Authors: Aubrie Dionne
Tags: #new adult, #Sci-fi, #space, #haven 6, #space opera, #tundra 37, #Romance, #Science Fiction, #scifi, #paradise 21, #apocalypse, #aubrie dionne, #a new dawn
Abysme crossed her arms.
Don’t have to worry about a single thing again, huh?
Mestasis’s skin burned with embarrassment on her cheeks. The situation overwhelmed her. She’d lost control, handing their future to a man her sister didn’t trust.
If only what he said was true.
…
Engine failure seventy-eight percent.
Her sister’s voice brought Mestasis back to the present. She twitched her neck, calculating alternative energy means. They had to fly the ship out of the parameters of the hurtling comets.
Mestasis analyzed the systems still online and prioritized the ones less likely to cause physical harm to the colonists.
Shutting off gravitational rings, rerouting energy from bays 4, 13, and 20.
No matter what she did, it wasn’t enough. The energy gap tore at Mestasis’s soul until she could barely stand the pressure. She turned to her sister, pleading.
Bysme, I need your help.
Her white eyes turned down, as if she could suddenly see her. Her cheek twitched, the wrinkles scrunching.
We’ll make it, sis. Keep trying.
Abysme spoke in common speech patterns! A real person still rolled around inside her fragile skull. Her sister’s true voice urged Mestasis to focus. In a fraction of a second, she’d figured out enough energy to keep them sailing well away from the hurtling rocks.
Clear space shone on the main sight panel, a sea of darkness sprinkled with twinkling stars. The ship soared free of the danger zone.
Mestasis breathed, feeling cold, regulated air sear her old lungs. She shouldn’t have taken so many breaths without her breathing apparatus, but in that moment she needed to feel alive.
Abysme’s voiced jerked her out of her relief.
Mission to Paradise 18 abandoned. Seeking alternative colonization habitat.
Panic rushed right back through the bolts in Mestasis’s spine. What? Change the entire course of the mission? She shot a finicky glance at Abysme. Had her sister truly lost her mind? Reviewing the ship’s performance and the remaining functioning systems, Mestasis’s hopes plummeted. They’d never make it another two hundred days in deep space, never mind two hundred years.
Abysme’s calculations were correct. Their mission to Paradise 18 had failed.
Disappointment in herself and hopelessness choked her. Next came emptiness, a black abyss of dire oblivion threatening to obliterate her last pulses of determination. Mestasis hung limp, allowing the wires to stretch dangerously far as her body weight pulled her down. She’d have given up and died in that moment if it wasn’t for the shining star shimmering on the edge of her sight.
Compatible habitat found.
Abysme drew up a star chart and Mestasis took in another breath.
Tundra 37 lay in the star system they passed. The initial readings reported compatible oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, light gravity, and solar exposure, mostly on the northern side. A category six planet experiencing an ice age; it was not optimal for survival, but certainly adequate, better than drifting in deep space.
Mestasis straightened and the wires pulled her back up.
Change of course approved.
[End of Sample]