End of an empire

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Terek slowly regained consciousness as his alarm blared beside him, groaning he lifted himself from his bed and made his way towards the kitchen, the radio screeched its usual nonsense at him "we're running out of fuel" or "the government's collapsing" With a sigh, he switched it off and started making breakfast, he booted up his food printer, typed in his choice of breakfast for that day and inserted the protein. He boiled some water and filled up the coffee maker. Terek sat down and opened his phone.

"Good morning sir, would you like today's news" Vaia the virtual AI assistant chirped

"No, I'm fine, just show me the nearby asteroids"

"Alright, I'll highlight all mineral-rich asteroids on your radar" with that Vaia blinked out of existence. Terek scrolled through his feed, trying his best to avoid the grim predictions and focus more on the silly cat videos. After several minutes of this careful dance, his breakfast popped out of the printer, and he took it to his table, he shoved the bacon scrambled eggs and muffin down his gullet. After downing his coffee, he made his way to the cockpit and took his ship out of autopilot. Terek glanced down at the radar; the highlighted asteroid was 45 minutes away from him. He manoeuvred the ship towards it and set off. 5 minutes in, he gave in to boredom and decided to call his mother.

"Vaia call my mom" appearing beside him, Vaia responded in their usual chipper tone

"Calling mom" before disappearing again, taking his place was his mother standing stock still while the phone rang.

"Hello son, have finally decided to check in on your mother? I could have died, but you're only calling now."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you heard? Most of the earth is revolting. It's chaos down here, we lost contact with most of the other planets, and the ones we can talk with have declared independence."

"I thought that was fake news, the Elders have been in charge forever, the chance that we would be the generation where it all falls apart is near impossible"

"Well, it is, so be careful out there, don't trust strangers."

"Same thing applies to you mom, be careful" his mother laughed off his concern.

"Don't you worry, I've been around long enough to know danger when I see it" behind her several loud crashes were heard through the speakers, his mom glanced behind her, eyes wide in shock before a single shot rang out, and his mom was launched backwards, blood spewing everywhere, thankfully she landed out of frame, Terek didn't think he could handle seeing her body. Her murderers flickered into frame, staring straight at Terek.

"We are the democratic galactic government, we will reclaim our empire." With that they ended the call, Terek stared at the place he last saw his mother alive. He put the ship back into autopilot and wandered to the bathroom, he stared at himself in the mirror and pointed out the features he inherited from his mother. His green eyes, his high cheekbones, his pessimistic attitude, his black hair. With no siblings, these are the last traces of his mother. Terek looked down at the sink, tears pitter-pattered on the ceramic bowl. He stayed there like that for who knows how long, alternating in-between staring at the mirror and the sink. The only reason he snapped out of his grief-ridden trance was the blare of the radar warning him there was an incoming ship, remembering his mother's advice he raced to the cockpit and armed his meagre weapons, 2 machine guns and an ion cannon, he turned his ship towards the other ship. He pulled down the radio and called out

"This is Fodienda, identification number 54984, flying under the asteroid mining union, do you copy? Over"

" Fodienda this is the Cu Chulainn, identification number 84635, flying under the exploration union, over" Terek laughed in relief, he was safe, for now.

"Requesting to initiate docking procedures, over"

"Permission granted, initiating docking procedures, out" the radio fell silent and Terek busied himself docking the 2 ships together. When he heard the seal hiss shut he stood up, and strode towards the airlock, he considered picking it up before finally deciding he should have it. Just in case.