Young Writers Society

Titanus was a beautiful ship. Nearly a half-mile long, 200 yards wide, and 150 yards high, she was the biggest passenger starship ever constructed. 3228 people on board, crew included, ranging from fabulously wealthy to so poor they had to sell all their property for tickets. Her shields were so strong, she was said to be able to survive a minor solar flare strike, and she had hundreds of anti-asteroid missiles too protect the VIPs.The starship was on a scenic route to take several thousand Pandelous Colonists from their homes in the Pandelous System to Earth.

***

Thebridge was busy, as always. Thetwenty-four man crew never rested, twelve men each taking twelve hour shifts to ensure the safety of the Titanus's passengers.

Colin Prethas sat bored at his station in the back of the bridge, staring at the data coming in from 223 different sensors that all said the same thing: there was nothing in front of them but empty space. Not even any nearby solar-radiation. Nothing.

Colin looked around, making sure no one was watching, and pulledup last month's Galactic Inquisitor on his Porta-Screen,skipping to an article about a kid who got trapped in an air-lock on a Lunar Colony. He had just read about the technician who saved her when his station beeped. Sighing, Colin turned his device off and put it back on his keyboard and pulled up the newest sensory results on screen. Something big was moving around in Titanus's course.

Colin pulled his headset on from where it was sitting on the back of his chair, entering the crew's private frequency.

"This is Private Colin Prethas on Manual Sensory Data Observation duty, calling in to any active Supervisor for an unorthodox report on some minor sensory readings that I would like authorization to disregard or regard, over."

Jeez, what a mouthful. Why can't we just say, 'This is Colin asking for someone to come over here and look at some weird stuff on my screen.'

A grizzled face popped up in the corner of Colin's screen.

"This is Supervisor Vince, responding to your call on some minor sensory readings that you don't know about..." the vid-feed said, turning the line from a statement to a question.

"Yes, sir. I got a reading that may be an asteroid but- wait a sec, got something else," Colin replied, looking at the new signature on his screen. "Disregard that, sir. It seems to be a comet. Biggun', to."

"Prethas, send me your readings. I want to see this myself," Vince replied grumpily. Colin did, biting back a snarky reply.

***

Edward Vince sat heavily in his seat in the Supervision Department. He was getting old. But he still had a lot to do. To much to do to be bothered by some young hotshot on MSDO duty. The kid's data signature popped up on Ed's screen, and he cut the vid-feed to look at it better. Well, the kid was right. It was a comet. And it really was big.

Ed pressed the situation button. He got an instant vid-feed with Director Grail, who was typing something when Ed's window popped up in the middle of his screen, making him jump ever so slightly.

"Vince, you startled me," the director said, but Vince didn't have time for small talk.

"Get with the Captain and the Threats Department. There's a big 'ol comet right in our way, and with our current course it'll hit us."

Director Grail looked slightly perplexed by this. "I'll tell the Department to launch some SmartMissiles to alter the comet's course, but I don't think that waking up Captain Smith would be any help. It's not like-"

"You don't understand sir,"Ed interrupted, "this thing is huge. And it's moving way to fast for a SmartMissile to alter anything about it. If we keep moving at this speed in this direction, the comet's going to curve around to smash into our ArtGrav. If you don't want to change course, you'll need to shut off the ArtGrav and-" Now it was Grail's turn to interrupt.

"I am not going to alter the course of the ship without the Captains permission, and I'm definitely not going to take away 3228 people's gravity! Nothing can puncture the ship, even if it gets through the automatically launchedanti-asteroid missiles! We are perfectly safe."

Ed tried to keep the anger out of his voice. "You need to-" but the director cut the vid-feed.

Damn it! He would have to make a formal report about that man. In the meantime, Ed had to contact the Threats Department and tell them that the Titanus was moving towards destruction.

***

Megan Gravewell woke up to a beep in her headset. Crap, I was dozing, she thought as she rubbed her eyes. Boss coulda seen me!

