LF Friends, Will Travel

Innovation is Impartial - Chapter 6

Date: 2424 AD

There was an air of panic in the spaceport. Not an outright insanity or full on hysteria, but a subtle edge to the bustling crowds that moved and swayed in half organized lines and groups. It filled the air, a taste that lingered with every breath: giving every move made by every person a little more urgency, as if every second that ticked by mattered immensely.

The station was packed with people: carrying belongings, dragging suitcases behind them as they rushed too and fro. Uplift and humans alike walked with purpose, some wearing medical masks on their face, others wearing full body containment suits. Friends and families clutched each other as they rushed towards docking bays, each attempting to get on a dwindling number of seats allowing exit from the planet. Wide eyed and fearful, thousands of muttered whispers came together to create a near deafening droning sound, of uncertainty and worry.

Amongst this crowd, two figures walked along like everybody else, carrying a small amount of their own belongings, enough for the journey ahead; nothing more, nothing less. Leaving behind everything they'd worked so hard for would have been considered crazy in any other circumstance, but when safety starts to break down, when danger becomes the biggest concern, things become just that: Things.

Dr Johnathan Fletcher held onto his wife's hand as they joined the back of the queue. They were early, more than fashionably so, but in such a desperate time as they found themselves in, everyone else had also had the same sensible idea to arrive with plenty of time to spare. The vague sense of an ordered queue had half collapsed into a general grouping of people, hundreds of passengers letting the panic flow through them as progress ground to a halt.

They were all doing the same thing as Dr Fletcher: Trying to escape to safer shores. The fear that had dominated the news over the last month had come to pass: Project Genesis had hit the Eridani System.

It was still early days, but nobody wanted to take the chance; everybody had seen the news reports from infected planets, the absolute devastation that Project Genesis had wrought: The science experiment gone wrong. 100% transmission rate over air and water, 100% lethality rate amongst humans, quarantine methods had fallen to something so pervasive and infectious. A few had taken to calling it the God Plague, an answer to humanity's hubris, in thinking that they themselves could create life. A direct response from the heavens to those flying too close to the sun.

It was still contained in the outer colonies of the Eridani System, but for all the claims of governments doing everything they could to quarantine the virus, nobody wanted to stick around and wait to see if it would all be ok in the end. Everybody wanted out, everybody wanted safety.

The line hadn't moved for some time, Johnathan holding onto his wife's hand as he tried to see what was happening, why early boarding procedures hadn't started yet. Most of the crowd were doing the same, the lack of noticeable progress making people antsy as the anxiety filled the air. They could see the ship that they were supposed to be boarding, sitting there in the docking bay, a vehicle covered in the brightly coloured branding of its owners, a representation of potential safety. A few members of staff and security stood at the entrance, speaking unheard words with each other, body language terse and worried, seeming to mirror the crowd's tension as the seconds turned to minutes.

"Attention passengers." The words of the AI spoke through the tannoy, echoing around the spaceport, the multiple groupings of people surrounding each flight gate stopping their panicked murmuring to listen to the words as one. "We regret to inform you, that due to the decided actions of the neighboring system's governments, that all flights out of the system are canceled."

There was a moment's pause as everyone present seemed to take the message in all as one, before the tempo of frightened and angry voices rose in volume, shouts sounding from passengers as the surging crowds edged closer to the barrier and security lines.