FVN Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.1
Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.1
I’d always been a fan of horror movies; ghost stories, slashers, creature features, even gore-porn where it was just a bunch of victims getting mangled following along some nonsensical plot. I had a wide variety of interests and liked classic American television and movies, along with foreign films and anime, but the horror genre always had a special place in my heart.
Honestly, I was pretty sure it was simply because a horror movie could surprise you even in the last few minutes of the film—no generic happy ending for the characters. I wasn’t scared of horror movies, but I loved the tension and feeling the danger, even when the plots were silly or downright stupid, I always found them fun.
That was until it felt like I lived through a horror movie myself.
Over the past few cycles, I felt like I was barely surviving while a dreadful monster had been terrorizing me and my team and the crew on Jessipie-90, picking us off one-by-one as though we were living through a classic horror cliché. I loved the Alien movies growing up, classic sci-fi horror, but I never imagined how absolutely horrible it would be to live through a similar experience.
But live we did—barely, escaping with a few seconds to spare, heading out into space in the emergency shuttle and activating G-drive to escape the collapsing Derrion System that was being consumed by a void singularity.
There was me of course, and then just Zyno and Willa from our original team. From the Jessipie-90 crew there was Captain Gadow, Lieutenant Fierra, Doctor Reim, and then Lummy, Saba, Zemman and Num. Those were the only survivors who managed to escape Jessipie-90 and the horror of being hunted down by a dangerous Predazoan.
One more person rode with us in our shuttle, my Eve who mysteriously reappeared when I needed her most; she saved me from Gamma-20, teleporting inside the deep space freighter so she could kill her younger sister.
I worried Eve had been experiencing her own kind of hell while she was trapped in the void, but as the days rolled on I wasn’t sure what happened out there in that mysterious dimension, all I knew was when Eve finally returned to me, she was clearly changed.
Then again, after everything I survived, I probably changed too, so I tried not to be harsh or judgmental, but still, I had my concerns and suspicions.
The first few days traveling in the emergency shuttle weren’t so bad. We didn’t have much space, but we had plenty of resources and supplies that would last at least a decacycle. Zyno had some portable hover-screen so we could all watch movies together, others brought some tablets so we had games to play.
Still, it wasn’t a picnic, and tensions continued to build while we flirted the line between being grateful we survived Jessipie-90 while concerned we might not survive being stuck in the emergency shuttle out in deep space.
Zyno got to work right away on the communications system he brought over from our old lifepod. It wasn’t a long-range comms system, so it wouldn’t be able to send out a distress beacon all across the Empire, but it was mid-range, so as long as we could end up in a system near a relay station, it would be able to transfer our signal directly to The Radiance to come pick us up out in deep space.
Unfortunately, there was no guarantee we’d enter a system with a repair/rescue station, maybe not even a relay station. The dangers of deep space were how vast and unoccupied it was. Sure, there was some mapping data that could help people find the orbiting relays on the outskirts of the Empire, but we hadn’t been able to confirm one in any system around us, so we just had to pick a random direction and roll the dice we’d be heading towards something that could help.
It wasn’t like we could just sit around and spend days trying to calculate the best route considering the entire fucking system was about to be destroyed. But leaving our survival up to luck and hope was definitely weighing on everyone’s minds.
One blessing we had in the remaining crew was how we all got along; it sucked we had so little room, had to share one washroom and a single bunkroom with small cots, and could only hang around one central dayroom, but we were friends and survivors at this point, and people tried to extend their patience when problems arose.
At least at first.
During the first cycle nothing much happened; we traveled in G-drive the entire time in that strange tunnel of lights that bent the laws of physics so we could move faster than the speed of light, but crossing an entire system was going to take a while. We all had our meals together, still stayed on the same sleep schedule, watched movies together in the central room, following along with that unbreakable pattern as the days wore on.
After that first cycle, people started getting annoyed with the monotony and craved a little solitude; back on Jessipie-90, people had been so utterly terrified of being alone, but now that we were totally safe and crammed up together, people were desperate to get some time for themselves. People started spacing out their eating and sleeping schedules then, wanting to get away from the big group, then a few others followed along the other way to get away from the two groups, and then eventually we just had a large collection of people that were living on their own random schedule so they could do whatever they wanted rather than follow along with the majority.
