#project centauri

Kylie was led into a room with a large ship and handed a uniform by an administrator.

“Wear this.” 

“You may change in there.” The man pointed to a curtained room.

All of this was so sudden for Kylie. One day, she was caught stealing from a market, and the next, she was told she was being sent on a mission to space for some project. It wasn’t like she had another option.

The company obviously had back-ups, so she meant nothing to them. They could kill her if they wanted.

She walked toward the changing room without arguing. She was afraid that if she said anything, she’d be taken out on the spot. 

After she changed and stepped out of the changing area, the administrator, whom she had deemed “Director Collins” through his name tag, pointed to the ship. 

“That’s your ship. This ol’ thing’s name is Trinity VI. She’s one of the older ships on Project Centauri, but… uhm- anyway, You’ve probably already been told this, but you’re the captain. You were the most qualified for the job.”

Kylie was shocked. She hadn’t been told that she was the captain until she was about to walk onto the ship. 

“Wait, I hadn’t been told I was the captain! I don’t know how to work a spaceship!” 

“Of course you do. Now get on the ship and meet your crew!” Collins gestured for her to get onto the ship.

Kylie started to protest but quickly remembered that she was almost useless to them. Again, they could kill her whenever they wanted. She lowered her head and walked onto the ship.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

When Kylie walked into Trinity VI, the last thing she was expecting was three other women. For some reason, she had thought that the others on the ‘trip’ would be men who had committed crimes.

A darker woman with brown curly hair pulled into a slick back bun walked forward first. She seemed bubbly and walked with a bounce in her step. Her voice was excited, but kind.

“Hello! You must be Captain Kylie?” She held out her hand to be shaken. The first thing that Kylie noticed about her was how green her eyes were. They seemed to stare straight through her. Other than that, her facial scars were prominent. She had a thick but short gash over her lip and a cut over the right side of her face, stopping at her cheekbone.

Kylie cautiously grabbed her hand and shook it, unsure as to whether to trust her or not.

“Yeah, that’s me,” she answered, “And you?”

The tall woman smiled. “My name’s Esme. I’ll be taking care of the cargo.” Esme held Kylie’s hand in the shake for a few seconds too long, looking her in the eye. It was kind of intimidating.

She soon released her hand and stepped back, bowing her head.

Now that Esme wasn’t in front of Kylie’s vision, she noticed the two other women. One of them was slightly shorter. She had peculiar hair with black roots, a sort of auburn color for the most part, and bleached tips. She wore square, purple-framed glasses that went over her straight-cut bangs, and was pale, appearing tired. She stood slouching, her eyes dark and dull.

The other looked bored… no, unamused. She seemed somewhat relaxed, leaning her weight onto her right leg. She had a red bindi on her forehead and had long black hair, slightly messy and wavy, almost covering one eye. 

She also had a green crystal bracelet around her wrist. Most of the beads were scratched up, and some were chipped or broken. It seemed used.

Aside from that, she had warm colored skin and eyes that felt as dull as the other woman’s.

The woman wearing the bindi spoke before the other.

“I’m Reva. I’m the repair person.”

Kylie nodded slightly, then turned to the last person.

All of them stared at the woman who hadn’t spoken yet, and she stood there unmoving.

Suddenly, as if realizing that she was being stared at, she glanced around and then said, “Oh. I’m Stella Wo, age twenty-eight. I will be the scientist and farmer on Trinity VI.”

“Nice to meet you all!” Esme gazed around the room at everyone. “Now that we’ve got introductions out of the way, we should probably-”

Esme was interrupted by the intercom. “All members of Trinity VI, please get into position for takeoff.” It was Collins. He was going to blast them into space. For real.

Kylie could hardly conceptualize the thought of getting sent to space to most likely die there and never see her home again.

Stella seemed to know exactly what Collins was talking about, despite the majority of them getting no training before coming onto Trinity.

Stella looked back at the rest of the group, who seemed confused, if not annoyed, that they were given no further instruction.

“In the cockpit. We have assigned seats.” She said to them, as if they should know what she was talking about.

“Just… follow me.”

The rest of the crew simply does this without question, following her. She walks into the cockpit, pointing to the seat in the very front. “That’s for Kylie.”

She then goes over to a chair to the right, sitting down.

Kylie hesitantly approaches her seat. Was she ready for this? Could she really be the captain of this ship?

