"The Nations United for Scientific Advancement particle accelerator, dubbed the NUSA 1B Accelerator upon conception, is set to be activated in mere hours. Though the scientists behind the experiment have remained tight-lipped, the original proposal released to the public suggests that a successful activation could be a good omen for the advancement of human technology and a potential sign that the current peace may la-" The news clicked off, the holographic, paper-thin screening folding away into the wall.
"What was that for?" Nas inquired, glancing toward the door. Slouched in the metal frame, a young man stood with a perturbed look of displeasure.
"Are you ready for launch, Captain?" The intonation on 'Captain' was seared with jest, a slight smirk belying the deceitful banter to his tone.
"Jesse! I was watching that. It's supposed to be the biggest technological advancement in decades."
"Nas, the last time I let you get wrapped up in your ingenuous daydreams you nearly missed our trial launch."
"Oh, that didn't matter," Nas retorted, dismissing the thought offhandedly. "It was just a trial, you know I'd never miss the real thing."
"If you show up on time, you could probably still catch the accelerator's activation on your mobile. But, if you don't get going, you're going to miss our launch."
"Alright, alright," Nas said, rising to push Jesse out of the doorway. "But you've got to leave so I can prepare."
"Seriously," Jesse said, the sternness of his tone mirroring the somber look that briefly crossed his face, "don't miss the launch. You'd be fired on the spot, regardless of whatever skills got you to the top."
Nas offered neither retort nor acknowledgment of Jesse's parting warning, lightly tapping the doorframe and letting it seal shut. Sighing, Nas turned to her room. The few bags scattered about were still filled, having been left untouched in the months since returning from her previous expedition. Though the room was designed to replicate the appearance of a space pod, the Earth's gravity and light transformed the white-washed silver into the cool, antiseptic white of hospitals, offering little homeliness or hospitality. No earthly room could ever stand up to the insurmountable awe of space travel. But Nas' motions weren't those of excitement or anticipation in preparation for her return to space, instead, they were filled with concerned foreboding; while all signs pointed to success, some instinctual, subconscious fear of failure lingered, fogging the air with trepidation.
A sudden eruption of clanging from the hallway tore Nas from her thoughts, reminding her of the promise she'd made to Jesse seconds before. Disregarding the sound, Nas begrudgingly stepped into the room and reached for one of the bags she'd left unpacked. Sifting through the unkempt personal items and hodge-podge of clothing, Nas emptied the bag of the extraneous items. Tossing together a few of the items that had made their way into the room's storage accommodations, Nas zipped the company-provided duffle bag and stepped out of the room without so much as a glance back.
The burst of noise that caught Nas' attention earlier had subsided by the time she left her room, only a few lingering personnel wandering the hallway without paying any heed to Nas. Bag slung over her shoulder, Nas slowly strolled down the hallway. Beyond the windows carved into the metallic walls lay a landscape filled with technology, but Nas' eyes lingered, filled with exhaustion and the faintest traces of undying enthusiasm, on the grand silhouette of a rocket; small figures bustled around, preparing for the launch as Nas watched.
Far down the hall and many turns beyond her own room, Nas came upon the door to the Mission Control Center left ajar. Stepping in, the room was busy with preparations. Jesse noticed Nas' entrance to the room first, moving from his station on the outskirts of the room to meet her at the door.
"First time seeing the pre-launch preparations?" Jesse teased.
"When's the expected launch time?" Nas inquired, checking her mobile for the time and ignoring Jesse's comment. "The accelerator's activation should be happening in about half an hour."
Jesse sighed, remarking, "Your fixation on these absurd quantum tests is beyond me, but the current testing should set us up for final launch preparations in around forty-five minutes. If all goes well, we'll board in about fifteen minutes."
"Have there been any complications? I know the plotted course has been fluctuating a bit due to unforeseen circumstances."
"Final simulations show that all readings, both on the ground and beyond the atmosphere, will give a clean launch. All of the recent tests on relative motion and near-light speed travel suggest we will arrive at Alpha Centauri in approximately 5 years."
Nas nodded, using her mobile to flick through the statistical reports on the recent tests, only briefly scanning each document. "Relativity's been established so we should be able to move within the shuttle without being encumbered by the motion of the ship?"
