sort. As he walked he became aware of an almost electric tang in the air, the smell of ozone and soot strengthening with every step he took.
Leon exited the dead woods into a clearing, he gasped in shock as he beheld the ruins. The ruins of the Leif Erikson.
She lay across the land like a great fallen beast, her white skeleton rose above the trees like the vast ribs of some eldritch creature, the debris of her passing strewn across miles of destroyed forest. Fires still burned in the core of the ship and he could see acrid smoke billowing from her first ring.
Leon tried to run but found his legs unwilling to obey his mind's commands, he was frozen. Not in shock or fear, but indecision. He didn't know what to do, he racked his brains for a solution but came up empty. He watched in impassively as the fires spread and the ship burned. The fires quickly spread to the dry forest and soon the vision of hell swam in wavering lines of heat before his eyes. Sweat broke out across his body but he felt no pain, even as the fire rushed towards him and the hair of his arms crisped and flaked away he stood immobile. What could he do, all his efforts had come to bear naught but death and grief. He should never have come on this trip, he wasn't suited to command.
Leon watched in horrid fascination as the fire reached him and his flesh was consumed. His skin blackened and cracked, the steam from his boiling blood rupturing the surface and causing boils to burst from his charred flesh. Still he felt nothing, he was a shell, hollow. Leon threw his head back and wailed in despair…
And awoke in a cold sweat, his sheets tangled about his limbs. For a few seconds he fought the covers blindly, unaware of where he was. But as wakefulness overcame the fear, he calmed and stilled. Checking his clock he saw the time was only four in the morning, he pondered going back to bed but thought better of it. He couldn't handle the nightmares if they were to return.
He rubbed his side as the phantom pain of his death years before reasserted itself and he sat again with a slight wheeze. He was in bad shape, but the one person he could talk to, the one person he should be talking to. Well, he didn't want to scare her away, he had just recently come to terms with his feelings for her.
He looked around his small room, the place was well kept, he wasn't particularly good at organization, but he liked to keep things neat. He supposed it was the military training in him.
Standing and moving into the small adjoining bathroom, Leon washed his face and neck and took the opportunity to brush his teeth with his sonic brush before he used the toilet and put on a fresh change of clothes. Luckily the old shirt he pulled from his drawer wasn't too torn up, though it did have a small hole in the left arm from where he had gotten caught on something.
Leon slipped into the soft soled shoes that he commonly wore around the ship and stepped into the curving hallway. He looked both ways but saw nobody, unsurprising for this time of the morning, the only ones awake would be the two on early morning or late night shifts. But those rotated out so often he couldn't remember who was in charge at the moment, not that it mattered as they were in mid warp to another location. They would reach the new place soon but not before they had spent a considerable amount of time in warp transit.
Leon shook his head at the sheer marvel of it. Three hundred times the speed nature imposed upon all matter in the universe, and it was still so slow. Without the development of warp drives, mankind never would have left its cradle, not in any timely manner that was. He supposed they could have developed some sort of stasis technology or generational ships that could have gone at near relativistic speeds. This would have stretched time for the passengers aboard so that a thousand-year journey only seemed decades.
But the idea of pushing a ship to those speeds was so incredible as to still be science fiction. It would take enormous amounts of energy, why do that when they could cheat? Sure the warp drives consumed a voracious amount of power from the reactors, but they consumed far less than was necessary to move a ship of the Leif Erikson's mass to near the speed of light. He had heard it explained that the reason it took such a comparatively small amount of energy had something to do with the fact that the ship wasn't really moving at all, in fact it was the universe itself that was moving around their ship. At about that point his brain had shut down and he had ceased to listen. It was all very interesting to be sure, just far, far beyond him.
Leon soon found himself in the mess hall once more. He looked around for a moment before deciding to make some caffeine and eat a serving of the previous night's leftovers. Some sort of stuffed vegetables in a spicy gravy, not the perfect breakfast food but still quite enjoyable.
