Nightingale

PROLOGUE

It is an impossible reality that anything could exist in the vacuum of space. There is nothing that anything could survive on; it is the absence of all things. Beyond the twinkling of a thousand million celestial bodies, past all the reaches of life itself, inside that infinite blackness that surrounds us all, there is nothing. Perhaps this is where the idea of death being black first came from, in its primitive, primal form. The first life seeing that entirety above them, everything and anything surrounding them, and yet being the ultimate force that everything surrenders to. Is that where it all began, is that where fear itself began? Is space, life's first, and ultimate phobia? Nothing can survive death, and nothing that we know of can live, out in space. That was what the crew of the Celestrian Exploration vessel, Nightingale, thought, on the 21st February, 5018. On board, a crew of seven men and women, all human, representatives of The Empire Of Humanity, out to expand the map of the known universe, to push the fringes of everything known to humanity.

          The vessel itself is perched upon the Celestrian Central Port Station, waiting for the warp journey towards Outpost 73, the final location on the trip out into the unknown. It is the westernmost point of The Empire Of Humanity, and as soon as 10,000km have been passed, all radio contact with everything ceases. The crew prepare themselves, strap into their chairs, their seats all named, their singular titles for the purposes of the mission embroidered onto the back of the Xios-leather seats. As follows:

·         Leon – Captain

·         Prissy – Second In Command

·         Holden – Psychiatrist

·         Jenny – Weapons Officer

·         Yuki – Biologist

·         Ymal – Navigator

·         Duma – Archaeologist

If we listen in really closely, we can hear the crew undergoing their final checks.

'Fuel systems engage.'

'Fuel systems online.' A flick of a switch above Ymal's head, the small red light illuminates.

'Stabilisers set to 75.' A dial turned confidently, the numbers encroaching upon the assigned, then reaching the 75 called for.

'Shields up.' A button hit to Jenny's left, a beeping emitted from it alerting to the shields coming online. 10%, 20%, 40%, 65%, and all the way up to the full 100%. 'All shields up and running captain.'

'All clear from the tower?' An affirmative. It is time to depart.

'Final checks. Scan for anything unusual.' This is a standard practice of Ymal's, one of his little habits. Everyone casts their eyes over the controls, nothing seems to be out of place, everything is in order.

'Cleaner and neater than android organs.'

'How many android organs have you even seen Holden?'

'Yuki, you don't even want to know. Everything looks good to me Ymal.'

'Let's go then, onward and outwards.' A button on the main steering column in pressed three times. Once, twice, three times. A confirmation signal from out of the cockpit, from up in the tower. Three flashes. Before them, the two pillars light up, sparkling either side, like electric spiders running rampant down their frames. They stop, and there is a blinding blue light for a second, and then it dies away. The mirage, shimmering like a pool of luminescent water. The warp portal is opened up. Heads go back in the seats, seeking out the headrests for support. Once found, the ship lurches forward, into the portal. It is time to begin the journey into the dark.