Escaping The Existence

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. And as I scream now, it doesn’t matter if they can hear me or not. I’m alone out here and I did this to myself. As I’m floating through the infinite darkness, I keep thinking, if only I had just listened to Nina. She told me to pack the spare tanks from my old LuxB22 starsuit. I should know better by now than to not listen to her. She would never forgive me if she had to return home just to bury an empty casket.

It wasn't too arrogant of me to presume that it would be a routine satellite structural repair. Nina and I had been through hundreds of simulations and have done twice as many actual repairs. But none of our combined experience and/or evolved tech could have foreseen this phenomenon.

Even though we expected a decent meteor shower today, this particular meteor was filled with an unknown rift matter and its true size went undetected in our thermal readings. Projections indicated it to be smaller in proportion but the actual circumference was double the size. Nina and I were tasked with replacing the thermal sensors located in all 4 quadrants.

The most efficient way of doing this was from outside the station walls. I began on my end by the southern atmosphere tower away from the entrance. We were upside down and sideways, if you can imagine such a thing. Nina started to work on the initial node entering the station dock. Her tool kit came standard right from her belt, GIA’s current model LuxA23 starsuit, rose gold edition. Mine was the older model, the LuxB22 in royal blue. It has a little less mobility but I'm used to all my custom attachments.

Flashback to two hours earlier. We are about to commence protocol repair.

“This is Commander Juan Mosquera, of the S-Archangel, transmitting to Olympus. Oxygen level is 78%, emergency supply is 97%. Mission to repair the outer rim satellite station underway,” I radioed us in like I’d done a thousand times before.

Olympus Command Central, “Proceed Archangel.”

“Nina, make sure you check the thermal imaging units on both sides of the panel. These older models have 4 sensors. They're prehistoric.” I said, vexing her.

“Commander, please keep the comms clear,” Nina interrupted. “Olympus confirmed there would be a small meteor passing in this quadrant today. Can we proceed?”

She was irritated, however, I wasn’t completely sure why. We haven’t had a fight in a while, not since our younger days. Nina and I first started dating at the QuickSpeed Institute, or QSI, based out of Old New York back on Earth 1. She was just an intern before becoming an Enlightened Scientist. I was upgraded and had been a ranked C3 Scout. I worked in a specialized unit tasked with 24/7 deployable engagement dealing with all other life forms throughout The Existence.

The Existence, T.E., is made up of three dimensions that were discovered when humanity entered the first wormhole in 2022. Gaining consciousness of one another, each dimension, individually governed, ran themselves. The Central Quadrant Coalition was created to maintain order and control. After years of humanity’s unsuccessful attempts at Complete Enlightenment, the Justice of the Peace, Admiral Reginald Swift, overthrew all CQC’s with a powerfully upgraded military made up of converted mercenaries. He forcefully took his seat as High Guard and rebranded the CQC into the Galactic Interdimensional Alliance, or the GIA.

GIA built military bases all throughout The Existence claiming that it was destiny for ALL forms of conscious life to be in cohesion and harmony with one another. This government renounced those claims, expanding quickly by brutally destroying planets that failed to obey and invading systems that were neutral.

Nina and I are not in support of what GIA stands for, so we are trying to get out of the war front. We have to finish out the final year of our contracts. She’s been in search of a planet we could flee to, calculating for months, it might be similar to Earth 1 and possibly uninhibited. The best part is that she thinks it's in a theoretical 4th dimension. We would be out of the reach of GIA for good. If there was such a thing as a quick getaway, this could be it!