by Adam Moon
"Are Emma and Johnson okay?"
"They're dead. They were weak and ineffective. We removed Jack from the experiment early, when it was apparent he was the only one of you to fully grasp the situation you were all in. He was the first of you to recognize that quitting was not an option. He has already been debriefed. Now that our testing is completed, we've assembled a fine crew for you."
A woman came into the room. She smiled sweetly and said, "I'm pleased to finally meet you, Sarah." Her voice was unmistakably the voice of the ship’s computer.
Sarah struggled against her restraints. She said, "Let me go."
The woman said, "Why would we do that? You're scheduled for launch in less than an hour."
Captain Hotchkiss
Captain Jane Hotchkiss rubbed her shoulder. The inoculations burned her muscles but they were necessary. She was to be the first person to set foot on an alien planet without a spacesuit. No one had seen the planet up close, so no one knew what dangers it hid, like microscopic organisms or tiny airborne molds. But they were certain it was barren of complex life, so she took solace in that fact, and in the fact she’d been pumped full of enough chemicals to kill all but the most hardy of germs.
Four thousand years away if they traveled at top speed, the seed planet had to be reached at all costs. Earth was too volatile. The seas were drying up. Plant and animal life were dying out at an exponential rate. And there was no fixing it. The droughts and tornadoes and hurricanes were out of control, and if humanity survived those, then the heat would kill them all off in less than five hundred years.
Captain Jane Hotchkiss knew how lucky she’d been to get chosen for this mission. It was a Hail Mary pass, but a lot of time and effort had been put in to ensure the mission was a success. Because, if it failed, so to would the human race.
She turned the monitor on again and looked down at the Earth spinning below them. They’d been in orbit for three days already and they didn’t even have all of the colonists on board yet. A thousand young mating pairs had been chosen, besides her and her small flight crew. These colonists were the best humanity had to offer. They were able-bodied, intelligent, capable, and last but not least, fertile and willing to go to extreme measures to propagate the species. Her second in command, Michael Stevens, was also the engineer who could fix anything on board the ship if it failed. He was a large man, twice as tall and three times as massive as she, but he had a gentle voice and a calming effect on those around him. He referred to the colonists as studs, as in they were good for nothing but breeding like wild animals.
He was down in the stasis pod chamber securing the colonists already on board. The last two members of her flight crew, Melanie Jackson and Jacob Walden, were both assisting him. She didn’t know any of them very well, but she was pleased to see how capable they all were.
Melanie was a medic, but she also helped out wherever she was needed. It was already common knowledge that she held more degrees than the rest of them combined.
Jacob was technically their I.T. guy, but in essence he was an all-around genius. He could probably sail this boat to the seed planet all by himself. But he was physically weaker than the others, his energies used in his brain, not in the rest of his body. He was barely as tall as the girls, and Jane was pretty sure he would lose an arm-wrestling match to either one of them. But his mental potential was limitless.
A fresh crop of colonists were docking, so her three man crew was readying them for stasis. There would be arguments and bargaining, as stasis was still feared by most people. It had proved reliable to wake someone after seven years with no adverse effects, but they were going under for four thousand years. No one knew what that might do. There were already whispers of space madness, but that was a myth. She had to hope psychology didn’t boost the myth up into the realm of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Space madness wasn’t real unless some weak-minded person made it real.
Michael Stevens said over the intercom, “That’s the last of them. You and I are the only warm bodies on this ship now.”
She waited for him to make a sexual reference but he just added, “I’m icing up in a minute. We’re ready to get out of this shithole.”
“Copy that, Stevens. I’ll let ground control know we’re ready to set out.”
“Goodnight, Captain.”
Blast Off
“Ground control, this is the vessel Seeder. All occupants are in stasis. I’m ready for the controls.”
“Controls are transferred to you, Captain. Good luck and godspeed.”
She thought about making a speech, giving the press a sound-bite to work with, but the people left behind wouldn’t be fooled by it. They knew they were doomed and they were jealous of those who got to escape the ravages of Earth.
She ran a systems check, and once she was satisfied ignited the boosters, and not a moment too soon. Their window had shrunk considerably and if they missed this launch it would be weeks before they’d be able to use another viable route. And that new path would add decades to their journey. This path was optimal, and they’d just barely made the launch window. She hoped the rest of the mission wouldn’t be this nerve racking, but she knew it would.
She’d be awake for the next few months as they navigated the solar system. That was the tricky part of the trip, among all the obstacles and gravity wells. They had to use those gravity wells to pick up speed, slingshotting them faster and faster. After they got outside the Kuiper belt, it was nothing but black empty space until they got to the seed planet. That was the safe part of the trip.
She made sure the calculations were correct and then let the docking station disengage from the ship. She was worried about using Jupiter’s gravity to get that added boost in speed, but the first stop was the sun and that really scared the shit out of her. The crew had been reassured that it would be safe to use the sun’s gravity, but she had her doubts anyway.
