Helen's eyes opened with a start the black of her pupils shrinking under the harsh strip lights andfocusing on her surroundings. She was still cold from the deep slumber, her exposed flesh was dimpled and on seeing the white flickering steam of her breath just made her shiver involuntarily.
Her brain was as numbed as her joints and it took her a few moments to remember where she was and why she was in a pod billions of miles away from her friends and family in the deep dark abyss of space.
"Cecile" her voice croaked from a long dry throat. "Cecile, can you state location please."
A few moments passed as she blinked the sleep from her eyes and yawned. Why did she feel so numb? This wasn't her first stasis journey, she was used to these short hops from the Sol system to the colonies Rowlatt and Spee station, in fact they were almost routine, so routine she had saved about five years of her life.
A flashing green cursor on the glass face plate of the long cylindrical pod that she had called home for the last who knows how long, caught her attention. It hurriedly typed a line of text.
Good Morning Lieutenant Fallon - Your vitals are showing normal and the ship is ready for you.
"Where are we Cecile? What happened to your audio?"
Again the blinking cursor flashed.
Our current position is 0.059 by 0.874 by 1. My audio circuits have degraded over time and require maintenance.
Helen laid there for a moment trying to wrap her brain around the information she had just received.
"Wait Cecile, are you sure of those coordinates?"
The blinking Cursor, taunting her, appeared again.
Affirmative.
"Cecile, how much time has passed since the crew entered sleep?"
The answer was almost instantaneous.
Four hundred years, four months and eight days.
Helen's eyes widened with shock and horror. This had meant to be a short hop of a couple of weeks yet if her estimates were right they were now sat on the edge of the galactic plain. What could have gone so wrong with Cecile and the sleeper systems to allow such a huge deviation.
Then it hit her, deviation was not the word for it. Her family, her dog, her fiancé, whom she was due to marry in six months were all long dead and buried, so were their grand children and their grand children. As far as she knew they were so far removed from any form of civilisation and Human space that the likelihood of being found was phenomenally small.
Her heart began to pound against her rib cage in panic and her breathing was becoming more and more frantic. She had to get our of this metal tomb, she had to be free, she had to see for herself. Cecile had said that there was a problem with her vocal processors, maybe her cognitive systems were offline and in need of retuning. Maybe all of this was just a computer glitch and they were five days off course.
"Cecile, open the hatch. Open it quickly please." Her panic began to overspill into her voice and she started to press her hands against the glass and push. She had to get out immediately.
Thankfully there was the reassuring snap of the locks and the hiss of heavily processed incoming air that greeted her nostrils causing them to curl away. She didn't care she just had to get out. She pushed the lid up hard and swung her legs out onto the metallic floor.
As she gulped down the air she looked around the emergency lit empty room. The only sign of life was the flashing green cursor on the blank computer screen on the far wall, strangely none of the other pods were opening or even lit. She hopped down onto the hard metallic floor and crossed with urgency to the nearest stasis pod.
The glass on the front was covered with a thick layer of dust obscuring the occupant's features. She gulped in apprehension as fear began to gnaw in the pit of her stomach as she noticed the power light was blank and not its' customary constant red.
It has to be empty. she thought to herself. Please... let it be empty.
She flicked off the latches and tried to lift the lid but it refused to move. Looking round she saw an emergency fire axe in a glass case on the wall opposite, she quickly removed it and jammed the shaft into the gap and pushed down with all her strength. A loud his of escaping dust and air greeted her as the decaying seals tore apart and opened. She coughed and forced down a retch as the full cloud of noxious smell hit her, her fears that this pod wasn't empty were becoming realised. As the dust cleared she saw it, the white skull amidst the grey dust of what remained of what had formerly been a crew member and friend. This had been Engineers mate Harry Honisch.
She fell backwards onto the floor and stared up at the opened casket in shock. Honisch was a good friend to her and the rest of the crew. He'd been a middle aged family man with six kids on the German colony on Mimas which he missed every time he went away. Not that it mattered, they would all be long dead now. It didn't seem fair, how could he be dead?
After what seemed like an eternity she climbed to her feet and crossed to the Computer screen.
"What happened Cecille?"
There has been a power shortage. I had to save those who were the most vital to the mission and sacrifice the few.
The bluntness made her wince, why was she more vital than Harry?
"Who else is still alive?" She found herself asking but dreading the answer.
The following personnel are alive;
Lt. Cmdr P. Burgess (First Officer)
Lt H. Fallon (Navigator)
Lt R. Kommanova (Engineer)
She read the short list three times. Three people out of a crew of fifteen. Suddenly she realised there was a name missing that she had hoped would have still been there.
"Cecille what is the status of Lieutenant Jo Upcraft?"
Deceased.