She picked up her call with a friendly, "Statistics, this is Megan, how can I help you?" Really all she wanted was this shift to be over.

"This isEdward Vince fromSupervision, access code one-nine-one-two. I'd like some helpful Bridge-level information regarding a body outside the Titanus."

Well, the guy's code checked out. Megan was known in Statistics for her ability to provide the most detailed information possible.

"How would you like to send over your data sir, and what exactly would you like to find out?" No sooner had she spoken an access code window broke her screensaver asking for permission to temporally exchange data with Supervisor Edward Vince.

"You work fast," she said, typing in the code. The very next second, she got a huge load of information and sensory data/signatures.

"I want to know where this comet will be in relation to the Titanus when it is closest to us, and when that will be," Ed said in a way that made Megan feel like he needed the info yesterday.

"Okay, I can get you that right now. In about... an hour the comet will..." Megan looked at her flashing red screen. That can't be. She did the calculations twice. Same results.

"The comet is going to hit us in roughly 76 minutes."

***

Gregory Jithery was getting tired of this. "Sir, the Threats Department will look into the logs and geta signature of this 'comet' as soon as we can."

"No, you don't understand!" The gruff voice on the other end of the headset said. "That comet is going to hit us in less than half an hour! You have to evacuate the ship!"

Greg sighed. Moron. The ten escape pods could only hold a dozen people for a day. He halfway wanted to tell this guy in Supervision what he thought of him, and halfway wanted to hang up.

"Sir, we are going to have to access Statistics and the sensory logs in the bridge before we can even consider the escape pods. Now, if you'd please-" Greg stopped talking, realizing that the Supervisor guy had hung up.

"Jackass."

Greg sent a minor urgency report to the Threats Department to confer with Supervision on the importance of this "comet." He doubted that there even was a comet, just an old man who wanted attention. And if there was, the Titanus was invincible. No way a hunk of ice could take it out.

The end-of-shift bell sounded, and Greg shot instantly up out of his rock-hard seat and tossed his headset on the keyboard. Tim, the next guy, was already walking over. Greg made a beeline to the elevator, beating the rest of the Communications people. When the doors were safely closed, Greg said "Observation Deck." The voice-activated elevator shot down to the bottom level of the ship, where all the rich people ate and lounged around. As he neared his destination, Greg pulled out of his pocket and lit a cigarette. He'd probably get a pay reduction, but it had been a long day.

The elevator finally arrived at the Observation Deck, and Greg stepped out into the Land of the Rich People. He was really out of place in his jeans and Galactic Killers souvenirtee shirt with a Communications nametag, but he didn't care. This was his favorite place on the ship.

Greg stood at the very edge of the three foot thick shatterproof glass, at such an angle he could see the entire ship just by turning in a circle. Almost all of it was glass much like that of the Observation Deck, portholes for the rich people who could afford a view of the millions of stars that traveled with them. Greg looked at the very tip of the ship, thinking of the paycheck that could be his if he made it all the way to the Bridge's Communications station.

Greg stood there, staring at the Bridge and smoking illegally, for a few minutes before he noticed the comet. At first he thought it was nothing, just a smudge, but then the smudge slowly got larger, and larger, until everyone on the Observation Deck was looking and pointing and picture taking. Then the voice that announced everything over the Titanus's speakers said calmly, "Attention all crew members of the Titanus. A comet has been spotted visually and is moving quickly. Please report to your Departments and workplaces now, even if it is not your shift.

"Damn it," Greg spat, drawing the attention of several of the rich mothers who covered their kid's ears.

"Excuse you!" one of them said, obviously disgusted that he was even on the same deck as her.

"I'm sorry, your right," he said, "the proper phrase when a giant space iceberg is zooming right at you and you have to spend your last moments alive workingis: Goddamn it."

***

Then everyone on the ship felt a slight tremor as the comet, unaffected by all missiles shot at it, hit the side of the Titanus with a massive explosion of spiralingice, electric sparks, and shiny titanium plates, all spinning into space, the tail a becon of the destruction.

*End of Part One*