Page 11 of Doom Averted

“You’ll have to make sure all the doors are closed that should be closed,” I yelled as I worked. I was pretty sure that Da’vi hadn’t hung up yet, he’d be listening in as long as he could. I hadn’t missed the part where he hadn’t answered me about how far out he still was. That meant too far, he wasn’t going to be able to get here before this Drameil. Silly hope anyway, and what good would it do? I didn’t want Da’vi and his friends to end up in a space battle just to rescue me.

“I will,” he said quietly, his voice issuing from the ship’s intercom following me along the hallways. I had a good hiding spot in mind, but it was a little difficult to get to. I had to pass the half-a-dozen doors that hid dead bodies for one. They didn’t stink because they had turned into nothing more than bones and dust, but that just made it all the more frightening. How long had I been asleep in that stasis pod?

I also had to jump over a few exposed wires that sparked and hissed like angry snakes. The first time I’d tried that, to explore on the other side, Da’vi had spent a good ten minutes berating me for doing something so dangerous. That he didn’t say anything about it when I leaped across this time just drove home how urgent this was.

With my bare fingers, I yanked free the loose floor panel I’d discovered. Underneath it had been a couple of dusty bottles of some kind of liquor, a wrapped package that stunk, musky, and kind of moldy. I’d left both those things and only taken the three ration bars also there previously. Da’vi had called it a smuggling hatch, so it was safe to assume that the musky package was what was left of some type of drugs.

Barely big enough for me, I rolled inside, swallowing a cough as I pulled the heavy floor panel back on top of myself. This was worse than tucking myself back into a stasis pod. This space was even smaller and it stunk. Good thing I wasn’t claustrophobic. I kicked the bottles as far down into the space as I could so that I could lie down, but it was still a very tight fit, with my knees scrunched up tightly.

My eyes were trying desperately to adjust to the near-complete darkness, with only the faint outline of the panel on top of me providing a sliver of light. “Doors are all closed, not a peep Arianna, stay hidden. I’m coming for you,” Da’vi assured me, his voice muffled by the panel on top of me. The silence that followed felt empty, he’d broken the com connection to avoid detection, now I was completely alone.

I barely dared to breathe, only pulling in shallow little breaths as quietly as I could, blood rushing in my ears. I was going a little faint but I didn’t dare to change a thing, Da’vi’s warnings had driven home just how bad it would be to be found by this Drameil. I just needed to stay quiet, nobody had looked in this hatch since this ship had ended up here, judged by the dust, this was a good hiding spot.

While it felt like a really long time, it was only a short minute or two when I felt the ship rattle and vibrate. Was that a ship docking this one? I was pretty sure I had discovered a working airlock, Da’vi had agreed about it when I asked him, likely even the only one able to access the portion of ship I was on. It wasn’t too far from my hiding spot, would they walk right over this loose floor panel?

The answer was yes. I heard the footsteps, at least four pairs or more. Low voices talking in an alien language I couldn’t understand. They were making quite the ruckus, but I still held my breath as they passed right over me. The footsteps were punctuated by the sharp thwap of something hard striking the metal panels. I couldn’t tell what that was, but each time it struck the deck, I flinched.

The ship wasn’t silent now, I could still hear them once they’d left the hallway I was in. Muffled sounds of voices, the grunts of physical labor, and thuds and thunks as heavy objects were moved about. Was it strange to them that gravity was on? Suddenly my heart was racing with worry about that, would they think that was strange? Start looking for someone? Stupid, I should have told Da’vi to turn that off too!

They crossed above my hiding place eighteen times, I counted each time they passed, though only the last time were the footsteps accompanied by the strange sharp striking sound. They had hauled something from the cargo bay to their own ship, it had taken multiple trips. That could only mean one thing, the stasis pods.

During each trip, the alien voices talked with each other, exchanging banter. I could recognize the type of talk, even if I couldn’t understand a word they spoke. I could even tell when it had turned vulgar, there was just something about the way guys sounded when they did that, a universal trait it seemed.

Then a new voice spoke and I just knew, that was the one responsible for the tapping sound. It was sibilant, with hissing sounds. If a snake could talk, this is what I imagined it would sound like, and it made my lizard brain’s primal fear response strike me hard. Struck with a deep atavistic drive to survive, I had to clench down on my reflexes hard so as not to give in to the desire to flee. Flight was not the correct response in this situation but it was a hard reflex to subdue.

Because that voice was so much more alien, so frightening, it stood out when he repeated a word that the others had already said a few times before. Yenger. It had to mean something, but what? Clearly, this terrifying alien didn’t have that word in his own language, was it a name?