No sooner had Leon stood to put away his dishes than Samuel came plodding into the room. He was wearing a pair of wireless earbuds and listening to something Leon could only describe as heavy metal mixed with some sort of synthetic. The music was just loud enough for him to hear, but not loud enough for him to get a good bead on the lyrics.
He looked at Samuel and asked "What are you listening to?"
Samuel looked up at Leon in surprise and turned off his music. "Whoa, Leon, you startled me. What are you doing up so early?" The younger man asked before moving to one of the fridges and grabbing some cantaloupe slices from it.
Leon sat again and motioned for Samuel to sit across from him which the other man did. Leon asked again "What were you listening to, I couldn't place it."
Samuel smiled and said "Its Demented Mango, you ever heard of them?"
Leon shook his head "No, are they a new band?"
Samuel looked at him as if he was partially crazy before saying "These guys are classic, late 2270s music, they played for the world council one year I believe, during the internal recess period. This was before the wars picked up in the south again." He finished.
Leon racked his brain, their name did sound slightly familiar but he couldn't place them. "What do they play, any popular songs?"
Samuel nodded enthusiastically and said "You bet, they like to sing about issues and have songs like 'Riding the Tides' or 'Blood for Blood'. Either of those ring a bell?" He asked.
Leon snapped his fingers as a thought came to him. "Are they that small town band from Greater Brazil that wrote that song about the Mid American Drone Wars, er, what was it called. No freedom or something like that?"
"'Freedom without Cost' if I remember correctly." Samuel said helpfully.
Leon nodded his head, it was all coming together, he had heard the music before. "I haven't listened to them since I was a kid, where did you hear about them? They were already old when I was just a lad." He asked curiously.
Samuel looked askance and said "My grandfather listened to them, back when he was a younger man."
"Your grandfather, the director?" Leon clarified.
Samuel nodded and Leon had to chuckle. It seemed so out of character for the serious old man to listen to anti-establishment rock, but hey, he hadn't always been the director.
Leon slapped the table and stood "Alright, if I'm going to be awake, I might as well be useful. Who's in rotation in the monitoring station?"
Samuel tilted his head a moment, thinking, before he answered. "Joice I believe, she should be there for another two hours if I remember correctly."
Leon nodded his thanks and stashed his dishes in the dirty tray by the kitchen doors. He gave Samuel a small wave as he walked out into the hall before turning and making his way to the nearest ladder.
Leon crossed from the second habitat ring to the first without hurry, he had plenty of time to catch Joice before her shift was up, and he saw no reason to cause undue strain to himself. As he exited the ladder on the second ring he looked down both directions of the curving hall. Nothing was there, of course there wasn't anything there. But then why was ever sense in his primitive brain screaming that he was being watched right now.
He swiveled his eyes around and saw nothing, wait… he thought he saw a shadow down the hall move but when he blinked it remained undisturbed. Putting his paranoia onto the back burner, he walked down the hall towards Joice's position in the monitoring station.
The notion of an exposed bridge was largely symbolic and hailed back to the time of wooden ships. Nowadays, modern technology made it possible to embed the main operations center anywhere in the ship you wanted and just pipe all the data and information to it directly. But he still liked the feeling of being up front, the monitoring station was in the forward most ring but it had no windows. He didn't really like it even though it had gravity, it just didn't feel right to him. But it was the ideal place to monitor the ship's systems for long periods at a time as the gravity helped reduce fatigue and stress.
Leon walked into the room and immediately locked eyes with Joice who sat up straight in surprise and asked "Leon? Why are you awake so early? Is something wrong?" She started to get up but he waved her back down.
"Nothing wrong, just restless. Couldn't sleep and I wanted to ask your opinion on something." Leon said with a shrug as he moved between several of the unmanned consoles and sat next to the blond woman.
Joice didn't say anything as he sat, just continued to watch the multiple readouts silently. Finally Leon broke the silence and asked "I was thinking about Myung as a second in command."
