The Double Star of Veles

Prologue

The infinitesimally small dot that was planet Veles was definitely getting brighter to captain Takayama. He routinely looked over the guidance systems to check if everything was in order. Then his gaze shifted again to the narrow nano-enhanced glass slit that served as one of only a few windows on the ship. It was of course built for utility not pleasure, so windows were not a priority in the design. The ship was at last in the final stage of its voyage to bring colonists to one of the closest known inhabitable planets that mankind has discovered. Deceleration was the critical part of the journey so the captain had been woken up by the ship’s computer to monitor the process. The ship's computer did most of the work, with only minimal corrections from the captain. He felt like a glorified figurehead, approving all the decisions Mira had made. He had to face the fact that they had been always better than the ones he would have come up with.

He continued to stare out into the empty void for a while, hypnotized by the blinking of a thousand tiny fireflies. Only a couple of those gave off a steady relentless light, and the ship 'Tanes Loi' was floating ever more slowly in a trajectory to meet one of them. The captain was anxious to get there at last, since it has been eight long years since he was woken up by Mira to start the long deceleration process. He did not regret leaving the slowly dying solar system much. The earth was becoming more and more plagued by overpopulation and pollution, and it was only a matter of time when it would succumb. That day would probably not happen for hundreds or even a thousand years, but it would happen inevitably. The colonies on Mars and the moon were not appealing either since they never truly became self-sufficient.

He finally tore away his stare from the intensifying luminescence of the bluish cynosure, when he heard some commotion behind him. “Only a couple more stinking months and we are free.” Exclaimed Dubaku while trying to squeeze past him in the narrow command room. “I have no idea how you managed to keep your sanity for seven years before I was woken up.”

The little man was sitting down to drink his morning coffee and eat the re-hydrated oatmeal at his workstation while watching his cartoons. He wasn’t exactly the model shipmate, but he was all that the captain had. The solitude of the long voyage did little to induce any king of meaningful discourse between the two men. But a couple of grumpy declarations to nobody in particular from Dubaku and the mere presence of another person were enough for the captain.

Dubaku, who was designated the first officer of the ship, was a cryogenics technician. He would be in charge of taking care of all the colonists’ revival process when they arrive at their destination. In a similar fashion to Takayama, his job was confined to monitoring the slow de-icing process of the crew. He would be much busier over the next month or two as he would have to help rehabilitate more of the key crew personnel in preparation of landfall. But for now, he was satisfied just watching old Earth cartoons on his view screen. Once on the colony, they would probably not be available anymore, especially for one seeking to homestead in the wilds.

“Proximity alert!” The bright red letters flashed on the screen of the bridge. The captain looked over the details on the proper console. It was one of the asteroids that the ship’s automated sensors had been tracking. The asteroid was on a course that would take it only a couple of kilometers from the Tanes Loi. The captain wasn’t worried about it enough to change the ship's course after all Mira would have already done it if it had been a real threat. He just issued the command to keep monitoring the asteroid's movements and notify him if there was any change. “Keep an eye on that asteroid will you?” he addressed Dubaku as he was heading out of the cramped room. “It's going to pass us in the next couple of hours.” The other man just let out an incomprehensible grunt as a response.

The captain proceeded to climb down the hermetically sealed shaft to a room leading to the living quarters. This was the place where the two men spent most of their time. The Coriolis force was strongest here, giving the illusion of gravity. He put on some 20th-century heavy metal and got on the exercise machine to do his mandatory workout. Listening to the classics relaxed him and energized him for his workout. He was always an old fashioned person when it came to music and disliked the modern computer produced synthetic bands and VR music that made you feel like you were the one creating the notes even if you were as tone-deaf as a rock. Yuji preferred the sound of the real physical instrument in his hands to that of the interactive musical groups. This is precisely why he used up his precious cargo allowance to bring a guitar with him. As captain, he had larger storage space than the other passengers which he used to store numerous electronic gadgets and useful machines which he could trade for an easy and luxurious life once he arrived at the colony.

