Chapters:

Virtuoso

Alpha Nova Bravo

A Story Among the Stars

Prologue

(Renee Rose Video Log Transcript) - To Command HQ

December 17th 2109

Hello world! Its your beautiful host for the night. Renee Rose. Its approximately 23:00 Pacific Standard Time, umm its a Wednesday and were currently flying over what Dr Rivers named ‘The Jungle In Space’ i know the names not going to stick and it sounds like a really bad 70s movie but hey don’t tell her that! So status report, we have discovered four new Planets this season each consisting of water and what appears to be a stable ecosystem. We have nineteen samples all organic in nature, mostly consisting of water and plants. Which Dr Rivers is currently testing. Right umm crew report… We still have seven crew members all healthy and suffering from no injuries, although Dr Camry is suffering from cold like symptoms in the sick bay. A cold in space, who knew! Flight Engineer Stratton has focused on improving our shields the past week. Dr Varanti and Quartz are in stasis until next season which from now is about four days. Our Co-Pilot Dr Peters is currently setting our course for Polaris five where we will re-fuel and stock up. Hopefully on jelly babies, i love those things! Last but not least is the Commander. Commander Lasky, she’s currently in the gym as per usual around this time. She seems to be prepared for the mission ahead and I’m ready to follow her lead this one last time. Oh and i’m doing great, you know being the youngest astronaut ever isn’t easy, i’ll have you know. Goodnight HQ. Wayfarer out. End Transmission.

Chapter 1 - Virtuoso

“Lasky! Times up girl time to save the world”. My eyes opened and were immediately met by Renee’s face pressed up against my Stasis Chamber. “Hey there Commander!” she said playfully. The water began to drain and i slowly climbed out of the chamber. “Have a good sleep?” Rose said passing me my overalls. “Yeah probably the best I’ve had in a few cycles” i said smiling at her. “Status report?” i quickly followed. “Things are fine, i had it all under control, were waiting in the Hub for you.” Renee said pointing towards the door. “You and control should never be put in the same sentence Rose” i said winking at her. “I’ll get dressed and join you guys for briefing in a few minutes” i added. Rose winked back and headed towards the airlock. I just needed a few moments to myself, Stasis sleep was never one of my favourite parts of space travel. I put on my overalls and took my helmet from the shelf, I could see my reflection in the helmet my hair was a complete mess and was still drenched from Stasis, its always pretty weird looking at your reflection anyway, but looking your reflection after about thirty years and looking exactly the same is definitely something i can never get used to, no matter how many missions I’ve been on. I clutched my helmet to my chest and made my way to the airlock, already smiling at the crew through the small circle window in the door. The door behind me closed and the cabin was de-pressurised, the airlock door then sharply opened and i was immediately greeted by chanting. “Lasky Lasky Lasky Lasky!” they were all shouting my name whilst spinning in the air, throwing drinks, food and anything they could get their hands on. If there was one crew i could stay with forever it would be this one.

