One Crisis After Another

     “SpaceRocks are what we here on Earth call meteorites and meteors. They are called that with comets too if there are more than one of them. But most of the universe call them SpaceRocks. SpaceDeath is a term that almost everyone besides us refers to as plagues or viruses. Especially, the ones that kill hundreds, thousands, millions, etc. of individuals. The story you are going to read is mostly about SpaceDeath. But the first section of it is about a SpaceRock storm,” says SpaceFaction.

One Crisis After Another

     The room begins to shake. A bang happens just outside an open round hole next to a sleeper that Commander Konnica is sleeping in. Another bang suddenly makes her sit up. “What’s going on now?”

     “SunPower on.” A light white glow appears in the almost dark room.

     Konnica taps a button on the frame of her sleeper. A seam appears down the middle of her body covering. Then it splits in half and disappears into her frame. Konnica gets up and shakily walks over to the hole in her room just as another bang hits the side of her spaceship.

     Looking out the hole, Konnica sees a lot of rocks headed for her spaceship. “That shouldn’t be happening. Is Protection not working again?”

     Shakily, Konnica walks over to the entrance to her room. Her small breasts bouncing as she does it. She hits a button on the wall next to it. An image of a clothed male appears on her entrance. “Did we just hit a SpaceRock storm, Vinc?”

     “I don’t think that’s what’s happening, Commander,” answers Vinc. “There are supposed to be two planets near us that are no longer there.”

     Konnica taps another button on the wall. The image of Vinc disappears as the entrance opens. “I’m on my way.” As Konnica leaves her sleeper clothing appears on her body.

#

     An entrance slides open and Konnica comes out of it while adjusting her clothing. She starts walking down that corridor. Right behind her is a male. He glances at Konnica. Then starts walking in the other direction. The male is straightening out his clothing too.

     As Konnica walks into a side corridor she is run into by a running Bainti. Bainti steps out of the way. “Sorry, Commander.”

     Konnica puts a hand on her shoulder to stop Bainta as she starts to walk past her. “Why are you running? You know you’re not supposed to be doing that unless there is a crisis. Is that why you’re doing it?”

     Bainta looks at Konnica. “I call it a very big one. Thanks to that storm a ship day ago we are extremely low on Sun Power.”

     “How much Sun Power do we have? Do we have enough to get to the planet of Noesh? We need to get there as soon as we can.”

     “I think that we can still get there in time at low Sun Speed,” replies Bainta nervously. “But it’s going to take us another ship day to do it.

#

     A small transport lifts off the deck. It stops to hover slightly above it. “Transport Three ready to go.” The voice of Morran echoes throughout the Transport Section.

     Konnica looks down at the hovering transport from the Control Room overlooking the Transport Section below it. “Leave whenever you’re ready Morran. You are the last transport with supplies going down to Noesh. The sooner you get back here the sooner we can leave this area of Space.”

     Vinc looks at Konnica standing next to him and smiles. “You really are afraid we are going to get what’s happening on Noesh, aren’t you?”

     “I don’t fear anything. But this sickness is in the air. It may be headed for us right now. If it hasn’t hit us already.”

     “We have been monitoring the air in Space. There is nothing to indicate it’s left Noesh yet.” Vinc faces Transport Three just as it begins hovering toward a large shimmering opening.

     Transport Three disappears about halfway through that opening when a red flashing begins. The transport suddenly stops. Konnica cocks her head toward Vinc. “What’s wrong now? Does it have anything to do with the sickness on Noesh?”

#

     Konnica bends over and squints to see the level of the blue liquid that is filling up a large clear tube the size of a human body. Bainta does the same thing. Only she’s tapping away on her palm monitor as she does it. The liquid is about halfway up that tube. It continues to rise as Konnica and Bainta go to the next one to check its level.

     After checking four more tubes they reach the end of that row. All the levels are about the same. But they are rising constantly. Konnica looks at Bainta as they head for the next row. “How much longer is this sun collection going to take. You know I don’t like being so close to the sun for any length of time. And we have been at this one for almost a whole day.”

     “We have enough Sun Power now to leave here right now. But you wanted me to collect enough to last us for several months because you don’t want what happened a couple of days ago to happen again.”

#

     Running down the corridors, Konnica doesn’t even stop to let the entrance slide open into Healthcare. She suddenly stops just after entering it, though. her lower lips dropped in shock as she glances around the large room with about fifty hovering sleepers occupied by individuals shimmering and shaking. Some of them violently.

     Konnica quickly steps back out into the corridor just as the entrance slides shut. She pushes a button next to that entrance. It becomes a see-through one. Konnica pushes another button.

     Renne looks at Konnica from one of the occupied sleepers and walks over to her. She pushes a button on her side of the entrance. Konnica speaks first. “It’s the sickness from Noesh, isn’t it?”

