When the Sun Turns to Darkness

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

copyright 2002 - 2006 C.E.

Chapter One

Beginnings

Rebecca Wilkens sat alone in her living room while a heavy rain pounding outside her windows fought to match her mood. She was surrounding by what looked like piles of junk. Books, pictures, records and CD's mainly. She'd spent two full weeks gathering what she wanted to take with her on the ship. Two hundred pounds, not an ounce more. Even after a full day of heartbreaking choices she was still three times over the weight limitation. 'What the hell can I do now?' she thought. 'I've pared everything down as far as I can. Even my clothing.' Two large cardboard boxes stuffed with brand new clothing freshly washed and vacuum packed in plastic bags. They alone took a quarter of her weight allowance. But the things she wanted still were more than she could hope to carry.

Her doorbell rang, its harsh buzz snapping her out of her funk. "Come on in" she called, not really worried about who it might be. Not even her family knew she'd been selected, her neighbors had heard her crying and decided she'd been declined like everyone else they knew. They'd know different when the military trucks arrived. Then the hate would explode. Why her, not me would be the common cry.

"Why the long face sweets?" a burred Scottish voice asked. Looking up Rebecca found her new lover standing just inside the door, a large suitcase in each hand. She looked delicious standing there dressed in a thin blue raincoat. It drifted open as she moved, showing a military style flight suit underneath.

"Figuring out what I want to take. Its kinda... difficult" Rebecca admitted. "I've thrown so much out but... Oh damn. Its so hard and I still can't believe its true. I still can’t believe that within a year there won’t be any lifo on Earth surface."

Kathleen didn’t laugh. Truth be told she was still getting used to having someone want her for more than her dancers body. That the message had come to Rebecca had stunned her. She’d never thought about it. "Got all I want here. Few pictures, some CD's, my clothes. Got a hundred and thirty pounds left still. Use mine."

"That's ALL?" Rebecca asked stunned. "Athena girl, what... I mean.. Oh... Damn. Look. I never asked. Why so little? What do you do for a living? Not just dancing, you showed me your college deplomia but I never really thought to ask."

Kathleen laughed again, her voice a rainbow of sound in the tiny house. "Yes my dear sweet love. I’m just a cheap exotic dancer. Means I'm a stripper. Okay, truth or dare then. Yes, I used to be a vet. An animal doctor. But... Gosh there's more money showing your body to a bunch of drunks than treating heartworm or broken bones. I never really kept much money though. I never could hold on to it. When you move almost every six months because landlords don't want to renew your lease your always paying cash. Not unless you play their game and I won't. I have an old rocker that belonged to mom but hey, we're in stasis for years right? What am I going to do with a beat up old rocker?"

"They help at four am when your trying to breast feed a baby" Rebecca answered. "You can have mine, its new. I've already dismantled it. I was going to start my family next December if you agreed. Now... Goddess knows when."

Kathleen didn't comment, she just stacked her suitcases with the boxes. "Lets start by losing some weight hon." Dropping down by the pile of books Kathleen grabbed one, ripping its hard covers off.

"My books" Rebecca screamed, only to stop when the cover landed in her lap with a heavy thump.

"You want to pay the weight for cardboard covers wrapped in glued cloth? We'll make new covers for them later. Its easier than you think. It's text that counts right?" Kathleen asked.

"Yeah, guess so." Rebecca admitted. "I've scanned all my pictures, my story and art collection" she giggled, "I write a bunch of artists, they send me drawings. All my game rules are in ASCII, same for the APA's, SCA stuff, NAR plans and I scanned all the game counters in." She pointed at the CD stack. "Triple backups, dual for my music and movies. Went out and bought every DVD I could find, except the horror stuff."

"What? No Friday the Thirteenth part ninty-four? Come on, that stuff's classic! What about codes though, you know those things only work a couple of times."

"Got the master code" Rebecca giggled while blushing. "Friend on the Internet. She's not going, doesn't want to. Plans to try and ride it out in a shelter a bunch of families built in an abandoned gold mine. Might work too. But I've never liked horror movies, other than Rocky Horror that is. There's too much hate, violance and stuff like that in real life to carry it with you."

"But they said the world will end... How could anyone survive?"

"Come on Kath... Yes sun eventually becomes a black hole. No light, no heat. Earth won’t spiral in, we’re too far out and the mass difference isn’t going to be enough to affect our orbit that much. Not in human lifetimes. First couple hundred thousand years only problems gonna be the cold and maybe radiation. But we will still have a magnetic field. Unless that black holes poles swing our way we’re probably going to be okay. But cold. As in liquid oxygen in the riverbanks. A well built shelter will keep you alive a few thousand years, until cold seeps in or your equipment fails. That's still longer than you and I will live. Long enough to come up with something new."

