EVE Fiction

Planned this story for the writing comp last year but time. terrible at forums as well, I will post it on an external site later




The night's air was a cool breeze which brought about relief to the normally hot and humid

summer days. The night's sky which was clear of clouds was dotted with faint and bright

lights of distant stars.13 year old Henri Lachance stretched his hand out towards the dark

sky eyes squinting he made a clamping motion with his right hand, as if trying to grab one

of the stars in his hand, he opened his hand again the star he was starring at, was still

firmly where it should be.

“One day I will get there daddy, one day I will get there” he said turning to the

man stood to his left. Yves Lachance was 37 year old, his head bold and his once

classically handsome face marked by lines, lines which told a story of a life lived with

struggle; but looking into his eyes one wouldn't have known it, he still had the fierce sharp

look of a once young man still hungry for knowledge, hungry for adventure.


It was the same hunger that drove him to become one of the most decorated pilots of his

generation which included being among the few pilots selected by the Gallente Space

Research Program (GSRP) to conduct preliminary test flights to break the atmospheric

barrier by a manned-aircraft, attempts which so far had not succeeded and had left his

body worse for wear. But he still possessed the belief that it would be done eventually, be

it in his life time or in the years yet to come.

“Tell me again papa, tell me how it works,” asked Henri. it was a question he had asked

his father countless of times in the past, which in turn Henri answered countless of times in

return; He never grew tired of doing so. With each new recitation he explained, it as if he

was doing it for the first time.

It was the look on his son's face that made it worthwhile, the imagination of youth and

the dreaming of the yet to be possibilities. He put his right hand on his son's full head of

hair.

“It's simple, get strapped to a rocket and off you go straight up into the skies of

Luminare,” he said with a chuckle as he pointed into the dark night sky. In the past he tried

to explain to his son the more, intricate details involved, that the planet its population

called Gallente prime had a gravitational pull, which in order for an object to pull out of had

to be travelling at a distance of 25,000 miles an hour or 7 miles per second; but Henri's

eyes tended to glaze over. It was too much detail for a young mind to comprehend.

“I want do that as well, I want to go into the clouds of Luminare to meet the stars,”

replayed Henri.

“Ok well first before we start thinking of you strapping yourself to a rocket and becoming

a spaceman we must first do something about this hair of yours, its too long, an Astronaut

should look neat and presentable what if you met aliens and they looked at your hair?”

said Henri.

He picked up his son up and walked with him to the back door entrance of the

families farmhouse, Henri all the while was in a fit of laughter.

“Came now, your mom's waiting, she wouldn't appreciate the dinner she just cooked to

go cold because her two boys were outside talking about distant stars”.

The farm house had been Yves's home since before he could remember, it was his now,

past on to him by his father and his father had it passed to him by Yves's Grandfather. The

farmhouse as well as the 50 Acre land it was it was built on had been the LaChance's

property for several generations, granted to them by the then established Caille New Order

government following the unification of the independent and bringing about an end to the

era collectively known as the Dark Ages.

The centuries known as the Dark Ages, was a period of chaos, disorder, wars, famine


and anarchy. The Gallente existed in multiple States, each run by a different warlord, or

king, or a self declared emperor, the respective State rulers would rule over the majority

population, most of whom lived in squalor and poverty until they were disposed of by

another strong-man (or in a few cases a strong-woman) in what was more often than not

violent transitions of power.

It was not until the rise of one state ruler in particular who managed to conquer the other

States in a military campaign. Thousands of Gallente perished during his campaign.

The practise of slavery although not overly widespread was outlawed and punishable by

death. A unification of codes were written which applied to all conquered states; and even

though each state still held some form of independence, they all answered to the one

leader and his regime. It was said that at his passing, millions made the journey to the

capital for the funeral procession.

The subsequent leaders that followed him never leaved up to his shining example, and

eventually after a brief spells of having to live under despots who fell well short of the

unifying king's standards the population revolted, noble men, women and children were

killed, none were spared, if you weren't with the revolution you were against it. And so

began the era known as the Great Purge.

The revolutionaries that arose couldn't agree among themselves, and so they spilt into

two factions. And Civil war ensued.

After almost twenty years of war with hundreds of thousands of casualties on either side

a truce was agreed. Both opposing parties agreed to disband and create a one true

Gallente Government, the Callie New Order Government was established. And the

Gallente were one untied group again.

The final countdown had began.

Yves had readied himself as best as he could, it was out of his hands now he was

merely a passenger in this phase of the mission.

This feels too fast, too new, I am not comfortable at all with all this gear yet. He thought

to himself as he tilted his head around looking at the controls around him. That ones I

know measures external surface temperatures, that one is landing gear of course, that is

backup radio- er… what does that do again, dammit.

Coming up at T-four minuets.

T-four minutes and counting.

T-two minutes, the tanks containing the liquid fuel were now at flight pressure, the actual

figure having only been settled on one week prior to launch.

T-one minute the firing system was now armed. Inside the small cockpit an orange light

in front of Yves dashboard lit up letting be aware of the event. All the while he was hearing

the countdown to his launch in his ear piece.

At T-40 seconds the on-board computers were now at full power, having been on minimal

power to both conserves the Orbital Vehicle's battery power.

“How does it feel Star one?” asked Hollande, now referring to Yves by his call sign.

“Star one good to go,” replied Yves.

T-minus ten second, nine, eight, seven, six.

Main engines started.

On-board the orbital vehicle Yves felt the raw power as the rocket reared into life.

Several miles away, Henri LaChance, his mother and several members of her side of the

family was among many spectators who had gathered early to see the take off of, of what

was hailed as an experimental new craft that would herald a new chapter in the Gallentian

Science. Twenty-four hours prior he had given his Dad good wishes, they never said

goodbye to each other, there was no need; after all goodbye meant someone was not

coming back.

He saw the rocket's exhaust fumes bellowing from its thrusters, it would be a few

seconds more before he heard and felt the raw power of its sound waves assaulting his

ear drums and pass through his body.

On-board Yves felt the raw power as he was violently lifted off the launch platform.

The cockpit was shaking violently. Various lights flickered on and off, green, blue,

orange, red, white.

He was now over one hundred meters above the ground, the acceleration was kicking

and so did the amount of g-forces he was experiencing.

We might just do this, he thought to himself.

It was one of the junior assistants sat in front of his workstation at the Mission Control

that first noticed that something had gone catastrophically wrong.


END OF PART 1