Joice looked at him with a single eye before turning to face him fully and asked "So then why tell me? Do you want me to tell you what I think?" She huffed slightly as he nodded and said "I think she is a good choice, she is young and excitable at times but has her heart in the right place. She can be a bit heavy with her verbiage at times but generally deals well with others. Yes, I think she would do fine." Joice finished with a small nod.
Leon looked at her face, searching her blue eyes for any sign of hidden thoughts. "You think she will do fine, that she is alright. That's not good enough. Is there anyone on this ship you think would be a better fit?"
She shook her head as she said "I already told you once that I believe Sabine to be the best choice." Joice said. "But we both know that's unacceptable to you, and your reasons are sound, if somewhat brash."
Leon sighed and leaned back into his chair. He looked up at the light blue painted ceiling of the ship and tried to organize his thoughts. Sabine wasn't an option, and Joice admittedly didn't think Myung to be the best choice. There wasn't anyone else he hadn't considered, everyone he had thought of… 'Wait.' He thought to himself, an idea forming in his head. He smiled as he thought about it harder and then nodded to himself as he said "That might work…" quietly enough that Joice didn't seem to hear.
Turning to her he asked "Joice, there was a problem the other day between Terry and Oliver, I handled it but wanted your opinion still."
Joice nodded for him to proceed.
Leon smiled and asked "Oliver wanted to move the tables in the dining area around the long way, but Terry was adamant that they remain as they have been. She and Oliver got into quite a heated argument about it till Dr. Kimathi intervened. She told Oliver that change for change's sake would do nothing but disrupt the routine that everyone else had become accustomed to, and Oliver countered by saying that the monotony was putting everyone to sleep and that we should mix things up from time to time. What is your opinion on the issue?" Leon asked her, waiting for her to respond with a hopeful eyebrow raised.
Joice seemed to mull it over for a moment before she said "Well, I see where Oliver is coming from, it is getting a bit stale around here. But then again, Terry raises a fair point as well. We can't just go and change everything around all willy nilly." She said, making Leon chuckle. "We should implement changes, but they should be planned changes, thought out and announced in advance, we don't want to take anyone by surprise. That's the last thing we need on a ship hurtling through the most hostile environment known to man." She said.
Leon nodded and said "And that's your final answer?"
Joice shrugged and said "It's the best I can make of the problem on short notice, it would have helped if I had actually been there. Then I could have talked it out with both sides." She said with another shrug.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Leon nodded brightly and smiled as he said "Then next time you will be."
Joice just looked at him for a moment, confused. She asked "What do you mean next time?"
Leon patted her shoulder and said "I was looking at this problem all wrong, it's clear to me now what I must do. Joice, I ask you for advice a lot, why?"
She shook her head and said "I don't know, because you trust me?"
Leon hopped out of his seat and said "Yes, exactly, I trust you Joice. And not just with my personal problems, but with my command problems too. You have already been doing the job of my second, you just have not been assigned. Joice, I am asking you to be my second, please, I need you. The ship needs you." He finished as he sat across from her again.
She sat in silence as if shocked for a few moments before she stirred and asked "Are you sure you want me? I mean, surely there is a better option…" she trailed off.
Leon shook his head and replied "You know there isn't a better option, and we both know you will accept."
She closed her eyes and nodded before asking him "What do I need to do?"
"Nothing you haven't already been doing." Leon said reassuringly.
She nodded and Leon stood. "Thanks Joice, you have my full confidence. I'll leave you to it." He finished with a smile.
Joice nodded again and turned back to her console as he walked out of the room. He felt pretty good about his decision. Leon smiled as he thought about it. Joice was the perfect choice, the crew adored her and she was smart. She was good with people in a way that Leon struggled with and she could empathize with all sides of an argument. Leon walked to a nearby ladder knowing in his heart that he had made the right choice.
**********
Leon sprang out of bed, the red flashing and dull whine confusing his senses and making his eyes blur. After a few seconds he stood as he realized what was happening. The ship's red alert was currently screaming for attention and he checked his cams device just as the slightly panicked face of his second in command Joice appeared on the screen.
