Into the Black

Prologue Nova

“Are we seriously babysitting a Puritan?” Sky’s complete lack of subtlety had long endeared her to the rest of the crew. She flicked the ship’s autopilot on, looking accusingly at her captain. Her permanently happy smile undercut the look’s intended purpose.

“A Puritan?!” Monk’s bafflement made him stop picking at his fingers with a cloth, trying to whip off some grease from his most recent ship repair. Everyone had long since given up on trying to get him to wear his gloves. His counter-argument that gloves made his work feel less authentic was too difficult for them to dispute.

“Read the briefing Monk.” Sharp rolled his eyes.

“We never got a brie–” He was interrupted by a slight twinge of pain behind his left eye. When it was gone he couldn’t remember what he was saying.

“The Puritan might be a nice one.” Doc’s voice cut through over the intercom. His lack of cynicism usually put him and Sky on the same side so that didn’t surprise anyone.

“They believe they’re better than us by virtue of their existence. Nice is probably not going to be our experience.” Spanner’s reply over the intercom was more to let everyone know he was paying attention than it was to cut at Doc’s optimism. Again, everyone accepted that there some things that just can’t be changed.

“How long until they call us ‘copies’?” Sky asked, her permanently happy grin on full volume.

“Ten credits on the second month.” Sharp replied with the sardonic grin the rest of the crew had become used to.

“Enough.” Luc waved them off. “ASI gives us the job,” she paused trying to recall actually receiving the job from them, “we do it.” She was the captain and she knew she shouldn’t let them talk like that with the Puritan about to board.

They would arrive at Seris Station in a few minutes and with the last-minute checks having been completed and redone several times they were left filling the silence with interaction.

They had spent fifty years living and working together on their ship. Luc the captain; Sharp the gunner and co-pilot; Sky the pilot and co-gunner; Monk the mechanic; Spanner the engineer and head of security; and Doc the medic. Adding a passenger to their dynamic for the several weeks it would take to reach the drop-off was making everyone a little touchy. The fact that the passenger was a Puritan, a religious group who believe unaltered humans to be, if not physically then spiritually better than any other, was making Luc’s neck itch.

They finished their deceleration burn and pointed their drive at the station, a half G thrust pushing them into their gel-lounges and signalling the beginning of minor adjustments.

Her crew were all strapped in, docking with a station often required some awkward shifts to get right and being tossed into walls was annoying. The lounges were actually some of the more impressive bits of tech on their ship. Normally they looked like they were just conventional seats, the edges curved around the front giving a sense of confinement the crew had long since associated with life. The arm rests from the outside looked like dents in the otherwise smoothly curled exterior, from the inside there were almost solid sleeves of gel reaching up to mid bicep with a cool soft interior. The things were designed to turn into cocoons at the push of a button, a panel sliding up would seal the lounge as it filled up with the gel, the only part left uncovered was the face. Omni direction high G protection. They were going to make high G travel survivable for the Puritan.

On the OPS deck the gel sleeves had controls built in, all accessible with the slightest touch from a fingertip. Luc wasn’t using them; she was using the panel in front of her to tap out commands. There was no actual difference between the two sets of controls, but she had to leave soon and didn’t want to waste time disentangling herself from the lounge.

As the station grew on her screen Luc tried to remember the last time they had docked; or seen someone other than each other on anything aside from a screen. The last job they had been doing was in isolated systems; weirdly she couldn’t remember all that much of what they did. Just that there was a lot of cold, dead rocks. It must have been more than five months, longer than they had ever spent in the black before. She should get Doc to look over her once they dropped off their passenger– memory issues were concerning.

Seris loomed larger on the screen as their ship moved to match its spin. Everyone was fidgeting slightly. “Relax kids, it’s just a few weeks, I’m sure we can manage.” Luc smiled, not really believing it.

As their ship made contact with the station airlock Luc stood and headed to the ladder to meet the new passenger. Leaving OPS, she moved drive-ward, with the low centripedal gravity she could have mostly just fallen down the shaft, grabbing ladder rungs to slow herself as she went. It didn’t occur to her to do just that, her brain did its best to delay her without her knowing.

It was unusual to pick up a passenger the second a ship docked, even less so to leave immediately afterwards. There was not even time to restock, not that they needed it, they still had almost half a year’s worth of supplies without rationing. But the break from custom made her a little uncomfortable. Luc tried to ignore it and kept descending. As she reached the Cargo Bay, she saw Spanner leaning against a wall.

Naturally a captain and her chief of security met important people in the most **** part of the ship. Luc thought this protocol amusing, just as she did every time she met a passenger.

They trusted the airlock to keep them safe, but they had been around way too long to relax. Even though the ship was currently docked at a space station they kept glancing at the available hand holds, calculating exactly how long they would need to be in a vacuum before they could get to an O2 mask.

“Hello Captain.” Spanner gave his customary casual salute, lifting his loosely closed fist and nodding it. It was an affectation he had picked up, not one he had been given. Luc found it endearing.