"What about that radiation?" Kathleen asked, tossing the last cover aside. "I thought those things pumped out so much nothing could survive within what? Lightyears?"

"Goes out North, South. Odds are it won't ever hit Earth. In fact it'll be a beautiful sight for a while, until its too cold to breath outside. That's what's gonna kill the most people, the cold. Government may even be able to build a couple more stations. Still their right not to take chances. Riots may wipe out too much manufacturing capability to build any more ships. No one knows until its too late. There's even a chance people can live on the surface after all, but I'm still working on that theory so don't ask okay?""

'Kay.' Kathleen started packing the ultra thin boxes silently, writing each ones weight on the outside as she finished. Almost an hour passed before she spoke again. "How come you know so much about it?"

"Space nut" Rebecca admitted. "Member of the SETI league, those two big antenna's out back aren't aimed at satellites, their hooked up to a couple of home computers hunting for signals. And to be honest I’m Swaging a lot."

“Swag?”

“Scientific Wild Assed Guess.”

"Figures, I always attract the Braniacs" Kathleen sighed as if in regret. "So explain to me then oh lust of my life and Science Expert, what was the real chance this could happen. I always thought stars had to explode first."

"They do, unless they hit an existing black hole. That's what’s happening in our case. A tiny little thing we only spotted because of its gravity effects or other objects. Thirty years ago some scientist noticed it, it'd probably have been be difficult to see until its too late much before then. Not that we could have done anything even today. It’s not moving fast enough to simply pass through the system, so it’ll get stuck in Sol's core, start eating its way out. It's really the only way it could happen naturally. Our sun doesn't have enough mass to create a neutron star, much less a black hole. Sol should have died as a white dwarf three billion years from now. Another couple of months and it'll be all starting. Lotta flares that don't make Venus's orbit cause of the gravity. Big fireworks display. "

"Your still a hundred and seven pounds over, even with my allowance" Kathleen announced softly changing the subject. "What should we dump?"

"Encyclopedia?"

"Gone already. Same for the dictionaries."

"Damn. Ummm..." She looked at what was left. A small pile. "Dump the PC, I'll take both laptop's and the external CD-R's instead. My new Iomega and table scanner."

"Printer?"

"Won't need one, there's not that much worth printing anyway. Ummm.. Toss in those three package's of E-card cables too."

"Now your seventy-one over. What OS are you using?"

"DOS 7 just like the ship’s public systems. Tonns more stable than any GUI Billy Joe Bob Gates ever put out. LYNIX in reserve. Losers 95 is too unstable. 98's almost worse. Weight... Come on, lets open those boxes and start looking."

"What about the computer spare parts" Kathleen asked. "Anything in there PC specific?"

Somehow they finished and as Rebecca had feared when the troops arrived her neighbors were livid. Both women endured catcalls, curses and even a few gunshots were fired before everything was shoved into the transport. "Right on the money ladies" their cargo master announced. "Couldn't have stuffed another ounce in." Kathleen nudged Rebecca in her ribs, "Fifteen pounds of lead miniatures and ten of metal dice. What we're you thinking? You kept seven pounds of plastic ones. And the dozen plastic double deck pinocle sets. I'll have to learn that game."

Rebecca blushed in embarrassment. "Game pieces, never crossed my mind. Love Star Fleet Battles." She looked out the trucks rear one last look at her home. One last view of San Antonio Texas and she would be gone. Their flight was out of Hondo, a tiny airport that could barely hold the military craft waiting for them. San Antonio International and Kelly Field were already packed with people. There wasn't a chance in Hell any aircraft would get out of there.

Sunrise found them in Vandenburg sitting together on a blue military bus headed for their shuttle. Like all passengers they could only hope their luggage arrived with them. "Its big" Kathleen commented in awe. Abruptly she snickered. "You know. If you look at those side things just right..."

"SRV's" Rebecca explained absently, not looking up from her instruction book.

"Yeah, and that big tank? They look like..."

Rebecca blushed as she caught on. "Living with you is going to prove interesting isn't it?" Kathleen giggled, a low throaty sound.

"Honey, you have no idea." She leaned back, watching Rebecca's blush grow until it vanished under her flight suit. 'No idea at all' Kathleen thought as she studied her lifemates face.

