The winter of weapons and the road to Mars, part II, a short story of sci-fi

A world on a brink of a destructive war. A spaceship, just one of hundred others, hanging in the air. A fail-safe to guarantee continuation of a race. Not built for a war, but for life.

This is the second half of the story and I would really recommend reading the first part of it before this as it will make more things clear! :)

I felt like I had to draw Alice (the space-ship) for you guys to better explain how it looks. My dream was very clear of how it appeared, the colors and all. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I have a lot of technicals figured out regarding space usage on the ship

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-- Should I extend the docking deck?

-- Yes, Alice, please do.- the second the guide answered, an opening appeared on the ships side, and a tunnel-like road extended from it. The closest part of the ship was considerably far away, but the deck built up, the whole situation was defying the rules of physics once more. It extended all the way to the opening of the cave, a good hundred meters, and enclosed it completely, like a vacuum. For a couple of milliseconds it was pitch back once more and some of the people, that had lost their ability to speak before, let out tiny scream-like yelps. Then the tunnel lit up with blue and orange lights that and the guide turned around to face the people, her helmet opened without a command, like she had willed it to.

*-- This is Alice, your transport today, as you can see it is a space ship, I would like to ask you not to try and get lost it is a shuttle capable of accommodating 1000 people, plus the crew, so please keep close to each other. If you do manage to loose your way, please, call on Alice and she will light up your path back. You will notice that there is no Internet around us, it is to minimize chaos caused, as we want to get as many people as possible, to safety, away from the planet, without getting more Nukes deployed. If you would rather stay, you are free to do so, but if you would like to join us on the shuttle, I would kindly ask you to get back on the bus now, we are going in.

All of the people, no matter how scared, wanted to live, desired a chance,so they got back in the bus that got on the deck and took the hundred meter ride inside the beast itself.

-- Governess, the medic has arrived, should I allow him in? He is right behind you in his vehicle, Mr. Abigail Dorno. I have also done the calculations and out of the thousand people on the provided list, 649 are suitable for life on Mars.- Alice was using a loudspeaker, and people listened in awe and wonder to the voice that somehow had connected to the buses systems. The short ride took them into a hangar that did not seem very big, but was accommodating multiple smaller shuttles.

-- Yes, please set the course for our crew, I want pilots to be the first ones on this ship, so they can take the shuttles to pick up others. Also, please go through the islands population and pick the rest 351 passengers from the most suitable candidates.- As the guide spoke, she was simultaneously stepping off the bus, the people followed her and the driver ended the tow. They entered into another, smaller room that looked like an auditorium. The ground illuminated where people stepped, sensitive to the touch. Windows on one side of the space made the humans realize that the ship was built in rings, the inner part displayed the hallow middle, that turned out to not be so hallow after all, at least in a sense. There was a huge field in the center, meant for people to watch the stars, a habitat that could be adapted and shaped according to wishes, to distract from the ship itself.

Most of the civilians hurried to the window to look at it, all the way down, some fifty meters. They were on the top level so the field did not look that big from where they stood, but it was bigger than a football field when you got closer.

-- Ahem. As you can see there are things in your world that you have not been informed of. This was not by your governments, they have no idea of this, or any other ships, that exist. I am the Governess of Mars, which means that we are bringing you to Mars as Earth is going to be very fragile in next coming days. You have a chance to leave at any time, we are not holding you. If you choose to stay, our Medic, that has just arrived, will show you your temporary accommodations, and Alice will make sure you do not get lost. We will pick up other passengers and then orbit the planet. Depending on the possibility of a Nuclear winter, we will drop you back down or take you with us. Martians do not usually intervene with Earths life, in fact the international space rules and regulations are forbidding it, but we do come from the same specie tree, so we are allowed to save a portion of your people. We have built this fail-safe into various places on the planet, there are other ships, picking up humans, as of this minute. There will be up to 100000 humans saved, but we can not take more as this is a faith your species have put themselves in. If you would like to return to your planet, please return to the bus, if you would like to stay, please join Mr. Dorno, the man in the green uniform. Questions will be answered later as right now, time is of the essence, thank you for your attention.- the Governess pointed to the freshly arrived medic in the corner and turned to leave the room. She was followed by the bus driver. They were on the highest level of the ship, but the bridge was all the way down, so they had to take one of the well disguised elevators.

