---Earth Date: September 3rd 2050

---Personal Log: 1st Lt. Russell Winters

“I’ve never been able to get used to jump space. Always starts to feel wrong after a while. My bones just start to feel…odd…like they’re not mine. Like any minute I might just reject my own body and float away. Don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it, no matter how many systems we survey. Aaah well, I guess this is what us Omega boys signed up for. ‘See the unknown’! ‘Be the tip of the spear’! Not that the vids lied, I guess. This will be our 7th consecutive jump away from Sol. We’ve been out for 6 months now, farther along the galactic arm than any human’s ever been. Not as exciting as I hoped, but it’s better than surveying the border systems with the Ghaelen. This will likely be our last jump before turning around and charting an alternate route back home. I’m pretty sure there have been at least three worlds we’ve seen with colony potential, but the Beta guys will have to scrub the data once we get back. For now, it’s one more leap into the unknown. To think it’s been less than a century since we first walked on the moon…better cut this short before I get too sentimental. Next log will document any pertinent findings in the next system. Winters out.”

Tapping his data pad once to stop the recording, Lieutenant Russell Winters looked around his small cabin aboard the scout ship Lancer. The small viewport held his gaze. Jump space, nothing but darkness. He felt like it would swallow him alive given the chance. “Should be just a few more seconds.” He muttered to himself, checking his watch. They’d been in warp for almost 10 days now. The jump drives were capable of longer jumps, but the captain hadn’t wanted to push it too far. Every jump took a toll on both ship and man, and they’d already done six of substantial length. So instead of taking the longest possible jump out of the last system, as was customary for a scouting mission into unoccupied space, the captain had decided on another destination: a K-type star with multiple bodies within the estimated habitable range, at least according to long range sensors. Even if they didn’t push the envelope as far as possible, an elevated chance of finding a habitable world was more than worth the detour.

“All hands, prepare for jump exit.” The captain’s voice rang out over the ship-wide comms, bringing Winters’ attention back to his immediate surroundings. “Ten…nine…eight…”

“Finally, been cooped up in here long enough. Wonder what we’ll find…maybe something for me to land on.”

“Five…four…”

“Gah! What the…” A massive quake of the hull shook Winters out of his chair and onto the hard metal floor. “Damn it.” He cursed to himself as seemingly every alarm on the ship began to blare at once. Not waiting for orders he began running. Within seconds he burst through the door to the bridge, happening upon a scene of controlled chaos. The captain was grimacing, processing input from her own display and multiple watch standers at once. The tremors had died down almost immediately following the early exit from jump space, but the lights lining the bridge still flickered and flashed, indicating unusual power surges. Winters frowned as the captain’s gaze found him. “Orders sir?”

“Nothing yet.” She replied. “We barely missed getting roasted. Dropped out way too close to the star. Only Dax’s quick hands on the shield power draws saved us.” She motioned to a watch stander who nodded at them both before returning his attention to his display, hands moving quickly and deliberately.

“Do we know what caused the error?” Winters asked. “Was this an attack?”

“An attack that can affect a ship inside a warp bubble?” The captain mused. “I hope you’re wrong Winters. For now though we’ve had no time to analyze the drive core’s logs. It’s been all hands just trying to keep the power fluctuations from blowing this ship apart. Shifty’s doing his best down in the drive core but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

“Sir, we’ve regained power to external sensor and comm buoy suite!” Another watch called out.

“Good. Launch a buoy immediately. Transfer all data accumulated since we left jump space. If we don’t make it someone’s gonna need it.”

“Is it that bad, sir?” Winters asked in surprise, looking down at her. The furrowed brow above her almond shaped eyes told him everything. As the captain opened her mouth to reply, a flashing notification appeared on her display. She took the call immediately. “Talk to me Shifty!”

“It’s not looking good sir.” The chief engineer replied via the comm link. “We passed too close to the star and the drive core was already thrown out of whack by the abrupt exit. She’s fluctuating far outside normal operating parameters.”

“Shifty, do I need to order an evac?”

“I don’t really…”

“Yes or no Shifty!”

“…Yeah…it might come to that sir.”

Winters grimaced, watching the captain tense and purse her lips in thought. A moment later she hit the ship-wide intercom. “All non-essential personnel to escape pods. This is not a drill. I repeat, all non-essential personnel to escape pods now.” She released the intercom and looked up at him, any emotion now hidden behind the duties of command. “Armor up Rusty. Get to your pod.”

“Sir…Jess…”

“Now, soldier.”

Winters brought his heels together and fashioned a sharp salute. He turned and departed the bridge along with most of the watch crew, muttering under his breath. “Damnit Jess.”

