At the Edge of the Cosmos: SciFi Contest Entries 2022

The Mercury Planet

LISTEN TO THIS STORY VIA YOUTUBE VIDEO
Narrated by the author

Contest: Undiscovered, August 2022
Host: @BeyondSol
Prompt: Your ship is charting new territory. Tell us something you find in a short story.
Word count: 1,981
Content warnings: Mild existential themes; anxiety and panic

* * *

It was 1342 hours, August 9, the twenty-fifth year of the trip (M25).

Oxygen intake aboard the Matthew Henson had increased, sharply. All eighty-six of the vessel's crew and passengers had gathered in the main auditorium, where panic appeared to have ensued. The ship's on-board computer, which had no name but was colloquially known as Matthew, adjusted down the amount of oxygen in the room to counterbalance this phenomenon.

After some minutes, the crew's average heart rate appeared to slow.

According to external sensors, the planet which caused this panic, currently designated HENSON 1d, lay just over one-point-two million kilometres ahead of the vessel, or rather, behind it; it currently faced the opposite direction while decelerating. This was to be the Matthew Henson's final destination, officially due to arrive at 1703-August 9-M25. It would be decommissioned module by module over the following decade.

The Matthew Henson's official mission statement was simple:

Be the first explorers and settlers to reach the opposite end of the galaxy.

Twenty-five mission years ago, Matthew had first ignited its gargantuan fusion engines, shutting them off only twice since then. Once due to a problem with reactor fuel containment, causing a great loss in reserves, and another while the vessel flipped end-over-end halfway through the journey (to switch from accelerating to decelerating). At all other times it had been thrusting at a constant 1G, providing the crew Earth-like gravity.

Near the beginning of M2, Matthew reached ninety-nine percent the speed of light. The crew celebrated.

Twenty-one mission years later (M23), the Matthew Henson arrived at the opposite end of the Milky Way. The crew celebrated again. Matthew calculated that over one hundred and thirteen thousand years had passed on Earth. Personal logs indicated people recognised that time dilation was inevitable during their trip, but no one mentioned it in their daily lives. Therapy notes suggested some had nightmares about it. Many crew members still wrote letters to home, which Matthew archived. They would never be sent. The intended recipients had all died millennia ago.

Initial readings indicated the closest star system to their arrival point contained no planets within the 'Goldilocks Zone'. Fuel levels were critically low, as anticipated.

0230-July 18-M23, the main engines were reignited and the vessel oriented towards a different, more suitable, system. It had taken six months to find. There would be no further exploration due to low fuel reserves.

1326-August 9-M25, an emergency meeting was called in the auditorium. Photographs of HENSON 1d, their final destination, had been shared throughout the vessel - causing much alarm.

Summary of Emergency Meeting, 1330-August 9-M25.