"Correct." Jesse's response was cut short by the arrival of Alex, the on-ground director for the mission.
"We're running ahead of schedule, so we're going to begin boarding now," Alex informed the pair.
"Thanks," Nas curtly responded, giving Alex a nod as they continued with their preparations. Turning to Jesse, she forced a smile. "Ready? We're about to embark on the journey of a lifetime."
"You know it," Jesse responded, flashing a genuine smile. Taking the lead, he stepped into the hallway. Nas followed a pace behind, giving a final, anxiety-ridden glance back toward the Mission Control Center, uneasiness permeating the air.
Set up inside of the spacecraft, a series of chambers led to the center room, located near the core engine of the grand ship, where seven chairs had been set up surrounding the central screens. Beside each chair, now filled by an astronaut running through pre-launch preparations, space suits had been laid out; both for general use and expeditions beyond the vessel. The screens scrolled past information, appearing and disappearing from the screen at a blindingly rapid pace as diagnostic signifiers slowly lit up inside a small panel below the screen. A countdown timer, located in the lower right corner ticked slowly down toward the hour.
"Is everyone prepared?" Nas asked, broadly addressing each of the individuals sitting before her. Their answers were sporadic, some addressing their excitement for the launch and others spouting reports on the preparations for the launch. Nas listened to each response, absently logging their thoughts into her own mind.
"Captain," a member of the crew, sitting directly opposed to the chair which Nas was preparing to take residence upon, spoke up. Nas didn't respond at first, not yet having correlated herself to her newly acquired role as the captain of the spacecraft. Repeating their call, the member spoke again, "Captain Aghl."
Recognizing her own surname before that of her title, Nas turned. Her eyes quickly came to rest on the individual who had spoken—the youngest member of the crew, a young girl who didn't look old enough to yet have found a job, much less as an acclaimed engineer and astronaut. Flicking through the troves of information she'd memorized in the weeks prior, Nas recalled that the girl was a new hire, having finished her own space training a mere two weeks before the launch. But she was known across the company for her unparalleled ability to comprehend the diagnostics as quickly as the computer could relay them and transfer them into high-level engineering. Her name, however, alluded Nas.
"Yes?" Nas stated, signifying that her attention was focused on the individual who spoke without acknowledging her inability to recall the yet-nameless girl.
"I cannot speak for the control center, but all diagnostics I've observed suggest we're prepared for launch. The control center will likely continue running preparations until the last minute. We, however, are set to go."
"Good," Nas curtly replied, giving an appreciative nod to the girl. "I'll inform them." Raising her voice to be addressed to the others, Nas continued, "Until launch, everyone can prepare as they see fit. The only restriction is everyone should remain in the ship."
The silence that followed her statement, which was less for the others and more to excuse herself to watch the particle accelerator's launch, gave Nas the opportunity to return to her mobile. Opening the stream, Nas set the small device on her seat as she slid into the lightweight spacesuit. The news broadcast has a good view of the accelerator, the activation still five minutes out, as the scientists worked to complete their own last-minute preparations.
Smiling to herself, Nas noted that, from what she could see, the pre-activation preparations of the scientists were similar to the chaotic diagnostic checks run before her own launch. Sitting on her own seat, Nas fixed the mobile into a small slot built into the bulky armrest of the seat, diverting her attention from the mobile to her chair. Meticulously pushing around the innumerous devices affixed to her seat until they fit her needs, Nas didn't notice Jesse's approach until he spoke.
"Looks like you have time to watch after all." Jesse's tone, as usual, was filled with a banterous snark.
Startled, Nas flinched at his voice. She, after a moment's pause, tore her eyes from the screen and glanced at Jesse. "You could watch it too, this is going to be the one."
Jesse laughed, playfully mocking Nas' suggestion. "I'm still not fully convinced you even know what it is your waiting for." Nas' pause spoke volumes, giving Jesse the opportunity to fill the silence with another teasing comment, "Maybe you're hoping for light-speed space travel or some fancy wormhole technology so we could spend more time at our destination than traveling."
