Nightfall on Tarus 5
Commander Uhru is beyond thirsty. How long has it been since the shuttle crash? Unconscious for some time, he doesn’t know, but he is alive. He’s not sure being alive is a good thing given his circumstances.
He tries to wiggle free but he is pinned beneath the wreckage of the shuttlecraft. His arms are immobilized, and he has no feeling in his legs. He can only move his head a few degrees to survey his situation. He watches the twin suns of Tarus 5 become obscured behind distant clouds spitting lightening that move ever closer, stabbing the land as if in search of prey.
Tamara my love, he thinks. You and the kids must be frantic by now with the shuttle so long overdue. There will be no rescue, at least not one in time. Uhru knows it. The finder signal could not have survived such destruction. At least there is no pain in his helplessness.
He notices shuttle debris thrown by the crash onto a rock ledge not far away. Seeing anything clearly is difficult with his limited range of vision, and wind driving grit that scours his face like sandpaper.
When he squints, Uhru thinks he sees something, someone, lying among the debris on the rock-ledge. My God, it’s Thomas, the ship’s android. Somehow it lifts his spirits a little to see another crew member, even if it is a dead one.
The storm grows closer, raindrops impact the parched landscape like tiny asteroids throwing up dust in their wake.
Crazy with thirst, Uhru has prayed for this rain to come.
The wind rises to gale force, lightning strikes the ground over and over all around the stricken commander. Previous droplets of water mocking his need become a deluge. The crash of thunder from the lightening is louder than anything the commander would ever hear on Earth.
Now a river of storm water pours down the side of shuttle craft and Uhru strains his tongue to gather the stream and slake his thirst.
The storm passes leaving Uhru lying in a sea of muck. The humidity and temperature jumps as the cloud cover breaks, and the sun-light from two suns beat down. The rainstorm has cleared the air of dust, and with the wind now silent, he sees more clearly. He looks again to the rock ledge. Where has the droid gone? There he is. The storm has apparently blown him from ledge and onto the rocks below. Dear God, he is moving! The fall must have activated him somehow.
“Thomas. Thomas…Over here.” Uhru calls weakly. Thomas moves his head and looks in the commander’s direction.
“I hear you co commander, commander. I will try try … try to get over there. Serious…. Serious damage.”
The commander watches as Thomas attempts to get to his feet, then falls sideways to the ground. He uses a piece of shuttle wreckage for support and slowly makes his way around the boulders and wreckage in his path to the commander. His gait is unsteady, his head shakes from side to side like a human stricken with Parkinson’s.
“Thomas…So good to see you. I thought I was the only survivor.”
“Good good good to see you commander. What is your con con condition?”
“Not good I’m afraid Thomas. I am pinned and have little feeling in my body – I suspect my back was broken in the crash. “
Thomas lets go of his walking assist and falls to the ground to be near the commander.
“Howwwww can I assist you?” His head moving side to side makes a crunching sound. Uhru is reminded of the tin man from the Wizard of Oz and sardonically imagines a squirt of oil would be in order now.
“I need you to look in the wreckage. See if the distress beacon is operating? Find any food, water, and the medical kit.”
Uhru watches the ‘droid struggle to his feet and half walk,, half drag himself to inspect the debris field and the craft itself in search of the items requested.”
Shortly he returns with some emergency rations, the medical kit, and the bad news.
“Famished, the commander wolfs down a biscuit. “Thanks Thomas. What’s our status?”
“Not ggggood.All crew dead. All communications is smashed. Beacon …on… on not operational. Doubt we can ffffix…” Thomas’s right hand began to swivel involuntarily. “My self diagnostic tic tic tic suggests I have only a short time before lack of power causes me to shut down for good. “
The two of them are silent, and look at one another as if not knowing what more to say.
“Well, I guess that makes two of us Thomas buddy. I need you to help me out.”
“I will try but I cannot move the shuttle without equip ip ip ment.”
“That’s not what I mean Thomas. You’ll have to help me die while you still can.”
“Cannot comply. My program…am…aming.”
Uhru knew the droid must refuse. Droids must never harm a human, except to protect another human. He would have to convince Thomas to somehow override his programming.
“Thomas, I know you are programmed never to harm a person except to protect another person, but I’m helpless here, few supplies, little hope of rescue with the beacon smashed. If you don’t help me, I will suffer a slow painful death alone.”
The droid grew silent and appeared to be thinking. Finally he said, “What must I do commander?”
“The medical kit Thomas…get a blade.” Thomas awkwardly pulls the medical kit closer, opens the lid, and removes a blade from the container with difficulty His mechanical hands reliable one minute, began to twitch and turn involuntarily the next without warning.
“Make several vertical cuts on the inside of my arm.” The droid hesitated then, taking the blade, began the grim operation. Uhru closed his eyes and grimaced stoically throughout the grim procedure. A few moments later he opened his eyes to the river of blood, and his life, flowing into the muck around him. Ashes to ashes…earth to earth, he thinks.
“Thank you Thomas, you are a good friend and comrade – much more than the sum of your parts and your programming.”
The droid reached out his shaky arm and placed his hand over the commanders. “I will stayyyyy…with you commander.”
In the distance, the two suns of Tarus 5 were only arcs on the horizon. The droid suddenly began to shake uncontrollably, several of his servos acting as if suddenly they had minds of their own. The shaking stopped.
Goodbye old friend, Uhru whispered. And now the dark..
The rescue shuttle settled a distance from the crash site. The weak signal of the droid’s communicator had given them a fix, but not in time.
Reality dictates that wherever humans venture in the cosmos, they must carry with them the limitation of their mortality. Such it has been since the first sailors set out from the security of landfall into the seemingly endless watery abyss beyond I search of new lands, new routes to the orient, and mankind’s collective destiny.
The End
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