Somnus profundus

THIS STORY IS IN FIRST PERSON UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, good job man! Now you know a bit of backstory and won't be confused by all the people and stuff.

My name is Daelen Anderson, and I am a second Lieutenant of the vessel Obscura Viator, or The Dark Traveler. It is a military deep space exploration vessel, designed to travel to the other side of the Milky Way to explore as well as investigate a strange spot of interference preventing long range observations. It has light armour meant to withstand micro meteorites, some basic weapons to destroy larger asteroids for materials, and some other equipment. It has an AI CORE, a large scale ventilation system, a purge system for the vents, interior defense turrets for some reason, cameras, a targeting system for the turrets, lots of storage, oxygen and power systems, a warp gate, and a cryo stasis system. We will even be launching from Earth, the homeworld and out capital planet out of sixty nine colonized planets!

I am a part of a crew of fifty total, which means I only have a twenty four percent chance of actually staying on the ship. What this means is that of the fifty, only twelve will actually leave with the ship, the other thirty eight will be with the ship to watch for any problems and escort the ship before leaving it when it jumps. Everyone will take turns escorting, and the captain of the ship will work with the CORE until they together pick the eleven best identified people for the journey to continue. The captain will have already gone through half a year of training and conditioning, as well as having been in a position for long time periods of low social interaction and such. I don't care if I go, as simply escorting the Obscura Viator is both an insane honor and will get me over five billion dollars, which will be enough to sustain me for years.

I stepped onboard the Vector dropship that was picking me and a group of twenty four other people up to be brought onto the vessel, slightly waving at the five other people on. Over the next half an hour, the rest of the people got on. I just ignored them, checking out the Vector I was in. They are advanced orbital dropships meant to bring large loads or groups up very fast and safely, capable of bringing up to five tons of cargo or twenty five (room for twenty five, weight capacity of five tons) people up from the ground to orbit in just half an hour. The shuttle also angles itself in a way during flight to put the least amount of stress on the human body, minimizing harm and maximizing efficiency. It's a popular military shuttle, but even something as advanced as this can have problems or flaws.

Forty minutes, twenty one barf bags (not for me), five complaints, one black out, and seven girly screams later, we were in orbit. I stepped out of the shuttle, marveling at the cargo bay of the Obscura Viator. It was large enough to encompass the twenty so Vector shuttles bringing people and lots of cargo up, as well as eight large ships I hadn't seen before in any archives. Must be classified. I followed the captain as he gave me and the forty eight other crew members a tour of the ship. He showed us the reactor and oxygen rooms, the cafeteria, the main living sections of the ship, the cryo room, the weapons room, the security office, showed us a locked door and told us to stay out, showed us some weapon and armour locations around the ship, showed us a biosphere, and all sorts of other neat areas. He also showed us where the CORE is located, but told us that while open for all, he cannot control the CORE in its area and cannot guarantee our safety, and that the most we should consider is use it for its quick access between level two and six.

About five hours later and I was exhausted, and happily flopped onto the bed in my... 'room'. I say room loosely, as the bedrooms are more communal barracks for multiple people. There are two rooms of five built into the ship, meant for the lowest to third highest ranking crew members, but are just for everyone right now, and then there are eight addon rooms attached to airlocks that will be ejected before the jump. I completely ignored the other four people in the room, and just closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I didn't even get out of my jeans and T-shirt.

Two months later and a bit of chaos had happened. Pirates of the Syndicate attacked and managed to take down a friendly fighter that had approached before we drove them back, but that was weeks ago. Now, it was time for us to see who was chosen to go and who would stay behind. I stood at a standard parade rest in a long line with me and the forty eight other potential people, waiting for the captain to pick out the eleven who had been chosen. He went down the line, on the end farthest from me, walking down and calling people out occasionally. Among them I did notice some people I had made friends with, by the names of Pvt. Aenedleah Wright and Pvt. Jerrick Smith. I was happy for them, but was also sad that Officer Holman Kelly hadn't been picked, he was a neat guy, a gun nut by all definitions.

The captain was nearing the portion I was in, and had only called out eight people. He suddenly called out "Doctor Gifford Lopez! Step forward!" (AN: got it from a name generator, but I really couldn't resist Lopez as a last name. RVB all the way!). I saw a tall person step forward, standard american swedish blend, with the most notable thing being a cybernetic eye implant, giving him a standard steel blue eye next to a glowing orange eye. Neat. There were now ten people. (AN: Cliche moment time!) I stood among a remaining six people, waiting, when the captain called out "Lieutenant Daelen Anderson! Step forward!".

I was shocked, looked around, saw everyone - including the captain - looking at me, before slowly stepping forward. The captain then said to me before I joined the other chosen people "The CORE liked you for some reason. Be glad." before calling for the others to leave as well as signalling the CORE to eject the living modules attached to the airlocks. The people who hadn't been chosen saluted the captain, got on the Vectors, and left, taking all of them with them - splitting up to pilot them all away -. The captain then turned to address me and the ten other crew members "You have all been chosen for this long journey. Some of you I chose, some I convinced the CORE to let come, and a rare few of you the CORE convinced me to let come. You must know this one thing, we are no longer in human lands. Yes there was the threat of pirates, but otherwise it was safe before now. Now however, we have no idea what is ahead of us. For all we know, there is a pocket of vacuum decay in this portion of the universe, and we're flying to our deaths.

"But it does not matter, for we are acting on behalf of humanity, and all we do must take that into account. No matter what, we must remain united, ready to sent a warning to Earth as we hold back some threat, whatever that may be. If that happens, we will likely die. But as long as we alert Earth of the danger, disaster can be averted, and the threat slowed and then eradicated before it can grow to be a threat. For Earth!"

"For Earth!" we all echoed.