A one word answer that cut through her straight to her core. "When?"
Two years and four months ago.
So close yet... She crossed slowly and deliberately towards the pod that she knew had held her friend. She held her hand out above the covered glass and let it hover not wanting to scrape away the dust and confirm what she knew was true.
Finally she lowered her hand and wiped away the grey mass and there she was. The air tight nature of the stasis chamber meant that decomposition was slowed right down and the young girl with curly brown hair laid there with her eyes shut and hands resting on her chest as if sleeping.
"Is there no way to resuscitate her?" Helen's voice was a croaky whisper. "There has to be something we can do. Cecille? Answer me!"
With a whispered curse she turned back to the monitor on the far side of the room and stared at the read out from the ship's computer.
Lt Upcraft is deceased I'm afraid. There is nothing that can be done to revive her. When the systems began to fail her heart rate was slowed down and stopped whilst she slept. Too much time has passed and her vital organs have already began to degrade and her brain has been dead for too long.
I am sorry Helen. As a cartographer she was considered to be highly valuable to the mission but as the power systems continued to degrade she was considered to be expendable in comparison to the others.
The facts were irrefutable but that didn't make it any easier. She stared down at her friend, her eyes welling up and her throat choking up. It felt like only an hour ago that they were saying good bye to each other not four centuries. Why did she get picked to go and not her?
I awoke Lt. Kommanova several times over the last Century. He has been working steadily to try and economise power and re-route many of the dying systems. The priorities were for engine control and the stasis pods.
She nodded slowly, they were not decisions she wanted to make. How can you weigh one human life against another? How could Jo have been allowed to go but not her just because she was the navigation officer and Jo the Cartographer? The slimmest of margins had sealed Jo's fate and poor Hohnisch.
"Where are the others?"
Kommanova is in engineering and Burgess is on the observation deck looking over the logs. He requires you there as soon as possible to discuss the situation.
She nodded slowly turning her mind forcibly away from Jo's death, there was nothing more that could be done, however much it hurt. She had to find out what had gone wrong and how they ended up here in the middle of nowhere, or rather the edge of nowhere.
She stepped out of the door and into the dimly lit corridor hearing her boots clank on the metal plated flooring. It was a strange noise, one that she hadn't heard that often. Usually the hallways were bustling with people or background noise and all the other things that she took for granted now in this empty ship drifting through space everything was bombarding her senses. She could hear the engines pulsing and even the electronic buzzing from the power conduits passing their information.
She cautiously continued down towards the observation deck scolding her self that there was no reason to be scared or cautious, this was her ship with her friends aboard. What was the worse that could happen? She reached the door and paused, a noise behind her, something she wouldn't have heard if the ship was its normal busy self but it was unmistakable. Boots on metal. No one had been alive in the Stasis bay, no one could have come from there. Part of her brain willed it to be Jo still alive but she instantly dismissed it, it had to be something else. Her gut reacted telling her it was something bad, she could feel it in her soul that something malevolent was at the other end of the corridor, not evil per say but deeply, deeply wrong. With a gulp of air in her dry throat she gently tilted her head to the right and there it was. She caught a glimpse of a tall figure wrapped in a black cloak with a hood that cast the face into shadow, all that was visible was a pair of black eyes that glinted under the emergency lighting and a cruel smile that twitched as it regarded her.
She placed her hand on her side arm and span round to face the intruder but as quickly as she turned the figure dissolved into thin air as if wiped away and she found herself staring down the empty corridor at a maze of piping and conduits in the exposed wall cavity. There was nothing there, and it was unlikely there had been anything there.
"You've been in stasis too long Helen, your mind is getting distracted." she tutted to herself as she activated the door stud that opened to the observation deck. "Too long."
As she gulped down the air she looked around the emergency lit empty room. The only sign of life was the flashing green cursor on the blank computer screen on the far wall, strangely none of the other pods were opening or even lit. She hopped down onto the hard metallic floor and crossed with urgency to the nearest stasis pod.
The glass on the front was covered with a thick layer of dust obscuring the occupant's features. She gulped in apprehension as fear began to gnaw in the pit of her stomach as she noticed the power light was blank and not its' customary constant red.
It has to be empty. she thought to herself. Please... let it be empty.
She flicked off the latches and tried to lift the lid but it refused to move. Looking round she saw an emergency fire axe in a glass case on the wall opposite, she quickly removed it and jammed the shaft into the gap and pushed down with all her strength. A loud his of escaping dust and air greeted her as the decaying seals tore apart and opened. She coughed and forced down a retch as the full cloud of noxious smell hit her, her fears that this pod wasn't empty were becoming realised. As the dust cleared she saw it, the white skull amidst the grey dust of what remained of what had formerly been a crew member and friend. This had been Engineers mate Harry Honisch.