"Joice what in the name of god is happening…"
He started as she burst out at the same time "Leon, the alarms are going wild, what's going on…."
They both stopped and he commanded "Joice, get the command crew to the bridge and get there as soon as you can." She nodded and cut the link.
Leon got dressed in record time and sprinted down the hall towards the ladder. As he ran he tried to check the ship's status on his wrist device. The ship had dropped out of warp unexpectedly, that's probably what had woken him up, not the alarms.
As he scrambled his way up the ladder countless scenarios flashed through his mind, but they all ended in him wondering why they weren't in warp anymore.
Leon made his way onto the bridge in record time, as he flew through the airlock and pulled on his voidsuit he heard the airlock cycle. Turning towards the door he saw Sabine and Terry enter followed by Taylor. Leon pulled himself to his console and strapped in as the others were still getting situated.
He looked at the readouts, but he didn't see anything obvious. For all he knew there could be some sort of giant ass rock heading their way and he wouldn't know anything about it. Seeing nothing immediately wrong he disabled the red alert status and put them on yellow alert while turning off the klaxons. It would let him think straight at least.
As he was absorbed in the readouts, the others took their seats followed quickly by Samual and Joice.
Almost as soon as she sat Joice asked "Terry, what do you see on scopes? Anything that might explain why we aren't at warp anymore?"
Leon nodded, it was good to have someone he could rely on to help in stressful situations. He added before Terry could speak "Terry, have you tried scanning for radio signals?"
Terry looked left and right for a moment before she focused on her console while waving a hand for peace. There were a few terse moments of silence before she shook her head and exclaimed "There is nothing out there, we are deep in interstellar space. We aren't getting any returns on our scans either." She said worriedly.
Samuel said "Well, then do I have permission to just put us back in warp."
Sabine cautioned "That might be a bad idea Leon. If the warp drive malfunctioned and is the reason we dropped out of warp, then immediately trying to initiate it is the last thing we want."
Leon looked at his hands for a moment before saying "Sabine, coordinate with Chad and make sure there is nothing wrong with the drive. Samuel, stand by, if the drive is good I want us out of here asap." The young pilot nodded and made ready for flight as he sat back and watched the chaos flow for a moment.
Terry was watching the readouts intently and Taylor was actively scanning for anything that shouldn't be there. Sabine was talking with Chad and checking the status of the ship's systems and Samuel was messing with the ship's piloting systems, probably plotting a course as soon as he was given the green light. He looked at Joice who seemed to be doing what he was, watching the others while simultaneously monitoring the ship's status.
A few minutes later Samuel perked up and said "Uh, Leon. I don't know why, but the ship is pulling to starboard. I originally just set the maneuvering thrusters to minimum to counter it, but it's getting stronger."
"What! What's causing it?" Leon blurted.
Samuel shook his head and said "I'll admit I have no idea."
Terry asked him "We are pulling, wait, show me the readouts." She said before her screen changed. "No, but there's nothing…. Wait." She said before switching her screen again.
Just then Taylor raised a hand and said "Uh, Leon. I'm getting a strange signal here. Wow this is uncanny."
Leon cocked his head and asked Taylor "What is it? What's strange about it?"
Taylor shook his head as he pressed several buttons on his console before he answered. He said "I'm not positive, but it's remarkably similar to the signal pulse the Leif Erikson uses to detect long range phenomena like asteroids and comets. But the frequency is shifted heavily and downpitched. It's like something took the signal and stretched it out somehow, but that's impossible." He ended.
Joice looked about to say something when Terry blurted out "Not impossible, it's just really fucking unlikely!" Everyone looked at her in surprise, her normal quiet and cautious demeanor seemingly stripped away. She looked around at them and said "It's a wandering singularity, not impossible, just unlikely."
Leon looked at her confused and asked "Are you saying we are near a black hole?" She nodded and he added "How, are you sure, where?"
Taylor said "I can give the direction the signal is coming from, one moment."
