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Outpost
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2023 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: permanent
“Ship’s log, Day . . . hm . . . 2,087,303,004 of the mission, and Day 374 ship elapsed time,” the orange tabby feline said listlessly from his seat in the ship’s control cabin. “Speed’s 0.99 of lightspeed; I could give it to you out to ten decimal points, but who cares.
“Crew morale’s still good,” the tabby said, “but no telling how long that’ll last. Let’s face it, there’s only so many times you can play Parcheesi before you throw the board out an airlock. However, we all still believe in the mission, and are sure that what we’re doing can rectify matters.
“We all went into this with our eyes open, knowing that we were leaving everyone and everything we knew behind.” He paused the recording as his ears picked up the sound of booted feet coming up behind him. The tabby turned and smiled. “Hey, Jenny.”
The gray tabby femme smiled. “Julian, Doc Sanders wants us all to meet him in the mess hall.”
“Why?”
“Says he’s got some important news.”
Julian looked at the paused recording and shrugged. He could always come back to it later. “Sure,” and he stood up and followed her.
Watching her tail and hips sway, he found he didn’t mind following her.
“Thank you all for coming,” the beagle said after Julian and Jenny came in and joined the rest of the hundred-person crew. “I’ve run some calculations. By traveling as fast as we have for as long as we have, we have provided enough relativistic mass to keep the universe from surrendering completely to entropy.”
There was some muttering, and finally one of the engineers asked, “And the bad news?”
The beagle sighed. “We’ll be out here forever. We can’t go back to Earth – “
“Not as if we’d want to,” one of the other members of the crew said.
“ – And entropy will undo all our efforts if we stop now. Sorry if I can’t bring you any better news,” Sanders said.
“That’s okay, Doc,” Julian said, moving to stand beside him. “We all knew we were heading out on a one-way trip.” He patted the beagle on the shoulder, part reassurance and part gesture of solidarity, and headed back to the command cabin to complete his log entry.
Although a sneaky little voice in the back of his head asked him what was the point, although the ship required little maintenance and there were enough furs aboard to guarantee that it would go on. It was a necessary sacrifice, to keep the universe stable.
As he sat back down, his thoughts drifted to Jenny. Maybe he would ask her out on a date . . .
end
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2023 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: permanent
“Ship’s log, Day . . . hm . . . 2,087,303,004 of the mission, and Day 374 ship elapsed time,” the orange tabby feline said listlessly from his seat in the ship’s control cabin. “Speed’s 0.99 of lightspeed; I could give it to you out to ten decimal points, but who cares.
“Crew morale’s still good,” the tabby said, “but no telling how long that’ll last. Let’s face it, there’s only so many times you can play Parcheesi before you throw the board out an airlock. However, we all still believe in the mission, and are sure that what we’re doing can rectify matters.
“We all went into this with our eyes open, knowing that we were leaving everyone and everything we knew behind.” He paused the recording as his ears picked up the sound of booted feet coming up behind him. The tabby turned and smiled. “Hey, Jenny.”
The gray tabby femme smiled. “Julian, Doc Sanders wants us all to meet him in the mess hall.”
“Why?”
“Says he’s got some important news.”
Julian looked at the paused recording and shrugged. He could always come back to it later. “Sure,” and he stood up and followed her.
Watching her tail and hips sway, he found he didn’t mind following her.
“Thank you all for coming,” the beagle said after Julian and Jenny came in and joined the rest of the hundred-person crew. “I’ve run some calculations. By traveling as fast as we have for as long as we have, we have provided enough relativistic mass to keep the universe from surrendering completely to entropy.”
There was some muttering, and finally one of the engineers asked, “And the bad news?”
The beagle sighed. “We’ll be out here forever. We can’t go back to Earth – “
“Not as if we’d want to,” one of the other members of the crew said.
“ – And entropy will undo all our efforts if we stop now. Sorry if I can’t bring you any better news,” Sanders said.
“That’s okay, Doc,” Julian said, moving to stand beside him. “We all knew we were heading out on a one-way trip.” He patted the beagle on the shoulder, part reassurance and part gesture of solidarity, and headed back to the command cabin to complete his log entry.
Although a sneaky little voice in the back of his head asked him what was the point, although the ship required little maintenance and there were enough furs aboard to guarantee that it would go on. It was a necessary sacrifice, to keep the universe stable.
As he sat back down, his thoughts drifted to Jenny. Maybe he would ask her out on a date . . .
end
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Shorthair Cat
Gender Male
Size 120 x 92px
File Size 33.6 kB
Listed in Folders
186,000 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.
It's a one-way trip, Julian. Get on it before someone else does! ^_^
(bows) It's a concept I've had running through my head for literal years, and the Prompt sparked it.
One-way trips mean not having to say you're sorry to those you leave behind. You don't mind because they won't matter ...
Yup, and after traveling over five million years, they literally don't matter.
I didn't catch that but I did raise an eyebrow at the disparity between the mission and ship's time.
This comes off as bittersweet. They all know they can't get home, but Julian wants to make the most of the situation.
Brave enough to leave all he knows behind, should be enough left over to ask her out, I think. Good one, Walt ;3
Sad yet noble, and perhaps not a complete loss. Twas a cute little story, and it's making me want to pull out on of my end of the universe stories.
Here there and everywhere, supplying enough relativistic mass to keep the universe from surrendering to entropy.
Well that's a concept I haven't come across before! Reminds me somewhat of Poul Anderson's story where a ship gets stuck accelerating, they survive the end of the universe and the birth of a new one.
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