The
site, half-surrounded by metal woven fences, was exactly as it used
to be, except for the abundance of 'Do Not Enter' tape covering the
gaps. Sign posts with danger warnings had also been erected, which
was startling to the three trespassers. It was Amy who voiced her
concern first.
“I
don't remember all this bein' here, guys.” She twanged the caution
tape. “Since when did this happen?”
“What
gives you the idea I have any faintest clue, Aims?” He shone his
torch in her face, making her recoil from the light. “I told you,
I've not been here for at least three years, even then I was only
passing by!”
“Chill
it out! I mean if you heard any news or whatever - get off the
defensive.” She laughed, and Joe gave her a bat on the arm with his
torch.
“Don't
take the piss, this is just all a bit strange to me too. It's been
here for years, I have no idea why they'd tape it up, now. Maybe just
a council thing, a complaint from an old dude.”
“Really,
Joe, just calm down, why you bein' so scared? Lost your sense of
adventure or somethin'?” She received another whack from the torch
by Joe.
“I
am not scared. You shut your face, now.”
“Will
you two love-birds shut the fuck up.” Natalie finally added to the
conversation. “Giving me a God-damn headache. Look, it's just some
weak shitty tape. Nothing's happened, we walk through and get a fire
going, everything will be right as rain.” Amy and Joe fixed each
other with an icy stare, but remained silent. Natalie had already
started to walk ahead, lifting the tape and looking back to see if
they were following. Amy smiled, nodded and stepped under the tape.
Joe paused for a couple of extra seconds.
“What
do you mean love-birds?” he accused and sped after the other two,
who had rushed on ahead.
When
they reached their moonlit destination, Joe finally caught up. The
space shuttle lay in the field over a single grass-covered panel that
would have lifted it vertically in order to point it up at the sky
for lift-off. It didn't look much different from a plane with the
wings at the back instead of in the middle.
“Could
you two try not to leave m-”
“I
thought you weren't scared, Jodie?” Nat interrupted. She always
called him Jodie when she was trying to wind him up. Amy just about
managed to stifle her laugh.
“I
know Nat's brother ain't here lookin' after us this time, Joe, it's
okay if you're scared. You can just walk back on your own, in the
dark, all alone.” She shared a look with Nat.
“Yeah,
Jodie. And remember, no funny shit with the girls tonight if you
decide to stay, all vulnerable out here far away from civilisation.”
They both looked at Joe as seriously as they could manage, watching
his fuse slowly burn.
“Fuck
you guys! Actually fuck the both of you!”
“No,
Jodie, that's what I just said not
to do!”
“Right, screw it, I'm leaving, I'm-” Amy caught him by the arm
so he couldn't leave.
“Oh, we're just windin' you up, silly. Honestly! Get a
sense of humour.” Amy said through a few giggles.
“Oh, I missed you guys so-fucking-much!” Nat smirked at her
friends, and then looked up at the abandoned space shuttle, marked
with rust; a remnant of the past. It looked just as she remembered,
and if anything had changed, it was too dark to tell.
* * *
“How's your bro, Nat? Haven't even spoken to him since that drink
he bought me on my twentieth.” Joe asked.
“Oh, Chris is still a shit.” Nat smiled. “But he's well. Think
they moved him again last year, somewhere safer this time, hopefully.
Should be getting a phone call on Sunday. I'll let you know.”
“Cool. I keep forgetting you're sticking around for a while.
Welcome back.” They shared a smile. “Didn't Chris tell us about
this place, like, why it was here? I used to love his stories, I just
never remembered them.” He laughed.
Amy put on her best impression of Chris she could, lowing her voice
and pausing every few words to draw suspense. “...With the American
interest in going further into space, however many years ago,” She
gestured, with outreached arms, to the sky “Britain would join
them. We developed some of our own technology to share with the
allies. These shuttles were built to test that...” She paused,
pleased with herself. “Or somethin' like that, anyways.”
“Not a half-bad impression.” Nat smirked. “But yeah, only
about three shuttles with that goal in mind were actually launched
over here. The rest they took to the US. This shuttle was supposed
the be the next launch, but the team were moved a few days before.
I'm pretty sure he explained how it had been deactivated, not just
abandoned, too. But fucked if I remember.”
“Hah yeah...” Joe said. “'So no ideas of flying off tonight.'
