Chapter 1: Into the Void
The pitch-black void was all I could see. Darkness overwhelmed all my senses.
I decided I would never regret my decision, but this was unexpected.
Sweat drenched every part of my body. My skin was changing color to a deep red. The bones in my body shouted as they ached.
But this was all expected.
I boarded the crew ship that would voyage the first Mars colonization mission.
A privatized company by a rich billionaire whose sole goal since youth was to break the space frontier. Along with myself, a thousand others volunteered for this suicidal project.
Fluency in three languages - with the utter importance of English - was one of the minimum requirements. Age restrictions were placed as well fairing; twenty to thirty-five.
A bachelor’s degree with a three-point five grade-point average or a military background ranked Second Lieutenant. The equivalency of either was accepted for international volunteers.
I was twenty-two. Fluent in Spanish, English and a dead language. Latin.
I was almost unaccepted because of that, but someone enjoyed the irony of dead language to have the probability of growing in a new frontier.
I had recently graduated with a degree in biochemistry when I submitted my application. I also graduated from my military officer program at the same time.
After being accepted into the space program I submitted a proposal for a leave of absence to the military. Before my official deployment took place, it was immediately accepted by my commanding officer.
The interview was a breeze.
The physical and mental tests were not.
There was no envy between the candidates who failed and those who got to move on.
There was too much national pride between the plethora of international candidates. Cheers of family, friends, and government officials decorated the buildings where the tests took place.
Candidates pushed each other to finish. Shouts of support in various languages resounded the test halls.
I was paired with a kid a year younger than me. He faired the same education, but he didn’t have a military background.
His physique was thin and made the physical tests hard for him. Seeing him struggle as I did brought the feeling of nostalgia.
Only his family was here to encourage him, and seeing their humble faces full of hope for their child I also shouted encouragement to the kid.
I felt like my own senior when he encouraged me during our initial monthly physical exams in the military.
“Don’t fucking give up!” I burned my throat from how hard I shouted. But it was enough.
Maybe it was the fear of being alone in this new place or the lack of acknowledgment from those around him, but Sai’s face lit up when he heard me.
And just like other candidates, strangers began to cheer for him as well when they saw him try his best.
It was going to be the last time I was going to see all the people that showed up to express their support. But while I was prepared for that. I didn’t know it would have been the last time I would hear their voices as well.
The vibrations of rockets blasting only increased the pressure within the atmosphere.
No one talked.
Everyone's gaze was focused forward. Into the black abyss ahead of us.
Humanities’ pride shouting through the communication channels felt like a song whose sole purpose was to calm my soul.
Vomit tried to creep up my neck, as my nerves tensed up. My ears popped from the pressure making me feel deaf.
I was in space.
Tears began to show up in the eyes of those around me.
Smiles and relief spread among the astronauts, yet the tension was still there. We knew there was a long journey ahead of us and the chance of death has not yet become favorable.
Years of planning and years of preparation led us to this moment.
And so everyone got to work.
Days turned into weeks and before I knew it, months passed. I had become acquaintances with not only Sai but a few others.
We stayed busy with stories and board games. I entertained myself with a bit of writing and drawing.
I also continued my studies of chemistry from e-book downloads we received from command. But due to the huge delay that increased the further from Earth we got, native created entertainment became popular.
Sai and few others enjoyed the stories I wrote and so it became my part-time job among the responsibilities I had among the crew.
As a biochemist, my hope was to continue a medical route after graduation. This was my plan before my current occupation. However, my degree was put to use in its own way.
I was currently an assistant to Dr. Layheart. Along with a team of twenty others, our primary objective was the botanic growth for the colonists on Mars. We had months of technical practice back on Earth, and we currently applied said practice to grow food and plant life in our ship's miniature garden.
Many unsurprising obstacles appeared, but the convenience of a 3D printers allowed the combined ingenuity of so many intellectuals to make due.
Using 3D software I had helped bring my team’s ideas for our botany experiments to come to life.
As an assistant, I did my best to absorb all the knowledge my seniors provided. But in practicality, the enthusiasm of my college hobby surrounding 3D software came in handy more so than what I learned under my degree.
I’m not saying my degree was useless, it was due to the fact that everything I knew some knew it better and with more experience. But that didn’t stop me from making myself useful.
Sai had a similar problem as one of the juniors in his group.
They were all engineers focused on mechanical maintenance with the ship. Sai had found his own way of being useful and thus he focused on learning everything else from those around him.
This learning habit extended within our friend group as we were always excited to show off the new things we learned or made.
Sai taught our group a lot about electrical engineering and I taught them equally as much about nutrition.
They each had their own things to share as well and because of this I never felt more excited to learn.
