"Yogna al dul" (corpskkuno)

Drop Ship

No POV:

The dulled roaring of the engines echoed through the small ship as quiet conversations happened between the 10 astronauts who waited to arrive at a low-earth orbit space station named the "Skeld". Before they were sent up, reports of alien attacks have been accruing left and right which put the crew even more on edge with the strangers that surrounded them. Anyone could be alien, and they might not even know it themselves.

"I'm sorry you said your name was?"
"Oh! my name is Thomas. . . but you can just call me Sykkuno!"

"Estimated arrival time, 5 minutes. Members of crew 82, sit back in your seats and prepare for docking." a robotic voice interrupted over the speakers in all of the crew's helmets as everyone returned to their seats.

As Sykkuno sat down and looked around for the seat belt everyone else had already strapped in. He turned to the side his belt should be on but could only see the cold, blue-gray walls of the drop ship. Feeling a little worried he began hurriedly feeling behind the seat for the belt.

Tap tap, Sykkuno turned around to see the person sitting on his right, in a suit slightly darker than everyone else's he noted, pointed slightly above his head. He looked at where the person had pointed and saw his seat belt was tucked behind the other seat. Sykkuno grabbed it and clicked the belt into the buckle on his right.

"Thank you, umm. . . heh, I uh, never got your name." Sykkuno said nervously as the person next to him continued to stare at the dark-gray metallic floor.
"You won't need it." He answered quietly in a deep, almost growl sounding voice.
"Oh, sorry for asking!" Sykkuno responded quickly as the announcement system butted in again.

"3 minutes until docking." It announced while everyone sat quietly in their seats.

"You 'know people are gunna think you've got a parasite if that's how you act." Sykkuno clarified, looking out for the stranger as if they'd known each other before entering the space program.
"Sure." The man mumbled just loud enough for Sykkuno to hear.
"Oh I wasn't trying to sound, I was just warning yo-" Sykkuno rambled worried while giving an uncomfortable laugh.

"I don't really know how to talk to people and I don't know anyone on our crew. . ." He finished as he turned away from the gray figure.
The man looked up slightly to face Sykkuno,
"Corpse. . ." He said quietly.

"Corpse? Is that your name?" Sykkuno questioned, surprised that he got a response to his confession.
"Is'not my name but you can call me that. . ." 'Corpse' answered as he went back to studying the floor.
"Okay, sure thing!" He responded cheerfully as silence followed their short lived conversation.

The ship's engines got noticeably quieter as they approached the Skeld. The slow moving drop ship began to turn to line up it's airlock with the Skeld's. Slowly but surely the drop ship and it's bigger sister ship quietly drifted closer together through the void of the darkness that surrounded them.

"Pre-docking procedures active." The robot said breaking the also short lived silence.
"Um, excuse me?" A shy voice asked Sykkuno as he felt a light tap on his left shoulder.
"Do you mind if I hold your hand? I- I just get really nervous, and I get scared when I hear loud noises and-" She nervously rambled on.
"It's okay! I'll hold your hand, sure! I'm sure everything will be fine!" Sykkuno said optimistically trying to comfort her the best he could.

"Okay, thank you, sorry." She responded quietly. Sykkuno smiled at her though knowing she couldn't see it as he put his hand out for her. After he turned to look back towards his right, where 'Corpse' sat. He still sat quietly, still staring at the floor.

"Docking sequence commencing in 3. . . 2. . . 1. . ." The ship's systems interrupted as a loud bang echoed from the two airlocks as they joined together. The girl next to Sykkuno jumped and squeezed his hand tightly as everyone waited anxiously for the docking to finish.

Sure is taking a while. . . Sykkuno thought to himself, looking around at the ceiling of the ship as if that would show him what was happening outside the two ships.

"Docking complete, Prepare for boarding and detachment." The ship finally announced, breaking the nervous tension above the whole crew.

The airlock inside the drop ship door hissed open after the couple seconds of relief the crew got. The 5 people sitting across from Sykkuno got up and began toward the door. When they entered the door in the drop ship it closed and the one leading into the Skeld opened just after.

"Prepare for boarding." The robotic voice called for the last time in the remaining crew members helmets as the drop ship's door opened again. As the 5 faceless astronauts walked into the airlock the door behind them closed just as quickly as the Skeld's opened.

All 10 crew members walked into a big hexagonal room labeled as the cafeteria. They all were instructed to pick up a tablet that would tell them what tasks they had on their first day.

Mainly ones that got the ship running at it's intended capacity, or to get the ship in a state the crew could survive on for the next few weeks. Start up shields, divert power to rooms that would be used for the next week, and making sure the oxygen systems are operating correctly were some of the tasks the crew was assigned.

"This seems like a lot." Sykkuno overheard someone say across from him.
"Well it's our first day, maybe later it wont seem like much." he heard someone respond.

Along with the tablets everyone was given a patch with their names on it. Sykkuno just put it on his shoulder, next to another patch with the numbers "82" to show which crew he was a part of. The rest of the crew did the same or put it next to a small bag that hung over their shoulders and sat on their chests.

Sykkuno looked around and read a couple names but saw one person put their name tag inside their bag, Corpse.