Hello 2019, yeah I know I’m late to the party. I have laid out 52 prompts for this year and plan to create regular content for you all to enjoy. I hope you enjoy the first short story of 2019, next week I’ll be working on the short story titled, The Unrequited love poem
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Outside the Window
I looked outside the window, the palms of my hands
flat against the glass. The dead of
space put an oddly beautiful twist to the horrifying vision of war, there were
no sounds, no screams, just a view of twisted pieces of metal twirling and the
rare spark of light. The escape pod I floated
slowly away in was part of a much larger ship.
One that had thousands of people call it home and now there was just
me. I thought about the friends I had
lost, the pain they felt as they had died.
Either being sucked out into the vacuum of space or feeling the heat of
the explosion as it took them.
“Guidance
system failure.” The voice was loud and
unexpected, it caused me to jump. “Guidance
system failure.” Turning away from the
view of the dead and dying I looked for a control panel. “Guidance system failure.”
“I get it okay, guidance system is failing, where is
the control panel for guidance systems?”
The escape pod was not very big, it was white, a brilliant white, like
when you walk in to a hospital and it almost feels like you are surrounded by
the light of heaven. It was kind of like
that.
“Cannot comply…guidance failure now imminent.”
“Computer, show me where guidance systems are located?” Asking again as I turned in a tight circle not
understanding how this panel could be hidden from me. If I raised my arms to the side I could touch
the wall on each side of this egg shaped pod.
“Require security password to unluck guidance system panel.”
I fell back into the small chair. “Computer my name is Chris Jensen, ID 45-6-4-MM,
security level Delta Beta.”
“Security clearance denied. You do not have proper clearance to access guidance
systems.”
“Computer, the
ship UPF Vengeance was destroyed, you were part of that ship. From what I know I am the only survivor. How can I access guidance systems in emergency
circumstances?”
“Computer error, please run diagnostic.”
“Computer, how do I run diagnostic?”
“System degrading, 70% operational, ETA until full
system shut down five minutes.”
I was starting to get frustrated with the computer, it
was not answering any of my questions and I had no way to access the guidance
system but didn’t appear I’d need to worry about the guidance system much
longer. “Computer what can I access with
my security level?”
“Unknown code in kernel, system down to 50% operational. Shutting down life support to protect internal
system power.”
“No keep life support on you idiot! Why would you shut that down at 50%? Shut down giros or interior lighting.”
“Life….suuuu…pppport shu…ttt…ing …d….ooown”
Great now the computer was stammering “Fuck…computer can you show me our trajectory?” Slowly the hologram of the system popped in
to view. It was out of focus and stuttered
like some child was shacking the optical signal. “Where are we heading?”
“We…we…we….we…are heading to…to…to…binary st….st…star Al..Al…Alpha One Zero.”
Holy fuck. “Are we on collision path with a star?”
“Yes…yes we are.”
“What will the cabin temperature reach?”
“Error…error…information corrupt. Fatal error.”
I ran my hands through my hair that was already
beading with sweat. “Fatal…no shit.” Slumping in to the chair I sat with my hands
holding my face.
“Warning….Warning…Temperature rising on hull.”
Not what I wanted to hear. “What is the temperature on the hull?”
“Temperature…is reading…fatal error…fatal error.”
“Do you know anything!” I yelled out
“Computer running at 10% efficiency.”
Great, a few more seconds and I’d have no computer, no
information, and no control.
“Firing giro rockets, prepare for burst.”
“Wait….what?” I
felt artificial gravity give way and before I could secure the seat belts the
rockets fired and I was sent flying.
Hitting the top of the pod rather hard with my head. I felt a wound open up on my forehead and hot
blood poured over my face.
“You require first add, vitals suggest slight
concussion, please rest…please rest…please rest…please rest.”
“Would you shut up!”
I put a hand to my forehead and felt the sting of the salt as I tried to
apply pressure to the bleeding. I looked
out the window and the view had changed, I was now facing the star. “Computer are we still heading towards the star?”
“Yes…access….access guidance system immediately.”
“Computer how would…” Before I could finished the computer responded.
“Error…system error…shutting down.”
“Would be nice if I had gravity!” I yelled out but there was nothing I could do. “I guess now I just wait…and why the fuck am
I still talking out loud?”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the star as it grew in
size. Sweat started to drip from me and
as minutes passed the heat grew and grew until it felt like I was sitting in a
very uncomfortable sauna. This was going
to be a slow death, being cooked alive inside an escape pod. I knew when I join the military that I would
probably die in space. It was either the
military or jail time on an off planet detention center. I picked the military
and now I was wishing I had taken up hard time instead.
It didn’t take long until I found it hard to breath. I hoped that the shutting down of life support
system would end up knocking me out so I don’t find out what it’s like being a
hard boiled egg. My vision started to black
out. A few seconds would pass where I
felt like I would pass out and lost all vision and then it would come sliding
back in a kaleidoscope of color. This
happen a few times until I took my last breath, saw the star for the last time
and blacked out.
I woke to a white room
“I’m dead right?” I heard laughter.
“You are not dead.”
I turned my head to the side. “Where am I?”
“You got lucky son, we warped late, battle was
over. We ran a sector scan looking for
survivors and found you. Seconds away
from burning up in the star.”
“Thank you.” I
said.
“Sure, but you need to rest, you did suffer some trauma. The your left arm was pressed against the
side of the pod and it was suffered 3rd degree burns. We had to amputate it.”
I took a deep breath.
“But you have been supplied with a state of the self
healing self repairing Nano-limb. This beauty
will still be repairing it’s self even when you are in the grave.”
“Wow, that makes me feel so much better. Where are we?”
“We are in the Holvic System and safe from the
Mongers.”
I laid back with a sigh of relief, looking to my left
hand that looked like a streamlined machine of gleaming metal, but damn did it
look sexy. “What now?”
“We report back, you rest, then we fight back.”
The End