Armageddon by Michael Poeltl

Author:Michael Poeltl [Poeltl, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995288508
Publisher: Skylab Press
Published: 2019-04-11T22:00:00+00:00

PLAYING THE ODDS

“This news back home just keeps getting worse and worse,” Sol tells the crew of his bridge. They’ve all been listening to it. The back and forth between ships while they defend against an armada of asteroids. It’s a terrifying premise. “As it turns out, we left at just the right time.” He smiles at his crew and sits in his command chair. “It’s not as though they liked us anyway.” He says dismissively. He surveys the eyes of his crew and determines about two-thirds are upset by the news. He doesn’t care. He wants what he wants. The door to the bridge slides open to reveal Tessa. She’s leaning on the threshold and stumbles onto the bridge. She looks frazzled and sends a steely glare at Sol.

“Danger.” She tells him. He glibly nods at her. “Go back.” She tells the bridge.

“And why would we do that, my love?” Sol asks, turning in his chair. She produces a datapad which she’s scribbled on with her stylus. She hands it to him and his face sinks. There are equations and multiplications and things he’s only seen in holos written in her hand. He doesn’t understand them, but he does recognize fractional odds. 4:1, 6:1, 100:1. She’s dumbed the math down for him so he can see it clearly for what it is. But he still isn’t sure what the odds represent. “What are these, Tess? Odds for what, exactly?”

“Odds. Odds for us.” She tries to explain in her halting way, eyeing the room watching her. Listening to her. It’s a lot for Tessa, Sol knows. This must be very important to her. “Odds against Allfather.” This alarms Sol. Why would Allfather play odds against them?

“Tell me what they mean, Tessa,” he asks, slowly sliding out of his chair and placing a delicate hand on her arm, datapad in the other hand.

“Odds of… Statistically. Odds of...” She continues, blinking hard, rocking her torso back and forth. “Odds against not going back. Odds for going back.” The exercise of providing the dialogue seems insufferable, and Tessa looks exhausted.

“You’ve done the math, I see that Tess, I see it,” he tells her. “But if we go back; we’ll suffer the same fate the UE is suffering now.”

Tessa’s torso begins to sway back and forth as she shakes her head. “Odds for us going back!” She shouts. “Allfather danger. Go back. Go back. Go back…” She continues the tirade and Sol walks her to the Captains office off the bridge. Here he attempts to settle her with a song and dance. Her voice has faded to a whisper but she continues to utter the words ‘go back’. It’s a frustrating process trying to pull information out of Tess when she is stressed like this. Finally, Sol sits next to her on the small couch and places a soothing hand on her knee, finding her hand and drawing the circles on her palm.

“You’re trying to tell me the odds, Tess.” He begins to piece her rant together.

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