New Orion Chapter One: Eject! Eject! Eject!
On a commercial liner destined for home, Soran encounters trouble, lots of trouble!
Soran woke with a start; the alarms were blaring, and the emergency lights were flashing.
“Get to the pods!” someone yelled.
“What’s happening?” Soran asked someone as they rushed past his tube.
He had just closed his eyes and was hoping to sleep for another ten years or so. It was a commercial vessel. He was on his way back home to Earth Four from visiting his parents on Earth Six.
As he ran with the others down the long hallway to the emergency pods, he started regretting paying for the half-price flight on a commercial liner. Just a few hundred lithium and he would have gotten back home in half the time, and safer.
“We fell out of the hyperspace window too earyly!” one of the crew members shouted. “We are in worg territory!”
“Worg!’ one of the panicked passengers yelled.
“I don’t want to be eaten!” another screamed.
The red and white flashed as the alarms blared.
Soran tried to keep up with the panicked masses heading for the life pods.
There weren’t going to be enough for everyone. Commercial liners weren’t governed by the same rules as the main liners. It was why the tickets were so cheap.
Soran held up his arm; he held it tightly as he tried to call his wife and children back home. The signal didn’t go through.
“It won’t work we are still four light years away from the nearest port,” a soldier shook his head. “Worgs have destroyed all the transmitters in this area.”
Suddenly, the ship rocked. Then an explosion ripped through the hull. Soran was blown backward as the force of the explosion ripped many out into open space.
The emergency walls slid into place. At least they were working.
Soran got up to his feet. His eyes were blurry, and everything around him seemed distant.
“Got to keep moving!” The soldier grabbed Soran’s arm and pulled him forward.
Worg were known to take their hostages alive and later eat them.
Soran tried to keep up with the soldier as they stepped over bloody bodies. Then he saw it, a large worg, it turned it’s wolf like head towards them.
“Run!” the soldier pushed Soran down another hallway as he rushed to fight the Worg.
Soran tried his best to keep his feet moving, even after he heard the screams of the soldier as the Worg ripped him apart.
“This way!” one of the crew yelled as he pointed to an open pod. “Get in!”
Soran jumped down into the pod. The crew member was about to jump in after him, but a Worg caught the man in mid jump.
Soran looked up and saw the Worg tear the man in half, blood dropped down into the pod, and covered Soran.
He reacted by instinct alone and shut the pod door. The seal closed, and Soran, covered in blood and guts, sat in one of the four chairs. He pulled on the straps and strapped himself in tight.
Soran reached forward and pressed the large red eject button.
Immediately, the pod shot forward through the tunnel and out into space. Soran looked up at the large force field-enforced glass and saw the liner; it was damaged beyond repair. There were many Worg spacecraft all over the place.
“Shit!” Soran shouted as he saw one of the ships turning after his pod.
There was no steering or propulsion on these things. Soran cursed himself for being so cheap. At least the pods on the mainliners had propulsion.
The ship was coming closer, and Soran could see the Worg emblem on the side of it as it was preparing to dock and take his pod inside.
Then it exploded just as it got close.
“Fuck yes!” Soran cheered as he saw the Earthern Alliance symbol flash past him.
They had probably heard the SOS broadcast from the liner.
“Pod be ready to be brought in!” Soran heard over the intercom.
“Yes!” Soran yelled as a blue tractor beam pulled his pod upward.
Soran was happy to be saved.
Red lasers fired from one of the Worg ships and destroyed the Earthen ship completely.
“Fuck me!” Soran shouted as his pod was released.
The Worg weren’t going to let him go so easily, but he could see there were many Earthern ships out there; one of them had to come for him.
Soran’s pod floated away from the battlefield. The further he got, the more he started to think no one would come for him, not even the Worg.
Soran sighed as the fight seemed to going in favor of the Worg, he could barely see the ships firing on each other, just flashes of light, then it all went black as his pod kept floating futher away.
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Days later
Soran had gone through all the rations, he knew these things could last for a long time, but he was also running out of air, the read out on the panel in front of him told him there was only two days left of oxygen.
There weren’t many options left to him; there was nothing out here, no one knew where he was, and if anyone were looking for survivors, they wouldn’t find him. He was far away from the wreckage of the downed liner.
Soran knew that he was going to die in this shitty life pod. His only hope was that someday someone would find it and bring his body back to Earth, back to his family.
Suddenly, a blue light shot all over his pod, and it started to go upward. Soran covered his eyes, hoping it was an Earthern ship and not a Worg.
He saw no emblems or symbols on the large silver ship as it came into view.
“Hello!” Soran pushed the transmitter.
No one answered. He didn’t know who his rescuers were, but he was hopeful that they were friendly.
Soran’s pod thumped down inside a large open area.
He saw humans, but they weren’t wearing Earthern Alliance uniforms.
They opened the pod, and Soran slowly stepped out.
“Welcome aboard New Orion,” a female human smiled.
“New Orion?” Soran asked.
“Yes, our captain would like to see you,” another female smiled.
All of them, every single one of them, were females. Not one male.
“New Orion?” Soran shook his head in disbelief.
New Orion was a ship launched from Earth Prime hundreds of years ago. But it was no bigger than a small car when it was launched. It was the first craft equipped with hyperspace technology designed to go to the edge of the galaxy and back.
Only two females were on board when New Orion left.
As the female crew led Soran away from the bay, he saw hundreds of other females walking around the ship; the hallways were blue and silver. Most of the female crew didn’t even look his way as he walked past them in the hundreds of connecting hallways.
Panels of light were everywhere, with stellar information and ship information all over them.
“How long….”
“The captain will answer all your questions,” the lead female grinned.
They walked up silver stairs and along another hallway, and to a large, round door. Two large female Worg stood in front of the door.
Soran backed away.
“Don’t be scared,” the lead female smiled. “They are with us.”
Soran walked past the armor-clad Worg females, their teeth bared as they looked at the male human as he walked past them.
The door opened as he stepped close. None of the females entered.
This room was large, and the window before him looked out into space. He saw that they were in a hyperspace tunnel.
“Beautiful isn’t it,” a voice came from behind him.
Soran shot backward and stared upward at the large female captain walking toward him. “You’re an….”
“Android?” the captain smiled. “Yes, I am, partly human and part robot.”
“I thought…”
“We were all destroyed?” The captain shook her head. “Not all.”
“I…”
“I am sure you have many questions Soran but let me just say it’s great to finally meet you,” the captain towered over Soran as she bent down and stared him in his face. “We have been waiting.”