Tales of Four Planets

The noise is loud and chaotic. It seems like every sensor, every alarm is going off at the same time. People are all talking at once, most of them shouting. Yet the captain seems the quietest of them all.

Then there's the g- spins. No one is running around because they can't. They are pinned to the outer edges of the room if they aren't already strapped down in their seat. At least it feels like a teacup ride and not a roller coaster. They are spinning clearly sideways and not tumbling or falling. Although how one could fall in space they don't know.

Then there is silence from the ship as the engines shut down because of the gravitational changes. The power generator is affected too and lights go out. The navigational computers are run by batteries so they don't shut down, but without power or engines, they can change nothing. Their screens are the only ones lit outside of the medic bay.

After what feels like forever, there's a perceptional slowing of the spaceship. It doesn't seem like much at first, but the mechanical gyroscopes of the inertial balance system slowly burn off the ship's excess energy. As the spinning gets slower, it's easier to feel the circular motion of the spin. It feels faster when you spin in the same direction the spaceship is moving and slower when you spin in the opposite direction. The rapid fluctuation is felt the strongest in the stomach where it creates an unhappy, upset feeling.

Finally the Valiant circles to a stop. Silence reigns as each crewmember catches their breath to remind their brain and stomach that they have stopped swirling. Then their eyes turn to the viewscreens, still running as part of the navigation system. The view is spectacular. Coloured planets, each looking like a jewel, maintain their orbits as if nothing new happened today.

Until something new happens. Two spaceships appear on the viewscreens, one chasing the other. A shiny, sleek silvery vessel fires lasers at a boxy, dull, dark vessel in front of them. The other ship fires back. Neither ship takes notice of the floating spaceship observing from afar. Once the chased vessel reaches an asteroid belt, the pursuer turns around and heads back towards a blue planet, still ignoring the new arrival.

After what feels like forever, the Valiant's engines kick in and the crewmembers that are still in their seats can focus on their consoles again. The readouts are alarming: damage reports in every section, FTL drive inoperational, coordinates unknown. Wherever they are, it's not anywhere near their intended destination: Earth. Home.

The ship's sensors launch into high gear to scan this new environment. After a few seconds, diagrams of planets and other celestial bodies appear on the cockpit's viewscreens. Several of them appear to have breathable atmospheres. The first is a rock orbiting near the system's central star. Though its oceans are teeming with life, the scattered landmasses are barren apart from thin bands of civilization near every shoreline. A smaller planet orbits further out, in the shadow of a dense asteroid belt. It has few oceans, but its land is green with plants and dotted with cities. Finally, there's a gas giant with a small inhabitable moon.

The crew are not the only ones trying to get their bearings. The computers are going nuts, some of them scanning and panning star charts almost too quickly for your eyes to catch. Finally the map on the screen starts to show something that looks like what you see from the cockpit. Names appear on the map. The blue watery planet near the central star is Glace. The green planet by the asteroids is Nean. The giant planet is uninhabitable. It's name is Thestais. One of its moons, Darse, is marked as inhabited. You are in the Arctis Planetary System.

You know what they say. Everyone has a story to tell. And here is where we get to tell those stories from this planetary system.

[And here is where writers can discuss their stories before telling them: https://discord.gg/uteurwt6Nq]