Astronomicon: Icarus

18 - Lost

The hair against the headrest moved with a start.

He heard a sharp gasp and then, "Sorry, you took so long docking, I fell asleep."

"I didn't think we took that long," protested Captain Taylor.

A tall man, distinctly taller than he was, slowly glided upwards out of the chair, gently dropping his own magnetic boots onto the deck before he floated away. He turned and walked around the captain's chair towards Captain Taylor, smiling warmly as he did so. He was slim, with blue eyes, several day's stubble growth and unkempt hair. His pale grey overalls were dirty with stains, scratches and other marks. Some of the marks looked like splashes of blood, but Captain Taylor avoided drawing any conclusions.

"Thank you so much for coming to our rescue. You have no idea, can have no idea, just how pleased we are."

"Where are the rest of the crew?" asked Captain Taylor.

"Apart from me, the rest of the survivors are in the storm cellar. Everyone else was lost," he replied.

"Lost? Are you the captain?"

"I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself. I'm First Officer John Hill, now acting captain."

"I'm Captain Jason Taylor, commander of the Icarus," he replied. "So, what happened to your captain?"

"That's complicated. Many of the crew were... were... lost during the test flight," he replied with a shiver, "It's difficult to explain what happened and I shouldn't really tell you anything about the USS Oppenheimer, she's highly classified."

"That would explain why we couldn't find her on the register. What do you mean, 'lost'?"

"Not here anymore. We... we... we don't know where they are."

"They left the ship?"

"No. No... well, yes, but not like you mean. Let's just get off this ship before anything else shifts. It's all been pretty unstable since the test."

"You have structural damage?"

"Worse than that, parts of the ship are sort of unstuck, not properly real anymore. Systems are failing all over the ship. It's only a matter of time before the hull breaches again."

"Again?"

"It's happened two times. We re-pressurised each time but now our gas reserves are almost depleted."

"How long have you been stranded here?"

"I don't know, sir, several days at least. All the clocks here are messed up. We can't even get them to keep time at the same rate."

"When did you do the test flight?"

"March 17th. What's the date today?"

"That doesn't seem right."

"What do you mean?"

"It's July 12th today. That means you've been stranded here for something like four months!"

"It can't have been more than two or three weeks at most, even if we all blacked out for a couple of days when it happened."

"Why were you doing an engine test in the asteroid field?"

"We weren't. We just ended up here after the test."

"So where were you before that?"

"I shouldn't really tell you that, sir. We were in a geostationary orbit near the dark side of Titan."

"That's a LONG way from here. That trip would have taken a couple of months, at least."

"Is it possible that you made the trip here and then something made you forget about it?"