White Space

14

 The hours were crawling at a snail's pace for Navin. The two grunts left about an hour ago, so at least he didn't have to be afraid of them forcing their filthy, germ-riddled bodies into his room. What were they thinking? Didn't they have a clue who he was?

Fortunately there as no need to worry about them for now. He could relax the best way he knew in this cold, dirty metal box. His computer screens were filled with people finishing their work and getting on with their evening activities. The stress of the last few days prevented everyone from really enjoying the available extracurricular activities. Instead, they all took to his food like scavengers to a carrion. That they appreciated.

 He enjoyed watching the women go about their routines, although the station didn't have cameras in the bathrooms which he could hack into remotely. He wanted to fix that issue for a few days after he arrived, but then gave up on it. It would have been way too much hassle for what was on display here. Yin was the only one that maybe was worth a damn. But then again, looking at her in the shower would also mean seeing Colin's undoubtedly inadequate pecker, and them going at it, which was a huge turnoff for Narayanan. He never liked to share.

 Going through some of his usual feeds, he enjoyed a few scenes of nudity and then lingered looked at Anisim's camera for a while. Oh, that was the good stuff. Watching him fail to fix any minor issue and cursing loudly was better than any of the comedies he saw in his life. No wonder the place was a mess. The man couldn't fix shit. He eventually ended up patching problems for a while, but the entire station was in the garbage can anyway, and for good reason. The stubby man was nowhere to be found, however, so Navin decided to go through all the feeds that were still working. A lot of cameras were already dead by the time he'd arrived and another one bit the dust almost every week now. But he had enough to keep him entertained.

 The winner was the camera in the hangar access area. There, he found a surface suit almost bursting at the seams. Anisim must have thought that he was still a hundred pounds lighter, just as he thought he was twenty years younger. He looked pathetic. No doubt he was there trying to fix the hangar door for the marines or whatever they were, well good luck. What was he planning to do, change oil in the door? Grease it? Dig around under the panel with his bare hands until he got his well-deserved electrocution somehow? If he was their best shot, they were fucked.

 Since nothing good was on, he decided to switch away from the Anisim Show and look at the sleeping beauty. He just realized then that he forgot to say goodbye to her earlier. It was seriously good fun talking to Yin through the PA speaker in the room. He had to be careful and keep the volume down, but that kind of control felt so great. He just had to think about what creepy things to tell him before the lights went out. He imagined the girl still being able to hear and understand everything, which was almost certainly true. And boy, oh boy, did he have some great stories to tell. By now, he was almost exclusively telling her things about the glorious times he'd had on the development site. He sometimes hushed threats to Colin in a low, growling voice too when he was in the mood, but that was a little too risky most of the time.

 He switched to the med-bay feed, then he let out a soul shattering roar that, in reality, was probably more like a whimper or a squeal, but he was sure it must have been an overly muscular scream of utter shock. As he tried to jump up from the seat, driven by sheer instinct, he fell backward, bumping his head into the metal floor. He stood up and looked at the camera feed, blinking in confusion. It was dead. The camera finally kicked the bucket. He wasn't sure what he'd seen anymore, but he was certain he'd made the right call to stay inside. He could have sworn just before that he saw Yin's face staring into the camera, with her mouth moving. There was something odd about the whole thing, but he couldn't really point at what. Her face seemed... off somehow.

 He stood the chair up and sat down to switch over to the feed from the neighboring room where Colin was held. It was also gone. Both of them were off. The camera in the corridor was long since dead, so he had no way of knowing what was happening out there. He flicked through the rest of the feeds but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Instead of continuing his private entertainment; he turned off the camera software and decided to calm himself down with some porn. That always helped. There was no chance now he would leave this room. These people were all nuts.