Beyond Sol

Chapter 10J

Where are we going? I don't know. It's somewhere, not far. We were always supposed to go to Alpha Centauri, but now we're here, far, far from home, trusting our family with liars. A stray ship aiding us soon, the cosmos guiding us, planets waving in clouds of carbon as we pass.
I dabbed out my cigarette in the ashtray which sat motionless abroad on my wooden desk. I wheeled my chair closer to the desk, opening up my laptop.
CARTERALLAN@CSA.GOV.URL
ALLYOUGUYSSUCK!
My CSA control panel guided me into the ship schematics. "AETHER, am I allowed to know what type of port the object UIDO 7819 used?"
"Negative."
"Docking bays?"
"251 metres by 78."
"Surprising. Are you gonna murder me if I try to dock?"
"Negative."
"Shocking." I began writing out a plan for a landing procedure. It wasn't hard, to say the least (most?) I finished the plan before I knew it. It was simple. Once we enter Horizon airspace we reduce to 7 M/S. Three hundred metres from the ring structure, 4 M/S. Fifty metres to the hanger bays, 0.5 M/S. Touchdown as smooth as possible. I obviously used some more fancy words the people would love but, doesn't matter for now.
I navigated into my document folder, only to see a new page shared. It was titled Project Aurora. I opened it.
P R O J E C T  A U R O R A
Project Aurora is a strike team operation planned for 2132. Project Aurora's goal is to eradicate a hostile species in the star system KLMA-3. This eradication will grant the Beyond Sol program free access to Sol without being traced. Project Aurora is planned to consist of approximately 483 vessels. This includes carrier's, battleships, and Cruisers, air, naval and space. Naval battleships are to be transported via cargo ships. This 'battle' will take place on KLMA-3B, during its Water months. The operation will be split into two squadrons, the Aurora and the Horizon squads. The Aurora Squadron will consist of the 483 vessels, fighting the main battle. The Horizon Squadron will act as a reserve and distraction, all using vehicles near or identical to the Spectrum.

Jake Gibson, Squad Leader one.
"Hah, that's funny." I typed in the words 'Nice prank, dick!' before moving on. If you were to believe a group of thousands of men would come to one of the most, if not the dangerous places known to man, and it would take them a decade to do it, you'd think that's insane, wouldn't you?!
"Summon my minions to the cafeteria." I stood from my chair, stretching back, yawning, and walking out of my room. The glass panel above glared ever so slightly as KLMA-3E approached. It remained featureless, although it's blue and black ice had become prominent.
I jumped up, and grabbed the projector screen, dragging it back down with me. With the remote that dropped to the floor with it, the projector box lowered from the ceiling in the back, powering on.
Muhammed sat down, soon followed by Amelia, Eliza, and James. James. By the grump expression he beared, it wasn't a question if he wanted to be there or not. With the outdated, buggy remote I eventually found myself in my folders, and finally Into the PowerPoint.
"Welcome to class." I grabbed my laser pointer.
"Get to the point." Eliza whined.
"As we know, we're seeking refuge in the HWSC Event Horizon. It's gonna have a lot of people. Newborns to people who were still on Earth when the Ares missions launched. I want all of you," I waved the laser pointer at the four, "on your best behaviour. This also isn't the Spectrum. We don't know anything about their ship, and they also don't know we're coming. Get dressed, properly. A suit that fits under your launch and escape, go!" I looked back at the hopefully correct projection of the Event Horizon. I mean–how the hell do you build something like this? We struggled to build the Spectrum, which is a hundred metres long, (Ish.) Whilst this beast is thirty kilometres? Holy shit.
The four scoured off. Hell, it's probably time to invite ourselves. I unlatched the projection screen, scrolling itself up. I yawned, walking to the glistening bulkhead door. It slid open as I approached, the loud, clanky area of life support modules hissing and whining. I dropped into the tube, suddenly stopping around halfway through, peeking my head into the small, ball window that stretched out maybe 11 inches.  KLMA-3E glimmered in the small K-Light it got. Did I mention what K-Light was? I think I did. Hell you probably forgot, and if I didn't tell you, essentially it's just light from the two stars. Instead of sunlight, which comes from our sun, its K-light. For KLMA-3. Is that complicated? Mission success!
' KLMA-3E glimmered, and just a little ahead of it a small structure rotating, a blue pulse ricocheting off the back. Here we come, dickheads. I retracted my head back, pushing myself down again. The peekholes passed and passed, until I was at the centre of Ring 1. The Spectrum is too big man. I slung myself forward down the main hull, passing the HGS, OGS, Storage 1, and the Greenhouse.
"Morning AETHER." I stretched in the air, before passing over the array of beat up seats.
"Good morning, Carter." VOID replied in his creepily human voice.
"Where's AETHER?" I floated into my seat, starting up the main APU and propulsion batteries. I prepared the solar panel arrays for a VTOL landing.
"AETHER attempted to sabotage course last night."
"Oh, so you don't have access to NASA files?" I perked up.
"I only have access to files of the logged in person's space agency." VOID computed silentl3y.
I grabbed the shipwide P.A. "James, you're not to log in with VOID on any device."
"...Why?"
"Don't." I threw the P.A back up. "VOID."
"Yes?"
"Track object UIDO 7819 on radio and radar." I threw my hand up, pushing two sliders forward, before pushing forward six others. The hiss of air slowed, and eventually into a slow trickle of air outward. My monitor's screen flickered on, straight into radar and radio screens, split. A blip titled UIDO 7819 just on the top left of the radar. "How far out is it?"
"Thirty thousand two hundred thirty three kilometres."
"What's our relative?"
"+55 kilometres per minute, rendezvous may occur in approximately NINE HOURS."
"Nice to know." I grabbed the long range radio from above me, clicking it on with the monitor. "...UIDO 7819, HWSC Event Horizon do you copy?" Silence. I mean, it could be a satellite dish issue? Right?
"UIDO 7819, Event Horizon, do you read? This is the I.S.C Spectrum of the Sol Corps, do you read?" Nothing. "VOID, get me access to the blackbox logs.
"Here you go, sir." My monitor was replaced with thousands of logs. I clicked on the most recent.
"AAH! AAH! LEAVE US THE HELL ALONE!" Someone shouted, thousands of firing bullets almost silencing it out. "AH FUCK!" The sound of blood splattering and skin being torn off gruesomely haunting the audio. It ended. I checked the date on it...
APRIL 29TH, 2062.
Okay, yeah, no, something isn't right. I'm grabbing my mom for this one.