S-11. The Earth’s a Ruined Wasteland?!

The SGFC Radiolaria was oriented with vertical decks. The lowest deck was just above the drive fins at the ship’s stern and the highest deck was just below the bow. The “floor” of each deck was oriented towards the stern, which meant that when the ship accelerated at 1G the force of acceleration manifested as Earth-normal gravity.

I had once asked Laria why the gravity manipulation technology used to propel ships and Gravity Frames wasn’t used to generate an artificial gravity field for the entire ship. She responded that the technology was simply not miniaturized enough to install as grav plating on each deck’s flooring, as it required large gravity drive fins to create the effect. Gravity manipulation was quite power intensive as well, and no combat vessel could afford to dedicate a large portion of its reactor output to maintaining constant artificial gravity simply for the comfort of its inhabitants.

“This is not a cruise ship.” she told me icily.

Given that fact, the crew only got to experience gravity in space when the ship was accelerating or decelerating. This was the first time in my new life I had seen everyone walking around instead of floating. It was quite surreal.

With an acceleration and deceleration rate of 1G, plus coasting time in-between to allow Earth’s gravity to assist our trajectory towards 433 Eros, the journey would take 6.42 hours. Considering the chemical rockets of the Apollo program took three days to propel a tiny capsule just half that distance, the speed advantages of the constant 1G acceleration afforded by gravity drive were readily apparent.

Since the ship was no longer under continual combat alert, the mechanics were taking the opportunity to perform a lot of backlogged maintenance. The Chief Mechanic Madlala was currently installing a new set of gravity drive fins on me, a set plundered from a Huntsmark which he promised would increase my acceleration and maneuverability considerably.

Well, even if my body is old and busted, it’s nice to get any upgrade I can. I thought.

While I underwent this minor back surgery, Miette was in my cockpit messing around with the wiring to try and decrease the latency between her control inputs and my computer core. If she had been a gamer back in my own world, she would have been the type to have a custom fightstick and a mechanical keyboard with expensive switches.

Can I get liquid cooling too? And a transparent case with LED lights?

Since I couldn’t really help the mechanics out much with my own refit (I had to sit still the entire time!) I was distracting myself by designing Laria’s adorable animal outfit, just in case it was needed, and enjoying the view of the fast-approaching Earth. I was still hooked into the ship’s sensors, and I piped the view into my internal holo-sphere projection for Miette to see as well.

As we drew closer to Earth and it filled the horizon, I realized just how different it was from the world I knew. It was swamped by brownish-grey clouds, and the brief glimpses of surface I saw in between them showed most of the northern hemisphere locked in ice. There were massive impact craters as well.

“Miette,” I said, “how long has Earth looked like that?”

“Like what?” she asked, arms still buried deep in my wiring.

“All… grey and brown and frozen, with giant craters?”

“Hmm. Long as I’ve been alive.” she answered. “Back in the late 2020s before the first defense lines were set up, the Sarcophage blasted a half-dozen cities with kinetic projectiles. Mini impact events, basically. Threw up a lot of dust and shit, caused everything to get real cold. It only got worse when they started blocking out the sunlight too.”

“A new ice age, huh…” I mused. “And to think in my world we were worried about global warming instead…”

“Glow ball warning? What’s that?”

“GLOBAL WARMING.” I corrected her. “Like too much pollution causing a greenhouse effect and making the planet hotter.”

“Ah, that sounds nice. I remember practically freezing to death every night when I was young. Well, I had it easier than most cuz my parents were both officers, I suppose. The Giacosa twins had to work in the factories when they were kids.”

A frozen planet, child labor AND child soldiers? I really can’t underestimate how grim this timeline is, huh?

“Do you ever think about what the Earth was like before the war started?” I asked her.

“Oh, sure. They put pictures of prewar Earth in propaganda videos all the time. Hell, there’s probably some in Laria’s archives you could pull up.”

“Ah, one moment.” I found one such video and brought it up in a window. It depicted a lovely orbital view of a blue and green gemlike world, overlaid with the text “RECLAIM WHAT WE LOST” and accented by sad piano music. It was far more familiar to me than the scarred planet on the sensors.

“Now that’s more like the world I remember.” I said wistfully.

At some point, Miette had untangled herself from my wiring and turned to face my video chat window. “Do you ever miss it? Your old world?”

“Oh, yeah. I mean, it wasn’t perfect or anything, but… well…” I trailed off.

“Compared to our world it must have been a paradise.” Miette filled in what I left unsaid.

“Yeah, it really was. If only for the lack of an alien invasion.” I said ruefully.

There was a minute of silence before Miette responded. “Well, not be an asshole about it, but short of getting reincarnated again you’re probably not going back there.”

“That’s… true…” I said.

“But at least you can help us reclaim our world, yeah? Try to keep your eyes on the future. Don’t get dragged down by the weight of it all.” she said.

“Psh.” I said, sticking out my tongue. “Here I am getting a lecture on positivity from the girl raised in a war-torn dystopia.”

Miette just smiled and shrugged. “I’ve seen a lotta people dwell on the past, you know? They get lost in it because it’s easier than dealing with the present. I gotta nip that in the bud when I see it. Consider it tough love.”

LOVE?! DID SHE JUST SAY LOVE?!

“Anyway,” she continued, oblivious to my own flustered embarrassment, “lemme know if I short out anything of yours, okay?” She dove back into my wiring with enthusiasm.

“H-HEY! Be gentle! If you break me I’m gonna be pissed!” I exclaimed.

As we continued to tease each other, the image of the ruined Earth began to fade astern.

*****

About half an hour after my refit was complete, and just over six hours into our journey, Miette dozed off in my cockpit. She was not a quiet sleeper, snoring quite loudly and drooling on my control stick. Still, I didn’t mind.

I don’t know if I could say she’s cute when she sleeps… but whatever. Quiet moments like this should be treasured. I thought while wishing I could gently stroke her hair.

Just then, a loud klaxon sounded throughout the ship and the lights flashed red. Miette awoke with a start, falling inelegantly out of my chair and smacking her head on the floor. The gravity of our deceleration aided her spill spectacularly.

“A-A-Are you alright?” I asked, stifling a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah.” she said, rubbing a bump on her head. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure.” I quickly pinged Laria and she popped up onscreen. “Laria, what’s the situation?”

“I’ve detected gravity distortions around 433 Eros matching Sarcophage signatures.” Laria responded immediately. “High likelihood of multiple cruiser-type craft. Eros is likely under attack. All pilots are to stand by on full combat alert.”

“U-Under attack? Laria, that means our mom is…”

“We won’t know anything for sure until we’re closer. Stay calm, Sveta.” Laria directed a gentle smile my way.

“R-Roger that!” I responded, my voice quivering.

Mom… please don’t die before I get the chance to meet you!