Mission Orion: The Travel through Time

Chapter 15 | The First Wave

"Hello M.A.R.V" I said. "Hello, Captain Rithvik" he replied. "At least this one has some respect and some sense." Leo muttered. "Want me to boost up the humour settings, Leo?" he asked. "I take back my words." Leo said, laughing. Anna and Konrad stayed as far away from MARV as they could. I guess they still had some trouble trusting robots after DAVE's incident. Couldn't blame them, I still was pretty shaken up from the whole fiasco. I just couldn't get DAVE's incident out of my head. The main screen suddenly lit up. We got a message from our base on Europa. "I can't believe it" Leo exclaimed. "They probably managed to find us and re-establish the link." I said, looking at Konrad.

"Open the message" I ordered. "We are not sure whether our messages are reaching you or not. But we are trying to make contact. The whole of the population is now taking refuge on Europa. We are also building the spaceships for a long distance travel to the Xendion System if you succeed in your mission. We are putting everything we have into these spaceships and thus we get only one shot at this. In case you succeed in your mission, you'll need to come back into our system and make contact. As I've already told you, you are the last of Mission Orion. May the force be with you. Also, we regret to inform you Dr Anna that your mother was killed during the emergency evacuation when a Category Seven solar flare hit the surface. She was on a surface mission when the pod she was shuttling on met with an accident which caused her death to occur immediately. She felt no pain. We're sorry for your loss. Europa Outpost, Over and Out."

"I'm sorry for your loss, Anna" I said. The others poured in their condolences as well. She seemed pretty shaken up, a bit more than usual given the fact that she still hadn't fully recovered from DAVE's incident. "Anna, you need to spend some time alone. Go to your bunker and take some rest." Anna walked away slowly towards her bunker wiping away her tears. We went back to our rooms except for Leo who insisted on working. I was all alone in my bunker. I remember the day when I shared Anna's feelings. I was in the middle of my math class in Grade Five, when I was called to the front office. I was what you would consider a trouble magnet and the first thought which struck my head was that I got busted for leading the canteen raid. Or probably the teachers found out about my secret stash in the locker. But I immediately knew I was wrong the moment I entered the front office. There was my mom's sister sitting on the chair, weeping uncontrollably. "Come on in, child." the school counsellor said, smiling a smile which looked fake. No one has ever been that nice to me, until now. She made me sit right in front of her. She was silent for a minute as if she didn't know what to say. Finally, she said, "Rithvik, just an hour ago, an earthquake of magnitude 9.8 struck Hawaii." My parents were on vacation in Hawaii. Everything fell into place in my head. I just sat there, not a drop of tear rolled down my cheeks. In one minute, it seemed my whole life had been turned upside down. At the same time, the environmental crisis had begun. Our family moved to India when earthquakes struck the United States on after the other wrecking every major city. I signed up for the Indian army and spent my time serving in the UN wing helping people whenever disaster struck, which was almost every day. I spent my life serving people until I was selected for the Orion Program. I trained for 6 years before finally being assigned to Orion Four. I'd been there when the rest of the Orion ships were lost in space. Many people dropped out of the program with each failed mission. But I never considered being one of them. I always believed in the mission. I've known Reneesh since day one. He was from the US Marines. We met in the training program and were close to on another since then. We then moved underground and then meet Anna and Souvik. After Orion Three was declared a failure, our team was put together. I've heard myths about Leo, about how he was the best hacker the Orion Mission had ever seen. I ran into him once or twice during training and he always seemed to be the most enthusiastic amongst us all. I was chosen as the captain of Orion Four and Reneesh as the captain of Orion Five. I started with the determination of never giving up. I dreamt of being known as the savior of the world. Second to none. The one who would save our whole species. When I was a kid, I would spend my whole day playing with the replicas of lightsabers. Huge Star Wars fan, I was. I always dreamt of being resistance pilot during my childhood and here I was, with a whole ship of my command on a mission to save humanity. Funny how things worked. Well, here I was, with the hopes of all the people back there, waiting for us to beat the so-called, Aliens, and find us a new home. Totally cool with that one. We didn't have a strategy since we pulled the plug on the old one. We didn't have the resources. We didn't have the weapons. We were outmatched and outnumbered. We had no backup, we didn't even know half about their capabilities and their history. We just came out blind. Things pretty much suck right now. Anna is still shaken up by the stress and now the news about her mom's death. Our team isn't ready. And to be frank, it never would be. We just are working with the tiny hope of peace. That the aliens would let us live. Even now, we know so little about them. Hell, they could attack us even at this very moment. 

Just then, I felt massive vibrations on the ship and saw a flash come from the window. I also heard the sound of debris hitting the ship. I scrambled out of my bed and got to the window only to find explosions ripping through Orion Five. Curse. My. Mouth.

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