Escape

The pilot woke up from hibernation to the sound of the alarms.

He rushed to his seat, but he could already sense what was happening, as there was gravity again!

For some reason, the ship was falling into orbit, somewhere.

He got on the command post and fired up the auxiliary engines. The fuel was meant for later on, but this was a matter of life or death.

The rest of the team assembled as he tried to control the ship.

As he failed to control the ship.

They bumped into a rocky mountain and crashed into a river at its base.

Rocks from the mountain followed and trapped the ship under water.

The sound of metal being crushed was everywhere.

- We have to leave the ship!

- We can’t! We don’t even know where we are! We could die the moment we step outside!

- The panel! The panel!

They ran to the cargo bay.

They opened the container; they were carrying a teleportation panel to the next system, but the other half of the panel was back home. They could use it to escape.

One by one, they went through.

One by one, they came out on the other side, back home, to a dark and empty room.

- Is everybody here?

- I’m here!

- I’m here as well!

- I can’t see anything!

- It’s dark, we’re probably in a warehouse. We’re safe. I can feel a wall.

- The room is small. There’s another wall here.

Suddenly, the sound of metal falling to the ground: clunk!

- What was that?

- It wasn’t me…

- I didn’t do anything…

Something else: clunk!

The sound came from where the panel was.

They couldn’t see anything or each other; if they could, they’d realize that every single one of them was now pale, for they all knew what that sound meant.

The ship was being crushed, and the debris was making its way through the panel as well.

Then, the sound of water hitting the floor, and its cold temperature at their feet, slowly rising up their ankles.

Outside the monument, a child looked at the digital plaque:

Here lies the local half of the first teleportation panel ever lost.

This monument celebrates the spirits of those who carried it, wherever they might have ended.

And, finally, along with the pictures from the crew, the date of when the spaceship had swayed off course, over two centuries before.