[IC] Lost

[jel2658]

Who knows what day it was since what everyone on the SS Chronos believed to be the end of humanity? Escaping had been a terrifying experience. With all the ship's windows, they looked out upon the landscape as the hostile forms landed on the last planet. There were ships crashing around them, clear screaming echoing everywhere, and death all around them. They had one hell of a time running from the battlefield. First the Central Human Police Force (CHPF) had tried to stop them, before they were destroyed as well. Then came the Forms. They were disgusting creatures, bent on destroying all human life. Could it even be counted as a "war"? Diana thought, does it even matter? What did matter, though, was that the ship's day and night cycle finally showed light, representing a new 'day' on the ship.

Diana was already at the intercom. "Today marks the... upteenth day since our escape from the hell of the Second Great War. Yesterday we lost a valuable comrade, Lewis Carpe, to the vast expanse of space. A memorial will be held today at..." Diana opened up her hologram schedule. "10h00 hours. Sharp. Wear formal clothes." She moved a few things around to look at another window. "Breakfast today will be fruit parfait made from the fruit of the makeshift garden we made about a week after our escape." She looked at the screen for a moment, trying to remember if there was anything else. Nope. "That is all." She hung up the intercom.

Where could we go from here? Diana absentmindedly thought as she took her suit up off the cabin floor. She opened up the bathroom. While there were other, faster ways to get clean, Diana preferred the classical shower, as it gave her time to think. She wondered if Caelum had found anywhere they could go. I'll check up on her after eating breakfast. With this course of action in mind, she stepped out of the shower and into her suit. It fit her form comfortably. Day whatever-the-hell, she sighed, time to get this show on the road.

[McHaggis]

Caelum had been up since the early hours of the faux-morning after a sleepless night (or whatever passed for night on a ship that never sleeps), tinkering with the holographic star map installed in her cabin. It was stylised, of course, and the database of colonies was by far out of date as they had all been ruthlessly destroyed by the Forms. She reckoned that at some point she should delete them from the program, erasing them like chalk on a blackboard when faced with a wet wipe, but it hurt to think that any surviving humans would not know what the great human empire had been like without the knowledge.

As the captain's voice chimed in over the intercom, the navigator twirled her hair around her fingertips. Lewis – she'd forgotten about him, or at least tried her best to, knowing that the service would be inevitable and mandatory to attend. That was another thing that hurt – burying friends. As it was, the closest thing to formal wear she had was a slate grey jumpsuit as almost all of her clothes were garishly cheery and orange. It would have to do, she decided, coupling it with an old dress shirt that wasn't really hers and at least three sizes too large.

Caelum considered skipping breakfast – fruit parfait in what would be the middle of winter on Earth seemed wrong, somehow – but, as always, she enjoyed the company of her fellow crew members. Heading down the halls and into the small cafeteria, she took a table in the corner, fiddling with a condensed version of her aforementioned star map. Funny how she was okay with working overtime to find a new home now that it was a matter of survival.

[Nobodyman123]

When the Captain's announcment came, Ben was awake in his cabin, getting some reading done. Ben had the foresight to grab some books from home to take on the ship. Much of the ships existing library contained texts of a practical nature. Agricultural almanacs, engineering guides, things of that nature. Ben tried to grab books that were more, interesting? soul-enriching? Something like that. Ben liked to think that he held the last copy of The Divine Comedy in existence.

After the Captain Lucson's orders regarding the memorial, Ben decided that he couldn't stay inside all day, as much as he wanted to. He got out of his cot and started putting on his dress uniform. Other than his combat fatigues and a few t-shirts, it was the only set of clothes he owned. When he finished dressing himself, he headed out toward the cafeteria. On any other day, he would never it in these clothes, but with the world coming to an end, that just didn't seem as important.