“So who turned off the gravity lock?” i said jokingly. Stratton pointed at Renee and Renee pointed at Rivers. I floated over to the table which was cleverly bolted down and hugged Dr Rivers, Rivers was a old time friend from the ORLA days, training to become a Astronaut was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Rivers made it look like child’s play, he flew ships in simulation with a ninety-nine percent accuracy, he took endurance tests which consisted of multiple grueling body exercises; being held underwater until water entered your lungs, put in what we call the dizzy chamber which is just a mock spaceship made to simulate free falling in space. It was just an array of body draining exercises that we did day in and day out without stop without rest. It was a must and we see the benefits of it now, but Rivers he was a total machine when it came to anything physical, i sometimes wonder why he never made it to Commander. “So Lucy whats the plan for our next trip?” he asked. “First i need a strong coffee then we can discuss our route” i said chuckling at the food in the air. I bounced off of Rivers and climbed across the table to Stratton, he bounced upwards trying to dodge me but i caught his leg and pulled him back down to give him a hug. Now Stratton was the genius of operations mostly, he designed almost everything ORLA now calls their technology. He’s just not a hugger. He was the only person who skipped the ORLA training, he invented all of our weapons and flight technology for our new range of ships. Stratton was just a genius plain and simple, anything you needed invented or explained you speak to him, great to have someone like him on board. Now onto the crazy one, Renee. Renee was my protege i took her on as an apprentice once i finished my training, i see a lot of myself in her. She’s dedicated and extremely quick witted, its that kind of thinking i like, she’s very quick other feet and can get out of a bad situation before you’ve even realised you were in one. Although she’s only nineteen i decided she was ready to join the crew, she could teach our old bunch a lesson or two about space travel. “Anything to report guys?” i asked the team. Stratton flew over to the gravity lock and flipped the switch. We all slowly descended back onto our feet and sat at the table. He leant over the table with a now very serious look on his face. “We had two fly-bys, one re-fuel and an asteroid storm a few miles from the ship, thats all Commander”, he said in a gravely tone. “Seems pretty routine, any damages from the storm?” I asked. “No Commander, shields were at full capacity and I re-calibrated our route to find a safer path through” he said again with a gravely tone. “There was some debris in the storm though Lasky it seemed to be coming from the Lucrino System” Rivers added. “The Lucrino System?” I asked just to confirm. “Yeah it was crazy, there were multiple damaged ships, a blue box, resources and cargo like goods too. It was probably a convoy of traders who got caught up in the storm.” he explained. “Hmm, well I’m kind of glad the traders didn’t quite make it would want a confrontation with those savages” Renee bellowed. “You can’t treat everyone out here as an enemy Renee”, i laughed. “You know my motto ‘Savage until proven guilty’ and I’m sticking to it she giggled. Rivers and Stratton laughed as they got prepared to wake up the rest of the crew from stasis. Renee was right though, it was the same mindset I had on my first mission, everyone was an enemy… even myself.

Commander Lucy Lasky - Video Log Transcript - To Command HQ

March 24th 2109

This is Lucy Lasky reporting in to Command HQ. Its 13:00 Pacific Standard Time on a wonderful Monday afternoon. Sigh i hate Mondays even in space. So this is just a quick video log, to report a sickness. Cody Johns is suffering from a severe illness, origin unknown and likely to be from the planet were currently orbiting, Rivers is calling it The Keepers Moon. It has no signs of organic life except there was a large glowing monolith protruding from the centre of the planet, which we all inspected with no problem. It had a shimmering purple aura around it which seemed odd considering in my experience these types of monoliths emit a blue aura. However Dr Johns took a un-authorised sample from the monolith and has been in close proximity with it since we left. He has quarantined himself in the sick bay and is… well he’s threatening to eject the sickbay. Command i have no idea how to deal with this situation, i need urgent assistance in resolving this. If i’m not available this cycle, talk to Varanti he’ll know what to do. Lasky out. End transmission.

“Alright!” So were all familiar with the mission? Correct?” I shouted. By this time everyone was out of stasis and getting reacquainted. “Hey! Are we all familiar” I shouted again this time louder than the last. “Yes Commander!” they replied in unison. “Right then let’s get this show on the road, we’ve got a very and I mean very important package in the cargo hold. Now HQ wants this delivered and operational on the nearest planet with signs of compatibility with said package! Now does that make sense to y’all?” I explained. Rivers frowned. “Umm I’m not to sure what you mean by ‘compatibility’ Lucy” he nodded. “Ah… well the package has a certain failsafe I suppose, it will only work if the planet has any signs of life” I explained. “Wait what! So were intergalactic genocidal maniacs now!?” Renee bursted out. “That’s what HQ wants but that not what I want, using the package will wipe out all existing life and terraform the planets surface allowing us to survive there” I hastily replied. Renee shook her head. “HQ has no idea, they know nothing about how precious life is” Renee said. “So forward to my plan, were going to find a uninhabited planet hopefully with a source of water, water is life and will disable the failsafe allowing us to terraform the planet without any casualities. And we won’t become ‘Intergalactic genocidal manaics’” I giggled. I turned to Quartz realizing he was shaking his head. “What’s wrong Quartz” I asked. “So your ignoring a direct order from HQ? Really Lasky, we could all be sanctioned and executed for this kind of disobedience” Quartz rambled. “Hmph yeah we might, but that’s why I’m the Commander and you’re the Scientist!” I shouted. “Oh so your throwing around your title now Lasky” he bellowed. “I didn’t mean it like that Quartz, you just need to understand that killing a entire planet wasn’t on my agenda when I acquired this mission, and that’s not going to change” I explained. “Understood Commander” he replied sarcastically. “Sooo who’s hungry” Rivers interrupted. Stratton stood up and headed through the western airlock along with Camry. Rivers nodded signaling he had my back in the situation. “I’m going to eat in my sector” I shouted down the hall. “Alright we’ll meet in the South Ring” Rivers shouted back.

