Heaving hulls hedge my heavy heart. Here I stand, in this iron fortress, floating through the endless chasm. That incessant shivering, common in space, slows as the darkness becomes one with this husk. Unease and reluctance floods over me as the emergency power switched on and a cerulean dyes the insides of the craft. Of course, this happens on my day off, and now I’m forced assemble. Hurrying to the bridge, I am met with the face of my captain, Thomas. As leader of this vessel, he is, likely, the one who knows most the circumstances which we find ourselves in.  

   Hesitant to speak, I squirm a bit before Thomas, himself, begins a conversation with me. “Lieutenant Commander Daniels, I am lucky for you to be alright.” He gives a perturbed smile before he turns to the faintly glowing console.

   Saluting my superior, I reply hastily, “Yes, I was fortunate enough to safely return to the bridge, Sir. But, if I may ask,” I give a short pause so that the captain could nod, “what exactly is the situation at the moment? I was off duty when I started hearing strange sounds and saw the light alert.”

   Spurred forth, Thomas turned to the command console again to mess with the screen before responding to my question, “I am afraid, Miss Daniels, that I am also unaware of the events leading up to the current situation.” He gives a flimsy sigh before attempting to manually pry open the deck doors, which lead to crew quarters.

   Thomas’s large frame, rivaling that of the door’s, easily wrenches it open to reveal the, seemingly, endless corridors of the ship. In but a moment he pushes aside the thick blast doors, meant to protect the piloting crew, and checks the entrance for any places where the ship’s integrity had been damaged. Now, having opened up his path, he indicates that I should follow him as he cruises through the monotonous hulls.

   During this immense still, my mind began to wander. I muse, what happened here? Someone but us two should have made it to the bridge, it would only make sense if space sucked everyone out or they were all incapacitated. Even then, what would be able to do something like that when we are in the deep reaches of interstellar space.

   Perhaps, Thomas had a similar thought process to me, as, eventually, he slowed his advance to peer around the dim pathways. He lets his eyes fall upon me, and a dubious expression is discernible. He sets to eyeing me intensely, somewhat probing, but not so overtly that I could comment on it. Slightly shrinking away, I try to get his attention elsewhere, “Sir, may I suggest that we continue onwards to the crew quarters to reconvene?” Likely realizing my intent, he narrowed his eyes slightly before advancing further into the ship.

   Although I felt myself shrinking away, I persevere and follow a few feet behind him in the ominous labyrinth. I noticed that it was odd that it had taken this long to reach anywhere, after all, this ship is an army supply vessel, functionality was in mind when constructing it; the maze-like structure we strolled through is unfamiliar to me.  Furthermore, why have we yet to come across anyone else? Nearing the sleeping quarters increases the chance that we may encounter one of the ship’s more junior officers, yet we had not met another soul but each other.

   Yet, when we had reached the ship’s crew quarters, we were met with a rather chilling silence in the raw room. Frosty steel beds and coarse sheets lay unturned with not a speck of dust upon the crisp, cold fixtures. Nerves explode throughout the entirety of my back and lower legs, something’s wrong here. Unfortunately, I am unable to heed my instinct before another frigid jab is thrust into my mind and I get hurled to the ground, far more forcibly than I had ever experienced in naval training.

   Righting myself, I glare up, only to have the captain, Thomas, crash onto me. After a sententious pause, I free a sharp cry and attempt to pull myself away from the immense weight settled on top of me. But to no avail, I simply struggle as he lays over me; so I closed my eyes. Soon, his paled arm flew past my hips and breasts to meet my reddened, tear-covered face and I yelped sorrowfully; my wettened cheeks were soaked by something viscous and iron-scented.

   Surprised, there was no hesitation when I opened my eyes once more to meet the apologetic face of Thomas. The fear on my face must have been easily noticeable, and he shed a tear as well. Why is he crying, and why is he looking at me with those sorrowful eyes?

   No sooner than when I considered that, Thomas weakly spoke, “I couldn’t protect you, Olivia.” Dread and agony inundated me, I am having trouble hearing myself think over the appalling hush bashed against my ears. The portent quiet seemed almost palpable, my breath only came up as a deluge, I am drowning because of this foreboding atmosphere. My heart almost ceases. Once more I jerk away from pressure set upon my chest and my being begins squealing at me. It urges me to leave.

   That large body, that tried to protect me, now hinders me. It takes a meager amount of time to shimmy away from that hefty husk, but in that gap, a fissure crawls across the shell of the captain. Soon, there is a breathtaking view of Thomas’s gore, and what a sight it is; the spectacle leaves me completely speechless. From that slaughter rose infinity, a deep abyss that, while short, stood far above the greatest summit I have ever seen.

   Ah…

   Murmurs so terrifically turning punctured the firmament; they had soon multiplied along with those hollow forms. Those weighty sighs kindled a rupture to appear on my control. Ease began enveloping me as my legs flew beneath me. Tenuous arms don’t start trying to pull me back to that place, and my attempts to leave aren’t being laughed at. No pain courses through my thighs as I try to crawl across the now nearby floor. In fact, those bloodied limbs past my grasp are simply a gag left by the remaining crew.