Three minutes later Winters crossed the threshold from the armory to the drop pod bay. As the only HEL Jumper on the Lancer, this place had been all his. A place of quiet respite before the inevitably harrowing drop from low orbit to a planetary surface. Now though, he felt no calm among the dim red lights as they flickered and flared. The tremors were back. He clambered into his pod and activated the comm link to the bridge. Jess took his call almost immediately.

“Good. You’re ready to drop?”

“Not until you’re in a pod I’m not. What’s the situation up there? Is there even anywhere for me to drop?” Winters asked, hearing the creeping fear in his voice.

“It’s not good. Shifty’s doing the best he can but the power spikes from the core keep getting worse.”

“Then get out of there Jess!”

“You know I can’t do that Rusty. Not yet. Not while there’s still a chance. For now, I’ve aimed us straight at the world located in the star’s habitable zone. We’re far enough from the star now and I’ve been able to devote all spare power to thrusters. Even if you and the others had to launch now, you’d probably make it via inertia if nothing else.”

“I notice you didn’t include yourself among this merry band that’s fleeing ship…” he replied with more venom than he’d intended.

“Damnit Rusty that’s not the point and you know it! I don’t have time for- Go ahead Shifty.” The engineer had appeared in a secondary window on Winters’ panel. He looked significantly more harried than a few minutes prior.

“There’s nothing more I can do sir, I think…I think…”

“Get out of there now Shifty. Transfer remote control to me. All hands, escape pods. Now!”

“Sir…” The engineer looked down briefly, and then cut his feed. No doubt he and the final watch standers were headed for the escape pod bay on the other side of the ship. Winters returned his attention to the captain.

“Why aren’t you evacuating too Jess? Let the automated subroutines handle this. It’ll buy enough time for you to…”

“It might.” She spoke quietly now. “It might not. It’s not a risk I can take. If you’re wrong, we all die.”

“Jess, that’s not…please!” He tried to argue, feeling the ship shake beneath him.

“Rusty, take your helmet off?” It was a kind request. The tone of the woman he loved; not his commanding officer. “I’d like to see you.”

Winters hesitated for only a moment, then reached up and removed his helmet; twisting in the confines of the cramped pod. He knew she’d see the raw emotion in his eyes. Sometimes he was a terrible soldier. Now was one of those times. Another alarm cried in the distance. Another faint tremor ran through the hull.

“Thank you, Russell.” She looked at him, emotion plain on her face. “Thank you for everything. I’ve never had so much fun breaking regulations before.” A small chuckle escaped her lips. Winters wanted nothing more than to kick the door off his pod and run to her. But he stayed put and nodded, allowing nostalgia to temporarily get the better of him.

“Yeah, that one time in the mess hall back in basic? And then after they promoted you? Boy that was close.” He smiled, the fond memories of their time on Earth returning. Another shrill alarm brought him crashing right back. “Jess. You don’t have to do this. You don’t.”

“Yes, I do Rusty.” She smiled at him. It was hard to tell on the low resolution monitor, but he could have sworn he saw a tear glimmer in her eye. This was just like her. To put him and the crew, even the ship, before herself. She was made captain for a reason. Winters thought to himself. Jess glanced to the side, checking something, and then looked back at him. “I want you to launch in 15 seconds. We should be close enough for you and the others to make landfall.”

“I love you Jess. You know that right? I love you so please-”

“I know you do Rusty. I know. And I love you too.” She replied, voice choking with emotion. She lowered her head, allowing her hair to fall in front of the monitor. When she looked back at him a moment later, Jess was gone. He looked again into the eyes of his commanding officer. “These are your final orders. You will launch your pod. You will make planetfall. You will survive. You will return to the fleet. And you will find out what happened here. Is that clear?”

She wanted a response. He knew he had to reply. But his mouth wouldn’t open. His tongue felt swollen and dry. He simply looked at her, unwilling to accept what she already had. “Put your helmet on soldier.” She spoke again, low but firm. He obeyed, finally finding his voice once his armor locked into place.

“Sir, I will sir. I’ll miss you sir.” Another tremor, stronger than any before, shook him. Without waiting for a reply he yelled a fierce, anguished cry, and slammed his armored fist into the launch button just above his right shoulder. Immediately he felt the powerful thrust of his pod’s engine speeding him away from the dying ship. His comm link with the bridge cut, and there was silence. With nothing left to do he brought his hands to his face and cursed the fates, the gods, and whatever other powers had forsaken them so far away from home. “Damnit Jess…”