Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Eight

We shook, rattled and flew our way through subspace for fourteen hours before Nova announced our imminent exit into real space. Adrenaline jolted throughout my body knocking the exhaustion right out of there.

[Do not fret, Cia. We will be fine. Exiting subspace in five, four, three, two, one...]

The stars streaked catching up with us, then the shuttle stopped shaking and the rattling noise ceased. We glided into a sector of space right next to a beautiful purple and green coloured nebula. Gas clouds spilled over newly forming stars, dust of exploded celestial bodies adding reds and a splash of pink colour to the glorious sight. It was magnificent.

[Slow us down to standing, Cia. We don't want to get ourselves lost in that celestial soup.] He was meaning the nebula. I did as he directed and we stopped in space.

"Do we need to keep the engine running to keep this baby powered?" I asked, no longer worried about the shuttle falling apart, but about how we get a message out for a rescue.

[I've shut the drive down. The photo panels on the outside of the shuttle will keep us in power, but it will take three years and eight months for the drive to be charged enough to ake another drive jump.] He paused as shock shot through my system. [I'm sorry, Cia.]

"Is there anyone around? A space station, ship, mining colony?" I asked, desperate, knowing that if we didn't get rescued, I'd die of starvation.

[No. Nothing.]

We sat in silence for a long time, then I took my helmet off and stripped out my space suite. Laying on the decking of the shuttle, I didn't know what to make of myself, what to do, how to keep myself together. I got and wandered about the whole shuttle after an hour of thinking and discovered a storage tank of recycled water and eighteen days worth of human nutrient fluids. I lay back down on the deck after eating and drinking.

I woke up crying, I don't know how much later. I stared at the pretty lights, thinking it was a miracle to have such a picturesque graveyard. Neither Nova nor I had spoken for the whole time since he had announced the news. It gave me a sense of privacy, enough to grieve for myself and the predicament I'd found myself in.

After a few moments of watching the nebula, light stringed music began playing through the shuttle speakers. I got up and sat in the pilot's seat with my feet up on the co-pilot's seat, and felt Nova join me emotionally. We sat and watched the view and listened to the music that he'd found for the occasion.

"Nova?" My voice was horse sounding. I cleared it. "Thank you for being here with me, at least."

[I may have a way to save us, but again, it is a bit of hit and miss.] Nova's voice was a little apprehensive.

I sat up straight, jolting at the news. "Really?" I asked my AE friend.

[If I use your circulatory and nervous system to slow down your heart rate, your bio functions and your brain activity – essentially putting you into deep sleep, I may be able to keep you alive until rescue arrives.]

"How would that work?" Hope began to shine its little light on our situation once again.

[There is a cryogenic chamber hidden under the refresher unit. It was probably used back when this ship was used as a runner or scout and hid a few contraband goods. You would step in and the whole unit would seal up and lower itself into a subunit, with another refresher replicated to appear above you. I can't run tests on the unit and the shuttle logs do not indicate when it last had its maintenance cycle. There is no way to guarantee that it would work, nor that rescue would come for us in time before something happened to the shuttle or the cryogenic chamber, nor that you would wake up once rescue arrived...]

"I get it, Nova. Frozen popsicle. Cryogenic sleep. It could work but I might not wake up."

I had a think about what that would mean for me. Seventeen meals left and I either starved to death or put myself to sleep with a slim chance I could wake up if I ever got rescued. The choices made want to cry again. Watching the gas cloud twinkle with a thousand lights, I remembered the life I'd live up until now.

Briller's were go-getters. We were trend setters, takers and makers. The crown of the business corporate world was ours and ours alone. I am a Queen, I reminded myself. And Queens do not grovel in the mire. It was enough of a pep-talk to get me out of the funk I'd found myself in. Time to move on. I got up and moved to where I'd left my space suit and pulled it on again.

"What would we need? What does my body need? How do we set the shuttle up to make this work." And once again hope shone its bright spark into my life.

Nova taught be about how we'd need to lower the pressure in the shuttle by turning the gravunits off, turn the temperature gauge down in the life support systems, but that needed to be done manually. He showed me which panels to open and get into, what components to change settings on.

All that was set up, then the last thing to do was to get into the sub-deck refresher unit / cry cryogenic chamber and run diagnostics. They mostly ran green, but Nova still didn't want to trust the temperature gage.

[Let's connect the cryogenic chamber to the life support, then I think we're all ready to go. All you need to do now is to strap yourself in, Cia. I'll close the door and set the unit running.]

I stood next to the refresher door, thinking for a moment. Actually I was having a little bit of a freak-out, wondering if this was going to work.

[It's OK, Cia.] Nova played another piece of music in my mind, helping to calm the raging emotions and thoughts. I took a deep breath, noticed it fogging my HUD, then realised I could already feel the chilling temperature.

"The suite! It needs its life support temp control adjusted as well." I stepped away from the refresher unit.

[It had already been adjusted, Cia. I was able to do this for you.]

"OK, OK. Erm..."

I took one last long look a the incredible nebula on the shuttle pilot's display then wondered if I had everything I needed. Credit chips and the cheap looking necklace I'd stolen from the store room were still tucked into the breast pocket of my cowl hoodie. I patted my suit down to make sure they were still there. I owned nothing else on the shuttle and realised I was just stalling for time. I took another deep breath and stepped into the refresher unit and closed my eyes. I then opened then straight away.

"You're gonna be here when I wake up, Nova?" I asked in a shaky voice, then strengthened my resolve and continued. "Because you've kinda grown on me, you know?" Nova chuckled at my really lame joke. Before answering, he set the unit running and I could feel the floor vibrate through my space suit as we lowered down into the sub deck.

"Hey, no laughing, I took hours coming up with that one." I giggled with him

[See you on the other side, Cia.]

"See you on the other side, Nova." I smiled as I closed my eyes again and whispered in my mind, I'm really glad you're here with me, my Friend.

Sleep came fast as my body cooled down. Nova kept the music playing and I could occasionally hear him humming or saying something as I slept. In what felt like only moments, I woke up to uniformed men and women in space suits carrying me as gravity reasserted is hold on me. I was laid out on a gravstretcher, bright lights flickering all about, frightening me.

I felt weak, and heavy, and groggy, and fearful, until I heard the voice I wanted to hear.

[Welcome back, Cia. Rest easy. We've been rescued.] It was Nova. I smiled in reply, then slept.