     “Unfortunately, it looks like it is. I’m just don’t understand why we have already started dying from it so quickly.”

     Konnica looks at Renne in shock. “How many here have died so far?”

     “Only Morran and Goria are dead. But there about twenty others that are near death.”

     “I knew this was going to happen. Just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. What about the rest of our spaceship? Do we all have this sickness?”

     Renne sighs. “Unfortunately, since it’s in the air we probably all do have it.”

#

     “What am I going to do?” Konnica asked herself while sitting in her command chair in an empty Control Room. “Almost half the individuals aboard this spaceship have the sickness.”

     “Luckily, only about fifty individuals have died from it so far. And there is nothing that I can do about it. At times like this, I hate being in command of over five thousand individuals.”

     Konnica took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to do. We have been through a lot in the last eight years. But nothing like this.”

     “We are doing the only thing we can do right now. And that’s to find a way to live. The humans on Noesh found one. There is no reason why we can’t either. We have even gone back there for their help. They couldn’t do that. But they did give us what we needed to save ourselves.”

     “That is what we are doing. We are trying to find another planet that can give us the supplies that we need to get rid of this sickness before we are all dead because of it.”

     Konnica taps a button on the arm of her chair. “I am making this statement just in case none of us survive this sickness.”

#

     Their spaceship suddenly stops. “This is the fifteenth planet in the last two days.”

     “We need to check it out for what we need as quickly as we can.” Konnica continues talking to the others there.

     “If we can’t get it from this planet, we need to move on to the next one. Time is running out on all of us.” Konnica gets up and walks over to her Scanner, Vivianna.

     Vivianna continues to look at her scanner as she talks to Konnica. “I have already finished my scan. There’s nothing much there. It’s another dead planet with no life on it. And no indication there has been anyone on there for several thousand years. I don’t think we will find what we need here either.”

     “How deep of a scan did you do?” Konnica asks.

     “All the way to its core. There are a few elements that we could maybe use. But that’s all.”

     Konnica walks over to communications. “Havion, contact Transport Control. Tell them to send a transport down to that planet. Some elements are better than none. This is the first planet that we have found that may help us.”

#

     “Do we have enough Sun Power to force this planet to help us?” Konnica asks Bainta who is on the large monitor in front of her.

     “We have more than enough to do it. But like a lot of us, I don’t think we should do it.”

     Konnica sighs. “I don’t want to do it either. But we may have no choice.”

     Vinc looks from Bainta to Konnica. “They are doing it for the same reason we didn’t want to help Noesh. They’re afraid they are going to get it too.”

     “I know that. But I never said I wanted to destroy them. If I did that, that wouldn’t save us. All I want is to do it without them knowing about it.”

     “You’re talking about taking it from them without their permission.” Vinc shakes his head sadly. “We can’t do that.”

     Konnica sighs. “I don’t want to do it either. But what else can we do.”

     “I don’t know what to do. But we can’t do that.”

     “Look around us, Vinc. Except for you and me, everyone else here is dead or dying. And we are very close to it too. If we don’t do something now, we will all be dead within the next couple of days.”

#

     Konnica is pacing around Healthcare when Renne comes up to her. “Will you stop doing that. You’re scaring everyone around here.”

     Renne starts to walk away. Then she stops to face Konnica again. “I thought you didn’t like coming into Healthcare.”

     “I still don’t. But it doesn’t really matter if I do or I don’t right now, does it? If you don’t find out how to save us from this sickness soon, we are all dead anyway.”

     “We have already found it. All we need to do is make enough for all of us.”

     “How much longer is that going to take?” Konnica asks.

     Renne looks over at ten individuals in the next room. “I have ten of my best working on it. but it’s complicated and needs to be done just right. They should be done with it in about fifteen hours.”

     Konnica sighs. “It’s going to take that long?”

     “As soon as it’s done give it to the ones closest to death first and work your way down from there.” Konnica continues. “No matter how bad I get I’m the last one to get help. I’ve lost almost four thousand individuals because of this. I don’t want anyone else to die because of me.”

#

     Suddenly, Konnica collapses in Healthcare. Renne and Vinc help her to an empty sleeper by pushing her through a tall metal open-ended box as they go around it. Her clothing disappears as she goes through it. Vinc and Renne catch her before she falls on the other side and helps her into a sleeper.

     Renne pushes a button on the frame of the sleeper to put a body covering over Konnica. She pushes another button and looks down at the covering that is now showing what Konnica looks like within her body. After looking at it briefly, Renne turns toward a nearby individual helping someone else. “Get some of that over here right now.”

     Slowly Konnica turns her head toward Renne. “I told you not to help me before everyone else.”

     “The last ten days have been one crisis after another. It’s been the worst week of my life.” Konnica barely gets the last words out of her mouth before her head falls to the side.

     Renne looks down at the white body covering display that is now red. “She’s dead too.”

Word Count = 1,994