The Gravity of Space

The impact to the rear of the fighter was a heavy blow followed by a violent explosion. Pushing the pilot forward in a painful lurch. Hanging onto the controls for dear life, the seatbelts holding him in his seat, rebounded him back into his seat. Violently the pilot pushed the control stick forward, trying to get his fighter to dive and get away from his pursuer that was firing at him from behind. There was no response from the ship. The ship was no longer under power and began to spin out of control. All of the controls, lights, and gauges shut down instantly. Try as he might, the ship was dead. He had to escape before it took any more damage and brought an end to his life. Reaching down alongside the seat the pilot grabbed the ejection handle and gave it a mighty pull. Small explosive charges blew releasing all of the parts that held the canopy onto the ship. Then two small engines ignited and pushed the canopy away from the ship. After about a second there was another set of small explosions underneath the seat, freeing it from the floorboard of the ship. Four powerful rockets then ignited and launched the seat out of the ship at great speed out into space. As the pilot cleared the ship, he turned his head back to see that there was only about half of a ship left. The back half where the engines should have been was completely blown away. He thought to himself that he was lucky to be alive. Somehow the ship did not completely blow up and end his life.

Seconds later another blaster bolt streaked through space, hitting the now empty cockpit, and instantly blowing it into pieces that began to scatter all over space. The pilot could feel the pressure wave from the destruction of his ship. Fortunately, he was far enough away that all is did was add a little to his momentum. The enemy ship, with its black fuselage and silver wings, flew past the wreckage of the now destroyed defense fighter and the now floating in space pilot. The pilot in the black fighter ignored the enemy pilot, igniting his engines, and continued to fly towards the large blue and green planet that they had been fighting above. The enemy ship, now joining the other ships from their fleet, made a diving run at the planet. Firing its blaster cannons, striking buildings on the planet’s surface. Now totally helpless to stop the slaughter of his home planet of Themis and her people. Commander William D. West could only shed a tear for those on the surface.

There was a beeping tone in his ear, and it brought his attention back to his current situation. Bringing his right wrist in front of his face, William could see his suits readout display. The top line showing his call sign ‘Wild Bill’ in bright blue letters. Next it was displaying all of his vital signs. Everything looked to be ok physically. His flight suit showed no injuries or damage. His oxygen levels were at ninety eight percent and showing that he had about four hours of air left. While he was still strapped into his flight seat, William gave himself a quick visual inspection and confirmed that he agreed with the readout. He reached over with his left hand to the computer display on his right wrist and pushed on his radio transmit button on his suit.

After a quick crackle he called out “Wild Bill to defense command, does anybody copy?” Silence was the only answer. After a few seconds he pushed down on the button again. “Wild Bill to defense command, do you copy?” Again, nothing but silence over the radio.

The momentum that had be used to eject William from his ship was now sending him on a trajectory around the planet. William was still belted in to his cockpit seat. He was moving at a good pace and he could see areas that were once large cities that were now burning black scars on the planet’s surface. William could see ships flash by as they kept making attack runs firing upon any and all places where people could be hiding. Looking on in disbelief, William could not understand how they were so totally defeated in this war. They had the superior technology, better ship design, and superior defensive systems. This should never have been possible. Was it hubris? Could it have been some type of sabotage? Many different ideas were now running through his mind. Trying to come up with an answer to all of the horror playing out in front of him. William floated for what seemed years while his mind went through all of these different thoughts.

As his orbit continued around the planet, the moon named Abuk came into his field of vision. On the surface were a few small cities dedicated to different industries. There was the mining conglomerate, the division of medical studies and testing, and the military flight and combat training facility. As each one came into view William could see that they had been attack and totally obliterated by the attacking force. Not a single structure had been spared. The pain in his heart grew by leaps and bounds as he had many a friend and colleague stationed there. He knew they were all dead.

A tone began beeping urgently into the helmet breaking his thoughts and returning him once again to reality. Looking at his display he was frightened to see that his oxygen levels had dropped to a very low level. The gauge now said that he had only thirty minutes of air left. He wanted to chastise himself for letting his mind wander on things he could not figure out, but he took a moment and thought to himself, ‘Well what else am I going to do right now?’ As he looked around, he noticed that the invading fleet was gone. All of the capital ships that were surrounding the planet had scooped up their fighters and left. All that was left was the eerie silence and the hundreds of black plumes rising up from the surface. Anything that resembled a city was laid to waste.