Once on the bridge, the bus driver took place at the controls, apparently he was more than just a bus driver. He was a quiet man, the Governess and him did not need to talk, they had practiced the scenario before. Alice was giving constant updates on all the systems, they had been dormant for fifty years and a safety check was to be done. When the essential tasks had been done, the ship was ready to move so the Governess ordered the windows to the outer world to be shut, and for Alice to enter stealth mode.

The other officers of the ship had been placed on the island, two years ago, when the whole mess had started again, they had been specifically assigned there and they knew where to gather to be picked up. The ship traveled fast and it used a light beam on its lover level to suck the pilots, engineers, guards and medics up. The crew was not big, around fifty people, that had dorms on the lover levels. There was no need for a full crew as the ship was not going to take a long journey at this time. More than a half of the officers were assigned to take the smaller, triangular shuttles to pick up passengers from the further regions while Alice was working her systems, to calculate which individuals to gather from the island.

The first shuttle was done in five hours and 34 minutes, the space traffic was regulated by the systems of the main, hundred ships and Earths satellites adjusted to play images on loops, so they would not be detected. Alice went up in the shy, to orbit Earth, one hour and thirteen minutes before the first threat was speculated to take place.

Governess and her crew stood on the bridge and watched the planet, there was static suspense in the room as the last ships appeared in orbit. Alice played various conversations had by different Earths governments, so the Martians would have more information of what was happening. Nobody spoke to break the silence, all of the crew just watched and waited, almost until the last moments, when Alice gave the last update.

-- I am pleased to inform you that all of our ships and all of our citizens have left Earths surface along with the maximum allowed population of hundred thousand humans. The ship of Martians is all accounted for and most of the animal species have been collected in the necessary quantities to survive. We have also acquired full set of Earths literature and a major part of their art, just as you ordered, Governess. It is 10 minutes before the Wests count-down clock reaches zero, but unfortunately there does not seem to be any chance of them backing down and switching it off.

-- Thank you Alice. I guess our last chance is the human factor and the will to survive, compassion, if there is any left.- there was silence except for the sound from the speakers, but even on the human side there did not seem to be much of a discussion going on. The Governess leaned on the console, looking out of the window, towards the planet she had grown up in. It could be the last time the blue planet would look like this.

The humans, a few decks above, were as nervous, there were windows opened for the ones who wished to see and even the ones who were too scared to look, caught themselves glued to the view. Most of them saw their planet from a distance for the first time, and they looked in wonder. In hope even. But the time, displayed on the wall in huge numbers, informed them of when it was supposed to happen, the downfall. It was moving painfully slow, but reaching the countdown time to fast either way.

All coms with the other ships were open, but a silence of death was covering all. Until it happened, first a tiny cloud, then a bigger one. And then all of them, the world eaten by clouds of mushrooms, the blue disappearing and white taking over. The Governess ordered the radios to be switched off as talks turned into screams and prayers. A few bunkers built deep in the earths ground being the only places to still feature human voices. The Nuclear winter had come, the Governess had to give her orders and her voice was watery.

-- Okay, set Earth as a quarantine planet for the next two hundred years, return policy after that, only for scientific reasons. Give the humans uniforms and sync with the home computer to find accommodations for the families. Contact the intergalactic council and inform them of what is happening. Prepare thirty mother-ships to join in a colony, while we find a way to accommodate the humans. Engage appropriate weather conditions in Alice's core and all other domes.

Eden had reset its cycle once more.

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After LVL 5, the ship is not hallow anymore.
With my calculations there could be more space than just for 1000 civilians and 200 staff, but you never know how big of an engine room a ship needs.
The biodome in the middle partly serves as a food provider.
Governess and guide is the same person as she is a woman with different titles on different planets.

I hope you enjoyed the story, even though it ended on not the best part, still, I like how it came out a lot!

Have a great day, week and life,
Linda