Doubt's Shadow - Chapter 5 - Final
“It just doesn’t feel like a luxury cruise ship” said Elizabeth to her husband, Joe “It’s so...functional.”
The couple was exploring the ship. True they were supposed to be in their quarters preparing for takeoff but a few minutes wouldn’t hurt.
“Well I guess it has to be” said Joe, “there are thousands of us on here so maybe not all that much room for...”
“Pools? Recreational fun rooms? What are we supposed to do when we wake up? Just stare at each other?” Elizabeth bit her lip. “I think we should leave”
Joe scoffed “A little late, honey” he pulled her close. “Listen, it’s all going to be ok. We’ll take our little nap then wake up and mingle and enjoy our vacation, please don’t worry.”
She nodded but couldn’t shake the feeling of unease which had settled over her long before they had boarded the ship. It all seemed wrong for some reason. “The chance of a lifetime” said Joe. No one else that they knew was going. It would be a chance to mix with all kinds of different people and see the effing solar system as well. Who would pass this up? “A crazy person” Joe had said.
So Elizabeth had let herself be talked into it but she was still hesitant.
“All remaining passengers report to your rooms for departure” said a soothing female voice over the loudspeakers.
“We better go,” said Joe, “before the AI gets us.”
He took Elizabeth by the hand and they headed to their room.
....
The ships were in space. The passengers were told that they should take a brief rest while the ships got into orbit and reached cruising speed. The semi-plausible reason that the passengers were given for this was one based on their comfort. Did you really want to experience intense vertigo and nausea while your body adjusted? Of course not. And everyone else would be sleeping. A very complex AI was taking care of all of the piloting so nothing to worry about, this was common practice. The ships sped off into the distance taking their precious cargo with them. Disseminating their human seeds out into the stars. The following month all of the satellites from earth went silent, just like that. Confirmation of Earth’s death. Corinne was the only conscious being that recognized what happened. She felt nothing.
....
Thanks for reading! I’m treating this as a sort of prequel to the standalone series which will follow the ships. We’ll see how things go!
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Chapter 1 link here!
Chapter 2 link here!
Chapter 3 link here!
Chapter 4 link here!
It makes sense that you treat this as a prequel. Hmm, will the genes of our blood-thirstiest ancestors surface, shaping the future again?
I hope for and look forward to the start of the series.
Thank you! I'm still working out some kinks but should be posting it soon!
Just a suggestion, which may not be as valid as I think, but, I find it difficult going back to old posts, so I adopted the system of giving my stories sequential links. In other words, if you are at boxee-post17 and you want to go to the first one, all you have to do is go to boxee-01. Once you've read it, all you need do is change the url to boxee-post02 03 04 and so on. Adding the word 'final' makes it more difficult.
Hope it is of some help
Thanks for the tip! I will definitely keep this in mind for future postings!