Ship of the Dead

In the late 22nd Century Earth and Mars, the only viable options for colonization in the Sol system, were overflowing with people. The poor crowded the streets and the wealthy looked to the stars for relief.

The answer, it seemed, was to load hundreds of thousands, even millions, of passengers onto enormous generation ships and send them to the stars. The original passengers would never see their destinations, but their children and grand children would continue in their foot steps until they reached their destination.

No one knew how many ships were built and sent out into the depths of space. The ships were designed to be able to refuel themselves in mid-flight, eliminating any need for outside interference.

Even when a ship as large as the Pax Humanica, loaded with over a million passengers and designed to hold up to five times that amount, drifted from its path no one ever knew or cared. Just over one million poor and middle-class passengers had been loaded onto the ship, along with six hundred extravagantly wealthy citizens from Old New York City.

Nearly a month after the ship passed over the edge of the Sol system, these wealthy citizens “liberated” the ship from the crew and modified the ship’s path just enough to send it to nowhere. The wealthy declared themselves the “Lords” of the Humanica and cordoned off nearly one fifth of the ship.

That was over 300 years ago. The Pax Humanica still roams through empty space. The Dark Lords that control the vessel are careful to keep it away from any star systems. Their numbers have grown to nearly a thousand, though no one knows how.

They ask a yearly “tribute” from the other passengers. Two thousand of the ship’s young adults are sacrificed to the Dark Lords in exchange for peace. They are never heard from again…

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A/N: This is just the Prologue to the rest of the story. I thought I would just throw it out there to see if there is any call for more. Right now I am working on other projects, so it may be a little while before I get back to it, but I will continue if I think anyone will read it :D Thanks for any Reviews...peace!