She fell backwards onto the floor and stared up at the opened casket in shock. Honisch was a good friend to her and the rest of the crew. He'd been a middle aged family man with six kids on the German colony on Mimas which he missed every time he went away. Not that it mattered, they would all be long dead now. It didn't seem fair, how could he be dead?
After what seemed like an eternity she climbed to her feet and crossed to the Computer screen.
"What happened Cecille?"
There has been a power shortage. I had to save those who were the most vital to the mission and sacrifice the few.
The bluntness made her wince, why was she more vital than Harry?
"Who else is still alive?" She found herself asking but dreading the answer.
The following personnel are alive;
Lt. Cmdr P. Burgess (First Officer)
Lt H. Fallon (Navigator)
Lt R. Kommanova (Engineer)
She read the short list three times. Three people out of a crew of fifteen. Suddenly she realised there was a name missing that she had hoped would have still been there.
"Cecille what is the status of Lieutenant Jo Upcraft?"
Deceased.
A one word answer that cut through her straight to her core. "When?"
Two years and four months ago.
So close yet... She crossed slowly and deliberately towards the pod that she knew had held her friend. She held her hand out above the covered glass and let it hover not wanting to scrape away the dust and confirm what she knew was true.
Finally she lowered her hand and wiped away the grey mass and there she was. The air tight nature of the stasis chamber meant that decomposition was slowed right down and the young girl with curly brown hair laid there with her eyes shut and hands resting on her chest as if sleeping.
"Is there no way to resuscitate her?" Helen's voice was a croaky whisper. "There has to be something we can do. Cecille? Answer me!"
With a whispered curse she turned back to the monitor on the far side of the room and stared at the read out from the ship's computer.
Lt Upcraft is deceased I'm afraid. There is nothing that can be done to revive her. When the systems began to fail her heart rate was slowed down and stopped whilst she slept. Too much time has passed and her vital organs have already began to degrade and her brain has been dead for too long.
I am sorry Helen. As a cartographer she was considered to be highly valuable to the mission but as the power systems continued to degrade she was considered to be expendable in comparison to the others.
The facts were irrefutable but that didn't make it any easier. She stared down at her friend, her eyes welling up and her throat choking up. It felt like only an hour ago that they were saying good bye to each other not four centuries. Why did she get picked to go and not her?
I awoke Lt. Kommanova several times over the last Century. He has been working steadily to try and economise power and re-route many of the dying systems. The priorities were for engine control and the stasis pods.
She nodded slowly, they were not decisions she wanted to make. How can you weigh one human life against another? How could Jo have been allowed to go but not her just because she was the navigation officer and Jo the Cartographer? The slimmest of margins had sealed Jo's fate and poor Hohnisch.
"Where are the others?"
Kommanova is in engineering and Burgess is on the observation deck looking over the logs. He requires you there as soon as possible to discuss the situation.
She nodded slowly turning her mind forcibly away from Jo's death, there was nothing more that could be done, however much it hurt. She had to find out what had gone wrong and how they ended up here in the middle of nowhere, or rather the edge of nowhere.
She stepped out of the door and into the dimly lit corridor hearing her boots clank on the metal plated flooring. It was a strange noise, one that she hadn't heard that often. Usually the hallways were bustling with people or background noise and all the other things that she took for granted now in this empty ship drifting through space everything was bombarding her senses. She could hear the engines pulsing and even the electronic buzzing from the power conduits passing their information.
She cautiously continued down towards the observation deck scolding her self that there was no reason to be scared or cautious, this was her ship with her friends aboard. What was the worse that could happen? She reached the door and paused, a noise behind her, something she wouldn't have heard if the ship was its normal busy self but it was unmistakable. Boots on metal. No one had been alive in the Stasis bay, no one could have come from there. Part of her brain willed it to be Jo still alive but she instantly dismissed it, it had to be something else. Her gut reacted telling her it was something bad, she could feel it in her soul that something malevolent was at the other end of the corridor, not evil per say but deeply, deeply wrong. With a gulp of air in her dry throat she gently tilted her head to the right and there it was. She caught a glimpse of a tall figure wrapped in a black cloak with a hood that cast the face into shadow, all that was visible was a pair of black eyes that glinted under the emergency lighting and a cruel smile that twitched as it regarded her.
She placed her hand on her side arm and span round to face the intruder but as quickly as she turned the figure dissolved into thin air as if wiped away and she found herself staring down the empty corridor at a maze of piping and conduits in the exposed wall cavity. There was nothing there, and it was unlikely there had been anything there.
"You've been in stasis too long Helen, your mind is getting distracted." she tutted to herself as she activated the door stud that opened to the observation deck. "Too long."
No comments:
Post a Comment