THE MEEK (Companion of Legacy)
-The Earth has died and its children have finally left her comforting cradle.-
I am Commander E. Wyatt of the disposal ship KARMA. Humanity now calls a fleet of over two hundred ships home, right outside the orbit of Eris. What a shit hole! I'm writing this to say that the asteroid I've found about 60 AU from Eris, is the place I'll dump my garbage, here and forever!!!
-From the log of Commander Earl Wyatt of DS-KARMA. February 10, 2209.
- The Disposal ship had always found this asteroid, they call it REDEMPTION, probably because they want to have Earth back. But with all the Carbon Dioxide and heat locked up on the planet, you have better chances on Venus. They would usually dump thirty tons of radioactive waste on this rock. But Wyatt wasn't happy with dumping less than twenty. He probably had sectors for each week of dumping, like this week: thirty tons here or next week thirty tons here. He always liked precise counts.
Wyatt's third officer, Payload Specialist Darren Valison, he was a very young white man. He would usually do the EVA work required. Darren was outside the ship pushing the waste material with a magntic grappling thruster, which helps push the mass of the waste. Darren pushed his feet against the waste material box and the thrusters fired smashing into the asteroid, but the asteroid is so big that it hardly did anything.
Darren then fired his RCS thrusters and headed for home. Wyatt's Executive officer, Co-Pilot Robert Phar, a old black man, as going through last minute checks to ignite the engines and head for the fleet when Darren's voice crackled on the radio. "Rob", said Darren. "What",replied Robert.
Darren saw an odd shaped protrusion on the asteroid that wasn't there before. "Rob, uh, give me a reading on the asteroid's surface." "Okay, Darren, give me a sec." Robert's fingers moved quickly, punching all the keys on the keyboard. "Ah, Darren, I'm detecting traces of hydrocarbons oozing out of a crater created by the impact." "Huh, that's strange, uh, give me control of a lander and tell Wyatt I'll be back soon." "Roger that Darren."
The hangar bay opened and a dirty old lander, actually a small rocket ship meant to land on asteroids, was seated in front of Darren. "Okay, here we go", sighed Darren. He started it up and the lander left the hanger without a sound and inside five minutes he was on the surface.
Darren walked on the surface headed for the protrusion he was noticing strange things, his handheld geiger counter was reading 70 rads. He was safe as long as he didn't leave his space suit. He walks for a while until his foot gets stuck in a puddle of hydrocarbon slush. "What the hell!" He tried to pull himself out of the slush but he couldn't. Then he noticed that the slush started to move and then. Robert heard a scream from Darren's radio, after three seconds it abruptly stopped.
Rob went to wake Wyatt who was sleeping, on this ship they'd take turns sleeping. "Wyatt!", Robert said shaking Wyatt. "Robert's introuble!" "How?" "I don't know but I'm going to go out to investigate." "Naw, stay here, let's see what happens, and uh, give a sensor reading." "Alright!" Wyatt went back to sleep.
Robert ran over to the sensor station, he tried to detect Darren but he disappeared. "What the...", said Robert. Wyatt then came from his bunk and went over to Robert. Robert turned his head and saw that Wyatt wasn't Wyatt, his eyes were closed and Wyatt isn't known to be a sleep walker. Wyatt's hands tried to gag Robert, but Robert fought back. "What are you doing it's me, dammit!" Wyatt just kept following Robert, Robert was able to lure Wyatt into an airlock and depressurize it until no oxygen was left. Wyatt was passed out, Robert picked him up and pick him on a medical bed and gave him an oxygen mask and an electrical heart starter. Wyatt opened his eyes. "Wyatt! It's me, Robert, yuh here?" Wyatt's voice would sound terrible like someone or something had possed him, even his skin had changed it was very pale. "The men you knew as Wyatt and Valison are dead, you are kept alive because you have a reasonable mind. But the moment you become unreasonable, you will perish." "Okay, so what should I do?" "Go back and never return, I've seen what your race has done to your home world and I won't let you do that me." "Me?", questioned Robert. "Who am I? I am not Redemption! I am..."
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