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Ark-1Pt. 1

By Timothy E JonesPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 16 min read
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Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space.

Or so they say…

Earth: the not-too-distant future

The White House exploded in a blaze of fire and smoke as an explosion took out the great dome. There was no massive alien ship behind it with its death-ray aimed at it. No airplane filled with explosives crashed into it. No controlling prisoners that escaped from some alien prison dimension. It was done by the government, the very people who were supposed to protect the white house from this very thing; society collapsing in on itself from within.

With the nuclear bombs going off almost daily, Covid-19 and the monkeypox infections only scratched the surface, hell, they were mere child’s play compared to what it now was. Masks, not just the cloth masks were a must, when people were outside their individually specialized air-conditioned environments, these masks had their own supply of oxygen/nitrogen mix, each tank of the mix lasted a week, and you needed to wear a mask that made you look like Darth Vader. The mix wasn’t cheap, for a weekly supply, it cost 100 dollars per tank. The people with money got them first, and for those who got the tanks in multiples of 5, they got a buy four get one free deal. But the price of the air tanks were about to triple…and that was if the air negotiations went well.

But the masks were a short-term solution, for all of the poison and nuclear bombs made the air toxic, and for those who could not afford the oxygen tanks, it was a long and excruciating death. Imagine having your own lungs break apart like someone put acid on them while you were trying to use them.

Clark Johnson was one of the luckier ones, he made a way. He recently bonded again with his childhood sweetheart, and after almost five of being separated, the two found their way back together. They were literally born on the same day of the same year and were raised by their respective families to always be together. Then there was that fateful day, when Rachael’s father took a commission in the newly formed Space Corp. They made an agreement to keep in contact with one another and had even entered into a marriage of agreement which worked for the two of them, even though they were unable to consummate their marriage, and neither one of them considered cybersex, which they both experienced a lot of over the past five years, to be a true consummation.

Rachael stood with Clark as he stood at his mother’s memorial, one of the latest victims of the lack of clean air, she looked at the jar of ashes they were going to place by her marker in the great hall of markers.

“You know,” Rachael’s usually cheery and female sounding voice came out sounding like a robot, which was something that she could never get used to, especially since it was a mandate that was in reality only a few months old. “I believe your mother’s death can be used for to our advantage.”

“How so?” was Clark’s response.

“As you well know Space Corp has created 5 ships, which each can hold up to 2,000 people, of which my father is the captain of one of these ships.”

“10,000 people,” Clark sighed, “that’s barely the population of a large town or small city. Hell, Yazoo Mississippi has more people than that!”

Of course, Rachael immediately wondered where this Yazoo Mississippi even was, or if it even mattered that she knew. “I know, but I believe I can get you in that number, quite possibly as a part of the crew,”

“How would you manage that at this late date?”

“Ahem,” Rachael said, “make our marriage real. Being fully married to the captain’s daughter would have its privileges.”

“It already is real,” Clark sighed, “enough.”

“It is…but it isn’t.”

Rachael stood inside the bridge of the Ark-1, gone was her face mask and all of the stuff that went with it, as it was not needed, her long dirty-blonde hair with pink stripes hung down over her shoulders. Her figure was a perfect 36-26-36 with well-rounded breasts the size of cantaloupes. Her green eyes caught the artificial light in the room, as she gave her father the perfect smile. “As you well know, Clark and I have officially come back together.”

“And you want to make sure he is in the lottery to come onboard one of these ships,”

“Not exactly just some random lottery entry onto the ship, I want him to be a part of the bridge crew,”

“Rachael,” Noah groaned, “most of the bridge crew are experienced officers with years of experience.”

“I know, but--.”

“Family of bridge crew,” Noah said, “and we can possibly make him a welcome presence on the bridge. And we can find him a position off bridge that would allow him to come here when the situation allows.”

“But--.”

“But what?” Her father looked her in the eyes.

“I guess that will work,” Rachael sighed, “but now comes the question, Clark and I want to get married proper.”

“I thought you two were already married in your own way,”

“We are, but it’s only a marriage of agreement, and I want to do it proper with a preacher,”

“Ah,”

“You know, so we can do things proper,”

“Do things…” Noah mused, he knew exactly what Rachael had meant, but she and Clark were both going to be officially 24 on Friday, “…proper. Oka-ay.”

