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SIX WORD STORIES MEME
TELL A STORY IN SIX WORDS

1. Post your top level with a six word story prompt. Making up your own is fine as well.
2. Other people respond, write a starter, get a thread going somehow.
3. ???
4. Profit!

DON'T LEAVE YOUR TOP LEVEL BLANK!

Original meme from here.

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[Ari's beginning to regret her enthusiasm for the shuttle list. A planet with a questionable atmosphere, which meant suiting up, and that's never comfortable. A bleak, blasted landscape. And now this. She's grateful to Paul for stepping forward, examining the body. Oh, Ari could have done it if she had to, but it was far better that the strength of her stomach wasn't put to the test.]

That's an older style of suit. They've been here a while. It could also have been a pathogen, if they had a hole in the suit or a problem with the filters.

[All they had were unanswered questions. Either of Paul's hypotheses could be correct, too.] It's also possible that it was an unregistered ship that came out here, and that this person was deliberately abandoned. I don't think this planet would have been survivable for long. [Ari frowns. That sort of thing used to be far more common, in the days before the Tradelines, but could this unfortunate spacer have been here for decades? Longer? Not pre-Breakaway, she thought, they were probably too far out.]

Check your suit over first, and then you can take a closer look. Or I can. [Ari didn't relish the possibility, but the captain's philosophy was never to expect something of other people that you wouldn't do yourself, and she did try to live up to it.]

[Paul is suddenly grateful for the more modern style of suit. Their suits are protected against any pathogens that might still be in or around the body - and certain pathogens can survive for decades, if not hundreds of years. Whatever killed this unlucky spacer could certainly have killed them, too. He checks his suit for tears and gives Ari a thumbs-up before examining the corpse more closely.]

Pathogens are possible. See, there’s a tear in the suit, though anything could have caused that. Snagging on something, organic or not, though probably an accident. I’d imagine a predator attack would have done more damage. But just because the atmosphere here isn’t ideal for humans doesn’t mean there aren’t life forms here.

[He shows Ari a tear in the side of the suit. A clue, but whether it’s connected to what killed the person isn’t clear. It’s a harsh but necessary reminder not to take safety for granted, especially on uncharted planets. There’s no identifying symbols, backing up Ari’s theory that this spacer was unregistered and possibly a marooning victim.]

We can’t check for pathogens without the tools for that and further testing, and it might not be worth exposing ourselves for that. It’s also possible that exposure did this.

[Cause of death is hard to pin down without something obvious. They’d need to examine the body more closely to learn what happened, and while Paul can easily turn his observation skills to forensics and detective work it might not be worth the risk.] It doesn’t look like it was a sudden death. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this person was already injured.

[Ari checks over her own suit before moving closer and peering down at the body, her eyes drawn to the tear in the older-model spacesuit as Paul indicates it. She listens to his assessment. Most of it seems sensible, and entirely plausible, although there's still a degree of uncertainty.]

We could take him up to the ship, with warning, and let the doctor run those tests, but if we do that then the two of us end up in quarantine while it happens. Possibly the rest of the shuttle crew as well.

[The dead spacer could be a woman, Ari doesn't know, but she can't stand looking down at that skeleton and say it. The rest of the shuttle crew had headed out in different directions from the landing site, following their usual procedure. She frowns, and kneels down by the side of the body for a closer look.]

Injury and exposure are likely, you're right, and I don't think that there can be larger predators here. There doesn't seem to be the ecosystem to support them. If there were, then there would be more...disturbance. [The spacer's body had clearly lain there, completely undisturbed, for some time.]

Before we decide what to do, we should search the surrounding area. In case there are records, or remnants - some kind of clue about what happened here. [There was Tradeliner procedure when stranded - send up a beacon, make certain markings - and she knew she wouldn't find that. Some earlier equivalent, however, might be possible. The spacer might have left some possessions behind.]

Also...Paul, this was one of us. If we decide not to investigate further, then there should at least be a proper send-off.

[It’s hard to tell exactly what killed someone in a situation like this, even under the best circumstances, and this isn’t the best circumstances. It might be a good idea to take the person back to have a professional examine him or her safely, but it would also carry risks if there was a pathogen attached to the corpse. Quarantine would help mitigate those risks to the crew.]

