The Last Sunrise
Are we receiving a transmission? Is that Horizon? Oliver?
That couldnt be! If anyone was likely to run into trouble, it would be them, off exploring in their planetary shuttle, not the mother ship!
Eleanor wrung her hands together.
For twenty days, she and her husband had studied the sixth planet of the Phoenix system, collecting air, soil, and water samples, logging data and sending their increasingly grim forecasts back to Horizon. A reply always camewords of comfort and encouragement, except for the final day when everything changed.
The planet burned with fires that should never have starteddamp moss ablaze, plants retreating their buds behind layers of corky bark, animals darting into burrows at the first whiff of smoke. Twice theyd sought shelter in the shuttle, watching a wall of flame churn through the grasslands, the fault lying with the twenty-nine percent oxygen in the air.
use the capsules… send the data… The words faded into statics hiss.
David! Matthis! Eleanors heart pounded. Her Olivera gentle, calm sort of giantcried out, desperate to comprehend the chaos unfurling on the ship.
…distortion…field…
Theyre in trouble, Oliver said, turning to her. The captains calling for escape capsules. That means theyve lost hope.
But why? What happened? Eleanor asked quietly.
They mentioned a massive gravitational wave.
A grey streak flashed across the viewing screen.
Is that it?
Yes, some sort of gravitational distortion, Oliver muttered, watching the dials.
Horizon crackled back to life.
…wave…gaining intensity…the fields wont hold…!
The grey band on the screen broadened, sparking.
Im activating shields, said Oliver, hands flying over the console. Ill try to move us out of its path.
A shimmering fog drowned the screen, the impact shattered their force fields, flung the shuttle sideways, setting it spinning. The gravity compensators howled, dumping excess energy.
The rest Eleanor remembered only in fragmentsevasive maneuvers near the planet, frantic attempts to stabilise orbit, emergency braking as they entered the atmosphere, the shaking and roaring of dust-thick air… and then, the inevitable darkness.
***
Eleanor opened her eyes, disorientedwhere was she, what had happened? The cockpit glowed a dark crimson under emergency lighting, ominous and cold. She was parched.
Oliver?
She winced, turning her aching head.
How are you?
The pilots seat was empty, the harness straps dangling undone.
Oliver? she repeated, her voice thin.
She fumbled open her own restraints. She managed to stand, but sat heavily back in the chair moments later.
Her shoulders and chest were throbbing, her skull aching, but none of it mattered.
No, no, it cant be… she murmured.
Oliverher Oliverlay prone on the deck.
Eleanors hand found the chairs side panel. First row, third buttonthe medical scanner emerged, pricking her skin.
Hurry, she pleaded silently. Codephenyl, fifty milligrams. Or at least twenty-five, then Ill be able to stand, to help Oliver, figure out whats happened.
The assessment appeared on the little screen.
She squinted. I know about the bruises and dehydration… But how long was I out? Six hours? Good heavens! Ah, yes, here we go
The stimulator pumped into her blood, settling her heart, dulling pain, hunger and thirst, clarifying her thoughts and filling her body with borrowed strength.
She rose and steadied herself, then knelt by the man she loved.
Her hand on his shoulder felt only coldness.
Logical, clinicalchemistry suppressed emotion.
Oliver Lynn, her husband, had been dead for at least six hours.
Could something have been injected? Some powerful anaesthetic mimicking rigor mortis? Hardly likely, butScan him!
Within minutes she was back, turning him gently over.
No doubt: no breath, no heartbeat, not a flicker of brain activity. Diagnosisbroken neck.
Dead eyes stared past her. His hands frozen in a pleading gesture.
What happened? He undid his harnessthought the danger paststood up and then… what? Did some alien beast shake the shuttle so hard he fell? Did a rock from the mountain above crash onto them? Was there a furious windblast? Stop.
She knew her codephenyl-fueled brain would invent explanations with no basis in reality. She sat, composing herself, and scanned the panels.
Activate the emergency beacon and send an SOS.
Did they get a relay satellite into orbit in time? she wondered. They must have, yes?
