Falling Stars [Part 1 of 2]

Posted on Sun Apr 27th, 2025 @ 1:08am by Crewman Raine Ni-ya

2,612 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: To Boldly Go
Location: Various
Timeline: Backpost

[2388, approaching Federation Space]

“System failure. Life support 13 percent. Weapons off-line. Shields at 23 percent. Recommended actions, evacuation or surrender.”

“No one asked you,” The Cereijan snapped at the computer over the sounds of the alarms, the white space of the shuttle bathed in the purple alarm lights. Blood was dripping from a cut on her forehead, the skin already trying to repair itself, shimmering with it. Her hands were steady as she piloted though, eyes wide to observe everything, to focus in.

[17 months earlier, Ai-rayna Gestation Facility, Dereijan]

It had occurred to her through the years that what was happening was the scientific equivalent of using mud-paste to seal a wormhole. It had been a slow realization driven home by repetitive tasks and failed scientifically experiments, littered with the literal corpses around them. Standing in the lowest level lab, the recently terminated Breeders on the metal table, Scientist Raine Rayetso could not longer deny the facts in front of her.

Her people were going extinct.

The genetic material was not viable anymore. In a few generations, the rate of genetic abnormalities would mean no child would come to term. Even with running calculations where they did let more damaged DNA through, it was a spiral. Cloning had its own issues, the result would be the same regardless.

In two hundred years, this Moon would be a tomb to a people who believed in science.

She exhaled slowly, her eyes widening as she allowed herself to take in more detail of the dead. They all had a look of her. As they had a look of everyone else. Everyone here were now related, somehow, distantly or not. In animals, if there had still been any from her planet, it would have been prudent to talk about the implication of that. For them, not so much. Who wanted to talk about the end of times anyway? Not when they could dance around the subject, bury it behind blind stumbling amongst genetic experimentation.

No. They as a species were running out of time.

She moved to her desk and sat down, her hands going across the desk until they encountered the familiar sand-like texture of the interface. She closed her eyes as she sank her hands into it, connecting to the information.

She brought up the species that were known to them. Files traded with others. Genetics.

“Unauthorized material accessed. Statis initiated until supervisor can verify.”

“No!” Raine’s eyes opened, and she gasped, the signal going through her hands and to her brain. And froze in that second as it took over, locking her body in a place of basic needs, such as heart pumping and breathing.

[ 2388, approaching Federation Space]

Another tremble went through the ship as Raine lurched forward, grimacing at the impact with her stomach.

“Shields at 18 percent. Recommend surrender or evacuation.”

“Stop recommending, computer!” Raine snapped and looked at the harness by the computer. She tried the controls again, hands gliding through them…yet she didn’t feel the connection. Power loss to the controls then. She sighed with annoyance, her pupils changing as she looked at the viewscreen, to see what was in front of her. The tell-tale distortion from the weapon’s trail in space. They weren’t getting a good lock at her due to the changes she had made to the shuttle. Good. She wanted to be hard to hit.

“No controls to touch…running out of time…” she muttered to herself and looked down at the console, at the panel there. “This is such a bad idea, Raine, this will get you killed…and it’ll hurt more than anything you’ve felt,” she told herself, her jaw setting with tiredness. “Such a bad idea…”

[16 months earlier, Professors of Ideas’ Chambers, Dereijan]

“Raine. Delivered Autumn Cycle, Rayetso Gestation Facility. Designation: Scientist. You stand before us accused of trying to access restricted information. What do you say?”

Raine stood on the raised platform in front of the Seven, the grey cloak covering her head and hiding the restraint on the back of her head that would knock her unconscious should she try to escape. There was a certain drama to the room that she noticed, the way it lit. Made bright and clean, to the point she could see the marks of moondust on it from people’s shoes. And the way that the Seven were lit, the lights behind them to limit her vision. It was all done to make her feel small. To set her in her place.

Well. That was something she didn’t appreciate.

“I say that I was trying to access genetic information on other species…to see if that knowledge could help us,” she said, speaking in a clear voice. She reached up to push her hood back. She hated the way it restricted her vision.

Ah. Of course. Armed guards both side of her. That was also why the hood had been there. She turned her head to look at them, purposefully, before back at the Seven. “It is good science to have all variables.”