If you think it would be worth the risk, I don’t disagree. If there’s something dangerous on this planet other spacers need to know about it. So what happened here doesn’t happen to anyone else if it can be prevented.

[Exposure can only be prevented so much, but Paul figures that precautions can still be taken. Anything from tripping on a rock or brushing against tough thorns could have caused what he’s increasingly sure might have been a lethal injury. Maybe sepsis got involved, or a serious break.]

If the spacer was injured badly enough, that could have trapped him or her here, so starvation and dehydration would take effect. I’ll leave the decision up to you, but there’s an argument on both sides. We should check the site, see if there’s a camp somewhere.

[Paul nods, stepping back from the body. They can’t do anything for the dead spacer, but he manages a salute anyway. It seems like the right thing to do, whatever happened here.]

Yes, you’re right. This is a person, and a fellow spacer. One of us. So what do you suggest? Cremation might be dangerous if there are pathogens, but a memorial should work. It’s too bad we don’t have a name tag or other identifier to tell us who they were.

I'll put a note in the chart. The star chart, that is, so that any Tradeline ship following after us will have warning that something might be wrong here. They might still come, for the minerals that the scans picked up, but they'll know to be cautious.

[Ari considers the situation again. An injury might have killed the spacer, directly or through limiting mobility, as Paul suggested. It was also possible that the supplies had simply run out, and this world couldn't sustain human life. That was perhaps a worse thought. She didn't like to dwell on the possibilities, the likelihood of a lingering, slow death.

When Paul mentions cremation, Ari can't help a little disapproving click of her tongue, even though she's aware that he doesn't know any better. They've been fortunate; there have been no deaths on the Prosperity since his arrival. She corrects him, but gently.]

We send a fallen spacer out into the black. One last voyage.

[Yes, that would necessitate bringing the body back to the shuttle, and if they're going that far they might as well return to the Prosperity and ask the ship's doctor to conduct a proper investigation. Ari's aware of that, but she's still holding off on making a final decision, because there could be critical information that they have yet to discover.]

Let's search for any traces they left. Send up a flare signal if you find anything and I'm not nearby.

That’s a good idea. It’s also a way of honoring this spacer’s memory, to try our best to make sure no one dies the same way they did. We’ll exchange notes with the rest of the team once we come back together - they could have found something, too.

[His own theory is grim - a severe injury followed by reduced movement, possible complications to the wound, and death caused by lack of resources. Water, food, shelter. It would not have been a quick death. Paul sympathizes even as Ari corrects him on the proper funerary rites in her universe.

Paul has almost stopped the small flushes of embarrassment on mistakes. After all, he tries to put a positive spin on them. It matters more that he learns from them. He can’t bring himself to brighten, though, not during a situation like this. There’s still investigation to do, but it seems like they have an idea of how to work with the body.]

I see. We’ll need to inform the ship that we’ll be bringing back a body if that’s the plan. I suppose we should brace ourselves for quarantine, though it’s for the best. My current thought is injury, though, not disease.

[A flare is secure in Paul’s supplies, ready for use in case he needs to signal for help or finds anything important.]

How about I check a little further in, while you check around the body? I’ll signal you if I find anything that could help us.

[Ari nods. She's formulating her own plan for how to minimise the effect of the likely quarantine on the working of the ship, but it'll require returning to the shuttle and speaking to the captain to confirm it, so she'll keep it to herself for now.]

Disease might be unlikely, but it's not a risk you ever want to take with an uncharted planet. We'll manage. If it isn't disease, they'll figure that out very quickly on the ship, with the right equipment. [She pauses, takes a short breath.] Unless our search reveals something indicating it would be a very bad idea, that's the plan. We return to the shuttle, I call upsystem to the captain for authorisation, and then we take an antigrav sled back out here to recover our fallen spacer. If you don't find anything further on, meet me back here.

[Ari starts her search, and for once she's exceptionally cautious, avoiding the stubby, spiky vegetation, and testing her footsteps on uneven ground, making sure she won't fall. She makes slow progress, and she's beginning to think there's nothing to find when she notices a bundle of cloth, stuffed into a gap between rocks. Ari tugs at it, her thick gloves making the work more difficult than it should be, but when it comes loose, her eyes widen in shock at what she's found.

That's an astrogator's patch, between folds of material. Late 22nd or early 23rd century. One of the earliest astrogators? There's a name emblazoned on it, Dalia Katril, which doesn't mean anything to her, but - is this their spacer?

