Journals

“This Statement was made predating of  the disaster on the ship “S.T.A.R Earthracer” Found in a written journal the only existing record of the background of stowaway  G.T.Mark”

“Dear Journal,

Have been in this cell about... i don’t know, a long time. This ship was my ticket off that dyeing rock, but by the sounds of the officers that keep me in this hole, it is apparent i will be the one knocking at deaths door. Looks like i dint count on the fact that there were only so many Cyro pods, the judiciaries will properly just decide to through me into the vacuum of space, much cleaner way of being rid of me. They are having one last fuel off this asteroid then they are putting everyone to sleep, and the going full speed ahead.

I guess now im near the end i can look back at what got me here, i was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Unfortunately my parent had decided to settle in a back end town called Dartford, even writing its name makes me want to wash (something that in this cell has been denied to me). So i had to make my own way up, i tryed hard at school and got through to university where i did my honours in chemistry. I would of been a fine upstanding chemical engineer if it was not for me getting caught high as a dam kite in my car on the day of my graduation. Spent 6 months inside for that, and to top it off because i was a convict no one would hire me. So that’s when i got in deep with drugs. I made the strongest meth in London, of course that gets you in trouble with the wrong people, and trouble was what found me.

Thankfully i heard of the S.T.A.R voyage coming up, so i high-tailed it to the S.T.A.R elevator faked my way aboard posing as the ships chemist and hid. Only thing though i dint know that there was only enough cyro pods for one chemist, so now i find myself in this position, in a cell waiting to die. I had better chances back on earth.

Only chance now is for that last mission to the asteroid to go bad so a cyro space opens up, but what is the chance of that happening.”

“Journal entry ended, 5 hours before an alien virus came aboard S.T.A.R Earthracer” 

(by George Martin)

Log written by Michael, the Cook during the move from Earth orbit to the main asteroid belt

My name, by the way is Michael. I’m the chief cook for the mission. Despite the limited ingredients, our meals got a lot more interesting when I had to provide for sixty instead of a thousand mouths.

I thought that we would travel straight from Earth orbit to the Main Asteroid Belt. Ships had reached 100,000 km/h several decades ago after Apollo 10 held the record at just under 40,000 km/h for over half a century. Funny that its still thousands of kilometres and we’ve never started saying megametres.

Anyway, at a straight line distance of 300 million km (3 Gm?) before we started hitting the main belt if we travelled at 50,000 km/h, easily within capability, we would reach our main belt orbit, parked 400 million km out from Sol in 8000 hours. That is 333 earth days. Lets say a year.

It turns out, according to the navigational engineers (NavEes), that I was being a bit naïve. Fuel is king and time comes second on this mission. So, we need to consider efficiency. This means firstly not blasting at maximum speed but considering the optimum and, secondly, using gravitational assist or slingshot. We would not be going in a straight line but doing a strategic flyby of Mars. Also, the velocity would be carefully calculated by the onboard computers.

It’s amazing how condescending someone can be with a little knowledge that you don’t share.

At this point I was starting to think that it would take several years to get there rather than maybe one as I had estimated. However, there was another factor. In order to remain within the main belt, we needed an orbital velocity of 65,000 km/h. Now, space isn’t like Earth with its atmosphere providing drag. We might as well build up all of that speed at the beginning plus some more so that our kinetic energy would be converted to gravitational potential energy as we climbed out of Sol’s gravity well towards the main belt. We ended up averaging about 70,000 km/h and going 50% extra distance with our Martian slingshot (timing had been carefully considered for when Mars was well placed). All in all we travelled 450 million km at an average of about 70,000 km/h. It would take about 9 months. I wasn’t so far out you sneering NavEs.

Since there would be little to do during this 9 month period, the vast majority of the crew would be put into their first period of cryostasis. This was partly to reduce aging but mostly to preserve resources, as if fuel was king, biosupportive resources were queen. I was to remain active for this time as part of a maintenance crew.

I remember the day after they had all been iced. It was so quiet, peaceful, empty, boring. Then we got playful. We had the recreational core to ourselves. I’d used it before but it had mainly been used for low gravity training for asteroid mining. Now it was ours for several hours every day.