As the airlock opened, Luc looked at Spanner and he straightened, the salute sharpening, the fist firmer, his elbow now making a right angle. Neither was sure how professional they should be around an outsider. “By the way, the comms array just sent out an error report then retracted it. I’ve checked everything and it seems to be just a glitch, but we should get it checked next time we dock.” He didn’t need to add ‘better safe than sorry’ that was the assumption when living in a tiny bottle of air in nothingness.

Luc nodded, if it was serious, he would have stopped the ship. And they hadn’t had any problems so far. She was pulled from her thoughts as the airlock made a beep.

The airlock control showed green, and they both prepared to enact their purposes. As the hatch cycled open, they felt a soft breeze from the air pressure equalising. When it opened they saw a man. The shortness of his limbs meant he could only have been born down a gravity well though he had characteristics of spending extended time in low G; rail thin, tall and looking at the O2 masks, memorising where they were. He was dressed in the Puritan uniform, a cream-coloured sealsuit with a human’s DNA strand in a circle with a human man and woman in the centre on his right breast, skin-tight with built-in shoes and gloves, prefect if you're suddenly in a vacuum, so long as you have a helmet handy.

He smiled tightly clearly uncomfortable. There were no security helpers and no luggage but a suitcase. Luc and Spanner weren’t sure what to do. There was always an escort, even if they didn’t come aboard, they were always there to go over the basics.

“Hello.” The thin man said as Spanner’s expert eye scrutinised him. His voice sounded distant and scratchy, like he hadn’t used it for a long time.

“Hello.” Luc nodded at the man. “I’m the Captain, Luc, and this is Spanner, my Mechanic and Chief of Security.” Spanner nodded and walked over to check the thin man for anything he shouldn’t have.

He reached out to shake his hand checking for anything dangerous the way only someone with decades of experience can do. He felt the man's hand for the callouses of weapon handling that even a sealsuit couldn’t hide, the slight shift that would move a concealed weapon further from the eye, Spanner also needed to see how the man would react to someone touching the suitcase, if it was dangerous the man would pull away and get ready to strike. The Puritan clenched his hand before Spanner could touch the case. Spanner acted like nothing had happened and gave the tiny hand gesture that meant all clear, he didn’t think the clench was significant.

Luc walked to the man and shook his hand, “Welcome aboard.” The Puritan looked at Luc and seemed to see past her for a second.

The man’s dazed look was replaced with soft disinterest as he took her hand. “Yes, thank you Captain. You really do all look the same.”

“We get that a lot,” Spanner said, grinning at Luc. They were used to the derision in the man’s tone, at this point they just found it ironic how similar everyone else was. Spanner checked the airlock control panel. It cycled and they felt the breeze quickly vanished as the station’s air pressure was replaced by the ship’s.

“Please if you’ll follow me Mr…?”

“Just call me Pastor.” He said curtly.

“Pastor.” Luc tried to keep her irritation out of the word. “I’ll take you to your cabin.” She turned and walked back into her ship making her way to Pastor’s home for the next few weeks.

Theirs wasn’t a large ship, it fit the six crew with a spare cabin for an occasional visitor. It was a scout class ship designed to have as little mass as possible. Compared to other ships in ASI’s fleets the scout class would barely count as a picket ship, though compared any other fleet was a corvette of significant lethality. There were only six levels: OPS, a spartan room with four primary gel-lounges, two redundant gel-lounges and numerous monitors and consoles scattered around; Med Bay and Equipment divided into two halves on the same level by a corridor with the ladder at one end and the interlevel elevator at the other, the Med Bay held six gel-lounges with auto docs built in, the Equipment space held all the crew’s weapons and armour, it also had the only other airlock aside from the Cargo Bay; Crew Cabins, six in total, each with their own head, and the communal shower; Recreation which held the kitchen, gym, and lounge room, it also held the guest cabin; Machine Shop, containing everything needed to fix the ship, Monk often joked he could make an entirely new ship just from the spare parts and raw materials in there; lastly the Cargo Bay and the main airlock.

From the outside it was by no means pretty to look at, a black brick with ASI’s stylised gold circuitry colouring on the exterior but over the half century they had made it home and it showed in little things.

Luc grabbed the first rung and pulled herself up. She was strong enough that she could actually drift most of the way to the next floor even in the weak spin gravity. She didn’t, it wouldn’t look good to abandon Pastor this soon.

As they ascended the ladder the Puritan made a noise. Luc smiled as she realised, he must have caught his hand on a small imperfection. One created as a result of a strength test between some of the crew that was both ill-conceived and kinda fun after everyone joined in. It was nothing that would be dangerous, only slightly rough where the rest was smooth.

Luc looked down and saw the face Pastor made at the roughness. She was glad to witness the Puritan’s sensitivity, it made her relax slightly as she kept climbing. She didn’t pause as she ascended, keeping up the same pace until she reached the Rec floor. She stepped off the ladder and waited for Pastor, he had fallen further behind than she thought.

She scolded herself for her lack of awareness and stood at attention, holding on to the formality. When the Puritan stepped off the ladder, he was still holding the suitcase in his very tight grip. Together they walked the short distance to Pastor’s new cabin. He was white-fisting his suitcase in a way that made Luc think Spanner might have missed something.

