The Eden Sky - Part 5 - The Aftermath

Each group of scientists filtered back to their appropriate meeting hall designated by a shipwide colour scheme, corresponding light paths seaming through across the vitreous plastic. Mila followed her route, a singular evergreen vein flowing off into the distance through halls and rooms. At the intersection between the med-bay and the shuttle to the cryo-pods, Alexa had had to leave. Her caustic yellow path flowing off through the corridor between the med-bay.

“Mila, come meet me back in the cabin when you’re done. I have a feeling these staff meetings aren’t going to go well.”

She shuffled her feet, staring down at the floor with hands slightly behind her back and a wistful glistening in her dark jade eyes.

“I promise.”

Mila whispered as she drew Alexa in close. Being apart again after spending so long without each other felt like punishment. Her doe-eyed beauty with a mechanical mind.

“You know Alexa, the first time I fell in love with you was when I saw you building that interferometer for me. I had no idea what you were doing at first but as it all came together, I saw this magnificent passion burning in you. You looked so happy.”

They held each other closer. Foreheads pressed together, Mila on her toes to reach, icy noses pressed gently against each other in the middle of the now vacant corridor.

“Well you said you needed a new one. I had the parts and I wanted to impress you.”

“It worked...”

Their silence hung in the air, tangible and accepted. There was no need for words yet. Fingers encased in each other, their eyes shut against the world outside of their bubble.

“I guess we should head off before they start worrying.”

“Okay. Remember to meet me as soon as it’s over?”

Hands unwinding, eyes opening and the careful dance of lovers needing to leave but not wanting to let go.

“Of course. How could I forget?”

A cold hand pressed to a warm cheek, a wry smile and a soft kiss to a callused palm. They trudged along their luminous paths occasionally looking back.

 

The opaque door of the engineering room wheeled open as Alexa approached. A pale light flowed from inside, a stale air pocket with fresh solder, coffee and faint ozone.

Stepping into the room Alexa was greeted with faces she knew all too well. Crowding around a large central table were the twenty two members who made up the engineering team.

“Hey! Alexa’s here everyone. Shirohito can finally stop flapping and pretending he knows what he’s talking about.”

A short, stocky young man bounded around the group and offered an unusually small hand.

“Gareth! It’s been so long!”

The pair clasped hands, held tightly and squeezed. Thick veins rising to the surface of both of their well muscled forearms.

“What’s the matter Gareth, they got you pushing too many pencils?”

“Not a chance. Don’t tell me you let a few decades sleeping waste you away Alexa? Wouldn’t be much fun here if it did!”

A quick flick from Alexa and Gareth Wass pinned against the nearest bench, face pressed hard into the rough silicon surface, sweat dripping from his forehead.

“Looks like I win again.”

The group all cheered, Alexa let go of Gareths twisted arm and slapped him on his shoulder. A quick glance up to her angular face, his eyes squinted, left arm bunched in tight and fists clenched.

“Alright, alright, you won fair and square. Here’s the damn pen. But I’ll win next time!”

The group had gathered around the pair. Gareth ceremoniously knelt. He bowed his head, the thickly knotted dreadlocks falling over his broad shoulders as he did so.

“I bestow upon you the gift passed down for generations among Engineering Captains since the time of our great ancestor and mentor before he quit as the mission was announced eons ago!”

A plain black permanent marker was produced from Gareth's coverall pocket. It’s lid slightly dented, teeth marks on the other end and white text rubbed to miniature hieroglyphics.

“I accept your gift oh mighty foe and I swear to uphold it’s honour and purpose until the day I die or the day I lose in battle.”

As Alexa lifted the pen from Gareth's upturned palm the troupe gathered around began singing an angelic harmony in as many off keys as there were people.

“May you vanquish many foes with you trusted weapon, engineer of engineers!”

Gareth stood, Alexa bowed and the group cheered.

“Okay, now the ritual is over, I guess we should probably get to some actual work? I mean, what with Earth being gone and all it hardly seems right or proper to fuck around does it?”

