Suffocating silence permeated the ship’s bridge. A few emergency lights glowed solemnly from the ceiling.
Captain Ben Murtha cleared his throat, looking through tired slits at his small mining crew of five. He hadn’t slept since the incident.
“I’m just gonna tell you what I know. The strong electro-magnetic pulse took out all propulsion and communications. Our orbit is decaying pretty quickly with no way of pulling the ship out of it. We’re seventy percent in eclipse because the Company picked the worst day for us to arrive at this mine. That means there’s barely enough solar power to run the heater and the scrubber. Anyway, sixty-some orbits from now that won’t matter. The Justice 3 will do an impression of an auger on the surface of Volkinot.”
Gasps and stares of disbelief shot around the room, but that didn’t change Ben’s matter-of-fact style. “Might be time for y’all to think about leaving notes and such. Not sure they’ll ever be found, but it’s probably worth a shot.”
First Officer Julia Alvarez did the math in her head. Sixty orbits equated to about five earth days from now. Leave a note? She felt her throat tighten and her eyes water. She took a step to the port side of the bridge area, separating herself from the other crew members, and turned facing the bulkhead.
“Ben, any chance we can get the propulsion back?” Crew chief Dominic DeBlasio’s tone was simultaneously hopeful and fearful. “I mean it’s possible, right, if some of the radiation bleeds off?”
“Not likely, Dom. The power modules won’t even boot up now. They’re as dead as that planet down there.”
All six stayed together in the small crew lounge, to preserve their body heat. Julia would write a few words to her estranged family, then lose focus. It all seemed so futile.
Dominic leaned back in his chair, glancing sideways at the port hole. “Damn, look at those craters getting closer. You figure what, two more days Ben? Well at least we’re getting more light now. That’s great, we’ll be able to see everything when we crash. ‘The- the- the- that’s all folks!’”
Ben sat there motionless, watching his own breath, wishing Dom would shut up.
The crew went to sleep, some in their bunks, some in the lounge. Julia was still up, looking at the blank page before her, when she realized she could no longer see her breath. The improvement in solar power the last two days had made prospects for their remaining existence morbidly comfortable.
She got up from the lounge table and walked the short distance to the Justice 3’s bridge. Settling into the left seat, she noticed a bright star rising over Volkinot’s surface. A smile formed on her full lips as a feeling of peace and hopefulness washed over her. Four days after the ship’s darkest day, the appearance of the star seemed comforting and inspiring.
So mesmerizing was the star’s presence that Julia didn’t immediately notice the whirring of the Justice 3’s power modules running through the auto-start sequence.
Writing collection 