Otherworlds

Death comes to us all. We're rarely ready for the brief blinking of our lives out of existence, but it does, inevitably, come to us all. Death has already come for me.
As the navigator aboard the Unity of Humankind scout vessel Braere, my life was fraught with danger, leading the seventeen crew safely to our next destination. You understand, of course that, although Braere, and indeed, every other ship in the Unity fleet, was armed, we never fought. As far as we knew, humanity was alone of sentient beings in the universe, with only the fear of Earth leading us to expand. For we feared, that despite the horrors our ancestors had witnessed, that one day, they would follow.
Honour. A noble, powerful word, once held in high regard. But now, honour held something worse, something terrible. They who were behind us, who were readied to follow, used that word, as an excuse for the atrocities they committed. We had learned to hate that word.
Braere was launched from the main Unity port at Jessica in the year 2297, under the command of Major William Dentramm. I myself had recently entered the hallowed ranks of the officer corps, having spent fifteen years, since my sixteenth birthday, as a crewman, then later, a sergeant. Now, I bore the emblem of the officer corps where my Fleet Sergeant's stripes had been, and a single pip upon each shoulder. It would be my task, as navigator, to guide this new-born vessel on her first journey, to a Unity scientific post at Hyaetor, and onwards, to worlds unknown. I still remember the sight of Braere's sister ship, Smythe, perched upon the landing pad, prepared for launch, looking for all the world like a gigantic black beetle, staring towards the sky. I did not know then, that I would regret ever seeing Smythe, that I would know the greatest enmity towards that name for the rest of my life.
Braere arrived at the station at Hyaetor three days later, following a lengthy travel through Jumpspace. The phenomenon that was Jumpspace was not, at the time, fully understood, but it had been used as a means of travel for centuries, since its timely creation by Dr. Ian Rentzin, who had later founded the Unity's scientific centre on Jessica some years later. Now, of course, mainly thanks to myself, and my fellow crew members, Jumpspace was used more cautiously, only available for armed craft, travelling alone.
At Hyaetor, we were directed onwards to explore a small cluster of nearby stars, scanning in particular for mineral-rich, habitable worlds. At the same time, we found, the Smythe, which had launched a day later than we, would scan the cluster at the opposite end. We were to meet in the middle, and proceed homewards together.

The first system we found, we named for our commander, in this case Major Dentramm. This was a tradition amongst survey ships, and each system would be named after a member of the crew, descending in rank order. For the first time, I found myself in a position to have a system named for me – if we were not beaten to it by the Smythe, that was.
The system we designated Robert, (Since the Major's first and surnames had already gone to other systems – he had been an explorer some time) was a barren, lifeless place. The sun, a large, bloated orange star, was parent to only one world, and that was a dull, lifeless ball of rock.
"Well Major, it's rather a shame to name it for you, isn't it?" grinned our engineer, lieutenant Roger Marel. The Major smiled beneath his great moustache and joked back "Well, if the Unity don't want it, I'll take it. A nice retirement home, I think."

The next few days, we arrived at the systems now known as Hackett (for our first officer), Baxter Delta (named for our gunner, lieutenant Richard Baxter who was now running low on names, having been born on a scout ship) and finally, at Marel. I was now the next highest ranking member of the crew and my hopes of making my permanent mark on the universe grew. The next system was the one in which we were to meet up with Smythe, and so, to my mind, this was a race. Performing as professionally as possible, I had set up our Jumpspace vector and speed, and awaited the Major’s order down to the engineer to activate the drive.
That trip, I found the lights, the curling swirls and colours of Jumpspace, to be more fascinating than ever. My bridge shift ended until we arrived back in-system, so I retired to my quarters to rest, and watch.
I shared a room with Lieutenant Marel, who had himself also been a sergeant until a few years previously. He was down in the engine room at present, and so I enjoyed the view to myself. I found myself dreaming of finding a system that held lush, habitable worlds, although I knew that the odds were stacked against me – all four previous systems had been dead, showing no signs of life, although the third planet of Baxter Delta held great gold deposits, which had brought a grin to our gunner’s face.
I imagined this world, and, staring into Jumpspace, I saw it appear. Blue, with swirling white clouds below which I could see a hint of green. I saw ships fly in to land, cities grow, be destroyed, an orbital station weaving its way between the moons. I saw a warfleet launch, and, from that distant world, I saw projectiles, but not of the type the Unity used, fly towards the Braere faster than I could have imagined. I saw the warheads arm, and draw closer, I saw….
The swirling clouds of Jumpspace folded away, and I saw the lights of stars. I felt the hot sweat drip down my face and wiped away with my sleeve. I had a job to perform, and a system to name.

