Into the Dark (segment)

Jane felt her mind clearing from the fog of sleep, her aching wounded body felt fresh and warm as if waking from a dream in her bunk.

She tried to take stock of her surroundings and why her mouth and nose felt funny, like they were covered by an unknown hand that still allowed her to breathe. She openned her eyes and as the pink sticky liquid filled them she began to realise her fate and terror rose through her with the accompanying scream.

She thrashed around naked in her glass cell screaming into her oxygen mask banging her fists against the sides in blind panic. The sight of row upon row of cylinders similarly filled with sleeping clones of herself suspended in the pink nutrient goo, only increased her need and desire to escape. This had to be a nightmare!

A silhouetted figure of one of those creatures stood in the doorway regarding her. She stopped banging the glass as the terror slipped away .

"Please... Please, let me out... I know you can hear me... Please... I just want to go home."

"You'll get home soon Lieutenant." The Alien's voice wrapped "You will all get home sooner than you think."

Then, the figure turned away and closed the metal door with a secure metallic clunk plunging Jane and the clones, into the dark.

Into the dark...

Ok, please be gentle. Its the first thing I've written in a Loooonnnngggg time and it is still very much work in progress.

As Princess Irulan said in Dune; A beginning is a very fragile thing and I'm hoping this isn't too bad a start... do let me know.

Chapter One

The door swung open quietly, so quietly that Lieutenant Jane Briarwood didn’t even hear it. The Endeavourhad been in space for over four months on a deep survey mission and Jane had been staring at readouts for most of it. As a junior archaeologist she’d had the honour of being assigned to this vessel mainly because she believed no one else had wanted to go and had more clout than her.

“Ah, Lieutenant Briarwood.” The voice of her nominal superiorCommander Devonshire derailed her train of thought with its usual annoyingdrone. “Are you busy?”

“Is there anything I can say that will convince you that I am?” she thought.

“Good.” He didn’t even give her a chance to  reply. “The equipment needs to be checked onagain. Make sure it is all fully functional.”

Jane rolled her eyes and closed them shut in frustration.Every other day Devonshire came in and would send her to check again. She used to argue but it was a fruitless exercise and it was a drain on the shipsatmosphere recycler. For four months they had travelled, for four months they had seen nothing but the cold black starry vacuum of space. Four months of deepscans, and long range probe reports and dehydrated food. The equipment hadn’tleft the packing crate let alone the stasis chambers. Captain Kinnock kept assuring the survey staff in fortnightly meetings that they were on course and that they should find a planet soon but she’d ceased to believe that after the first month.

She’d spent most of her days running simulations and reading, hoping beyond hope that something interesting was coming up around the corner but again, she’d given up on that too. It had become a waiting game. How long until the Captain would admit the inevitable and turn the ship around or how long until they actually found something?

She had left the confines of her meagre office on quite a fewoccasions, other than to go and check the blasted equipment. On constant laps around the ship in the early hours for exercise or a post shift drink in the mess where she actually got to socialise with real human beings. At first some of the men had hit on her but after a few clumsy approaches, some of her wittiest put downs and the intervention of Mr Miles, the ship’s Second Officer she was safe to sit and chat with the others. Although the fleet had a good mix of men and women some how this ship had ended up with a majority male crew and had she been inclined she could have any number of suitors especially now as the fourth long month dragged on but she preferred to keep her own company.

She had been so immersed in her renewed reminiscing that shehadn’t even noticed that she was already half way to the Access control room.She liked the guys down there. Like her they spent hours locked up in a roomwatching cameras and computer screens. They were all joyfully eccentric and they were used her regular visits, in fact they seemed to look forward to it. Acouple of them had an obvious crush on her to, they would fight to get to the front door every time for a glimmer of conversation and a hint of a smile.Truth be told, she found them all very funny.

As she approached and swiped her access card she could hear the clamour within and the muffled argument.

“You spoke to her last time, it’s my turn.”
“Get out of my way old man.”

She wondered who would win.

“Hi Jane, what can I do you for?” Jack had won this time.The young man with freckles and reddish tint to his blonde hair was the usualone to win but only because Boris was older and his reaction speed was just slow enough that the younger man could beat him.

She favoured him with a broad grin. “Same as always, key card 106 and an escort to hold 8”

“Comin’ right up.” He grinned broadly and disappeared intothe office again.

She started to wander down the corridor towards the stasisholds, it felt like she’d been here everyday. She had counted the tiles on the floor waiting for her escort one day and now knew how many steps it took to get to bay 8, to pass the time she counted steps until her escort arrived.

“Seven, eight, nine,ten…”

“Another service check?” Jack came down the corridor, the soft jangling of keys in his hand and an overly joyful tone of voice for what was one of the most mundane jobs on the ship.

“Yes, Commander Devonshire is very particular about his equipment.” She nodded trying not to let the her boredom spoil his good humour.

“He knows that sitting in the stasis nothing will happen to it and only you and I have keys to it so no one else can get to it right?”

The look she gave him wold have withered flowers at threeyards and required no further conversation. Jack looked sheepishly at her and then hurried past to slip the keys in the lock and turned them. She took a step forward and withdrew her battered key card and went to swipe it in the oh sofamiliar lock.

“Lieutenant Briarwood, can you report to the forwardobservation post.”

“What now?” she thought with a touch of annoyance but with an awful lot of relief at not having to check that blasted equipment again. She slung an apologetic glance at Jack and turned to leave.

“I’ll see you later Jane.” Was the last thing she heard before disappearing into the lift back to the habitat and admin section of the ship.

Endeavour wasn’t the largest ship she had ever served on, eighteen decks, two hundred metres long with another hundred for the engine module and a crew of about seventy-five, all of whom she had met at one point on this tirelessly long voyage. Most were involved in the day to day running of the ship, its engineering team, small security detail, bridge crew and victualing staff topped up with mission specialists like herself. Though it was a tight knit group of people it was also a little claustrophobic at times but it suited her better than the large battle ships like Phaeton or Kraken both of whom were almost two kilometres with crew compliments in their thousands where she would disappear into the sea of faces and was known to no one outside of her section and even then mostly all she got from her colleagues was a half nod in passing in the corridor.

She had been glad to escape Kraken and happy with her assignment to the station at DremerdiusVII where she had her own office and space and could sit and write papers,maybe go out on a dig twice a year to the Dremerdius IV and its flowing blue rivers and hazy meadows that swam through the Methane atmosphere. Still all good things had to come to an end and the passing of Endeavour and the lack of willing archaelogists saw her get plucked from the comforts of home and thrust into this boredom. Still, it acted as a catalyst for her to think about her life and evaluate whether she truly wanted to carry on down this course, something she had spent a lot of time thinking about on this voyage. Dremerdius had been a mistake, a holding pattern but it had become comfortable and the norm for four years of her life and now that shereally thought about it she realised that she wasn’t happy there or here.Especially here.