The others fell silent when he spoke and then it was just footsteps and that thwap as they crossed over my hiding spot. I held my breath in that silence, terrified that they would discover me at what could very well be their last time passing me. That would be just my luck.

Somehow it held, their footsteps fading until I heard the swish of doors closing behind them. The ship felt different once they left and I dared to draw in air more deeply, struggling to contain the itch in my throat when I inhaled dust. I didn’t dare cough until the ship started shaking and trembling, the same as it had when they had arrived.

Then I lay there for a little longer, irrationally scared that I’d push that floor panel free and I’d find that scary alien on the other side. I was imagining a snake head on a human body, with long clawed hands. Maybe some kind of freaky spike like a scorpion tail, maybe that was the strange noise I’d heard.

Eventually, I gave in to the cramps in my calves, to the desire to see the light again. Shoving the panel clear, I cautiously stuck my head out of the smuggler’s hatch, and looked around. I didn’t see anyone and the hallway didn’t look any different than before… A glance at my grandmother’s old watch told me that about forty minutes had passed since I’d crawled into that hiding spot. Woah, that was a long time, no wonder I felt like a shaky, boneless noodle.

Pulling myself from the hole, I crawled to my hands and knees, plunking my ass against the nearest wall. Sitting there, I contemplated for a moment my lucky escape, then I pulled out the final two ration bars I had left. I had more water, you could go quite a long time without food if you had water, right? I wasn’t sure how long that was, and I hoped I wouldn’t feel hungry after a while. Already, the strict rationing and the subpar food had made me lose weight. Maybe now my brother wouldn’t think I needed to go on a diet.

Was it safe to go to the bridge and try to call Da’vi again? Had the ship truly left? Forcing myself to get to my feet, I kept one hand on the wall as I walked. I felt unsteady, exhausted, and so very lonely. Four weeks without seeing a single person was a long time and I normally surrounded myself with people. I hated being alone. With an adrenaline crash hitting me hard, I just wanted to sit down and weep.

No, I was made of sterner stuff damn it! I hadn’t cried about any of this when I woke up, I hadn’t cried in the dead of night at any point during these long weeks. Rescue was close, I just needed to hang in there a little longer.

The bridge was dark, and all the consoles turned off like they had been when I’d first found this place. I didn’t touch any of the panels, creeping to a position in front of the big viewscreens so I could scan them for any sign of the black ship. Da’vi said he thought it was a person named Drameil, he spoke the name with a hissing sound I couldn’t replicate. It very much did fit a snake-like alien.

On the screen I could make out the many pieces of wreckage that surrounded the ship I was on, or part of the ship I was on I should say. It had once been a massive ship according to Da’vi and something had torn it to pieces, if not for the many bulkheads that had come down, there would be no air for me to breathe.

Heart racing, I watched the black, sleek form of a ship drift across the front of the bridge. It seemed huge, with blinking lights and sharp jagged edges. It looked mean and dangerous. Then it turned and I was looking at what I sincerely hoped was the back end of the ship, with two big glowing things at the end. They glowed brighter, the color sharp and blue, searing into my eyes so I threw up my hand to block out the sight.

There was the instinctive urge to hide as if they could see me through the viewscreens which looked so much like windows. I felt exposed and I feared that they were going to turn around and dock again, haul me out of here with force.

When the light faded away, I could see that the ship was disappearing into space, back the way it had come. That confirmation, that they had left without discovering me, made me sink to my knees in front of the screen. I needed to get my butt into gear. I should reach out to Da’vi to let him know I’d survived, but for the life of me, I couldn’t seem to get myself to move.

My watch said I’d sat there staring after the departing ship for close to five minutes, I could no longer see any sign of it now. Pulling myself upright by the edge of the nearest console I stumbled towards the com, my hand already reaching out to press the button that always connected me to my grumpy mechanic.

From the corner of my eye, I saw movement on the viewscreen and I whirled around to look. Was that the bad guys coming back? I hadn’t actually pressed call yet, had they picked up my presence? Looking more fully, I drew in a relieved breath. This ship was silver, with glowing orange engines. It was sleek and fast looking, but out there in space, I had no idea how big it really was, I had no frame of reference.

For a moment I debated on whether I should hide again, but I was pretty certain I knew who this was. Then the silver ship turned and I got a good look at the side where a call sign had been painted onto the shiny hull plating in big black letters. There were two scripts, one above the other, but the fact that the slightly smaller set of letters was plain English…

The Vagabond was Da’vi’s ship, I knew it. How had he managed to get it here this quick? I was fully expecting him to reach me days from now. Filled with excitement now, fear and exhaustion forgotten, I bolted from the bridge to rush to the only working airlock.