Samuel looked worriedly at his console and said "Leon, the pull is starting to overpower the maneuvering thrusters, I'm not sure how much longer I can stop us from being pulled off course."
Sabine said quickly "If we can pinpoint its exact location we should be able to plot a slingshot maneuver, but we need its location and direction to make that shot."
"A gravity assist? Are you sure we have enough thrust to get away with that?" Joice asked.
Samuel said "If I have solid coordinates I should be able to calculate the rough mass of the black hole and plot a suitable course, but it's going to have to be soon. We are starting to be pulled off course." He said while tapping at his console.
Taylor said "I've got it, it's coming from seventy-six degrees on the starboard side! Thirty-six points inclination, right on the line!"
Terry started working away at her station as she pointed the ship's observation equipment towards the location Taylor had described. Leon waited a few moments in tense silence, the flashing of the yellow alert lights the only movement he could see.
Finally Terry popped up and pulled an image up on the main screen, the view of the cold stars replaced with a blown-up picture of the starfield, except there was something off about the picture. It took him a second to see it, the stars in the center of the image were being distorted by something, something that manifested as an absence. There was a void there, an area devoid of any light, that distorted the surrounding stars till they hardly bore any resemblance to their original selves.
Now that he saw it he couldn't unsee it. "My god…" He whispered in terrified fascination.
Samuel said "Nice job Terry, doing mass calculations now… it will take a minute." He added as everyone turned to look at him.
Joice asked "Is everyone holding up okay?"
There was a chorus of nods and replies that they were alright. Leon smiled, even faced with the most potent known force in the universe, his crew were doing their jobs. He was proud of them but decided to save his breath for speeches after they got out of this mess. Instead he just said "We will be fine, if anyone could solve this issue, surely it would be the first pick of mankind's greatest explorers, am I right?"
That got a bit of a chuckle even in the tense atmosphere that had built up on the bridge. Leon decided to take the win and not push it any further. The situation was tense enough without his bad jokes mucking things up.
Samuel rocked back in his chair with an exclamation. He looked at his screen and shook his head before horsely saying "According to, eherm, to these readings, the black hole is roughly thirty solar masses. It's not a small one, and we are fully caught in its influence now. I'm plotting a course now, but it might already be too late." He said grimly.
Sabine stated "Never! There is always hope. We will be fine." She said adamantly.
Terry grabbed Taylor and pulled her husband into a tight hug as Sabine spoke. Leon looked at Joice and said "Do you think we should inform the crew, or wait to see what happens?"
Joice said "I don't want to worry them, but they have the right to know. They would be upset if they discovered you were hiding information even if it was to protect them."
Leon nodded. That's what he had been thinking anyways. "You're right of course. I just needed to hear someone say it." He tapped on his console to open a communication to all the crew. He couldn't see them but they would get his message, they could listen to it live or check it later, but at least they would have the option. Speaking more confidently than he felt he began "My friends, It is my duty to inform you that the ship is in a precarious position. Now we are doing everything we can to get ourselves out of it. To be more specific, we have been uh, caught in the gravitational influence of a rogue black hole. We are finalizing a plan that should get us to safety, but I felt it was my responsibility to inform you of the situation before we started. That is all for now, I will inform you of the results as soon as they become apparent. Never fear, we are the bold and the true and we will overcome this test like all others. Be brave my friends." He debated whether or not he had said enough but decided it was fine. There wasn't anything else to say really.
Joice reached over and patted his shoulder while saying "I think it was nice. They know you were thinking of them now, it helps, it does." She added as he made an unbelieving noise.
Samuel piped up and said "I think I have a solution locked, but I need to execute NOW!"
"Do it!" Leon said without hesitation.
He grunted as the Leif Erikson's main engines thundered into life, the ships main engines were not generally used for more than a few seconds at a time, at the longest about a minute. The G forces pressed him back into his seat as the seconds turned to minutes.
"How long do we need to full burn?" Leon groaned after a minute.