“All the variables are already accounted for. You have your dataset. There is nothing else needed, Scientist Raine,” one of the Seven said, watching her as he stood. “You are one of many, one of the whole. You do you need to look outside for knowledge. A cure will be found within our own genetic material, there is no need to look elsewhere.”

“Isn’t there?” Raine asked, with confusion. “For generations we have tried to reverse infertility. We are nowhere closer to a cure now than we were back then. Yet each cycle, our genetic structure gets more corrupted by inbreeding.”

“Scientist Raine! Control yourself, this is not an argument. Your…curiosity got you looking where it was not needed. You now know why you do not need to look there anymore…” another one of the Seven, her head painted in brilliant blues and pinks, said with a patient smile. “A simple mistake, yes?”

Raine swallowed, seeing the opening. Seeing it as what it was, mercy. She looked down, taking a deep breath. “Curiosity within science is never a mistake,” she said, meeting her eyes. “But if it is ground already gone over…?”

“Yes,” the first speaker nodded, watching her. “Yes, Scientist Raine, it has already been analysed and deemed…unnecessary. We have spoken with your Supervisor and concluded that a simple four week’s rehabilitation with the Teachers will be punishment for your transgression. After all, you are one of our brilliant minds.”

Raine frowned, listening to what seemed to be said between the lines. Her Supervisor had put in a word based on her work. They did not want her dead, or reduced to less than she was. Yet rehabilitation…was indoctrination.

Could she survive four weeks of it?

Could she hold onto her own individuality during it?

Would she be the same?

“As the Professors of Ideas command,” she said and bowed her head.

[ 2388, approaching Federation Space]

“This is a bad idea…”

Raine swallowed as she pulled the cable, watching it, with its needles, the lights from the energy. This was Cerejian technology. Meant to interact with them, as it had been designed to. Yet this, a direct connection? That was rare. That was dangerous.

Too many variables. It could work.

She looked at where she was, ignoring the sounds of alarms, the shields weakening, the life support failing. Instead she rolled up her sleeve, taking the wire.

“This is Raine, I am a Cereijan and I am seeking asylum with the Federation. Please, come to my aid,” she said, the message recording and translating into two dozen languages. It had to be the Federation. Anyone else could hand her over. The Federation could not.

She took a sharp breath and pushed the wire in under her skin, pushing it deeper until it encountered the cluster of nerves by her elbow. She gasped, her eyes going white as she connected.

She had navigation again. And control over the engines. She kept the distress call running as she calculated the distance to the border and the amount of damage she could take. Shields were needed. Life support?

Sort of needed it, but not that much.

[14 months earlier, Dereijan]

“You look troubled, Sister,” Naiera sat beside her, looking at the sky, at the gas ball once the home planet of their people. “Troubled far beyond someone who should have felt the Rehabilitation.”

“Do I?” Raine asked as she tilted her head, a small smile coming to her. “Ah, I once had to sit through a 12 hour lecture given to me by Scientist Sqim. After that, one can survive anything with a look of boredom…” she let out a breath, her hands rested on the cold stone of the bench.

“Raine…” Naiera reached out, her hand covering Raine’s…bare, exposed, skin to skin and it was enough to make Raine gasp. “My love. There’s ways we can stop this…” she leant close, her head brushing Raine’s.

“Naiera…” Raine swallowed, leaning into the touches, her lips parting at the sensations. “This is dangerous talk, you know it. Anyone can hear.”

“No,” Naiera entwined their fingers, her lips going to her cheek, so they brushed against it with every word. “I have ensured that only those with a pure heart hearts. We’re surrounded by friends. We can talk freely.”

“Freely?” Raine watched her, tilting her head before she looked at the stars and the glowing grey-green mists of their ancestral home. “Is that so? Then…I will freely say this. As I lay upon the crumbling sands, your whisper a haunting sound…I longed to pull you ever close and map the stars in your scales..”

“Poetry?” Naiera laughed softly, leaning closer to gently stroke her head against Raine. “You don’t need to court me with poetry anymore. I would be yours, wholeheartedly, if you only asked.”

“What is wrong with a little romance?” Raine rested their foreheads together for a moment, taking her time to enjoy it. “Naiera…we need to stop the cycles. We need to force the Professors of Ideas to…reach out to other species. To free our Breeders. Let them have children with other compatible species to…to cure us.”

