Unaven

Unaven

By Simon Atkinson

Dedicated to all my teachers at Oak Grove School.

This is my last year in elementary school and next year I will be going to middle school.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont

Copyright 2018.

“Darren, we need to hurry. We don’t want to be late to pick up your mother from the briefing room,” said Darren’s father, Leroy.

“Why did she call a meeting? Is there something wrong?” asked Darren.

“I don’t know. You know your mom, she’s probably getting worked up about something.”

Darren’s mother was the captain of the space station UnavenTR5 that orbits the planet Ucharya. Darren was 16 years old (16 Earth years of course). Their family moved to Unaven three Earth years ago (or seven galactic standard). Before Unaven they lived on the Mars colony, previously they were stationed on a space station called Fornd315UF9 that orbited Saturn. Darren and his old friends from Mars always called Fornd “the french fry” because it was skinny and tall and looked like it was being dipped into a little ketchup container. Mars was the first planet Darren had ever been to. They only lived on Mars for one year to make the arrangements for the trip to Unaven.

.

Really the Unaven was a spaceship. It was just used as a space station. It was a Human colony but a lot of the people on the station where Avachans. Avachans are the people that live on Ucharya. As the son of the captain, Darren had many privileges. For example, he was already a junior engineer and allowed to learn about the engine room. Despite his advantages his lifelong dream had always been to visit Earth. He had always dreamed of one day seeing the ocean. He envied the Human children on UnavenTR5 that had been to Earth. He had not even seen it up close before. He had only seen it as a small speck. And that was at Mars and Fornd. From Unaven the sun was just a tiny dot in the sky like all of the millions of stars and galaxies you can see when you look out into space.

Darren’s mother had forgotten her pass to use the elevators and get into their room so they had to pick her up. Darren and his father stepped out of their living space and started down the well-lit hallway. They passed by a few cleaning bots on the way. Darren’s family lived in the outer part of the station that was mostly living spaces. Other sections of the station were lined with shops, businesses, and restaurants. What Darren liked about the outer part was that there was a lot of windows and he loved looking out into space. You might think that looking at the stars could get boring because he lived in a space station, but it wasn’t the stars that he was looking at. He was looking at Earth. Of course he couldn’t actually see it but he imagined it right there.

The hallways in a space station like this were like streets. They were usually really busy and full of people. It was like a huge city. Right now there wasn’t any people out because it was late. Well, it was late for the Humans on the station but not for the Avachans. The Avachans had a totally different schedule. There wasn’t really a night or day on Ucharya. Ucharya is a tidal locking planet where one side of the planet is always facing the star it orbits, and the other side is always dark. Avachans live on the light side of the planet which has a similar climate to Earth.

They stepped into the elevator that took them across the bridge that connects the ring to to the main part of the station. It wasn’t really an elevator because it went in all directions. Also there isn’t any direction in space. There is no up, down, north, west, south, or east. They had to switch onto a different elevator now to reach their destination. The elevator led to a hallway and at the end of it was the door to the briefing room. When they opened the door everyone in there was having a total blowout argument. As they walked in everyone promptly stopped talking. Darren’s mother, Inris Andrews, walked to them and led them out the door.

Inris was a slender but strong individual. She had long jet black hair and always had a determined look on her face. She was known to take risks but usually the situation was in her favor. She had always been a natural leader and a good diplomat. She was the captain of the Fornd station orbiting Saturn until she got a promotion and moved with her family to Unaven, a more important station given the delicate position with the war.

“Something has happened on Earth,” she declared, “An asteroid has hit Earth… we don’t know how big of an area was destroyed.”

“Wha, what? Are you sure,” Darren said “We need to communicate with them, figure out what's going on.”

“We’ve tried but communications are down. Darren, we might have to accept that Earth didn’t make it,” said Inris.

“What are we going to do?”asked Darren.

Suddenly someone walked out of the room.

“We need you, it’s chaos in there,” she said to Inris.

“Darren, go back to the apartment. We’ll figure this out.”

Inris and Leroy went inside. The meeting room was chaos. The science officer pitched in. “Everyone quiet down. I know you’re all confused. I also know that a lot of you are worried about people that you care about but you need to stay calm right now. Let the captain speak.” Everyone quieted down.

“Thank you. I propose that we go back to Earth. Communications are down but there could be survivors. We need to help” said Inris.

“But Cap’n Andrews, our solar system is over 12 light years away. How do we get there?” asked the chief engineer, Reed Franklin.

“The same way we got here, through a wormhole.”

