Starweird: A Star Wars Short Story

Trapped.

There was not much that could be done. Zann had never dealt with such a situation in the past. He had no idea what might have caused the engines to suddenly stop in the middle of nowhere with it was as if it was frozen in time. 

-Hello? Can anybody hear me?

There was no response.

-You gotta be kidding me.

Zann went back to his seat and waited, hoping for something to happen that would enable the ship to restart its engines. Alas, nothing happened. But then, a thought swiftly crossed his mind. The ship was basically packed with PROXY droids. He could use one of them to establish a diagnosis. They could even try to restart the engines or whatever it is that caused the ship to stop. 

This is what he would do. There was no point for him to just sit idly while he had a delivery to make. Not with money involved. He had decided that he would get paid no matter what stands in his way.

As he got up to reach the cargo hold, a loud shriek resonated. Zann was petrified. The loud, high-pitched screams were then immediately followed by a smell of rot, as if something had died on the ship some time ago and was just beginning to decay. The smell was unbearable, forcing Zann to hold his breath for several minutes. 

-"What the hell was that?"

It could be anything, he thought. Maybe a gas leak. Or just rats fighting each other, although he didn't know of any species of rates that would carry such a stench with them. Zann ran to the cargo hold and locked himself in it, activating one of the droids in the process. 

-Congratulations on acquiring the newly released 0P19 Proxy model. How can I be of service, my master?

-I want you to run a full analysis on the situation. I want to know exactly what the hell is going on in this ship.

-Orders received, my master. The engines are in perfect working order and the ship itself has not been damaged. However, my sensors have detected an anomaly.

-What kind of anomaly?

-There seems to be other life forms on the ship.