“Dad?”

“You two think you can be in close proximity to one another for two days without… doing things… proper until we do things… proper?”

“I think so,” Rachael said, “and it will be just in time too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t we supposed to be launching sometime next week?”

“There is a window of opportunity to make a clear path towards the planet we intend to inhabit five light years away that will open up on Wednesday.”

“I see,” Rachael said.

“Listen, I’ll tell Rev that you and Clark are coming to see them, I think they'll be more than happy to make you and Clark their first marriage on one of the arks.”

Two days later, Rachael and Clark said their vows in front of the witness of the entire bridge crew.

“…if anybody has just reason as to why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold their peace.” Rev mumbled over the words as if they had no true meaning to her.

“I swear to God…” Clark held a prop gun out in a random direction, “…if anybody says anything, this will go off!”

“Alright,” came a teasing mumble, randomly from the witnesses, “I won’t say anything about last night.”

“What happened last night?” Clark gave a mock look of concern.

“I dunno,” Rachael looked around to see who spoke. “I was with you all night.”

“True,” Clark sighed.

“Let’s be serious people,” Rev said as they saw the humor in the little gag. Rev was a 5’5” very rotund transgender with a pixie haircut and a goatee. “OK? By the power vested in me as the reverend of Arks 1 thru 5, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

“Now you can do things proper,” Noah whispered so both of them could hear.

“Well go on,” Rev said more as a tease than anything else as they fanned themselves, “kiss her before I do!”

At that, Clark and Rachael kissed with a passion, as Rev looked on with a hint of jealously and an obvious sigh.

Rachael and Clark spent the obligatory couple of hours at the reception, which half of was of Rachael trying to avoid the advances of Rev. It was during one of these times that Clark pulled Rev aside and decided to have a conversation with them.

“What the frack do you think you are doing?” Clark pointed his finger at Rev.

“I just find her so… attractive,”

“How long have you known her?”

“Oh, two days now, which is only a few hours longer than you buster!”

“For your information, I’ve known her since birth!”

“Wha--?”

“Sure, we came back together two days ago, but we made plans for this years ago.”

“But--.”

“What part of speak now or forever hold your peace do you not seem to understand?” Rachael barked at Rev.

“OH, well, they’re just words,” Rev spoke before they thought, then looked at her empty champagne glass, “listen, I could use a little more champagne.”

“Here,” Rachael reached out for a full open bottle, placed her thumb over the top and shook it up, then aiming it at Rev, she released her thumb, “you go,” the entire contents of the champagne sprayed all over Rev.

“That should be satisfying for you,” Clark said.

“Oh, it was so satisfying for me,” Rachael turned to Rev, “was it satisfying for you!”

“FUCK OFF!”

“The things Reverends get away with saying these days.” Clark led Rachael away from Rev. He looked up to see his now father standing there he let out a smile. “Hi dad!”

“I’m so glad to see you and Rev getting along,”

“Why are we supposed to be getting along?” Rachael asked.

“Not particularly,” Noah sighed, “but she will be in the same section as you.”

“Oh,”

Clark and Rachael wasted no time on consummating their marriage, they went through the rest of the obligatory reception with no other incident, then the hightailed it to Clark’s house where the sex was great.

Rachael’s wedding gown was literally ripped off like wrapping paper off of a child’s main birthday present and her naked body lay on the bed. Clark undid his pants and pulled them off, revealing what was coming up.

“We ready,” Clark asked.

“Silly question,” Rachael spread her bare legs open as Clark lay on top of her, stuck himself inside her and began to pound her like an engine.

Wednesday arrived and Arks 1 – 5 were ready for their secret launches into deep space, each ship went off in a single launch countdown succession. First one, then a few seconds later, two and so-on until all 5 arks broke free of the orbit of mid-21st century Earth. Behind them two missiles, one from Russia, one from China took out the western portion of the United States. One landed directly on the San Andreas fault causing California, the western half of Orgon and most of Washington to fall into the Pacific. But it didn’t stop there, missiles from the middle east decimated the Eastern coast too. Cities like Philadelphia and New York were the prime targets. The midwestern cities of the United States, they weren’t left out.

