Titanic II

By jinnis

Prompt: Naming the newest starship "Titanic" seemed a bad idea to some. But it's just a name. What possibly could go wrong? (prompted by wdhenning).

After I signed for the Colony project, I went down to Pete's bar to celebrate. The owner greeted me with a nod and reached for a tall glass.

"No, Pete, today it must be something fancy."

He raised one of his bushy brows. "And what would the reason be? I know it's not your birthday."

"As good as. I'm joining the Titan expedition."

The other brow joined its companion. "Big news for sure. What shall it be, then?"

"One of your fancy drinks, please. Something with fresh fruit in it. I won't be able to enjoy that for years to come."

With a knowing grin, he mixed me a colourful cocktail decorated with a slice of lemon and pieces of pineapple floating in it. "Here you go, Cel. Enjoy."

I lifted my glass. "Thanks—and cheers."

"To your health. When do you leave?"

I sipped my drink and pulled a face. It was potent and too sweet for my taste. "Tomorrow."

"A bit on short notice, isn't it?"

It was, but I had slept over the decision twice. In fact, I had signed up at the last possible moment. I shrugged. "Guess I'm lucky they took me in so late. In the end, it depended on a medical examination. I've never been scanned so thoroughly before."

Pete gave me a lopsided grin. "If you think it's good for you, then I wish you all the best. We will miss you around here."

It was nice of him to say that, but I knew I wouldn't be missed by anyone. Since Will's departure, I had been a loner. Another sip of the fruity sweetness, the alcohol hitting my empty stomach hard. It wouldn't do to turn up for embarkation wasted. I turned the glass in my hands, let my fingers feel the smooth surface. This was it, my last drink on Mother Earth. I should have ordered my usual beer. Why did I tell Pete I was leaving? It would have been better to slip away. While he served another customer, I slid a bill on the counter, weighed it down with the half empty glass, and left.

🚀

The next morning, my head was clear, and I felt a sense of purpose while I stuffed my essentials into a duffel bag. Since I wouldn't return, there was no need to clean the tiny apartment or take precautions against theft. To the contrary—I left the door open and walked away into my new and hopefully better life.

🚀

"A beautiful sight, isn't it?" The female voice was soft, warm, and had an accent I couldn't place.

I nodded, without taking my gaze from the shiny bulk of the spaceship hanging in front of the space elevator's window. "It is—and huge. Is this the ship that's going to take us to Titan?"

"It must be. The others aren't big enough to house the four thousand of us for the next two years—and carry all the equipment we need to build the colony. To be honest, it can't be big and safe enough for me."

"Reckon you're right." I turned my head to get an impression of my conversation partner. About my age, with dark skin and laughing brown eyes, she had her black curls braided and adorned with colourful beads.

"Hey, I'm Amani." She reached out a hand.

"Celine, nice to meet you. You're also a colonist?"

"Yes, I am a pilot."

I had trouble closing my mouth. "Wow, that's cool. So you're going to fly this ship?" I pointed at the spacecraft.

"No, of course not. This one will be run by an AI. I'm just a small craft pilot—I'll haul building materials and a fly a planetary explorer once we reach our destination."

"This makes you crucial to the mission, then. Me, I'm just a teacher."

Amani laughed. "During the ride out there, teachers are more important than pilots. I'll probably scrub floors in the engine room while you work with the kids."

I had my doubts. "And why did they search for several teachers at the last possible moment? I signed up yesterday."

"No kidding? I heard they enrolled mostly families and fertile couples. To forget to bring along teachers for the offspring seems sloppy. But I'm impressed—it takes courage to take such a big step on short notice."

"I hope I won't regret it."

Her smile brightened. "I'll give my best to prevent this."

I wanted to know what she meant, but an announcement interrupted our conversation.

"Please take your seats and close your safety harness. We are about to dock at Orbit 3 station in fifteen minutes."

Amani pulled me to a row of seats and I slumped down beside her, glad to have someone to share this moment with.

🚀

We didn't get time for sightseeing on Orbit 3. The elevator docked, and the colonists were ushered into a waiting area for a last medical check. An automatic shuttle ferried us in groups of twelve to the ship. Amani and I kept together, and with the doubts about my rash decision nagging, I embraced her company.

