Captain Dakari bent over the map table in the SAR Command tent tracing a finger along a schematic of the ship. Groups of kids had been coming down in a steady stream for the last hour; seventy-four so far. The kids had come down the Green elevators first, then the Blue elevators, and now the Yellow elevators. Someone was clearing Deck 27. “Any idea yet who’s up there?” asked Captain Dakari. The radio operator pulled his headphones back. “I’ve called every SAR member, nobody is on Deck 27, and the kids refuse to say who came and got them out of hiding.” Captain Dakari saw another group of kids being led across the beach by a SAR Cadet to the Lost and Found. The abandon ship announcement couldn’t have come at a worst time. School had just let out and the corridors were filled with kids heading home. The word of poison gas from Death Seeds filling the ship had brought panic, and panic had turned the corridors into death traps for the kids. The older kids had immediately taken charge and herded the younger ones into safe rooms, closets, Sun Chambers, and one particularly creative teenager had even broken the glass out of a vending machine and shoved his little brother inside. When the boy was brought down to the beach, he had his pockets stuffed with candy bars. There had been injuries, but no fatalities. The RS-40 had truly seen its worst day with a complete collapse of civilized behavior into barbarism as mob mentality had taken over. But it was a double-edged sword. The kids had escaped being trampled, only to now be in hiding and either didn’t know, or were too scared to leave their hiding places. And the poison clouds were spreading. They were losing the battle to save the ship and those still aboard. *** Luca stood at the border between Yellow Section and Purple Section, his eyes down and fixed on the checkered pattern of Purple Section's carpet. “I didn’t realize the ship was so big. How far have we gone?” “Six miles,” replied Mr. Buckles. “Let’s see… that’s…” Luca drew the numbers in the air with his finger as he did the math. “Oh my gosh, it’s going to take seven months to clear the ship.” “I know.” “What do you mean, you know?” “If I had told you, would it have stopped you from trying?” Luca leaned against Mr. Buckles, they must have cleared a bazillion rooms already, and they had barely started. “No, it wouldn’t have.” “You needed to see how impossible the task you set for yourself was to understand it. I have been monitoring the radio, there are many places on the ship that are now blocked from any avenue of escape because of the gas clouds.” “What do we do now?” asked Luca. “You must turn the impossible to possible.” Luca dropped down to his knees and snuggled his face against Mr. Buckles neck. “I’m so tired.” “There is an orange juice in my harness pack, drink it now.” “I don’t want to.” “I will bite you.” Luca giggled and retrieved the orange juice. He was thirstier than he knew and downed the little box of orange juice in one gulp. Mr. Buckles lowered himself to the ground and Luca lay against him. Luca’s eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep for exactly sixteen minutes and thirty-four seconds before the sugar rush kicked in. Luca might be a brilliant mind, but he was still young and needed nap time occasionally. Luca’s eyes snapped open. “I know how to get everyone off the ship at the same time!” *** Chief Dagas strolled into the chaotic flurry of activity inside the Search and Rescue Command tent. His eyes scanned over the radio operators desperately trying to coordinate the rescue activities of the field teams, but in the end, it would be a futile effort. The ship and three-hundred thousand people still aboard would be lost. Whoever had planned the terror attack had planned it well. There were now easily over a thousand Death Seeds active and spewing poison gas. The Death Seeds were nearly indistinguishable from a Life Seed, and someone had been distributing them for the last six months to the unsuspecting public. The victims had carried their own deaths on a chain around their necks completely unaware. A cheer went up from out on the beach and Chief stepped outside to see what the excitement was about. Everyone was facing the ocean and waving, the RS-72 had just appeared on the horizon. It was one thing to know how big the ships were, or to even see one on the ground, but to see one of the Galaxy Class World Ships flying within the atmosphere of a planet gave a true perspective of their size. It looked like a small continent had gotten up and taken flight. Chief sighed, the only thing the RS-72 could do to help would be to get all these people off the beach. Chief heard one of the radio operators calling for Captain Dakari. “Sir, we know who’s on Deck 27 now, he just called in. It’s Cadet Luca Aestar.” “So that’s where my sixty-million dollar wolf got off to, damn that boy, he’s supposed to be over at Cargo Bay 27.” Chief didn’t bother to correct the SAR Captain, but Mr. Buckles did not belong to the SAR unit. The robot frame had been built over a hundred years ago and coded off the property books as a failed experiment. It was supposed to have gone to auction years ago to recoup some of the tax payers’ money, but the SAR Captain had hidden it in a closet in his office, refusing to give up on the project. Once the Aeden A.I. had been transferred successfully into the robotic frame, Chief had used a loop-hole in the rules to allow a private bidding for the ‘scrapped’ robotic frame. And of course, Luca had mysteriously won the bid and purchased the wolf for $6.34. Chief stepped up beside the SAR Captain. “Put it on speaker, I want to know what he’s doing still on the ship. I sent him down to the Cargo Bay this morning.” “Luca, this is Captain Dakari.” “Hi, Captain, I know how to get everyone off the ship.” “I want you down here, right now.” “I can’t, I’m searching and rescuing.” “Luca, that’s an order, I want you off that ship, now.” There was a pause before Luca replied. “No.” Captain Dakari’s face turned red with anger and Chief chuckled. “Sir, Luca did tell you before you accepted him into SAR that he would not abandon anyone as he was abandoned during the Eroden invasion of his home world. He is being true to his word. Let’s hear his plan.” Captain Dakari’s annoyance over-rode his common sense and he glared at the Chief. “You