Sci Fi Contest Entries

Beacon

2184 hours. 91 days. Three months.

The loneliness was beginning to cling to my skin, seeping into my pores, drilling into my brain with a scream louder than the oppressive silence surrounding me.

My mission had initially been incredibly simple. Fly to a camp a few hundred miles outside of the planet, pick up the goods, return to the buyer.

When the police became involved, everything got a little messier.

After one forced hyperspace leap that utterly drained my long-distance battery, I was left with five months' worth of fuel, drifting aimlessly through a part of space with which I was completely unfamiliar.

Since my mission had been a routine one, I hadn't brought anyone along, although due to the fact that my spaceship was also my home, it held enough food and water to get me through a couple years if I rationed correctly. Which I was doing. I had gotten myself into tight spots before.

None quite as tight as this, I was willing to admit, but I refused to look at this in a pessimistic light. The glass was half full in my eyes.

Although I would have preferred the empty half to be full of hyperspace fuel.

The police chase had been a close one. Using hyperspace mode was definitely the last resort. And yet I had done it. The thought of being locked away in some lawless prison didn't appeal to me.

The result, however, was this - complete and total solitude. I hadn't passed anything other than a meteor field in three months, 91 days,  2184 hours.

I glanced at the clock. Make that 2185.

Sighing, I stood from the table at which I had been playing cards against myself (I was winning) and crossed over to the cockpit. Curling up in the seat, I stared out of the window, succumbing to my dark thoughts.

What if I never pass another spacecraft? If I don't get help within the next two months that I have left in fuel, I'm dead. Excess food and water doesn't do a frozen person any good.

Suddenly, I caught sight of a dark shape moving through the sky towards me, only made visible by the distant stars it blocked out with its presence. Within the next few seconds, a beacon of light shone through the front window of my spacecraft, nearly blinding me. I lifted a hand to shield my eyes, peering through the slight gaps between my fingers to try to get a better view. As the searchlight moved from its position shining directly onto my face, I managed to catch the general form of the other spaceship.

It was small and looked to be a model similar to mine. That was also, concerningly, the model that police cruisers came in. I held my breath, praying to whatever forces may be that it was a fellow smuggler - someone I knew, in a best-case scenario.

Whoever it was, I couldn't help but feel a surge of hope. I would finally be with somebody, could at last talk to someone other than myself.

My radio crackled to life and I quickly cranked it to full volume.

"Hey, there. Need help?"

"Yes, please, yes!" I replied immediately, the words tumbling over themselves in an effort to leave my mouth faster.

"Name and status."

"Adeline Hopper. Importer and exporter."

"Alright, we'll send someone over."

As soon as the radio turned off, I let out a whoop of pure joy. Hurrying to the loading dock, I pulled on my spacesuit, refraining from turning it on quite yet.

I located a huge loop of chain stored within the wall and linked one end of it over a large hook in the floor. Then, I returned to the cockpit to turn off my ship (it would take about ten minutes to completely do so, giving me time to escape) and await information.

The lights of the other spaceship finally turned on, making its plain exterior visible to me. I sighed in relief - it wasn't a police cruiser. My luck just kept getting better and better.

A small figure was expelled from the back of the other craft and began slowly swimming through space towards me, connected by a thin rope to the ship. I hurried to the loading bay to await them.

Within minutes, their helmet-clad face appeared in the small window. Lowering the wall behind me that would protect the innards of my ship from the unforgiving natures of space, I tossed the thick chain over my shoulder and opened the back hatch.

The person offered me their hand as soon as there was enough space for me to slip through. I grabbed it eagerly, making sure I retained a solid grip on my chain. Then, it was just a quick journey through space to the other ship.

After looping the chain securely around a hook on the exterior of their spacecraft, I entered through the back hatch.

Strangely, the other person waited to remove their spacesuit until after I had done so completely, leaving both my suit and helmet in a pile by the wall.

When the person did take off their helmet, however, panic quickly replaced the ecstasy that had been flowing through my veins.

The woman's head was shaved, which wasn't unusual in of itself - it was an increasingly popular hairstyle in my corner of the galaxy.

What was fear-inducing were the tattooed tallies decorating her bare scalp.

This wasn't a lowly smuggler's ship like I had hoped. And it certainly wasn't a craft of the law.

I had been abducted by mercenaries.