Edge of the unknown

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But whoever said that, didn’t really account for being able to hear your own muffled scream reverberating through you as the last of the air leaves your lungs. The last dying rattle to the bones of a body about to expire.

After expelling all of the air from his lungs so that they did not rupture, Roth watched in horror and desperation as distance between he and the nearest airlock increased. He found it almost impossible to drown out the panic of his mind. His training, remember damn it, what was it that they said? Approximately fifteen to twenty seconds until unconsciousness. Roth could feel the saliva on his tongue start to boil and his eyes began to ache, his limbs already beginning to feel swollen as the oxygen in his blood began to expand.

As far as Roth knew, the rest of the crew were all inside working on securing the ATMO supply. Even if one of them noticed his suit failure, they would not make it in time. There was no way out of this, he was sure of it, he was going to die.

The tightening intensified in his chest. His mind raced, he tried to focus on his training, on what he should do. However, his thoughts mostly drifted to his family. If these were to be his last moments, he wanted to think of happier times. Roth didn't have the perfect childhood, but he had parents that loved him, and two sisters who were essentially his best friends. The only regret he had in this moment, was leaving that paradise to come and hack at space rocks.

Suddenly something jolted hard against his thigh, biting through flesh, and he felt pain. The best pain he had ever felt in his entire life he supposed. The familiar pain of a Temporary MO2 disc taking hold in his skin and providing him with what was essentially his own mini atmosphere and a small boost of oxygen. Enough to keep him going for at least another ten minutes. Technology was amazing.

Roth's lungs soaked the air in like a parched sponge being placed in water for the first time in years. They filled and expanded again. He coughed and sputtered, detesting every moment that the air left his lungs. As though he would be unable to capture it once more.

While he was floating and getting his bearings again, he felt a strong hand grab him on the shoulder and begin tugging at him. His vision was blurry and his eyes stung. Luckily the medical officer would have something to help with that. Something to help with partially boiled eyes, he thought. Technology really was amazing.

After a few minutes Roth felt his body being pressed against a surface, and then there was gravity again. The weight was excruciating on his body. He gripped the arm of whoever was still holding his shoulder and let out a pained groan. His ears were ringing, his head aching, and he still couldn’t see anything beyond a moving blur of incomprehensible colours. But words floated in and out of audial focus.

“mistimed the mechan-" Was that Grem?

"-is skull ye bloody rat!" That was definitely Tanner

"-et out his lungs, we will just have to wait and-" The calm and booming voice of Krask

"-cking idiots" That, thankfully, sounded like Doc Harper.

A stinging sensation shot through neck and then Roth was clouded in the forgiving fog of unconsciousness.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Roth finally woke and his head was swimming. He tried to open his eyes but couldn't. He searched his face with his hands and realised that there were bandages over the top half, with extra padding on his eyes.

Beep.

He could feel the lines connected to his hands as he moved them, creating uncomfortable tension. Something else was attached to the side of his neck. A larger tube than the others.

Beep.

Ugh! That noise! each time the beep sounded, it rang in Roth's ears and made his head ache. Logically he knew it probably wasn’t very loud at all. But the monotony of it almost drove him to pull all of the tubes from himself. The only thing that stopped him was the fear of that leading to even louder noises.

Beep.

Roth groaned and tried to speak, his voice hoarse and throat feeling horribly dry and scratchy.

Beep.

"Hello?" Roth croaked.

He heard some shuffling nearby, then the familiar voice of Doc Harper

"You're awake! Stay still and let me check some things before you go leaping out of that bed" She commanded in a stern voice.

Beep.

Roth obeyed and leant his head back. Thankfully, as she came to his side she did something that finally stopped the incessant beeping.

"What happened?" Roth asked. Everything still felt so fuzzy.

"Those absolute knuckleheads" She started. "Commander told them to stop with this stupid ritual but they just keep doing it, though I dare say this will be the last time after what happened with you."

Roth stared at her with blank eyes. Clearly confused

"They like to scare the newbies, some kind of initiation thing. Part of the crew and all that." Harper said, sounding very unimpressed. "They don't really think about the consequences if something goes wrong. You're lucky to be alive kid."