It was standard when a risky landing was expected: set up a relay, so any trouble signal from the surface would reach someone, somewhere.
Speaking of helpshe realised it was hours since shed eaten, drunk or rested.
She wiped her dry lips with numb fingers, gathered an emergency meal and walked to the tiny washroom.
The pale face in the mirror barely looked like her; her pupils had shrunk under the stimulation. She tucked a golden curl behind her ear, wiped her face and hands clean.
Mineral waterwhat nectar! Eleanor drank slowly, savouring the taste.
She listened to herself. She wasnt hungry. She wasnt anything. Just tired, empty.
Nocome on, she muttered. I must find out where we landed, if I can go outside, discover if anyone else survived.
***
Lucas Green had expected something entirely different from his first posting. Yes, it was his maiden voyagea modern starship, deep space, the job hed trained forbut why was it so… well, not dull, exactly, but monotonous?
The HMS Vanguard, Earths proud Spacefleet ship, was designed for deep-space scanning and cartographic work (Lucass department), carrying cargo and sometimes carrying out special Fleet orders. Which, disappointingly, never involved smuggled spies, secret military manoeuvres, first contact with aliens or thrilling adventures.
Once, Vanguard was dispatched to retrieve a strange artefact found by a survey vessel. Another urgent job had them rushing vaccines to the miners of Wolf 1021.
There, theyd collected Dr. Mark Drake to transfer him onwards to Space Base Twelve, orbiting the remote world of Totterham. From that lonely outpost, ships returned to Earth, his final destination.
First thing Drake did was give everyone a thorough medical, scanning and cross-examining the lot, issuing fifty-seven reports on what they ought to eat or how much exercise they required. Lucas still shuddered at the memory.
He stood and wandered along the oval bridge, stretchinganything to ward off sleep. What a scandal if the captain came on shift to find him napping!
He checked system after system. Engines? All ticking over, the engineer replied. Environmental controlscheck. Hullintact. Spaceclear.
He flicked on the long-range scanners, examining their destinationKairos, a binary system of a red and yellow dwarf, orbiting twelve planets.
They would arrive in three days, but already he could see details. The third planets elongated track, seventeen moonsso many, but the orbit remained odd, not explained by the gravity of its small host star. He cranked up the resolution, idly absorbed.
A sudden incoming subspace call snapped him out of his daze. Three sharp signals, three long, three short. An emergencycompressed data followed, and then another SOS, then more data pulsed through.
Sleep vanished in an instant. Lucass hands flew to call the captainemergency priority!
***
Eleanor checked the monitors again. Considered objectively, things werent so bad. The air was about eighteen percent oxygen, sixty-five percent nitrogen, the rest inert gaseshelium and neon. She could breathe without a mask. The temperature was about twenty-two degrees. No one else was in sight.
She descended the ramp and saw a spray of moons across the skythree full, glowing with anxious scarlet, a waxing fourth, and two more pale and wan as only moons at the edge of dawn can look.
She turned and was struck dumb by the sight of a giant planet blocking half the sky.
This wasnt Phoenixs system. There was no planet with so many moons there!
Their shuttle had landed on a moon, circling some other world.
The craft perched on the edge of a rocky plateau. On one side, mountain ridges like a lizards spine; on the other, a deep drop filled with mistwater, then. And where there was water, hope.
Eleanor moved to the edge. No forests or rivers, but the mist below hinted at life.
***
Duty bridge to captain! Please respond!
Captain Victor Frost, long-time commander of the Vanguard, blinked sleep from his eyes and frowned at the worried face of his young cartographer.
He heard the report and nodded: On my way. Contact the chief engineer. Lets pinpoint that signal.
Half an hour later, the bridge echoed with static and amplifying words: SOS, SOS, SOS! Shuttle Horizon 4 in Phoenix system. Weve hita wave. Main ship not responding. Attempting emergency landing, transmitting coordinates…SOS!
Not much to go on, muttered Frank Vance, the engineer.
Can you filter the noise? Frost asked. Vance nodded.
