Space War

Down We Go!

     "Captain Beckhan, we're under attack." Just as my sergeant finished his sentence, the Star Ship shook with a furious force. The entire ship rumbled like a broken down car. I peeked outside at the exterior. One of our rockets had been damaged. It would take forever to get it repaired.

"Captain, the enemy has taken out one of our rockets and shut down our controls. I can't reach the rest of the ship to warn them. They've surrounded the ship and blockaded us." Vera and Ringo, the mission control twins, interjected. Great, we've been hit in the rocket and cut off from the rest of the ship. What else could go wrong? Obviously, I spoke too soon. Other fatal weapons were aimed and shot at our ship. Vera had a nervous look on her face and had started to bite her fingernails. Ringo dared to look out our panoramic window. When he looked back, his face had lost all color.

"They hit our last rocket." the emphasis on 'last' make the room go quiet. I inhaled a quick breath. The ship only lasted five minutes without working rockets. At any moment we could free-fall into an endless darkness.

As we were all panicking and pacing, my co-captain came rushing into the room. "Captain, we need to evacuate the ship. We won't last much longer up here."

I sighed, "There's no use. They've already surrounded us. We have no way out."

My co-captain was about to retaliate, but a robotic voice interrupted him. "Five minutes until complete shut down."

Crew members went into a frenzy. Many were worried about their families and how they would continue on. Others were more so worried about themselves; how were they going to get out of this mess? Red lights started flashing, blinding people as they ran around screaming like chickens with their heads cut off. I tried to calm the crews' nerves, but the loud beeping and red illumination didn't help.

"Two minutes until complete shut down."

"We have to do something!" I hollered over the maniac voices.

Zardis, my co-captain, looked me dead in the eye. "Give them what they want."

My eyes blew out. "No, no not going to happen."

Since 3024, the humans and the intruders have been fighting over a powerful life source that could create another race. It's been a game of ping-pong, going back and forth at each other. In 3030, we took the source from them and held it for fifteen years. The year is now 3045 and they want it back.

"It's the only way to get them to stop attacking us." Zardis said with pleading eyes.

"They won't stop attacking us, they'll attack us with their new race." I shouted.

"Thirty seconds until complete shut down." A voice sounded.

Everyone had braced themselves for the fall. Counting down in their head made the drop less startling.

20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0

The ship shuttered, but didn't drop. We all uncurled from our fetal position and had looks of hope on our faces, but before anyone could utter a word of relief, we started falling. Free falling into who-know-where and god-knows-what. My stomach jumped inside of me and those turtle feet I ate earlier didn't sound so good right now. All the screaming around me didn't help the fact that I was developing a headache. The world became spots and my airways became restricted. Darkness filled my vision. Then I blacked out.

Dust particles had floated slowly down from the sky. Bodies, dead and alive, lied still on the cement. Debris clogged the livings' lungs and kept them from breathing. I had been awake for a while, watching over everyone else. There was no need to wake them up from their slumber.