This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Thirty-Two

The hallways were well-lit, but empty. Everywhere Michel turned - every room he checked, every window he looked out of, every corridor and hiding spot he investigated - there was nothing. No people, no disturbance, no sign of what had happened.

The report had mentioned personnel disappearances... but the entire colony?

Who sent the report?

Finally, he turned down the hallway that led from the administration building to one of the dormitories, and found that the lights were off. He walked over to the manual switch on the wall, flipped it, and nothing happened. He summoned a hardlight globe into existence above his head, drew his pistol, and began to make his way down the hall, into the living quarters. 

There was a door at the end of the hallway that seemed to be electronically powered. Michel approached it and waited for the motion sensor to open the door, but nothing happened. He pressed his palm against the control panel and pushed a surge of softlight electricity into the circuits. The gears in the wall whirred, but the door didn't open.

Puzzled, he dropped to one knee and examined the panel. He opened it and peered inside, but all of the circuits were intact. The door should've opened when he electrocuted it. He shocked it once again, watched the controls inside the panel light up, heard the whirring again, and looked at the door. It remained unmoved.

He stood up again, took a step back, aimed his pistol at the motion sensor, and fired a shot. The box exploded in a flash of sparks. He took another step back and did the same with the control panel.

Then, he summoned a hardlight wedge. It's shimmering, polygonal form hovered above his hand as he guided it in between the door and the wall. He pressed it further into the sliver of opening, and the door began to slide open.

He heard something moving on the other side.

Michel took several abrupt steps backward and aimed his pistol at the opening. His muscles tensed, his grip on the gun tightening. He held his breath and waited.

Nothing moved.

It hadn't been a loud noise, simply the sound of something hitting the floor on the other side of the door. Michel had imagined it was a footstep, but it could've been the sensor box on the other side of the door falling from the top of the wall.

After a few more seconds, he relaxed and approached the door again. From several feet away, he willed the hardlight wedge the rest of the way into the gap. Then, with a hand motion, the wedge turned sideways and elongated, its shimmering form beginning to produce a fog as its essence deteriorated. 

The door slid the rest of the way open, and he willed the wedge back into nonexistence with a crackle of energy. The door remained open.

His hardlight globe of light moved ahead of him and into the dormitories on the other side of the door. The room seemed to be a lobby of some sort, a simple ground floor for the residence area. Nothing moved inside. There were still no bodies, no sign of habitation.

With his pistol still aimed cautiously ahead of him, Michel made his way through the door. The globe returned to him and hovered above his head. 

He inspected the lobby. There was a lounge area with several chairs and couches, a table, and a comm terminal on the wall. Across the room was another reception desk, shielded by a semicircle of glass. There was nothing on the desk. Opposite of Michel, two elevators and a door to the stairwell were set into the wall.

None of the lights were on, not even any of the emergency lights. He began to walk toward the staircase, examining the dark corners of the room as he moved.