CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One ∞ 2: A Captain's Journey

53 ∞ Slag and Holes

Long Ago

Ayla watched the Captain leave the Bridge, but she remained with Canaisis for a while, her mind flowing with infinite numbers beyond her understanding. What drew her were the emotions tainting them, surging from the depths of their source. Fear, relief... and something more. It was Canaisis' moment of shutdown that drew Ayla's attention, and an anger that brewed within.

The anger was put aside, but it was not gone. Canaisis looked out beyond the solar system and headed for the edge of deep space. Setting a course far away from anything that could hurt her or her Captain. Her Captain, who was on his way to check on his passengers.

He had a mission now! He'd accepted, and a sense of joy and relief flowed through Canaisis.

Ayla followed the Captain via Canaisis' senses as he entered an elevator. The very metal of Canaisis' body was woven with a neural network that could only be described as biological in complexity and nature. Thus she did not 'see' the Captain as a Human would, she saw the electrical flow of his nervous system throughout his body. She saw his brain activate his leg muscles to walk, the bio-feedback of the nerves of his arms as they swung back and forth. To Ayla, this form of vision was both profound and unsettling.

Canaisis was very different when she was young, Ayla noted. Much smaller and very different. How much more could she see as she grew? Ayla watched as the playback continued. But, as the Captain stepped out of the elevator, she was drawn to him...

∞

Gareth headed for the blast door that sealed the cold sleep chamber. He keyed the access and entered the somberly quiet room. The room was long and narrow, with pods lining the right-hand side. Walking past each pod, he checked each panel of indicators as the stress of the last few days tried to catch up with him.

He arrived at the last of the crew pods and noted the difference in the pods that continued. These were the pods constructed for the few hundred survivors he and his crew had found. He was glad that these people had chosen to make the journey. But many had chosen to remain on Earth. After all, they'd grown up in the hell the planet had become. They knew nothing different. He had no way of knowing if they'd made the right choice or not, but he was skeptical.

Earth would recover thousands of years from now. It always did. But that didn't mean Humanity would. Their destination might not be any better, but it improved Humanity's odds. They were headed for the constellation of Dorado, the TOI 700 system, a red dwarf only fifty-five percent as hot as Sol. The planet TOI 700d was an exoplanet, twenty percent larger than Earth, and tidally locked. It received thirty-five percent more EUV light than Earth.

With the planet tidally locked with one side forever facing its sun, the atmosphere cooled the dayside and warmed the night side via convection currents. The weather there would be interesting, with winds always blowing in one direction. But at least it was breathable. The ultraviolet light would be an issue until Humanity adapted, but habitation along the twilight edge was certainly possible.

Dorado was 101 light-years away from Earth, so it would be two hundred years plus before he could return. A little less than two decades, ship time.

At the last cold sleep pod, he turned to look at the row of transparent metal bubbles. Two hundred and eighty-seven occupants. He was too weary to put a label on how that made him feel.

Satisfied all was in order, he headed back the way he'd come, his hand reaching out to touch each pod in passing. He turned outside the blast door as it closed to gaze into the cold sleep chamber. It looked small and vulnerable. Within him, his resolve to see the Mission through hardened.