William could see debris from destroyed ships begin to enter the atmosphere. As the friction began to heat up and burn the pieces trails of smoke could be seen coming off of them. Quickly most of the smaller pieces burnt up and broke up to become nothing more than dust. William quickly realized that this was going to be his fate soon enough. The planet had slowly become bigger as he traveled around it. His mind tried to calculate to see what would happen first, entering the atmosphere or running out of air and suffocating? Neither outcome was going to be pleasant and he decided that the answer was not worth the energy to figure it out.

Once again Commander West brought his right wrist up in front of his helmet and looked at his display. The timer now read twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds. Despair started creeping into his mind. The end was staring him in the face. There were no ships within his view that could come and save him. He had heard nothing from ground control over the radio. He had no options left. Pain and anger took over. He reached over and reset his radio go a general broadcast, pressed the button and proceeded to scream out as loud as he could. This went on for several seconds until his breathe ran out and the scream came to a whimpering conclusion. After taking his next breath William’s emotions calmed down and he was now relaxed. Considering that he was probably one of the last people Themis to be left alive he should go out with some dignity.

As he closed his eyes ready to accept defeat, his military survival training began to kick in. William reached out to his control panel and began turning down his life support on his suit. The clock on his display jumped up to forty-three minutes. Then the clock relentlessly began its count down again. He knew it wasn’t much, but he had to continue to fight and live for his people. He took the despair that was clawing at his mind and buried deep in his mind. No matter what happened he was just not going to give up.

One more time he tapped on his display and reset his radio frequency to an emergency channel. Taking a moment to quell any panic that might be in his voice William pressed the button to activate his transmitter. “Wild Bill to defense command. Does anybody copy?” Releasing the button, he waited with baited breath for an answer. Again, he was met with nothing but silence. He once again pressed the transmitter button. “Wild Bill to anybody. Can anybody hear me?” For a few seconds there was just the continued silence. Then like a bolt of lightning there were crackles and pops coming through his comm system.

“Wild Bill, this is the cargo hauler Valdar seventeen. We can hear you. It is great to hear someone’s voice. We have been trying to get in contact with space traffic control center, but it has been radio silent for the last several hours. We are about an hour from entering orbit. Do you know what is going on?”

William, with a solemn voice hit the transmit button. “Our home world has been attacked. The separatist fleet used an all-out attack on us. Our bases on Abuk have been wiped out. All defensive positions and forces are gone. The planet has been heavily bombarded and almost all major cities are in ruins. The death tool is probably in the billions.” There was a tiny crackle as he released his transmit button.

“Oh my God! What do we do now?” replied the radio officer on the Valdar. Once again, the radio when silent for several seconds. Then there was another crackle as the radio was once again activated.

“This is Captain Kimbro. Tell us where you are and we will send a shuttle down to pick you up and help find any survivors.” This voice was different. It had a more commanding tone to it. Like someone that had seen much in their lifetime.

“Captain, I am not on the planet. I was in a fighter battling above the planet. My ship took heavy damage and I had to eject out of it. I am currently floating in orbit around the planet.” Replied William in a rather calm voice. Like this was a normal thing to be doing.

In a shocked and stammering voice, the captain replied “well ok then. This is a new one for me. We are just under an hour away so just hang in there and turn on your beacon. We still have to pass through the asteroid belt before we can get to you so just sit tight and we will come and rescue you.”

“I am not going to be able to wait that long ma’am.” William returned his eyes to his display. “I only have thirty-eight minutes of air left and I have already reduced my life support to a minimum level. And to add insult to injury my orbit is decaying. I probably have less than an hour before I start hitting the atmosphere. Thank you for trying, but there just isn’t enough time for you to get to me.”

“Captain to engineering. We need full power to the solar system engines now!” came the loud and strong voice from Captain Kimbro. “Forward shields to maximum. Weapons to the ready. Weapons Chief, fire at any rocks in our path. Hang in there commander. We are on our way.”

“Thank you, Captain. Wild Bill standing by.” Replied William in a voice that was upbeat and with a renewed spirit that had just stepped back from the brink. Then William hit a button that activated his locater beacon. Hope had returned, but the clock said thirty-six minutes and twelve seconds and counting.