Nas gave a small smile, her eyes catching on the mobile again as a sudden jumpcut in the feed brought the broadcast closer to the accelerator. "It's activating," she murmured, speaking to herself more than Jesse. With a begrudgingly mounting interest, Jesse peaking over Nas' shoulder at the mobile.
The large contraption, made of metal alloys and re-inforced glass, had slowly begun to spin to life. Though the building, of a scale that couldn't properly be conveyed through the incomparable medium of screens, wasn't moving, gears and complex technology visible within the grand machine had slowly begun to move into place. The dark interior was illuminated by the ombre glow of unadulterated white light, prismatically diverted into the camera.
The broadcaster, standing in a smaller frame posed just below, continued to talk, explaining the events as they began to unfold. Along the bottom of the screen, a caption relayed the information as the anchor spoke, screaming in bold letters "USA 1B Accelerator Launch Success — What's the next step for humanity?"
Neither Nas nor Jesse noticed, instead focused on the entrancing motion of the accelerator. The unfolding action had been perfectly choreographed, a dance of physics. Each cog of the greater machine spun with uncanny precision, drawing together and unfolding in a perfect balance.
"At the least, that'd made a cool background," Jesse murmured, the comment slipping out unconsciously.
"It's incredible," Nas exclaimed, infectious exhilaration brightening her face. "I honestly never thought it'd work, but the success opens doors to science that we never knew to be possible. I may not know all about it, but everything suggests this could be the biggest scientific breakthrough in the past century."
"Reading? You? Never," Jesse scoffed, the rapture of the broadcast broken by Nas' tangible excitement.
As quickly as the moment had begun, a loud bang from the broadcast shattered the moment, drawing their attention to the mobile once more. "It app... somethin... as go... wrong..." The feed of the anchor and the accelerator was cutting in and out, the few visible frames of the remains of the accelerator depicting a burst of chaos as the surroundings burst upward from the ground. A large mass of mutilated rock and stone began to grow around the accelerator, beginning to sway back and forth in the choppy images still being broadcast.
Out of nowhere, the mass of material violently exploded, instantly terminating the broadcast. "What was-" Nas began to ask, her question interrupted by a sudden earthquake, shaking up the rocket and everyone inside.
"What's going on?" one of the others asked, looking to Nas. A siren begins to sound, several lights flashing on the diagnostic displays.
Hesitating, Nas hastily tried to piece together the scattered information she'd been able to gather before responding, "So long as nothing important has been shut down, we need to press for an early launch. I can't be certain as to what's happening, but our best bet is to get into space."
The girl from before, her name yet again eluding Nas, piped up, "Nothing major's been disrupted. Our angle of launch has been altered slightly, but all crucial systems are still intact."
Nas nodded, "Then prepare for launch, make sure to inform the control center of our plans, and engage the viewing ports."
The other members of the crew, who'd been shell shocked and sitting in their seats, were spurred into action by Nas' instructions, each moving to prepare. Each person moved, fulfilling their roles simultaneously. Nas' attention, however, had been diverted from her crew to the viewports.
Just beyond the protected interior of the rocket, the world was being torn apart. The very ground had begun to peel away, streaking across the sky and toward the horizon. Gravity unearthed giant trees planted generations before and warped the structure of buildings made from the strongest steel. What had been but whispers of clouds in the sky had drained onto the ground, engulfing the world in an opaque fog.
"Nas." Jesse approached her from behind, speaking with an uncharacteristic flatness. "All systems are prepared and functional, but control is not responding. Should we proceed with the launch?"
Stammering, Nas managed to respond, "Launch immediately, if we delay any more, there's a chance we won't ever launch again."
Jesse nodded, briskly returning to his own seat and relaying the commands to the other crew members. Nas trailed a few steps behind, the stupor fading as hysteria set in. "If all systems are active, set for launch in 10 seconds."
Without so much as a word or lull in motion, the countdown timer instantly dropped from fifteen minutes down to ten seconds. "Prepare yourselves, this isn't going to be a smooth launch," Nas warned, seating herself and strapping in. The rocket began to hum, vibrations slowly overtaking all other noise. The countdown continued, slowly decreasing...
3...
2...
1...