“These are your quarters, Pastor.” Luc opened the door and let the man look at his temporary home. He walked inside and set his suitcase on the table, still white-fisting it Luc noted. “You have full access to this floor, it has the kitchen, gym, everything you’ll need to keep yourself happy. The head is just there.” She nodded to the only other door in the room. “The other floors are off limits unless one of the crew is with you.” Luc listed off more of the rules as the Puritan looked around, clearly anxious to be alone.

“We’ll be moving at one third G but if anything happens get in the gel bed.” Luc indicated the bed indenting the wall slightly. It looked normal until you saw the other half, currently disguised as the ceiling of the indent. “It will seal and stop you from bouncing off the walls while you sleep.” She walked over and tapped a button and the top descended, sealing the bed. “If we need to move fast it will keep everything inside you. Lastly you need to keep your mag-boots on at all times.” She looked at Pastor’s boots. He gave a nod of long-learned knowledge; his time spent in low G must be measured in years.

When she finished, he looked at her in the way she had become accustomed. Broken familiarity. Like he was looking at a picture from a long time ago, trying to connect memory to present.

“I knew another copy.” He said. Luc didn’t react to the slur. Everyone knew Puritans thought themselves superior to altered humans and you don’t get much more altered than Luc and her crew.

“Damn it!” Sharp shouted from OPS as Sky’s victorious giggling echoed through the ship, she was now ten credits richer. Luc hadn’t expected them to show restraint when it came to watching the security cameras but she would need to have a word with them about it. The Puritan flinched looking worried. Not an unusual reaction when someone on a ship shouts an expletive.

“It’s fine. They had a bet on how long it would be until you call us copies.” Luc explained, smiling in attempted amicability as she walked to the door to allow him privacy.

“What?” He asked still nervous about the shouted expletive.

“It’s always only a matter of time until a Puritan calls us copies. Your religion is based on being better than everyone.” Luc tried to joke. The man’s face contorted. He was clearly offended by something. “Sorry my crew are not used to having a Puritan on board.” Luc had a sense of foreboding at the idea of spending weeks having to deal with this. The man flinched again.

“Don’t call me a Puritan. I’m human, Puritan makes me sound like something else.” He explained as his face smoothed into carefully constructed neutrality.

“Sorry I meant no offence. We are the clones after all.” Luc was smoothing her own face as she contemplated how long it would be until she felt obliged to throw him out an airlock.

He grunted, nodded and with that Luc left. His door closed as soon as she was outside.

Luc sighed and began to form plans of how she could keep him and her crew separate for as long as possible. She doubted they would be as diplomatic as herself. She climbed up to OPS shaking her head as her plan formed– her crew were going to be eating later than normal, she should be able to convince him they were on a different time cycle.

“So, we have to take him, right?” Monk asked. Luc knew he was joking but also knew encouraging this would not be inducive to a comfortable trip.

“Enough of that, he’s here, let’s get used to it.” She took her seat at her station sinking into her gel-lounge.

“You owe me ten credits.” Sky smirked at Sharp. Everyone laughed, glad for the return to normalcy even if it wouldn’t last long.

As they undock from the station, the spin gravity ceased. Once they floated off to a safe distance Sky spoke up.

“Ready to kick off Cap.” She said waiting for Luc to give the go-ahead.

“Keep us at one third G and take us out to the empty.” Luc was slightly dreading the slow crawl they were ordered to move at. The Puritan was born down a gravity well but because of how long he had been in spin gravity he couldn’t spend an entire week at the one G they needed to get to the Fold point in a timely fashion. Though even then compared to their normal speed one G would be slow.

“Long trip.” Sharp said as he stood and moved to the ladder. Luc gave him a look and he rolled his eyes, “Just going to cook dinner, relax.” He was the best cook, so she said nothing, he was also very untrusting of most people. She kept an eye trained on him as he descended and then on the monitors as he left the deck. He glanced at Pastor’s door but walked into the kitchen.

Luc sighed and sent a message to ASI informing them of the successful pick-up. She didn’t get a confirmation which was odd enough for her to make note of. It wasn’t important enough for them to wait.

She looked at the flight plan Sky had written up. It would take three weeks to get to a safe Fold distance, the calculations for it would be finished by the end of the first week. From there they would Fold to the Omicron System and, depending on where their fold placed them, fly a predicted two weeks to the drop-off point, Omi Station. A boring trip by every definition but after five months of mapping and exploration with just the six of them, it would be much worse.

After putting away the map Luc brought up an image of the slowly shrinking Seris. It looked like a cylinder with arms reaching out from the ends. Long spindly limbs stretching out to allow ships to dock and stay connected. Even from the distance they were at Luc could see how much newer the arms looked compared to the rest of Seris. She remembered when ships were **** to attach to the cylinder itself or float next to it and ferry back and forth on shuttles.

Seris faded from view and was replaced with the computer-created image. She switched off the display and headed down to the kitchen, leaving Sky alone to set up the detailed calculations for their Fold.