Stevie's Message

This is my entry for Bruce Bethke's Friday Challenge for 11/14/08

"Stevie's Message"
by snowdog

Stevie walked through the abandoned shell of the ark ship with a brisk sense of purpose. Many of the bulky gray fiberglass wall panels had been removed years ago to fashion temporary shelters from the frequent rain storms, such as the one that pounded on the roof now. Fortunately, most of the overhead panels were still in place.

The boy glanced nervously through each missing section of wall, unconsciously fingering the package he had brought, tucked away in his jacket. He was half expecting his father to catch him in the act before he even made it to the communication center. When he came to the ladder, he hesitated a moment, gazing up through the portal that led to what remained of the bridge. There was a reason that laws had been passed forbidding trespassers from entering the wreck: so much of the structure had already been scavenged that no one was quite sure which decks and compartments had been compromised.

Stevie took a deep breath and started up the ladder toward the upper decks, making it a point to keep his gaze trained forward, onto his hands. His insides did a flip as one of the rungs creaked under his weight, but still he climbed.

Senator Steven Williams, his old man, would not be pleased to know what he planned to do, even though the idea had been his own. His father didn't know that Stevie had overheard him and his late-night poker buddies laughing as they knocked back glass after glass of homemade ale. The next afternoon, the six-man Senate had passed a resolution that no more messages would be sent back to Earth. The equipment had never been quite up to the challenge of inter-system communication in the first place, and that provided an excuse to discourage the U.N. from launching another ark ship to help colonize the planet.

Although Stevie remembered only the last couple years of the journey, he did recall that things had looked pretty grim in the months before they had finally made planetfall. The seal on one of the ship's two aggro-domes had failed barely three years into the voyage, so half of the crops were lost completely. There was hunger. Then violence. Fortunately, his father had managed to keep the family fed, if only barely at times.

He remembered the day Tau Ceti IV appeared on the edge of the long-range scan, confirming what scientists back home had long suspected. The equatorial zone of the planet was something of a paradise, similar to that of temperate Earth back in her better days. A month later came the horrendous controlled crash that had reduced their numbers even more than the long famine.

Three years had passed since that day. The first two were hard, but the weather was agreeable, allowing the planting of genetically altered quick-harvest wheat, some of which immediately went into father's now-famous pale Tau-Ceti Brown Ale, and numerous fruits and vegetables. Also, a small burrowing rodent-like creature, originally dubbed "rootrat" was renamed to "rootdigger" when it was discovered to be quite tasty when roasted on a spit.

To his relief, Stevie made it safely to the top of the ladder and now stood staring at another, though shorter one. This last ladder led up to the communications console located one floor above the bridge. He checked to make sure he still had the burlap-wrapped package in his jacket pocket. Yes. This time he was at the top in just a few seconds.

The communications console was powered down to save stress on the failing reactor core at the heart of the wreck. But Stevie had spent many hours watching his mother who had been one of the communications officers. He had a pretty good idea how the thing worked. He slid into the swiveling leather chair and pressed a button under the right-hand ledge of the console, holding in down for a moment as he prayed that the bridge still had power.

Five seconds later, lights began to appear across the main panel as the self-testing software engaged. In all, it took about two minutes before communications were online. To his left, he spotted the seldom used minicam. He had bothered his mother time and again, trying to get her to show him how it worked. Finally, she had acquiesced and used it to send a low-power transmission while the captain was away from the bridge. Now, he flipped the switch to activate it again, for only the third time since the ark had left Earth. But he needed a moment to prepare, so he didn't start the transmission.

Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out the small package he had brought, loosened the twine and pulled back the burlap. Then he took a moment to steady himself. His heart was racing at the thought that millions of people back on Earth might one day see this long-delayed message. Deep breaths. Faster. Faster. When he had worked himself nearly into hyper-ventilation, he pressed the transmit button and looked wide-eyed, directly into the minicam.

"This is Stevie-- Steve Williams Jr, on the bridge of the ark ship Covenant." He made a show of pausing for breath, "We're now at our destination, Tau Ceti IV. Something terrible has happened! There are animals here-- they're huge! And mean! They killed my dad. My mom said..."

He looked to his right. "They're in the ship!!" He took a moment and gathered himself. "My mom said," he continued, "to say not to come here! They've killed almost all of us! The rest of us won't last long!"

With that he jumped out of range of the minicam and screamed. He pulled out the remains of a rootdigger that he had killed with his slingshot and rubbed blood all over his face before leaping back in front of the camera.

"Stay Away!" he shouted hysterically and fell to floor, once again out of sight. Then he carefully reached up under the console ledge and powered it down for the last time.

Stevie got back to his feet and smiled to himself, happy with his performance. That ought to do it. Climbing onto the chair, he stood slowly, careful not to lose his balance as it swiveled slightly. He reached behind the minicam, grabbed the wire and pulled hard. It look three good yanks, but the connection came loose. Then he used his pocket knife to pry the assembly apart until he was left holding only the tiny camera unit which he shoved in his pocket as the souvenir his dad had promised him.