Tales of Death´s Daughter

Have you ever wondered how big the galaxy really is? I can assure you, it is more than 2 soccer fields. The size of it is unimaginably large, so much that it becomes easier to measure space in combination with time. The human federation spanned 102.369 light years at its peak. Surely, much of it was the vastness of nothing, but it still showed how much we could progress.

We reached to the stars and found new planets to call our home. Sadly, we haven't invented instant space flight. So, traveling between planets, or to another galaxy, was a always a tedious adventure. There was simply no other option but to seclude yourself in a tin can if you wanted to reach another planet. Or – if you had the luxury – you just didn’t travel. But I wasn’t among these lucky people.

And thus, I stood there in the middle of my little room in front of a smart mirror. A blonde girl with green eyes and a small stubby nose stared back, while we scooted away from the place I called home at breakneck speed.

“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the most intelligent of all?” My daily routine always started like this for several years now. After twelve years on this spaceship, one tends to get bored. So, people find ways to waste time, like fooling around or competing in pointless academic contests.

“Judging by the average test scores, it is Marie Winchester. You, in comparison, rank 243 of all crewmates.” But no matter what I did, someone was always better in one area. I even had the feeling the AI liked to ridicule me a bit, but that was only my perception of her. She was still as emotionless as ever. I slammed the tables displaying the academic rankings of five hundred children. Then, I stared into my green eyes for a few seconds. They looked almost yellowish for a bit, then the usual color returned. It was quite strange to see it, but my imagination also liked to make fun of me like the AI. I dismissed the feeling right away and focused on what was important.

I had mediocre marks, but they weren't a cause for alarm. Nobody expected me to be the best at learning, or even lifting heavy crates. But it still got on my nerves that I didn’t excel at anything. Sure, there weren’t many areas one could be the best in on this spaceship, but I wasn’t satisfied with mediocrity. I wanted to be good at something. I wanted more. I hoped that I could add value to this mission this way. But somehow, I doubted that as I was one of the older teenagers participating. Even the adults had no hope in the success of this adventure.

This mission, ironically named "New Hope," aimed to save humanity. This spaceship was the result of extensive research and the whole rapidly diminishing economic output of Earth for a year. So, it was faster and more durable than others. It could even cross the space between galaxies. It was the last effort of the United Federation to give a chance to a race which lost a senseless war against creatures we still didn’t understand.

The result of this effort was the spaceship I was on along with four hundred ninety-nine other children. Our task to reach another galaxy where humanity could start anew was simple as the AI did most of the work for us. Until now, I didn't know if I should be grateful for being selected as a participant. Or, to curse my fate of being trapped in the void of space between two galaxies.

On one hand, I would have certainly died if I stayed on Earth, but on the other hand I wouldn’t have to bear jokes about blondes that way. I knew that I wasn’t the smartest, but some just had to crack jokes like these quite often. They weren’t even targeted at me specifically, but they still made me furious. Even in front of the mirror, I could feel my anger boiling up again, but quickly shook my head to clear my head of any dangerous thoughts. I had already destroyed three mugs and broken some poor guy's middle finger because of my temperament this week alone after all.

“So, what´s on my schedule today?” My guess was on cleaning the hallways, or doing other mundane tasks the AI could do a hundred times more efficient than I ever could. Another option was to learn useless stuff like the history of mankind … as if that would help us in colonizing a new planet in any way. I knew the goal was to preserve knowledge. It was to educate us about ancient human mistakes. But, it was so tiring to repeat everything from time to time.

“You are assigned to the bridge. Specifically, the external scanners.” As we started our journey, the bridge was a fascinating place to be in. Blinking buttons and screens bustling with information were truly quite interesting for a young child. But years later, it turned out to be the most uninteresting task. We were just there to monitor an AI that never failed once.

Like nearly all other jobs, everyone had to do it in rotation to educate themselves about all the aspects of this ship. There was the option to switch tasks though, which I fully intended to do in this case. Looking at the scanners which picked up nothing for my whole shift was deadly for me. Sadly, I missed my window of opportunity to do that, so I simply had no other choice but to trot out of my room disgruntled.

Yawning loudly, I closed the door behind me and was promptly bumped into by a taller and slightly older girl as she ran along the corridor. Luckily, she managed to slow down enough so that I wasn’t hurt in the slightest. Usually, I would growl at the other person, but I managed to catch a glimpse of her before I did so.

“What´s up, Sofie?” Unfortunately, the girl didn’t have much time to chat and was already running again after she made sure I was unhurt. She was such a nice friend and honestly more than I could have ever asked for. What made it even better was that she had the room right next to me. The hours we spent before bedtime were truly a blessing for me.

“Kitchen service! I´m late!” Sofie said, already running through the hallway as if her life depended on it once again. “Are you playing cards with us later?” Before turning around a corner, Sofie shouted in my direction, the second violation of the rules the AI would certainly take note of.

“Obviously!” I was pretty sure she heard me as I lost sight of her. My next words were way quieter and an unhappy tone. “When I have finished staring on nothing more than a sensor console which hasn’t picked up a signal for ten years.”

Closing the door fully, I continued trotting towards the bridge while yawning in short time intervals. I really should have asked her what today´s menu was so that I could look forward to something. Or maybe it was better that I didn’t ask because there was also the possibility of food that didn’t taste good. I would never know for sure.