Roth said nothing. It was intentional? Roth would have previously described how this made him feel, as absolutely blood boiling. However, he knew better now. After having felt his blood literally almost boiling in the vacuum of space in what felt to him, like mere moments ago.

"Commander Keenan was all fume and fury! You should have seen him. By the way, does this hurt?" Harper asked as a sharp pain radiated through Roth's abdomen making him cry out. "Guess so" She continued prodding and poking him in places to observe his reactions until, finally satisfied, she began to remove some of the tubes he was hooked up to.

Roth found out that he has been out cold for about six days, and that It would be a few days until he got to remove the bandages from his eyes.

In the meantime he received visits from the rest of the crew. Grem was the first through the door, muttering apologies. Harper had told Roth that Grem checked in the most frequently and didn’t seem like he was sleeping very well. Roth soon learned why.

It turned out that Grem, being the ships lead engineer, was in charge of rigging the MO2 mechanism on his suit to fail. The idea was to cause a moment of panic, a split second, before Tanner would shoot him with the TempMO disc. It was supposed to be an induction of sorts, but also a lesson in making sure you remember to take backup TempMO whenever you were going to go out of ship. Even if only for the most routine or shortest of things. Grem had made a mistake though. Roth listened as Grem explained the mistake with all the technical terminology that would probably only be understood by another engineer. The long and short of it was, the mechanism had tripped the system earlier than expected. Tanner did not have the TempMO loaded into the emergency launcher properly and it took extra time to get it sorted. This resulted in Roth being out there far longer than expected. Krask, who was waiting beside Tanner to welcome Roth back into the crew as an official member, was the one who towed him back to the airlock.

Krask, Tanner and other crew visited too, now that his consciousness was common knowledge. They offered apologies and well wishes for his recovery. After another few days the bandages were removed, for a while things were a little blurry, but after a few more days he began to see things more clearly.

Roth was still assigned to bed rest for the rest of their journey though. After being out for months mining and drilling asteroids for Atmo it would only be another two weeks before the Cavador would reach Lune.

Roth had been to Lune just once before, and that had only been at a training outpost in a large lunar town. This time they would be docking in the moons most major city, Apollo.

The thought of finally getting to see and experience Apollo both daunted and excited Roth. He thought back to how overwhelming it had been when he arrived at the training facility in Yuri. His first time off Earth, everything was so wildly different. It took him months to adjust to the sort of technology that was commonplace for everyday life there. Some of the other trainees who were lunar-born complained about how backwater Yuri and its technological capabilities were. This lent more fuel to the fire of Roth's expectations when it came to Apollo.

This line of thinking also led Roth to memories of earth, of home and his family. The ease and simplicity of life there. While he was there he looked up and longed to be amongst the stars, adventuring to distant little known locations, making a mark. But now he felt a pang of emptiness in his stomach for the loss of what he had. It would have been far less likely for him to almost die in a vacuumed void if he had still been home.

His mother had wept as he took his spot in the hauler. His father looked proud though. Going off world was something that he had always wanted to do as a young man. But then his father met his mother and that dream was over, though he never begrudged it. All he cared about now was making the earth a better place, which was of course admirable. But there were already so many people working within ENAT to that purpose. Roth was sure they could use one less employee for a few months if it meant that his father could live a long lost dream.

Roth had always felt selfish for leaving. He knew his father could have used his help, wanted him to stay as much as his mother did, but he would not keep Roth from his dreams, no matter how much he wanted to keep him close.

Another week passed without much incident. Roth got stronger, his vision sharper. Until other than a few aches, he felt mostly himself again. The crew corralled him a week before docking and convinced him to get a tattoo from the crews resident artist and mechanic, aptly nicknamed Grease. They had tattoos on earth, but they were rudimentary, made with needles and ink.

This was something wholly different. It was a frame that formed and moulded to the shape of Roth's upper arm. It felt like metal, how could it move like that? Roth watched on, fascinated and trying to figure out this new and strange tech. Another device was attached to the top of the frame, it had a screen on one side and the underside looked like a mix of glass bubbles. Lasers perhaps?

