|
Travelers
by Botond Teklesz
“ I can`t see a damn thing!”, yelled
private Johnson to his comrades.
His terror grew as he realized that the bugs were getting ever closer.
He started hitting his helmet, but no use, his infrared night-vision
was heavily damaged. His mates watched on their little screens as
before their eyes Johnson was surrounded by the giant bugs, and
then torn into pieces.
“Fall back! Get going!”, ordered Captain Durrell on the highest
pitch of his voice.
************
The central star of the Cassiopeia Nebula was dying, and this meant
that the human colony sent there to take charge of the planet Eureka
would be endangered by the dramatic climate change. It was the 25th
century, and man-kind was about to leave Earth behind for good.
All earthly resources having been terminated, there was a thorough
search for a habitable planet in the known universe. Eureka seemed to
be the right choice, but it was 15 light-years away. This would have
meant a 10 year travel time with present technology.
The use of wormholes had proven to be a tricky thing, as one once
created, there was no telling where the distorted time-space continuum
would throw a spacecraft jammed into the vortex.
This is exactly what happened to the Voyager 6. Instead of opening at
the calculated parameters, the mouth of the wormhole opened somewhere
outside of the known star-systems.
The physicist of the ship couldn’t believe his eyes, when he saw on the
big central screen of the navigation command room a strange blue sun
surrounded by a metallic red sky.
The sensors indicated that gravity on the planet was five times
stronger than on Earth. Other than that, a concentrated sulfuric
climate characterized the place they were approaching.
They all had a funny feeling about this extra-curricular showdown of
their fate. The wormhole, that would have permitted their return, had
closed, and the Voyager 6 was confined to landing on this giant turmoil
of sulfur, which promised nothing pleasant.
Life-sensors indicated heavy activity down there. They tried to figure
out from the safety of the planet orbit what exactly was moving below,
but something interfered with their scanners.
They had no other choice, than to descend, as the uranium in the ship`s
nuclear-powered engine was running critically low. Five men climbed
into a road-runner, as the ship entered the foreign atmosphere.
******************
Captain Durrell tried to fire at the bugs after having lost Johnson.
Unfortunately the giant insects strongly outnumbered them. The four men
were captured, and taken into some kind of cave. The tiny scanner on
Durrell`s wrist indicated that the oxygen level was increasing rapidly.
The bugs meant to keep them alive.
The End.
© 2014 Botond Teklesz
Bio: Botond
Teklesz is an English single major Hungarian by mother tongue. Botond
says of himself "I love to write and to translate. I am a fool for
Sci-fi and have read most of Bradbury and Asimov. I mean Hamlet is
great but it never made me laugh."
E-mail: Botond Teklesz
Comment on this
story in the Aphelion
Forum
Return to Aphelion's
Index page.
Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum
Return to Aphelion's Index page.
|