I remember him saying, every time we came. Would be nice to see him
again, actually.”
“I'll tell him you miss him dearly.” Nat laughed. Nobody
else spoke for around a minute. The fire's calming growl was nice, it
drew her in and her mind wandered.
“Earth to Nat.” Amy said. This broke her concentration.
“Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to remember exactly how long ago it all
was.” She said, poking down her last batch of wood for a re-fill.
“Bloody long time.”
“I dunno.” Replied Amy “You gettin' all nostalgic on us? Big
city life made you forget about us 'til now?”
“Don't be a fuck-wit! I just wanna figure out the times n' shit.
Joe?”
“Let me think.” He paused, counting on his fingers. “Wait, do
you mean when we were last together or when we last camped at the
shuttle?”
“We were last together after my first year of university, which
seems like a bloody long time. Four years ago, was it?”
“Well yeah, you'd have been nineteen, then Amy and I eighteen. So
five years before that. Nine years ago. Does seem like a long time
when you put it like that...” Joe lost himself in his own thoughts.
The firelight faded a little bit, Nat's bag of firewood had run it's
course over the couple of hours as they spoke about nothing. Joe,
springing back from his daydream, passed her a bottle of cider. It
used to be her favourite, though not anymore, but she decided not to
say anything, just smile. Amy seemed pleased, though.
“Cheers, darlin'! So, anyone tellin' any scary stories or
somethin' while the fire is alive? What's a camp fire without a scary
story?” Amy said and looked at Joe, who looked worried, then Nat in
turn.
“My storytelling is shit, you know it is...” Nat said. “But I
did hear this creature story the other day about a tree that eats
people. Can't remember what it's called now, but the name translates
to 'I-see-you' or some shit. Creepy fucking stuff.” Amy seemed
unimpressed.
“Great, well even if there was a story there, you've sucked the
life out of it, ain't ya? Why do-”
“Um, guys.” Joe cut in. “Can you hear voices?” Amy frowned
at him and shook her head.
“Lame try, dude.”
“No, seriously I'm not joking. I can hear someone speaking.” Joe
said and all three of them listened in silence for a short while.
“Can't hear shit.” Nat said finally. “Anyway, Aims – I don't
think I have any other stories..”
After twenty minutes the fire was almost completely dead, they drank
their drinks, took it in turns to pee around the other side of the
shuttle, and unscrewed the hatch to go inside.
It wasn't until their third camping trip to the shuttle, when they
were children, that they realised they could get inside. It was
bigger than they realised, with rooms in every direction for every
purpose. Only Chris was strong enough to open the hatch originally,
so when he gave in to their nagging and gave the door a try, they
were all very excited about exploring. After they had tired of
exploring, they decided to sleep in the cockpit, with all the seats
and buttons. What once was wonder, was now awe as Natalie remembered
every time they had been here before. The cockpit was clean, which
seemed strange as they always used to find their muddy tracks and
rubbish from their last trip. However, it had been a long time and
they weren't the only people who knew about the shuttle, so she paid
it no mind. Each of them sat in their respective seats and continued
to talk. Joe slipped into his sleeping bag and sat in his chair,
while the girls left theirs on the floor and used their pillows to
sit on and warm the seats.
“We should have brought more food.” Amy started. “I'm getting'
hungry again.”
“Oh, shush,” said Joe “We ate plenty. I brought breakfast, but
there's no chance you're starting on it now. You'll get fat.”
“Maybe I want to be fat!” Amy said with a glare.
“Oh, you two never stop, do you?” Nat interrupted. “Here, I've
got crisps and dip if you want some.” She crunched a few in her
mouth to emphasise her point. Amy got up and went over to sit on the
arm of Nat's chair and grabbed a stuffed hand from the packet.
“Thanks, Nat. Best flavour, too! Mmm.” She continued to oversell
her enjoyment of the food, quickly glancing back to frown at Joe. Nat
started to explain her unhealthy diet from when she was away from
home.
“Umm, guys.” Joe said. “Something's not right.” Though
neither of the girls paid him attention. “Guys, we're moving!” He
said a bit louder but they continued to ignore him. “Can you not
feel that?” Joe shouted above the girls' chatter and the rumble
of the raising platform forced them to pay attention. They both stood
up and froze in confusion. Amy began sliding to the back of the room,
followed by a sleeping bag and two pillows, and after a few more
degrees, Natalie.