Grease spent some time looking over the screen and tapped it a few times. Searing hot pain and light came from the top device, aimed towards his skin. The pain lasted approximately thirty seconds, and it was done. Roth looked down at his arm with CAVADOR printed across it in stylised text and the ships hull art of a mythological sea serpent with an old style astronaut bubble helmet curled around the lettering.

The detail was magnificent. Roth looked at the other few tattoos that he had gotten while on earth and they were a blurry mess in comparison. Though he could never regret them. His favourite was an old nautical style port hole on the inside of his left wrist with an image of the moon as it looked from earth. Lit up with lights and technology that the earth no longer knew. He had gotten this one with his older sister, Lana. It was his twenty fifth birthday and it wasn't going to be long before he was due to head off world. She paid for it and they both got the same design in the same place. A way to feel connected even though they may be literal worlds apart. Even though the clarity and colour was nowhere near as impressive as his new one, he decided that the porthole was still his favourite.

Docking in Apollo was an experience all its own. The sheer amount of lights up close was like nothing Roth had ever seen. On earth any use of lights was rationed and only allowed between 6pm and 11pm. And the housing. Buildings were so cramped together. There was nothing like this on Earth. Every property had to have a certain amount of space surrounding for you to grow your own produce.

The Cavator hit the landing dock with a thud and a cheer went up from the crew. To most of them, this was home. Klask clapped Roth on the shoulder as the bay opened to allow them out.

"You going to be okay kid?" He asked, knowing that Roth had barely spent any time on Lune, let alone in Apollo.

"Yeah, We need to show ye how to use a tap young lad?" Tanner chimed in from behind. A teasing smirk crossed his face as Roth shot a look back to him.

"They have taps on earth you moron" Harper said flippantly as she passed. "Are you sure you know how to use them though Tanner? It sure smells like you could use a few tips on taps."

This got some laughs from the crew who nudged Tanner and pretended to retch as they moved past him.

Tanner's brow furrowed in concentration as he watched her walking away. Once she was out of sight he sighed. "never think of a good comeback when i needs it" he grumbled, slinging his pack over his shoulder and heading towards the docks exit.

Roth, not really knowing where to go, followed Klask. They arrived with Tanner and some of the other crew at a dingy looking building with the words 'The Landing' glowing across the front.

“Welcome to yer home for the next month” Tanner said with a grin, theatrically bowing and laying his hands out towards the hotel as though it were some spectacular offering. Thankfully, the inside was much nicer than the outside. The crew were assigned to a share section with multiple rooms and a communal area with amenities.

“Where’s Grem?” Roth asked, noticing that the older man wasn’t with them.

“Patrick lives 'ere in Apollo. Has a wife and a couple o’ ankle biters n' everything” Tanner said, drawing out the name Patrick and giving it a fancy accent.

“Wait, his name is Patrick?” Roth asked, brows raised in surprise. “Why do we call him Grem then”

“Because he is a gremlin” Klask said, following up with a hearty booming laugh.

“Yeah. On account of him bein so small and spending all day crawling about in the guts of the ship” Tanner confirmed with a chuckle.

“He will join us tomorrow night for some drinks though. Once he has put a little face time in with the family. It’s tradition.” Klask said "Captain Keenan will be there too, and you should see him with a few drinks in him." he chuckled

“I don’t know how much I really appreciate this crews traditions” Roth replied. “You know, after almost dying and all that.” He managed a smile to indicate that he was joking, though the memory of it made him shudder.

Tanner laughed. “Awh come on lad, yer arright now. This tradition is much better. Trust me, ye’ll be wantin to get some rest”

Roth took the advice and decided to retire for the evening. They would be here for a month before setting out on the Cav again. But even knowing that, Roth didn’t unpack his bag. The excitement of seeing the city had hit him and his mind ached for sleep and nothingness. This city, even Lune itself was beyond anything he ever really knew.

