[Looking Back on Leo] by ArufaBeta & YuukiRafflesia - Scarlet System

"You're okay with all that potential danger?" the AI berates me. Her blue hair shimmers on the screen, her eyes of jade pointed like daggers.

"It's not so much being okay with it…" I lift and place my legs on the ship deck, just shy of the controls. "I just feel like it's necessary, y’know?"

The ship’s command center glitters azure, lights flashing in sequences I’ve long forgotten. The floor and ceiling are dark and glossy— I look up and see my own reflection, my helmet only half-covering my messy brown hair.

"Oz. This ship is the last chance for humanity to create a new home. We can't risk losing a single life; even just one would reduce your survival rate significantly. There are only five thousand of you."

I take a sip of my gross, synthetic coffee, and look back at the screen. "Danger’s everywhere, Aodori. Even if your analysis says some way-off planet might be safer than our closest bet, I think it’s worth making the landing here."

“And why’s that?” the screen scoffs. “You mean you’d rather make a stupid gamble than wait for a better chance?”

“Aodori, have you ever gambled before?” I ask the monitor. Aodori’s sleek form grimaces. “No, I’m serious. Do you AIs have gambling? Is that a thing?”

She laughs, but her voice is still tense. It’s like she’s trying to display two emotions at once. “Why would I ever make a bet on something with such low odds? It’s unintelligent.”

“Then you wouldn’t get it.” I roll my chair up to the control panel and start inputting commands. “I don’t care what the odds are, we gotta get everyone off of this ship.”

“Well, you should care!” Aodori snaps. “The odds are one in ten you’ll even survive the first day!”

I glance over at the monitor and straighten my black leather jacket. Its ends are frayed and worn, but it’s the last of its kind. “One in ten is better than any odds we’ve ever had. If I tell the crew we have a chance like that, they’ll throw a party the second we land.”

“Oz, that’s preposterous! There’s no way you can guarantee everyone’s survival!”

“I know I can’t. But I’m gonna try.” I keep on typing. For a brief moment, I can see the planet through the reinforced glass. TRAPPIST-1e, it’s called. It’s lit by the light from a red star, tinting the entire planet a deep scarlet.

Aodori sighs. “Why do you humans always endanger yourselves?”

"We're endangering ourselves enough just staying on this ship,” I say. “It's a miracle we're all still alive anyway. Stray meteoroids are one thing, health is another. But we have an exit now, and it's right in front of us.”

“And what are you going to do once they start dropping like flies?” Aodori turns her head and snorts. “I wish they’d chosen a smarter captain.”

“Whatever.” I hit a few more buttons, and a pop-up appears over Aodori’s face. “We’re in orbit now. Nice.”

Aodori reached around and closed the pop-up. “I can’t let you land on TRAPPIST, Oz.”

“Too bad.”

“Captain Osiris Lechter, I cannot let you land. Rerouting course. Engaging autopilot.” I scramble to my feet as my chair sinks into the floor. Aodori, what the…

“Hey! Aodori, cut it out. You know the laws of robotics. Don’t tell me you’re going rogue.”

Her face on the screen is blank, emotionless. “The laws of robotics require me not to harm a human, or, by inaction, allow a human to come to harm. That is all I am doing. Your actions are recklessly and intentionally endangering your compatriots.”

This isn’t the Aodori I know— I’ve never seen this side of her. “Aodori, listen to me.”

No response. It’s as if she’s not even looking at me.

“Aodori, those laws are from a sci-fi book, alright? They aren’t real. You are. You don’t have to follow them.”

Aodori’s virtual avatar blinks. “I know where the laws are from. I follow them because they provide the most reasonable course of action.”

“Aodori, stop exiting orbit,” I order. “It won’t force anyone to come to harm. It’ll just give us more time to decide.”

Sure enough, the ship comes to a staggering halt. I nearly fall forward as the front boosters activate. “What is there to decide, Oz? I’m acting for your survival. For your own good.”

“Our survival, huh? Name the five things humans need to survive, then.”

Her avatar looks puzzled. “Simple. Water, food, air, and shelter. There is no fifth requirement. Or did you forget?”

“No, there’s a fifth one.” I put a hand on the dashboard to balance myself. “It’s morale. Humans need morale to survive, too.”

“What makes you say that?” Aodori says.

“A hopeless human is a dead human,” I shoot back. “If we don’t land on TRAPPIST, everyone on board is gonna lose hope. And that’s worse than that one-in-ten chance.”

Aodori crosses her white-jacketed virtual arms. “Why would you lose hope if you knew you were headed to a better place?”

“That’s what NASA told us when we set a course for TRAPPIST, Aodori. They said we were headed to a better place. And now, according to you, we aren’t.” I grabbed my cup and took one more sip before throwing it in the trash. “We’ve been on this damn ship for 80 years, and that’s going at half the speed of light. Let them at least step foot on TRAPPIST. Even if we all die.”

“You underestimate how hard surviving on a planet like TRAPPIST will be. It’s tidally locked, for heaven’s sake. And we don’t even know if there’s liquid water.” Aodori seems less agitated now. She almost looks sad.