And since we were out in space where there was no sun, no natural light, no orbit or any kind of established timeline, it was incredibly easy for people to break away and follow their own internal clocks.
Still, things improved a bit once the groups started spacing out a little so people either had alone time or were in smaller groups. My party consisted of me and Eve of course, but also Zyno and Reim usually tagged along.
I’d gotten pretty close with Reim back on Jessipie-90, and she even admitted she had a little crush on me after I saved her, so after all the drama with Almana on Vyrane I half-expected Eve to make a fuss or show some aggression towards Reim, but her reaction was beyond all my expectations.
Eve didn’t seem to care about Reim in the slightest, barely even noticed her—and not in a purposeful way like she was ignoring her and being petty or anything, she just didn’t seem to react much to anyone else around her, and the more days that passed, the more withdrawn she seemed to become.
It was more than a little strange, honestly it was starting to concern me.
In the beginning, during our first cycle in the shuttle, Eve was quieter than normal, but she still engaged with me whenever I talked to her; she wanted to catch up with everything I’d done while she was trapped in void space, wanted to meet the crew—seemed almost friendly initially. But she seemed more distracted after the first day, like she was off in her own little world, and a few days later she pretty much just stopped talking to other people, only focusing on me.
And when I say she was focusing on me, that wasn’t an understatement; Eve watched me constantly. She still responded when I talked to her, gave me that dreamy smile of hers, but her answers grew shorter the longer we were out in space. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but it was starting to unsettle me to the point where I actually grew nervous around her. She watched me while I engaged with other people, watched me while I ate, waited for me outside the tiny washroom, even watched me while I slept from her bunk beside mine, and I was sure she wasn’t sleeping at all, watching me all the while.
I couldn’t bring myself to voice any of my concerns, instead I tried to distract myself and keep my mind busy so she couldn’t read my thoughts with her extra-sense—that’s how worried I’d gotten.
Worst of all though Eve had established some weird new boundaries in our relationship; she said we had to keep our distance, that she was a conduit for pure void energy and it would be dangerous to get physically involved now. If I was concerned with her behavior, I was twice as concerned for what would happen if we started touching again considering Eve’s warning; would she consume me completely, unable to stop herself from indulging in my flesh in some monstrous, Predazoan way, or was she so filled with void energy she would literally explode and destroy the shuttle if she allowed herself to connect with me?
I also wondered if that’s why she was so weirdly distant and watching me like a predator now; was this strange new Eve filled with void energy looking at me and enjoying the sight in some way I couldn’t comprehend, or was she doing everything in her power to hold herself back from jumping me?
Of course Eve’s strange behavior didn’t go unnoticed by other people; once when I was heading back to the bunkroom to grab a blanket I heard Lummy and Saba talking about how weird Eve was acting, how they didn’t believe our story about her teleporting with experimental tech onto the ship to save me after being on some secret mission for the Empire. They shut up quickly when they noticed me, but I assumed other people were having similar doubts, however, I didn’t think there was anything I could do about it.
Since Zyno knew Eve he tried to engage with her too, but if she was distant with me, she was basically dismissive with him, only answering half of his questions with single word answers, her eyes always on me no matter who was talking.
Reim initially wanted to get to know Eve and show herself friendly, but once Eve started ignoring her completely, that brought an abrupt end to all that.
Back on Jessipie-90 I remember a couple of the girls saying I deserved someone who would make me happy, so I couldn’t even imagine what all they thought of our relationship now. I was worried Eve would be dangerous if Reim got too close and tried to hug me or something, but it seemed like Reim instinctually knew to keep her distance now, maybe through some psychic sense of danger or something. I guessed that’s why Eve didn’t need to get jealous or admonish anyone for getting too close to me.
And all the while, with the rumors, some drama getting stirred up with people in such close proximity, trapped in the little emergency shuttle, Eve continued to watch me.
***
It was two and a half cycles of traveling in G-drive when we officially cleared the Derrion System. Willa disengaged the G-drive, and we felt a little rumbling hum settle down, and then our shuttle just floated there in empty space, the viewports in the cockpit showing nothing but endless blackness all around us, with just the faintest twinkling of stars incomprehensibly far away.
“Alright everyone, gather up in the center room so we can discuss what we’re going to do from here.” Gadow announced from the doorway to the cockpit.