“What the fuck is happening?” Nat shouted. “No, seriously,
what the actual fuck?”
Joe slid out of his sleeping bag and jumped down onto the wall,
which was now the floor, to join the others. “I don't know, but I
really don't like it. Are we taking off? I think we should get out of
here.”
“Obviously we should fucking get out of here, Joe!” Nat replied,
but Joe had already started down the rungs which were previously on
the floor. Nat followed closely after and realised that Amy was too
busy hyperventilating to think for herself, so she grabbed her by the
arm until she followed down the ladder.
Sixty seconds 'til lift off...
The stoic female voice sent a wave through the ship and a
shiver down Nat's spine. She looked below at the ladder to find that
Joe hadn't slowed down for them and was already stepping onto the
path to the outer hatch.
Fifty seconds 'til lift off...
Nat finally made it down to the corridor and saw Joe
struggling to twist the wheel on the door. She started towards him,
but Amy pushed ahead of her.
Forty seconds 'til lift off...
“Get us out! Open the door! Open the door!” Amy barely
stopped herself before reaching Joe and grabbed a hold of the wheel
alongside him. Pulling with both their strength they couldn't manage
to undo it.
Thirty seconds 'til lit off...
Walking up just behind the two yanking at the wheel, Nat pressed a
glowing green button labelled 'Decompression.' A loud hiss could be
heard and the door wheel gave way so fast both Amy and Joe fell.
Compression compromised, lift off shutting down...
A brief wave of relief sighed through all three of them,
before they realised their next problem. With the door opened, Nat
joined the other two in peering down the one-hundred and fifty foot
drop to the ground. Further, including the pit where the panel, which
was now the only thing holding them up, used to be.
“Heh, so this thing works.” Nat said after a twenty-ish second
silence.
“How are you so damn calm?” Yelled Joe.
“I'm bloody not, Aims, I'm just good at dealing with the panic.
Anyway, I assume there's a button that puts us back on the floor.
Let's go find the shit.”
“Okay,” Said Joe “Lead the way, then, smart-arse.”
Minutes went by of the three searching for the right button in the
cockpit – or indeed searching for anything that might help. Using
the chairs and other various things around the room they had to climb
up to where everything was. Amy jumped from one of the back chairs
and grabbed onto a handle on the side of the room, which flipped
open, dropped her with it, sending papers and packages flying across
the room. Amy sat, dazed, in a heap of things. Joe picked up and
examined a first aid kit, and Nat picked up a fan-folded paper that
looked like a drawing.
“Well fuck, this might be useful.” She lifted up her page
showing the others a full sized map of the shuttle, with all the
rooms.
“Nice find, even if it did cost me a bruise on my arse.” Amy
mused. “Maybe there's a manual on the control thingy. Showin' how
to set us down, or somethin'.”
“Shh!” Joe interrupted, for the second time that evening. “I
hear talking, do you hear talking?” They all listened, Nat heard a
couple of taps on the ladder outside, but they were faint so she
dismissed them. There was nobody else on the shuttle with them.
“Probably something falling, we are the wrong way up and shit.”
Nat shrugged and carried on searching.
“How do you reckon it started anyway, I didn't press anything.”
Joe said, almost defensively. Amy frowned.
“Mhmm, sure. I bet it was you, pressed the big red button or
somethin'.”
“To save another fucking spat,” Nat interrupted. “Let's assume
remote access.”
“Well that would be much worse.” Said Joe. “That would mean
someone is actually trying to launch the ship.”
Compression achieved.
All three of the young adults froze.
Sixty seconds 'til lift off...
They scurried and yanked at the door on the floor. Amy got
there first, started pulling it from the wrong way in panic.
“Oh God, oh God!” Joe started chanting. “I hate time
limits...”
Fifty seconds 'til lift off...
“Give it the fucker here.” Nat pushed Amy out of the way
and tried the door herself. It was locked after all, not just Amy's
fault. She searched for a way to unlock the door without much
success.
Forty seconds 'til lift off...
Thirty
seconds 'til lift off...
Nat finally managed to find a button on an outer wall by a bunch of
messy papers, clearly titled 'Lock'. Amy must have knocked it when
she fell from the cabinet-of-many-things. She took a moment to
appreciate that all the buttons were labelled pretty clearly on the
walls. But not the one they needed fifty seconds ago.
