The Crash of the Century
My name is Marcus Andrew Underwood. Two weeks ago my ship crashed after hitting a rouge asteroid. I watched all seven of my crewmen die. I am the last one. Now, an evil force has enslaved me on an unknown planet. All I know is that I want to go home. This is my story.
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“Ay Marcus. You tried this food? It’s shit!”
Marcus looked at his captain with confusion. “I disagree captain. This food is top notch.” Marcus took a seat in the cockpit of the shuttle. He watched all of the stars fill the emptiness of deep space.
“Ya know Marcus, I like it out here. It’s quiet, no one judges ya, and the beds are like flippin heaven!” Now more than ever the captain’s Jersey accent pissed Marcus off.
“Sir have you checked the monitor lately?” the captain gave Marcus a mean glare.
“What da hell is up with you? I’m enjoying a moment and you’re all business and such!” The captain was obviously intoxicated.
“Very well, I’ll check it.” Marcus exited the cockpit trying not to show his anger. He floated along the bright hallways of the shuttle, bouncing from wall to wall. The captain was right about one thing. Space is beautiful. Very beautiful. Marcus approached the room that said “Monitor” of the front. Damn, there is no heat in this room. Instantly Marcus got goose bumps as he entered the room. His white and black striped jump suit shined in the starlight.
Let’s see here. The huge machines made the room hard to maneuver around. Finally he found the right machine. Marcus checked all of the readings for the ship. Oxygen full, ship undamaged, no asteroids in the perimeter. Perfect. He turned his back to the machines and floated to the door. As he floated into the hallway a warm breeze hit him. Gotta love the air conditioning. On his way back to the cockpit he passed the engineer for the ship.
“How’s it goin?” said Marcus, in a friendly tone.
The engineer did not respond.
“Hey! I asked you a question!”
Finally the engineer turned around. “The captain’s got himself in a big damn mess. He’s drunk as a skunk and thrown up all over the controls!” Marcus’s anger began to augment. He couldn’t tolerate the captain any longer. He quickly maneuvered his way to the cockpit.
“Hey! Get out! Leave! I wanna be alone! Shut the-“ The captain’s rant was interrupted by his own burp.
“Captain what the hell is wrong with you!” Marcus grabbed his captain by the hand and flung him against the door of the cockpit. He didn’t realize how strong he was in zero gravity. The bottle in the captain’s hand flew across the room.
“DAMNIT KID!” Shouted the captain.Marcus quickly grabbed the captain’s arms and pinned them against the door. “Sir, you are intoxicated. Please vacate the cockpit and report to your bunk.” Even though Marcus wanted to break his teeth, he decided to act with class and send him away.
"Aww…give me my friend back!” the captain started to cry.
“Sir I can’t do that”
“Come on kid. You know I could kick ya ass any day of the week!”
“I bet you could sir. But for now you will take a rest.”
“Ain’t ya just great!”
Marcus held the captain’s hands behind his back and led him through the hallways to his quarters. Every chance he got the captain tried to break free, but Marcus was to strong. He opened the door to the captain’s room and threw him in.
“Take a break sir. You’ve worked too hard.”
“Ya damn right I have!”
Marcus closed the door and locked it quietly. Now to deal with the vomit. Unfortunately the captain had precise aim when he threw up. He went into the first aid room and searched for paper towels and cleaning aids. There were only napkins. Guess I’ll take one for the team. He picked up the thin napkins and floated to the cockpit. This should be fun. He started to clean the controls top to bottom. The whole control panel was about eleven wide and six feet high. Marcus had to be careful not to press any buttons or joy sticks. He heard the door open behind him.
“Thought I might give you a hand.” Came a voice from behind Marcus. It was Austin. Austin and Marcus had been friends since they’re junior year in college. They both wanted to be marine biologists, but ended up in astronomy and becoming astronauts.
“So did you ever get the captain put away?”
“You bet.”
“How’d you do it?”
“When he’s drunk, he ain’t got shit on anyone. Just pin him down and he’s yours to do whatever.”
“He should get drunk more often.”
“You wanna clean vomit every day? Be my guest.”
They both laughed. As dark and mysterious as space looks from Earth it was easy to be entertained up there. Both of them wanted the captain to sleep for awhile. Hopefully be hung over by the time he wakes up so he would just stay in his quarters.
“Man, it’s been a long cycle.”
“Agreed. The captain was a bitch about checking the monitor. He wanted me to do it.”
“Bet it sucked in there.”
“Yeah. It’s cold and cramped.”
“Just like your girlfri-“Marcus gave him a quick jab between the shoulder blades. “Aw right in the sweet spot!” Marcus had a little chuckle and gave Austin some napkins.”Finish the job, will you? I gotta take a rest. Wake me up in two.” Austin nodded his head, and starred at the mess Marcus left him.
