Sun Burn

“Sun Dancer 4, calling Mercury Solar Station 10,” Jenna’s throat was starting to ache, and she desperately wiped her sweating face, “Sun Dancer 4, calling Mercury Solar Station 10. Over? Is anybody there? We need rescue! We were on a mirror drop-off mission when an explosion in our engineering section blasted us into the sun’s gravity. Can you send help? Our radiation shields are maxed out. We have no way of escape. Temperature and radiation levels are rising every second beyond the Sun Dancer’s tolerance."

Silence.

There was no reassuring message returning over the radio. Some beacons had been dropped all over the solar system as the Second Space Age of exploration started when the Chinese first launched their capsules and threw them to the moon and the lunar colonies and outposts were built, real-time communication became a necessity.

Radio beacons and relays were scattered at every surveyed point of space.

Jenna knew her messages were getting through.

Nobody was speaking to her.

It was that simple.

When the Sun Dancer had been damaged and they were hurtled towards the sun fast when the explosion triggered off their fusion drive, only to be dragged fast like a fish on a line when the gravity caught them, the Mercury Solar Stations had been sending them calls after calls.

But not anymore. Jenna knew what it meant, she just didn’t want to face it. They’d been abandoned, and it wasn’t any of the solar station's fault; they just lacked the technology to properly mount a rescue.

John walked slowly into the flight deck. “Still no luck?”

Jenna shook her head grimly. “More radiation treatments?” Her voice was resigned.

John held up the pill box. “It’s all we can do?”

“Why bother? We’re going to die soon,” Jenna wiped her face again, and she spared a glance towards the radiation shields covering the viewports.

She was glad they had them, proving some people knew about health and safety; when they’d started the mission, the viewports were polarised, but the explosion which threw them towards the sun made the light unbearable. Ceramic and concrete lined with lead sheets sandwiched with kevlar, the shields were a welcome relief.

“Hey, don’t say that Jenna-.”

“Why shouldn’t I? The solar stations have been quiet for two days now. They know it's hopeless. Nothing we do will save us,” Jenna snapped, but she was too tired, too frightened to argue.

John sat down next to her at the controls. “Mac and Ryan are still working on the engines, Jen. You know how good they are at engineering.”

“But they’ve been working for days. Why haven’t we gotten out of the sun’s gravity yet?”

“It’s a big job, Jenna.”

Jenna nodded, conceding the point, “Yeah, but so was the mirror drop job.

Take the Sun Dancer with 277 mirrors into space near the sun, drop them into orbit, and reflect more light to Mercury, and bounce it off of the mirrors on the planet back to Earth and the colonies, and launch ships out deeper into the solar system, and build up the nation empires in the solar system,” She spoke as if she had heard this many times before. John chuckled. “You know back on Earth, there’s a 40-year plan to build a Dyson Swarm,” he reminded her.

“At this point, I don’t care.”

“No, me neither.”

Footsteps - one of the bonuses of the gravity pull of the sun as they could walk without relying on the acceleration of the engine bursts - were heard, and Ryan and Mac appeared.

The four astronauts had been friends for a long time, and Jenna and John could both see while the duo were both pleased, they were still worried. Not a good sign.

“What’s wrong?” Jenna demanded.

To be Continued...