In the
vacuum wilderness of space a small jagged piece of rock floated alone. It slowly span as light from the sun sparkled
off tiny grains of sand. Five Hundred
kilometres above the Earth on the edge of the thermosphere the rock impacted
the outer shell of the huge space station Olympus. The main centrifuge of the station was a
large circular orb. The thin outer walls
were made from titanium and aluminium to create a lightweight puncture proof
shell. It rotated at such a speed it
created artificial gravity. Extended
from either side of the station were two long compartments that stretched as
far as a football field. These both
rotated in the opposite direction to the rest of the station.
Inside,
Olympus was comprised of several floors that started from the centre and made
their way outwards. The orb was split
into five different compartments, living quarters, a science lab, engine room,
control deck and a large garden across the southern deck. Along one of the extended compartments was a
docking station and on the other an array of satellite dishes.
Olympus
was populated by one occupant. Alexis a
Russian cosmonaut whom was half way through her twelve month tour in space. She was petite, slim with short dark hair, the perfect size for navigating cramp living quarters. Alexis had been alone for a month since
the last crew departed and the next were due to arrive within twelve hours. She was not completely alone though, there
was an on board computer programmed to help run and maintain the station. Selene was programmed with a strong
dominating female voice.
Alexis
was in the southern region of the station tending to her plants. Inside the large open room, tall green leafy
plants reached up ten feet around the outside of the room. In the middle were rows of tables with vegetable
plants, from tomatoes to raspberries there was enough for the station to be
self-reliant. The plants were kept alive
by ultraviolet lamps that hung from the ceiling. Under the glass flooring pipes carried
recycled water to feed the plants.
Oxygen given off by the plants was taken in by a ventilation shaft and
stored in tanks. Alexis inspected every
plant, pruned the leaves and sprayed them with a cool breeze of water. At the end of the table stood an over grown
tomato plant. Alexis removed the stems
that had grown toward the floor. She
pulled off the five tomatoes that had grown from the stems. She wiped away the moisture off the skin and
took a bite. The taste was refreshing.
Alexis
placed the empty stems in the trash compactor near the exit. She press a red button and the stems were
taken away. The door slide open and
Alexis left the room. She entered a
small narrow room with a ladder. The
room was bare, the floor and walls all made from plain grey metal panels. Alexis held onto the ladder and made her way
up. Alexis could never get use to the
coldness in the ladder rooms. Each
internal room was heated but the ladder rooms that connected each room were
left with minimal heat barely just enough to breathe. She climbed past the next floor and toward
the control deck.
For
most part the control deck looked like an empty room that curved with the
centre of the station and had a glass outer wall.
A small part of the floor slid open and Alexis climbed up onto the
deck. The open floor closed behind her. She walked to the edge of the deck and placed
her hand against the glass wall. She
took a long look at the picturesque Earth in front of her. The sun fell behind the curved horizon and
for a moment she was submerged in complete darkness but for the unnatural light
from the mass cities of earth. Spot
lights in the ceiling switched on.
Alexis
walked to the inner wall and placed her hand on the wall. She removed her hand and a faint blue hand
print was left behind. The hand print
slowly brightened and trickles of light spread out either side. Alexis turned to face the glass wall. In front of her a small spec of light
appeared and sparkled mid-air. It
expanded and stretched out ten meters wide and four meters tall. The light faded to expose an array of control
panels and monitors. To the left Alexis
could control the movements of the station, and to the right were monitors
displaying each room. In the centre was
a larger monitor.
“Selene,
please can you connect me to Earth Base Alpha” Alexis spoke to the on board
computer. Over recent years space
exploration had become a unified program between nations. This particular station was the biggest ever
constructed and kept contact with a newly built mission control in a neutral
location on Earth.
“Connecting,”
Selene replied.
The
monitor switched on but the signal was poor, she could not make out who she was
talking to, the image was fuzzy but the sound was clear.
“Ground
control to Olympus do you read over,” the male voice spoke.
“I am
here, but the picture isn’t coming through very well,” Alexis moved a dial to
the right of the monitor to see if a slight change to the frequency would
improve the signal.
“Sir,
we are receiving a very poor signal and cannot make contact,” the man spoke to
a colleague, before the signal cut out.
“Hello,”
Alexis stepped back and waved her arms to no avail. “Selene what is going on, we have only
powered down the systems for two days, why have we lost contact.”
“I have
performed a diagnosis but all systems are reading ok,” Selene confirmed.