It makes no sense. This planet is in an uncharted region bordering the Maralla line, one of the newest. No early astrogator could possibly have come all the way out here!]

[Paul isn’t particularly keen on quarantine, but recognizes its necessity, especially on an uncharted planet with unknown organisms. Any pathogens they carry back could be invasive, exceptionally dangerous due to the human immune system’s lack of experience in dealing with them.]

Right. I’ll go up ahead and see what I’ll find. There must be a campsite or something like that. It would the the most sensible thing to do when stranded, and this spacer was alive long enough to set up camp. That’s clear, though I’d need more evidence to set any kind of date or timeframe.

[And while Ari’s examining the bundle of cloth, Paul is on his hands and his knees, brushing the vegetation aside in search of evidence. Finally he’s able to find something buried in the mud, preserved by the cover. It’s hard to brush all of it off, but a closer look reveals that it seems to be some kind of journal. The text is readable, but it’s smeared and spidery in places, making translation difficult. Paul will need it cleaned properly to examine it, but there are what looks like dated entries.

It looks like he’s found a logbook. This could be very useful evidence in helping them work out what happened to the fallen spacer. He doesn’t have the historical context to study this alone, but he can guess at the implications.

He rummages in his satchel and the flare goes up, signaling for Ari’s attention.]

[When she sees the flare, Ari gathers up the little cloth bundle, and after tucking it carefully under one arm, she heads in Paul's direction. Knowing that he's waiting, she makes better time than she did before, although there's certainly no running or rushing. Eventually, she makes it to his location.]

Paul! I found something strange. I think she was an astrogator, and her name was Dalia Katril - or perhaps that was her ancestor's name? The materials I found, they...well, they appear to be very old. Dating to no more than a few decades after the invention of the Matsukata Drive, at the latest. Possibly before Breakaway. This entire region of space was completely unexplored at that time, and the Tradelines hadn't been established. It would make more sense if what I found was already old when it was brought here.

[Ari shakes her head. The Tradelines hadn't existed back then. Cardalek hadn't existed, the company or the colony, and its elderly founder, Miri Carrington, would have been younger than Ari was now, if she'd been born at all. So much of what they had was so new, comparatively. Maybe someone else on the team would be able to estimate a date for that old-fashioned spacesuit.

She'd said a lot, but only after her explanation did Ari remember that if Paul had signalled for her, there had to be a reason for that.]

Did you find something, too?

[Paul already has the journal he found tucked under an arm, dusted off as best he can manage in short notice. Hopefully the crew will be able to decode what's inside. He has a feeling that, whatever he found, it's important. From the sound of things, Ari had similar luck. Combining their resources, they might be able to solve a few mysteries.]

So she was an early astrogator. I was hoping there would be some form of identifier - she's a person, as you said, and now we know a little more about who she was when she was alive. Her name ad career, which is a start. But if this part of space was unexplored, and this happened before Breakaway...that only raises some more questions about who Dalia was and how she arrived here, assuming that was her that we found.

[And with a little flair, Paul shows Ari the journal he discovered. He's cleaned it up enough that she may be able to read the writing on the cover. A name and a date are faintly visible now, but it's still noticeably beaten up. Paul's hope is that two pairs of eyes will be better than one working alone, and with the evidence Ari found they can start putting puzzle pieces together. She has cultural and historical context for this.]

I think this might have belonged to her. I found it in the mud - either she dropped it by accident or she intentionally hid it.

Take a look and see what you think.

[It seems wrong to Ari to be delighted by this discovery of Paul's. This woman - Dalia Katril, in her mind now too, unless they should learn otherwise - had died out here, alone and likely in terrible circumstances. She should be solemn. Yet at the same time, it was possibly an important historical find, and she couldn't help her curiosity, her sense of anticipation when Paul held the book out to her. She wouldn't have minded, Ari tells herself. An astrogator understood that sense of wonder. She takes the little journal, handling it very carefully, examining the cover. It's a script that she can read.]

Dalia Katril. 2214. That's...that's towards the beginning of the war.

[Cradling the journal gently, Ari starts to turn the pages. It's not systematic, just a way to see how much is legible. There's damage in some places, but it's largely readable.]