do know I’m the Commander of this unit.” “Yes Sir, and I am now the acting Captain of the RS-40. The Captain and Executive Officer have already resigned their commissions to the Fleet Admiral because of today’s horribly executed evacuation. I was given a temporary field commission to Captain twenty minutes ago.” Captain Dakari hadn’t known that, but still, he shouldn’t have challenged the Chief. The Chief was a good man and the ship would be well served if his temporary elevation were to become permanent. “I apologize, it’s been a stressful day.” The Captain raised the microphone and pushed the talk-button. “Luca, what’s your idea to get everyone off the ship?” “The Sunth can get everyone off,” replied Luca. “We can’t use the escape pods, because they were made for space and would just crash on the ground and kill everyone, but the Sunth Sun Chambers can land on the ground.” “The Sunth Sun Chambers?” said Chief. “They do have landing rockets to safely reach a planet if they need to leave the ship, but… why didn’t anyone else think of that?” “Luca, how do you propose we get everyone into a Sun Chamber?” asked Captain Dakari. “The Sunth can do it,” said Luca. “Their bodies are actually just illusions so they can talk to us in our reality. They can walk through walls, because they’re not real. There’s a Sun Chamber every twenty feet around the entire outer bulkhead on every deck. We can ask the Sunth to search all the rooms around their Sun Chambers, then when they’re sure they have everyone, they can eject from the ship and land on the beach.” The wavering illusion of Tausenth, Commander of the Sunth, appeared in the Command tent. Chief faced the image of the man and bowed. “Sir, would that work?” “Before we left the world of our birth long ago, the Great Tree said a child not of the Ruk would come to lead us from the poison death. Yes, it will work, I am giving the order now,” said Tausenth. Chief doubted the Great Tree of Cormon ever said anything of the kind, but the Sunth enjoyed playing the mystics and invented a prediction for everything. Chief bowed again. “We are grateful.” *** Luca screwed his mouth to the side and glared at his phone. “Captain Dakari didn’t say if he thought my plan was a good idea or not.” Luca stuffed the phone into his pocket and walked towards the next door to check for survivors. “I’m going to keep looking for more kids.” “Don’t open that door,” said Mr. Buckles calmly. Luca stopped in front of the door. “Why?” Mr. Buckles remained silent. “Oh come on, not you too,” said Luca. “I’m not a little kid, what’s inside there?” “Three went in, all three were wearing a Death Seed.” Mr. Buckles lowered his head. “I can smell what occurred, there are none to come out.” Luca’s eyes welled up with tears as he pressed his forehead against the door. “I’m too late?” “Luca, it is time for you to leave,” said a voice. Luca spun around. The wavering shape of a Sunth woman had come out of her Sun Chamber and was holding her hand out to him. “I killed them,” cried Luca. “No, child, their seeds went active while the panicked crowds were still here,” replied the woman. “They jumped into that room the moment the gas from their seeds began. They saved thousands of lives with their sacrifice.” The tears flowed down Luca’s face. “Who did this to us?” The woman gestured at the corridor. “Your brother has already brought the guilty one to justice, and now you give life back to so many that had lost hope, look.” Luca turned his head towards where the woman was pointing. The wavering shapes of hundreds… no, thousands of Sunth had left their Sun Chambers and were searching for the lost children of the Ruk. Luca watched as groups of children followed their Sunth rescuers into the Sun Chambers. Luca heard the first Sun Chamber fire its rockets and leave the ship, then another and another, until thousands of Sun Chambers were out in the bright sunlight and descending safely to the beach. Mr. Buckles went to Luca and gently nudged him towards the Sunth woman’s Sun Chamber. Luca didn’t resist, he could barely see through the tears of joy that now flowed down his face. Luca sat on the floor of the Sun Chamber under the bright yellow and orange leaves of the tree inside. Mr. Buckles braced himself across Luca, and the Sun Chamber launched away from the ship. There was a window, and Luca could see the RS-40 with smoke and flames rising up around her. The great ship was lost and would burn for weeks until nothing was left but the metal ribs of the proud ship. But the loss of the ship was nothing to Luca, he could also see the thousands of Sun Chambers ejecting through the smoke from the ship, and aboard each one were the precious lives the ship had once protected. Luca laid his head down on Mr. Buckles and closed his eyes. “I saved as many as I could.”

This story is obviously written with a science fiction twist, but it is loosely based on real life events. I replaced Sarin Gas filled rockets with the Death Seeds, and I trimmed the worst of the brutality I discovered researching past and present use of Sarin Gas on civilians. I don't think there are many crimes against humanity greater than the use of chemical and biological warfare. All war is a sensless endevour with no winners, but these types of weapons need to be forever banned globally. P.S. On another note I've been wanting to mention to give you a better visualization of the size of the RS-40. Los Angeles city extends for 44 miles (71 km) north-south and for 29 miles (47 km) east-west. The perimeter of the city is 342 miles (550 km). The RS-40 is 40 miles by 34 miles in size. I based the Ruk ships off the size of Los Angeles. If a Ruk ship were to hover over L.A., it would completely cover the city. Now imagine trying to evacuate Los Angeles, but that is only a fraction of what it would be like to evacuate the RS-40, because the ship has 204 decks, each with the land mass of Los Angeles. It would be like trying to evacuate Los Angeles 204 times. The purpose to such large ships is that when in space, the 76 Ruk ships come together to form a cube, and in essence becomes an artificial medium sized planet. This self-contained artificial world allows the Ruk to remain in space for tens of thousands of years at a time. They have been a nomadic space faring civilization since their planet died over a million years ago.