Twenty seconds 'til lift off...
They raced down the ladder, running to try to open the hatch,
again and stop the lift off.
Ten seconds 'til lift off...
When Nat reached the corridor she looked just in time to see
that as Amy, who had reached the button first, was about to press the
green button, it turned red. 9 She pushed it. 8 It did
nothing. 7 She pushed it again, 6 and again, and again
5 in stunned silence. 4, 3, 2 Joe looked around at Nat
with the widest she had ever seen eyes stretch.
Lift off...
The three of them were held fast to the wall in the
centrifuge. The rumbling shook Nat's skull to painful levels and she
felt intensely sick. She was pretty sure she heard Joe try to speak
but the rumbling overwhelmed him. She felt a jolt as the giant fuel
tank on the other side of the lifting plate detached itself, having
used all it's fuel to push higher into the atmosphere. Before long
everything went fuzzy, then it was hard to think, and then there was
only blackness.
* * *
When Natalie woke, she was floating.
Her vision was blurry and her insides felt strange. There was a
distinct smell of vomit. She regained her composure and wriggled
around the space ungracefully. She had not trained for this. It
wasn't so apparent to her until now how much everything was just that
dull grey metal of typical space colours. Why weren't astronauts more
invested in some nice scenery, she thought. A few greens would be
nice around here. The quiet made itself known, and Natalie felt
almost calm, even relaxed. Amy broke her concentration with a groan
as she came to. Nat hadn't even noticed her until now and she focused
– trying to understand what was happening. She was in space, Amy
was here but Joe was not. She shook Amy by the shoulder and motioned
for her to follow. The shuffling through space didn't take long to
get sort of used to, though they both were a little clumsy. They
propelled themselves towards the cockpit using the rungs of the
ladder, creating deeply echoed taps through to the other end of the
shuttle. The back of the shuttle was eerily dark. Not deep-space
blackness, but that artificial darkness accompanying a night-time
power cut. She opened the door to the cockpit and pushed herself
through. Joe was inside, reading one of the papers scattering the
airspace around the room.
“Where was that map, Nat? The one you had before?”
“Fuck-sake Joe, how long have you been in here? You seem pretty
fucking cosy.” Nat replied. Amy was staring out one of the windows.
“Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. Guys, we're actually in space! Floatin'
around... in space!” She squeaked in excitement, Nat scarce
thought she'd seen Amy this excited before.
“Am I the only one here who understands the shit-storm we're in
right now? Y'know, fearing for my fucking life?”
Joe looked up from his page. “Trust me, when I say I'm more
scared than you are, Nat. But you were the one talking about dealing
with the panic. Anger isn't helping me look for this page, is it!”
“No, Jodie, it isn't! But neither will passive-damn-aggression.”
“You ain't understandin' this, are you guys? We're in spaaaaace!”
Amy pitched in, they both looked at her with fury. “Jesus, can we
not enjoy this for a little bit? Who gets a chance to go into space?”
“I'd have loved to go into space with you, Amy.” Nat said. “But
not a fucking one-way trip.” Amy looked a bit stunned and went back
to the window. Joe held up his hand.
“Look, I fully understand you're a bit unhappy, Nat. But Amy
doesn't deserve this and it's really not helping. We could at least
find a way out... I can't do this on my own.” Nat took a few
breaths before replying. “Please?” He added.
“Right, okay. I stuffed the map in my pocket, it's here.” She
felt around her pockets and found nothing. “Shit, I must have
dropped it.”
“Probably the zero-gees!” Amy said. Nat nodded and swam her way
back to the corridor, to find when she dropped it.
With Amy and Nat both looking away, Joe took the moment to try and
calm himself a little and put his hands over his face. A single tear
escaped and floated upwards. When he opened his eyes, he saw the
globule and caught it, Amy saw the whole thing.
“You're tryin' too hard to be tough, dude. You don't have to,
we're all friends here.” Amy smiled, and Joe faked a smile back.
“I know, I just figured one of us would have to take control, you
know?”
“Then just let Nat do it. And stop pretendin' you're any kind o'
leader. We all know she thrives on bossing others.”
“...yeah.” He said, and let out a single genuine laugh. Natalie
slid through the door and Joe held her gaze. “About thirty
seconds.”