Considering the nature of space travel and the length of the voyage even at near light speeds the colonists were always embarking on a one-way trip. There would be no going back to Earth or even sending messages to their relatives or friends since they would be all dead or dying by the time the colonists reached their destination. But the onslaught of colonists still persisted to uproot their whole lives and go into the unknown.

Veles was probably one of the most successful Goldilocks colonies that mankind had settled. Although how successful the captain could not know until he actually settled there. But one thing all the colonies had in common, near or far: Earth tech was considered priceless on each of them. It turned out that technology was not so easily produced without hundreds of years of economic and technological history. Even the simplest things like clothes or pencils would be enormously difficult to produce without a massive economy behind it. True, some of the oldest colonies managed to develop some industry and production, but Veles was too new and lacked trade connections with the homeworld outside of the tech that colonists brought.

Yuji Takayama continued stretching the rubber bands of his exercise machine to keep his muscle mass at least somewhat ready for landfall. He had decided to start focusing on his leg and core muscles since they would be the ones that would suffer the most when real gravity took hold of him. The lights flickered as he pushed his muscles to failure while Motorhead was blaring in the background. Of course, the intensity of this exercise would not have made him even break a sweat back on Earth. The rate of muscle loss is jarring for Earthers leaving gravity for the first time. It would take weeks or even months to recover his strength even though the colony was much smaller and thus less harsh on spacefarers than Earth. He would have to do this exercise again a couple more times before he went to bed and repeat this process every day in order to get ready.

He got out of the machine capsule and moved to the com panel and activated the broadcast screen. “Dubaku, I’m done with the exercise capsule so you can use it now. Don’t be lazy; you will be sorry when we arrive.” There was no answer from the second officer, which was not unusual, so Yuji went to the cramped tube which served as a shower. He was eagerly awaiting the time when he would be able to take a nice hot bath. He wondered if Veles had any onsen1 resorts or any luxuries that he had grown accustomed to on his home planet. The shower was a completely opposite experience than a hot bath. It was designed to use as little water as possible so it looked more like cleaning yourself over a sink than taking an actual shower. All the water would, of course, be purified and used again and again, nothing is wasted on a starship.

When he finally scrubbed himself clean as best he could the captain went back to the living quarters and sat on the chair. His shipmate still hadn’t come for his exercise so the captain brought up the live feed from the bridge. There was no Dubaku on any of the screens, he was probably on his way here or in the cryo rooms checking on the vitals of the colonists. The thing that he was able to see were hundreds of little black balls floating all over the small room. Dubaku must have forgotten to close his coffee lid. The next time the ship engaged the deceleration engines all the little coffee drops would splatter against the walls and consoles. The ship was almost completely waterproof so it wouldn’t cause any problems with the electronics. It was just troublesome to clean and every surface they touched in the room would be sticky for days.

He decided to go to the bridge and try to collect as many of the drops using rags before they splatter everywhere. He opened the hatch and started floating through the central axis hallway when he heard a banging from the other side of one of the cryo storage rooms. Was Dubaku trying to fix something without consulting him? The captain was the engineer and was usually in charge or any repairs that needed to be done. Floating to the slightly ajar storage hatch, he was about to start scolding his first officer when he heard an unfamiliar voice from the other side. Could it be that Dubaku had started waking up some of the other crew members? But that was not scheduled for at least another month. They would not have nearly enough air or water, not to mention food to support more than two people for the remainder of the journey. The captain was becoming really angry now. How could he have done something like this on his own? Maybe there was something wrong with the cryo unit and it was an emergency.

Just as the captain was starting to push the hatch open and enter the room he could hear another unfamiliar voice speaking, “Did you search the rest of the ship?”

