Empyrean Iris Story Collection

So Cold

"Adam"

The Captain opened his eyes and sat up slowly. The room had been darkened again. The distant sound of conversing voices came to his ears from the next room over. Sunny sat just to his side her head down from the weight of exhaustion. She was asleep. The captain took a deep breath and slowly slid off the bed, his feet cold against the steel floor. The voice had been so close a quiet whisper in his ear like the voice of a woman.

It was chilling and soft, and he had to push aside the ideas of horror movies as he quietly moved down the row of beds and into the hallway. He paused there and deep breath, it was now or never, time to prove if he was crazy, "Hello?" He spoke into the darkness, "Is someone there?"

He stood there stupidly for a moment.... Wow, he was crazy.....

Then, and image flashed in front of his eyes... the airlock doors

Hand to his head, he staggered against the wall as a searing pain shot through his head. As it faded away, he stood looking around, "Look, just talk to me.... I, I don't know what you want" The hallway was silent and dark. He took a deep breath as nothing came. If this was a horror movie, he'd be yelling at the screen.

He made his decision quietly padding off down the hall.

The ship was dark horribly dark. The hallways were steel tubes, the bowls of the ship twisting and turning in all directions lit by nothing but the illumination of the red lighting. Somewhere, off in the ship, the night crew was working, but not here. His body was weak, he was lightheaded, and he was scared out of his mind, but what else could he do. No one would believe him, and they surely wouldn't let him go off trying to prove himself.

He ghosted through the hallways dark.

Overhead, the intercom snapped on, "Captain Vir to the medical bay, captain vir to the medical bay."

Damn, they had found him gone. He sped up the pace and took a turn around the corner pressing himself into an alcove as a pair of security officers walked past. It took him longer than he would have liked to get down to the cargo area of the ship.

The intercom came on again, "All personnel be advised, the captain has gone missing from the medical bay, and may be experiencing delusions or auditory hallucinations, please approach with cation and send word to the medical officers."

Damn, again.

The ships lights were still low, and no one was in the docking bay when he made it there. The darkness was complete here, pooling behind the hunched forms of docked ships, sleeping in the darkness. He paused by the shipping airlock, "Well.... Now what."

"Open."

"Are you effing insane?" The Captain said into thin air, "I'm not stupid. I'm not going to go and open a flipping airlock and kill everyone. The actual hell?"

"Gravity."

He paused..... wait.... Wait. He glanced towards the airlock doors. He didn't have to open the airlock onto the ship, he could open it into the compartment, pressurize the compartment, and then open it. He moved a little closer to the airlock finger poised to open.

"Gravity"

He wasn't really sure what came over him just then. Gravity?

He turned to the hollo-pad next to the door flipped open the systems and input his ID number

Gravity lock-down Engaged.

All around the ship came the sound of a thousand thudding echoes as loose objects were bolted into place. The cargo bay and the hanger let off a quiet whirring noise as short-range gravity fields were thrown up around the ship and cargo to keep them from moving.