Ambushed in the Void

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Right now I wish they could though. If this peg doesn’t slide into place I’m going to scream my helmet right off into the Void. My fingers cramp again and I almost lose my grip. It’s not hard to imagine the heckling I’m getting from ship-side. It’s been ten minutes since I turned my comms off and I can still hear their laughter inside my helmet. Bloody heathens, the lot of them. I’ve been out here for thirty minutes and that’s twenty-nine minutes longer than I wanted. 

Taking a deep breath, I look out past the ship to beyond. The stars look different from up here. Out here? That one has always confused me, figuring out the right words to differentiate between Earth-side and Void-side. I’ve always marvelled at the stars from the ground but here they aren’t as they seemed. The vastness of space stretches on and on. I find it more terrifying than terrific.

My focus returns to putting the peg back into place. It slides in with ease. Heaving a sigh of relief, I look out into the darkness once more before flicking my comms back on. There’s chatter on the line. The other cadets have since moved on to other things to talk about. They realized I turned my comms off. Unfortunately for me, Dom’s notices I’ve turned them back on. He marks my return with a lewd joke about pegs that makes me roll my eyes. My cadet class laughs. The boys continue with that line of humour. How on brand for them. Another sigh, less from relief and more from exhaustion, escapes me as I float toward the airlock. 

Part of me knows Dom will be waiting ship-side to both greet and harass me. I take my time drifting over to the wide door. It closes soundlessly the moment my booted feet touch the floor. The pressure stabilizes and I begin the tedious task of getting out my suit. The helmet practically rips my braid apart as I pull it over my head clumsily. My comm line is still filled with inane chatter. Some type of bet is going on but I’ve clearly missed what. I fix my braid quickly and step up to the door, punching in the code.

Sure enough, when the airlock hisses open and I step into the corridor Dom’s there, lounging against the pristine white wall with that damn grin on his face.

“Took you long enough,” he laughs.

“I’m not in the mood, Dom.” I say, brushing past him on the way to command. Halls beeped my comm requesting an in-person update on the bridge. 

“Oh come on, Presley, I’m only teasing.” He falls into step beside me, reaching over to tug on the end of my braid like he used to do at the Academy. “You’d think with your nimble little fingers managing that peg would have been a breeze.”

Irritation builds around me. “Why don’t you go out and give it a try next time a piece of space junk knocks one loose, hmm?” My voice has a little more snap in it than I mean it to. I glance sideways apologetically at him. He could be so infuriating but he was really my only friend here. The others were assigned elsewhere when we graduated two months ago. I frown a little, making friends hasn’t really been my strong suit for a multitude of reasons. 

Dom can tell I’m annoyed. He’s always been able to read my moods like a book. He keeps trying to humour me into a better one as we approach the bridge. “I’m sure we could find something for you to practice on.” He adds an exaggerated wink to the comment, his tone overly suggestive. I almost crack a smile. 

“Fiora!” Both of us stop. A cringe creeps up my spine and I can feel my shoulders sliding up towards my ears. I hope beyond hope that Captain Halls hasn’t heard the jokes that Dom’s been making. “Get back to engineering and don’t let me hear comments like that again.”

Well that answers that. Dom salutes our captain and turns around to head back the way we’ve come. His arm brushes mine as he goes, his grin widening despite being chastised for his ‘inappropriate communications’ as Halls likes to call them. 

“Presley, let’s go.” The door to the bridge hisses and I follow him in. A handful of officers are here tapping away at screens, completely ignoring the arrival of a cadet. All but one. 

Enyo flicks her head up just enough for her eyes to meet mine. She raises her hand from the screen she’s working at and gives me a quick thumbs up before returning to her work. 

I try to hide my embarrassment. It’s not that I don’t love my sister but sometimes I feel like I’m only here because of her. Granted, she is kind of the reason. When I made the decision to go to the Academy, I was fourteen and Enyo had just finished. She’d taken her first assignment and given me all the glory-filled highlights, leaving out the boring bits and tiresome details. If she hadn’t been such a stellar student I never would’ve been given a chance at even applying. 

