Deedee slowly opened up her eyes, the stars around her were intertwined with ribbons of blue, purple, and orange. She rubbed the back of her head. It’s a little sore, but she should be fine.
Standing up, she used the metal wall behind her for support. The room was a medium size, which must mean that the shuttle is a decent size. In front of her were so many buttons that not even Emmet would know what to do with them. A few screens above the large window, no projection, showed off stats she couldn’t make any sense of. Deedee slid her hand along the wall, and the stars warped around her hand. There are thin rectangles connecting to form a fake window. That must be where the projector is, or she hit her head a little too hard.
Deedee stumbled out of the door to see a hallway. One door on the right, and two doors on the left. She poked her head in and saw a small storage room with lockers and shelves. Everything was now on the floor.
I can clean that up later.
Deedee looked at the second door and saw that it was an airlock. It’s sealed tight, making sure that nothing gets in or out. Finally, when she opened the door on the right she was greeted by three very nervous faces.
“Deedee! You’re alive!” Baby beamed at her.
“While, yes, we are very thankful you saved us,” Emmet pushed up his glasses. “I want to know how you knew it was coming.”
“I saw it out the window,” Deedee defended. “It looked like mushrooms were growing out of- my family!” Her chest tightened. “Oh my god, my family!”
April and Emmet flinched, Baby just looked on straight ahead. Deedee stepped inside the room. It was quite large, with a metal island in the center. Only about 1/3 of the island had fancy technology on it. There are four chairs around the island, two on each side. All four of them look big enough for Baby to sit comfortably. There’s a large window at the end of the island. To Deedee’s left there was a small-looking TV, maybe it was one of those computer things, a shelf full of soup cans, a lighter with April’s name engraved on it, and some strange-looking metal thing. It looked like a computer with a claw and a large red tank in the back. On her right, there are shelves with the handbook, the tape, and in the back was a bulky yellow space suit. The space suit looked like it could go outside, and next to it was another computer.
April simply points to the computer closest to Deedee. She went over and looked at the blue screen. A little face popped up, it’s a darker blue than the rest of the screen.
“Nice to meet you!” It says. Deedee fell back, her butt hitting the metal with a thud. Her arms were shaking and she looked rapidly at the rest of them.
“A.S.T.R.O. Computerized Assistant reports for duty! You must be Deedee, right?”
“Evil toaster….” Was all Deedee could murmur. “Evil toaster.”
“I’m not a toaster.” He rolls his eyes. “I am pleased to announce that due to your actions during the escape, you are the perfect candidate to become the Captain of this vessel! Welcome aboard the escape shuttle, Captain!”
“Captain? What happened to Captain Wilson?”
“It’s irrelevant now as we’re slightly 60 Parsecs away from Earth. On behalf of the Astrocitizen Program, I would like to apologize.” Astro says.
Deedee lost all feeling in her limbs.
“That’s almost 200 light-years from Earth….” Emmet lost his voice. “That’s enough miles to say that-“
“Earth is gone.” Deedee finished. “It’s all gone.”
“You got this Captain!” Astro gives a smile. Baby held out his hand for Deedee. She grabs it. Baby helped Deedee over to a chair. Her mug was sitting across the island. She took her, her hands thankful for a familiar object.
Deedee tried to hide her breathing, but nothing was working.
“The floor is yours, Captain. You should now give a speech that will guide this vessel and its crew through the stars! You've prepared it, of course?” Astro asks. Deedee pursed. Everyone looks at Deedee. She looked at everyone.
“This is it. You can really show what breed of Captain you will be on this incredible journey. We’re all excited to hear it.”
Deedee slowly nods and stands up. “Well… I have to say that the universe is smiling upon us. We’ve been blown 60 parsecs away from the Earth, but we’re safe. There are no Reds in this part of the universe. If humans are known for one thing, it’s beating the odds. The 13 colonies won the Revolutionary War, while they were at a disadvantage. Whatever new challenges the human race faces we puff out our chest and solve them head-on. We will stand tall, proud even, and tackle this head-on. We’re humans, the strongest species on earth. With our brains, strength, and determination we’ll write our own history. No matter what happens, we’ll always stand on top! Who’s ready to conquer this galaxy?”
