The Testimony of Those Lost in the Sky

Twenty

Mayor Summer Treyes sat, straight-backed, on the leather seat which marked the commander's chair. She had heard that there was supposed to be a commanding officer on board every flight, but in the flocks of vagrants outside the ship she doubted that there were any officers who had made it in. And Treyes was ready to step up to the plate.

She tapped her pencil on the side of the empty fiberwood desk. That said, the ship was pretty much autopiloted for its entire four-week journey. There wasn't much for a commanding officer to do. The passengers had been assigned and sent to their rooms, dazed and confused. It didn't seem quite real, that the Earth was gone, and all the window panels had been shaded an opaque grey.

"Madame Treyes!" A man ran into the room, grinning. "My bosom buddy, my deeeeearest pal! An honor to make your acquaintance, darlin'!"

He wore an officer's uniform. The small military medal on his shoulder jangled as he handed her a glass of water.

"And who might you be?" the mayor replied. She hadn't recalled seeing any other army forces around the neighborhood today either. The man saluted.

"Lieutenant LT Morris, reporting for duty."

Other than the obvious use of a pseudonym, Treyes would almost have believed him. "Or, should I say, to take over and control this ship. It's my duty, as the highest ranked official aboard. We're going to be best friends, Miss Treyes! Such an honor to join you on this excursion. Now excuse me for a moment..."

The lieutenant reached over her and fiddled with a screen on the wall.

"What are you doing?" Treyes snapped, "This is sensitive equipment! One wrong touch and you could change the gravity-causing rotations or even-"

"Alter the flight trajectoryyyyyy! Exactly what I am doing right nooow!"

"What are you doing?!" The mayor threw up her hands. "You know what, no. Your obviously fake name and this handling of the pod- no. You need to go be a passenger and relax, ok? I will take care of this shuttle and you can report for duty, or whatever, when we reach the main ship."

The man turned his head back to face her and smiled, a smile colder than the frigid ship they stood on in the frozen air of space. "Oh no, honey. You could be court martialed for that." He stepped back, continuing to type in to the pad. "And why are the windows closed, by the way? Afraid?"

"There are four children aboard this shuttle-"

"All of whom somehow made it through that bloodbath. And even papa couldn't cover up their eyes when that last freak got in."

There it was, the other problem the mayor had been neglecting. The last guy to climb into the ship, smashing a previously safe man down the stairs and shutting the entrance. She didn't really know what to do about it- sure, they had all fought or watched the fight to some extent, but was it really ok for there to be a murderer onboard?

"Relax, buddyyyy!" 'LT', Treyes thought, was apparently telepathic as well. "We're all killers now! Even that little kindergarten girl, she killed fourteen people in her being on this very shiiiiip!" He pressed a five- digit code into the wall panel. A green screen was displayed. "There we go! So much easier!"

"What are you doing?!" Treyes repeated for a third time. She wanted to think of the fourteen people she had personally destroyed by being on the ship about as much as she wanted to think about the Earth.

"Like I said, my bestest frieeeeend! I changed the flight trajectory so it only takes three weeks to get to the main ship! Awesome, right? Riiiiiiiiight?"

Treyes had to admit, she had heard of this technique before. Something to do with asteroids and rocket science. But it was at a cost. "If you didn't calculate the codes right, we're blown out of the sky."