“Then
what is going on…” Alexis took a moment to think about what could be happening.
The
fuzzy image reappeared, “I repeat Alexis if you can hear me, power down the antimatter
reactor, an unusually large solar storm is approaching and it will destabilise
the reactor!” the voice shouted.
The
signal cut out again. The science lab
was at the centre of the station, it was used solely for the purpose of
creating and stabilising antimatter. With
a battle to find alternative fuels researching antimatter in space was a safer
option then on Earth. The reactor would automatically
resume once Olympus was powered up and antimatter would begin to be
produced. If the storm was powerful
enough it could cut power throughout the station and the antimatter would react
with all around it and annihilate Olympus.
“Selene,
why did you not see the storm approaching?” Alexis snarled.
“I only
scanned the systems within Olympus, my sensors have not picked up any unusual
solar activity.”
“Is it
possible one of your antennas have been damaged and your sensors have not
picked it up?”
“That
is a small possibility, but the likelihood is doubtful.”
Alexis
stepped over to the right side of the screen in front. She scanned over the monitors and rested her
eyes on the science lab. She pressed her
fingers on the monitor and dragged over the image. It expanded in the centre of the screen and
she got a better look into the lab. It
was a large circular room with a square reactor eight feet tall made from a
solid heavy metal. Inside the reactor
were thousands of smaller magnets to house the antimatter.
“Selene
I want you to carefully power down the reactor, I cannot take the chance.”
“As you
command,” Selene obeyed.
Alexis
heard deep humming noise and the floor vibrated. She looked at the readings from the reactor
and nothing had changed. “Where is that
noise coming from?” she asked.
“The
reactor does not appear to be shutting down,” Selene responded.
“What do you mean? You are the station’s
computer you control everything,” Alexis became agitated.
“It
would appear the reactor’s communication circuits have been damaged and I am no
longer able to connect to it. If you
wish to power down the reactor you will have to pull the manual override.”
Alexis
did not hesitate, she hastily ran to the end of the control deck and waited for a
door to slide open. On the other side
was another ladder she had to climb to reach the lab but this was not a long as
the one she had previously climbed. At
the top she burst through the hatch and rolled into the lab. Much like the control deck the room was
relatively sparse but for the reactor.
Alexis was deafened by the hum from the reactor, and could feel an
intense heat. She rested her hand
against the grey wall and her hand print lit up. Another control panel became visible
mid-air. She typed in a stream of code
onto a keypad, once complete the words ‘access code accepted’ flashed red on
the panel. The room became submerged in
a red glow and a panel lifted up from the wall to reveal a yellow handle.
Alexis blinked rapidly as she
began to see streams of light pass through the room. At first she thought she was seeing things
but soon came to realise they were as a result of the solar flare. It wold only be a matter of minutes before
her life was put in danger. Alexis
pulled down on the heavy handle but nothing happened. She lifted it back up and repeated several
times with no success.
“Selene what is happening? Why is
this not working?” Alexis shouted.
“To power down the reactor safely
you must continue to pull the switch several times. If that does not work then you much press the
kill switch.”
“The kill switch? But that could be fatal?” Alexis feared.
“Whilst the probabilities of a
fatal outcome are high, the likelihood of you powering down the reactor are now
looking very unlikely.”
“So you are saying the kill
switch is my only option?”
“I am saying it is the option
with the least probability of a fatal outcome.”
Alexis typed another code into
the keypad and a red button appeared on the screen. With her hand shaking she nervously pressed
her finger against the button. A loud
siren erupted every two seconds, a plume of steam vented from underneath the
reactor. Olympus violently shook and
Alexis failed to keep her balance. She
fell to the floor and banged her head against the wall. Her vision became impaired and she slowly lost
consciousness.
When Alexis regained
consciousness she was surrounded by a dark solitude. The lights were out and the humming had ceased. She wiped her eyes and felt dry blood on her
forehead. She felt her wrist and on her
watch she managed to switch on a small practical torch. It gave off enough light that she could just
about see. Oddly enough though there was
less gravity then before and her body steadily floated an inch from the
ground. She had not felt weightlessness
since arriving to Olympus. Alexis gained
her balance and looked around the room.
She pushed herself along the floor and through the open hatch.
Alexis made her way back to the
control deck. She climbed down the
ladders to find the mid-air panel still illuminated. With that lack of things to grab onto it was
difficult to navigate through the control deck.
