Oscar's Piece for tuesday

[King_of_Crows]

Oscar Loya
“ALERT. THE SHIP HAS BEEN HIT! ALERT. THE SHIP HAS BEEN HIT!” Bright red lights painted the metal walls of the rocket ship. The sirens blaring, making Cosmo flinch. His hands ran to cover his ears, as a steady stream of curses left his lips.
“I told you. I told you, but NOOOOO, flying near Mars in a venetian ship will be just fine. ‘What's the worst they could do,’ you said. I think I know the worst they could do, Inigo, I have a pretty damn good idea of the worst they can do,” Cosmo ranted as he made his way to the cockpit.
“I get it, Cos. Geez, I get it,” Inigo rolled his eyes as he started mashing buttons to stabilize the damaged ship.
Cosmo pressed the mute button at the entrance of the ship, muttering something about red giving him a headache. He ran his pale hands over the many flashing buttons. His fingers dancing with the flashing buttons, maneuvering around levers, and pushing on tidbits. After a moment of silence, if you considered button mashing and cursing silence, Inigo spoke up. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect those damn martians to do this. But we-”
“I got it. They caused more damage than usual. Let’s aim for Deimos, the smaller moon. They have a small base on it. Maybe we can pass as space pirates, if they catch us,” Cosmos chuckled at his own joke.
“Haha, very funny. But like you said they have a small base on it, so I doubt they will get us,” Inigo smiled at the fact that his friend wasn’t too mad about their ship being almost destroyed. Inigo was sure nothing would happen, in his whole 22 years of passing by Mars in Venetian ships he had not once been targeted. Then again his father did work for the universal police, and he had hijacked his dad's ship a fair amount of times.
“And here I thought a trip to Skylar was going to be distressing,” Cosmo replied, daydreaming about the northeastern capital of Venus.
“Well, I guess New Moscow will have to do,” Inigo and Cosmo laughed as they started pressing buttons to commence a landing sequence. Inigo swung his muscled self to the entrance of the cockpit, “Hey, Imma head out, ‘n see if there is anything I can start working on before the landing. Can you manage?”
“Yeah, just be careful. I don’t want to lose you in deep space. You remember Iapetus. Which reminds me, you still haven’t repainted my sis’ ship for that one,” Cosmo chuckled at remembering their little adventure on the moon of Saturn. About two years ago, Cosmo’s sister, who was a scientific collector, wanted a rock from Iapetus. Which ended up with Inigo in deep space for two hours, a giant scratch on the side of the rocket ship, and a rock from a meteor instead of Iapetus.
“Jus’ don’t remind her, and it’ll be a’ight,” he waved at the younger man, then he used the ladders to go down two levels. The dark skinned man was in the living quarters, and he headed for the corridor that sprung out of the circular room. Having the exit right outside of the sleeping chamber is probably not the wisest design, but hey it was a cheapish ship, and Inigo’s dad, Vulcan, told him that if he stole the police ship one more time that he would never see the sun again because he would end up on Pluto. Inigo wasn’t stealing it, he was just borrowing it for a couple of weeks to go to Europa. With those ships you didn’t have to pay for landing or planetary entrance, and no one ever attacked you, especially those pesky space pirates.
Inigo took off his pants and shirt, then slipped on the white clothes that were thick and warm. Then he reached over for the actual suit, and started putting it on, slowly and methodically. His dark skin contrasted with the white clothes and suit. Then he grabbed the helmet and drifted into the next room, the hangar, or as the boys had dubbed, the lip to the void. He closed the door, the voice of a pre programmed robot echoed through the grey room. “ATTENTION! THE HANGAR WILL NOW PREPARE TO OPEN FOR SPACE EXPLORATION!”
“Damn, Issoku, you need to learn to use you insi-”
“ATTENTION! THE HANGAR WILL NOW PREPARE TO OPEN FOR SPACE EXPLORATION!”
“What did I just say, Issoku? Maybe we should have called you Ōkina dōbutsu,” Inigo muttered. Cosmo had named the ship Issoku, which means “fast runner”, in the Europan planetary language, which is japanese, and Ōkina dōbutsu means “loud animal”. Inigo would have said pig, but he had only bothered to learn the basics, since Cosmo spoke almost perfect english and Novae Linguae, the Venetian planetary languages.
However, Inigo didn’t dwell on the name of Issoku for long, since he had to get his tool box, and make sure that all of the required tools were in there. He then proceeded to tether himself to the metal wall, and tie the toolbox to his belt. The thick and long tube that was coiled on the wall would have normally weighed about twenty pounds, but that didn’t really happen is space.
“ATTENTION! THE SHIP WILL LAND ON (INSERT NAME OF CELESTIAL OBJECT) IN APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUR!” Inigo opened his mouth to say something, but was immediately cut off. “ATTENTION! THE SHIP WILL LAND ON (INSERT NA- DEIMOS) IN APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUR!” This reminded the young man to check the mute button, he could have sworn that Cosmo had pressed it.
The panel behind Inigo closed completely, and the big hatch in front of him started to open. The opening started to spin counter-clockwise, undoing its lock. A loud crank, and other mechanical noises were emitted. To Inigo it was like a soothing music box. Then slowly the hatch started to open, and if possible, the dark skinned boy felt even more weightless. He pushed off of the cold metal door into the frigid embrace of the void. With his growing momentum, Inigo swung himself to his right, towards the engines of the rocket ship. As he spun around the ship he was met with the giant crest of Venus, a navy blue 7 pointed star surrounded by a white diamond shape.
He approached the panel that controlled the engines from the outside. The Martians had struck his ship with a Trash Shot, which is just condensed trash shot at a very quickly. It was only a warning sign, but considering just how old the ship was, it didn’t surprise Inigo just how much exterior damage it caused. And so he set to work, opening the panel and checking all of the wiring, fixing what he could and patching up what he couldn’t.

This is a "historical document" from the made up universe. I plan to include one with each chapter.


Excerpt from the DANDELION FARM by HATAKE SASUKE 154 Eu (2278 IP). Translated by IRA SAKURA in 185 Eu (2309 IP).

It was in the hot year of 2124. The rich had left the Great America and Britain to create floating cities on Venus. And the Russians had taken control of the those who were abandoned... In 2027... But only the ones from rich countries. They promised a better life in the soils of Mars...
Then we left our home country. Those who were abandoned had no one to stop their new found power of ruling the now empty world of earth. We left because they were unstable, and the endless seas of Europa beckoned us. In this new planetary isolation we grew. We had space to accommodate our old alliances who hadn’t already left...
A woman who tends to her garden of wild dandelions, and we her prized dandelions have left our home. We have been carried by the winds to a more prosperous place. Some of the seeds came along with us, while others fled. The woman was our mother, our nurture, and now we must nurture ourselves...
We must grow our own dandelion farm...
Long live Europa and its children.