I am a little late this week I have been busy. Sorry this one is a little long. But you keep giving us these great opening thank you @f3nix. Thank you to anyone that reads my take on this story. Please let me know what you think. Thank you to everyone that is following @bananafish and taking part in the things on that page. It is fun to take part in this.
With the passage of time, the omnipresent buzz of the generators - and God knows what else in the bowels of that cathedral of circuits - had become like a second skin. Funny how the white noise coming from the racks was indifferent to him and could, at the same time, launch its messages in the most modulated and subtle of languages, in a perfect symbiosis. After months, Ethan was instantly aware when something in the monotonous chanting cracked, foretelling one of the increasingly frequent system errors. He was developing a third ear in place of a third eye.
He just smiled at the thought, his gaze fixed on the secondary pylons n. 6 and 11, the last still working in the experimental orbital station DDG-31/DD-936 Decatur, renamed "The Decaf".
Silence was a mute vowel screaming inside him. Always. React to the atrophic thinking. Dodge the anguish, sharp like the debris of that day. The slashed modules were like scenic elements for a cheap movie. All the modules except his one. Follow procedures, rituals, checklists. All this to not raise his gaze and stare, right in front of him, the hangover of so much pain.
Castaway. At some point, he had renamed the pylons Romeo & Juliet. For each orbital period, about 90 minutes, the two arms were almost touching each other. A fleeting kiss and again far away. From the beginning of the mission, he had liked to play the game of renaming equipment and modules with funny nicknames. He allowed himself a slow sigh.
The inclination of the station displayed the earth down there. He had promised never to look in that direction again but the mauve color, so iridescent, so alive, so omnipresent, took him by surprise once again. He thought for a moment that it was.. beautiful.. and the remorse for that thought flooded him soon after. Ethan hid his face between his hands as the tears surfaced and many names knocked on his heart's door once again. Inside him, a spark of curiosity wondered if it was possible to locate one of the 19 towers between the mauve nanoparticles' clouds.
“Ethan, I suggest that you sleep in 30 minutes. I detect slightly high levels of cortisol, are…”
“Thank you. I was going right now, old scrap”. He replied to the metallic yet familiar voice through the speakers.
He suddenly suffocated all those idle musings, it was time to rest. According to Querquobad, tomorrow was going to be the day.
(my ending starts here)
“Ethan, It is time to awaken if you are going to be ready in time. Ethan, It is time…”
“I am awake, you can stop now” he said rubbing sleep from his easy. It had be a long night with little rest. Could today really be the day they would set out. They had lost the earth it seemed so long ago though it was really only a year. It had be coming they had been getting ready to try and leave. But the world could tell that the ship being made wouldn’t hold them all. Wars started and then the bomb that ended it all. Weapons like that should have never been made he thought. While know that power was the only chance any of them had left.
He went to the hull of the station and waiting for the call. He mind started to dirft to wonder how many would check in today. DDG 31 was the last to make it into space. He had just boarded it to make sure it was safe. Before his family and the others coming where suppose to join the Earth flared. His earth had fell his heart burned thinking for a moment of that day the mauve cloud had engulfed the Earth even covering the towers they had built to help the people into space. They had had to move to a further orbit after the event. The radio crackled.
“DDG 4 checking in”
He listened and waited. 9, 14, 17, 22, 27, 28, 29, he paused. “31 checking in” he said. Down to eight. Last month the still had twelve but all of them knew time was running out even his ship shouldn’t still be in orbit and his was the newest. The lord only knows how 9 still stood.
“Command Ship checking in. I know you all can tell we have lost a few more stations. I can report that people from DDG 25 and DDG 30 did make it to our ship. With the supplies and we salute the ones that had to stay behind”
Sitting alone he listed feeling so guilty he was alone no choice to make the others with a transport that load with supplies could only take 5 of the up to 50 people on board. When they made the plan they lost a few orbital stations to revlots. To think they would only be able to make one trip. The main ship cut off from the land had to keep the ships to take parts and fuel needed to finish it. Something caught his ear and he started to listen again.
“With help of the A.I. we have finished the model and the reactor should work. We are ready for all you to make your final plans to join us. We will be setting off as soon as we can to our new home” there was a cheer on the radio.
They did it. To think that the substance used destroy their home would be the full to help they reach a new one. They had found it years ago only 10 light years away. In the goldilock zone a bit colder than home but it would work. With the new power source working it would only take 15 years. He listened to last words and headed off to load his ship. He went to see Romeo and Juliet one last time before taking everything he could salvage from the room. As he headed away the transport he saw his home for the last years start to slip away into the nano clouds. His eyes turn to destination the ARK.
As he boarded the ship he was amazed at the size. It was meant to hold a hundred thousand people. Now the last 1483 humans live on it. Most where the crew of the ship that had been on it for years working on it. He help to unload his ship and went off to the room assigned to him. It was nicer than he wanted he stared out in the space we leave tomorrow will it all work.
“Ethan, It is time to awaken to is the day, Ethan, It is time…
“I am up” His eyes opened wide today they would enter the system of their new home they had made it and faster than they had planned that new engine performs better than they had predicted. As he went out to join the others on the viewing deck for the first time in so long he felt a bit of joy. He joined the others and the waited for the ship to slow down. They would be there in a few days after the slowed down but he should able to see it soon. Then the saw it a blue and white pearl in the distance that made him think of the Earth. A few cheers could be heard but mostly people just looked. Then a crackle caught their ears.
“Incoming Signals, I have received a message. From a source orbiting the planet. Would you like to hear it?”
Gasp could be heard. He froze for a moment who could it be? A few spoke up “Yes play the message”
“We have been waiting and watching. You will have to prove your worth but welcome earthlings.”