Collected Short Stories

Lost - Part Two - Hard Landing

The colony ship traveled through the strange neon cosmos with incredible speed. Humanity put everything they had into this vessel. The greatest minds the world had to offer came together for this hail mary attempt, and no expense was spared.

The Earths climate had become so destabilized that people no longer worried about the usual problems humanity faced. The quarrels of nations seemed small when faced with an existential threat to the survival of the species.

The ECS Nebula represented the hope of a species. A hope to find a new world, and a hope to learn from the mistakes of the past. A world that knows they are all on the same team. Without separate nation states fighting over resources that should be shared. A world where every human being is treated as just that. A human being. With shared hopes an equal opportunity to succeed or fail as one.

The Nebula shot forward on its silent journey, barreling towards the first try at a habitable world. The ship itself could sustain itself nearly indefinitely. It could repair minor damage on its own through its army of AI robotic engineers. These ranged from small spider-like robots that scuttled around the inside and outside of the hull to human-sized automatons that had delicate enough tools that could manipulate small objects and the strength to move the heavy machinery they would need for large repairs.

The lifespan of the crew was finite. All were in their twenties. And they knew it was possible if they had to wake up on the journey they could be very old by the time they reach their destination. Now the odds that they would still have the vigor of youth when they found a home were next to nothing. They were now winging it. Having picked out a planet that seemed similar to Earth, but is more than likely impossible for humanity to survive on. They knew very well that they may have to travel to hundreds of planets before they find the one.

These thoughts harrassed each crew member. They did not speak their fears openly, having been trained for similar scenarios, they knew the protocols. This was however far different than anything they could have imagined. They were beyond the limits of humanities understanding of reality. A strange new world indeed. Who could know what they would find in these terrifyingly different cosmos than they had known before?

It was this thought that bit at Captian Harrison as she continuously scanned the holographic display set before her.

"Bring up high-resolution images, we should be close enough now." The captain spoke out into the strained silence.

It had been twelve weeks since they were awoken by the ships emergency protocol. Twelve weeks of speculation. Twelve weeks of theories. Twelve weeks of jaw-dropping cosmic views. Finally, they approached the first candidate.

The ships displays showed the close up of the planet they were nearing. What they saw killed what little hope they had of getting extremely lucky. The planet's surface was a bubbling quagmire of substances the computer did not recognize. The swirling pools of liquid sprayed and popped violently as unknown forces worked inside the planet. It acted like volcanic eruptions, but the colors were again impossible. Greens and blues mostly, with explosions of pink spraying out of the depths. This world was a bust.

Clarrisa was the first to speak, "Well Captian, I'm not sure we can terraform this one. I'm not even sure what that liquid is. Surface temp is livable. But the elemental makeup of the surface is completely unknown."

The Captain cursed under her breath. The rest of the crew let out various complaints until they were silenced by Captain Harrison, "enough, we knew this was a long shot. Let's find the next one to take a look at."

"How long can we keep this up? 12 weeks between worlds, a hundred planets to check. We will die of old age." The governor sounded exasperated. He couldn't get a colony started if he was too old to do the work.