“What?” Nat asked.
“Before you two came in, I was only here for about thirty seconds.
I was hardly planning a wedding.”
“Oh, al'right. Point noted. I have the map here, anyway.”
“Good, can you read it? It's difficult to focus on something when
my hands are shaking like a Richter nine.” Nat hesitated for a
second before swallowing hard and gave a sharp nod.
“Okay, so it seems pretty straight forward from here. We're at the
nose, up this way.” Nat, held the print up and pointed. “The
corridor goes down the middle of the shuttle. The rooms branch off.
Here, we have bedrooms. Here are bathrooms.”
“Fantastic, I could use the bathroom.”
“Shush, Amy, I'm speaking. Besides, you don't even know how to pee
without gravity.” This stopped Amy in her thoughts, Nat could see
her trying to figure it out. “Anyway... Here we have an infirmary,
where I assume they also keep the space suits, as I saw on a film
once. Here is a kitchen. I have no idea what this empty space is. But
if I can remember from nine or ten years ago, that's probably a
leisure room, or something. At the back here we have a fuck-off big
area for storage and astronaut shit. Here is our point of interest,
though, lady and lord. This room here, in this little bit of writing,
claims to have an escape capsule.” Both Amy and Joe's eyes lit up
at the sound of that. “So. We have three options. We try to find a
radio, to call for help. We use the escape capsule to get back to
Earth. Or we could hope there is some kind of auto pilot that will
take us down as we are. As we do not know if any of these will work,
let's just do all fucking three.”
“Okay,” said Amy “I guess I can go lookin' for the escape
pod.” Joe turned toward the controls and started looking at each
little gadget.
“Right, and I'll look for a radio. Can't be too hard.”
“Which leaves me rummaging through the fucking paperwork. Thanks,
guys.” Said Nat, who immediately caught a couple of pages floating
about and tried to make a pile. Amy pushed her way to the door of the
main cabin and stared down the lone and increasingly dark corridor.
She paused for a long while before she said anything.
“Yeah, I'm not going down there without a light switch.” She
said. Nat laughed.
“I doubt there'll just be a flicky switch on the wall, but most of
the shit around is labelled.”
“But what if it's not here? I ain't goin' out there on my
lonesome!” Amy closed the door again and crossed her arms so
violently, she began to front-flip on the spot. She grabbed something
to stabilise herself. Nat laughed at her again.
“Honestly, we're here alone – I don't know what you're scared
of.”
“Well,” Joe chipped in. “How do you know? Maybe there's a team
of people running it from the back.” He shrugged. Nat rolled her
eyes.
“Like fuck is there! They'd need to use this room, or they'd have
at least heard us talking or some other shit. It was either an
accident or the rocket was launched remotely.”
“Whatever, Nat. I can't see any radio here. So I'll go with you,
Amy, and we can find some lights and the rest.”
“Thankin' you, Joe.” Amy opened the door again, and slowly used
the wall to scale further down. Joe caught up and braced himself
alongside her against the other wall and Nat saw them fade further
into the black. A sudden sense of dread befell her.
“Wait, hold the fuck up! Don't leave me on my own!” Nat grabbed
the ladder and used it to speed up behind the other two. Who were
laughing at her.
“I thought you weren't scared.” They said in unison, and looked
at each other in confusion.
“Oh, shut-up. Trying to use auto-pilot is a stupid idea anyway,
none of us know anything about this shit.”
“Well that's why the research was your job. But fair point.”
Said Joe
“Look, let's just stick together, al'right?” Nat said. Amy
nodded and grabbed Nat by the arm. They carried on down the corridor,
Joe used his torch when it started to get a bit too dark. They looked
in at the bedrooms and kitchen, which were pitch black. Amy stopped
in the bathroom and it took her almost fifteen minutes to figure out
how it worked, meanwhile Joe went back to finish off the crisps and
dip. When they regrouped, they seemed in fairly decent spirits until
it caught Nat's attention that one of the lights was on in one of the
doors down the corridor. Joe turned his torch off and they swam each
other to the window and looked inside.