“Selene are you there?” Alexis
asked. She waited five minutes for a
response but there was nothing. On the
panel there was a section for Selene. It
had been switched to hibernation, this was normally used for when the station
was to be left for long periods of time.
Alexis swiped her hand over the hibernation screen and green box
appeared with ‘active’ written inside.
“Good morning Alexis,” Selene
responded.
“Selene what has happened? How
long was I out for?” Alexis asked.
“To your body it will have only
appeared that you were unconscious for a matter of minutes.”
“What do you mean to my body?”
“When you switched off the
reactor it caused the magnets to fail, the antimatter reacted with the
particles from the solar flare. I am not
sure how it has happened but whilst you were in that room time around you
continued at an accelerated speed.”
“An accelerated speed?” Alexis
was confused.
“You have travelled further in
time Alexis.”
“Further in time…” Alexis
murmured in disbelief. “Well what year
is it?”
“I cannot tell you, once the
reactor was switched off a lot of the circuits burned out including the time
circuits.”
Alexis walked away from the panel
and toward the clear outer wall. “Why
hasn’t anyone come to get me?”
“Alexis the world you once knew
has changed. Take a closer look for
yourself.”
She stared deeply at the vast
clear blue oceans of Earth that bathed in sunlight. “When you say changed how do you mean? It
looks the same to me, blue sea, white clouds.”
“Can you see any land?” Selene
asked.
Alexis scanned the image in front
of her but could only see blue. “What’s
going on why is there only water?”
“Wait for a few more moments and
you will see.”
Alexis waited patiently as they
flew across the Earth. After waiting for
five minutes a large unrecognisable continent appeared. “I don’t understand Selene this cannot be
Earth I do not recognise that land?”
“Our position has not changed
Alexis; that is Earth you see before you.
I cannot tell you much about what has happened. I was placed into hibernation a few years
after you had switched off the reactor.
My estimates from what has happened would suggest a catastrophic global
event has wiped out a large majority of the Earth’s population.”
“So there are still people alive
down there?”
“All of our communication servers
appear to have been destroyed so I cannot radio a transmission to Earth. The station is running on a low power supply
at the moment, now you are awake I would estimate you have six months before
you run out of oxygen and about three months before you run out of food.”
“But what about the garden.”
“It has been destroyed.”
“How will I survive, I only have
enough food for three months and no way of leaving this place? I don’t suppose
the other crew ever reached Olympus?”
“The other crew docked with
Olympus twelve hours after you switched off the reactor. However due to the power failure they were
unable to leave their capsule and could not release themselves from the station. Soon after communication was lost with Earth
and we have been in darkness ever since.”
Alexis walked back to the panel
and looked at the monitors. “Why are
some of the monitors switched off?”
“Those are from the docking
bays. They have been switched off since
the other crew arrived.”
Alexis pressed the monitor
screens and they switched back on. She
was horrified at what she saw. Three
decayed bodies floated motionless in a small capsule. The crew were unable to escape. Alexis pushed herself back from the monitor
and let out a cry. “Is the capsule
capable of flying?” she wiped away her tears.
“The engines remain intact but it
needs refuelling. However the navigation
systems are destroyed. The Earth’s
magnetic field has altered. You will
need to re program the navigation systems to have any chance of surviving a
flight back to Earth. I’m afraid my
programming does not have the capabilities to do that. It would have to come from Earth.”
“That’s it I’m alone,” Alexis did
her best to crouch against the wall and hold her head in her hands. She quietly remained still for an hour
contemplating her options.
To
Alexis’ surprise the main monitor switched on, she lifted her head and saw
another fuzzy image on the screen. She
looked at it for a moment to figure out what was happening. The picture switched on and off several
times. The picture cleared up and
remained on. In front of her was a young
looking man with a trim beard and stocky shoulders. He was sat in a poorly lit room with what
appeared to be a hologram of the Olympus behind him.
“I am
making this call to anyone who is alive on the Olympus space station do you read
over,” the man repeated over and over.
“Jacob
give up will you no one is going to reply,” Alexis heard a female voice in the
background.
“Quiet
Freyja the read outs here are saying someone is alive on there,” Jacob replied
to her.
Alexis’
eyes widened and for a moment she smiled.
She rose to her feet and approached the monitor. “I read you over,” she replied.
“See I
told you,” Jacob joyfully spoke.
“My
name is Alexis Mikhailov and I am the sole occupant of the Olympus Space
Station,” she spoke with hope that she would be saved from her isolation.
