Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

Prologue

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Prologue

"We have drank Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered..."

- Translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith from The Rigveda (8.48.3)

Forged in the name of vengeance under the guise of hope at first the ship had no name. When it began life hovering above the orbit of Phobos three hundred years ago it was just another silly little project under development by one of dozens of space agencies that no one really took too seriously anymore. Designed for deep space exploration it was one of the many being worked on by several corporations and agencies throughout the world in hopes that the human race would spread out among the stars and discover new worlds. We must have felt so proud back then. Dreaming of projects that would change history as we began to venture around, explore, and colonize our own small solar system. Finally after many years  it was finished at a secret research post above the dwarf planet Pluto and given a name. They called it the Erebus.  The Erebus was our shining star. Our greatest triumph. Drifting at the edge of our solar system in the darkness of space. The name was poetic in a way. Erebus also said Erebos was the greek word for 'shadow' or 'deep darkness'.  The Erebus, our flagship, our starship of hope that would explore new worlds and travel far beyond the edge of the sol system and into the stars. If only they knew the truth.

    Alien civilizations were out there. Life wasn't quite as rare as we thought. Most worlds were primitive, inhabited by nothing more then wild animals. We knew (or rather we soon discovered) that beyond most planets there were cultures full of different species, religions, even genders. Some even asked us to join them either out of spite or fear (we refused of course deciding that their conflicts were not our own, we had plenty of problems to deal with ourselves). Other's refused us.

    The Erebus was the largest one of three ships. The other two; the Aelita and the Tritan traveled in front of it. Together the three ships were nicknamed 'The Trinity'. On each ship slept thousands of humans in stasis (also known as cryo or the 'deep sleep'). When the three ships left the solar system they began a journey to a place called 'Eden'. It was a journey that would take hundreds of years. Those that came onboard believed that they could sleep the whole way through while others accepted the facts. The truth was no one from that original crew would survive (and they all knew it). The Erebus, Aelita, and Tritan were seed ships, in other words they were made so that the descendants of the crews onboard would one day reach their destination and in doing so ensure the survival of humanity. Only the bloodlines of those onboard would survive. Giving up their homes, their jobs, their accomplishments thousands gathered to come aboard the three starships believing the sacrifice was worth their lives. It was a pilgrimage to a new world, a new dawn. Giving up the lives they had was the first great sacrifice humanity had made. The second, the reason we built the ships, the reason we ran; the second sacrifice was unforgivable.

    When the project was first announced (shortly after the first invasion around the end  of the 21st century when humanity was just beginning to colonize our solar system) social media and the 'net' blew up with hash-tags, news, conspiracy theories and more. People questioned the 'real' purpose of 'the Trinity'. The project took many years and soon the enclave of news died off with much of the public unconcerned or uninterested in deep space colonization after all that was a job for scientists and dreamers. Breathless bodies stood still standing straight up lining the dark corridors of the ship. In a way I was there, I feel like I can remember it. Through the eyes of a stranger I sat still in the silence, in the dark checking the vital signs of my crew. Many were healthy; most of the crew was a mix of refugees taken from countries and colonies throughout the 'Sol System', others were socialites and 'elite upper class' who paid their way onboard (either by bribing or paying for the construction of the three ships). Their blood runs through my veins, each one of them could have been an ancestor of mine - the best of the best. 'The Trinity' had no room for the weak.