A man wearing large headphones with a microphone stared stunned back
at the three people in the shuttle. All three of whom were
speechless. His face through the small porthole window began to
shrink after a huge crack sounded from inside the door. The escape
capsule drifted slowly away from them. Before long, the entire pod
was in full view and all four people involved simply remained
dumbfounded. The capsule could easily have fit seven or eight people,
though it carried only one passenger who's lips began to move. He was
shouting something, but only silence could be heard.
“So, that was our escape?” Amy said, finally. Joe was too busy
hyperventilating to answer and neither Amy or Joe noticed the tears
drip out of Natalie. Her heart was a sunken ship wreck, and she was
going to drown. It was Amy that started moving toward the cockpit,
dragging Joe behind her. Nat couldn't bring herself to move from her
spot, so she remained slumped – deflated by the apparent
inevitable.
“Fuck” She shouted, turned, and slammed her fist on the door
behind her, which pushed open. Crackling speech filled the solemn
quiet of the corridor, causing Joe and Amy to turn back as quick as
they could.
“The radio?” Nat sniffed. Amy pushed in front of her inside the
room and Joe got out his torch, having calmed down somewhat in the
face of help. When they entered, the lights turned on automatically.
The room was filled with a station board, computers, comm. units and
microphones. It was the room that Nat wasn't sure of on the map,
which turned out to be where the radios were. So perhaps their
chances were a tiny amount higher than fucked.
“Can you... me. Who... Ah, damn... Need....” The radio failed to
stay on for long. It was Amy who picked up a microphone closest to
where the sound was coming out and spoke back. The man kept talking,
breaking up, but sounded as if he did hear something back.
“Wait, I'll... and... should, fix...” the voice continued until
eventually it cleared and a slick stream vented through the room.
“Can you hear me? Am I coming through?” Nat pushed Amy out of the
way and grabbed the microphone.
“Yes! Yes, we can hear you. What the fuck is going on?”
“Smooth, Nat.” Joe added.
“I don't know how you got in there, but you really weren't
supposed to be.” The voice replied. “Listen, I can't be giving
you all the deets, but I can tell you, to be sure, you need to get
off that shuttle.” Nat frowned.
“That's not helpful, you shit! Bring the capsule back!”
“No can do, I'm afraid. I've been pushed into orbit. The shuttle
is low flying, so slowly in about two days I'll get low enough, with
enough speed, to break the atmos; no return trips. Thing is, I don't
know much about that shuttle, I wasn't the one who reactivated it, I
was just assurance to see it off. It was meant to look like an
accident.” There was regret in the man's voice.
“What was? What was an accident? Tell us everything you know, it
might help us escape.” Nat showed no intention of lowering her
voice. The pause at the other end was long.
“I'm sorry. To be sure, I am.” He eventually said, slowly and
carefully. “But it's worth more than your lives. I can't tell you
anything.” This took a few seconds to fully sink in.
“You.. Fucking... Wh-” Joe snatched the microphone away from Nat
before she could continue.
“Look,” He said. “I'm sorry for my friend, but I'm getting
pretty sick of floating about, here. What are our chances of getting
off this shuttle?” The man took a few seconds to respond.
“Slim. I don't wanna lose you all hopes or nothin', but you were
in the worst place at the worst possible time. I know the radio ain't
connected up to Earth, but who knows what else is there? If you do
find a way back, make sure nothing comes back with you, capiche? And,
eh, don't tell anyone about this, or I can't ensure your lucky lives
will last. Anyway, good luck.”
“Wait, what?” When there was no response, Joe repeated himself.
“Who are you? What do you mean? Please, don't just leave us!” The
radio was dead.
“What a prick!” Nat shouted and hit the desk. She noted that Amy
was being particularly reserved, and went over to give her a hug.
They both needed it. Joe held his head in his hands. The persistent
darkness outside the room didn't help matters, the ship was just
smatterings of grey through an abundance of blackness. Joe hadn't
given up, however, he looked in each of the other rooms with his
torch while the others simply followed – having no ideas of what
else to do. Though Nat wasn't sure what Joe was looking for, she
still held an element of hope that they could find something.
* * *
It was inside the storage room that 'something' was found. The room
was a vast expanse filled with crates and tubes and basic storage
equipment. In the middle of the room laid a cylindrical container
with mist pouring out of the sides, it was the only thing that caused
any motion in the room, so it was hard for them to not keep returning
their gaze towards it. Though after searching around the room for
something, anything, Joe found a few canisters that seemed like they
were used the hold samples of rocks or things.