I had better explain the recreational core in case you haven’t heard of it. With the living quarters being designed as a large rotating cylinder that gives the appearance of Earth-like gravity on the inside of its outer surface, the nearer to the centre you climb, the lower the apparent gravity. In the very centre you are weightless as the cylinder rotates around you. The inner core was left as a recreational and low gravity training area. 20 metres across, if you stand on the surface you experience about 10% of Earth’s gravity. A good jump can get you to the centre and if you get it just right, you can hover in the middle. Excellent fun at the beginning but when it started to get old-hat we invented the sport of three-dimensional rugby based on a game that the Brits used to play.

There were sixty of us still active while the other 940 were iced. Navigation was being handled by the computers. Our jobs were to keep an eye out for anything going wrong with the said computers and with the cryosystems, to control food oxygen and fuel generation and to generally look after the place. On reaching the main belt we would bring back about 200 to start mining but most of the rest would stay in cryo.

Landing on an Asteroid

As the pod descended from the spaceship, Trev thought to himself. ‘Why, oh why, did I think that this trip to the edge of the solar system was a good idea. I had a good life on earth, as a general consultant for a waste disposal company. A murmur beside him awakened him from his thoughts. “2 more minutes till we hit the surface.” Said Chris.  Chris was the medic on the ship. Trev wasn’t sure why the captain had sent Chris down with him to the surface, as identifying asteroids, and understanding what minerals could be found, was not usually a job for the medic. But then again, this was an uncharted asteroid for resources, so maybe the Captain was just being safety-conscience. Either way, Trev wasn’t a man who would argue. He would much rather be sipping Gin on the Glass deck, or discussing resource management with the crewmen and captain, than down here on the surface. He also knew, that if he didn’t argue the captains decisions, he would be drinking or arguing a lot quicker.

A series of hisses from air escaping as the pod descended told Trev that they would almost be touching down. A beeping sounded, and Trev felt the thrusters quick in, to slow the descent. A minute later, and the pod hit the ground, and the door opened. Trev had been wearing his flight suit since they had entered the pod those few minutes ago. A radio buzzed in the pod. A slow southern drawl filled the pod, “Y’all okay down there? Over.”

Chris quickly responded into the microphone within his space suit. “All good, ready to initiate observation. Over.”

“Okay, captain and safety officer has confirmed. You may initiate spacewalk. You have three hours before the asteroid will deviate off course too far, and we will have to eject from it. Over.”

“Okay, see you in three hours. Over.” Chris turned to Trev and nodded. Trev turned to the door, and stepped out onto the surface.

A barren wasteland met their eyes. The shiny surface extended in all directions. Trev took a minute to study the surface. He took a device from his trouser pocket, and shoved it straight into the ground. He stood again, and looked over his shoulder at Chris. The medic was examining the pod, making sure that there were no major problems with the craft. A beep alerted Trev back to the device in the ground. He knelt, and examined the screen on the side.

“Hmm”-murmured Trev, “It is an Ataxite. Rare, very rare. High in Nickel, Iron and Cobalt.” He radioed up to the ship, “How are our supplies of Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt? Over.” The radio was quiet for a minute. “Our supplies of each of those substances are good Trev. Lets just leave a beacon on this one, record it for the boffins back on earth, and get the hell outta’ here. Over.”

“Sure thing. We’ll head back up in a-“

“Actually, Trev, I’m picking up strange readings a few klicks away. Can you check it out? Over.”

Trev was quiet for a minute, his chance for a quick getaway dashed in front of him. “Okay, lets go Chris. Get out the carts.”

An hour later they were travelling across the surface at speed.  Trev looked up as they traveled. He saw the giant ship above them, only visible by the stars that it blocked out. He was amazed by human ingenuity sometimes. But then he looked at BBC News back on earth, and was almost sickened by what he saw happening there on a daily basis. Killings, bombings, lies. Trev now remembered why he went on this mission in the first place.  A voice in his head said, “Approaching the site of the readings, be wary guys. It’s showing some pretty strange readings up here. Over.”

“Sure thing. Over.” Replied Chris. Trev looked ahead, and frowned. There was nothing, just flat surface still. “Okay, we are here Trev.” Said Chris. He stopped the cart, and stepped down into the dust. Chris stood there, slowly turning around occasionally. “There’s nothing here. It’s the same as where the pod landed.”

“You sure,” replied the ship. “Use the reader Trev, maybe something is underground.” Trev replied with a grunt, and got out of the cart. He walked away from the cart a few meters, and shoved the device into the ground again. It was not in the ground ten seconds, before it beeped. Trev was surprised; usually there was a good few minutes for the device to recognize the elements within the ground. He looked down at the screen, and gasped. “It’s water, solid water. We are standing on an Ice lake.” He turned to look at Chris, who showed no sign of surprise. “Aren’t discoveries of Ice on asteroids common place?”

