Month Three, Hydra Sector
“Miss Nebs.”, SARAN spoke, “We have entered the Hydra sector.”
With a groan, Nebs rolled over to face the door of her quarters. Her lack of sleep and coffee had begun taking it’s toll. Most nights she only got three of four hours of sleep.
“Good morning, SARAN,” she said with a yawn.
“Sleep well, ma’am?”
Nebs yawned again.
“Better than last night, anyway,” She replied, “Any changes in engine performance?”
“No ma’am,”
Nodding, then climbing out her bed, she walked into the kitchen and opened the pantry. She grabbed a packet of instant oats and began to prepare her breakfast. After she had finished, she sat down on the couch and flipped on the news. Nothing but static appeared on the screen.
“Ma’am, I am afraid the nebula in this part of the sector interferes with any outside transmissions,” SARAN said, “We should have partial reception in approximately three days.”
Nebs sighed, three days with no contact with the outside world would not be fun. After she finished her breakfast, she got up, and walked to her quarters. She put on a clean jumpsuit, then headed to the maintenance deck.
“SARAN, reroute power away from the starboard breakers,” she said, “ I’m gonna try to fix the power fluctuation to the exterior lights on that side.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The lights flickered In the room as power was transferred through the Mercy’s redundant systems. Walking over to one of the breaker boxes, Nebs opened the door, revealing a crudely organized mess of wires and breaker switches.
She checked to see if any of the breakers were loose or tripped, then repeated the process for the other three starboard breaker boxes. When she opened the last box, one of the breakers came loose and fell on the floor.
“Well, there’s your problem,” She said, frustrated, “SARAN, do we have any spare breakers in storage?”
“I’m afraid not, miss Nebs.”
“Damn,” she replied, “In that case, I’ll have to jury rig this thing. Make sure all power to the starboard side is off.”
“Yes ma’am.”
She walked over to the red toolbox by the entry to the airlocks and retrieved a soldering iron and a few other tools.
Then she began repairing the breaker. First she cleaned off the breakers terminals, then soldered it back into place and shut the door to the breaker box. Finished with the repairs, she headed back to the living deck.
“Test the power to the starboard side, SARAN.”
“Of course,” he replied, “Power to the starboard side at peak levels. External lights have full power.”
“Thats great.”
Nebs paused.
“When we get to Starswirl station, we’ll have one of their technicians replace that breaker.”
When she got back to the living deck, Nebs sat down on the couch and flipped through the channels on her vidscreen. Still nothing but static. She got up and walked upstairs to the bridge, then sat in the captains chair.
Outside the large wraparound window, she could see the browns and greens of the Hydra nebula.
It was a sprawling cloud of hydrogen gas, and dust with five ‘heads’ spiraling away from the core. but from the inside the cloud, it was just a thick mass of dull brownish yellow that obscured most of the surrounding stars into faint yellow spots.
There were several old pony tales about this particular nebula due to some anomalous readings. Most involved ancient gods and alien beings, but that was all nonsense. Though one tale still lingered in Nebs’ mind about a being called Tetchznacht who ate ponies’ eyeballs, it terrified her as a little filly.
Most of the tales came from miners returning home from a nearby mining station. The station had become a derelict after it had been found that the company who designed the station had cut corners, and it didn’t actually have radiation shielding. Luckily nopony died, but the company was still sued by the Equestrian government.
“SARAN, How big is this nebula?” Nebs asked.
“The Hydra nebula covers an area roughly seventy light years in length, fifty-five in width, and ten in thickness,” He replied, “It takes up the majority of this sector.”
Nebs sighed loudly.
“Looking out at the stars always makes me feel insignificant, you know,” She spoke, “ Like the whole galaxy could just be wiped out by a supernova, and the universe wouldn’t even care. Everything would just keep going like nothing even happened.”
“Miss Nebs, you seem... Sad,” SARAN replied, “I belive the isolation and exhaustion may be getting the better of you”
“I’m fine, SARAN!” she snapped. “I’m sorry. I-I just need a little time alone.”
“Very well. Let me know when you need me, miss Nebs.”
After SARAN had gone into sleep mode, Nebs began crying. What was wrong with her? She was usually cheerful. Maybe he was right, maybe it was just her lack of sleep and loneliness. But it felt worse.
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“Miss Nebs,” SARAN spoke, waking her, “Terribly sorry to interrupt, but our scanners have picked up an anomaly”
Yawning loudly, she asked, “What is it?”
“It seems to be a wave of magnetically charged particles, ma’am”, SARAN answered.”It appears to be headed this way.”
“Okay. Divert power to the shields, hopefully the wave’ll bounce off.”
“All of the anomalies reported in this sector have been harmless, ma’am.”
“It’s always better to be safe, than sorry.”
“True. Diverting all power from non essential systems to shields.”
The wave slammed into the Mercy’s shields like an earth pony kicking an apple tree. Inside, the monitors flickered as red and orange warning lights came on.
“Shields at forty-seven percent and dropping.”
“SARAN, kill the engines!”
“Yes ma’am. shields at fifty-eight percent... Wait. Shields have dropped to thirty percent. We do not have enough power”
The ship rocked violently, as the current of particles continued to bombard the Mercy’s shields.
“Disable life support,” Nebs replied, “I’ll get the space suit.”
“I’m afraid I cannot allow that, Nebs.”
The shields shimmered brightly and failed. The ship shook and the power blacked out. Nebs was thrown against the bridge window by the impact of the wave and her vision faded as she lost consciousness.
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The first thing Nebs felt was a throbbing pain on the back of her head. She opened her eyes and scanned the bridge. The room was lit by the dull red emergency lights, and there was a crack in the window where she had hit.
“SARAN, whats our status?” she said weakly, “SAREN, are you there?”
No reply.
“SARAN! say something. This isn’t funny.” she spoke, getting back to her hooves slowly, and feeling the back of her head.
A weak beep came from the console.
“Miss Nebs...I-I think I’m... I think I’m dying.”
“SAREN! stay with me, buddy!” she cried desperately, “Y-you’re the only one I have left!”
“I...”
SARAN’s systems shut down, distorting his voice. She closed her eyes and wept, SARAN was gone. She had lost everyone else in her life, and now the only friend she had left was gone. She was alone now.