“Hey guys, I'm pretty sure I saw one of the paper thingies about
these – they're used for samples to send back to Earth without
returning, which means there's a chute or something to send them.”
“Interesting,” Nat said, “So what? We can send our death
letters back to earth? How fucking optimistic.”
“What's in there?” Amy interrupted, pointing at what seemed like
a handle to a wardrobe behind the sample canisters clipped to the
wall. She made her way over, helping Joe move everything out of the
way and opened it up. And it could have been their ticket home, all
three of them thought it. Joe spoke first.
“You take the piss all you want, Nat. But we could always try
sending ourselves home.” Behind the doors were a set of six
capsules, just like the sample canisters, but much larger.
Potentially large enough to fit a human or two inside.
“I'm pretty sure that's not safe, we'd suffocate in one of those.”
Amy said.
“Not if we had a supply of oxygen,” Joe begun. “Besides, you
heard the guy say we're in low orbit, if we pushed straight down, we
might be able to break the atmosphere sooner. It'll likely have a
tracker and parachute for when we get close.”
“Fantastic, but that doesn't explain how we're randomly gettin'
oxygen, Joe.”
“Space suits.” Nat said, half to herself. When she realised the
two were staring at her, she explained. “It might be a bit of a
squeeze, but space suits are designed to regulate and time your
oxygen, I think, anyway. Shit, we could probably fit a couple of
bonus tanks in the capsule if we go alone.” She didn't like that
last part, speeding through space alone wasn't an inviting concept.
Though it could be their only way home. She also knew Joe would get
quite claustrophobic, he hesitated before he spoke.
“It's worth a try. Help me carry three of these out, then.” They
carried the first one out towards the room where the escape capsule
was released, then a second. The work was awkward and clumsy, as
while the objects weren't heavy in the zero gravity, they were still
big and fairly hard to navigate by three amateurs.
On the third capsule, Amy got nudged back by the tail end and fell
into a few of the smaller canisters, now free-floating, and sent them
spinning across the room. One of the canisters hit a clip on the side
of the smoking pot on the floor and it flipped open. All three looked
at it. The lid gently rose without any resistance and what fell up
out of it looked like a ball of darkness. The ball rose into the
centre of the room and neither of the three could quite understand
what it was, it seemed otherworldly, as if made of non-human
materials. Before Nat could second-guess that she saw it twitch, a
singular fat tentacle-thing folded out of the mass, followed by
another and another. There were nine tentacles in total, before what
was previously was a ball was now an unnatural starfish. None of them
said anything, but when Joe decided to shine his torch on the
blackness-material object, it shimmered, almost metallic.
When it moved, Amy jumped. It's chubby extremities pulsed inward to
spindly ones and back, it's mass stretched a couple of times and it
started writhing, flailing in the lack of gravity. It seemed like it
couldn't get any control. The three could not take their eyes off of
it, and eventually it stopped flinging it's limbs about wildly and
executed a perfect spin, stopping and spreading out like a
child-drawn sun. Only, without the light. It started to drift towards
Joe, who, when it was close enough, ducked out of the way and left it
drifting onto the wall. It stuck to the wall with an unknown grip.
“I'm going to guess that nobody else has any idea what the hell
that thing is?” Amy asked, but didn't expect an answer. Seeing it
closer up, it was a few feet across, just over half the height of
Nat, in all directions. When it was stuck to the wall, it's middle
swelled, making it like a dome. Joe shined the light directly onto
it, and she saw that it was moving, like it was covered in tiny cilia
that really grossed her out. She hated it. It reacted to the long
exposure to the torch, shrunk and started moving towards the source.
This time it was fast. Really fast. Amy let out a gasp, and when Joe
wasn't quick enough, it wrapped a spindly limb around his leg. He
cried out as if in pain, and Amy screamed. Nat did all she could she
could think to do, which was to shove the large capsule towards it,
in the hope to knock it off. Before she could, it already started at
Amy, drawn to the noise.
The crawling mass stopped short of reaching Amy and, instead, seemed
distracted by the open door. It slowed down significantly, resuming
it's sun-like form and drifted in that direction as it if had no
interest in the other three life-forms in the room at all. Joe came
to his senses.