As the others sit down in their seats, Kylie reaches for the headrest, feeling the cheap fabric of the seat beneath her fingers. She walks around the seat, her hand lingering near the headrest. She sits down in the chair, shifting slightly for it to be more comfortable. She buckles the harness carefully, gazing up through the viewport.

Abruptly, an instruction video made by Urban Management™ starts playing. It was slightly eerie, and it seemed very outdated. It was a PowerPoint presentation with a purple background. It explained the layout of the ship and the jobs of each passenger. It also explained how the ship works and how to set a course.

After explaining the main knowledge the crew needed to know through glitches and static, the video explained that each of the crew members would get an individual video, further explaining their role and how to do it.

The video quickly shut off before the last sentence was spoken, and Collins’ voice came back in through the intercom.

“Alright, your individual instructions will play on your holovision when you turn it on in your room. You may get out of your current chair when Trinity here tells you that you have stabilized. Good luck!”

Kylie repeated the instructions in her mind. Wait until the ship is stabilized, then go to her room and turn on the holovision, the holographic show, movie, and video player that had replaced televisions in wealthier regions. They were straightforward instructions. Ones that she could follow.

The countdown started up, counting down from ten. Kylie braced herself.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Soon after the ship took off, one of them spoke for the first time after sitting down.

“This is sort of scary…” The voice was definitely more recognisable than the others. It sounded more childlike, more innocent. Esme sounded genuinely afraid. She spoke again, louder.

“Is everyone else doing okay?”

“Yes,” Kylie responded quickly; she didn’t want to cause her fear.

“I’m quite fine.” One of the other two responded. Kylie noticed that she had a slightly French accent.

“I think I’m doing fine,” remarked the other one. This voice had slightly more animation than the other. Kylie decided it was most likely Reva.

The four didn’t talk for the rest of the fifteen minutes it took for the ship to stabilize.

Soon, the ship announced in a robotic female voice that they were in the clear and that they could stand up.

Kylie took off her harness, standing up with little struggle. She walked around the chair, glancing at the other members. Stella was already out the door, but Esme struggled with her seatbelt a little bit. Kylie vaguely noticed Reva help her with it before walking out of the room. She walked to the main area, looking for any room that could be marked hers.

Her room was somewhat close to the cockpit, and it seemed the left wall was shared with Reva’s right wall. She glanced at the full-size bed and then decided to sit down on it. She grabbed the remote to the holovision, turning it on. The same outdated slideshow came on, explaining her duties and how to steer the ship.

Kylie saved the video to the cloud, acknowledging that she might need it later. With the video, it was a little less confusing, but still all new and stressful. 

The lights started to change, and there was a faint clicking noise, just barely hearable. Kylie looked up. During the day, they had been white, but now they were turning orange. It must have been installed to keep their regular sleep schedule.

Kylie turned off the holovision, lying back on the bed. She soon sat back up and took her shoes off, readjusting and getting onto the bed properly. She rested her back against the headboard of the bed and turned the holovision back on.

She turned on a boring game show; it was obviously scripted and poorly written at that. Somehow, it was comforting to her.

As she rested in bed, she pondered. She knew that Urban expected at least 60% of the crew to die on these missions, but how did they expect them to die? Starvation? Dehydration? Not possible. They have years' worth of that stuff in the cargo. The only other possibility she could think of was disease or murder.

That made her weary. It was true they had put criminals on the ships, but none of them were murderous, right? Why did Urban expect so many people to die?

She sighed; this fact was troublesome, but she shouldn’t worry about it right now. Right now, she thought, she should focus on being captain of the ship.

She started to imagine scenarios. She thought of what she would do for each small inconvenience. What would she do if there was debris in their path? What would she do if there were an impossible food shortage? What would she do if someone murdered someone else? She started to get overwhelmed by the endless possibilities of what could go wrong.

She stopped imagining the scenarios. They were getting too dark. None of that would really happen. Even if they did, she would be able to fix it. She was the captain. 

According to her informational video on being a captain, she had to check in on each person’s work each day. Honestly, it was a bit hard to do that when she didn’t completely know their actual jobs.

As the lights in the ship darkened to a dark purple, she turned off the holovision. It felt like only a small amount of time had passed, but the lights had already turned dark. 

She would ask them about their jobs in the morning. That was right, in the morning. She was tired after all. She slid down, placing her head on one of the pillows.

Tonight, she would sleep. Tomorrow, tomorrow, she would start her new job as captain of Trinity VI.

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