Grown in the Light of a Dying Star

[Katpride]

The people who built the tiny research outpost that was now locked in orbit around Eurydice had a terrible sense for aesthetics. Seriously, it was all unremarkable hallways and unpleasantly geometric chambers, and almost all of the windows were tiny portholes that were jealously guarded by roving teams of scientists. Or, uh, they used to be guarded by those scientists, anyway. Before things started falling apart, and most of the scientists died. They had been the ones on the side of the station facing Eurydice when the star started gearing up to go supernova, and now they were probably dust.

The station lurched again under Curie’s feet, and she stumbled, catching herself by throwing her much-abused forearms onto a crate before she could fall all the way to the floor. Briefly, she felt her hair float up around her ears, her boots losing contact with the ground as the station’s artificial gravity glitched, but it snapped back into place only a moment later, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Or maybe that was just the air being forced from her lungs as she was pressed against the crate none too gently, the gravity coming back a little stronger than it was before.

Ugh. It didn’t matter. She had to keep moving. She had to get to the failsafe, or-

She just had to get to the failsafe, she thought, swiping her hand over her damp cheek and scrubbing away the last of the moisture there. That accomplished, she levered herself up, and continued across the room to the airlock. She was counting the seconds under her breath as she punched in the code, as the door slid open and she stepped inside, as it closed and the door on the other side opened. “302, 303, 304…”

The ground heaved under her feet just as she hit 305, and Curie grabbed the sides of the airlock chamber to keep herself stable. Okay. Five minutes and change between pulses. She could do this. She just had to keep moving.

Sniffing once, she put her game face on and stepped out into the hallway. Only to immediately stop, staring at the figure she could see silhouetted in the angry red light streaming in from a tiny porthole window. The lights were out, she noted, distantly, reaching for the flashlight tucked into her - don’t think about it - her belt. (It was hers, now. Maven was-) She pushed the thought savagely aside and clicked the light on, shining it on the floor between them.

“___?” She called, recognizing the figure now that there was a little light and they weren’t just a shadow in a dark room. Her voice was rough, but she found a smile tugging at her lips, despite everything. What a relief it was, to run into a familiar face. “What are you-? No, it doesn’t matter. I need your help. We need to get to the bridge. Eurydice is dying ahead of schedule, and-” Her voice cut, suddenly, as she was blindsided by a spasm of grief so tangible it was almost a hiccup, but she forged on. “-and no one knows but us. The communication dishes went down an hour ago.”

For scheduled maintenance, she didn’t say. It didn’t matter. Except that it did, to her, and maybe only to her. I should’ve been out there helping him, she thought, again, even though she didn’t really want to think about what would’ve happened to her if she had been.

She was the only engineering apprentice that Maven had brought with him to Orpheus. If she had been out there with him, then the station would have no one who knew how to activate the failsafe. That she knew of, at least. There were so many things she didn’t know, though. Maybe all the higher-ups knew about the failsafe. Maybe they all knew the dials to turn and levers to pull. Maybe they'd all been on the side of the station facing Eurydice, and their dust was mingling with that of the scientists’. She just didn’t know.

What she did know was that she couldn’t afford to slow down, on the off chance that she really was their last hope. She tried to force some confidence into her steps as she strode down the hallway, motioning for her friend to follow her to the airlock on the opposite side. Stars, the station had so many airlocks. Just, a ridiculous amount. It was a bit annoying, trying to get around on a usual day, but she supposed that it had paid off, since they were still breathing filtered air and walking around in normal gravity even with a good chunk of the station pulverized.

While she punched in her access code (which was really Maven’s override code), her eyes flicked to the side, glancing at ___ and then away again, uncharacteristically shy. “Didn’t think I’d find you at the end of the world,” she eventually mumbled, a faint heat burning high in her cheeks. “Maybe we can find you an escape pod, when we get to the bridge.”

 

[ItsFulgrim]

Jupiter never liked her name. Being named after a massive gas giant wasn’t exactly flattering. Worse, Jupiter Primerous and Jupiter Secundous were long gone, wiped away after years of severe experimentation. Now, JUPITER stood for something else entirely- the Judgment Unit for Preemptive Interstellar Tactical Elite Response. A ridiculous mouthful, in her opinion. The fact that her father had named her this felt ironic, considering her career choice. A trainee for the same force, that he despised so much. Almost funny.

Her father wasn’t thrilled with her choices. Choosing the military over the family business had put a strain on things. She couldn’t see herself spending her life monitoring a star or something. It all felt pointless. Funny how, now, it seemed so important when things were all going down in flames, in more ways than one.

She had been stationed elsewhere, far away from Eurydice in fact, but here she was, standing in this space station. Why?

A hunch. That’s all it was. She had no orders, no mission, no real reason to be here. She just wanted to see her friend- Or was it more of an acquaintance? Hard to say. They hadn’t spent much time together, but she liked Curie. She never understood half of what the scientist rambled on about, but she nodded along anyway. It was nice, having someone who didn’t dumb things down for her, even if she had no clue what she was talking about. It had been a rough week in her outpost, she hoped to have a something to smile at, her wish was clearly not going to be fulfilled.


Hours before things went south, she had landed safely on the private port, far from the bridge. One of the rare times her father’s obsession with status worked in her favor.

She had already seen the destruction. Running through the station, searching for Curie, searching for survivors or for anything useful. A data pad, a working communicator, something. But now she understood why she couldn’t call for help, the damn dishes were down, because of course they were.

She ducked slightly through the doorway; surprised Curie recognized her right away, looking at her as if she was the wisest person in the galaxy. Then again, the more she thought about it- Between her bright hair, her stature, her rifle, and her armor suit, she wasn’t hard that hard to identify.

"My ship warned me about potential danger in the area," She lied. "I checked it out and came to help, but... seems like I’m too late."

She slung her rifle over her shoulder, raking a hand through her fiery red hair in a futile attempt to tame it. The station’s tremors ruined any effort at tidiness.

"The bridge is up in flames. I think the fuel station went off- There’s no way we’ll get through in time, and I doubt the pods are working..." She weighed her words carefully, unsure if her plan made any sense. "We can reach my ship if we hurry. How much time do you need to fix this?"

Jupiter didn’t know much about fixing disasters like this. If anyone could, it was Curie; at least, she hoped so. Jupe wasn’t a scientist or an engineer. These days, everything was automated, so she never had to learn any of it, now she felt stupid for ignoring her father's demands.