Bermuda

Sick

I woke to the sound of wailing klaxons and the dull thud that my body made when it crash landed on the ceiling. Anything else that wasn’t attached to the ship swiftly followed - luckily my mattress protected me from anything sharp and pointy that might have been heading my way, but not from the heavy bed frame that knocked the wind straight out of me.

Gasping like a fish out of water I struggled to escape, gaining nothing but a mouthful of pillow as my chest burned and spots danced behind my eyelids.

The ship rolled.

The spots turned to strobe-like flashes as the mattress fell off me and I tumbled after it, sucking air into my lungs until I felt like an over inflated balloon. I needed to get to the bridge, find Megs, Hadi, Ky, Teff and Esa - difficult, given that the door was now where the ceiling should have been, and I lay helpless and groaning on the opposite wall.

The klaxons combined with the otherworldly green hue which swirled upon every surface had the unwelcome effect of acute nausea. Bile rose in my throat and I closed my eyes tightly, forcing it back down. I was not going to puke on my bedroom wall.

By the time the alarm bells finally ceased the ringing that their absence left in my ears was almost deafening. When my senses readjusted, I heard the tortured howls of metal as it bent and tore. The ship jolted, bucking beneath me like it was tearing itself apart at the seams.

Then the gravity gave out.

Battling my way through the floating debris, I managed to grab the door-frame in one hand and kicked out until my feet connected with a blue Amethyst I’d secretly recovered from Europa-16. I winced at the sight of it breaking in two, but its sacrifice propelled me into the corridor and closer towards my goal.

The light began to pulsate, giving the impression that the walls were breathing. It had to be coming from outside the ship, but where? We were months from our destination, months from the nearest star, let alone anything capable of of emitting something so strange.

In a way, I was grateful for its presence - at least we hadn’t been sucked into a black hole, but I’d never seen anything like it. I was freaked out, but more than that I was curious.

Deep within the ship, something choked and spluttered before it came to life with a roar.

“Oh...fuck!”

The restarting generator kicked my good friend gravity back into the playing field, and I dropped like a stone; landing on my backside for the second time. I wondered absently if I’d live to see the inevitable bruises as I made my way towards the bridge.

It was chaos. Wires spilled from the console, jumping and spitting out sparks like a tangle of furious snakes. Amongst them was Esa with a roll of electrical tape clenched between her teeth and a trail of blood dripping from her forehead.

The console was meant to run at about nine thousand volts - not enough to kill, but one hell of a shock all the same. She persevered with a steely resolve, patching cables into junction boxes before taping them off.

Ky and Hadi wrestled with the controls, but with half of the electrics splayed across the floor they were fighting a losing battle.

“What is this?” I gasped weakly, staring through the view pane. The green hue formed a cocoon around the ship, creating a spiraling tunnel which seemed to stretch for miles into the distance.

Megs appeared beside me looking as battered and bruised as I felt. Her bony fingers wrapped their way around my wrist and her green eyes gleamed and sparkled with a light that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

A huge shit-eating grin made its way across her face while she trembled and shook, but not from fear. I knew Megs well enough to know that she was beside herself with barely contained excitement, seconds away from spontaneously combusting from the thrill of it all.

“It’s a wormhole,” she whispered. “We’ve found a Goddamn wormhole - we’re the first fucking UESAA mission, possibly the first people ever to record one!”

My mouth dropped open. We could end up anywhere, anywhen. This wormhole could spit us out into Earth’s future or its past - the potential for Geological discovery would be huge - imagine if I could lay my hands on un-fossilised Dinosaur bones…

...Or we could end up on the other side of the Universe, light years away from anything. The possibilities were limitless.

"Something’s happening.” Hadi croaked, “everyone hang tight, I think the gravity’s about to give out again.”

The ship lurched violently, sending us all sprawling before we had the chance to heed his advice. The sound of tearing metal returned with a vengeance along with a horrendous ripping that accompanied dozens of fracture lines spreading rapidly along every surface.

The view pane shattered and everything went black.