Meanwhile, Back in the Solar System....

[sinanju]

Who: Cassandra Sugarbaker
Where: The Lifeboat
When: Wednesday, June 16th
Invited: Chloe Sullivan, Xander Harris, Faith Lehane
Status: Incomplete

Cassandra Sugarbaker looked over the controls one last time. Everything looked right. The lifeboat--they still hadn't named it and Cassandra had begun to think they never would--was in orbit

Comments

[Cassandra] No, Not A Good Thing

[sinanju]

"No, not a good thing," Chloe agreed. She gave Cassandra a worried glance. "Any ideas?"

Cassandra shifted her attention repeatedly between the fog that swirled outside the lifeboat and the sensor display on the control panel. The exterior temperature of the lifeboat continued to climb. It wouldn't get hot enough to threaten the ship's structure for a short while--but surrounded as they were by that...red hot fog, the ship's life system would become unbearably hot very, very soon. Already Cassandra could hear the usually inaudible life support system whining shrilly as it pumped excess heat into a heat sink. But that couldn't continue for long.

Unfortunately, she didn't know what to do about it. The dimension shift device took days--at a minimum--to recharge. The lifeboat's sensors could detect nothing but red hot gases to the limit of their range--which wasn't much at the moment. She had no idea which way to fly the ship to escape the heat, even assuming that was possible.

For all Cassandra knew this universe was nothing but a red hot fog that stretched for billions of lightyears in every direction. This might be the end of them all.

"We're inside a red giant," Xander said, standing up slowly.

Cassandra turned suddenly to look at him. "What?"

Xander said, "Well, what else could it be? We're supposed to be in orbit around earth, right?"

"Yes," Cassandra said. The dimension shift moved them from one dimension to another, but it didn't change their relative position. Or so she'd been told.

"So maybe we are," Xander said. "But the sun has expanded into a red giant. That would more than fill earth's orbit...I think."

"Well, check out the big brain on Xander!" Faith said.

Xander gave her a half-smile. "So I like watching the Discovery Channel. Sue me."

"You may have just given us a chance to survive this," Cassandra said. She checked the instruments quickly. If their position hadn't changed, then the shortest path directly away from the center of the sun was...that way. Cassandra turned the lifeboat and punched it up to full speed.

The only perceptible change was the way the red hot fog swirled against the viewport. The lifeboat's inertial dampers countered the acceleration as perfectly as ever. The hull temperature continued to climb and Cassandra feared that this escape attempt might not be enough. Even at forty percent of lightspeed, the lifeboat's top speed, they might not escape--and it would take time to accelerate up that velocity.

Minutes passed. The lifesystem was howling now, trying and failing to cool the interior. The air roaring from the ventilation system was hot and dry. Warning lights were flashing on the console. The red hot fog showed no signs of thinning.

(This wasn't how I expected to go out,) Cassandra thought. She'd always assumed that her story would end with the flash of a sword. She shared a look with Chloe. (Maybe we should have stayed with Daniel, Ami and Jon,) Cassandra thought, and knew that Chloe was thinking the same.

A glance behind her showed Cassandra that Xander and Faith were standing close together, each with an arm around the other. They didn't speak, any more than Cassandra and Chloe had. But having a friend with you at the end--if this was the end--was a comfort nonetheless.

Sweat covered Cassandra's skin now, despite the dry air roaring from the vents. All the surfaces of the lifeboat were growing hot to the touch. The red fog stubbornly refused to part--and then it was gone.

Thousands of stars gleamed against the blackness of space, showing no apparent motion despite their speed. Cassandra shifted their view to look back along the length of the lifeboat, expecting to see a wall of red hot gas--but there was none to be seen. Just more empty space--with a small, bright star directly astern.