“We can't let that thing out of here!” He said, clutching his
shin which had burn marks in place of missing clothing. Nat thought
quickly. There was a smaller capsule floating just by the side of
her, so she sent it flying towards the door, knocking it just enough
to leave a half-inch gap.
“Not with us inside!” Screeched Amy, who was separated from the
other two by the thing. From outside of their view, however, Joe had
already managed to pull the freezer chamber it emerged from off of
the ground and was hurdling towards it, presumably in an attempt to
catch it. The thing, without any warning, stopped exactly as it was.
As Joe got closer, it started expanding, fanning it's self out
thinner, like a net. It was going to catch a twenty-something male,
and successfully. It wrapped around to form a hollow husk around Joe,
who couldn't stop himself in time, and it started closing in. In the
gaps between the tentacles, Nat was certain she was about to see her
friend die.
He punched his hand out, and pulled it back just as swift, as if
touching something burning, and in doing so, he pushed the container.
The cold rim touched the creature, forcing it to retract. It reacted
violently, thrashing out, soundlessly. But by the time it started to
grow again, the three had already raced to the door and shut it
inside. It pressed itself up flat against the little window of the
door. From the outside, it just looked like a lightless room. Though
if you looked closely enough, you would see the oddly oily shimmer of
a thousand maggoty cilia. Nat shuddered, Joe had severe burns on his
hand and leg and Amy just stared at the porthole window. After a fair
few seconds of shock, a sound knocked them into action. A feint
hissing sound.
“Is it... burnin' through the door?”Amy asked.
“I don't want to wait to find out.” Joe replied, and what
followed took just under an hour to prepare. Nat went to the
infirmary, to confirm she was correct in assuming it was where the
space suits were. She got them all out, found ones that would
kind-of-fit all three, packed the extra oxygen tanks and figured out
how they worked so that she could show the others. Joe went up to the
main cabin to find out exactly how the capsules worked. They only had
two, so it was important to figure out if it were possible to do. Amy
mainly stayed in the communications room and occasionally checked on
the 'alien' to make sure it hadn't melted out from storage. What
turned out to be fifty three minutes and a hissing door later, they
were ready. Time was tight, so they had to decide.
“The bad news,” Joe began. “Is that the switch has to be
pressed from the outside first with one capsule at the front of the
launcher. That means two people in the first one, and someone on
their own.”
“I'll do it,” Said Nat without hesitation. “I'll be fine.”
Joe wasn't about to question her, she knew he would prefer to be with
someone else considering he would get claustrophobic anyway.
“Okay. The good news is the second one will follow afterwards on a
timer, giving you time to get in and ready before.” They all nodded
at this, and Nat prepared the capsules. Amy got inside first, suited
up, with two bonus oxygen tanks and slid down, what now seemed like,
the missile. After Amy was secure, Joe got in, lining up his face
with the thick window hatch, which Nat left open from the outside.
“Remember, you each have eight-ish hours of oxygen in there. I
don't know how long this will take, or if we will make it.” She
looked over at the more imminent threat in the storage room. “But
it's a damn sight better than staying here. Even when your oxygen
runs low, stay calm. Fucking calm. You'll make it eventually.” And
with that, Joe nodded. Nat pressed a few buttons and gave herself a
one and a half minute timer afterwards. Amy and Joe were slid
forwards and then they were gone. Nat took one last peer at the
blackness behind the door, and secured her helmet, stuffed the oxygen
tanks below her and got in, closing the lid behind her. She too, left
open the little hatch, so that she could see outside. It scared her
to think about seeing so much space, but it was vital to know if she
was going to hit the atmosphere or not. She couldn't help but think
how little room she had to manage her oxygen tanks, she was trapped
fairly tight. She was tensing all of her muscles and the next thing
she felt was herself drop. She had been been launched.
* * *
After a few hours, space was surprisingly peaceful. She figured out
she needed to use her feet to drag up the oxygen tanks, but she could
just about manage it. She had no concept of how far away she was from
Earth or if she would even make it in time. It seemed very likely,
given the speeds of things, and quick assumptions in her head.
All she could see out of the window, between her condensing breaths
on her helmet, was the infinite darkness of space, scattered with a
handful of stars. It was during what she thought was the third hour,
when her capsule span in view of a large satellite. In the unhindered
view of the structure, she spotted a single fat tentacle pressed
against the window.