She watched her with a sad smile, nodding as she watched her. “Many of us, Raine, have thought the same. But none of our group are…Scientists.”

Raine swallowed at the words before she pulled back, looking at her. “Did you plan this? Us meeting, us connecting? Did you seduce me?”

“No! No,” Naiera shook her head quickly, touching her shoulder. “I never thought that you would…come to our side. I liked you for you, Raine. For your…sarcasm, your…pragmatism. Your odd sense of defiance.”

“Defiance,” Raine let out a breath, watching her. Considering if she was being truthful or not. It was a choice, to trust. A choice she was ill equipped to do. And yet, if she was going to trust anyone, it would be Naiera. Shaking at the prospect, she took her hand, lifting it to kiss. “There’s only one way to stop this.”

Naiera looked at her, a small smile coming to her as she watched her. “How?”

“We destroy their ability to do this any other way than the Breeders being freed,” Raine said, her eyes surprisingly clear as she watched her. “We destroy the labs.”

[ 2388, approaching Federation Space]

The border was closing to her. Her engines were failing. Shields were down to 4 percent. Life support…

“Breathable air compromised. Plasma leak.”

She was going to die. The shuttle was dying, she could feel it, the impulses from the shuttle’s computer racing through her own nervous system. She moved her hand to her own chest, resting here for a moment. “Naiera, I…am so sorry.”

The ping was unexpected. A threshold passed, a door entered.

Federation space.

“This is the USS Faraday, responding to your distress call. Under General Order nine, I am authorised to grant you political asylum. We see your shuttle is near-critical. We will beam you onboard.”

Raine laughed, her hand slapping down on the useless console in front of her. “Yes. Yes, Faraday…” she reached and pulled out the wire, gasping at the shock of the loss of connection. Her eyes closed as she fell, her own mind blank to it all.

[1 months earlier, Dereijan]

“It has taken us almost a year,” Raine said as she looked at the group assembled. A small group, just one for each facility. She had recruited Scientists with access. And beside her, Naiera, as always. Always by her side. She was the heart of the operation. And Raine, what was she? Not the brains. No. She was the knowledge. Able to see she was the product of the system and that the system needed to be shut down. Not just for the sake of herself. But for the Breeders enslaved and used, drugged up with no life. For their species to break the cycle and finally life or die by its own merits rather than using science to find an escape hatch that scientifically did not exist.

The room itself was dark, except from the circle of Rockflowers, carefully painted to represent their emotions. Their truths. Hers lay there too, bathed in yellow, a reminder of her love and conviction.

“Yet the last plans have been laid,” she continued, looking at the group. “We all have access to the critical systems. In exactly 12 Cycle Days, we will go through with this, at the Sign of the Rest. Most of the facilities will be empty for the restful hours, limiting causalities…”

She took a breath, having gone over the numbers. People would die. Hopefully, not many. “We will shut down the lockdown systems of the Breeders. The doors will be unlocked for them to escape…it is important that we evacuate them. At the same time, we initiate the viral protocols. It will burn the labs. Elyos, it is important that at the same time you initiate the purge of the computer banks.” She gave him a nod and stepped back.

Nervously, the man stood and pushed his hood back, his eyes pale. “I’ll link with the system. It needs to be a full link…or else they might shut me out,” his eyes softened and he reached to touch the cheek of the woman beside him. “It is a sacrifice we both will make. Iri will be by my side, protect my body until it is done.”

“I am so sorry you have to do this,” Naiera said, her voice soft as she watched with sadness. “We will remember you. Always.”

He gave a nod and looked over at Raine, his eyes gentle. “I have managed to procure a shuttle for us to use. Even if we succeed, the survivors of this will need to get off the planet…and tell the Federation of the change in circumstances. If they reach out first, then our people will have no choice but to respond. To save themselves, they must. And so this will change…this world will change,” he smiled and nodded, encouragingly. “For our brothers and sisters who are chained up to give their genetic makeup to the next generation, who are treated like less than us…we do this for them.”

“We do this for the future of our species.”

[To Be Continued in Part 2]

Crewman Raine Ni-ya
Science
USS Fenrir
[PNPC Hanlon]

 

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