Samuel said "Not entirely sure commander, I didn't read the entire solution before we initiated. I saw that it only had a ten second margin of error and knew that we had no time or other options." He wheezed out.
They were under at least four Gs of force, Leon could feel his insides pressing heavily together and his breathing came with some difficulty. The other crew would have had only seconds to get to a safe position before they went to full burn, but due to the yellow alert they had all likely already been in or near crash couches. He winced as he thought about all the unsecured items around the ship that were likely being thrown to the floor at the moment. Luckily the hydro and aquaponics had contingencies for these situations. The entire insides of the rings were built in segments that could partially rotate if needed to mitigate the stress from the main drives.
After what felt like an hour Samuel grunted "It's working, we are moving away from the black hole. We did it!" He cheered with a cough.
Leon wanted to celebrate as well but was struggling to find the energy at the moment. Instead he just said "That's great. How much longer?"
Sabine said "Well, at the current rate of fuel consumption we will be stopping in about seventy seconds no matter what the computer says. We weren't on a full tank when we started."
Samuel agreed and stated "She's right, but the burn should be ending any...oof.. second" he finished with a wheeze as the main engines cut out suddenly. The return of microgravity so suddenly nearly made Leon lose his dinner from last night, but he held it in and tried to readjust in his seat as much as he could while still being strapped in.
"Holy shit, that was intense, are we good Sam?" Taylor said from his seat.
Samuel checked their course and smiled before he said "Well, we are way off course, but I can confirm that we are safe. Look."
The camera switched to the view of the black hole again, the distorted void was behind them now and seemed to be slowly shrinking as they got farther from it.
Leon relaxed at the sight and said breathlessly "That was not how I expected this morning to go…"
For some reason, it might have been the relief, but it just struck him as the funniest thing he had ever heard himself say. He burst out laughing, his guffaws causing the others to begin laughing as well. After a few moments of relieved laughter Leon wiped his eyes and said "Wow, that was something else. Remind me to cross 'Almost get obliterated from existence.' off my bucket list.
Terry nodded sympathetically as Sabine said "I wouldn't be surprised to see that actually on your list Leon. Jeez, but that woke me up. I was hoping to go back to bed but I'm not sure I can now."
The bridge was quiet as they all seemed to contemplate just how close they had come to the end of all things, not even atoms would have been left of them. Obliterated so completely, to be rendered into absolute nothing. It was a scary thought.
Leon decided to break the silence by asking "Samuel, do you think we are far enough away to engage warp?"
Samuel checked and said "We should be fine, if we try and they don't discharge then I'll know for certain."
Leon shrugged, it was as good as they were going to get he supposed. He tapped on his console and started a ship wide announcement again "Hello, I have great news. We are currently moving away from the rogue singularity at speed. Sorry for the sudden engagement of the main engines, but we were working with very thin margins of error. On the positive side, we should be reentering warp shortly and then it's back to business as usual. If this were to happen for any reason again, we now have the experience to take care of it before the problem becomes so dire as that. That is all, thank you for your bravery and we will meet in the mess hall for a community lunch. Joice and I will be cooking enchiladas." He finished with as much pizzazz as he could muster.
Joice smiled and said "I can hear the cheers from here."
He chuckled and said "Okay, commendations are in order, but because we aren't a military force I don't have any medals to award. But in spite of that, you all acted with the kind of bravery and acuity I would have expected. Each of you did your part in saving not just the ship, but all our lives. I will be sure to recount in great detail your individual contributions to the others, I'm sure they will want to thank you all personally at lunchtime. But until then please remain here, I want to be absolutely sure there is nothing wrong with the ship or anything else. Thank you." As he finished he could see they were smiling to each other.
They were heroes, one and all. He was as proud of them as he could be and knew in his artificial heart that they would do anything necessary for each other. He just hoped that he could be worthy of them himself.
Leon scooted back further into his seat as his body finally started to relax, he would have to make sure there was caffeine at lunch to keep everyone awake till bedtime. It was quite early still and he needed to keep his wits about him. Leon knew he was up to the challenge though, they all were.