199 words: (and then I will try to send 5,000 to Interzone hahahahaha)
Vessel 151-B hangs in the void between two galaxies.
In this vast emptiness there are no nearby points of light, little radio signal beyond the background hiss of the universe expanding, and no other vessels. 151-B has been alone ever since she was separated from her fleet, and for the last twenty years she has been as still and silent as the mass grave she represents.
A ship equipped with a self-regenerating supply of power and autonomic systems can continue in the darkness long after those it was designed to house have died, and so it is that 151-B hangs in the void with her lights on and her corridors oxygenated, the damaged zone sealed off too late, but totally. Every month she broadcasts The Anthem through the functioning speakers, and silence follows where once progress reports were given.
Calvin Owusu-Baah woke to the familiar scale of The Anthem and though his eyes were gummy and his throat was dry, he could hardly help murmuring the words along with the rise and fall of the cadences; wherever in the vastness of space we find ourselves to be, the third fleet of the African Nations shall always be free.
In this vast emptiness there are no nearby points of light, little radio signal beyond the background hiss of the universe expanding, and no other vessels. 151-B has been alone ever since she was separated from her fleet, and for the last twenty years she has been as still and silent as the mass grave she represents.
A ship equipped with a self-regenerating supply of power and autonomic systems can continue in the darkness long after those it was designed to house have died, and so it is that 151-B hangs in the void with her lights on and her corridors oxygenated, the damaged zone sealed off too late, but totally. Every month she broadcasts The Anthem through the functioning speakers, and silence follows where once progress reports were given.
Calvin Owusu-Baah woke to the familiar scale of The Anthem and though his eyes were gummy and his throat was dry, he could hardly help murmuring the words along with the rise and fall of the cadences; wherever in the vastness of space we find ourselves to be, the third fleet of the African Nations shall always be free.