Send a confirmation to those coordinates.
We dont know if anyone survived, Vance pointed out. Its an automatic distress from a relay.
And a narrowly focused channelaimed toward Earth, Lucas added.
Regardless, we must investigate. Good work, Frost said with a trace of pride, catching Lucass delighted smile.
***
Dawn arrived without warning.
Eleanor saw the sky brighten, a dull red sun climbing, slow and heavy. It shifted sideways, and a yellow star rose next, higher and brighter. Shadows danced among the rocks as Eleanor wondered: Where am I?
She climbed the ridge, but the ascent grew dangerous quicklyslippery rocks and unstable grey sand forced her to retreat.
Luckily, half a mile from the shuttle, she found a narrow cut in the stone leading into a cave tall enough to stand.
She sat for a long time by its entrance, watching the strange moons. She imagined living here with Oliver, hauling a shelter from the shuttle, building a campfire at the mouth.
Now there was no one to share it withexcept to bury Oliver in this cold stone hall.
The grav-lifter helped, but the restgetting his body from shuttle to caveshe did alone. She moved slowly, stopping twice to adjust the harness, biting her lip in confusionwhy wasnt she sobbing for Oliver now, her partner of nearly thirty years, father of her daughter?
Had the grief been burned out of her by shock, exhaustion, or the drugs?
It was a short day herebarely six hours.
As she descended toward the shuttle, her comms bracelet buzzed.
An incoming call! Someone had picked up her distress signal, tried to answer! Forgetting her fatigue, Eleanor broke into a run.
Horizon! It must be Horizon!
She could hardly keep still as she hurried through the decontamination chamber.
Horizon Four, responding! she shouted.
Staticthen, a distant voice:
We hear you, Horizon Four. This is HMS Vanguard, Fleet number SFE-1763. Weve received your call. What has happened?
***
Dr. Mark Drake had been daydreaming about a new flat for four years. He wanted an upper storey, and most of all, a big balcony. If you had a patch of sunlighteven under the cold sun of Scottish Highlandsyou could grow vegetables, maybe even fruit.
Mark pictured it oftentwenty, maybe thirty metres, shielded with force fields, ringed with solar collectors and rainwater barrels. Rain for plants, rain to offset household water bills. Lemon and orange trees in the corners, trailed with fruit, beside beds of courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoeslettuce, radishes, berries. Perhaps even a flowerbed for Alice, his wife, who loved flowers. Their little daughter Mary would be dashing between the beds, breathing the fresh air…
But the intercom tore him from his pleasant dream.
Doctor? Bridge, now!
He rolled out of the bunk, shrugged into trousers and a jacket, grabbed his emergency kit and sprinted for the lift.
No alarms on shipjust a doctor running down the corridor, barely awake.
Whats happened? he burst onto the bridge, expecting wounded crew, a radiation incident, disaster.
Three perfectly healthy shipmates turnedcaptain, engineer, cartographer.
Ah, sorry, Doctor, explained the captain. Weve had an SOS. Were all finesomeone else needs medical attention.
***
The woman weptshe talked in gulping, broken sentences about Phoenix Six, rainbow dragonflies, the alien dawn, the moons, and hauling her husbands body to a cave. She spoke of fear and exhaustion.
Im sorry, she sniffled. Forgive me, its unprofessional, I know
Its all right, Eleanor, Mark soothed, Im Mark Drake, ships doctor. Well do all we can to help. What stim did you take?
Standard codephenyl.
I see. You need to rest now.
We have her biometrics, Lucas Green pointed out, gesturing to the data. Drake skimmed ither pulse was racing, blood pressure a touch high, her bloodwork stressed.
Are you safe, currently? Captain Frost asked gently. Is your shuttle stable?
I think so. Were on a plateau, not far from a drop.
Youve scanned the planet? Excellent! The captains voice cracked with forced cheer. Those readings will help us. Can you transmit your shuttles database? Itll help us figure out what happened. You can manage that?
Of course.