Side by side, we waited for the shuttle to dock with a metallic clank. When the heavy airlock door slid aside, I stepped into our shiny new world with bated breath.

"Welcome aboard," an officer in the azure uniform of the mission greeted us. "Please tell me your names so the AI can assign your accommodation."

We exchanged glances before we stepped up together.

"Amani Okiro and Celine..."

"...Marchand," I hurried to add, aware my new friend didn't know my surname.

The officer checked her tablet and frowned. "You are not marked as a couple."

"Is this a problem?" Amani managed a wide-eyed, worried glance far better than I could.

With a shrug and a tiny smile, the officer checked a box on her tablet and handed us a tag each before she pointed out a wall terminal. "These are your identifiers. The system will guide you to your cabin." She turned to the next group of colonists. "Welcome aboard the Titanic."

I stopped mid step, petrified, and Amani had to pull me out of the way. "What's wrong?" she whispered. "Having second thoughts?"

"No, it's not that. But—the ship—have you heard what she called it?"

"The Titanic, yes. Seems like a fitting name, and witty in a wonky way. Titan—Titanic."

I stared at her, fumbling for words. "Witty? But... don't you? Haven't you heard about the Titanic?"

A fold formed over her nose. "It's a brand new ship, the largest and fastest ever built, and capable of taking us to Titan in less than two years. Everyone has heard."

"No, not this ship. The old Titanic, an oceangoing vessel. It ran into an iceberg in one of the most dramatic catastrophes at sea. Ever since, it's considered bad luck to name a ship Titanic."

She shrugged. "Never heard of it. But the whole thing sounds like superstition."

The queasy feeling in my stomach told me to disagree. But then, this was a starship, and far more developed than an ocean liner in the twentieth century, right? Besides, this mission had been prepared for years—what could possibly go wrong?

🚀

Amani and I hit it off well. During the voyage to Titan, she worked shifts with the engineering team while I taught the kids of the colonists. In our jobs, both of us got to know plenty of new people and made friends. Against all odds, we stuck together, though, spending our free time in the gym or watching classic movies.

Like back home, the teacher's job had its perks and downsides. Most kids were interested enough, but the farther we moved from Earth, with concepts like "month" or "season" losing their importance, the more irrelevant some subjects seemed to become to my pupils.

When I caught an eleven-year-old playing games during history class, I couldn't fully blame him. "Felipe, please stop and try to pay attention."

"Why? Who cares what happened on Earth hundreds of years ago? My dad says Earth is gone and we should forget it. He says it's better to look forward to the future instead of mourning the past."

"History has nothing to do with mourning. Understanding where we came from is important to help us shape a better future and not repeat past mistakes."

Felipe snorted and threw out his meagre breast. "As if anything in your history could compare to our situation. We're pioneers and can build our own world with our own laws."

There it was, the sentiment developing amongst certain groups of the colonists. Amani had laughed it off, but the situation reminded me of misguided beliefs popping up in isolated populations. With a sigh, I was about to start on a history tangent when the ship shook as hard as it had last done with the initial trust. I held onto my desk, shocked into silence, until a siren tore through the comm system.

"Collision alert. Evacuate section 4C and revert to your emergency stations."

Great, another safety drill. I clapped into my hands to calm the hubbub in the classroom when, like an afterthought, a second message came through.

"This is not a drill. Please follow the safety protocols and wait for further instructions. Avoid section 4A to 5B."

My attempt to calm down the kids was futile. They fought their way out of the classroom in raising panic, leaving me and a bewildered Felipe behind.

"What happens now, Miss Marchand? Are we going to die?"

His fear-filled eyes looked up at me, and I swallowed my anxiety. "I hope not. The engineers are going to fix it. Why don't you go back to your family and wait things out with them?"

"We live in section 4C."

The kid of an officer, as I should have guessed by his earlier remarks. But if we had a hull breach, I couldn't send him this way. "Okay, why don't you come with me, then?"

My heart drummed hard in my chest as I hastened through the panicking crowd towards my quarters, the boy by my side.