Half the survivors were already in the center room eating a disappointing breakfast of maximum efficiency gruel (a protein paste the synthesizers could create to maximize nutrients while using the least amount of food product, tasted like bland and eggy oatmeal). The other half of our collective was back in the bunkroom, so Fierra rushed off to get them all into the meeting.
Eve was sitting behind me, in the far corner of the center room, watching me eat—never needing to eat anything herself. I wasn’t sure if anyone was paying attention, but no one said anything about Eve’s behavior anymore—most people just tried to avoid or ignore her.
Zyno was on my left, with Reim on my right, and the rest of the crew filtered out from the bunkroom and grabbed some chairs across from us.
Lummy looked around then peered over Gadow to see into the cockpit, “We’re out of the Derrion System?” She asked.
Gadow nodded as Fierra returned to his side, and Willa stood behind them from the doorway of the cockpit.
“That’s right, we’re totally safe and clear from the void singularity.” Willa confirmed.
Everyone in the room gave a quiet cheer—happy, but clearly not overly enthusiastic considering the odds still weren’t in our favor.
Gadow looked over at Zyno, “You finished repairing the comms system, right?”
Zyno nodded along, “Yeah, I can start trying to send out a signal anytime.” He sighed, “Problem is I don’t have any idea where we should direct it.”
Gadow turned back to the rest of the crew, “As you all know, the comms Zyno took from the old lifepod is only a mid-range system, meaning we have to be within 12 sectors to connect with another vessel or any station or communications relay.”
Num waved towards the table, “Do we have any navigation data on board?”
Fierra stepped forward to active a mapping hologram in the center of the table, looking like a couple rings inside a lined graph with some weird math on the side.
I didn’t know that much about Imperial technology, and I knew even less about what all went into space travel, but even I could see the mapping hologram looked basically empty.
Fierra sighed, “As you can see, we’re working with very little data out here; from what we knew from Jessipie-90’s navigation data, we’re in empty space for at least 20 sectors.” She confirmed.
A few people in the group hissed or cursed, and I took it that meant our options were pretty much shit.
“So now we need to decide which direction we should head towards to try and find something that might help us?” Zemman asked.
Gadow nodded, “Basically. From where we are now, the mid-range comms can’t connect to anything since all our data says we’re in empty space for over 20 sectors, and the comms only have a range of 12.”
Zyno shook his head, “That’s what your old navigation data says though; there’s a possibility there could still be a comms relay out here.”
“Right, but how long would it take to transmit our beacon through 12 sectors looking for a response? It’s not like we’re blessed with unlimited time here.” Lummy countered.
A few people jumped in with their own opinions then to the point I couldn’t really hear the details on what was being said. Instead, I just sat there eating my gruel, waiting for someone to make a decision.
Reim leaned over to me, “What do you think our chances are at this point?” She asked me quietly.
I shrugged, “You mean with getting rescued, or surviving all the in-fighting that’s sure to only get worse?”
Reim looked at me then, but before she could respond Gadow held his hands up to try to reign in the crowd.
“Come on people, we can’t keep talking over each other; we need to bring our options forward and then weigh in on them together in an organized manner.” Gadow reasoned.
“And what all options do we have?” I asked.
Zyno took over the hologram then, zooming out in the emptiness to show two highlighted circles on the far sides of the mapping data, “According to Jessipie-90’s data, there’s two known systems within G-drive distance from us.” He pointed to the smaller circle, “We have the Tegatorr System that’s 21 sectors from our current location.” He pointed to the other circle, “And then the XHLH-302 System, which is 24 sectors away—also known for having been used as a warp point by pirates in the past, don’t know if that matters now.”
“Keep in mind it would take us over five cycles to get to the Tegatorr System, and nearly six for XHLH-302” Gadow added quickly.
Zyno sighed, “And if we wanted to stay in our current location to map out the surrounding 12 sectors hoping to connect with a comms relay, it would take eight days.”
Fierra nodded along, “We need to decide if we should wait here for eight days to map our neighboring sectors now, and then which system we should travel to if we can’t connect to a relay nearby.” She said.
I looked over to Reim, “How long will our supplies last?”
Reim frowned thoughtfully, “Originally, we had enough to last us a little over 10 cycles, but if we started intermittent fasting now to preserve as many rations as possible, we could probably safely last 13 cycles—up to 15, but we’d be looking at some health risks then.”
Lummy snorted, “Is starving to death in deep space worse than your health risks?”