These first entries are standard astrogation record-keeping for a ship of this time. Every ship was called upon to fight, if it had the capability, and most of them did. That's how we beat the UAE. [Not in 2214. The war took seven long years. Ari skips ahead in the journal.] Her ship was attached to a planet, part of its defenses - there was no Tradeline system yet, although it grew out of wartime co-operation later. [Ari keeps reading, and her commentary stops, drawn in as she as by the text. Then she looks up at Paul again, clear emotion on her face, shock and sorrow.]

Paul, I think this woman did...she did something very terrible but very heroic, all those years ago, and nobody ever found out.

[That information confirms a couple of thigs. First, the deceased spacer and Dalia Katril are almost certainly the same person if the name on the journal is the same as the name Ari discovered that identified her in the first place. An if that's true, the journal might be able to tell them who Dalia was when she was alive and what happened to her during her last expedition. Ari had dated the book to the beginning of the war. That means it was almost certainly a time of political tension and anxiety. Paul listens to Ari's explanation.]

But this isn't an inhabited planet, so it's not the one she was attached to.

[Paul approaches to get a closer look. It's best to be careful with the journal, it's delicate and its contents are precious.] Besides, it sounds from what Ari said that this particular spacer did something worth honoring.

Then we should pay her proper respects as a fellow spacer and bring her back to the ship. What exactly is it that she did? We could spread that knowledge to your ship, if you think it's appropriate, and see to it that her heroism is properly recognized. If she did something incredibly brave and died alone because of it, some kind of sacrifice, it's what she deserves as a reward, posthumously.

[Ari nods her agreement. After what she's just read, what she knows now, there's no question of not bringing Dalia's body back. Even if it means quarantine - and she thinks it's less likely, now, that it'll prove necessary. Paul's theory about Dalia's death is probably correct.]

The war was sparked by the death of Stanley Lorentzen, the man who discovered the Lorentzen equations and the theory of L-space. Lorentzen space. He'd been persecuted by United Earth, who wanted him to hand over his work. He never would...he said that the products of his mind were his to do as he chose with. His company united the early colonies against the Earth government. [A history lesson, some of which Paul may already know, but Ari wants to be sure he understands Dalia's sacrifice.]

Dalia was a ship's astrogator near the beginning of the war. According to these records, she discovered that her captain was a traitor. That the course he was telling her to fly would lead to a rendezvous with the Earthers, where he'd hand over all the details of L-space - the equations, and the engine. We'd have lost our main advantage, in a war where we were very outnumbered. The state of communications back then meant that Dalia couldn't have contacted anyone outside her ship for help. They probably wouldn't have taken her word over a captain's, anyway.

She deliberately botched the L-space flight. Way off-course, into the unknown, and the dimensions in L-space mean that if you do that, with no regard for the patterns, you could end up anywhere, or never come out again. She ended up here, and it looks...it looks as if the traitor captain left her on this planet, alone. [Had he discovered she'd done it on purpose, or was he cruel enough to have stranded her there because he thought she was a failed astrogator? Ari would have to read more carefully to find out.] Whatever became of that ship, it would have had no way of returning to the known space of the time. No way to give our secrets to the enemy.

[By this time, Ari's getting a bit emotional, eyes filled with tears. It may have been a century ago, but the war still looms large in spacer culture, and this woman was an astrogator, too. It's all too easy to imagine how she must have suffered - in making that decision, and in what came after.]

Edited 2022-08-09 19:28 (UTC)

[Paul listens to the story without a word until Ari finishes. He's able to follow it without any trouble. Delia found that her captain was a traitor who was planning to give technology ad wartime secrets to the enemy, and intentionally trapped them both deep in space. But either way she'd been marooned as punishment, with no way to contact help, and died on the planet alone, body untouched until they found her.]

We should...well, I'll defer to you on this, but I think leaving a small memorial by the site wouldn't be inappropriate. We'll bring her back to the ship and give the captain a full briefing. Let the crew know what we found. Then we can take care of the funerary rites. You said that the tradition of your culture is sending deceased spacers into space one last time. I'd like to be there, if it would be all right.

[It can't have been an easy discovery, or an easy decision, but her choice played a role in the war being won. Even though she had to know that she would be punished, and not granted the mercy of a quick death. Paul doesn't know how long Dalia had managed to survive planetside, but for all he knew she'd managed to live for a while before her injury killed her. Even a treatable injury can become serious without any treatment and in a harsh environment.