“Aw fuck you!”
Marcus was already in his room.
Marcus floated over to the bed on the floor. It was quite comfy mind the straps across the top. He crawled in, pulled the straps over, and took a rest. For awhile, he couldn’t get to sleep. He had his mind fixed on the vomit. What if it screws something up? What if there’s an accident? Finally, he fell asleep. That was the last night he would spend in space.
He was awoken by the engineer.
“Get up! Damn, you slept for awhile. Come on, we got food in the lower deck. Captain hasn’t said a word yet.”
“Shit, help me up.” Marcus held out a hand. The engineer gladly accepted the request and gently pulled Marcus from the ground.
“Hey I’m goin to the mess hall, could you check the monitor again? Sorry, it’s just been awhile sense I’ve had a good meal.”
“Sure. Save me some food. I’ll kick your ass if there is none left!”
“Understood.”
Marcus slowly bounced wall to wall down the hallway of the ship. Great. Another trip to Antarctica. Marcus opened the door to the monitor room. It was cold as usual. He saw the huge screen on a large metal podium. He watched the monitor screen closely and saw something. At first he couldn’t believe it. He rubbed his eyes four times. Then his stomach curled and he started to sweat. Marcus was speechless as he starred at the rogue asteroid hurling toward the lower back cargo deck of the ship.
There was nothing at first. Nothing could express the feeling in his head. Then he snapped. “SHIT!” he flew through null gravity down to the mess hall. Everyone was enjoying their meal cooked by one of the best chefs on earth. Marcus almost broke open the door rushing in.
“Christ kid! What ya need?” Marcus was quiet first, and then he laid out everything he saw on the monitor.
“There’s a fucking asteroid coming right at us! Get the fuck up! COME ON!” Everyone was instantly up in the air, finding their way up the ladder to the suits.
The youngest man there was Grant Fredrick Marshall, or “Marshall Fred” as the crew called him. He had just started his life as an adult. Fredrick was twenty seven and fresh out of the academy. He was the only one left in the mess hall. It was at that moment Marshall Fred cried.
Austin quickly darted to the controls in the cockpit. He tried maneuvering out of the asteroids path. It was no use, for the vomit from the captain the previous night caused the controls break down.
“Oh….no….n-no…for fucks sake no no no no…” Austin couldn't yell. All he could do was mumble. They were helpless in deep space.
Marcus rushed to the suit room. He searched through the mess to find his. Where is it? He couldn’t think about anything but put the suit on, and find the oxygen refills. I don’t think this ship will stay around very long. He put every part of his suit on in an instant and ran down to the mess hall to look for oxygen refills. There he found Marshall Fred, sitting in a corner crying uncontrollably. He was rocking back and forth and sobbing every half second.
Shit Fred. Don’t do this. Come on man, your better than this. Pull yourself together!” there was no response. All he did was cry.
Marcus finally found oxygen refills. He grabbed as many as he could hold, which was one in each hand.
“AUSTIN!” he hurried up the ladder from the lower deck to the higher deck. “AUSTIN YOU GOT YOUR SUIT ON?!” The ship was chaos. No one knew where the captain was. For all Marcus knew, he could still be hung over recovering from the night before. Marcus walked into the cockpit room. He saw Austin standing there, starring at the controls in disbelief. “Come on. I need you here man. Get your suit on.” Austin snapped out of his trance.
Marcus looked out the top window. He saw the asteroid stare at him. Stare right into his eyes. For a second they were locked in a gaze, and then Marcus realized what was going to happen. There was no way anyone else on the ship could survive. Including Austin. Marcus was the only one with enough refills to last twelve hours. Everyone else had about four. Good lord, if you could hear me now, help me save my friends. Marcus dropped to his knees and went into a prayer. Please give me the strength to save them. All of them. I can’t do this alone.
“Marcus! How many refills do you have?! Marcus!”
“Only enough for about five hours. It’s all I could find for you.”
“Aw no man. I can’t die like this. Please Marcus, you gotta find more!
Marcus gave Austin the most unhopeful stare he had ever seen. Then it hit him. He wouldn’t make it. He decided to try and confront the fact that these last few minutes was the beginning of his survival clock ticking down to zero.
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“I sense something little sister.” Celestia starred off into the sky. Her little sister confronted her on the balcony.
“Be at peace sister. It is probably a meteor from the space. Nothing more or less to worry about.”
“No, Luna. This is more than a meteor. This is very large. Two things, actually. I will prepare a scout troop to investigate the crash site. I need you to keep the people clam. This could be more than we think it is.”
Celestia walked into her quarters quietly. There was something large coming towards Equstria. She didn’t know what it was, but she did know it was something to worry about.