Monday found herself staring at the wall, quickly realizing that she needed to relax. Her jaw was clenched tight and her shoulders were almost at her ears. She wasn’t sure what exactly was disturbing her so deeply. Whether it was the message she’d received from the Assignment Director or the fact that she was about to be hooked up to the most dreadful contraption she’d ever seen, she didn’t know. Though, the more she thought about it, the more it became clear it was an even mix of the two. One wrong move with either and she would find herself thoroughly screwed. She hadn’t even started either of these tasks, yet here she was, nervous out of her mind. The Assignment Director’s message had been wearing her nerves the most. She’d known the Director her entire career, yet there was something about the message that bothered her. Mr. Kerrigan was, all things considered, quite the mischievous person. Though, there was room for jokes when a program would literally cut off half it’s staff to retain one man. He was just that desirable. Perhaps this was just one of his jokes.

Her wrist link pinged. 

Here is the information you asked for, let me know if I can dig anything else out for you. This stuff is pretty heavily encrypted, so there isn’t much. 

-H.Ambrose. 

For the last three years she’d been on the Providence, she’d been digging into everything she could, attempting to figure out what exactly happened to the Arquebus, and in turn, her parents. Something wasn’t right with the reports, none of the pieces fit. When she was younger, all she could do was just accept what they told her as fact and move on with her life, but as she grew older the suspicions grew larger. Monday knew her parents, she knew that they wouldn’t have at least tried to make it to an escape pod. She knew her uncle wouldn’t leave them behind, or at least she thought she knew that. Whatever the case was, she had to focus on now, on the message currently displayed on her wristlink. Maybe WatchTower had finally caught her and Director Kerrigan was about to inform her that she was to be sent off and locked in a cubicle, or worse, fired and stripped of her credentials. Monday had no life outside of this ship, she had no idea what she would do. Her fate had been sealed the moment she was born, even more so when her parents had gone missing. She was seven when they went missing, eight when the officials pulled her out of her class to tell her that they were declared M.I.A. Monday knew what that meant to them, and she rejected it. Missing, sure, but not dead. To make the situation worse her parent’s close friend, Zakorey Wearor, had been on that ship as well. He was one of only three people to make it back alive. He had always told her that he’d just been in the right place at the right time, but as Monday grew older and discovered more and more evidence, she grew to believe him less and less. She sighed and flicked the screen open, typing out a quick message.

Thank you, I’ll get those samples to you this afternoon. Please don’t forget the hard drive. 

-M.Hyde

The med bay’s augmentation doctor soon returned, entering the room with a smile and a slight apology. Just as soon as he arrived, he had his nurse begin to administer the necessary drugs before having a second nurse help him hook her up to the alignment machine. Monday couldn’t help but wince at the sudden movement of the pins. It almost felt like molten lava crawling up her back. 

“The medications should kick in soon,” The doctor droned as he checked the last three pins and their connections. “Are you sure you don’t want anyone to sit with you?”

“Oh, no, thank you,” Monday replied. “I’ll press the panic button if anything goes wrong.” Typically, things weren’t supposed to go wrong, but this procedure was mostly automated so there was always room for failure. 

With that, the doctor nodded and herded the nurses out of the room before starting the machine. Her eyes wandered over to the mirror that sat opposite her and she stared at herself for a moment, taking in her features.  A frown spread across her features as soon as she discovered what had caught her eye, she looked absolutely dreadful. Like some kind of vampiric crypt keeper coming out to torment the living. Deep bags hung under her pale eyes and permanent frown lines formed between her eyebrows and down the sides of her mouth. Her eyes traveled down her face to her neck to the cybernetic inlays that displayed the status of her aug sat, they were glowing a bright red. Thankfully she was already here in the med bay. Her eyes made their way back up to her hair, the white streak at the front of her black did her no favors, if anything it made her look much older than she was. It was the result of a concussion she’d sustained at a young age and she’d tried everything to hide it, but unfortunately, there was no way of fixing hair follicles that no longer produced melanin. At least not for someone who only made twenty-three credits in an hour. She was fortunate in some aspects, but not all of them. The only thing missing from this picture was her uniform, which she practically lived in, replaced by a generic hospital gown. 

The machine started and Monday immediately winced, grinding her teeth while the pins began to shift. The function of this machine was to, of course, adjust her spine. If it wasn’t perfect, she couldn’t walk. Monday was very fortunate to have this rig even though things like this were still experimental and not recommended, but Monday’s had been great. It was painful, yes, but it was worth the pain to be able to walk and function. The mirror in front of her reflected the tinted view window behind her, she preferred to watch it realign itself rather than just stare at the wall feeling like spiders were crawling up and down her arms and legs. It awed her each time to look back and see it. The carbon-coated metal that ran up her back affixed to her spine. Her eyes traced the metallic vertebrae that ran from the base of her skull down to her tailbone, the metal, stabilizing rib flares that streaked both the left and right sides of her back, and finally, the pins that rotated pushed out, and then back in. Monday had so much nerve damage in her back that the pain was almost amplified. She could feel the hot pain in strange places like her elbows or her fingertips, she had to remind herself to relax again as she let go of the handles. Red rushed back into her knuckles as the white from gripping so hard faded, leaving them a bright cherry color. Lines formed in her jaw as she gritted her teeth, feeling one of the pins twist in a strange way and the hairs on her arms rose and the phantom spiders came. It just felt so wrong, it made her itchy. Part of her wished she had asked someone to sit with her, but who?