“Da! There was nobody else that way, and Alyosha went to check out the engine room." The first voice continued. A sudden sense of apprehension overcame the captain’s mind. These men were not crew members. They spoke with a strange accent that Yuji hadn't heard before even though he personally talked to each of the colonists during the preparations for the voyage. So the only other option was that they had come from Veles itself. His first impulse was to go in and greet his new countrymen, but something in their voices told him this wouldn't be such a good idea. Instead, he scrambled towards the bridge to see if he could find Dubaku anywhere.

He fumbled with the hatch lock for a second and finally managed to undo it. As he rushed into the room quickly the terrible realization struck him as the little drops splashed all over his face. They were not coffee as he has thought when he saw them on the monitor but little black drops of blood. His shipmate's arms and legs were floating lifelessly through the air just below the camera as his torso was strapped into one of the chairs. Yuji gingerly touched the shoulder of Dubaku as if afraid of having his fingers burned by the lifeless looking body. It was just enough to spin the chair around revealing a grisly oatmeal stained face. Reddish clumps of oatmeal separated from his face and uniform. But the worst thing about the terrible image were the two fleshy oozing crimson sockets where once the man's eyes had been.

“This isn't happening,” thought the captain as panicky thoughts rushed into his head. He started feeling dizzy and lightheaded as his mind was racing with the images of blood streaming slowly out of Dubaku's throat and the desecration of his head. He lost his foothold on the wall bars and his vision went completely white. Murky brown liquid spewed out of his mouth and turned into drops that mixed with the blood drops floating through the room.

“That's disgusting. He's throwing up.” He heard a voice behind him. “I told you I heard something. I guess there were two of them.” The man he had heard talking was suddenly behind him. One had already entered the room and the other one looked on from outside the hatch. “I guess we can still do this the easier way after all.”

In between bursts of vomit captain Takayama tried to posture into a fighting stance. But the man was too adroit. He lunged at the captain propelling his body from the opposite wall and crashed into him with all his might. They spun around for a moment while the man was grappling at Yuji's hands immobilizing them. Once his opponent's arms were secure the attacker deftly caught onto one of the padded bars to stop their spin and anchored them in place. The man was clearly experienced in zero-g, but with the added advantage of high-g muscle mass. The last thing the captain felt was the excruciating pain of a blade slowly entering his side and twisting and grating on his ribs. The pain was excruciating.

“Don't kill him like the other one Alyosha, we may need him alive!” The man from the hallway exclaimed. Luckily the big man acquiesced and removed the blade. This did not seem to dull the pain. In fact, it may have made it even worse.

“I'm all covered with puke now as if the blood wasn't enough. Do they have a bathroom on this ship?” Said Alyosha as he was strapping him to the other chair.

“No time now, go and search the ship again, and make sure there isn't another one of the buggers hiding somewhere. After that, we need to do inventory. This beauty will fetch us quite a price with one of the houses.” The other man slipped into the room gliding past Alyosha careful no to touch his blood and vomit soaked suit. He removed what looked to be a surgical laser scalpel from his belt and approached Yuji.

“I think we took the wrong pair of eyes. These are the ones that we really need to take control of the ship's nav-computer.” When the realization of what was going to happen struck him it had been already too late. He was already strapped in tightly to the chair with his hands bound.

"Mira, start a complete lock..." The man's left hand clamped over his face and pushed him back into the chair. He could feel the rough calluses grating his skin and the smell of cigarettes on his fingers. It looked like Veles did in fact grow tobacco. Good to know if he ever wanted to start smoking again.

Just as the ridiculousness of this line of thinking at a moment like this struck him the laser scalpel came into his field of vision again. He tried to struggle, to wiggle his hands and feet, kick the man, turn his head at least. But his grip was too strong all he could do was bite at the hand holding his face. The taste of tobacco and blood flowed into his mouth, but the hand didn't let up. It just pressed harder. He closed his eyes in a last-ditch effort but it didn't matter. The pain seared through his skull and was felt not only there but all through his body. His screams were muffled by the man's hand. But even if they hadn't been, who would hear them? He could feel every muscle and every tendon detach in his eye socket as it was coming out. Somewhere in between the first and second eyeball Yuji finally passed out.