A World Alone

The red flashing lights slowly started to wake the man strapped to the chair who had just been having a rather pleasant dream. Deep within his mind something was screaming for him to wake up but it was a quiet scream and he squinted trying to fall back into his dream. Then the sound started to register, much like a wrench across corrugated steel, it was an alarm that he knew well and it was deeply ingrained in his training.

Without warning he suddenly jerked awake, pulling against the belts that held him to the chair he was on. Breathing fast he scanned the instrument panels and with a few quick hand movements he silenced the alarm and began to take stock of how he got here. The alarm he just heard was dreadful to him because it signaled he no longer had contact with Respite, the ship he came here on. Like someone hitting him with a hammer, all the memories flooded back into his mind as he grabbed his head.

...

The Respite had dropped out of its warp bubble just beyond the orbit of this mystery planet named Pyiron 442 in order to begin a survey. After a six month journey the crew of the ship had been woken up only a few days before in order to get everything ready so they could complete the survey as quickly as possible. The Respite was a research vessel designed for exploration, charting, and pre-colonization prep for planets.

As the vessel's sensors were starting their initial scan of the solar system inside the hanger bay a technician was finishing up his final checks on the primary shuttle. All 37 mini GPS satellites docked in the shuttle checked out, each piece of highly advanced equipment had cleared its insensitive checks over the last three days. Everything from Organic planters, 3D Printers, protein synthesizers, Medical equipment, and close to fifty other pieces of equipment all fit in this one shuttle. This shuttle was one of only three in the entire fleet, it was designed to be the starting block for an entire planetary colony.

As the technician pulled up the engine start-up check list on his wrist computer screen he opened a communication line to the hanger bay tower, "Tower this is Dave in Genesis shuttle, request permission to begin engine start up for initial test flight?" A few moments later he heard the expected response of "Genesis you have permission to begin engine start up, They are still getting results from scans and we will not be flying until we get the all clear."

"Copy that Tower" and he immediately started going down his checklist making sure every gauge, toggle, and switch was where it needed to be. Screwing up the engine this far from a repair dock because he forgot to turn on the coolant would have him in some hot water plus he found it rather soothing to follow the list.

Just under ten minutes later he finally hit the last item and began engine startup. As the reactor fed power to the ion engines a soft hum could be heard and finally he sat back and relaxed on one of the benches. Scratching at his two day long stubble thinking that it needed to be shaved he knew the scans were about to be completed. Dave thought, "Well the cockpit chairs were much more comfy once you got into one", so he moved up and worked himself into the chair. When he was finally settled into the chair he keyed to the tower, "Tower any wor..." He was cut off by a shrill Klaxon going through the ship.

The Klaxon was loud, but suddenly it cut off and the captain came over the speakers, "All hands brace for impact. Missiles inbound, we are returning fire." All the blood in Dave's body felt like it turned to ice, This was the worst case they could imagine happening with first contact. This whole system was cleared there was not supposed to be a single shred of intelligent life here.

What bothered him the most was that this ship was not anywhere near a warship. The four missiles onboard were only there for self defense they were never believed to be needed. He was just thinking of how they would get out of this when the radio burst caught his attention, "Genesis shuttle power down your engines and secure yourself for impact." With a quick response he acknowledged the bridge and started to move his hands to begin the shutdown sequence.

The hanger bay suddenly erupted in a brilliant white light as the first missile slammed into the side of the ship. The shuttle bay door was practically the best place to get hit on the entire ship, as it was the only armored area on the entire ship. The door shattered with the impact of the missile, but the hanger bay was undamaged and instantly the atmosphere inside the hanger started getting sucked out.

Without thinking Dave reached up and shut the shuttle's cargo door he entered through and sealed the shuttle to keep himself alive. This action is what saved his life as the second missile struck the ship and this time it hit right by the engines causing the entire ship to spin and lose all primary thrust. He knew without a doubt this ship was not going to survive another hit, he also knew they had escape pods but without a rescue boat they would all die inside those pods.

Without asking the tower, who were all probably too busy anyways, he grabbed the controls. He cleared his head and let a sense of calm came over him as he focused entirely on getting his shuttle out of this dying ship. As he applied pressure to the thrusters he released the magnetic locks and aimed right for the shattered door. If the ship took another hit, if it stopped rolling, or if he miscalculated the spin at all he would end slamming into the wall of the hanger. This was because he was no longer attached to the ship, he was now flying inside the dying vessel for his life.

His focus was perfect, the ship was flying perfectly, and he knew they he had done all he could to keep himself alive. He forced down the fear, only a few more seconds and he would be clear of the ship and he could figure out what to do to help save the damaged ship. In the briefest of a moment he imagined himself picking up life pods and getting rescued.

The front of the shuttle cleared the damaged hanger door when the third missile slammed into the now critically damaged vessel. The missile slammed directly into the reactor compartment wall causing a catastrophic explosion. As the reactor went critical a wave of pure energy was released slicing through the ship decimating it. Unknown to Dave the ion engines actually saved his life, the field generated by them actually absorbed the shockwave turning into into thrust for his vessel instead of destroying it.

In less the blink of an eye the shuttle was launched far faster than designed, tumbling into space. Dave was knocked out from the acceleration but the computers onboard his vessel recorded the final moments as Respite and every other crew member was destroyed. What was not recorded was that one of the two missiles Respite had managed to launch hit the space station that launched the alien missiles.

That automated station was the last working self defense station of the dead world below. A civilization dead over a millennia had finally fired its last rockets...