Chapter Text
“Simon Fletcher?” A woman walked to the other side of the metal table and sat down, spreading the papers she was carrying across the table. She was a serious looking woman with a scar down the right side of her face that ran over a cloudy eye that Simon doubted she could see through.
“That’s me..” Simon said in a gruff voice, eyeing her suspiciously.
“I understand you are facing execution for your crimes.” She looked through her papers instead of at him.
Simon felt a swell of irritation boiling inside him. “What of it?” He half growled at her. “Ten years ago it would’ve just been a lifetime sentence.”
“You know as well as I do that Earth doesn’t have the resources to support dead weight.” She glanced up from her documents briefly.
Dead weight… Is that what he was now?
…
…
Dead weight. Those words rattled in his otherwise empty skull as he looked at the dead bodies. He didn’t remember them but he supposed he knew them at one point. The only word that really came to mind when he saw them was brothers. He lined them up in the airlock and stood over them. Simon was never the sentimental type, but there was a deep pit in his stomach as reality crept in on him.
He figured out some hours ago that he was in space. Goddamn space. On a ship. The Hail Mary. His head was clearing enough to recall why they were here. The Earth was dying. A good portion of the population had already died and the world was starting to fight for what was left.
Simon didn’t really understand the science of it all, but he understood the basics. Something called Astrophage was eating the sun and moving to Venus. The scientists on the ship were there to see why this one star in the Tau Ceti system wasn’t dying and send the findings back. Simon was here in case something broke down on this last-ditch attempt to save earth. They didn’t have time to test every little possible problem with the ship and Simon was considered gifted with engineering, all things considered.
But now… What was he supposed to do?
Five bodies sat in the airlock.
He had run diagnostics just to get some peace of mind and found a major malfunction in the medical system designed to keep everyone alive during their comas. He was only alive because the ship was designed to wake him up if something went wrong. He was a little underweight but he was alive.
But…
Martin Dubois and Annie Shapiro were microbiologists (though in slightly different fields that Simon didn’t really understand), Olesya Ilyukhina was an astrophysicist and Yáo Li-Jie was the captan. And he was a guy who was really good at fixing shit with whatever he could find.
He was dead weight, but he was the only one alive…
…
…
His blue eyes slowly opened to a blurry world around him. It was darker and dingier and smelled faintly of iron. There was a noise behind him, constant enough that he didn't notice it at first. As he sat up, his head throbbed with pain and he felt around for his glasses, "What.."
He found them beside him and put them on, then looked behind him to see what the noise was... there was light and sparks and-
No
No, God NO!
Grace ignored the way his head pounded and shot to his feet to try and get to the exit before it was fully welded shut, but it was too late. "No! NO You can't do this to me!" He hammered against the stuck exit. When that didn't get a response, he went to the small port hole and slapped his palm against the glass, "Let me out!"
A stern looking woman stood on the other side. Grace recognized her as Eva Stratt and something in his heart sank. "You know as well as I do this is a one-way trip! You're going to kill me!" He slapped against the window again, but with less force than before.
Stratt walked up to him, hands folded behind her back, "I'm sorry, Grace. I really am, but this had to be done and you would not have gone willingly. If you want a chance of getting out of this alive, you'll get the information we need." She didn't look sorry. It made something akin to rage bubble up in Grace.
"It's not too late to let me out! You know I didn't kill those people! You know that!" He begged at the window. "I never wanted anyone to die!"
Stratt shook her head, "I'm sorry, but the C.O.I isn't convinced. This has to be done... If you complete your task, I will personally ensure you are released."
"No it doesn't! It doesn't have to happen you can tell them!" Grace begged as the sub began slowly descending. He scrambled around the small space. There was no way out. He was going to die in this little ship. "No! No you can't do this! Don't do this!! This- This is murder!"
Stratt turned her radio off. She couldn't listen to this. "I really am sorry..." She said to herself before walking away from the hangar.