Short Fiction: Deneb

"TEN MINUTE WARNING." The Ship AI spoke to the million colonists settling into their cryosleep pods. "LIFE TERMINATION IMMINENT."


Kaylah Blain devoured her Thai Chilli Squid ration pack before climbing into cryopod zero-one-one-three-nine-one-five, dropping the expended ration pack packaging into the cryopod by her feet.
The pod cover lowered into place and achieved a vaccuum seal with a sucking-thunk sound.

"WHAT MUSIC WOULD YOU LIKE?" The AI offered a selection of scrolling symbols waiting for her to pick one. "PERHAPS SMOKEY JAZZ... THE POKEMON THEMESONG IS AVAILABLE AS IS TH..."

"Please play the Pokemon themesong, Smokey Jazz, Sara Niemietz version." The AI accepted her selection of the Pokemon themesong in Smokey Jazz by Sara Niemietz.

The song lasted four minutes and fifteen seconds.

"TERMINATING BRAIN FUNCTION." The AI sorted through the vast backlog of data and determined that two cryopods had failed to terminate the brain function of their passengers. "CRYOPODS ZERO-ONE-ONE-THREE-NINE-ONE-FIVE FAIL, ZERO-ZERO-SEVEN-SEVEN-ONE-THREE-ONE FAIL."

"FAIL QUANTITY LESS THAN ONE PERCENT" That was sufficient to continue with the Jump. "JUMP IS GREEN."

"JUMPING." Space-time folded around the massive colony ship and then unfolded depositing the colony ship two hundred and seventeen Astronomical units from Deneb. "JUMP IS GOOD."

"CHECKING FOR PASSENGER LOSSES." The AI sorted through the million files. "TWO INITIAL POD FAILURES."

"CRYOPOD ZERO-ONE-ONE-THREE-NINE-ONE-FIVE," The now distinctly unhuman thing in the cryopod speared at the glass of its small prison with its metre long tentacle-tongue. "CRITICAL GENOME FAILURE DETECTED."

"CRYOPOD ZERO-ZERO-SEVEN-SEVEN-ONE-THREE-ONE," This one was inspecting itself, apparently focused on its miraculous survival. "CRITICAL GENOME FAILURE DETECTED."

"Wait... what?" Tragen Karst panicked at the suggestion. "What do you mean CGF Detected?"
Stop." Tragen Karst objected to the very idea that the systems had failed to protect him... had failed him. "I'm perf..." The launch force impacted against him and he blacked out.

"DISPOSAL PROTOCOL ACTIVATED." The two offending pods were ejected toward Deneb Hb. "DISPOSAL COMPLETE."

"POST JUMP REVIVAL PROTOCOL ACTIVATED." The AI activated the revival sequence for nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety eight Cryopods. "STIMULATING BRAIN FUNCTION."

"RECOVERY FAILURES DETECTED." Slightly less than fifty percent of the remaining cryopod population failed to emerge from their Deathsleep. "FAIL QUANTITY WITHIN FIFTY PERCENT."

"DISPOSAL PROTOCOL ACTIVATED." The cryopods of just less than half a million who failed to emerge from Deathsleep were ejected toward Deneb Hb. "DISPOSAL COMPLETE."

"DENEB Hc THIS IS DENEB COLONIAL TRANSPORT AI." The AI composed its report from the list of data flags it had accrued. "COLONIAL TRANSPORT HAS SUSTAINED LESS THAN FIFTY PERCENT POPULATION LOSS INCLUDING MISSION COMMANDER TRAGEN KARST AND ALL REGISTERED CREW."

"DEATH CERTIFICATES INCLUDED." The AI added the death certificates. "REQUESTING REPLACEMENT CREW."

"Report recieved Deneb Colonial Transport," The voice of a human responded. "Replacement crew will be dispatched."