In six days she’d know if her fears were warranted. A little over a month later she’d know if the Jupiter approach was worth worrying about, and a month and a half later they’d be free of the sun’s gravity altogether. Then she’d get to go into stasis.
Of course, if anything went horribly wrong, it was within her rights to wake the crew to help her. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Gravity
The simulated gravity on board the ship had acted wonky during the orbit of the sun; she felt some of the G-forces, but luckily it held up just enough. Had it not, she would have been pulverized by the acceleration.
Her heart had nearly clawed out of her chest and hid in a corner. But the worst of it was over now. The sun’s effects were diminishing as they hurtled away from it and towards Jupiter.
As soon as she could move around, she went below deck to make sure the folks in stasis were okay too.
Because they were frozen solid, she worried that instead of their flesh bending to the G-forces, they’d crack or crumble. If they did, when she woke them they’d die instantly.
They looked to be okay but she had to be sure, and since there was no way to monitor the life force of someone in stasis, she had to wake someone up just to put her mind at ease. The thought of arriving at the seed planet alone scared her more than the actual hazards of the mission.
She told the computer to thaw out Michael Stevens, and then she waited while his pod warmed enough to allow the fluids in his body and his IV’s to flow. His skin started to turn tan and he twitched as his appendages were freed of their icy bonds. As soon as he opened his eyes, she knew he’d be fine.
She considered putting him back on ice right away now that she had her answer, but she knew that would be cruel. His last thought would be something like, What the hell is going on?
Plus, it was just too dangerous to refreeze him so soon.
But now she was stuck with him for at least three hours. Once his cell walls elasticized he had to wait that long before he could go into stasis again. It had to do with the way the water within cells crystallized when fro
zen. If it crystallized in a jagged fashion, then the crystals could rupture the cell walls during the thaw. That wasn’t a concern unless the subject was frozen back to back with little time between each freeze for the cells to renormalize. She didn’t know the specifics but she trusted the science.
She draped a heating blanket over Michael’s shoulders as soon as he sat up. Then she helped him out of the pod. He was heavy; she should’ve woken Melanie or Jacob instead.
He mumbled, “What happened?” His throat was thick and gummy, but she already knew what he’d say, so she understood.
Our artificial gravity was going out intermittently when we shot around the sun. It mashed me into my seat. I was worried it’d done even worse to those in stasis.”
“Understandable, I guess.” She let him go and he stayed on his feet under his own strength. “Sucks that I have to wait to go back in though,” he said through racks of fresh convulsions. “The thaw is colder than the freeze.”
That was news to her.
She was the only person left on the ship who didn’t know what to expect from stasis. But it was somewhat reassuring to see Michael handling it so well.
She asked, “What was it like?”
“The fluids that the IV’s pump into you right before the freeze do sort of hurt, but not in any way that should concern you. The freeze is instant. I barely remember it.”
“Let’s get you upstairs where it’s warmer.”
A Plan
Michael dressed as soon as his fits of shivers ceased. He said, “You might want to wake everyone once we get close to Jupiter. Its gravity isn’t nearly that of the sun’s, but if the artificial gravity is on the fritz then it still might be a good precaution. I’d hate to have to turn this boat around and head back to Earth with a fresh crop of corpses.”
“I was thinking about that too. I’ll need to wake up the entire crew to help me.”
“That’s no problem.” Then he said, “I just hope it’s no problem getting the colonists back into their pods after we revive them.”
“Do you think it’ll be an issue?”
“I have a pounding headache, my muscles feel like they’re on fire, and the shivering has only just now slowed down. It’s no picnic, so I’m not too keen to have to go through it all again.”
She nodded, wondering just how much pain it took to affect a guy as big and burly as Michael. Maybe he had a low pain threshold. She could only hope.
He stood up. “My time’s almost up. Wake me when we get to Jupiter.”
“See you then.”
With that, he left the captain’s station to go below decks to his stasis pod.
End of Solitary
Captain Jane Hotchkiss was mentally exhausted. The boredom was palpable. Communications with ground control had gone from intermittent to non-existent weeks ago. If she sent a message, they’d get it days later, and then days after that, she’d get her reply. It was a worthless way to communicate so she’d abandoned it.
She’d eaten all of the good food in the kitchen, so now she had to subside on crap. Now she knew why the worst punishment doled out in prison was solitary confinement; being all alone was torturous. When the engineers had put this thing together they hadn’t spared a thought for her. All that mattered was that the ship was able to complete the voyage with all of the colonists accounted for. They didn’t give a shit that the captain was slowly going nuts. Thankfully, she’d brought her multimedia tablet. She watched her old favorite shows and movies for a second and then a third time. She read most of the books she’d feverishly downloaded during the weeks leading up to the launch. She thought she had gathered enough, but she was quickly running out of distractions. She had even selfishly considered waking someone up just so she’d have someone to talk to, but she struggled to find a ruse that would be believable enough.