When I arrived at the bridge, I took my place at the forward post and brought up my navigation screens. I sent out a radar pulse to bring up a map of the system, and waited for any signals from further out-system to return. Major Dentramm leant forward in his seat and said to me:
“Well, lieutenant, are you ready to make your mark on the stars?”
I nodded in assent. “Yes sir, I am.”
The radar pulse had still not returned the presence of the Smythe, and he smiled. He leant over me and tapped several of the panels on my system. “Well, then, we’d better name this place - ”
The ship’s communication system crackled into life and I found myself straining to hear the words. Then, the automated decoder aligned with the broadcasters and we heard the voice of Captain Steward of the Smythe clearly.
“Well met, Major Dentramm! Welcome to the Merrimann system, where I think you will find a rather nice world in the third orbit. We’ve already made all the recordings, so we’d better get moving.”
The major gave me a shrug and I felt my hopes dissolve. He keyed his own transmitter and began relaying orders for the jump back to Hyaetor, while I prepared a Jump vector and velocity for the two ships.
The Smythe had just begun to move into formation with us when, before our eyes, it was engulfed in a fiery blossom of oranges and reds, shards of giant shrapnel flying everywhere. We were instantly alert. The major began yelling orders, for weapons to be armed and engines primed. Then, we saw it, black against the dark starscape, hanging in the void. The ship seemed familiar to me and I realised what it was. It was the same vessel as those I had seen in Jumpspace, and as I watched, it fired another projectile directly for us.
I instantly activated the engines, and pulled the Braere upwards and out of the torpedo’s path. Having seen the destruction caused to the Smythe, I fervently wished to escape that fate myself. The torpedo swung by beneath us, and I breathed a short sigh of relief. However, this was short-lived, as the weapon turned and sped back towards us. Again, I accelerated, weaving Braere from side to side in an attempt to break the chase. Another projectile had joined it now, and once more the sweat returned to my face.
“Navigator! Turn directly towards that vessel!” called the Major. I followed his orders unquestioningly, and, as we lined up with the sinister shape, I heard lieutenant Baxter open fire, saw the missiles fly forward in pairs, then slamming into the shape. The third pair caused a massive detonation somewhere, and I saw the missiles on my screen turn to red marks then fade – they had detonated.
I looked up and found the other craft accelerating towards us, flames pouring from a gash in its side. I tried to pull Braere upwards, but it was too late. “Jumpspace! Jumpspace!!” called the Major. I hammered on the panel, but the collision was inevitable. The blossoming explosion became the swirling colours in an instant, shards of debris still covering the main view window, which, I saw, was cracked. Air was leaking out and I saw, as I struggled to make my way to a bulkhead, that the rest of the bridge officers were unmoving.
I blinked away blood from a gash in my forehead, and pulled at the Major’s body. Looking up, I saw that air was leaving the bridge fast, and I reluctantly retreated back to a bulkhead, sealing the bridge and all those still alive to their unfortunate fates. Outside, I found similar carnage. Crew members lay injured in the corridor, rubble covering their broken bodies. There seemed to be little left to do but gather survivors in the most secure room and await our exit from Jumpspace.

Lieutenant Marel had been injured when a torpedo had detonated in engineering, which had killed most of the crew instantly. There was now only myself, Marel, a young Crew Corporal named Jenna D’Rise and three crewmembers left. That left myself the ranking officer aboard, as Marel was in no fit state to command. Still, there was little for us to do but await rescue.

During the debrief, I gave the facts as I knew them, and they were duly recorded. The loss of two ships and most of their crews was described as “unfortunate”, and the survivors were all promoted, given their medals, and transferred away from each other. I remember little of the interview with the officer from the Intelligence Corps, except one question.
“What did you name this system?”
“Misery” I told him.