“But the only wormhole near us is in the Coltlanium territory. We're at war with them. It would be suicide to even go near ‘em,” he said

Really the Coltlaniums were at war with the Avachans first but the Avachans were Earth's ally. Three years ago when Darren and his parents moved here, the wormhole was in Ucharya’s territory but Coltlaniums had been taking territory and the wormhole was now under their control.

“We can use some of the Avachan cloaking technology.”

“I’m sure we can bargain for that. We’ve helped the Avachans in their war many times,” said Inris.

“Does anyone disagree with the captains plan?”

“I say we can do it,” said an officer.

“What about all the Avachans on board,” said an Avachan ambassador. “Where will they go?”

“They can stay onboard if they want. Otherwise they go back to Ucharia on the Transport ships” said Reed.

Darren was in his room sitting on his bed waiting for his parents to come back when his mother’s voice came on the intercom.

“There has been some very bad news. An asteroid has hit Earth and we have lost communication with them and all colonies. We don’t know how big it was or what kind of damage it took. We are going back to Earth. Any non-Human occupant of the station is welcome to accompany us, if not you will be supplied transport to Ucharya. I know a lot of you will be worried but you need to stay calm. We have already had communication with the leader of the Avachans and they will help you get back to your home planet if you do not wish to stay on Ucharya or the station. To get back to Earth we will need to go through Coltlanium territory. I assure you that there is little possibility of any harm coming to anybody on the station, but there is risk. We have arranged for a cloaking device to be delivered to us in three days time. Anybody who wants to leave has until then to do so. To arrange transportation to Ucharya or if you have any questions, go to the Relocation Office.”

A few minutes later Darren’s parents arrived at the door. They walked in and gave Darren a hug right away. They were all worried and confused and their family was the only thing holding them together. The three days leading up to the departure were hectic. All the people who didn’t want to go to Earth were annoyed about leaving the station. There were also a lot of complaints at the Relocation Office. There were even some robberies on the station. With all the people leaving there was a lot of merchandise from shops being moved and a lot left out in the open. The Executive Officer, who was the head of security had a lot on her hands.

.

The engineers had to get the engines ready for the trip. The Avachans got the cloaking device installed. It took so much power that they had to buy a ton of extra fuel for the Unaven. Finally the Unaven and it’s crew were ready to leave. The ship was really dated and hadn’t flown in thirty five years. When the engines started the whole ship shook violently. In a few seconds it quieted down. Suddenly the lights and artificial gravity shut off. Inris called down to engineering.

“What's going on why is everything off?”

“Sorry Cap’n, a power coupler shorted out. We’ll fix it in a moment,” explain Reed.

A few moments later the gravity and lights came back on. Now they were finally ready to leave. It would take five days to get to the wormhole which led straight to Earth’s system. Inris was in the bridge with the flight officer, the first and second helmsman, and the navigator. The chief engineer would be joining them when everything in the engine room was settled.

While Inris was on the bridge Darren was in the engine room trying to help. Tomorrow they would be approaching Coltlanium territory late in the afternoon. The cloaking device would hide them from any long range sensors, but if a ship got close they were done for. They would be taken as prisoners of war. If the Coltlaniums were to find out Earth was in trouble, they would make their attack and they would win the war. Everybody just had to wait to see how things turned out. Very few Avachans remained on the ship. A lot of the engineers were Avachans. Avachans had an uncanny ability to fix things and work with metal. But with the ship not running for thirty five years, and only having small things to fix like cleaning bots, they had been lazy.

They were a few hours away from the Coltlanium space and the engineers still couldn’t figure out how to hook up the cloaking device.

“Sir there’s been a fire on the Intermix Energy Conduit. We need to send someone down there but there aren’t any free hands,” said an engineer to Reed.

“We can’t spare anyone. Who are we going to send?” he said.

“I’ll go,” said Darren.

“That's a great idea. You’ve been trained in this, but wait, you’re not 18 yet, your mother wouldn’t allow it,”

“But you have no other free engineers,” said Darren.

“Fine. Get down to deck G. You’ll have to go into the Intermix Energy Conduit and put out the fire before it causes any more damage. With all the extra power for the cloakin’ device it’s put too much strain on it. We’ll have t’ convert some of the power t’ the secondary shaft, and with the shaft down you’ll have to do that manually from the Power Distribution Chamber. Wear one of the ferno protection suits,” said Reed to Darren.

The Intermix Energy Conduit was a shaft that conducted energy to lots of different places on decks F, G, and H. Of course with such an important shaft, there would’ve needed to be a backup. Actually there were two backups. They would run the cloak on one and the engine on the other while they fixed the primary shaft. Darren got in the first hatch, latched it, and went through the second. The fire was worse than they had thought. He got out his halon extinguisher and started his work. Halon was like a gas that sucks the oxygen out of the air.