Muffled groans spread through everyone. Another young woman stepped forward, slapped the table and whistled loud enough for ever sector of the ship to hear.

“Look, nobody wants to bother dealing with the Fallout of that meeting but we’re going to have to sooner or later. I think I speak for us all when I say that we knew what we were leaving behind when we accepted this mission. Nonetheless, it’s is a tragedy and we need to pay it proper respect.”

Alexa smiled and placed her trophy gently into her top coverall pocket before sitting on the tall central table. A ring light hung just above her head, illuminating the entire table.

“I agree with Julia. She’s got a point. We did know what we were getting in for, we all seem to have accepted our fate out her and of all people, we’re the ones who’ll treat this as a challenge but, not everybody will be able. We need to stay calm and resolute for everyone else. We still have a mission, we still have jobs to do and now we have even more to prepare for.”

She spoke powerfully, a gravitas creeping into her voice.

“You were all chosen for this mission for the precise purpose that you knew the risks and everything that it involved. We're 4.3 light years from Earth. 4.3 light years away from everything we knew and now we get the message that after almost ninety years... everything is gone, and we're all that's left.”

The group splintered, shuffled off and clustered in groups of two or three. Carefully placing her jacket down on the table in front of her stool and a stack of documents, Alexa exhaled, her shoulders slumped and she began rapping her knuckles against the table. She'd lifted a corner of the silicon covering, glossy opaque plastic showing beneath.

“That may have been the least convincing speech I have ever seen, heard or been a part of.”

Gareth sat behind her. His back turned, faint sounds of soldering and the telltale plume of vanishing smoke wafting through the air.

“Thanks. I can always count on you to bring me back to earth when I've got to be a leader.”

“What else are friends for?”

Silence hung in the air again. Gareth put down the soldering iron. His stack of freshly printed circuit boards spread around the table, a reel of solder unspooled across the silicon clad surface. He took sections of it and broke them off one at a time.

“You know it's not going to be that easy right?”

Gareth stopped. Alexa had turned around in her stool. Her head hung low, hands folded on her lap. Freckled fingers interlaced, tracing patterns on the back of her hands. He sighed and spun around slowly, his stool squeaking as he faced her.

A melancholy sigh left his mouth as he clasped his hands together in front of him.

“I know, but we've got to carry on. We have to be strong for everyone else here as well. Just as you said, so many people are going to take this hard and we have to be the ones to take charge and push onwards or this will have all been for nothing.”

“How are we supposed to do that exactly? You know everything I do, you saw that message! What the fuck are we supposed to do?”

“Alexa, please, keep your voice down. We ned to stay calm. Look, there are bound to have been procedures in place for this sort of thing, plans, strategies, whatever. We prepared for absolutely everything that could go wrong. Besides, this is a ship full of the most rational, intelligent people the world has to offer. You really think we'd let something as trivial as the world ending stop us?”

Garth thought he caught the flinch of a smile cross Alexa's face.

“Ah you see! I knew you couldn't be all doom and gloom all the time.”

“You're right.”

Alexa looked up. The preceding glisten of tears in her eyes but a smile on her face. She threw her arms around Gareth and squeezed.

“Thank you. You always know just the right thing to say.”

Gareth smiled and squeezed Alexa back.

“What can I say? It's a gift of mine. Before I forget, I've been told to relieve you of your duties for today, apparently Doctor Terrence Simms obe mbe yadda-yadda would like to see you. Something about not going through your initial psych-eval?”

“Oh shit I totally forgot! I rushed off to see Mila when I heard she was being woken up and I was meant to go back and see Terry! Thanks again, you're the best Gareth.”

She grabbed her jacket from the table, a stack of documents and rushed out of the door. Behind her, people were still milling about, sorting through their own paperwork, preparing tools and parts for further work. The heavy scent of ozone and the sound of tools firing up followed through the circular doors as Alexa left.