Earth:
August 13, 2259
Unknown:
Month ?? Day ?? Year ????
Initializing Defrost Sequence...
Vital scans complete. Genetic aberrations detected in 3,259 of 40,000 colonists. Characteristics: enlarged hypothalamus, parietal, and temporal lobes. Secondary structures within eyes, function unknown.
Overall effects: unknown, but not detrimental to overall health.
Summary: 40,000 of 40,000 colonists healthy.
Draining cryogenic fluid.
Administering stimulants.
Unsealing hibernation pods.
After decades of silence, the supercarriers were suddenly filled with the sound of hissing and whirring. Thousands of hydraulic cylinders engaged simultaneously as the 40,000 hibernation pods aboard unceremoniously dumped their precious human cargo onto the ships' cold steel floor. The unlucky passengers barely had five seconds to collect themselves before the monotone, computerized voice of the ATLAS AI boomed through all four ships.
Attention all passengers. Based on estimates from the ship's inertial navigation system, we have missed our initial destination of the Gantris system and have arrived on Tarsonis III. Please do not be alarmed: Tarsonis III is perfectly habitable. Captain Edmund Duke, Executive Officer Antoine d'Arbanville, please report to the bridge. All other passengers, please report to the mess hall. You will each be provided with food, water, and temporary shelters. Thank you for your cooperation.
Not five seconds passed before the supercarriers erupted into chaos.
"Missed? What the fuck do you mean, missed?"
"Where the fuck is Tarsonis? Hell, where the fuck is Gantris?"
"Thank God, the League can't find us here! We can finally live in peace!"
"What the fuck, man? I had family back on Earth!"
"Fuck your family! We're finally free!"
"You motherfu-"
Attention all passengers. Please report to your designated areas. You will be briefed by the Captain and Executive Officer soon. Please refrain from violence in the meantime. Thank you for your cooperation.
------
"Captain" Edmund Duke could not believe his luck. Or more accurately, complete lack thereof. He thought his life was over when the United Powers League's international secret police raided his bunker, bringing an end to the decade-long Second American Civil War. As commander of the American Revolutionary Army's Appalachian Division, he thought he'd be facing a firing squad, like the rest of the Revolution's top brass. Instead, he was shipped off to some lunatic billionaire called Doran Routhe, commissioned as captain of the Nagglfar in some bastardized mockery of a ceremony, and sent to die on some godforsaken rock thousands of light-years from Earth. And to top it all off, d'Arbanville, one of the Revolution's moles within the League member states, who Duke hated with a burning passion, was here with him.
Duke audibly exhaled as d'Arbanville entered the bridge behind him. Both men opened their mouths, likely to scream obscenities at each other, but the AI spoke first.
"Greetings Captain Edmund Duke, Executive Officer Antoine d'Arbanville. Welcome to Tarsonis-III. ATLAS is yours to command."
Almost simultaneously, both men yelled "What the fuck?"
YOU ARE READING
Tales from New Terra
FanfictionCast off of Earth, forty thousand "undesirables" are packed onto colony ships headed to a nearby exoplanet and consigned to a lifetime of slavery under the tyrannical United Powers League. By some odd twist of fate, however, multiple critical malfun...
