Hard Vacuum: Short Episodes In The Future

Halogen Shadows

"This ship is braindead."

Blip stood up in frustration. Charlotte had been in the engine room with him for the past several spans. He was trying to get the AI booted.

"I've got one more idea, be back in a span." he got up from the spot on the floor where he was sitting, patched into a terminal, and left through the main portal, mumbling theories to himself about what he could try in the server room.

Charlotte was alone for the first time since she boarded the Peony, and she didn't like it. The scene they had found on the bridge had sickened her more deeply than anything ever had. She was almost thankful that she had been quickly banished from that nightmare place and sent to the engine room to get the ship up and running again.

Lost in her work, she sat with no less than three hallucinographic data tomes open around her, showing the rituals of ship maintenance and engine repair for her to follow.

She had been able to get the power, the air pressure, and the artificial gravity back online. The engines were being less cooperative. Blip was having little luck with the ship's AI. The ship seemed to be as dead as its crew.

There was a sound, like a footstep beyond the portal. It started Charlotte out of her focus and she turned to stare at the dark hall beyond. Her skin tingled and her heart skipped as she suddenly felt alone and vulnerable.

"Blip?" she stood up from the maintenance panel,"Blip what are you doing?"

Silence answered her from the darkness.

She stepped to the portal and ordered the lights. They flickered on, but just for a moment. The main lights shorted off and the hall was left in the dim glow of the door indicators.

One of the doors suddenly opened ahead, and Charlotte jumped. She waited a moment, but nobody emerged.

"Blip?" she could only whisper. The mercs had cleared the ship. There's nobody else on board. She tried to reason herself out of her fear. A deep breath, and her shaking lessened only a little.

She approached the portal that had opened on its own.

She peaked around the edge, into the room beyond. No lights. The only illumination came from the tiny power and activity diodes on the servers. This was the computer room, where the AI was supposed to house its consciousness.

"The lights are on, but..." the joke wasn't comforting, so she cut it short. "Blip, are you in here?" she forced herself to step in the room. What if the mercs were wrong? What if they missed something? They were up in the bridge, cleaning up a slaughter. What if the butcher was still on board?

Something in the room moved. In the darkness ahead, something stood up. It was huge. It loomed for a second, then took a step towards her.

Charlotte screamed and ran for the bridge.