Throwing a half-smile that doesn’t quite meet my eyes towards my sister, I follow Halls to his desk at the centre of the room. I pray that Enyo doesn’t draw further attention to me. It’s bad enough that everyone seems to think I’ve gotten my position on this ship because she’s seeing Halls. I don’t need to give them any reason to think there’s merit to that school of thought.

To ease my breathing, I remind myself that I have worth, that I belong here. I fought hard at the Academy to earn my place. I was the only graduating cadet that passed with scores high enough to skip sitting the entrance exams to Officers’ School. Reminding myself of that buoys me. The others may tease me relentlessly and I might be getting dragged before Halls for a report in front of a bridge full of officers but at least I know I’ve earned my place on this crew.

Halls motions for me to take a seat. Behind me is the large window looking out into the Void. There’s a prickling on my skin with it behind me. An itchiness that I can’t control. The sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can get away from that window. 

“Report.” Despite my better judgement, I glance past him at Enyo. She’s looking at us and giving me an encouraging nod. I can do this, I think. 

I cannot do this. My report is not good. And I don’t mean in a bad news kind of way. My report verifiably sucks. I stumble and stutter and by the time I finally finish, the officers on the bridge have one eye on me and one on their work. The worst part is I can feel Enyo’s whole focus on me but I can’t bring myself to look at her. I know I’m letting her down. 

 “Andy,” Halls murmurs so low I almost miss it. This is worse. This is so much worse. I’m just Cadet Presley on board, not Enyo’s kid half-sister, not someone he’s supposed to care about. 

“Captain.” I cringe at Enyo’s voice. Concern oozes from it and I think I might die right there. Halls doesn’t acknowledge my sister, he’s still looking at me. “Captain Halls!”

That gets his attention. Halls looks over his shoulder at Enyo with zero emotion. He’s always been good at not letting their relationship hinder his ability to captain the ship. Enyo on the other hand has a tendency to be a little more emotional. I peer around Halls to look at her. Relief coursing through me as I realize this has nothing to do with me. 

Enyo is tapping at her screen and then flicks her hand. A larger image is thrown onto the glass of the window, blocking out our view of space. It’s Enyo’s radar. Little blips are tracking towards us. Some of them erratic, others travel in a clear trajectory. Unlike my sister, I’m not a radar technician. I passed the classes just fine but I’m not entirely sure what we’re looking at right now, the difference between theory and putting it to practice with experience. The blips could be a random asteroid belt not previously noted but that doesn’t explain the differences in the movement patterns.

Other officers begin scrambling, tapping away at comms and screens. I spin around trying to take everything in. A hand grabs my arm as sirens begin blaring. Startled, I turn to see my sister. She’s hauling me towards the door and calling out commands over her shoulder in officer lingo. 

“Go back to your cabin and await orders.” A command from a superior or from a big sister, I’m not entirely sure but she practically throws me from the bridge. The doors hiss shut behind me. What is going on?

I stand there and stare for a moment. The corridor lights flash a strobing red in time with the alarm bells. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that tone from Enyo before. She’s always been so warm and kind and fuzzy. 

Before I can spend any more time thinking about my sister’s officer self, the ship lurches sideways and sends me careening into the opposite wall. My shoulder bares the brunt of the impact as I crash into the wall, tumbling to the floor. The impact leaves me dazed for a moment so I don’t quite feel the second lurch. With the third, I rock myself to my feet and begin to stumble down the corridor. Walking a little loopy as I go, the movement seeming foreign to me.

My first thought is we’re under attack. My second is this is nothing like the simulator at the Academy. Third, I’m going to have a wicked bruise on my shoulder by morning. If we make it to morning. That last one sobers me as I come to a major crossway of the ship.