"Collision alert. Please follow the emergency procedures and avoid level 3 to 6."

Merde. The breach was spreading. How was this possible? I hoped Amani was safe down in the bowels of the ship—and would meet me at our cabin on level 9, a comfortable three decks away from the evacuation zone.

Panting, I slammed my palm onto the lock plate and the cabin door slid open, but Amani wasn't in. I tried the comm for new information, but got just repetitions of the former message, then a few garbled sounds, and then nothing. A shiver ran down my spine. Was the bridge affected now?

"Let's head for the rescue pods just in case, shall we?" At least the hangar was on level 12 and further away from the breach.

Felipe only nodded. On the way along the curved aisle, he took my hand. I held it in mine, aware of how small and fragile it was and still needing his support as much as he did mine. I didn't dare to take the elevator, so we scuttled down the emergency stairs, something Amani and I had done as an exercise. Thanks to her technical knowledge and interest in the ship, I knew where I had to go. Many others were not as lucky. Back in the main corridor, some hurried the other way, crying or shouting the names of relatives and friends, or simply stood, blocking the path with absent and petrified expressions.

Felipe and I moved along the walls, avoiding the spots where larger groups harassed scared crew members for information.

Doomed... we are doomed. The words kept banging around in my head while I tried to remember what Amani said when we talked about emergencies. She insisted the Titanic was as safe as possible, the masterpiece in a long history of spacecraft building. But after watching Titanic, the movie with me, she admitted a hull breach of that size might be a problem. "The landing pods in the shuttle hangar could double as life pods. Since they are reusable, there won't be enough of them, though." My shocked expression had made her smile. "This ship isn't supposed to fail, Cel. But if the worst comes to the worst, meet me at the last craft in the second row, the Explorer Alpha-5."

The last in the second row, right? We were not the only ones heading for the small craft. The ruckus in the hangar was deafening while crew members ushered colonists aboard the shuttles. Almost overwhelmed by the pressure of human bodies around us, I pulled Felipe to the back of the hall. Amani had been right. There was a second row of smaller, sleeker craft. They looked flimsy compared to the larger shuttles, and most colonists didn't spare them a glance. Felipe and I hurried down the row until we reached the fifth of the tiny ships.

"This is it. Amani told me to meet her here."

"Who is Amani?"

"My friend." I looked around me, worry knotting my intestines.

The boy pulled at my arm. "Shouldn't we get into a shuttle, Miss?"

Other colonists had discovered the Explorers, now, and tried to board them. I reached for the hatch control of the one we stood next to. Before I could touch it, the door swung open.

"Get in. What are you waiting for?"

Instead of following the instruction, I whirled around to wrap my arms around the newcomer's neck. "Amani. I'm so glad to see you. What's going on?"

"Hull breach. Don't waste time, get on the ship. You too, young man. Where are your parents?"

I ushered Felipe up the steps. "Section 4C."

"Kuma," she swore in Swahili while she clambered into the tiny cockpit. "Sit down and belt in."

Others saw us boarding and followed, led by a junior officer. He held his side with his arm, blood seeping into his uniform, but took in the situation with a glance out of keen blue eyes and addressed Amani. "Can you fly this shuttle?"

She snorted. "Sure, I'm the assigned pilot. Not much flying needed if the seals of the ship hold, though. Where should we to go out here? If the seals don't hold, it's a matter of time and oxygen. Close that hatch, will you? Before the breach reaches this deck."

The man with the name tag Davies gave her a blank stare before he turned around and let another group in before he closed the hatch with his free arm. Shaken, I slumped down in a seat while Davies told us to belt in and clambered into the second cockpit seat. "And now?"

Amani shrugged. "We wait. What happened to you?"

"Caught a splinter on my way to my cabin during impact. But I'm fine. What are we waiting for?"

"If we're lucky, the seals of the lower decks hold and we can leave this flying coffin and install us there. If not, we have an air supply recycler unit that should allow us to survive."

For a certain time. She didn't need to add the words to make my skin crawl. Felipe took my hand. "Miss, what about the others?"