The next morning Roth went exploring. The nights festivities were a long way off and would most likely end up as a blur of hard liquor and rowdiness. Before all of that, Roth wanted to experience the city and perhaps pick up some earth sanctioned items to have delivered back to his parents and sisters.

the streets were already alive, bustling with activity and purpose. Roth was unsure if he had ever seen this many people in one place at one time. The proximity of the people and the buildings was overwhelming. How did they do it?

Roth looked at the storefronts, flashing lights and screens behind most windows, displaying deals and things that they had up the back.

It was so much information. The people around him went glassy eyed as they touched something metal to the side of their temples. It held there even when they took their hand away. He had seen his crew mates do this on occasion. They said they could connect to devices and people by just thinking about it. Roth wasn’t sure whether to believe them at first, he thought they were playing some long and elaborate trick on him. But after talking to Commander Keenan about the devices once, he was sure that they were real. Though he didn’t think he would ever get one for himself.

Technology still scared him. Long ago Earth had united to create the ENAT. In an effort to fight the severe and growing threat of climate change. This resulted in a worldwide shift of living which sent the human race back to basics. This shift took away almost every creature comfort and stepped technology backward to a time where people were unable to have even cars. Bikes, horses and good old fashioned leg work became the main means of transportation. All flights and aircrafts were made redundant, and the main mode of transport between countries became a mix of solar powered boats, or sail boats.

Roth walked past rows and rows of storefronts and stopped by one that seemed quaint, earthly. There were no gaudy flashing displays here, the only things displayed were beautiful carvings and models of various things. His eyes landed on a beautifully carved ship, the kind you would find in a history book or an old adventure novel about pirates and treasure. The detailing was enchanting, from the ornate decorations on the railing to the sails and lines.

Surely this would be something he could send back. The sanctions for delivery were strict, but this seemed to be all wood and paint, no numetals or hex plastics. Roth stepped inside the store, a bell ringing overhead as he opened the door. He smelt the familiar smell of sawdust and the sound of tools being worked.

An elderly lady sat behind the desk and was carving a wooden hunk into something that Roth could only assume would be beautiful, given the rest of the showcase that was available within the store. Roth walked to the front display and took a closer look at the ship.

"Is this ship Earth sanctioned?" He asked the lady, turning to look at her.

The woman nodded affirmatively and followed up with "200 score and 20". As though knowing exactly that he would ask the cost next.

Roth turned back to look at the ship and then flinched as he saw a familiar face. A wildly unexpected face. There was a girl looking in at the exact same ship from the other side of the window. It was his sister Lana.

He rushed from the store, the bell clanging on his way out.

"Lana!?" He asked in shock. "What are you doing here?"

Lana's eyes snapped to him and within a moment she was hurrying away.

"Lana? Lana!" Roth shouted after her.

She was moving quickly. He went after her, pushing his way through the pressing crowd. Roth watched for her golden hair amongst the mass of people. Eventually though, he fell behind and lost sight of her.

Still searching, his mind raced. What the hell was happening? Why would she be here? Why did she run from him?

Just as Roth was about to give up the search, hands reached from a side alleyway and yanked him off the main street by his shirt.

"Lana? What the he-" he started

"Stop!" She replied quickly, poking her head out of the alley and looking about the street. "You can't use my name here."

"What is going on?" Roth demanded, growing more and more confused with each passing moment.

"Its ENAT. Father found something, something I don't think he was supposed to find. It could change everything. We don't know anything about this universe, none of us. We had to come here, we-" Lana said. She was speaking so quickly, panicked and rambling.

"Wait, father is here?" Roth asked with utter disbelief. "There's no way."

"He is." Lana replied, finally slowing down. "We all are. Though mother and Tilly are on the other side of Lune, staying with people father trusts."

Lana fumbled through the satchel that crossed her body and pulled a card out, shoving it into his hands.

"Come tonight, after the zenith hour." she said softly. "make sure you're not followed."

And with that, she left.

Roth wanted to stop her, to demand answers and understand what was happening. But this was all so much, so unexpected, and Lana seemed so frightened. So Roth stayed. He flipped the card over in his hands. It had an address on it, and what was presumably a business name which just said 'Black Hole'.

Great, Roth thought to himself. Now how was he going to get out of tonight's revelry.