I whispered while wandering through corridors that had lost their luster. But years after the ship’s maiden flight, it seemed to be more lifeless than ever. Space travel drained our energy and ravaged the ship's structure. The window I passed, for example, was already milky. It showed only the eternal darkness of a warp bubble. Our psyche suffered. Repairs were often makeshift. The paint was less vibrant. The warp engine, our lifeline, was malfunctioning more than ever. Despite the effort of Earth years prior, this ship was falling apart, and everyone knew that. And yet, nobody talked about it for obvious reasons.

The bridge on the other hand, except for the broken door, was high on the maintenance list. It was always kept in good conditions because lifesaving systems like parts of the servers for the AI were installed there. All these highly important pieces of technology stood in stark contrast to the console I headed to. Currently, it was manned by a ten-year-old boy, but that soon changed as I greeted him depressed. Tired, he stood up and trudged out of the room without even greeting me back.I caught a glimpse of his dead eyes. That was a sight I would return after my boring, monotone shift.

There was nothing on the sensors. I stared at this thing for over an hour already as I felt my concentration slip. I struggled to focus; I made a strenuous effort to meet my obligation, feeling overwhelmed with sleepiness. I soon found myself closing my eyes more than necessary and slowly dozing off. I wasn't bothered by my actions. The AI monitored all data, including the external scanners. I was competitive in some ways. But, I wouldn't waste effort on a useless task.

It could have been such a nice shift, but I was quickly woken up again as the ship shook violently. The usual pitch-black windows were still dark, but I could still make out a distant galaxy. We had fallen out of warp.

“Warp parameters reached abnormal levels, inertia dampeners working at 99,999%.” Driven by a hint of eagerness to fulfil my duty, I glanced towards my console and observed nothing on the outside, just like I expected. As always, it would take a while to fix the ship again, but that was common these days. A few more days of sub-light speed wouldn’t make much of a dent in out travelling time and as such, everyone remained calm on the bridge.

Yawning loudly, I looked towards my console once more and directly shook off every bit of tiredness. Squinting my eyes, I got even closer to the screen to observe a red dot on it. I even snipped the screen a few times, assuming it was just a display error but sadly it didn’t go away.

“Guys, we … ” Maybe the sensors broke, or the screen was fixed because just at this moment, the red dot vanished. It did that right as I had the attention of everyone on the bridge, which was quite awkward for a bit of time. Before I could continue and explain what happened though, the AI interrupted me.

“Atypical moving object detected for five seconds.” It wasn’t a screen failure. Instantly, the large monitor switched to a recording of said object which turned out a glibbery mess. Feeling more awake than ever before, I immediately turned to my console once again. If one of our enemies was there, others couldn’t be too far away.

Luckily, our scanners did not pick up any other creatures. Yet.

We still had time to escape.

Time, the current captain wasted by staring at the repeating scene.

As fast as I could, I stood up from my chair and scrambled towards the captain chair, only to shake the boy out of his daze. That was the problem in giving out tasks in rotation. One might get a less than suboptimal choice in a dangerous situation. Disregarding the temporary captain who still didn’t know how to react, I activated the alarm swiftly. Sirens started to ring through the whole ship as I grabbed the boy by his shoulders and pushed him towards my previous console.

“Communications, when is the warp engine ready again? Navigation, full thrust ahead, get us out of here.” It required a leader to issue commands, triggering others to awaken. Finally, several other crewmates snapped out of their shock and the thrusters pushed the ship forwards. I knew traditional engines wouldn´t save the day as our enemies could reach light speed within seconds. But it might give us some precious time.

“It will take a few minutes to activate emergency operation. The mechanics are working on speeding up the process.” The girl operating the communication console finally got a reply from the machine room after several seconds.

Minutes? Was that enough? Judging by historical data, it could be. But it wasn’t certain.

Several seconds went by in silence, with each crewmate solely focusing on their given task. Everyone was highly concentrated, including me. My mind felt clear as I gripped the armchair. I scanned every console, hoping to find something to help us survive.

It wasn’t even necessary for the ex-captain to shout as the enemy appeared nearby. First, it was just a small area behaving suspiciously. A purple tear formed in space right in front of us, crackling with lightning and expanding rapidly. These were their gateways to us and an obvious sign that they came to eradicate every last one of us. We just had a few seconds left until they would come out of their portal and swarm us to death.

“Emergency warp!” I shouted through the room before the gateway could stabilize itself. It was honestly a gamble. Either the forces of the warp engine would rip the ship apart, or we could make it out of there alive if the dampeners held. A mere second before the engine activated, another one of these creatures exited the portal. I wanted to deactivate the warp again because hitting this creature would be our death sentence, but sadly, I was a tad too late.

The warp drive activated, throwing us forwards with speed faster than light.

Luckily, we didn’t hit that creature. Sadly, we also didn’t manage to escape from that place. What I really didn’t consider was that we would fly into their gateway, because nobody ever attempted that before. It was always assumed it was just a visual phenomenon as other ships passed right through them during sub-light travel.

Using the warp engine though, we created a different reality around us. A reality that enabled us to use their gateways without any issue. We were led into a place unknown to mankind. A place filled with even more of these hostile creatures and a place where we crashed into one of these.

It was the place where every single one of us was disintegrated into atoms and where even these atoms ceased to exist in an instant. This place was just not meant to be for humans to survive. It was a place between universes. Reality was just an abstract idea there. Most importantly, the usual cycle of reincarnation failed.

... or so someone told me.