Tag: romance

Distant Love (Part 13)

“You have a go C4365. You are cleared for the emergency landing at Moon Sector C. Please acknowledge”

“Thank God,” she replies.

Derek magnifies the screen and, using his mouse, draws a tangent from the ship to the landing area. “It will be six hours till we can start the landing procedure. I am going to familiarize myself with your ship. Reopen communications at five hundred hours. What’s your name by the way?”

The reply is swift. “Maeve”.

“Sorry?” Derek goes cold.

“You can call me Maeve. What’s your name?”

“Yeah, as I said, we’ll communicate again.” Derek clicks the mouse, ending the transmission.

Nathalie looks over at him wide-eyed. “Everything okay?”

“It’s my Maeve. She’s on the ship. I’ve just spoken to her!”

“No way, what are the chances? You’d better make sure that ship lands safely.”

Derek lets out a groan

Nathalie frowns. “That bad?”

He nods as he looks up at the ship’s specifications. It’s a thirty-year-old W-Class Transported. Not only is it far larger than anything he had attempted to guide to land before, it wasn’t built to land at all. Damage from a solar flare had not been countenanced.

Oh, Maeve, how am I going to get you out of this?

Distant Love (Part 12)

It is a female voice. “This is C4365 over. Please acknowledge. I repeat. This is C4365 over.”

Derek clicks on the screen to respond. “This is Moon Sector C acknowledging. What is your status? I repeat, what is your status?”

Her voice is cackling and breaking up at times. “C C C4365 in diff difficulty. Need permission.. repeat permission is needed to land in Sector C.”

Derek frowns. Emergency landings on the moon are rare, and unheard of in Sector C. This would be a management decision. “C4365 Keep your communications open. Your request is being determined.”

He ends the call and instead sent a communication request to Moon Sector A, to his manager Selena Basque.

Selena is forty-four years old with long, black hair and a tanned complexion. She is short and has a fuse even shorter. “Yes, Derek.”

“A ship is requesting to do an emergency landing in Moon Sector C.”

He hears a groan before she replies.

“Look, you’ll have to step up. You can do this. This flare has caused carnage. We already have multiple incoming here.”

The communication came to an abrupt halt.

I guess that’s a go, so Derek. Time to step up and get this done.

A deep dive into the TV Series “Travellers”

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I have just finished watching all three series of Travellers. It’s probably the best sci-fi series you’ve never heard of.

I have bad news for you, folks. There is an apocalypse on the way. I know what you’re thinking, no shit. But don’t worry. You see, the nineties were the key decade. A future super-intelligent computer (Is this even sci-fi anymore?) called the Director is sending back time travellers on missions to ensure a better future. The fact that I might like warmer summers, and will almost certainly be dead by the forthcoming ice age, doesn’t come into its calculations.

Alas, the time travellers have to take over a living body and erase the previous person. Kind of reminds me of “Body Snatchers”. Fear not, it’s all done very ethically. They take over the bodies of those who are about to die anyway.

The travellers have several protocols to protect the timeline (from Wikipedia) –

  • Protocol 1: The mission comes first.
  • Protocol 2: Leave the future in the past.
  • Protocol 3: Don’t take a life, don’t save a life, unless otherwise directed. Do not interfere.
  • Protocol 4: Do not reproduce.
  • Protocol 5: In the absence of direction, maintain your host’s life.
  • Protocol 6: Do not communicate with other known travelers outside of your team unless sanctioned by the Director.

The team historians have an additional secret protocol involving the periodic updates they receive concerning “historic information relative to [their] team’s role in the Grand Plan”. It is a sub-protocol of Protocol 2:

  • Protocol 2H: This forbids the revelation about the existence of the updates “with anyone, ever”.

The Director can invoke three other protocols in special situations:

  • Protocol Alpha: temporarily suspends all other protocols when a critical mission must be completed at all costs
  • Protocol Epsilon: can be invoked when traveler archives are threatened
  • Protocol Omega: permanently suspends all other protocols when the Director abandons the travelers because the future has either been fixed or deemed impossible to fix

Each episode is fast-paced and action-packed. A large part of the series is the relationships between the travellers and those who previously knew the host. The love story between Macy and David plays a key role in maintaining continuity and interest from episode to episode.