I knew he meant his family. "I don't know. Perhaps it's not as bad as it seems. Perhaps the seals will hold." But the lack of communication from the bridge made my words sound like a eulogy.

"Kuma ya mama yako." Amani's swearing was followed by cussing from Davies. I unclipped my harness and squeezed into the tiny cockpit. "What is it?"

My friend pointed out into the shuttle hangar. The people on the flight deck had disappeared, and through a gap, I could see the starry vastness of space.

"Part of the hull just blew away." Davies' voice was hoarse. "How is this even possible?"

"The ship falls apart. The breach must be enormous." Amani engaged the engine. "Get back to your seat, Cel. I want to check the damage from the outside."

She brought us out through the crack in the hull with the thrusters and turned the ship around so we could see the Titanic. The pride of the human fleet spun in space like a slaughtered whale, an asteroid almost the size of the ship itself wedged firmly into her side. Its icy surface glinted in the light of the distant sun like a diamond. Amani ran a hand over her eyes. "We are lucky the air seals held as long as they did."

I wrapped my arms around Felipe, suppressing another shiver. "What about survivors? There must be some in the other shuttles?"

"Good idea." Amani turned to her copilot. "Can you try to reach the ship by comm?"

He nodded and bowed forward, activating the comm. "Marco Davies from Explorer Alpha-5 calling the Titanic. Explorer Alpha-5 to Titanic."

He repeated his message on several channels, but the ship didn't respond. After a while, three shuttles from Titanic's dozen joined us. Davies established contact, and since we were the only Explorer among them, Amani agreed to take the tiny ship back into the hangar to check on the rest.

The dark interior was a sobering sight in the beam of the Explorer's searchlights. Two craft had crashed into each other during takeoff, both now dark and silent. We found the others with the hatches still open. Their occupants must have died the moment the Titanic's hull broke. I felt the tears running down my cheeks when I realised how few survivors we were.

🚀

Back outside, Davies reported to the other shuttles with an even voice. "Alpha-5 to Shuttles 3, 4 and 7. Seems we're the only ones that made it."

The dry answer came from Shuttle 7. "Thank you, Explorer Alpha-5."

We established that Shuttle-7 was the one with the highest ranking officer, the second engineer. He was reluctant to take command of the survivors, though. "Shuttle-7 to all survivors. Do we have suggestions on how to proceed?"

"Any ideas?" Davies seemed as shaken as I was, leaning back in his seat with a pale face and strained expression.

"We should set off a distress call," Amani pointed out.

Davies confirmed with the engineer that our ship had the most potent broadcasting equipment and turned to Amani. "You're the pilot. You know better how to do this."

She reached for the comm. "Mayday, mayday, mayday. These are the survivors of the Titanic. The ship got hit by an asteroid. Four shuttles with survivors on coordinates 3785c—77b43–0012a. Mayday, mayday, mayday."

A man in the forest green of maintenance beside me scoffed, "fat chance anyone out here can hear us."

"We're in the asteroid belt," Davies answered. "There are mining stations out here. But it will take a while until they get the message and reach out to us."

"If they receive the message, they might be here within a reasonable time." Amani ran a hand over her face.

"We won't make it, though, not without food and water." Davies' face was pale. "We might, if we had Cryo units like the long distance explorers."

My friend's face brightened. "We don't, but we have the next best thing. There are torpor emergency kits in the shuttles."

I had read about this method to slow down a human metabolism to a natural hibernation. Not as thorough as true cryostasis, it would still make us need less air, less water and no food. This way, we might last for several weeks. Someone would have to wake us, of course, but if the miners followed our distress call, they might arrive before we faded away. I checked out our motley group. A young mother cradling a toddler. A young couple, clinging together with frightened eyes. Several workers, one of them dripping blood from an arm injury, another pale and almost apathetic. Like Davies, they must have been close to the hull breach.

"If this helps us survive, then we should do it." I voiced my opinion without hesitation. Falling asleep would definitely be better than starving or suffocating.

The injured worker frowned. "Is there no other way? Can't we fly to the mining base?"

Amani shook her braids. "This is a planetary explorer. We only have limited capabilities for space travel—and no idea where to look. I think it's our best bet to wait beside the Titanic. She is an impressive beacon for anyone to find."

