Sci-fi short, thriller about a space hauler pilot, Mack Kim, who gets embroiled in a mystery that sets his nerves on edge as he struggles to figure out what's going on. Written with the intention of being a Love, Death + Robots episode.
(The soft yellow lights of Wombat-39's cockpit turned red and started strobing as the hauler's alarms began blaring a monotone siren)
Kim awoke with a start. Cold sweat running down his forehead. He took in his surroundings, the strobing emergency lighting, the woopwoop of the alarm and Slither's silence.
Kim got out of bed. Unholstered his sidearm, and crept from his living quarters to the cockpit. His eyes darted around everywhere, looking for signs of danger.
Upon reaching the flight console, Kim gave the ship's HUD a cursory glance. Nothing out of the ordinary, no imminent collision, no systems damage, no bulkhead breaches, nothing, everything was in order.
"Fuck," Kim breathed as he quickly turned off the alarms. The lights turned yellow again and the sirens went quiet.
Kim tapped on the holoscreen of the flight console making sure the hauler was at full stop before deciding on his next course of action.
Kim scratched at the stubbles on his chin and lit a cigarette. He pondered what his next move should be. Should he jack in to the ships virtual interface? What if it's compromised? Where's Slither? What happens if Slither isn't there but something else is? Could he be compromised?
"Where the hell am I?" Kim said to himself between puffs of smoke. He pulled up navigations and checked his position. The holoscreen revealed his exact coordinates. Exactly where he had set the autopilot to after investigating the anomaly in his cargo hold.
"I guess we made it," he said aloud hoping Slither would respond to his banter.
"Slither?" Kim ventured.
The comms unit crackled and Martha's voice popped out.
"Mack? You there? Everything alright? Who are you talking to?"
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"Shit. Jesus. Martha! I've been trying to get a hold of you, of Wavecrest," replied a relieved Kim.
"I know, we received your hails, but it was all garbled. Like a dog ate it and spat it out. We tried reaching you too, but it was like talking to a black hole, like you didn't exist. There was no interference or breakdown in comms. Wombat just wasn't there," said Martha.
"Yea. Same thing happened to me when trying to reach Wavecrest," said Kim.
"Listen, Martha, I've got to brief you on the situation," continued Kim.
"Go ahead Wombat," Martha said in formal tones.
"There are a couple of unknowns here. One, I picked up an archeological find on Eden that somehow messed with Wombat's systems. Two, when I went to check out the artefact in the cargo hold, it messed with my head instead," said Kim rapidly.