Lucy Lasky (Diary Entry)

 I wasn’t really planning on eating alone but if I didn’t, I felt I was going to rip Quartz head off. He’s a great scientist one of the best but he plays for the other side, he’s been on four of my missions and not one of them he hasn’t questioned me or relayed crucial information back to HQ. Command HQ used to be such a wonderful place a huge hub orbiting the Monetica System, a place where we all worked together and pioneered space travel. However, that didn’t last long, HQ was attacked by an unknown ship, seemingly alien in nature. After the attack most decided it was best that we seek out and destroy the Aliens that attacked us. The attack invoked fear and when people are scared they’ll blindly do anything so most of HQ voted in favor of becoming an armed force. In short terms we became damn ‘space pirates’. So I started my own unit… a specialized unit one that would find life and preserve it. In order to go ahead with making my own unit I had to legally complete seventeen missions under HQ’s orders. So I agreed and this was the last mission I would ever do under their name. Quartz was their little spy, keeping me in check, watching my every move. I wasn’t about to let him compromise this mission, not this time.

Diary End

“Lucy, I got you a drink from the kitchen” Renee shouted through my airlock. I smiled at the doorway. I threw my diary under my pillow. “Well come right in” I replied. “Here its cranberry your favorite” she said. “Thanks Renee you always know how to perk me up” I smiled. “Yeah well when you got Quartz breathing down your neck its kind of hard to relax” she laughed. I cut open the carton and took a sip from the juicebox. “Just this one last mission though Lucy, that’s it then we can go on and have our own adventures right?” Renee asked. “I think so, but I don’t think its gonna be that easy Renee. Remember ‘The Keepers Moon’ mission I told you about? I asked. “Yeah yeah the one with Dr Johns”, she quickly replied. “Yeah that’s the one, well I checked the travel logs whilst we were in stasis. And there’s an anomaly, we travelled off course for ten days before returning back on route.” I explained. “Who authorized that kind of flight path” Renee whispered. “We orbited the Keepers Moon for twenty-two hours and I’m not exactly sure what someone did there, but I’m going to find out” I whispered back. Renee pulled out her Navigator. The Navigator system is a direct link to the ships mainframe allowing access to the stasis logs as well as the ships status. “When was this anomaly Lucy! What cycle?” Renee asked. “Between the seventh and the eighth” I answered. “Ok ok I got it, redirecting to the stasis logs. Well isn’t this a surprise” she said with wide eyes. “The only two people out of stasis were…” My airlock door flew open. “Renee! Lasky! We got a problem on the flight deck!” Rivers shouted. Renee fumbled with the Navigator and rushed off to the deck with Rivers. I sprang up my seat and picked up the Navigator, rapidly scrolling through the cycles. Five. Six. Seven. Then there it was… the Seventh Cycle logs.

Chapter 2 – Cold Storage

Command HQ –Audio Log Transcript – To Lucy Lasky

April 28th 2109 (Day after previous Video Log)

“HQ to Lasky! I repeat Command HQ to Lasky! Are you receiving? Over!”

 “Loud and clear HQ, who exactly am I speaking to?” I asked. Muffling.

 “This is Dr Clancy speaking. Martin Clancy of the Twelfth Fleet!” he replied. “We have just received your emergency video log! Is Dr Johns still quarantined in the sickbay?” he hastily continued.

“I reported that just over a month ago and you’ve only received it now? And yes he is still in the sickbay, he hasn’t come out yet, he is adamant that he remains there till we dock back in the Monetica System.” I explained.

“Between you and I… are you outside of the Monetica System if you don’t mind me asking Commander?” he whispered into the receiver.

“Yes… yes I am” I replied eagerly awaiting his reply. “We’re still in orbit above the Keepers Moon” I added.

Ruffling Papers.

“Well I believe your ship is in what we call a Iosphere Lock” he rambled.

“Care to elaborate Dr Clancy” I impatiently answered.

“Yes, yes my apologies Commander! I’m just in a state of shock I’ve never seen such high readings before! An Iosphere Lock has only ever occurred once before. It seems the planet your orbiting has a unique atmosphere which inhibits its own timeline, separate from the rest of the universe!” he rambled on.

