For Whom the Bell Tolls

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But we all knew that that was just a myth. Just a way to keep us away from the airlocks that were littered throughout the ship dozens of levels and the sub levels beyond that. Now we are so few. So few of us remain in these long, endless hallways that seem to stretch on forever. It is almost as if the others never existed at all. They are gone into that long abyss of blues and purples and reds and greens. A thousand nebulas await those who pass beyond this world. Every color that you could ever imagine thrown into a beautiful medley of creation and looming destruction. I have seen them.

But as I wander through these desolate halls of rusted metal and rotting corpses some sense of urgency seems to come over me. A small sense of hope hidden in a sea of despair. A noise begins to echo throughout the hallways. A noise which I have not heard for so long. The beep of a computer system. That high pitched noise that every astronaut knows to be your savior or your doom. But how can this be? How can the system awaken after so long. Dozens of months of staring into the endless black of space. So many have been lost to the abyss that seems to swallow this ship as we glide through the stars. Those ghostly white eyes that seems to stare at me no matter where I look. I have seen them.

But are they real or are they a figment of an overactive imagination? Is there something hidden that I have missed. Some detail that makes them always come back to me no matter where I hide in this metal coffin. Perhaps it is just my own guilt clawing away at me. But why should I feel guilty for what I did. They never understood the mission. This was nothing more than a vacation for them. A way to escape a dying planet. It does not matter.

The high pitched echoes seem to get louder and louder as I make my way to the center of the ship. Some of the corpses seem to reach out to me, beckoning me to help them escape this place. I know I cannot. They are already dead and gone. They are everywhere. Every few feet there is a dead man or woman holding onto whatever they held dearest in their last moments. Even the children were not spared. They will always haunt me the most. I have seen them.

But as I reach the elevator, a memory begins to show itself again. Something that has been hidden in the dark corners of my own mind for months. The bodies littered in this small space are all reaching up towards the elevator. Their last moments were spent in anguish as the life was slowly sucked out of their lungs. There is no pain greater than that of suffocating to death. Nothing that can compare to the way that you claw at your own throat, chocking on your own spit and bile. I was forced to watch as they died by the dozens. Now they are nothing more than husks of what could have been, and what once were. I have seen them.

The elevator door suddenly opens with a ding. The smell of rot and dust fill the air around me as a robotic voice fills the metal cabin. Welcome to the Command Deck. Please pick a floor. The pieces of a robots body can be seen strewn inside the square space of the elevator. A few arms here and a few legs there with some wires and circuits paint a picture of what was. When the angry hordes came seeking refuge from the cold touch of space, all they found was a metallic man telling them to go back to their homes till the alert had passed. They tore him part in less than a minute. It didn't matter how many pieces they tore him into, however. He wouldn't have helped them reach the top. But I had to continue. The noise of the beeping was insufferable. It seemed to bounce down the long elevator shaft above me with malicious intent.

I lifted my legs over the destroyed machine and pressed the button to go up towards that awful sound. I stared towards the mound of bodies until the doors closed in front of me. The elevator began to go up with a metallic hiss, the sounds echoing through the opening above me. In the days before, much care had been done to keep this place up and running. Every act to the smallest detail was perfected and done to our best ability. But in the end, it didn't matter. Human nature took ahold of all of us and destroyed us from within. There may yet be hope, however. It is simply locked away until we reach our destination. For how much longer that is I cannot know.

The elevator stops with a ding as the doors to the command room opened up with a metallic screech. After a few inches they stop, the metal groaning as the seconds passed by. I grab the doors with my hands and pulled them outwards towards the walls. The metal fights with me for a moment before the gears finally release, opening the gap in front of me to the room. The smell of death and dust fill my nostrils as I step out of the elevator. This is where it all began. The bodies are just where I left them, strewn about the room. I have seen them so many times before over the past few months. In my dreams. In the shadows.

