Planet B Page #2

After hundreds of years in space, the Gaia's mission to find a New Earth won't last much longer.

• Science fiction

								


[laughing, sputtering, coughing]

We’re all gonna die! In my lifetime, too! We’re… who knows where, too far away from Earth to call for help, no prospects on the horizon, and we’ve got… [sputtering, hysterical laughing]... maybe five years, if we’re lucky, before everything goes to shit! We’re… we’re…

[thumping, coughing]

What am I gonna tell Astrid?

[sobbing, deep breathing]

F*ck, man. F*ck! What… What am I gonna tell her?

[sobbing noise subsides, static]

Huh… ah, okay. Good to get it out. Get it out now. F*ck. Okay.

[shuffling noises, static, scraping of chair]

Idea one. [clearing of throat] We start scraping together bits of metal and noncritical rivets, in the hopes of keeping things running for as long as possible until we find the New Earth. That could work. It could work for a while, probably for a long time, but eventually everything is a critical part. It won’t work forever. Nothing will. 
Idea two. Without causing a panic, we suggest an increase in grain fuel production from the hydroponic system. We just try to go faster. Get there faster. Let the sensors read more, deeper into space, and get to New Earth quicker. That’s sort of a last ditch effort, a big last hurrah if things come down to it.
Idea three. We… change the metrics for what qualifies as New Earth. Let the computer find us a desolate rock with some water, even if it doesn’t look particularly fertile. Give us a fighting chance.

[sigh, static crackle]

I don’t have a fourth idea.

[beeping, thumping, opening of drawer]

I’ve got… [sigh, static crackle]... I’ve got a drawing here, from my daughter, Astrid. [paper rustling] My therapist told me it was a good idea to verbalize things that give me peace. I feel peace looking at this. Is that good? It’s me… she drew me. I’m little, and I’m a stick figure, ‘cause she’s four, and it’s all she can draw, and I’m standing on this big circle that I think she means to be New Earth. My little stick figure is smiling. She’s holding my hand. Her stick figure is, anyway. It’s so sweet. God, I’m getting all choked up. 

[sigh, opening and closing of drawer]

I can do this. This… this could work. I just need to focus on what I can do in the meantime. Making things last as long as possible. It’s what the Gaia was built to do. Withstand time and space until we find New Earth. One bolt shouldn’t be enough to send me into a tailspin. And who cares if we haven’t been contacting Earth for a century? No one knew, and everything was fine. That… that must be why the captain was so calm about it. No one has to know. 

Makes me feel dirty, though. I saw the Captain and First Command, shit, a million times, going into that little room, making the contact with Earth report. Or at least that’s what… that’s what I suppose they wanted me to see. I can access those recordings now. Probably just conversations about what’s for lunch, recorded and thrown out after a century or so, and I just- [chuckles, sighs]- I thought being in command would mean… more than this. At least I get a window. I can see the stars. Now I can really look, not just try to stare out of the… the little porthole in my bunkroom. 

[silence, static]

What the-?

[thumping, shuffling, chair falling over]

Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh shit! No, no no, no! Uhh, computer, shut down all the emergency ballasts. All the windows. My god! Now!

[beeping, slamming, mechanical shutting noise]

Computer, emergency alert! Get everyone into their bunkrooms, and keep the windows closed! Where is the Captain? [tapping] Yes, yes, urgent! Urgent! 

[beeping, soft tone, door opening]

[end transcription]






Attention all heads of departments, date 08012456- 17:19
Written Memorandum

Good evening,

It has come to the attention of command that there seems to be an issue with the engine, resulting in the slowing of the Gaia as it travels. While we work diligently with our engineering department to rectify this issue, we ask that you please remain calm and maintain a level of composure and professionalism. The Gaia is not stopping, nor can it stop, since the vacuum of space does not permit friction. Even if our engines have some technical difficulties, we are still hurtling towards New Earth every moment. Do not despair! 

The stars outside are not moving as quickly as they normally do during our typical operation, therefore, the windows aboard the ship have been closed with emergency blast doors to prevent a panic. It is the hope of command that the news of our slowing can be dispersed calmly, by you, trusted department heads, instead of raising cause for alarm and conjecture. 

Thank you, and godspeed.

-Captain Page
-First Commander Buffet





Status Report to Earth Command, date 08012456-18:04
Transcribed Recording

PAGE: Buffet, would you stop it with that? It doesn’t work.

BUFFET: Well, maybe it does. Maybe Earth can hear us, it’s just… I don’t know, taking some time to reach them! Or… or maybe it’s because it’s never been urgent before! At least they’re someone to contact… anyone… some [crosstalk] at the very least, it’s a recording to send out there in case some friendly… friendly goddamn aliens or something find it! You really want to just sit on your hands and do nothing?! We’ve stopped, Captain! Stopped! I saw it, with my own eyes! The stars stopped spinning. We’ve stopped spinning. We’re just… drifting somewhere in space. 

[thump, chair shifting]

PAGE: Buffet, calm down.

BUFFET: F*ck it, Captain, if no one’s listening, what’s the point of decorum, right? I already sent out that stupid memo, hopefully people don’t read in between the lines too much–

PAGE: Fine. If it makes you feel better, we can try to contact Earth. But please, calm down. Buffet, if you panic, everyone will panic. That’s a lot more dangerous than drifting. Are you sure you saw what you saw? The stars moving slowly?

BUFFET: No, they stopped completely.

[static, crosstalk]

PAGE: That doesn’t make any sense.

BUFFET: Exactly! We’re stuck here!

PAGE: No, I mean it really doesn’t make sense. If our engines gave out, our ship would continue to rotate and move forward. [static, shuffling]
You said as much in that memo. The engines were only there to occasionally move us out of the path of an asteroid or moon or obstacle. We can’t just halt in space. There’s nothing to halt us.

BUFFET: What are you saying, ma’am?

PAGE: Computer, open the window in this room, and this room only.

[mechanical whooshing, beeping, static, crosstalk]

[silence]

PAGE: Oh my god…. They’re still. I’ve never seen…

BUFFET: Look! Look at it! 

PAGE: Eve…why aren’t we floating?

BUFFET: What?

[crosstalk, shuffling]

PAGE: We should be floating. 

BUFFET: I don’t…

PAGE: What, you forgot how physics works? [crosstalk]
[static crackle]

PAGE: If we stopped, if we really and truly stopped, then we don’t have centrifugal force spinning us into a false sense of gravity. We should be weightless right now without that spinning force. We—-

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