The Fate of Omega: Part One

Submission for Ironage Media's prompt, "The Shipwrecked."

        The scout took note of his coordinates. He had been searching for close to three months, and now he had finally found the seed ship, Omega. He leaned back in his chair, taking in his momentous achievement. He reached for his canteen of Europa Brandy, savoring the emotions coursing through him as he took a swig.

        Over five hundred and fifty years ago, Omega and its sister ship, Alpha, had set off on their voyage to Terra III. Twin seed ships, their purpose was to colonize the planet. One larger seed ship would normally have been sent, like when Terra II, Ganymede, and The Moon had been colonized, but as scouting had shown few places for a large metropolis, two smaller ships had been sent to start twin colonies on the mostly archipelagic, tropical southern hemisphere.

        However, during their flight, Omega had gone silent, and any attempts at communications were unsuccessful. Many tried to find what had happened to it and their friends and family, but it’s fate remained a mystery, despite searching the rout and all surrounding areas. Finally, after seven years of searching and no success, all missions to find it were called off as the survivors needed to focus on building up the sole colony. 

        Five hundred and fifty seven years later, after Terra IV and V had been colonized and Terra III was a populated and booming planet, Edwin had asked permission to start another search for it. And now, he had finally found it. It was close to seventy million miles off course in an asteroid field. Torn in two, it truly was a stunning sight. The cause of its destruction could not be determined from this point. Not having the scanners needed to do an extensive scan of Omega, he’d have to get closer to find out. Disembarking from his shuttle, and telling his partner in this venture to wait for him, he left the shuttle behind as he drifted over to the abandoned seed ship.

        He stood a moment outside the shuttle, taking in the majestic sight. An unexplored planet, red in color and giant, gaseous from the look, dominated the left of his vision. While to the right and in front were thousands of asteroids, forming a belt of sorts around the planet, which Edwin was going to try to name Omega, in honor of its fallen companion. The back third of the ship had separated from the rest of it, and hung in space amid asteroids and scrap. Light from a distant sun illuminated the scene in an eerie way.

        Using his thrusters to maneuver him to a gaping hole in the side of the larger portion of Omega, he hesitated before going in. He had no idea what he might find, nor whether there would be any remains. There were signs, old ones, of visitors. Perhaps those were made by pirates who had attacked, or some other power who had found the ship, and tried to give assistance. Or maybe it was just salvagers. He hopes what he found wasn’t gruesome.

        Upon entering, he found no bodies, decayed or fresh. That was both a relief and mystifying. Where had everyone gone? What had happened? He hoped he might find some clues inside.

        “Jarn,” he called through his wrist transponder.

        “I hear you, over,” his partner replied amid thick static, probably playing a videogame instead of doing what he was supposed to be doing.  

        “I’m inside, but there aren’t any clues here. I’m going to try to find if anyone left a log.”

        “I’ll bet you can’t start up power,” Jarn observed.

        “You’re probably right,” Edwin replied. “I’ll still check the bridge anyway. And I’ll try to see if there are any cabins intact. Hopefully the captain’s will be.”

        “Good luck,” Jarn said, ending their call. Edwin thought he heard the victory music playing, but he wasn’t sure with all the static. They needed new transponders.

        He sighed. Putting on some classical Earth music, Edwin hummed along to Staying Alive as he wandered through the behemoth of a ship. There wasn’t much to see. He had seen pictures of Alpha, and this was identical. Having studied the blueprints for fifteen years, over half his life, he knew them by heart. Thus, he knew that the captain’s cabin and the bridge were still a good half hour brisk walk from where he was.

        He wondered what happened to the crew. There still weren’t any bodies or any signs of a struggle either. Slavers couldn’t be ruled out entirely, however, but with the number of people onboard it wasn’t exactly probable.

        Letting loose a another long sigh, Edwin stumped down the deserted halls and corridors till he came to an air lock. It was shut. Since there was no power, Edwin pushed the button in defeat and racked his photographic memory for an alternate rout. He hadn’t gotten through a full rout when the door opened.

        Edwin turned, and stared. He walked through without thinking of the possibility of getting stuck, and found the door shut behind him. Then, he heard the sound of air being released and the doors in front opened. 

        What he saw beyond them quite shocked him. There was power beyond this point, and he was certain there was air. He made a quick scan, and sure enough, there was breathable air in this section of the ship. He pulled up the blueprints in his mind. If all was well, the cabins and bridge should have air and power too. It was also possible that the greenhouses were still functioning as well.

        All these possibilities were making Edwin giddy. He gave Jarn a call. “Jarn, you there?”

        Jarn’s voice came through, but it was broken, and he could barely make out what his partner distractedly said. “I’m here, what is it?”

        “There is air and power in here!” Edwin was almost shouting with excitement. “There is air!”

        “You sure, buddy?” The sound from his game was undeniable, but Edwin was too worked up to care. 

        “Yes! I don’t have my helmet on!”

        “You hallucinating?”

        “No! I’m going to find the bridge and captain’s cabin.” He ended the transmission before Jarn could reply. It wasn’t to cut him off, rather, he didn’t think about it.

        He was about to continue straight on towards the bridge, but decided to take a detour towards the closest greenhouse. Being centuries from the past, he had never seen the original greenhouse from his ancestor’s seed ship, but here was a chance to see one! 

        Though the giant sections of the seed ship were called greenhouses, they were large chambers which housed hundreds of species of flora, and were more akin to miniature ecosystems than a traditional greenhouse. Animals had not been taken on the first run because no one had been sure what their impact would be on the new planet. Chickens, no matter how domesticated they may be, might turn out to be an invasive species which could kill other sources of food, which was what had happened on Terra II. Cats had been deemed safe enough to come a few decades after settlement of Terra III, and Edwin had many cats, but had left them in his sister’s care.

        Along the way, there were still no signs of a struggle, or anything. The ship’s automatic cleaning crew must still be functional. As if to prove his deductions correct, Edwin heard the buzz of a robot behind him, cleaning up his footprints.

        He found the entrance to the greenhouse. Opening it, he was assailed by the scents of dirt, flowers, and grass. An addition of recent rain from the water system made the aroma particularly refreshing. He walked through the trees and bushes, savoring every ecstatic minute. When came to a stream which ran its way through the room, he stopped.

        Sitting by the stream in a plain shirt and trousers, drying her wet, black hair, was a young woman. She looked up, and her round, pale face showed confusion and fear. This disappeared as she got up gave Edwin a cordial greeting, extending her slightly pudgy hand.

The End,
God Bless

 Read Part Two here
 Read Part Three here