Graveyard of the Living
13 Apr 2022Lily Flemmon
Today... I did it. I went back to Eoch Flyuae NC-O b50-44. I... I faced what happened there. But this time, I wasn't there alone. A handful of Commanders were already in-system, having arrived on the Spuren von Leben, one of the other carriers in the convoy. Originally, only the Philosopher's Respite was going to stop there, but about 5-6 Commanders on the trip wanted to get a head start on mining tritium there. Pristine icy rings in-system and all.But I was focused closer to the star... much closer. Phoenix and I sat in the lower command deck for the carrier jumps, all 11 of them. I've literally never been scared by a hyperspace portal opening in front of me until that first jump. The slight gravitational shockwave as the carrier entered was that last bit it took to send me into a panic. And Phoenix... they knew that would happen, and they were already holding my hand. And right as that tiny shock hit us, I gripped their hand tightly and cowered into them, hiding my face in their shoulder and started to cry softly.
"Lily, look... it's... beautiful."
I looked up as the carrier was traversing hyperspace, and I'd seen it many times before, but... I guess I never looked at it like this. "It... it is beautiful."
Phoenix wiped the tears off of my cheek. "And you don't even see what it looks like reflected in your eyes..."
I felt blood rush to my face as I looked over at them. It was beautiful in their eyes, too. "Oh, Phoenix..."
"Lily, you're gonna do this. We're going to go back there, and it's going to be hard for you. But you're gonna face all the things you buried there, all the feelings, all the trauma, from there and from things you faced before... and it's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay." As they finished, the carrier exited the portal and returned to normal space.
We kept holding hands for every jump. We didn't have any need to leave our seats, not even to get a bite to eat. Mirabella brought us some snacks she and the chefs had roasted using the radiators of the Cuisinier between jumps. Well, not just us, the entire bridge crew. Apparently they had enough time to demonstrate that technique to all the docking bay crews on duty, and enough supplies to provide snacks for basically the whole carrier. Only about 70 people on board, so "snacks for the whole crew" was pretty doable. Igikaizen even let her onto the upper command deck to get the snacks to the bridge crew!
As we arrived in Boeph SX-B d778, Phoenix saw the system name and just started laughing. I heard a "you good down there?" from the helmsman, and before I could respond, Phoenix shouted out "BEEF SEX!" plenty loud enough for the bridge crew to hear, and I swear, everyone on that bridge burst out laughing. Once the laughter died off, Phoenix took my hand, got up, and started running toward the hangars, pulling me with them.
"Where are we going, babe?"
"We don't have much time, Lily! This is our only chance! We have to honk the beef sex!"
I pulled them back and opened comms to Igikaizen. "Hey Igi, is there someone scanning as we go?"
Igi responded quickly, "Yeah, Century's been scanning every jump."
I turned back to my partner. "It's okay, Phoenix, the beef sex is already being thoroughly probed."
The next two systems were also in the Boeph sector, and the ensuing banter about beef was pretty great. A few highlights:
"A thousand light-years and we still haven't escaped the beef!" -Phoenix, to the helmsman.
"Beef: it's what's for dinner. For the next few days." -Igikazen, imitating an Old Earth commercial voice.
-Century, who managed to remotely commandeer all non-essential displays on the command deck for about 15 seconds.
----
4 jumps after the Boeph sector, we arrived at Eoch Flyuae NC-O b50-44 2. The planet I burned myself on.
There it was, glowing a dull incandescent red. I reached out toward it, and I noticed my hand trembling, and then I noticed I was shaking a bit all over. I took a deep breath to try to steady myself, and I felt Phoenix gently holding my hand beside me.
"Lily, you need to do this. You're going to do this. And you're gonna be okay."
I forced words to form in my head to respond. "Are... are you gonna be alright in the high gravity and maneuvers?"
"I'll be fine, Lily. And I'm not letting you go alone."
"Maybe I shouldn't do this. Maybe I should just stay here, and-"
"Lily, stop. I know you're feeling like you want to go home, back to Chilton, but remember... Home isn't a place, its people. And I'm right here. Maggie and Mira are on this carrier too. You are home. And you need to go out there and face this."
"Lily, are you seeing this?"
"Yeah, that's just an old scan, right?"
"No... We're still picking up that beacon. I don't think anyone came back for the rest."
"Wrong. We came back for them. Hang on, Phoenix." I went above and boosted off the pad, and noticed the planet was starting to become illuminated- it was eclipsed by its barycentric sibling when we arrived, but now that was passing, and we didn't have much time before the remaining beacon site got too hot to reactivate the escape pod transponders.
And we did it. I did it. I picked up the 6 escape pods at the site I didn't check last time, although the other pods I left behind last time had already been picked up. I opened system general comms to try to find out who got them.
"Lily to Century, did you get those last pods? Two on body 2 that I left behind last time I was here."
"Affirmative, Lily. but there's something I think you need to see. Meet me at the Spuren von Leben... we've found a lot more than two. Sending the scans over now."
I looked at the scan data. Apparently there were 23 more distress beacon sites further out in the system on icy moons. "Century, please tell me there are rescue efforts for all of those underway."
"Again, affirmative- so far we've confirmed 61 pods, and 61 living occupants. We're estimating a total of about 120 at these other signals, based on what we've seen."
"This system is a fucking graveyard. Except the people are all still alive. Someone... did this."
I flew back to the Respite and docked. Next stop would be Colonia, and I knew I had questions for people there. Angry, burning questions.
Thanks to Igikaizen and CenturyGamer for helping this log along, and allowing me to write their characters a bit.