The Starship Aprilis: Betelgeuse

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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Betelgeuse

We are making a pass near Betelgeuse, the red supergiant. “Near” isn’t exactly accurate, as we are quite a distance away from it. But on the grand scale of the universe, we are but a stone’s throw away.

Even at this great distance (I estimate we are three times the diameter of the solar system away from Betelgeuse) the bright red star glowers at us, its huge disc constant burning through our thick windows.

Making a pass this near a red supergiant was not on our original itinerary. Rumour has circulated amongst the crew that a group of scientists that came aboard at Andromeda had requested the captain to make such a detour.

Normally the captain would not allow such an outrageous request, as the path would have to be painstakingly calculated beforehand. We suspect the captain, or the owner of our vessel, was paid handsomely for such a trip.

Too bad those credits will not be trickling down to the likes of us.