Marooning is a punishment you give someone if you really want them to suffer. Paul swallows hard. He can only imagine that the lost ship is a derelict somewhere in unknown space, the captain long dead.] So there's a good chance that the Tradelines as we know them wouldn't have come to be without her help. It feels unfair, that she saved your people and helped you win the war and this is what happened to her. There's something about it that's wrong. But I think we can change that. I don't know your culture well enough to know if this is a appropriate suggestion, so ignore it if it isn't, but a ceremony in her honor would be one way to ensure her memory stays alive. Or maybe we could tell the Tradelines so that her actions can be recognized as they deserve.

[He offers Ari a hand and a sad smile - it's a little awkward, but it's a warm gesture, to let her know that he's there as support.]

[Ari gives Paul's hand a tight squeeze, and takes a moment to compose herself. It's a sad story, but it's true that there's something they can do about it now.

Yes, we'll leave a marker by this site, and go back to the shuttle now. I'll talk to the captain from there, and suggest bringing Dalia back to the ship, and having the rest of the survey team continue to search for anything else she left behind. There are a few museums further up the line that will appreciate that, I'm sure.

[She's silent for another moment, thinking it over.] There should be a proper ceremony when we send her off. You should be there for that, but the details are for the captain to decide on, really. The communications team will share the news, up and down the lines by relay station. We might get a lot of people wanting to attend. It's...I don't know how old she was, when she died. She could even have living descendants. Astrogators didn't start so young in those days.

[Letting go of his hand, she rummages in her kit to find a place-marker to stick into the ground, a little blinking beacon. Then, carefully carrying the journal and the small bundle of cloth, she starts to make her way back towards their shuttle.]

You can approximate how old someone was on death from the skeleton, I think. Not the exact age but close enough. Teeth, too, and from the look of things there were teeth left. Since we have a last name it may not be necessary, but we could trace for living descendants through her genes if anyone consents to tests. The body is recent and intact enough that there should be genetic material left.

[Paul nervously reveals a pile of stones he gathered while he was at the site where he discovered the journal. He seems relieved that his idea was a good one, and lays roughly half of them down at the site. Then he offers the other half to Ari.]

Whatever the captain decides, I’ll go along, but I’d be honored to participate. She must have been a brave person when she was alive, to make a decision like that. Turning on your senior officer is never a decision to be made lightly. She deserves a proper ceremony in her honor. We can at least make sure she’s recognized as a hero now. While we can’t do much for her, we can do her that small favor.

[Besides universal cultural stigmas against treason, it would be very easy to frame such a person, however justified their actions were in truth, as a traitor. People are inclined to believe their leaders, Paul figures, even when they shouldn’t.
He follows Ari to the shuttle, head low as he thinks.]

[Ari takes the little pile of stones, and quickly arranges them in a pattern, one of the Tradeliner signs, to indicate to anyone who comes by that this is a place of significance. She's thinking about what Paul said. How much would they be able to learn about Dalia? Genetic testing was a possibility, although it brought its own complications. They'd have to see how things developed.

She knows, too, the difficult position Dalia was in. The only higher authority than the ship's captain is the spacer code, and treachery in wartime is certainly a breach of it, but convincing others that their leader is a traitor? That might have proven impossible.]

It's why she had to do it in the way that she did. She must have thought that if she tried to tell the others on her ship, they wouldn't believe her, and then word would get to the captain and she'd be left with no way to stop him. We'll make sure that her story's told now. It's the least we can do.

[When they reach the shuttle, Ari asks Paul to wait outside while she speaks with the captain. It doesn't take long, and she soon emerges again, that same solemn look on her face.]

We're to bring her body back with us, and the rest of the survey team are going to search the wider area. We're not to tell the rest of the crew anything, not until the journal has been authenticated and verified. [Ari's not especially happy about this, but it does make sense. Captain Kavarai wants to ensure it's not a forgery, check that there really was a Dalia Katril on the old astrogation registry, look up her records.] When that's done, though, we're going to have our ceremony, and he's going to invite all the captains in local space.

[As she speaks, she's opening up another of the shuttle hatches, retrieving the antigrav sled, which hovers at an easy height for them to push along, and another, larger bundle of material, which she places on top of it.]

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sws.

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he can find stuff as well if you like!

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