"Still, I prefer to be active rather than sit it out."

Davies suppressed a cough and rubbed a tiny drop of blood from his lips. "And what if we fly in the wrong direction? Also, we should stick together. As a group, we're easier to find."

Felipe took my hand. "I agree with Officer Davies and Miss Marchand."

One by one, the others nodded. Davies communicated our decision to the other shuttles. We listened to their discussion over comm while Amani prepared the shots that would send us under.

🚀

"Welcome aboard the Skywalker."

It took a while to register the words. Where was I? With an effort, I opened my sand-clogged eyes, fighting against nausea and the fog in my groggy brain. I was in a well-lit chamber cluttered with tech I didn't understand in a cheerful collection of bright colours—definitely not the Titanic's sleek modern design.

"Are you alright?"

I wasn't, but my throat was parched and I couldn't form a coherent word.

"Oh, right, you must be thirsty." A muscular arm helped me sit up and a dark hand pressed the chipped rim of a cup against my lips. The cool water running down my throat was heaven.

"Thank you. Where am I?" I looked up into warm brown eyes. White curls framed the man's smiling face.

"Aboard the Skywalker. She runs the mining biz in this neck of the system. I'm Tony, the doctor of this chunk pile. Not as fancy as the fat whale of yours, but at least she doesn't have a hole the size of a moon in it."

Right, the Titanic. With a painful flash, my memories returned. "The others—how are they?"

"They are fine, most of them." He turned to the side. "Hey, young man, she's awake now."

Seconds later, Felipe flung his arms around my neck, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I'm so glad you're awake. You took forever to come round, Miss."

I patted his shoulder. "My name is Cel, Felipe. And I'm glad you made it, too. Is everyone fine?"

"Sorry, Cel." Tony's face darkened. "Your pilot didn't make it."

My world turned black, and I felt tears flooding my eyes. Amani... I pulled Felipe closer and cried into the nook of his neck.

"Were you close?"

The doctor's voice sounded empathetic, and I sniffled, lifting my head. "Yes, we—she was the one who brought us out of there, and knew about the torpor kits. Without her, we would all be dead."

"She? I'm talking about the young man, Davies, I think. I thought... well, his wounds were too severe to survive the torpor treatment, poor sod."

I remembered Davies' clear blue eyes, his professional attitude despite his lethal injury. I wish I had known him better.

🚀

When Tony and his captain brought us to the miner council at Ceres station a few days later, they offered us refuge in their expanding colony. The other option was to travel back to Earth with the next long hauler shipping minerals. We all agreed to stay—what was there for us, back on Earth?

By the window of our new quarters, I thought of the two shuttles who hadn't made it. One left the wreck of the Titanic for unknown reasons and hadn't been found yet. The crew of the last one died when their oxygen ran out. I sighed. Why didn't they use the torpor kits? We would never know.

Amani placed an arm around my shoulders. "What worries you, Cel?" I leaned into her, enjoying the contact. She would soon begin her new job as a mining pilot and be away for long periods. I would miss her.

"So many lost, and yet we're here and ready to start new lives. I'm sad and grateful and excited at the same time." I looked forward to working as a teacher again.

She pressed my arm. "It's good to be alive. I wonder if you were right, and it was the name. They should have asked you before they named the ship Titanic."

The boy joined us and looked up at me. "Why?"

I studied the vastness of space dotted by stars. "There was an oceangoing ship of that name on Earth, centuries ago. It sank when it hit an iceberg."

"Wow, just like us. Is that why you like history?"

"One reasons. There is much we can learn from it if we are ready to listen."

Amani nudged me. "Like not being haughty?"

"For example."

She smiled and ruffled Felipe's hair. "Will you watch out for Cel while I am away?"

"Will they let me stay with you?"

We exchanged glances. There it was again, that wordless understanding from the first day we met. "Of course they will. We're a family."

Felipe's eyes brightened, and he took my hand. "Will you tell me more old Earth stories?"

I smiled and pressed his fingers. "Sure, until Amani comes back with loads of exciting stories about her adventures."