“Yes they are, but usually the asteroids they are found on are smaller, and are solid ice balls. This is a lake of ice on an asteroid made up of other elements. This is very unusual, I assure you.” Chris shrugged. Trev removed another device and pointed towards the ground. He looked at the device, and said aloud, “ One hundred meters deep, and 200 meters wide. It also seems to have some kind of solid mass in the center.” He looked up at Chris, and this time Chris did look surprised. “Lets have a look at what’s in there!” he said loudly.

Before they activated the drill on the cart, a voice in both of their helmets said, “Better think about heading back guys, we’re nearing the ejection point.”

“Sure, we just going to be 10 more minutes here, then we’ll make a move.” Said Trev. He motioned to Chris, and Chris started the drilling. While that was happening, Trev collected a few samples of the ice. As he added the ice to his resource box, a loud noise from the drill took his attention. “Warning: Hitting unknown object. Warning: Hitting unknown object.” Chris knelt down at the screen. “That’s strange. It seems to be some kind of biological tissue down there, but that’s impossible. No life could survive here in space.” Chris looked at Trev, waiting for an order to do something. However, Trev was stunned. How was there biological life here, on an asteroid, in the middle of space? “Better call this in.” He said. As he raised his arm to contact the ship above, he glanced at the hole that the drill had made. There was a small amount of dark liquid coming out of it. Trev shook his head, believing it to be a trick of the light. But, he looked again, and there again, was more black liquid, coming from the hole. He turned and alerted Chris, but as he looked back, the liquid coming out had doubled. It was now streaming out freely. He also noticed, that somehow this liquid was defying the gravity of the asteroid and slowly climbing up the drill, and where the liquid touched the Tungsten steel of the drill, it decayed, cracking and dissolving the metal. Trev said slowly into his mic. “Heston, we have a problem here. “

Chris tapping Trev on the shoulder finally removed him from the trance. He said nothing, but pointed towards Trev’s feet. A powerful stream was heading towards his thick cosmonaut boots. Trev slowly stepped backwards, but the stream suddenly doubled in speed, rushing at him, as if he was attracting it. Trev just turned and ran. He reached the cart, while Chris was trying to move the drill back away from the hole. “Leave it Chris, we have another on the ship.” Chris just left the drill and got onto the cart. As Chris got on, Trev hit a button on the console, and the Drill arm dropped from the cart, and hit the ground with a hefty ‘thud’. Trev jammed his foot onto the pedal, as the cart sped away from the dark corrupting liquid.

Unbeknownst to either of them, a small string of dark liquid hung from the rear bumped of the cart. As the vehicle trundled along, it slowly began to move up the metal of the car, heading for the two humans in the cart.

As Trev and Chris stepped out from the descent pod, into the prep area on the ship, a huge cheer greeted them. “We didn’t know what happened, you said there was a problem, and then your mic turned off, and we couldn’t reach you. We thought you had been attacked by space yeti’s.” Said Heston, with a grin. As others stepped forward to make sure everyone was okay, Trev didn’t notice the small black smudges he left after every step he took. He also didn’t notice the smudges begin to pool, and slowly move towards a vent on the floor. Trev finally didn’t notice the black smudge, begin to grow as it reached the vent, transforming itself into a worm-like shape. Trev didn’t care, as he finally had his gin, and could sit and relax for a while. 

(by Christian Perkins) 

Political Struggle

We find ourselves on the eve of one of the most pivotal events to occur upon our journey to the new world. A time of great unease and fear now spreads amongst the population of this vessel. It is, as I believe, a critical point in which we must stand for what we believe before the very freedoms which we cherish are stripped away from our existence. 

The captain of our vessel has been overthrown by members of the military which once called themselves friends of ours and the captains. Their justification for such an unforgivable and ferocious undertaking; is that the captain was leading us into disaster. This disaster being one of servitude to a tyrant; with a desire to be a dictator over the soon to be our home. However, they claim to be against dictatorship but it is them who have self-proclaimed an ‘Enabling Act’ which sentences us bleak and unclear future. It is still unclear who is leading this mutiny and now calls them self our leader.

The People’s Congress has attempted to convene, but has been declared by the military as a terrorist organisation and banned from holding gatherings. This has not stopped them, the congress has started a tide of resistance to the oppression which now weighs heavily down upon us.     (by David White)