Chapter Text
The crackling of burning logs and the distant sound of frogs. These were the sounds that accompanied them the first night.
Six members of the International Space Station. That was it. Six people. In a world full of 7 billion people, only six were able to survive by pure technicality of being off the earth. They quickly contacted the ground crew when the green wave rippled across the earth’s surface. What they were met with was silence from every channel. Every email, every message, every radio wave was immediately silent.
It wasn’t clear in the chaos who thought of checking the internet for live videos; probably Byakaya. It didn’t matter as what every camera showed across the globe, from morning to night, were people petrified in stone. Cars were stalled on the streets all across the world and they viewed in horror as an airplane fell from the sky.
The six didn’t know what to do. But they did know that they couldn’t stay up in the station alone. Without check ins from the crew or shipments up to the station, they would only have mere weeks to survive.
Yakov wondered aloud if maybe this was only temporary, but everyone knew deep down that wasn’t true. They didn’t even know if they would end up like the others upon landing! Though, everyone worked together to try to get to earth themselves. All emergency scenarios were drilled into their heads even before taking the trip into space. It was always dangerous going and coming back.
So they acted quickly. Three went down first: Connie, Shamil, and Lilian.
They missed their mark and landed in the Pacific Ocean, thankfully alive but still in danger. An hour later the rest of the crew followed to earth: Byakuya, Yakov, and Darya. They were able to land on an island, but in the heat of the moment, none of them knew where exactly they landed.
They were blessed or just plain lucky to find a fishing boat on the edge of the island. Adrenaline was still flowing in Byakuya and he rowed that boat to the rest of the crew as fast as he could. It was dangerous, every single section of their journey, but within 18 hours the six crew members were on the beach of their island alive.
They explored the island, and found a man hoping he was spared from the catastrophe the rest of the world suffered… but just like everyone else… he too was covered in the same gray stone.
That evening, with adrenaline gone and having taken all the energy from the six, all they could do was sit in front of a fire Yakov was able to make and just stare.
In less than 42 hours, the trip they spent years preparing for was just gone. The people were just… gone. It was almost laughable, like some kind of weird dream!
Byakuya was only trying to melt the tension. His son Senku had given him so much to live for and wisdom that he himself would hadn’t been able to achieve on his own. His son’s wisdom was the reason why they knew everything started in South America. Heck an old man like him wouldn’t had even thought about cameras unless the boy told him.
Senku was smart. Byakuya invested so much into the boy’s future and curiosity and he was sure that the boy was the only one smart enough to figure what was going on. Byakuya shared his optimism with the other five. It didn’t matter how long, how many years or centuries it would take, his son was going to figure this out! They had to trust in that and -
Connie gritted her teeth and barked at Byakuya, “enough about your Senku! Senku this, Senku that!”
“Connie-” Darya tried to interject but was immediately given a look from Connie that read both fury and sorrow. With tears welling in her eyes and shaking fists, the girl looked like she was on the verge of a melt down.
“NO! I understand that we are alone out here, heck, we could be the only ones LEFT in this world! But for nearly two days we survived and did the near impossible to get back to earth. We need to think harder - there’s got to be more that we can do!”
Yakov gritted his teeth and glared at the young woman, “what can we do? Think, woman. We’re stuck here! You saw the man in the woods! He had been here for long enough to begin to farm his own food!”
“That was one man!” she yelled back, “one man while there are six of us - four of us had been chosen by NASA directly to work on the station itself. An honor that no normal man could be able to accomplish!”
Lillian pouted a little, “well, I’m no mere “man”. Money and talent had gotten me pretty far.”
“None of that matters anymore!”
Connie was fully crying now. Shamil looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right words so all he could do was look back at the fire helplessly. Guilt and sadness fell over the group and Byakuya felt that this was partially his fault. What were they all supposed to do? He was a professor and had worked with many different faces and personalities over the years, but he knew nothing about how to deal with this. If a student had issues with school work, he would recommend them to see a counselor. Survivors' guilt was a thing, right?
“I just don’t want to leave this world without a fighting chance,” Connie said through her tears.
The six were surrounded by pure silence. The frogs couldn’t even give an answer for the team. Connie’s crying was bringing Darya to tears and everyone just felt so hopeless. No one countered Connie’s thoughts, but no one defended her either.
Lillian softly smiled, “‘...Aue, aue, We set a course to find…A brand new island everywhere we ro-oam’...”
“What are you singing?” Shamil asked.
Lillian brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on her knees.
“There was a Disney movie that came out years ago called ‘Moana’. Best music ever! I even got to meet Lin-Manuel Miranda once at a party. Such a sweet heart…”
She trailed off from her memory. The faces of men and women she met in the states and globally… all the faces of the fans she had made over the years. They were all encased in stone. She was scheduled to go on ‘Good Morning America’ next week after her short visit to space and talk about her experience. Her manager also was working with a producer for their next music video. He… had some good news for her in the next couple weeks.
“Moana,” Darya sniffled, sensing Lillian’s mood shift, “yes… I do recall a movie. Didn’t it take place in Hawaii?”
“That was Lilo and Stitch,” Lillian laughed, “but similar idea… the movie was about a girl finding her way and learning her ancestors' way of travel on the open waters.”
Lillian turned and looked at the ocean waves harmoniously spreading on the beach side. It was far too dark to see everything, but the cluster of stars of the Milky Way decorated the sky and glistening water with light.
“I may not know much… but I do know that Polynesians lived on islands. Perhaps, there’s some knowledge we can glean from even a kids movie about finding land away from here…”
Byakuya smiled and gave a breathy laugh, “well… I can say that you aren’t wrong about the Polnesians…”
He glanced at the crackling fire and then to the golden hued faces of the other five around him. Everyone equally lost, but also equally lost together. That had to mean something. Pity and pain were luxuries in this stone world they stumbled upon.
“Okay, let’s see what we can do.”