Today Drabble Wednesday travels
the spaceways, the great void between worlds where anything can happen...
Lost
Can you remember?
The planetary existence, the
warmth of a sun?
There is no warmth out here, the
stars are cold, distant. Dangerous. Like most everything. Even the smallest
thing can kill you. Yet they send us out, and we go. Sometimes I wonder why.
What appeals to us about black void of space? Wouldn’t we be safer huddled
beneath the gentle stars, oblivious of the fate that awaits?
I wish I didn’t know. About the
alien armada.
I wish I wasn’t surrounded by outlying
stars, floating in an escape pod.
And most of all, I wish I didn’t
remember.
~*~
Skitters
Can you hear it in the walls?
The scratches and the chittering
between the bulkheads. Something’s in there, poking around. My lieutenant
thinks I’m imaging it, says it’s just the older electronics on the station
acting up. What does he know? He’s a newbie off fresh Earth Station, no real
deep space experience.
Just listen. Down there by the
open vent shaft. You’ll hear it good there. That’s it, right there.
You can hear them now, can’t you.
All up close.
Please stop screaming. Someone
will notice.
I’m sorry., but they said if I
feed them, they’ll leave me alone.
~*~
Stasis
I wonder what day it is? Or what
year?
It’s hard to keep track in this metal
prison.
I can hear the hum and whir of
the machinery, even feel the ship’s vibrations. I think. That might be my imagination.
Most people dream in these stasis
pods, blissfully unconscious and unaware. But one percent stay awake. Unable to
move, open their eyes, or scream. Trapped in their own bodies, marking time as they
go insane, a perfectly preserved physical specimen until the pods opens.
Guess which category I fall into?
Stuck for fifty years as a living
corpse.
Lucky me.
© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved
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