Hours later Rebecca still sat quietly in the ready room while her lover walked about, chatting with the other members of their flight. ATLANTIS was in turn-around, something that normally took months. Now, only hours. Someone had tossed the manual out. They'd been sent to Vandenburg from Hondo because Canaveral had been overrun. Vandenburg had always been the supply point. It was amazing how quickly they'd converted to shipping human cargo. Someone had planned ahead and she was certain it hadn’t been a civilian. She shivered in sudden fear, remembering the sea of humanity surrounding this base. A rolling sea held back by dedicated men and women who already knew they were probably going to die.

"I.. I.. Doc?" an overweight man across the room stammered. He clutched his chest, whimpered and fell like a sack of flour, his head striking the concrete floor with an audible crack. His grey haired wife screamed, filling the tiny room with sound. It was all Rebecca could take. With a lunge she dove into one of the two large bathrooms.

By the time she had cleaned up and returned to her place both the man and his wife were gone. "Missed the show lover" Kathleen whispered. "Old man died, big time. Since he was chosen his wife stays behind. She didn't want to go without him anyway. What will they do now?"

Rebecca swallowed, still tasting bile. "I guess backups? I donno, there has to be standbys." As she spoke a couple walked in, they hurried as they walked, the woman yelling something about where their gear was. "Told yah" Rebecca continued softly. She couldn't know that there wasn't an official stand-by list, that this base's commander had randomly chosen dozens of military couples, officer and NCO just in case something like this happened. She couldn't know coded messages explaining what happened were already flying up to their ship.

"At least they look healthier" Kathleen noted. She tugged at her outfit, then ran a finger across the NASA logo emblazoned on her left breast. "Nothing to do until we launch. Damn I'm bored" she sighed, plopping down in the seat beside Rebecca. "You always throw up like that?"

"I'm scared of flying" Rebecca admitted. "Always have been. Normally I take something, but this time..." She swallowed her fear. "I'm going to get one shot at a shuttle launch. We'll glide in to our new home and never leave. I'm going to live through this, so I want to remember it. Maybe after I won't be afraid of flying anymore."

Kathleen laughed, startling the new couple who had settled down near them. "I can't believe it. Miss know-it- all SETI nut and all around Space Cadet's scared of flying? Who would have thought."

"Laugh it up Monkey girl" Rebecca snapped, paraphrasing a movie line. "You'll get yours." Kathleen just continued to laugh as a med-tech walked over. "Miss? If your really scared I can give you a shot" he offered.

Rebecca managed a wan smile towards the young man. "Would you take it, if you were in my place?"

"No Mam I wouldn't. I just wanted to offer. Good flight." He smiled then left.

"Goddess Kathy" Rebecca whispered. "He's probably gonna be dead in a couple of weeks and he can smile? Be friendly? Why the hell isn't he coming."

"I don't know Becky. We've probably got ass-holes up there already and people like that die. World never was fair. Now its showing just how mean it can be."

A man wearing an Air Force uniform came in, looked around then whistled. "I'm Major Hargrove, Commander of DISCOVERY. Please follow me." Both women groaned as their joints complained when they stood to follow. "Time to fly" Kathleen said, tucking her red hair into a pale blue paper cap. She stopped, finding herself having to help Rebecca walk. "Hey, you ought to take that shot girl."

Rebecca shook her head no. "Nothing left tah come out either end now, might as well do it." The Scotswoman frowned, looked behind them at the still waiting tech and nodded. He waved back, pointed to the door then reached for a phone.

In less than twenty minutes later they were all strapped in the shuttle, Rebecca was still green faced and fighting her stomach. Quietly a young woman stepped up behind her, reached over and touched the woman's cheek with a damp cloth.

"What?" Rebecca snapped, spinning around in fear.

"You had a bug on your face miss" the girl lied. "I was just removing it before you closed your helment."

"Oh.. thanks." She sat back again. They were still a few minutes from launch. "I'm scared Kathy... I think I should have..." she yawned, "taken that shot."

Kathleen smiled, seeing that the drug was taking affect quickly. "You'll be fine, lay back and relax. Oh yeah, one question. Rules were you had to be married a year. How'd you manage to get me on that list."

Rebecca smiled, a mischievous little smile that told volumes about her. Reaching her gloved hand over she covered Kathleen's. "I lied Kath... Plane and simple. Have..." another, longer yawn, "..bunch of friends... Priest, hackers... You know tha kind..." She winked. "I cheated." She started to yawn again but failed. Even as the last seconds clocked down she fell into a light drugged sleep. Kathleen reached over, lowering her lovers faceplate before lowering her own.