   Spirited chuckles rise up from my throat as I see that almost perfect replica of my leg. Without any way to walk, I would be in quite the precarious situation. Luckily, I move towards the containment pods easily, almost certainly with a skip in my step. It’s no struggle to get into that suspiciously tall pod, but it is strangely moist around my hips when I settle in. My imagination must have been running wild, it couldn’t be wet in this chamber; the crew cleans out their cells every single week.

   Not remembering the reason I hurried here is a bit disconcerting, but the heaviness on my eyelids threatens to close them any minute now. I am sure that I’ll be scolded, whenever I leave, for sleeping on the job, but I am sure the Captain will understand the pressure on me. After assuring myself, I feel all stress flow away from my body as my eyelids slam shut and the tension pulls away.

   Faint, a pungent antiseptic drills itself into my nose. Not quite as weighty, my eyes drift open and towards that ivory-hued ceiling I am laying under.  Inspecting my room with only my eyes, I notice that I am dressed in scrubs while on an elevated bed. Quickly, my mind starts wandering, Is this a hospital? Why am I on a planet, we were supposed to arrive at our destination in a month?

   Without an answer, I arise from the soft sheets and turned to face the entrance to the room. Curious, I attempted to jump out of the bed, only to unceremoniously fall on my face. After a small grunt in pain, I began to feel terribly uneasy, Even if I am weakened, I should be able to stand at the very least. Tearing up a bit, I flipped on my back and grabbed onto the small shelf placed next to the bed I was lying upon.

   When I try to stand, I tumble close to my friend, the ground, again. This time, a vase of flowers accompanied me on my journey. Yet, when the glass met the floor, I had felt a blazing pain in my thigh, It should have shattered on me at the worst, why does it burn so much? Flipping over, I quickly realized the reason why I wasn’t able to stand, a thick layer of scarred skin came to a rounded tip where my legs should be.

   How funny, I think that I am starting to hallucinate from being asleep for too long. Maybe the time laying down has made me weaker than I realize and that is the reason why I am having trouble standing. I arduously raise myself upright, ignoring that fake pain that came from my mid-thigh. But, as I attempt to get myself up onto the bed, I fall to the floor, to no one’s surprise.

   This situation is just too unfortunate, it is almost comical. I’ve lost all my friends, I can’t work on many vessels with my new disability and I’ll be stuck in this hospital for months. Furious, I start aimlessly beating at my legs while shouting profanities. Eventually, a nurse rushes into the room and tries to restrain my fit and she completely fails: she only got herself hurt.

   Luckily, before I managed to injure myself or more staff, a doctor was able to get a tranquilizer in my arm. Although slow-acting, the sedation was enough for me to be suppressed by the doctor and the nurse. “It’s unfortunate, Miss,” the doctor said gruffly, ”but please calm down.” What the hell is this? Why did this happen to me, I am just a mid-rank officer at best, and we were nowhere near the reaches of the galaxy. After I had completely calmed and my heart rate was back to normal, the doctor spoke once more, “We weren’t able to save your amputated limb, by the time we arrived it was already rotting. Even when we arrived, you were one of the two people on that ship and Captain Thomas had been dead for days.”

   Once I was left to marinate on those words I looked outside to only see rows of fallen autumn leaves. “Doctor, what system are we in?” I queried.

   The doctor deliberated for a moment before answering me, “We are in an unnamed system about 500 light-years from Earth and your closest relative is about 40 light-years away.” At that, I could only snort, I had left my family a couple years back to join the navy and travel around the galaxy. Nevertheless, as far as I am concerned, I have no relatives in the entire galaxy; surely my parents that scorned my decision felt the same.

   Then, I opened the wheelchair that rested beside my bed. There was no way I could withstand this bitter air anymore, and I told that much to the doctor. Although reluctant, the doctor, Johnson, let me go outside because of my, mostly, stable condition. Wheeling myself out to the flowered area behind the hospital, I noticed that, due to the advancements in medical technology, there was but me and a couple of people around 100-150 years old here. In the end, I stop, just at the end of the grounds, to sit with not a single purpose.

   Slowly, the sound of insects, similar to crickets, becomes louder as the sky begins to dim. The cyan of the sky turns a radiant orange and red, and a cold breeze wafts over me. Then, as I close my eyes to enjoy the breeze I think: Well, now that I likely won’t be able to join another vessel, I should try to make up with my parents. Soon after I pondered that, I gave a small sigh and steeled myself.

   Yet, as I opened my eyes to gaze on the horizon once more, I noticed a distortion. Shambling, creeping along, a pressure weighs upon my chest once more. Moreover, my vision starts turning faint and I attempt to move my arms to wheel away. Now, I fall in my futile struggle to get away, it feels like my chest will burst under the pressure. Finally, it is upon me, pitch and brutal, and it hoarsely cries, in that mind-splitting voice, “It’s unfortunate, he couldn’t protect you.”