What matters is youre safe, and help is coming. You have water, food. Well only be three days, yes? Frost glanced at Lucas, who nodded vigorously, though Eleanor couldnt see him.
Drake cleared his throat, still flustered from his run. Yes, two and a half days once you sleep, perhaps less.
Our doctor says you need rest, Frost continued, Youve had a tough day under strange suns, youve done all you could.
Such a shock, Drake inserted quietly.
We understand you perfectly, Mark said. Well keep the line open. You can call any of us, any time, cant she, Captain?
Frost allowed himself the faintest smile. Absolutely. Someone will always be on call. Now, you rest. Well search for the Horizons remains and lay a course…
The captain moved aside to give Drake the comms seat.
His back was damphe felt as if the womans tears had fallen right there, at his shoulder.
***
So, the Horizon. Six hundred and fifty-two crew, she says. The captain frowned. Big ship. Exploration class, I should think. Frank?
Never heard of her, Captain. And the Phoenix system…?
Blank faces.
When did she say it happened? Frost continued.
Couple of days, I think, said Vance.
Strange, we picked up nothingno reactor detonation, no gravity wave, said Lucas.
Yes, Captain. That is, no, Captain. Nothing recorded.
Phoenix, Phoenix, the captain mused. Should be nearby, within three days flight. Fire up the scanners
If I may, interrupted the velvet voice of the ships AI. I can provide a full report on Horizon and the Phoenix system.
Send it to my terminal as text, Frost said.
Holographic reports were always a mistakeoverlong, embarrassingly acted, and not a little overdone.
His terminal lit upHorizon, Ark class, launched from the Tyne shipyards in 2153, designed for habitable world searches, Angara drive, crew of six hundred and fifty.
Frost frowned. Angara? A ship so old! No wonder she failed at the first hint of a gravity wave.
Mission logs followed; the last sent her to Phoenix in 2177. Horizon declared the worlds unsuitable for colonization and fell silent.
That was seventy-three years ago.
Nonsense… surely?
Doctor, he called Mark Drake, the drug she injectedwhat do you know about codephenyl? How old is that stuff?
In use a hundred years or more. There are newer versionsI offered her longtrexone but she didnt have it. Her kits almost an antique.
Quite possibly a mothballed ship, bought by some corporation and refitted for a bargain-price survey. No wonder their database is out of date.
What about the Phoenix system? Frost asked the AI.
There is no Phoenix, Captain, the AI replied. Its now classified as part of the Kairos binary system, our present destination. Nine planets, two with atmosphere, a yellow dwarfalmost a twin to your Sun. The Horizon perished here, discovery confirmed, pieces found, reactor failedalmost certain. The date matches. Seventy-three years ago.
Drake interjected, But were talking with a real person. In real time. It must be that the wave threw her shuttle forward in time! He glanced at the captain. And this Rosen anomaly?
Lucas stepped in, Its a kind of spatial fold, Doctor. Where there are black holes, such folds can snap straight, causing gravitational waves.
The engineer continued, Its an unpleasant business, landing in the middle of a space-time ripple. But I can assure youour reactor is safe, far more stable than back then.
Still, check anyway, Frost ordered. But what about seventy years? Did the black hole cause that?
Impossible, Captain, such a time shift would take ridiculous energy. No, Id say Vance scratched his chin when the shuttle crashed, their relay set up a connection through a subspace micro-wormhole. The relay, powered all this time, has been picking up signals from the shuttle and passing them to us in our present. The shuttles crew livedand diedseventy-three years ago. Eleanors alive then, not now.
Drake pressed on, desperate. But we cant leave her! Isnt there some trick? Can she fly the shuttle through the wormhole?
Vance shook his head. No way, not enough energy, and a shuttle couldnt pass anyway. Besidesits a micro-wormhole, strictly for signals.
They all fell silent, feeling helpless.
We hold course, Frost said finally. Contact Earth, ask for advice. Discuss this with no one. Do not mention any of this to Eleanor.
Understood, Captain, murmured the AI.
Lucas and Vance left; Drake caught the captains eye, and Frost shook his head, not wishing to talk. Drake nodded and followed the others out.