This method of learning couldn’t even be compared to the grueling lectures back in university. But it was one of the few ways to keep each other busy.
Despite everyone having their own specialization, after a few months, many astronauts became well rounded with each other's processes increasing the overall efficiency and productivity of the crew.
As such I ended up helping Sai with maintenance as I grew interested in electrical engineering as well.
The trip continued on like this.
Among the expected effectiveness, there were also calculated problems.
Communication back to earth became consistently more difficult. Radiation and spatial anomalies wore into the ship’s outer structure. Isolation of space began its psychological test among the crew.
Arguments and tensions began to rise and the flow of the social-political structure of the ship’s crew would fluctuate.
Differences in culture were the most prominent, and yet there were some of us who decided to learn from this.
There were specialized teams whose responsibility was to manage structure within the crew and many tried their best. Yet with so many people nothing was perfect.
I realized I was being too optimistic when Sai’s prediction came true.
Another maintenance group in a different part of the ship stopped working altogether due to internal conflicts between them.
Sai’s team was relaxed and team-oriented so their efficiency allowed for a lot of leniencies. Sai was tasked to go with his senior to take on the responsibilities of the other team.
The conflict seemed to be getting out of hand, yet maintenance cannot stop due to the safety of the passengers. The stubbornness of those that caused the conflict to impede them to work on said responsibilities.
I volunteered to accompany Sai as my team also had their tasks handled appropriately.
However, I did not realize what I was getting myself into.
To avoid panic within the crew conflicts remained subtle and quarantined.
Despite being such a crowded ship, the gossip didn’t travel much as the intellectual understanding of the dangers behind rumors was engraved during our training.
Talkative people who had a knack for gossip were weeded out during the interviews.
Yet while the lack of unnecessary rumors did help maintain the social psychology of the group in good health. I did not know what I was getting myself into when I decided to help the volunteer.
No system is perfect so I knew a little of why they fought, bigotry and racism. I also knew they stubbornly stopped their duties because of it.
I didn’t know we were going to plugging a leak in a sealed-off section of the ship.
One of the most dangerous things that can happen to any type of ship, whether underwater or in space.
Sai was excited but his senior’s face immediately became hesitant when we were being briefed on the situation. She had a complex expression since she was worried about me and Sai.
There were six of us in total with only one of the old crew responsible for this sector joining us.
We began to diagnose the structure of the area.
We began to work after acknowledging the leak was due to pebble-sized debris that made contact under ridiculous speeds.
The spontaneous decompression created a ridiculous suction force that damaged a lot of this part of the ship. It was isolated properly, yet it caused a significant drop in our air supply.
Since there was no way to decompress and enter this part of the ship we had to go around from a proper exit and travel from outside the ship to reach the hole.
It was to be my first and last time to enter the void.
After following all the procedures we were appropriately tied to each other and the ship.
The suits were awkward to move around in. Each of us carried a variety of different equipment making it even more awkward to move around. But that didn’t dilute the excitement in each of us.
I had watched the beauty from behind windows inside the ship, but this was the first time to truly experience it in person.
Tears easily flowed down my eyes. I couldn’t hold back my emotions much especially under the stress we were in from the repair.
It was the same for Sai as his words were harder to distinguish despite that I was used to his accent.
We reached the appropriate part of this ship within time and much to our surprise pressure held from air pipes within the hull’s frame found release from the weakened plates.
The damage was as calculated. Despite this no one properly expected further spontaneous pressure release from siphon valves. They had held in their substance do to a suction force of pressure contrasting from the outside void.
It had only been a single hour since the initial impact that caused this problem. Two hours since the tension between the maintenance crew stopped working. Yet space was unforgiving.
Hair length debris penetrated my suit. Sai’s senior grabbed tightly unto me as I had let go from the ship. I had already begun to travel away from the ship with the debris but she caught the rope that was tied to me.
The horrifying experience did not frighten me as I had already begun to feel lightheaded. Holes within my suit began to clog from the freezing blood.
Another burst of pressure below the pipe released all the remaining fluids that were trapped.
This time it hit the Senior causing her to let go. Debris penetrated her suit damaging her and the ropes that connected us.
I could hear Sai telling me to hold on as the rest of the team began repairing and trying to pull us into safety.
My rope was tied unto the senior. When they pulled her in the remaining fibers holding together after the debris finally let go.
I slowly drifted into space.
Bleeding.
Cold.
And my companions could only watch.
Procedures flew into my head but it was hopeless. I was dazed and unresponsive.
My suit turned away from the ship ever so slowly.
Eventually, I could only see the pitch-black void.
After my suit finished a full rotation the ship was too far from me.
Communication slowly quieted down. I simply couldn’t pay attention to them anymore.
I fell asleep.