Slowly, the rocket began to move. From the viewports, still open on the outskirts of the large room, the faint outline of buildings and trees, yet unswayed by the warped gravity, marked their acceleration. But, as numbers scrolled across the screens, red began to overtake the plain, black text.
"What's going on?" Nas shouted, struggling to be heard over the roar of the ship's engines.
"There's an unaccounted for increase in gravity and several systems are being depleted at an accelerated rate," the young engineer girl responded. "Furthermore, the eastbound side has taken significant damage and our angle of trajectory continues to divert."
"Supply the engines with all the fuel possible, anything to break out of the atmosphere," Nas demanded, responding before she had time to consider the consequences of her decision. The girl obediently nodded and focused on her mobile, altering a few settings. As the new settings were implemented, the humming of the rocket evolved into an aggressive shudder. However, the rocket continued to accelerate, exponentially gathering speed as the atmospheric fog cleared and they broke into space.
The viewports, clear from the blanket of murky fog on the ground, opened up, offering a clear view of the Earth below. The scene beyond the windows was rapidly expanding, scaling as the distance between the rocket and the planet grew. Nas, though struggling to see from her seated position, could make out the Earth, now oblong and warped beyond recognition.
The atmosphere had been torn away completely, half pulled into a vortex of particle matter gather to the west of the planet and half drowning the surface of the planet in impenetrable fog. Javelins of rock, each large enough to be a tectonic plate, permeated the dense fog as shadows, ripped from the ground and hurtling toward the growing anomaly. Even through the haze, it was clear the planet was being shredded to pieces.
"Cut the engines," Nas requested, hardly turning toward the crew as she spoke. In contrast to the utter chaos where the Earth once lay, the rocket was silent. The engines slowed, bringing the craft to a halt. The air was still. No one moved or spoke, letting the moment sit; a stagnant quiet strife with undecipherable emotion.
"What the heck happened?" Jesse broke the silence first, his question mirroring the thoughts of the others. "I didn't think a malfunction in the particle accelerator could devastate the planet in minutes."
"If I had to wager a guess," one of the older engineers surmised, "I'd say the particle devolved, becoming unstable. It'd have been a gradual devolution and bordering on impossible, but nothing else could have caused that massive of destruction in such little time."
Nas, breezing over the comment, spoke again. "I'd assume there'd be nothing, but have we tried contacting control—or anyone, for that matter?"
"There's been an active call out since we launched, but it's radio silence. I doubt many ships managed to escape and those already out will be millions of miles away, far too distant to find out signal," Jesse stated, being the first to turn away from the viewports with a sullen, grief-stricken look.
"What do you think happened to the people?" the young engineer softly asked. The thought had barely crossed the others' minds but, as it did, the answer was apparent.
"If they're not dead already, they'll be dead in minutes."
"And what about us? We're without any support, humanity's dwindled down to a mere few hundred. How are we going to survive?" the young engineer's questions grew more frantic, a sudden panic settling in among all of those aboard the ship as the grim reality set in.
Speaking in earnest and with as much empathy as she could muster, Nas tentatively replied, "We may be isolated, but we're not alone. We're together and we'll be together until the end of time. Regardless of where we're going, we'll always aim for the stars, where we'll find a new home for humanity."
Though not holding much substance and made of empty promises, the honest emotion Nas portrayed was enough to calm the young engineer and the others inflected by the panic of uncertainty. A silence befell the cabin once more, but this time it wasn't filled with raw horror or grief over the carnage and ruin that overtook the earth, rather with the solemn promise of unity and resilience. The crew gathered together, each rising from their chairs and floating to look toward the endless landscape of stars just beyond the small viewports. Together, they stood before the vast void of space, an endless frontier of unimaginable opportunities and inconceivable travesties waiting to be discovered.
Beyond all of that, however, the eternal cosmos wore on, humanity sinking below the waves of infinite motion. Of infinite time. Forevermore drifting into the void between the stars.
Wow! Nice manuscript very exciting and nicely fitting in Dylon's world! I spotted a typo: Her name however alluded Nas. I assume you meant eluded.
Thanks for the compliments and catch! I'll ee about fixing the typo.