The Starship Aprilis: Andromeda

This blogpost is part of the A to Z Challenge which begins on April 1st. The goal is to post every day (except Sunday) in the month of April. Each blogpost will be associated with a letter of the alphabet. Check the A to Z Challenge page for more information.

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The Starship Aprilis was a common and unremarkable transport ship built on Earth, back when humans were still bipedal and mostly organic creatures. The ship travelled between the many human colonies that were established at the time throughout the galaxy and served as both a cargo carrier and passenger transporter.

The ship finally met its end when it was stuck in a crushing gravity field off of Taurus Baqara C, which killed all who were aboard and destroyed all the on-board data and most importantly, the ship’s log. Of the ship only a small section survived, which was discovered quite recently several million light years away, in a slow decaying orbit around a black hole.

The remains of the ship offers no clue as to what really happened to consign the ship to its fate. The only document that could be salvaged from the remains is a travelogue, believed to be written by an unknown crewmember. The travelogue offers a glimpse of what life was like for a traveller of the stars in those heady days, thousands and thousands of years ago. Most importantly, it gives us a glimpse of many different planets and what they were like during the time.

The following entries are excerpts from the travelogue. May you find amusement and enjoyment from reading them.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M

N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

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Andromeda

Andromeda is one of the earliest settlements that was established by humankind. This is clear upon approach towards the planet. Many sparkling lights dot the continents on its dark side, betraying the large advances of development the planet has seen during the past centuries humankind has lived there.

Andromeda is unique in that for a ship to approach and land, it first must make a loop around Andromeda’s twin moons. I am told the reasons are two-fold. First, it is due to security. As one of the oldest colonies, it receives a lot of traffic from Earth as well as other colonies and this is one of the ways the authorities delay the ships from landing while they perform the necessary checks.

Secondly, the twin moons are in danger of falling out of their orbits and scientists have predicted a twenty per cent chance of at least one of the rocks to plummet down onto the planet. Having the many ships circle around the moons, apparently helps prevent this from happening.

How true this is, I do not know. All I know is, the approach towards Andromeda can be long and tedious.

Once on the planet, it is as if one has never left Earth. We have reshaped and modelled it to look as much as possible like our home planet, and have been quite successful at it. Andromeda is not a planet one visits to seek exciting new adventures and new experiences.