Tight Fit - Chapter 1

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Ray Turner remembers this phrase over and over again, on loop, as he quickly gathers himself from bed to answer the Major Brigadier’s urgent 4AM distress call.

“URGENT REQUEST: Major Brigadier Sahara LaFontaine. DELTA MISSION: 45-CVWE2929. RECORD: 142154-T

Upon further investigation, the zone closure of lunar sector 91-2 appears to have been caused by what looks like thousands of tiny projectiles. Each hole, about quarter sized in diameter, bored directly into the moon rock, through the base’s cooling system. SIM assistance required. Additional supplies, along with help loading and unloading, materials. Send STAT.

Sincerely Yours,

Sahara

END OFFICIAL REPORT"

Ray Turner is the Senior Systems Director for BayCo’s Delta Mission: 45-CVWE2929 , Code Name: Graymalkin. As the Major Brigadier’s primary point of on-world contact, he is instrumental to the success of the 25 year mission. From his makeshift bedroom, just next to the warehouse where BayCo houses their quantum computers, the Senior Systems Director, maintains round the clock contact with the Major Brigadier, ensuring the mission is protected at all costs. Located 3 miles below the Earth’s surface, in an undisclosed Antarctic base, the facility known as the Crypt, is where the Senior System Director has spent the last 15 years, alone, working on the single most important space mission known to man.

“Computer, issue a response and prepare SIM transmission...

OFFICIAL RESPONSE: Senior Systems Director Ray Turner. Mission Code Name: Graymalkin.

SIM Request approved Major Brigadier. Sending supplies and extra hands your way.

Hurry back to the Space Station. Your Next Mission Awaits!

May Fortune Find You.

Raymond.

END OFFICIAL RESPONSE”

--

One hundred years after First Contact in 2054, under the leadership of the Big Five, the largest remaining on-world corporations, consolidated their positions in a rare feat of global unity, and left Earth on the promise to explore the vastness of The universe, and prolong the human race.

BayCo, or the Big Apple Corporation as it was known then, was the first of the companies to successfully sustain life off-world for more than 3 years at a time. Using combined alien technology, along with a newly discovered process to reverse atomic matter, BayCo unlocked the ability to produce and unproduce anything at will. Including human life.

“Simply inventing matter, or SIM” was how it was initially marketed in early white papers. After SIM, all matter when it was atomized, could weightlessly be transmitted through the vacuum of space, and made utterly imperceivable to carbon based beings. This made sending materials, people, and resources to the farthest reaches of the galaxy possible, all within a fraction of a second. However, after decades of testing and 44 modestly successful space missions, BayCo’s Graymalkin Project’s greatest achievement occurred when the first human was successfully conceived, and born off-world. That person was the Major Brigadier, Sahara LaFontaine.

As part of the contract entered into by his birth family, they would commit the first 25 years of his life to help aid BayCo in all its interstellar endeavors. When he turned 15, Ray Turner was assigned as his chief steward, and primary point of contact. Turner, now 65, was a retired technical engineer for the United Space Federation. He had previously personally led over 100 interplanetary missions, and had been the most intimately familiar with SIM technology. He was by all accounts, the ideal mentor, and guardian for the Major Brigadier, now 23, and for the Graymalkin missions.

Though the two had never met in person, as the Major Brigadier had never set foot on-world, the pair had eventually formed a mutual affinity for one another, as well as a deep trust that could not be broken. The Major Brigadier entrusted his life to Ray, as he explored space in search of the ideal planet or star system capable of repopulation via SIM. Turner, who had never had children or family of his own, found comfort in the work, and in the mission, just like the Major Brigadier, who had spent his entire existence in space, in service of the human race.

Although the closure of lunar sector 91-2, was part of routine base maintenance, something nagged at Ray. Upon confirmation that the Major Brigadier received the materials, and additional space engineers to repair the Lunar base’s damaged cooling unit, Ray had trouble falling back asleep. His mind drifted uneasily to prior space missions: aircraft breaches, encounters with other beings, the moments just before making impact; all past experiences that got him here: working in the Crypt on the most important mission to save humanity. In that moment, he thought of Sahara: his kind eyes, his bravery, and dedication to the planet. It filled Ray with the warmth of a thousand suns. He was proud of Sahara. Proud of their work.

He fell back asleep for about 2 hours until the next distress call came. This time, it wasn’t a call from Sahara, but instead from the Kazaar Space Station, outside of the Kyper Belt.

“S.O.S. UNDER SIEGE. Station Compromised!”