Many would ask why. Why take something like the lives of hundreds of other into your own hands when they were fine how they were. The answer is never so simple. Even now they haunt me. Them and the ghostly eyes of those who have been thrown outside the ship. Enough reliving old lives. It was time to figure out what the beeping was. I slowly walked over to the console, trying as hard as I could to dodge their dead eyes. Such things were never as easy as they appeared to be. Even now their faces show the betrayal of someone they knew in a past life. It didn't matter anymore. We were on a crash course somewhere unknown beyond our own reach. How could hope exist in a steel coffin such as this one? It simply can't. But as I walked up to the flashing monitors, something clicked.

Distress Signal Received ##

Ship Number: AE59673FR

Classification: Scouting Vessel

Message: This is a message to the Interplanetary Vessel HW0001, Codename Gaia. We have arrived on Planet Phoenix 0-08. Planet shows signs of life and potential for human settlement. Supplies are running low and our crops are not taking to the soil. We do not have much time, but it appears we were right. There is hope on the other side of the cosmos for us as a species.

A needle in a haystack made of needles. We are sending this message into every direction we can while we still have power. I can only hope that anyone out there can here us. We are here.

May the stars bless us all.

Scouting Vessel AE59673FR out.

I stood there for a moment as the message slowly repeated back and forth on the monitor. I stared out into the endless abyss of space in front of me for a moment, warm tears flowing down the front of my face. I could see my reflection in the window. My sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes painted a picture of a man who had betrayed everything he knew. All these people around me. Sons and daughters and mothers and fathers alike. It didn't matter in the end. They all faced the challenge of this place with no fear. No regrets in their final moments. I slammed my fist down on the top of the console, denting the dusty metal with a fist sized indent.

"Computer." My throat began to clench up as the words came out. The searing pain of a man who had long since lost his voice. The lights around me began to light up. Every color imaginable filled the room as the system rebooted itself.

"Hello old friend. Come to chat have we." The computers voice was that of a woman's, calm and soft with every letter. "Quite the mess, sir. Shall I call out the cleaning bots?" She was the most sophisticated AI ever created. Her sole purpose was to keep this ship going towards it's destination. Well, that is until her protocols were overridden. But that was a conversation for another day.

"Divert primary power to thrusters." The computer beeped as the ship jolted to life.

"Deploy engineer bots to repair any structural damage in the housing unit sector. Also, deploy the cleaner units to deal with any of the dead settlers that may have expired in the less obvious places." Another light dinged, the sound of metal gears shifting in the ship beneath me. "And don't let anything in or out of the embryo unit. We have a 95% survival rate so far, and I don't need that mess. Confirm order?

"Engineer bots deployed to main chassis to repair structural damage."

"And?"

"Cleaner units deployed to housing units and surroundings areas. Camera system being analyzed as we speak." A counter popped up on the screen in front of me. First it was a picture of the bodies behind me, then those in the hallways before the elevator, then so on and so forth. They continued to pop up on the screen. Hundreds and hundreds of images.

"And the most important of all?"

"Embryo survival right at 95%. You know John, what you did will-"

"That's enough! What I did does not matter anymore. Just because I created you, doesn't mean I need your opinion." I could feel the anger in my voice. The heat in my cheeks. She didn't deserve my rage, but it was all I had right now. "One last thing actually."

"Awaiting your command, sir." The robotic voice paused.

"Triangulate where that signal came from. Make sure we stay on course. I want us there in less than a month." And with that final command the ship began to shift ever so slightly as the thrusters moved us into position. We were heading somewhere unknown hidden in the stars. Somewhere a chance to fix my mistakes awaited. The computer beeped, the words Coordinates Locked flashing across the screen.

"Coordinates locked. Launching main boosters." The AI took control of the ship, causing it to rumble to life as the moments passed. "Solar power system deployed. Shields deployed. Calculating time of arrival." A moment of silence. "Estimated time of arrival: 23 Days, 5 hours, 16 minutes. Would you like to proceed?"

"Yes. Yes, I think we should." I laughed to myself for a moment as the stars around us turned to nothing more than a colorful blur.