The captain stared at the wall, lost in thought. After some moments, the AI softly filled the wall with a waterfallquiet at first, gaining in sound until Frosts eyes drifted briefly shut.
He watched the water running, imagining them as years, as decadesseparating the Vanguard from the lonely shuttlecastaway stranded in time. How could they reach her, help her, explain? Would he sit in orbit, talking until she ran out of water, until the last bitter hours? Or shatter her hope with honesty? Or suggest the doctor sedate her, so her passing might be gentle?
What to do?
***
Most of all, Eleanor liked talking with Mark Drake. It wasnt medicinethey talked of life.
He described, with laughter, his midnight summons to the bridge, how hed pictured awful scenarios racing through the corridors.
Eleanor learned Mark was married; their dream was a flat high above the Teklanika, since their daughter Mary was born.
Eleanor confessed her own building in the Midlands was only nineteen storeysthough some nearby were higher.
How sad we havent found a true world to settle, Mark said. Despite searching for nearly a century.
Yes, Eleanor agreed. Phoenix had such promise.
She drifted into memories of setting up camp with Oliver, studying a planet of giant insectspowerful, swift, marvelously coloured. She longed to see the rainbow dragonflies againtwo-metre spans, burrowing eggs deep to protect from ceaseless fires.
Mark listened and wondered if hed have liked such a world. Stifling population at nine billion, precious habitable land shrinking: sea swallowing some, equatorial lands scorched beyond comfort. Yet humanity survived; always adjustedfood synthesisers feeding everyone.
The engineer, Frank Vance, admitted his greatest worry was retiring soon, booking a place in a quiet home, with neither family nor house, after a life in space.
Sometimes I envy friends with families, he remarked, always talking of children and grandchildren.
Are you lonely? Eleanor asked simply.
Vance was surprised, almost scandalised by his own answer. No. Oddly enough, being alone suits me. If Im honest.
Mustve been hard, at first, on ships? she pressed.
He smiled. A little, until I got my own cabin.
Ive heard people complain about crowded ships. But familys not everything. You can be surrounded by relatives and still be quite alone, Eleanor soothed. Its the luck of the draw. Sometimes you just dont belong, no matter the birthdays, weddings, or funerals…
A strange conversation, Eleanor thought later; such candour from a man, from an engineerconfiding like a traveller with nothing to lose. Others, too, unburdened themselves. It made her anxious, but she brushed it all aside; she needed to make sure her last findings would reach Earth. Did Horizon transmit her data? Humanity still sought new worldsa trio found, but one was home to others (off limits), one frozen and unfit, another plague-ridden. Phoenix had offered so much. But the sixth world harboured lifeterraforming, to reduce oxygen, would destroy the ecosystem. Humanity wasnt ready for that. Yet.
***
The Vanguard reached the third planet of the Kairos red dwarf in fifty-seven hours, holding station over its ninth moon.
No reply came to their direct transmission. The shuttles location was clear on scansthe old Horizon shuttle, recognisable at once. No biosigns, no movement, just an empty world with a number, not a name.
But their relay hail brought immediate response:
Youre here! Oh, the relief! I thought Id have half a day more to wait.
Eleanor, well search for other survivors now. Stay put
Oh yes, of course! Of course, Ill wait!
Frost cut the line. Survey the system. Check the black hole, look for Rosen anomalies, try and spot the wormhole. Maybe…
They scanned, knowing the hope was falseno survivors from a seventy-year-old disaster, just a necessary pretext for delay, to buy time for God knew what: the right words? The right ending?
Earth answered, gently but with finality: You ask the impossible.
Still he hoped theyd find some waydive into the past, scoop up Eleanor and bring her back, something fit for a holofilm. But this was not fiction.
***
Eleanor closed the monitor, pacing the shuttle. Shed been righther last samples from Phoenix Six had revealed a fungus with DNA similar to Earths basidiomycetes. It could break down lignindestroy wood.