They were now at the halfway point of her ordeal. They were approaching Jupiter. In another month and a half she could go into stasis and her fevered thoughts would freeze solid for four thousand years.
She told the computer to wake up her three member crew and then went below deck to supervise and assist if necessary.
Because Jacob and Melanie were smaller than Michael, they thawed out sooner, but their shivering fits were more violent. Jane had to explain to them why she’d been forced to revive them.
Jacob said between chattering teeth, “What were you thinking? You could’ve just woken me up at any point before now to go over the artificial gravity. I could’ve fixed it. Now we’re too close to Jupiter to start messing around with it.”
Only now did Jane see the error of her judgment. She said, “Well, what’s done is done. We need to wake the other colonists quickly before the gravity affects us.”
Melanie shot Jacob a dirty look and said, “You’d better not let it get out that this could’ve been avoided. We don’t want the colonists to worry that the mission is being mismanaged.” Then she turned to Jane and added, “No offense, Captain.”
“None taken. I messed up. After we’re past Jupiter, we’ll take a look at the artificial gravity.”
Jacob snorted and started to dress.
Michael’s shivering kicked in. He snarled at Jacob, “I was responsible for the mistake in judgment. I brought it up to the captain that we should be woken before we reach Jupiter. If anyone here is an idiot, then it’s me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jacob sneered, “I’ll get us back up to speed.”
“You’d better hope it’s a software glitch, because if it’s hardware, you’re useless. You’re too puny.”
“I’m puny, but I’m about to save your meaty ass.”
Melanie said, “Arrogance is not a virtue. We all need to get along.”
Jacob said to the captain, “Next time you need to wake someone for a consult, make sure you wake me.”
Jane returned, “Wait until the headaches and muscle pain kick in. You’ll regret offering your services.” Before he could rethink his stance, she added, “I guarantee you’ll be the first crew member woken.”
Bickering
They decided against waking all of the colonists; there was just no way to control such a big group all at once. They woke up half of them. If the other half crumbled and died as a result of a failed artificial gravity generator, then at least they’d still have enough to start a colony, albeit a pitiful one.
Jacob stated, “What does it matter anyway? Even if all one thousand survive this entire trip, the number is too meager to ensure a diversified colony.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Michael sarcastically.
Melanie added, “We’re not stupid, Jacob. We know we should have at least ten thousand mating pairs to ensure success. But this is what we have to work with.”
Michael added, “Even if interbreeding has to occur, that’s a consequence everyone’s willing to deal with. The alternative is not running this mission at all. Is that something you’re comfortable with?”
Jacob shook his head. “They should have held off the mission until they could build a ship that could hold a hundred times this many colonists.”
“That’s why you’re an idea guy and not a doer. If it was up to you, nothing would ever get done.”
Jane interrupted angrily, “I’ve been alone for a month and a half. I’ve been looking forward to interacting with people for that entire duration, but now I just want this to be over so I can put all of you back on ice to end this wasteful bickering.”
Melanie looked hurt, but she apologized. Michael nodded and got to work opening the pods.
Jacob ignored her and set to work.
By the time they were done, the entire pod chamber was full of condensing mist. One by one, the colonists woke up and crawled out of their pods.
They had expectant, joyous looks on their faces until Jane explained to them that they were less than two months into the mission and were only being woken up as a safety precaution. Then they became upset. One girl said, “We didn’t sign up for that.
We were supposed to be woken when we arrived at our new home. What changed that?”
Jane said, “There’s nothing to worry about. We are approaching Jupiter. This will be over soon enough.”
Jacob added, “Not really. They’ll need to be kept out of their pods for at least two hours. Three would be safer still.”
Michael said, “It’s a good thing our orbit of Jupiter will take almost exactly that long, right folks?”
Jacob sulked as he walked from the pod chamber.
Melanie said, “I can’t believe that little shit passed all the tests to get here.”
Jane allowed all of the colonists to convene to her command station. She did so because she had to monitor their approach, but she didn’t want any of them out of her sight. When she turned the little monitor on, some of them gasped. Jupiter was huge, colorful, and magnificent.
By the time they’d descended to the appropriate orbit, it was obvious that whatever the sun had done to their artificial gravity was not a problem here. The artificial gravity held up during the entire sling. For that she was thankful.
Malfunction
Everything worked out great until they started to put the colonists back into stasis.
That’s when they discovered that one of the units had malfunctioned. The computer had no answers for them, and Michael stated flatly that the unit was beyond repair.
Luckily, they had a single back-up unit that took all of the crew to drag out of storage. It took Michael another twenty minutes to rig all the electrical lines and hoses. When it was ready to use, the poor put-out lady got inside shaking her head out of frustration. They all watched as the freeze took her.
Jane asked, “Should we jettison the broken unit and alter our approach to make up for the weight difference of the cargo, or should we just leave it?”