“Correct me if I’m Clancy but are we talking about relativity here?” I tentatively asked.

“That’s exactly what were talking about Commander, you have entered an atmosphere where time is faster for you than it is in Monetica also known as a Iosphere Lock” he explained. “In simple terms several hours for you on this ‘Keepers Moon’ you speak of is months back here in the Monetica System” he added.

“Well our thrusters have been cooling for the past hour, they should be back online momentarily. We will head straight back to HQ and report in” I replied.

“Unfortunately I can’t let you do that Commander” he said in a regretful tone. “Cody Johns is a level 5 hazard to HQ and we cannot let you enter the atmosphere” he continued.

“Listen to me and listen to me clearly Clancy! I have never lost a crew member and I’m not about to start now just because you say so you got that!?” I asked angrily.

“I understand Commander but this isn’t my call, this is directly from General Hawk, he has issued that we may use deadly force if you attempt to dock back on Monetica” he answered in a somber tone.

“Let me speak to her Clancy” a faint voice asked.

“Commander this is your General speaking… General Hawk.

“Is what Clancy said true? I asked.

“Indeed it is Lasky, I myself will board my ship and fire upon you, as will the entire twelfth fleet if you enter this airspace” he said in a serious tone.

“I’m not leaving him” I said calmly.

“Eject him Commander! He’s a degenerate nonetheless, why are you so fixed on saving such a man.” He shouted.

“Hmph, that’s what we are to you Hawk? Degenerates? I angrily questioned.

“Well not you Lasky, you’re the best Pilot we have” he groveled.

“I’ll have you know that I may be the best Pilot, but none of my crew are degenerates and I am honored to be part of this crew. I’m not ejecting Cody, I’ll do whatever I can to cure him and were going to head home!” I pridefully replied.

“This isn’t going to end well for you Lasky” Hawk muttered.

“Likewise General… Likewise” I replied.

“Co-Pilot Camry!!! Full thrusters, were heading home! I shouted as loud as I could.

“And were not going to be stopped” I whispered into the receiver.

End Transmission

I double checked the Navigator which was now making a faint bleeping. And there it still was in plain bold text. Seventh Cycle logs; on duty Dr Quartz and Dr Rivers. Rivers of all people, why would Rivers be working with Quartz I thought they hated each other. It appeared that they spent twenty-two hours orbiting the Keepers Moon and then returned back to our normal schedule to make it seems as if we never took a detour. HQ must have something on Rivers, he would never do something like this his own… would he? He’s always been so loyal, I mean he’s supported me through all these missions without question and now just out of the blue he seemingly breaks character to assist in whatever HQ’s planning. Not on my ship. Not ever.

I ran through the airlock past the South Ring towards the front of the ship. I glanced at the Navigator as I ran, I had to make sure, I just had to. I reached the command center.

“Manual controls to Pilot, authorization Lasky” I whispered.

 The control lit up and the Pilot seat swiveled toward me. I quickly sat down and took the controls. We were nearby Fronus; a non-hostile planet with little resources, although they did have a competent command crew stationed out there. The thrusters began to slowly come online one by one.

 ‘Thrusters at eighty-eighty percent’ the console bleeped.

“Hey did someone turn on the thrusters?” I heard Rivers’ voice.

I quickly slapped the throttle to full.

‘Thrusters at one-hundred percent’ the console bleeped.

 “Lockdown the South Ring” I whispered.

‘Lockdown in progress Commander’ the console replied.

The South Ring shutters slammed down down the hall.

“Lasky! What are you doing?”

It sounded like Rivers but I couldn’t hear him over the thrusters opening.

‘Launching in 5.’

I gripped the controls.

‘4’

I altered our course and set it to Fronus.

‘3’

I checked our scanners for asteroids or debris.

‘2’

I flicked the ships mode to light-speed

‘1’

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Thrusters online! The console alarmed.

We immediately bolted through the stars at high speed, I could see Fronus in the distance. It was beautiful like a snowflake just suspended in space.

“Open local transmission, Fronus Command Center.”

‘Transmission accepted’ the console replied.

“Fronus Command Center this is High Commander Lucy Lasky of Wayfarer Six, I’m coming in for an emergency landing!” I shouted.

“We hear you High Commander initiating bubble sequence” the voice shouted back.

I put the ship in to overdrive and left the controls. I had to confront Rivers…

Next Chapter: New Chapter