I press myself into a wall as a squadron goes racing by. It’s absolute chaos and yet not at all. Each squad seems to know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. A well oiled machine running the way it’s supposed to. 

Diagonally from me I see Luna. Like me, she’s pressed herself flat to the wall. Wide eyes dart around the corridor as she tried to take everything in. Our little squadron of cadets hasn’t officially been assigned to our own units yet. The probation period lasts three months with a little ceremony at they end where we all get formally assigned to a squad. All that despite knowing with pretty good certainty where we’re destined to end up. A formality that right now I doubt we’ll even get to.

“Luna!” Have the sirens gotten louder? The lights go out and flick back on instantly except now the flashing has stopped, leaving everything bathed in red. Overhead, Halls is calling for squadrons to man their battle stations.

I manage to cross the corridor without being trampled and press myself beside Luna. I grab her arm and try to tug her along. “Come on, you heard Halls. Ba—battle stations.”

“We don’t have battle stations, Andy!” Luna cries out. She’s completely paralyzed by fear. Nothing I do is getting her to move, no matter how much I tug and plead with her.

“Presley! Baker! Get over here!” The roar comes from further down. Both of our heads snap to the side to see Office Hyde. Not technically our squad leader but he might as well be given he’s in charge of the cadets. We scramble over each to get to him and follow him down the hall like ducklings. I realize after a third turn he’s escorting us back to our cabin. As cadets, our battle station is to hide in our beds apparently. I’d snort at the joke if I wasn’t so damn scared. 

“Stay here. Do not leave.” Hyde leaves us as the door to the cadet cabin. He’s rounding the corridor’s corner as the familiar sound of an opening door comes from behind me. If I thought there’d been chaos outside the cabin, I wasn’t prepared for the explosion that greeted me when I entered. 

Not quite two-thirds of the cadets are here. Including myself and Luna we make eighteen. Where are the others? Hyde’s mission now clear to me, he was rounding up the toddlers and returning them to the nursery. The thought chafes my mind as questions from the others bombard me and Luna. 

Looking around for the one cadet that matters to me only to find he’s not here. A small moment of panic grips me before I get myself under control. Hyde probably hasn’t made it to engineering yet, it’s all the way on the other end of the ship and Dom’s the only cadet stationed there. So he’s not a priority, a nasty voice says in the back of my head. I bristle at that. Dom is important. He’d been the only one not offended by her presence at the Academy their first day, her name a black mark across her uniforms. My acceptance having been only because of Enyo’s very recent successes and our late mother’s fading reputation. Once she’d gotten in she’d found her life even harder. No one wanted to associate with her. No one but Dom. 

I hear the door hiss and spin, hoping to see my best friend. It’s not him. Instead, the trio of people I dread walk in. They’ve made my misery their ultimate goal over the last five years. Some type of divine injustice was at play when we landed in the same crew post-graduation. I take advantage of the chaos created by their arrival. Questions being thrown at them the perfect cover to slip away under. I watch Felix and his lackeys from the relative safety of my bunk from that point forward.

Half an hour goes by and we stay at twenty-one strong. A little over an hour after the Ambush, as the cadets are now calling it, the other four girls of our class stumble in. Hyde’s retreating back momentarily visible before the doors close once more. Still no Dom.

We hear the explosion somewhere in a distant part of the ship. A new blaring alarm echos in the corridor. Luna and one of the other girls start crying. Their sobs adding a new layer of stress to the room. Felix shouts at them to stop blubbering. Some time later Elliot and Roman arrive without an escort from Hyde. 

Their appearances dampen the mood in the cabin. Cuts and scratches mar their faces. Soot covers their uniforms that are torn in places. They look shaken. A hollowness in Roman’s face makes me nervous. It’s the kind of look that’s seen death. Fear has me fully in its grip now. Both were stationed near engineering.

