What thing sends shivers down your spine? What makes you scream? What keeps you awake at night? Everyone has a fear or phobia that affects them in some way or another. There will be the traditional fears that are well-known and there will be a few...
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These long trips from system to system or to stations on the outer reaches of the universe are the worst; because of the boredom that settles in. Usually there is a three man crew so that two can sleep in the cryochambers while one keeps a check on the ship. The rotation is four earth days out and eight days in that way space dementia doesn't affect the crew and every six rotations all three are awake to discuss any problems, alterations to the course or get ready for the docking. On this trip Stevens was taken off the roster at the last minute without a replacement ready in time for departure and Willis was put into sick bay because they found a parasite in her brain from a previous trip.
We had docked on a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy and the base had suffered a water filtration failure just before we got there. A native parasite had found its way in and had affected hundreds of people before they knew there was a problem. Willis knew something about the type of system that they were using and helped fixed it but had gotten infected. Because the people that lived there had a weaker immunity against the worm, it wasn't known until recently that she had been infected since it took longer to affect her.
A couple of days ago we were all tested and she was the only one that had tested positive on the brain scan so she was removed from the crew. It's really hard to find replacements since crews usually stay with each other for years and form strong bonds with each other. My company couldn't wait for me to find another crew since the material had to be delivered within a certain time or they wouldn't be any good and they would lose a lot of money. So, I had to leave yesterday without a crew and now I have to be on 24 hour alert.
Last year, I had a break down on a trip after we had suffered a rogue comet strike and the ship suffered a catastrophic failure. The cargo was lost and we had just made it to the escape pod before the ship imploded. They say that there isn't noise in space but they are wrong. We all heard when the ship was destroyed and felt the after blast as the escape pod was pushed further into deep space. It took weeks before we were rescued, we had opted for the cryosleep after the first couple of days because it was driving us mad seeing all of the asteroids and debris around us. If we were going to die, we wanted it to be in our sleep and not see it coming.
I have to check each system several times a shift, check the navscreen, and run diagnostic checks on the equipment so that I can get the required eight earth hours of sleep without having another break down. I am walking down the narrow walk-way to the kitchen slash wash room to do my final check there before I go to sleep. As I enter the room, I get a feeling like someone or something is watching me. I look out the port window but don't see anything but stars. "This is Captain Roberts of the Lovell Shipping Transport 1976-0516 giving my final check report for Earth day April 1, 2422. All systems green. Navigation map clear until the Draco Dwarf Galaxy will have to divert route to safe path. Still on course with Fortuna Base in orbit of Kepler-10b."
On my walk back to my cryopod I hit the send button so that the report goes into the system and is sent back to Earth via satellites and space relay stations. They will get it in four days and it will be another four days before I get a reply. As I get in the chamber and lay back, I get that feeling again that something is watching me but all I see is the vast blackness of the universe. I start to panic as I think of that cold, empty blackness but just as I try to exit the pod, the sleep mist hits me.