She remembered the day: walking by a stream, air heady with oxygen and sweetness; a fallen tree trunk, its bark laced with plump, earthlike puffballs. A touch and one burst, scattering sporestheyd eventually digest the log and consume precious oxygen, signalling that Phoenixs biosphere was doomed to extinction unless something intervened.
That meant this planet, over time, might be rendered suitable for humankind.
Wonderful news.
Shuttle Horizon Four to Vanguardcome in!
Today was a good day. Vanguard was in the system at last, just hours away, and she had information which could change the fate of an entire world. Oh, to have been waiting with Oliver…
But only one had been spared.
Only one.
Had she truly been spared?
Vanguard appeared on her screen. For the first time, Eleanor saw her rescuers.
The bridge looked so different from Horizonlarger, brighter. Fifty-seven crew! A room big as a house, unfamiliar panels and facesthe captain, hardly thirty, strikingly dark-haired; the young red-headed cartographer, Lucas, waving; Mark, the doctor, older than shed guessed; a cheerful communications officer, Antonia, whispering her crush on the captain…
Their uniforms were plain and neat, badges on the chest. Horizons captain, Robert Peterson, used to wear a more elaborate uniform, with his stripes on his sleeve…
What did it all mean?
She hadnt realised, but deep inside, instinct shoutedsomething was wrong, dreadfully wrong.
Eleanor, said Captain Frost gently, I have bad news.
***
So that was that.
All her hopessmoke. The numbness came, returning with welcome inevitability, shutting out what couldnt be changed.
Endure? Persevere.
She was deaddead to these people, who had stumbled onto her voice through years. She had perished seventy years ago.
Two timelines, each sealed within itselfto each their own, some Roman once wrote, millennia before. It felt just as massive and unjust now.
She switched the screen off. She didnt want to see the young and luckythose with their lives and loves and plans, who wouldnt have to die alone, sipping the last drop of water on an unnamed world.
***
Eleanor Lynn never answered the call again, though the Vanguard hailed her over and over.
Their lander descended next to Horizon Four.
Batteries were empty. No emergency rations remained. Surgery and weapons kits were gone. All they found was a simple grave in the cave, just as Eleanor had described.
Three days later, the Vanguard received their last report: Oliver and Eleanors final findings from Phoenix Six.
Everyone gathered in the mess hall to watch. Each asked: did we do everything possible? Was there any way to help?
Eleanor brushed a lock of hair aside, looked into the camera.
Go home, friends, she began, voice familiar yet far away. Dont stay on my account. Im truly grateful you tried. Im glad our discoveries live on. Glad youre safethat the world endures. Yesglad, truly. Of course, I wish things were different her voice trembled, but I know you wish that too. Just remember this: we might have died together, the whole crew of the Horizon. I was given more days. Ill make the most of them.
She breathed in sharplythe sound seared itself into Captain Frosts memory.
Ill live. Ill stay here in the shuttle for a while. Later, Ill go down, see if theres water below. Who knowsmaybe something is alive there, after all.
She opened and closed her hands, tried to smile. It was more pain than joy.
I suppose… Id like to speak to my daughter, she said softly.
Victor Frosts heart turned cold. Why hadnt he offered? Why hadnt anyone? They could have given her that, at least.
Yes, her calm returned, perhaps I could tell her how her father died. Though perhaps shes gone too. If she lives, tell her, and her children if there are any, I regret nothing. We lived well. We searched for new worlds.
Silence, not a pause, but total silence.
You know, she spoke as if around a kitchen table, when you have your whole life ahead, a week or two is nothinga trifle. When its all you have, you want to live every day. I want to see, with my own eyes, the last sunrise. Just to see it.
And for a moment, she truly smiledas if she could already see it, the sky ablaze with impossible colours, and darkness at the centre.
Thank you. And… goodbye.
***
Eleanor Lynn never spoke again.
The Vanguards men found her grave in the cave, her missions final records carefully transmitted, changing everything theyd known about Phoenix Six.
Her memory lingered with them, always. And sometimes, moments before dawn, a few of them would think of the woman on a lonely moonwatching the dark, waiting for the last sunrise.
