Kaenei
18-04-2004, 02:29
http://www.angelfire.com/psy/kaenei0/images/transport.JPG
Slowly the icy orb of Europa receeded. Her chilling winds, and murderous snow becoming nothing but a petri dish sized speck of white against the overwhelming backdrop of space. Stars twinkled all around, providing only sufficient light to illuminate its neighbour. The one constant of the void, silence, reigned.
And through this deafness, the Vi^anna made her weary, weary way homewards.
Her hulking form, mottled green and marbled metal cut through the vacuum with no fuss nor bother. Within her bulbous, massive holds, nothing of importance lurked. Indeed, where previously massive containers housing advanced scientific sensor equipment, weather relay stations, hydroponical supplies and independent fusion generators once lay, now only the tingling draft of nothing.
And onboard this non-descript, unremarkable starship, her crew continued likewise.
Kariana managed to sigh for the fourth time in as many minutes. Another brief sensor sweep set for full range and power had detected nothing of importance or interest. She took comfort in the fact that despite her relative inactivity, the shipboard computer systems were recieving the hardest workload of their artificial lives.
The Lateral array chimed once more as it completed its fifteenth scan of Europa, Jupiter and her many moons. Radiation graphs, stellar dust density and a dozen other fascinating, if rudimentary results flashed across swirling colour displays. Overhead, the clear, crisp dome of the bridge allowed light through the hull from cold outside itself. Karianna took a moment to stare out, at the solitary, unmoving stars that burned in isolation.
Raising a hand, she punched in the scan parameters for a further sweep, before duly engaging.
Her eyes fluttered breifly, though tiredness was not a mitigating factor. She took solace in the arrival of the various performance reports from engineering. Though they could easily have been filed inside the relevent datanode without ever meeting Kaeneian eyes, the young lady had little else to do.
She sighed again, as the energy efficiency of the Plasma relays did their best to entertain.
Elsewhere, others busied themselves as best a lacking schedule would allow. Conduits were cleared out with powerful fluids, panelling buffed and sheened. All menial jobs that could provide the barest of distractions were utilised.
From the Vi^anna, dutifully crawling back to Terra, whose distant blue and refreshing browns made for curious feelings of homesickness amongst a crew of average, and uninteresting civillians, the travel could not be more slowly.
Bright blue orbs flickered as the massive and lumbering engines of the transport burned brightly. Summoning all the knowledge and expertise of a space faring civillisation to propel its bulky, cumbersome frame forward. Almost without a purpose was this workhorse, its cargo delivered and hence no longer of the minimal importance it was assigned a day ago. No, instead its fate was consigned to boredom and fleeting entertainment until such time as she returned, and gifted with more precious supplies and goods, could claw back the feeling of self importance so desperatley currently missing.
Within cavernous meeting halls, a few hardy souls braved the early hour to consume, or simply refresh themselves in the companies of others. Despite the dimming of the shipboard lighting, the perpetual darkness only ever a few short steps from their location, and suffocating in its deadliness, outside the hull bore heavily on the minds of the crew. Night was forever whilst walking the decks of a starship.
Slowly the icy orb of Europa receeded. Her chilling winds, and murderous snow becoming nothing but a petri dish sized speck of white against the overwhelming backdrop of space. Stars twinkled all around, providing only sufficient light to illuminate its neighbour. The one constant of the void, silence, reigned.
And through this deafness, the Vi^anna made her weary, weary way homewards.
Her hulking form, mottled green and marbled metal cut through the vacuum with no fuss nor bother. Within her bulbous, massive holds, nothing of importance lurked. Indeed, where previously massive containers housing advanced scientific sensor equipment, weather relay stations, hydroponical supplies and independent fusion generators once lay, now only the tingling draft of nothing.
And onboard this non-descript, unremarkable starship, her crew continued likewise.
Kariana managed to sigh for the fourth time in as many minutes. Another brief sensor sweep set for full range and power had detected nothing of importance or interest. She took comfort in the fact that despite her relative inactivity, the shipboard computer systems were recieving the hardest workload of their artificial lives.
The Lateral array chimed once more as it completed its fifteenth scan of Europa, Jupiter and her many moons. Radiation graphs, stellar dust density and a dozen other fascinating, if rudimentary results flashed across swirling colour displays. Overhead, the clear, crisp dome of the bridge allowed light through the hull from cold outside itself. Karianna took a moment to stare out, at the solitary, unmoving stars that burned in isolation.
Raising a hand, she punched in the scan parameters for a further sweep, before duly engaging.
Her eyes fluttered breifly, though tiredness was not a mitigating factor. She took solace in the arrival of the various performance reports from engineering. Though they could easily have been filed inside the relevent datanode without ever meeting Kaeneian eyes, the young lady had little else to do.
She sighed again, as the energy efficiency of the Plasma relays did their best to entertain.
Elsewhere, others busied themselves as best a lacking schedule would allow. Conduits were cleared out with powerful fluids, panelling buffed and sheened. All menial jobs that could provide the barest of distractions were utilised.
From the Vi^anna, dutifully crawling back to Terra, whose distant blue and refreshing browns made for curious feelings of homesickness amongst a crew of average, and uninteresting civillians, the travel could not be more slowly.
Bright blue orbs flickered as the massive and lumbering engines of the transport burned brightly. Summoning all the knowledge and expertise of a space faring civillisation to propel its bulky, cumbersome frame forward. Almost without a purpose was this workhorse, its cargo delivered and hence no longer of the minimal importance it was assigned a day ago. No, instead its fate was consigned to boredom and fleeting entertainment until such time as she returned, and gifted with more precious supplies and goods, could claw back the feeling of self importance so desperatley currently missing.
Within cavernous meeting halls, a few hardy souls braved the early hour to consume, or simply refresh themselves in the companies of others. Despite the dimming of the shipboard lighting, the perpetual darkness only ever a few short steps from their location, and suffocating in its deadliness, outside the hull bore heavily on the minds of the crew. Night was forever whilst walking the decks of a starship.