“I need some help down here. The fire isn’t going out. It's getting pretty bad. If it reaches the reactor then I’m done for. Heck, half the ship will be gone. You need to send more people down here!” said Darren over the intercom.

“Ok, sending people down there right away. If it gets unstoppable then we might have to cut it.” Darren knew that meant giant blast doors would slide down over that entire section. Then they would open an airlock that would suck out all of the air so the fire would go out.

A few moments later, five people from R.E.S.T (Reactor Emergency Situation Trust) arrived. By now Darren had run out of halon and turned to the emergency extinguisher that is required in all important parts of the ship. Suddenly part of the ceiling collapsed and there was an explosion. Two people were stuck under the debris.

“Reed, there’s been an explosion. Two people are stuck under a beam. Get a rescue team down here right away. I think we might need to cut it,” said Darren.

“Ok Darren. I comin’ down myself. Be right down,” Darren and the others tried lifting the beam but they couldn’t do anything so they just focused on keeping the fire at bay. By now Inris was alerted of the situation.

“Why is Darren down there? Mr. Franklin, get my son out of there, ” Inris said frantically.

“I can’t. Two of the R.E.S.T officers are stuck. I’m going down there with a team of rescue officers to get them out,” he said.

It was the second engineer now “You got three minute before the fire reaches the reactor and we go kabloom. Hurry up in there!”

Finally the rescue team got there. They had to set up the jacks. Putting out the fire was hopeless now.

“You have one and a half minutes,” said the second engineer, Dax.

The officers were under a lot of debris and it took a while to get them out.

“Um, guys, we have a new problem. The explosion has breached the corridor. You have to clear that and shut the blast doors on both sides. You have a minute,” said Dax.

They got the injured rescue officers free.

“Forty five seconds”

It was a problem getting them up the ladder...

“Thirty seconds”

“You get the injured ones to that side and close the doors. I’ll go to the other side,” said Darren.

“Ten”

Darren got to his side but the injured rescue officers were slow.

“Get out of there!” said Inris

“Five, four, three,”

Darren shut his door.

“Two, one”

The second door closed.

“Cut it now!” said Darren.

All the air was sucked out and the fire was out.

“Get those officers to the med bay. That was too close,” said Reed.

“Mr. Franklin, get back to your post. You shouldn’t have let Darren go down there. He’s my son!” Inris said angrily.

Reed let out a long sigh “I didn’t have a choice and I’m not sure how the backup shafts are even going to hold up. This ship is so old. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Back in the engine room they got the cloak up. They were in Coltlanium space. Darren was thinking in his room. What If Earth didn’t make it? No! It can’t be true. But what would we do. I don’t need to think about that. I mean what are the chances of an asteroid so big it would destroy a planet. It would have to be huge. No, Earth is fine. Maybe it wasn’t even hit at all. Maybe they just thought it was going to.

They were only half a day away from the wormhole. The first helmsman noticed something on his sensors. It was a Coltlanium ship . They could see it but it couldn’t see them unless it got too close.

.

.

“Alert the captain. Call down to her apartment,” he said.

“Captain, get to the bridge immediately. There’s a Coltlanium war ship,”

“OK, be right up,” she came up a few moments later. “Where is it? It can’t see us right?”

“No but it’s headed right for us. If it gets much closer they will see us. Get the engines ready for full thrust,”

“Sir they’ve spotted us,”

“Punch it!” they thrust forward towards the wormhole.

“The rest of the officers rushed to the bridge.

“Sir they’re shooting at us. Let's get out of here!” said the second Helmsman.

“We have the wormhole in our sights,”.

Then suddenly there was a crash. They were hit.

“Only minimal damage captain.” They passed through the wormhole. The Coltlaniums wouldn’t follow them into Earth space. They were going through the solar system. They could see Pluto. They saw Neptune. Came upon Saturn. They could see Fornd. They saw the Mars Colony. They were coming up on Earth. Suddenly something hit the ship.

“Was that the Coltlaniums?” somebody said.

“No, it was a small asteroid,” Bang “There was another...”

“Where are those coming from?” said Reed.

“Wait, where is Earth?”

“I… I think that was Earth,” Inris said.

Darren was shocked, all his dreams about earth squashed in an instant. Earth was gone. It had been completely destroyed. The asteroid that hit it must have been ten times bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. It took a long time for Darren and the survivors to accept this. They landed the Unevan on Mars and focused on rebuilding. Darren threw himself into helping where he could and each night the survivors gathered to share their memories of earth. They rebuilt with the help of their allies and but no race ever forgot the tragedy that happened to the humans.