The lights flicker and go out again. We’re plunged into darkness and it stays dark. Luna’s sobs get louder. I start to count. At three hundred seven, the emergency lights kick on. I can barely see Felix across the room. His presence presses on me though. With the lighting so dim and without a true ally in the room, I know the threat that he poses to me.

Felix looks up from where he’s taken a seat at a worktable, his eyes finding me. I have no idea what he says but his comment brings icy laughter from his companions. Ziggy’s to his right, Cleo’s on his left. I pause. Warning bells go off in my mind. Where’s Alfie? He’d come in with Felix and Ziggy. He was here somewhere. Scanning the room I look for him, my chief tormentor after Felix himself. I don’t see him anywhere. I don’t want to think they’re up to something with the chaos going on around us but I don’t trust them to pass up an opportunity to mess with me.

Just over two hours the alarms seem to stop. Or we’ve been listening to them for so long that they’re background noise now. The initial chaos and confusion have worn down to a subdued boredom punctured by a sob from one of the weepier girls every now and then. The third hour comes and goes.

Hyde finally returns, two more cadets in tow. Neither of them are Dom. He’s the only one still missing. 

This time is different from the others. Our officer follows the two boys into the cabin. There’s a finality in the way the doors close behind him. Like they somehow know Dom won’t be walking through them. Bile rises in my throat and I push it down along with the horrifying thought that my friend might be lost.

No speaks as Hyde surveys us. We slowly fall into our lines. Grim reluctance in our faces that we can hardly see in the semi-darkness. Hyde doesn’t bark at us to move, to muster faster or better or straighter. Somehow that makes it worse. I wish he’d yell at us.

“Cadets,” he says and pauses. Hyde sighs and takes a moment to look at us, really look at us. For a split second I think he’s going to get emotional. He doesn’t. “You’re to wait here until instructed otherwise. Do not leave this cabin. Dismissed.”

A moment passes as I let his words sink in. He addressed us as a group even though we’re one cadet short. Hyde couldn’t have ignored Dom’s absence. He’s one of the tallest cadets and his place in formation is smack in the middle of the group.

I dodge around others and sprint after Hyde into the corridor. Laughter follows me. I don’t hear whatever insult Cleo hurls at my retreating back. The lights in the corridor are just as dim and a memory of a lecture on power systems surfaces vaguely in the back of my mind.

“Sir! Office Hyde, sir,” I call out as I try to catch him. He’s almost to the lift at the other end of the corridor.

His sigh is defeated. He exhales a deflated breath. “Presley.” I’ve never seen him look so dejected, in the last few hours he seems to have aged. “You’re disobeying a direct order.”

Right, don’t leave the cabin until instructed otherwise. “Office Hyde, Cadet Fiora — he hasn’t come back.”

Tension stretches between us. Hyde’s face softens. “Presley.”

I wish I could say I handle the silent confirmation with grace. That I’m stoic and brave and calm. That I handle it well. 

I don’t.

My bottom lip begins to tremble and tears prick at my eyes. Hyde stands there uncomfortably, looking like he wants to comfort me but doesn’t know how. His hand raises as though the air has turned to molasses. It lands heavily on my shoulder. Tears slide down my cheeks and a crackle from the overhead system buzzes.

“Nova-XII, this is your captain speaking. You have all fought valiantly.” A heavy pause from the overhead joins the still tension between me and Hyde. “In order to preserve the ship and remaining crew, I have been advised to surrender.”

No.

How many had we lost? Who had we lost? Was Enyo okay? I don’t realize I’m moving until Hyde’s arm starts tugging me back towards the cadets’ cabin. I’d started walking in the direction of the bridge without knowing it. I faintly hear him tell me to follow the orders as he leaves me outside the cabin’s door. He’s walking away when the overhead crackles again. 

“As of nineteen hundred hours, the Nova-XII is now under the command of—” Halls’s voice cuts out as the corridor is plunged into darkness. I count to a thousand before I realize the power has been cut and I am utterly alone. My scream is swallowed by the darkness.