Not to say that the Unites States didn’t retaliate, they sent missiles out to Turkey and parts of Russia, with a whole barrage of missiles going to China and Japan.

It didn’t stop there, all the nuclear explosions going off all at once set off a chain reaction that went straight to the core of the Earth, that caused it to tremble, the layers around it broke apart, and fell way, the core boiled and expanded still until the whole Earth exploded like a giant balloon.

The five arks escaped the atmosphere just in time, the earth fell from the final one just as it launched and was the one who struggled to escape the atmosphere of the exploding planet. It pushed on, Ark-4 went into lightspeed, thus pulling Ark-5 into its impulse wake.

“Come on!” the Captain of Ark-5 said with a curse, behind him the state of Delaware was literally on their tail. He placed his hand on the navigator’s shoulder.

“Going to light-speed,” the navigator hit a switch on the control panel, “NOW!”

Ark-5 lurched forward, just as the chunk of land smacked into the back of the ship.

“Steady the course, we don’t want to be separated from the other ships! If we fall off course for even a fraction of a second, we could be separated from the other ships forever!”

Noah watched through the viewscreen where Ark 5 should have joined them. “Anybody see anything?”

“Nothing,” the navigator said, as he checked the radar.

“It’s possible for it to be there, but it not to be up on the screen yet,”

“I see something,” Clark pointed to the view-screen, as a body floated past. “Oh God! Never-mind.”

“Never-mind nothing,” Noah corrected, “that could be somebody from the ship.”

“I hope not!”

Ark-5 finally came under control and fell into the proper flight pattern with the other four ships.

“Over there,” Clark pointed through the view-screen, “they just jumped into formation.

“SIR!” The Navigator said.

“I see,” Noah said, as the call-sign came up on the radar.

Rachael looked at Clark and then at her father. “I have something to show you guys.”

“Uh, ho!” Clark groaned teasingly; he saw a tiny device in Rachael’s hand and knew what it meant. “Does this mean what I think it means.”

“Of course, silly!” Rachael said.

“Wow, I’m going to be a grandpa,” Noah said.

Rev, who stood in the back of the bridge sulked, “we have ways to fix that.”

“What?” Rachael looked at Rev with complete distain.

“In fact, we can even have the marriage annulled.”

“Hey,” Clark said, “are we even certain this woman is a minister?”

“Minister?” Rev barked. “Of course, I’m a mister.”

“She has all of the credentials, so you two are legally married,” Noah groaned, “listen, I have a few things to do here, I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

“Come on,” Rachael took Clark by the hand and lead him off the bridge, “why don’t I give you the official tour of the ship, and because she is modeled after the space cruise ships that were launched earlier this year, we were able to use the construction of them to mask the construction of these ships.”

“Wait--, the government didn’t know?”

“Oh, the government knew, but there were those protesting the construction of these ships that we needed to work around.”

“I see,”

Rev stepped forward to follow Rachael. “I’m going to nip this in the bud!”

“Nip WHAT in the bud?” Captain. Noah Collins stood in front of the reverend. “Is there something going on between you and my daughter that I need to know about?”

“No,” Rev said with a frown, “but it was love at first site!”

There were a few “a-hems” from various bridge crew as Noah lead Rev to a slightly more secluded area of the bridge.

“Listen, I don’t know if you’re really a minister or not, I’m going check out your credentials with a fine-toothed comb. If you are, what the hell are you doing bothering my daughter and her husband? And if you are not, what the hell is your game?”

“Oh,” Rev said, “I am a minister,”

“What the hell is your interest in my daughter?”

Several days pass, and it seemed as though Rev had completely forgotten about their interest in Rachael, but on the third day, there were a dozen roses outside her door. “Oh my God,” Rachael hissed as she looked at the note.

“What is it?” Clark looked down at the roses, knowing exactly where they came from.

“What is that creature up to?”

“I am not a mere…creature!” Rev cried out from down the hall. “I am a man…, woman…, aw who cares. I am in love with the most beautiful woman in the universe.”

Rachael looked at Rev like a deer in headlights, her green eyes began to let off a slight glow.