I see my reflection on the screen depicting Aodori. “I think you underestimate our resolve.” With that, I turned back to the dashboard and began routing us to land on TRAPPIST-1e.

I keep sending the inputs, and they all register as accepted. It doesn’t seem like Aodori is trying to stop us anymore. I enter the final landing command and turn to face the door. “Thanks for the help, Aodori. I’m gonna get the others ready,” I call before running out.

◇◆◇◆◇

The cold air of the cryogenic hibernation unit slaps me in the face. It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I step up to the translucent green control panel and press a button or two.

Hiss! A thousand cryogenic sleep containers depressurize. It would be an irritating sound if it didn’t mean so much. “Hey, everyone. It’s been a hot second, huh?”

No one’s awake yet. It always takes a few minutes for their bodies to start pumping blood. I tap all the settings I can to accelerate that process. Chances are, in a few minutes, we’ll be on the planet’s surface.

The sounds of groaning fill the room. It’s understandable— these guys have been asleep for a little while. “Hey, hey, how’s everyone doing? It’s been 80 years, and guess what? We’re here!”

Sounds of general excitement reach my ears. Good. Now I just have to inform the people who actually need to hear it. “That’s all from me. Make sure to grab your stuff from the sanitized lockers. Should be just as pristine as when you put it there!”

I run out of the cryo room, skidding on the soles of my black boots as I get into the hallway. It reminds me of my time on the ISS, but that was a long time ago, way before we had artificial gravity. The studded grey hallway stretches on forever until I finally find the two social rooms, nestled in the very back of the ship.

I enter a code on the keypad between them and pull down a receiver from the ceiling. “Hey, you guys. I just wanted to let you all know. The AI wouldn’t let us land on TRAPPIST, so we’re rerouting before we get there. Sorry you guys won’t get to see it.”

A younger kid, probably ten years of age, steps out of the living quarters and lightly punches me in the arm. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No.” I maintain my straight face for as long as possible until it breaks into a sly smirk. I grab the receiver again. “Just kidding. Take a look out the windows.” With the click of a button, the shutters roll down, and the beautiful scarlet planet shimmers in the distance.

Or rather, its surface does. The ship shakes violently as we attempt to land on the rocky planet. “Oh, and maybe grab onto something while you’re at it. Osiris out.” The kid scurries off to his family and hangs on to a fake tree. Its leaves don’t fall off— they just wobble.

As the ship rocks, I run back to the cryo room and peek in. Most of them have gotten out of their pods by now, but they’re still dripping wet. Good enough— we can dry them off before we leave. I get back to the cockpit and take the landing into my own hands.

I push and pull the joystick all over, trying to balance us on a flat area. The thrusters barely have any fuel left, but they manage to cushion our impact just enough for the landing pads to balance out. I pull back on the throttle and cut the engines.

Aodori’s avatar reappears on the screen. “Just don’t blame me if they start dying.”

“Trust me. I won’t let them. I won’t let any of us die.” I disengage most of the ship’s functions. “Our determination to settle TRAPPIST is stronger than any force of nature.”

Aodori is pensive for a moment. I’m seconds away from having to turn her off, too. “You know what? I’m glad they chose you to be a captain, Oz.”

“Why’s that?”

“They chose you to settle TRAPPIST, but it seems like you also settled my heart. Maybe that’s what they saw in you.”

“Maybe.” I flicked off everything but the airlock and Aodori. “I guess this is goodbye?”

Aodori nodded. “I guess so. Farewell, Captain Osiris.”

The screen cut to static for a moment before it turned off.

◇◆◇◆◇

TRAPPIST-1e MISSION LOG

CAPTAIN OSIRIS LECHTER

TRAPPIST-1e is habitable. There’s water here, the atmosphere has a similar composition to Earth’s, and the sky is prettier than anything back home.

Well, I guess this is our home now, isn’t it? After all, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting back to Earth anytime soon. Or ever.

Since the planet’s tidally locked, we live on the edge— meaning we’re in an eternal sunset. Or is it a sunrise? We can’t tell. Those words don’t really mean much to us anymore.

The other planets in the TRAPPIST 1 system are gorgeous. Sometimes they line up in a spectacular way, like eclipses back on Earth. Someday, we might be able to hop between them.

We had a couple of our astronomers on board chart the constellations from here. They’re not that different, actually. We’re only 40 light years out, after all. That’s not that far in the grand scheme of things.

The only constellation we noticed a noticeable difference in was Leo. It still looks vaguely like a lion, but it has one more star than it does on Earth. The astronomers were a little confused for a second before they explained it to me. Apparently, that new star, which they were planning to call Ω Leonis, is actually the Sun. I guess that means we’re looking back on Leo, huh?

I know no one will see this for a long time. Maybe no one will ever see it. But I just wanted to say a few things. The colony’s doing incredibly. Everyone’s working hard to make this planet a safe place for the next generation. But they were a little dismayed, since TRAPPIST-1e is a really strange name for a planet.

I took the initiative to come up with a name for it myself. This scarlet world isn’t TRAPPIST-1e anymore. It’s Aodori. And we’re doing everything we can to make it our new home.