Cheers erupted from the shuttle. If any sound could come through the shuttle, it would be the loudest. “Long live the captain!” They shouted. Deedee blushed and sat back down.
“Impressive.” Astro comments.
“What’s the next move, Captain?” April asked, shifting in her seat.
“Finding a planet to land on. I think that will be our best bet….”
“… Astro.” Emmet sits up. “How exactly did we get 60 parsecs away from Earth? We don’t have anything close to that technology.”
“For public consumption. Crewmate Ellis, do you really think that the government was content with the technology that you guys use every day?”
“You don’t want me answering that question.”
“This shuttle has a lot of experimental tech on board, such as my AI program. I knew this shuttle could go far, but with such a huge influx of power we went three times the distance it normally should have.” Astro smirked.
Emmet clicked the back of his heel against the floor.
“I can’t believe someone beat me to the evil toaster.” April kicks her legs onto her chair and puts her head into the palm of her hand.
“I’m not a toaster, Angelle.”
April’s face contorts in disbelief. “An-gal? AN-GAL?!? It’s Ayn-gel! AYN-GEL YOU OVER SIMPLIFIED STOVE!” She barked.
“Over-simplified stove?!?” Astro gasped.
“April! Let’s not upset someone who’s trying to help, and Astro, I would try to be more considerate about the people around you.” Deedee tried to sip on her coffee, remembering that it was an empty cup. “We need water.”
“There’s a filter in the storage, some old woman came and stocked it up.”
“Maegan…” Deedee held her breath. “I’m going to check out the storage room.”
“Of course.” Deedee nods. The two of them walk into the storage room. It’s rows of shelves, a few lockers, and something that looked like a water cooler. She started to pick stuff up and put it back on the shelves. It’s some extra food, parts, tools, paper, pens, toiletries and in each one of the lockers, there were their missing undergarments. “I found all of our underwear.”
Deedee nearly snapped her neck. She ran over and grabbed the fat bag of coffee grounds. “You’re here! This is where you’ve been! I’ve missed you so much! Never leave me again.”
Baby left and came back with her mug. “You’re gunna need this.”
“Thanks! Yeah? Coffee!” She grabbed a plastic spoon and poured some coffee grounds into her cup. It was cold and very unsatisfying. Coffee was coffee and Baby had to watch her chug five cups.
“I would show down.” Baby puts a hand on her shoulder.
“I needed this. Have you ever had coffee before?”
“I didn’t want to make you mad.” He hung his head.
Deedee held out her mug half full of Coffee. “Try some.”
Baby took the mug and took a sip. He coughed and sputtered, flicking out his tongue. “No, no thank you.”
“It’s better out of a pot, and hot.” She finished off the cup. “We should get back to April and Emmet.”
Baby nods, still flicking his tongue out.
“It’s a sphere built around a star, the star would have to be relatively small if a human like us wanted to live on one?” Emmet nods, pointing out the window.
“Like how big of a star?” April beams, she’s leaning incredibly forward.
“It would have to be smaller than the Earth, but be a star to be bigger to have the same energy output that we get from the sun. We’d probably be looking at a star the size of a planet.” Deedee and Baby sat down silently, looking at Emmet.
“Wouldn’t we have to worry about, uh, shit, it’s the thing keepin’ us on the planet.”
“Gravity?” Deedee asked. Emmet jumped, and April’s chin smashed into the metal island.
“Good god.” Emmet looked away from Deedee.
“Are you okay?” Baby looked at April.
“Back off.” April rubbed her face and sat back in her chair. “Emmet was just tellin’ me about dice spheres.”
“It’s a Dyson Sphere, April. I was just saying… since we had the technology to go 60 parsecs, who’s to say we can’t build a planet that harnessed the energy of a sun. Think of it like a planet. The planet would be built out of ‘cells’, and those ‘cells’ would photosynthesize to give us energy.”
“Wow, that would be such an intriguing planet to live on.”
“Of course we’d have the gravity problem, because of how big the star would be our bones would probably get crushed by its gravitational pull.”
April and Baby just looked at the two of them with dumb blank looks. Emmet’s face goes a little red. He clears his throat. “It was just a theory anyway.”
pixelskylines
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
baratheonpilled
snowghoul