“That’s right, and those words have way more meaning than they would have had even three days ago,” Rev leaned in and kissed Rachael.

“What the--?” Rachael said with a spit

“Forget that husband of yours,” Rev said, “he means nothing to you anymore!”

“CLARK!” Rachael cried out as she found herself being pressed onto the bed.

“Will you give us some privacy for Chris’s sake?” Rev cried. “Unless you want to watch me have my way with your wife!”

That was the last straw for Clark, he didn’t want to be seen out in the corridor with no clothes on, so he spent exactly two seconds throwing on some shorts and a shirt, that literally read: You can’t control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you blow them out of. “Come on!”

“Clark!” Rachael cried as Rev began to feel at her.

“I may be turning into a woman,” Rev cried out, as they revealed their breasts to Clark.

“GET AWAY!”

“But I still got one of these!” Rev revealed a penis as he began to rub at Rachael with it.

“CLARK!”

“ENOUGH!” Clark said with a growl. “I don’t even care if you are a real reverend or not, you just crossed the line big time.”

“This girl is my last chance to be a man!” Rev cried out.

“Will you shut up!?” Clark barked, as he literally dragged Rev by the balls out into the corridor, where there was an airlock nearby.

“Listen, you may be married to that bitch--.”

While Clark drug Rev out to the corridor, Rachael followed them out and hit the airlock control, the airlock did its thing and began to open.

“What are you doing?” Rev barked, as Clark pushed Rev into the airlock chamber, “That’s the airlock you are pushing me into!”

“NO?” Clark barked out.

“REALLY?” Rachael added.

Noah made his way down the corridor as he saw Rachael and Clark shoving Rev into the airlock, so they can close the door. “OK guys, I think they get the message.”

“Dad, Rev tried to rape me!”

“Is this true?” Noah made no motions to help Rev out of the airlock.

“It wouldn’t have been rape--.”

“Shut the flipping door!” Clark groaned, he tried to push the airlock door closed, but Noah stopped him.

“Just for a moment,” Noah said, “wait.”

“OK,” Clark begun a 60 second countdown in his head. “59…”

“Don’t have to be so…literal!” Rev responded.

“Yes, I do,”

“I checked your credentials,” Noah responded. “You have been defrocked as a minister two days before the ceremony,”

“So, we’re not legally married?” Clark asked with a groan.

“We are,” Rachael nodded, “right?”

“Nope!” Rev barked out. “That means you are still open game!”

“Son of a bitch!” Clark pushed at the airlock door.

“No,” Noah said, “we can fix that part.”

“It’s not like there is another minister you can go to to fix this!”

“We can fix this,” Noah said.

“…they have 10 seconds.”

“You’re going to need me to do so,”

“Actually,” Noah pushed the door closed so that Rev was inside the airlock, “we don’t!”

“Wait!” Rev began to comprehend the seriousness of the situation. “Please. Give me a second chance!”

“You actually had it,” Clark said, “until you tried to rape my wife!”

“Is this true?” Noah asked.

“Yes,” Clark and Rachael said.

“All they had to do was to leave Rachael alone,”

“You guys going to let me out?”

“Hey,” Clark pointed at the shirt, “read the shirt.”

“You can’t control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you blow them out of.” Rev read. “What’s that even mean?”

“It means this,” Clark slammed his hand on the depressurization control panel.

“Warning, depressurization will commence in 10 seconds!”

“Breathe deep,” Rachael said, “this is your last gulp of air!”

“Ah-hah!” Rev pulled out her oxygen mask.

“Warning, depressurization will commence in 5 seconds!”

Clark and Rachael watched through the triple thick pexi-glass window, as Rev scrambled to put their mask on. But it was a bit too little too late. The oxygen tube dropped.

“Warning, depressurization commencing now!”

Rev let out a scream as the air was sucked out of the chamber and the door into space was opened. But the scream was unheard, the silently screaming body was pushed out of the airlock, and the airlock closed behind them.

END of Part 1

fantasy
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About the Creator

Timothy E Jones

What is there to say: I live in Philadelphia, but wish I lived somewhere else, anywhere else. I write as a means to escape the harsh realities of the city and share my stories here on Vocal, even if I don't get anything for my efforts.

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