Time without Hope
Time without Hope
By Leo French
Spaceship Alpha Centauri five years now traveling across the universe. The year 2031 and with advances in technology traveling through space has been vastly improve. Cmdr. Hicks a 20 year veteran of the space program is to space commander of this mission. Capt. Loretta Bluefield is second in command of the Alpha Centauri space vessel. The Alpha Centauri has a complement of 10 crew members. Through the long days and quiet nights the Alpha Centauri travels through the vacuum of space. Crew members patients and stamina has been tested throughout this long voyage. Their close knit relationship and their social bond helped with their feelings of loneliness. That mission, as it has always been to see if there is other life in the cosmos. Advanced communication signals are being sent out from the ship. Modulated sensors hand held for pulse rates which may be consistent with lifeforms. After days and months pass only silent echoes returned.
April 13, 2032 Capt. Loretta knocks on commander's Hicks door. "Yes, who is it?" "Commander it is Capt. Loretta, we are approaching a red planet in this sector of space I felt you should be aware of this." "Thank you Capt., give me a few minutes and I will join you in the command center." "Yes Sir!"
Minutes later the commander enters the Command Center. A cadet shouts out "Cmdr. On Deck!" The commander speaks "as you were." "Okay, Capt. what have we got?" "Commander we were unaware of this planet but it is red in color." "Any signs of life Capt.?" "Our instruments show no signs of life on this planet commander." "Shall we mark this as a dead planet and move on commander?" "Having traveled so far I should like to investigate this red planet. Establish orbit around this planet then prepared two scout ships as I will be leading that mission."
Two small scout ships depart from the base of the Alpha Centauri spaceship. As scout ships reach elevations of around 10,000 feet the commander communicates with the mothership "Capt. there is an amazing development here on this planet, tall structures have been erected, what appears to be path of travel are carved out in all directions." "Commander are you saying there is habitation on that planet?" "Capt. I am not certain of that at this point for I see no movement any where below us." As the scout ships land the commander gives a directive "From the reddish color outside the ship we do not know what type of atmosphere we are dealing with so keep your protective gear on at all times!"The crew departs from the scout ships and began to fan out, investigating this new planet. One hour later the mothership communicates with the commander "Cmdr. Hicks, how is the investigation going?" "Capt. from what I have found out about the inhabitants of this planet is they were on the verge of moving into a more advanced technological society. It would appear however the inhabitants had some sort of planet wide war resulting in burning off of their atmosphere ultimately exposing this planet to the deadly effects of their sun's rays!" "Commander is there any indication as to who these inhabitants were?" "Capt. for what it's worth most of their documents were kept intact. The language is foreign to me but I will spell out a word that seems to be consistent in many of their documents." "Cmdr. Hicks I will write this word down so that we can have it to present to the council when we return home." "Okay Capt. from right to left it is spelled...h..t..r..a..E. "Capt. I guess these beings had the time they just didn't have the hope of making it into the future. Plot a course for home."
Once the scout ships returned to the Alpha Centauri the mothership faded into the darkness.