Another key relationship is between Grant and his wife, Kat, who can’t quite bring herself to believe her husband. Correctly, as it turns out. I don’t know if this series could be made today, as it brings up thorny consent issues. Can Kat give consent for sex if Grant isn’t who she thinks he is? Hey, it is kind of philosophical. Let’s leave it at that.

They end up completing many missions, but the future doesn’t seem to be getting better. In fact, “The Faction” ends up being created. This is a group from the future that opposes the Director. Ironically, they are from a newly created timeline where their shelter was not destroyed.

Then there is 001, who has gone way off mission, creating an empire and actually killing travellers.

Spoiler Alert.

It all comes to a head at the end of Series 3, which is probably one of the best finales ever. The director calls Protocol Omega, effectively giving up on the timeline. By the end nuclear war is breaking out, and the travellers are told all they’ve done is speed up the Earth’s destruction. What a downer! Ouch.

But there is one last throw of the device. Grant is transported even further into the past and sends a message that the Traveller program failed.

The final scene is the Director acknowledging its failure and initiating Team Two instead. So, everything you’ve watched at least in this timeline ends up never happening. Almost, like the whole thing is just one calculation of the director. I love it!

Travellers can currently be viewed on Netflix.

If you enjoyed this content, please like, share, and subscribe.

Distant Love (Part 11)

Derek stares at the screen and smiles. Most of the ships are moving in the expected trajectory. “How are things on your side, Natasha?”

“Good, everything appears fine, but that was close. The first one we’ve seen in months. You”

Derek grimaces. “I thought I was in the clear, but there’s definitely something up with C4365. Bolux. It must be in trouble.”

Natasha stands up and looks over at him, her brow furrowed. “How do you know?”

“Well, let me put it like this. It’s zigzagging all over the place. And that cannot be good.”

She walks over and stares at his screen for a moment. “No, definitely not. You know what to do. Follow procedure. You can do this.”

“So much for an easy day at work.”

He opens communications with C4365. “Please advise your status. You have deviated from your flight path.” The message is put on continuous repeat.

Tapping the table, he wonders how badly the ship has been damaged and hopes he won’t have to stay on late. There was a good documentary about the planned colonization of Sedna that he wanted to watch. To him, it seemed so much more exotic than his own existence.

A cackling noise came over the communications device. Then a voice started speaking into his headset.

Distant Love (Part 10)

Then her mother turns to Maeve. “You are now in charge of communications. Your father and I have too many other things to attend to. Go to the portal and relay what is happening to Calvenish and Sector C of the moon. Now, hurry, time is of the essence.”

“Will do. Stay safe.” Maeve walks to the elevator feeling hot and uncomfortable. It’s been some time since her father showed her how to use the portal.

I hope I remember how to use it.

She goes down three floors. This one is very different. There are no guests, no chatter, or furniture. Instead, it feels and looks metallic. Maeve feels the hairs on her arms stand up. Each step creates a loud clang echoing down the corridor.

Such a creepy place.

She pushes onwards.

After a brisk three-minute walk, she reaches the room. Her hand pauses over the red button to open the heavy door. After a big breath, she presses it.

It slides open to reveal a room brimming with electrical blue pulses. In the centre is the headset that will connect her neurons to the communications array.

Her muscles tense.

Derek is in Sector C. What did he say his job was? We might be about to meet.

Distant Love (Part 9)

“So what now?” Maeve asks

Her mother, Aishling, looks at her ashen-faced. “The thrusters have been affected. We already have the momentum to bring us to the Space Station Calvenish. We were due to stop there, but they won’t have the required equipment to repair the ship.

The moon is the best option, Sector C, I reckon.”

“Will the gravity not tear the ship apart?” Maeve felt her body heating up

“Your mother is right,” her father, Jack interjects. “The ship should manage it.”

There was no point in arguing when both of her parents were in agreement. That was something that she had learned years ago.

“What about the guests. They will want to know what is going on. We have to think about the future business brand.” Helen always thought about the bottom line.

Jack looks at her for a few seconds before speaking. “The shuttle craft can take them to Calvenish rather than docking when we’re within range. It will take multiple trips. You can stay at the station with them till we return.

Helen folds her hands. “And what do I tell our customers, not to mind investors?”

