Beyond Sol

Chapter 8H

Annabeth Allan walked home from her school, the same route she walked everyday. A three kilometre walk from EME school. Seven schools built in our honour, this certain school Emma's. The sun had set by now, the winter solstice only a week away. The air was frigid; but not freezing. "Eighth grade sucks, Dad." She gazed up to the night sky, KLMA-3 flickering in and out of view, only barely visible to the unaided eye.
She shivered, a Martian resupply launching towards the sky. Anna lived in a relatively low light polluted town, just an hour and a half drive from the Capital. The Milky Way settled at a twenty degree angle above the horizon, three individual comets hidden gently. Armed men sat on houses roofs she passed by—if B.S-1 ever was confirmed a failure, she would immediately enter training for her whole life.
The radioactive trail the Spectrum had left, over half a decade ago now, still floated above. It will for decades. It was easily the brightest thing in the sky, charged ions still active, amplified by the twilight effect; basically just the ions being higher, seeing the sun earlier and later. Anna wasn't one to care much about the night sky, but when it came to her father, it didn't matter.
A teenage boy, Chase Allan, named after me, approached, catching up from his hundred metre slack. "Ben je oké?" He asked. The pair spoke Dutch to each other, despite being English speakers. It wasn't because of religion, or speech impediments or anything, they just...did.
"Ja. Ik ga gewoon vrolijk terug." She replied, the last streaks of the sunset fading. Yeah. Just making my merry way back.
"Duh. We're like—two hundred metres away. Our house is right there." He snickered, hanging a right into a street from the path.
"Dickkkkk."
"You're just like dad."
"Don't talk about dad, he left when I was a child. I don't even remember him." Anna coughed, clearly not enjoying how the conversation had turned.
"Yeah, well, dad's not dead. You know that. He's just trying to figure out how he can get back without killing us." Chase murmured, reminiscing the times when I was still on Earth.
"You knew him. He just...left. I don't want him to come back. He left his children to die on Earth. He left Earth without a thought in his mind." Anna muttered under her breath. Sirens blared in the distance, ever growing. "...You hear that?" Anna stopped, bearcat vehicles pulling around a corner just a kilometre back.
"Stay behind me." Chase guarded Anna, the brigade of vehicles squealing to a stop. Two bearcats, three vans, and a dozen black SUV's. NASA, CSA, The Blackcrow Navy, and the Beyond Sol patches were easily found on all seventeen vehicles. "Don't say anything." Chase murmured quietly, atleast five dozen men from the SUV's exiting, two dozens from the armed bearcats.
"Mike Kingsley." Mike said, letting his wallet drop open, a NASA representative card brightly shining.
"Yeah...Chase Allan."
"We know. Your correlation with the Beyond Sol program is clear...your father." Scott sighed, exiting one of the SUV's.
"Scott." Chase shook his hands, only by the knowledge from his visits to the B.S-1 training centre in Crissco. "I'll take a bold assumption that something happened?"
"Pfft. Yeah. Something happened. Why else would we be taking you?"
"I think the fuck not you pedo!" Anna grabbed a empty pop can from the sidewalk, throwing it at Scott. Chase caught it mid-air, throwing it back at Anna behind him, maintaining eye contact with Scott.
"These guys are Space Force, dick. They'll shoot your ass back to England."
"We're not from England."
"That's the point." The two whispered. The military sergeants stepped forward, grabbing the two. "He-Hey! What the fuck!" They were forced into an SUV, the brigade suddenly driving away.

I finished writing down a document on my desk, getting up and stretching. I waddled to the closet behind me, grabbing a Basana. It was a brass-wind instrument similar to the trumpet. Three valves except they stretched down out the bottom, find the middle ground for a note. The bell at the end turned sideways to the right, awesome for tricking people. I just fiddled with it, not making a noise.
I set it down on my desk along with the book for it. I exited the quarters, Braeden and Emma's room blocked off with tape. "Rise and shine fuckers." I yelled out, hands over the rim of my mouth.
"Ah, fuck you!" James voice echoed in silence.
"Get up!" I continued down the section of the ring, the two stars above fading in and out view as the ring spun. Open the airlock door, slip down you know the rest. I floated my way to the bridge for the everyday check up.
"I need all of you in the bridge!" I yelled on the com. I floated in, taking my seat in the front. "Shit it's cold." I started the bridge systems. "How's our course?" I asked, calmly firing up the main bridge batteries.
"On par," AETHER remarked. The other four floated in with cranky faces.
"Don't start whining. Got work to do." I opened up the trajectory course.
"We always have work to do." Muhammed rubbed his eyes, taking a seat.
"It's true." The trajectory was on course, KLMA-3E inbound. "Amelia get on any NSO's."
"Why would there be one?" Amelia asked, flying over to the Near Spectrum Object's tab. The metal hinges rattled and shook, only kept in place by the worn out timid steel bars. She closed her music tab, avoiding trouble.
"There's been one following us for months, that's why." James sighed, getting on the systems diagnostics. "Ammonia spikes in Ring 2. Is that a problem?"
"Usually it would be. But the mission isn't so usual anymore is it. We can clear it out later." Eliza sighed, sipping on a cup of juice she left in her seat yesterday. "Eugh. Tastes bad."
"That can't be right..." Amelia perked up, her eyes illuminated by spreadsheets of data on her screens interchanging.
"No, juice can taste bad."
"Not that! Impact?" She turned her screen around facing me.
"Impact can't be right. It's near impossible for an asteroid to find this small of an object in interplanetary space." I furrowed my brow.
"Yeah, well, it d-" Muhammed was cut off by a sudden pop of air. In a split second the Spectrum was forced into a high-g spin. The air got thin and crisp, AETHER calling out G warnings.
Warning, approaching 7 G's.
Warning, approaching 8.1 G's.
"Shittttt!" James muttered, gasping for air. Structural integrity alarms blared, the screens and monitors ahead flickering. Blood splattered, flying to the right. I cocked my neck to the left with a bit of force.
Okay that's an understatement. A shit ton. "Dont go unconscious!" I shouted, only wasting my breath. I was the last one awake. I slammed the stick to the right, putting all my force with my other hand to activate the RCS. Come onnn! My vision blurred, my head giving out. The restraints dug into my skin, motherfucker! It all went black, a sudden jolt.