Reim glared at Lummy, and she opened her mouth to respond, but Gadow moved forward quickly before a fight could break out.
“So first we have to decide if the extra eight days here is worth it, then we need to decide which system we travel to.” Gadow looked around at the crew, “Who all wants to map out the 12 sectors around us?”
I turned to Zyno, “What’s the likelihood we find something around here outside those known systems?”
Zyno shrugged, “Not good at all, but not much worse than finding a relay station in those other systems either.” He looked up to Gadow, “I say we try at every available opportunity before we simply run out of options.”
Num shook his head, “But we might find there’re other known systems beyond the closer systems, and we might need to travel to those too—moving from one to the next, if we can make it. There’s no telling if every day might count in moving from system to system trying to reach a relay, so why sit around in empty space and waste nearly a cycle trying to ping something that in all likelihood has no reason to be out here.”
Zyno shook his head, “You really think those systems aren’t empty? Sure, they might have a star and a couple planets orbiting it, but out here in deep space everything is empty. Mathematically, it’s all as likely as the next to have a rescue or relay station, so we need to stop and try when we can.”
Zemman cocked his head to the side, “Then, what, you think we should stop and scan every 12 sectors instead of trying to travel through the deep space systems?” He asked.
Zyno waved to the mapping hologram, “Honestly, that’s just as likely to get us to find a relay station as anything else at this point.”
Num hit his fist on the table, “No, we need to get some distance and try to work through as many known systems as possible.”
“Either way we have to stop and scan the system for eight days, not like we’ll be able to survive traveling through more than a couple of systems at that rate.” Lummy countered.
People started arguing again, half of them saying they needed to scan as much space as they could as we traveled, others saying we needed to work through the known systems. Honestly, I had no idea which plan would be better, and I looked up to see Gadow was clearly at a loss too.
Our eyes met across the table then, and I could see for all the fighting he’d done to keep the crew together up until this point, to give people hope and to work on maintaining morale, he’d finally reached his limit.
Suddenly, in the middle of all the arguing, Eve stood up behind me and strolled over to the table. At that point everyone shut up to watch what she was doing now—no one had any idea how she could contribute to the current problem considering how mysterious she’d been since she joined us on the shuttle.
Eve leaned forward and tapped on the hologram, shrinking it back to our location and adding some destination point.
“Send a communication ping right there.” Eve directed Zyno.
No one had any idea how to react to Eve’s sudden instructions; for some people, that was the first time they’d heard Eve speak in over a cycle. Hell, even for me that was the first I heard her talk all day.
Zyno still looked rather confused, “That’s about nine sectors away, it’ll take a couple hours to get a response.”
Eve nodded once, “That’s fine. Do it.” She said simple, turned and smiled at me, then returned to her seat in the corner behind me.
Zyno didn’t really know how to respond then and just looked at me as though to confirm her orders, and I just gestured for him to get on with it. He sighed, but then complied, sending some communications probing out into empty space where Eve directed.
At that point no one really knew what to do; should we wait for the results of Zyno’s comms test? Should we move forward and decide on the next plan? Should we ask Eve why the fuck she chose that random spot in space to start our search for a relay?
In the end, the confusion over Eve’s interruption completely shelved the discussion for the time being, and everyone resumed what they’d been doing before, with Gadow meekly saying we’d reconvene the meeting once we had a result.
I finished my meal and Zyno decided to start up another movie for everyone, some documentary about an apex predator species from a paradise planet that ate themselves into extinction. It was hard to pay attention to the movie as we all kept looking back over at the holo-map waiting to hear the result. Meanwhile, Eve was beside me like always, smiling brightly while watching me rather than the documentary before us.
It seemed like time crawled on by, but eventually the navigation computer trilled a little alarm once the test was finished, and everyone—even the people in the bunkroom raced out to the table to see the results.
Zyno looked at the hologram and read through the data—then seemed to read it again, and a third time for good measure.
He looked over towards Eve quickly, and she just nodded at him, then Zyno turned to me as he confirmed the test results.
“The test came back positive; there’s a relay station out there.” Zyno looked like he could hardly believe it—like it was all simply impossible. But then as he realized what that meant, a wide smile broke out on his face, “We can send out a distress beacon anywhere in the Empire.” His smile was so bright then it looked like he might burst, “Everyone, we’re saved!”