Aisling bangs her hand on the holographic projector. “Tell them the truth.”

Distant Love (Part 8)

Maeve walks out into the main corridor. It is filling up with guests, many with questions about what happened. They look at her, mouths wide open. She brushes past. This is the first “urgent” message she has received; her heart is throbbing.

A few minutes later, she reaches the small lift that will bring her to the deck. A few years earlier, this lift was strictly off limits. It became somewhat magical in her mind, a portal to a forbidden land. No longer.

The door opens to a panoramic view of the Earth in the distance. A wrinkled woman with long grey hair, her mother, glances back at her while looking at a holograph display of the ship. There are two other people present. One is a bald, pensive-looking man, her father, and the other is the head of customer care, Helen Johnson. Helen, a short, chubby woman, is usually happy and good-natured. Now, she is pale and vacant.

“What’s happening, Mum?”

Her father speaks. “It’s nothing to worry…”

Her mum glares at him. “The solar flare has damaged key circuits in the ship

Maeve is dumbfounded. “But how?”

Her Mum averts her eyes. “Too many cutbacks over the years.”

Distant Love (Part 7)

Maeve

With the aged woman in the wheelchair, she pushed her to a table in the large entertainment room. A holographic film of young romance is playing on the table. It appears to be having an effect, with plenty of holding hands around them.

The film stops, and red lights in the room corners turn on. A siren then goes off. Maeve turns to see the door locking. She looks around. There are no other staff members in the room. It is her time to shine. Her heartbeat quickens. In a raised voice, she speaks. “Ladies and gentlemen, there is no cause for concern. A solar flare is heading towards us. However, once we stay in one of our rooms, which have all been fortified, everything will be fine. This will be over shortly.

The room’s translator relays the message in what Maeve guessed was Spanish.

There is murmuring behind her from some of the dozen guests present. Too many people are speaking for the translator to kick in.

The lady that she has just pushed into the room raises her and speaks. It translates as, “Listen to the lady. She knows what she is talking about.”

Maeve pats her shoulder. “Things will return to normal shortly.”

The film and the normal lighting turn back on to applause. Maeve smiles. Her wristwatch vibrates with a message – Report to the deck of the ship, Urgent.

Distant Love (Part 6)

An hour passed with little conversation between them. Derek focused on the three little green dots that represented spaceships traversing the sector he was responsible for. One had blasted off the moon’s surface a half hour earlier, another was lunar orbit and the final one heading to Lunar City itself.

Natasha threw a paper plane at him.

Derek didn’t even look. “What are you like? You’re supposed to be the old and responsible one.”

“Ya cheeky git. I’m not even forty!” She pouts her lips. “How is your lady friend anyway?”

Derek nods his head from side to side. “I knew I should never have that.”

“Ah, don’t be like that.”

“She’s fine as far as I know. You do realize we’ve never met. I’ve no idea what she looks like or anything.”

Natasha smiles. “Well, you should go meet her. The two of you seem to really click.”

“I’ll probably never meet her. She’s always mentioning how she’d love to stay in close Earth orbit.”

“Her loss.” Natasha insists.

An alert appears on both of their screens.

“What’s Alert forty-one, Derek?

“Solar flare, high probability. Send the warning to all ships. Then we need to get underground. We have ten minutes.”

Distant Love (Part 5)

Derek pushes himself in his manual wheelchair out of his room through the automatic door. An electric wheelchair would require far less effort, but his physiotherapist has told him to use the manual one to maintain his muscle tone, especially in a low-gravity environment.

Easy for her to say.

He resides on the third floor of Pod A of Lunar City. The biggest human settlement in Sector C. Ground level, a distance below him, is a hive of activity with people bustling to go about their business. That is of no concern to Derek, who is already close to his workstation. There are no windows. The rotation of the pod would induce motion sickness if you could see outside.

Pausing outside a large metallic door, he reaches for his swipe card in his top pocket.

“I’ve got that.” Derek hears a familiar female voice to his right, which he recognizes as Natasha.

Natasha swipes her card, and they both enter a small office. Derek wheels over to his station, and she takes the remaining one.

They both work in silence.

“Oh, shut up, Derek!” Natasha blurts out.

He responds with a smile, “So, how was your weekend?”

“It was mayhem. Don’t ever have children.” They both laughed.