Home Sick

Home Sick
By Wedge Smith

It's not every day that someone get to witness the annihilation of their home world, but tonight was Cipher Specialist Pelion's lucky night.

The sounds of a rowdy party in the room below were dulled by the perch Pelion found in the observation dome's scaffolding, but the merriment still assaulted his melancholy state. His unit was on the last day of a five day leave at Sirius Com while their fleet resupplied and new recruits filled vacancies. Pelion thought there were too many vacancies in his unit lately. High command must have agreed with his assessment because they were footing the bill for the open bar at the party below. Most of his squad mates had seized this opportunity, but Pelion had found a quiet spot to himself. He stared through the portal into the star field beyond. His eyes remained fixed on one blue star even as heavy footsteps echoed on the steel stairs behind him.

"Get lost on your way to the party cipher?" Asked a husky female voice.

"Ciphers don't get lost," said Pelion, "I've found what I'm looking for." He glanced over his shoulder to find a woman with dirty blonde hair and the stout muscular frame of someone raised in high-grav. She was dressed in violet infantry combat fatigues and nursed a large bulb of alcohol while leaning casually against the handrail at the landing of the stairs.

"So have I," the woman said locking eyes with Pelion as a broad grin crossed her face. She held his gaze with the kind of confidence born to someone accustomed to getting what they want.

"I've already got a date," said Pelion.

"Looks like she left early," said the woman persistently.

"My date is with the speed of light," Pelion blinked to reference his optical HUD, "it will be here in 96 seconds." Pelion turned his attention back to the stars outside.

The woman snickered. "They said you ciphers were different, but I've never been snubbed for a photon." The woman strutted up to Pelion's perch uninvited and lowered her considerable bulk down next to him. She made a visible effort of scanning the stars before she shrugged, "Remind me what we're looking for again."

Pelion blinked again to enable his CLDR system and gestured with his left hand towards the star he was watching. A white hologram sprang to life in midair picking out his target. A data stream displayed a visible readout for the infantry woman's un-augmented eyes to study.

"Alpha Centauri huh? Never been there; I grew up core-ward. In fact Sirius is as far into the spiral arm as I've been."

"You may have missed your chance," replied Pelion levelly. The woman began to say something but stopped as Pelion used the CLDR to magnify the image of Alpha Centauri to fill the entire viewport. The three stars composing the Alpha Centauri system were now visible to the naked eye twinkling in the dark void. Small data overlays identified the stars as Alpha Centauri A, B and Proxima. A small tone sounded from Pelion's chronometer. The serene scene of the trinary star system erupted into a brilliant luminous flash. Pelion's augmented vision automatically tinted and he stared straight into brilliance of fusion gone awry.

The woman cursed and shielded her eyes with her thick forearm. "Damn cipher, turn it down!"

Pelion released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and snapped the hologram out of existence. The view returned to its normal magnification. A distant star system now seemed to twinkle against the black carpet of outer space. The woman rubbed sun spots out of her eyes and slugged Pelion on the shoulder slamming him against the railing and electing an audible grunt.

"That's for not warning me. Next time I'll punch that fancy wetware out the back of your head." Pelion had no doubt she was more than capable of following through on the threat.

"Roger that," said Pelion.

"What the hell did we just see?"

"A series of high magnitude solar flares caused by exotic matter from the Astral Cataclysm."

The woman's face grew suddenly serious at the mention of the cataclysm. "I've seen vids... but I never thought I would witness it." She paused to think for a few moments. "Didn't the cataclysm pass through this area of the galaxy something like a decade ago?"

"It's been nine years, five months, twenty one days, and two hours since it passed through Alpha Centauri. It takes light that long to travel from there to here at Sirius Com," said Pelion. A yellow light began to pulse repeatedly overhead and a mechanical motor kicked to life. A massive radiation blast shield was deployed over the portal directly in front of them cutting off all view to outer space.

"What now?" the woman asked.

"The gamma radiation sensors must have detected the first traces of the blast from the solar flares. The starbase is sealing up to protect its sensitive assets."

"I thought these ships had systems that were already radiation shielded."

"That's true. When I said sensitive assets I meant us," Pelion smirked.

The same brash smile returned to the woman's face, "I think that's the nicest thing you've said to me all night."

Pelion continued dodging her advances. "Based on the trajectory of the flares we are in little real danger here."

"What if we were in the flare's path," the woman asked playing along.

"Enough gamma radiation was released to cause an extinction level event. All colonies in Alpha Centauri were destroyed in seconds. Centuries of civilization were wiped out with no survivors. Even the Sol system took a glancing blow. I hear that the radiation took a serious chunk out of the Earth's ozone."

"Serves those dirty Kelk right," resolve coursed through the woman's voice now, "I hope the exposure makes them die a slow painful death."

"I didn't think you rooks had seen combat with the Kelk yet," Pelion said by way of question.

The rookie infantry woman now took her turn giving Pelion the silent treatment. She seemed to make up her mind about something. "Astrophysics makes me queasy cipher. The name's Freeman, Private Lira Freeman, heavy infantry division VI." Lira proffered a meaty hand to Pelion.

Pelion grasped her hand in his, "Pelion, Cipher Specialist Pelion. Welcome to division VI. I'll do my best to keep you alive."

"You know how to charm a girl all right," Lira winked, "you still haven't told me why you are wasting a perfectly good night hanging up here like a bat instead of spending it with me downstairs."

Pelion gestured to the blast shielded portal they had been looking through. "I was born there."