I pulled the lever back and heard a clack as gears readjusted and the loud hiss of steam released into the pressurised cabin. It would have burnt me had I not worn my porcelain-armoured gauntlet. The ceramic protected my scarred hand from the searing vapour for the quintillionth time this month. Sadly, it didn't have those lasers or plasma things the construction and mining engineers got. If only.
I took the throttle and pulled it back slightly after releasing the hydraulic brake, the vehicle lurching forward as the plasma thrusters fired up slowly. For the first time in forty-five minutes, the train was moving.
My body shook lightly in the shifting of the locomotive as it aligned correctly with the launching tunnel, bringing us to speed to send us as fast as a bullet into the void, to meet with the cargo train. It was lesser-known that trains were not sent at once, where the wagons were aligned for transport in the Empyrean before the arrival of the legendary Stellar Engines.
I exhaled, and out came the wispy cloud of condensation from the cooled atmospheric chamber. With this, I lay back into the synthetic leather of the operator's seat before giving a thumb's up to my cabin partner, who didn't even bother to look at me as I did the most satisfying work in the Empyrean. I lean further into the seat, which groans as it flexes under my lighter weight, stretching out and letting me relax.
'Space, if only I could show Chance back home,' I looked out the window panes, filled with holograms and data and all the nonsense of a technician. All I care about is the little circle in the middle of the glass---a cursor or a target, if you will---which highlights in an array of colour when I'm on target. It was the most satisfying blue, which told me my trajectory was satisfactory.
To reaffirm this, I look out the side windows, watching the launch tunnel begin to slip by faster and faster, me leaning forward and pulling the throttle lever closer to myself, smoothly riding out of the Tube and towards the upper atmosphere. A good and calming few minutes, imagining the kilometres of train wagon and carriage dragging behind like a snake, slithering from a hole inside the newly colonised world, full of all it has mined and grown to go on a direct route to the Centre of All Things---Sagittarius Sector. The heart of all manufacturing, close to the core of the galaxy.
Though it didn't matter to me---I cared not about the military-industrial complex nor any single thing in the galactic centre. It wasn't my business, as ecstatic as I was to research about it in my off-time. My job was so much more fun---driving some of the most complex vehicles in the known universe across all of space and time, flying through portals in alternate realms and willing the fabric of reality to the whim of all Mankind. To say humans have done nothing important is to say we haven't realised the impossible. It was so beautiful.
By now, I forgot we already left the colonised Rimworld, sitting up from my dreamy stupor to see it one last time, leaning in my chair and craning my neck to look out the back of the cab---the hologram in the window shown a clear view of the train, every wagon and carriage for kilometres. And at the very end of that train was a massive world coated in glistening ocean, reflecting the crimson rays of a dwarf star. Scattered across it were patches of archipelago and continents coated in black and violet plant life, outlined by beaches of silver and white. Even from here, you can just imagine how beautiful a world must be in eternal dawn. The blue and silver wagons streaking like a meteor's tail with clouds of cooled plasma and dust surrounding it.
I loved my job. It's all I've ever wanted to do. To see the universe by being in the most important aspect of the logistics network. My dreams realised in minimalism, and living paycheque-to-paycheque was no more, lost to the fringes of abandoned memory inside my distant subconscious and lost Ego---a time I've moved on from long ago.
I returned to the command dash, pushing forward that lever again, slowing our engine to a cruising speed. There was no rush---we were so ahead of schedule, I am afraid if we go faster we may be penalised.
"Imminent collision with debris field. Please attach seatbelts and initiate Fourth Protocol. Please Stand-by," the automated Emergency Alert System initiated klaxons, the cabin filled with bright red like from a rotating filament in the ceiling, all other lights deactivated and the holographic panes of glass lit up with concisely stated instructions.
My instincts kicked in---this is protocol. I need to be aware and I need to be precise.
I breathed hard and fast, my heart from my chest leaping into my skull and my ears ring with the erratic sounds only equated to distorted and enraged screaming.
I slammed the throttle forward, killing the thrust and putting it in reverse, pulling the hydraulic brake slowly backwards as my companion engineer moved with mechanical accuracy.
That was, of course, until his head slammed into the metal panels in front of him and he collapsed onto the floor.
The cabin lurched, I pushed the throttle harder, hoping I could slow down faster as I heard the screeching and explosive slamming of the debris in space against the stellar engine.
I would have been like my partner had I not supported myself against the throttle and the emergency hydraulic brake.
But it wasn't enough.
The hollow screens surrounding me glared in flashing crimson and yellow, blinking pale blue text and screaming alerts of a 'loss of trajectory' and 'target lost'.
I tried to pull on the manual control, getting the large pad from the wall of levers and buttons and screens, trying to regain control, pulling back and to the left gently as the nose of the locomotive dipped below the necessary goal.
It was so fast, and I was so confused.
Another impact, the engine lurches forward, the world goes white as I make acquaintance with the steel piping in the wall of controls.
I was awake again in what felt like a second later.
I push the throttle, looking over at my partner operator as I look through holographic interfaces, the expanse about the engine was empty and without a target, klaxons screaming in the dead air of the whole situation.
I readjust and focus our course, picking up static through the vox speaker. I thought I heard a voice in it, but I can't understand it.
I need to get to the Leap station, I can't go back.
My partner was on the floor, my feet coated in the blood that was thrown about the textured gravity plates that made up the bottom of the cabin. His skull drooled of the ichor, and I hitched my breathing.
He's okay, I'll make it.
The throttle felt harder to move than before, and even in my aching bones could I feel its resistance.
But I looked through the command windows and saw the Station a few metres ahead, something sounding akin to screaming through the speakers echoing through the cabin, but it was too close to the klaxon to even comprehend it. Or maybe I had a concussion.
Interceptors screaming with chaff beside the station's docking bay, my trajectory was off just a millimetre, a single molecule. A Planck length.
And I was a fraction of a second too slow.
The air was still, and all I could feel was searing pain, my body being torn apart. The klaxon finally stopped.
"Emergency, Emergency. Protocol of The Ninth, initiate The Ninth, immediately. Prepare for impact, Singularity detected. Space have mercy on your souls."
For a moment I thought I was being reborn, my body screaming as it came into the world. But then I opened my eyes as something warm crossed my face. I blinked fast, trying to get it out of my eyes. I put my hands down into the gore, coagulated and like slime on the floor---a thin layer of blood that was now coating one side of my body and the clothes associated. I also felt sand.
My hand slipped, I fall into the puddle again, smearing it across my face and clothes again as I hit the floor once more, this time with a disgusting slick sound. I panic, hiring out, scrambling to the hatch and gripping the mechanical wheel, pulling and twisting with all the force as the sound of hissing fills my ears. Quickly, the chamber repressurises, emptying it of all air into a vacuum for a split second before the door opens outside, sucking in the outdoors with an intensity to throw any man.
I need to get this blood off of me.
I climb out and hie to the sea, the distant ocean-scape at the edge of this expansive desert welcoming me as I dive into it, slamming into the soaked sand. I let waves lap at my bloodstained flesh, at my hardened, ruined uniform. My body turned over, I look into the clear sky, the burning midday sun glinting all around me and stinging my retinas. Soon enough, the burning in my eyes is the least of my worries.
My breathing hitches and my vision fades, coughing hard and long, lifting my free right hand and spewing more blood.
"It never ends, does it ?" and it ended, and out I went; off like a light.