Almost as if someone or something had been listening to her thoughts, there was a knock at the door. She called them in.

“Hi, kiddo.” A tall man with tan skin and long, dark, peppered hair stepped in.

“Hello, Mr. Wearor.” She said, watching as he strode across the room and took a seat in one of the buddy chairs. She hadn’t told him she was there, that was strike one.

“How’s the little cyborg today?” He asked, his uncanny yellow-green eyes glinting with his usual mischievousness, “And you know you can call me uncle or even Zak.”

“Yes, hello uncle Zak how are you today?” Monday said, shaking her head slightly.  

Zakorey Kei Wearor wasn’t exactly Monday’s uncle, he had been a close friend of her parents and when they passed, her care fell directly to him as stated in their wills. That being said, she hadn’t told him about her visit to the aug bay. Of course, it wasn’t odd for the bay doctors to update him when she came in, but this was just a typical checkup and straightening, surely there wasn’t any need for him to come all the way to this side of the ship.

“I’m quite well, I heard you had come in through the grapevine and I wanted to see if you’d have dinner with me and your cousin tonight.” He asked, looking at the time display on his wristlink. Strike 2.

“That would be alright. It might be late, though.” She said, checking her own time display, that grapevine sure was fast. 

“Perfect! Just come to our quarters and we’ll have dinner there. I hope your m-day goes well.” He flashed her a knowing smile before standing up and leaving. Strike 3.

Monday simply stared at the door after he left. Something was up, the sudden invitation to dinner had left a sour taste in her mouth. The machines around her started beeping again as she tried to calm herself down, but the nerves had worked their way up. He knew something was happening today. Not that it was surprising if he did know, it was the fact that he purposely danced around it that got her, not to mention that he’d invited her to dinner. That was something he never did, not unless something big was happening. He was one of the administrators for the whole program, of course, he’d know if something was happening with her. Her penchant for overthinking wasn’t doing her any favors, especially not now. She wasn’t even sure she had been caught, but even so, Monday did not like being caught. Something was going down, there were too many coincidences. 

Whatever the case was, a pinch from the machine brought her back to reality and soon the whirring came to a stop. Then, a few moments later, the doctor rejoined her in the room. From what he reported, the alignment went well and he was able to send her on her way. He also told her to stop sleeping on her back for the fiftieth time, something that had formed into quite a bad habit while her thoughts kept her up at night. After some signatures and a brief talk about medications, she was released. Another chime from her wrist link let her know that her meeting was moved from its original time to five minutes from them. Monday cursed and took off, nearly missing the shuttle. 

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The ship itself was busy, bustling as always. Though there was one new thing, and it was a brand new location down in the cantina. It was one of those new Yakimork restaurants and it reminded her of those old-timey Micky D’s her father used to tell her about, the fast food restaurant with the Golden Arches. It wasn’t too long ago she’d learned that there was one left, but it was more of a museum now than a restaurant given that it had been hundreds of years since the conglomerate closed. Monday found herself focusing on the restaurant’s mascot, a purple alien named Mork, harder than she should have as her anxieties tore at her. Those beady little eyes and that wide, yellow smile seemed to know what she was thinking like it was taunting her. She tore her gaze away. Monday was only twenty-six, she had so much more time to give to the field. If they stuck her behind a desk now- no, she was officially overthinking. All she had to do was go to the Assignment Director’s office, and that was it. She’d deal with whatever came next. 

Before she knew it, the ride had come to an end and the electronic helper waved each of the passengers off before re-loading and zipping off back across the station. There wasn’t much she could do now to stall so with a breath, she set off toward the office, which sat just at the end of the hallway she’d been dropped off in. Then, she found herself sitting in a reception room, more specifically, the reception room right outside the Director's office. Her eyes locked on the seam between the secretary's desk and the floor as nerves surged through her body. She’d been so careful to cover her tracks, so her nervousness made no logical sense - but as she became acutely aware of the hard slant of the seat she sat on and the fact that the secretary had a bad habit of typing too hard, she couldn’t help but silently freak out. Then again, she knew that it would be no good to rat on herself now, so she rolled her shoulders and took a breath, attempting some type of calm. Just as she manages to wrangle in her nerves, the secretary’s head perked up and the tapping stopped. 

“Miss Hyde?” The secretary’s large, black eyes focused on her. The blue accent lighting in the room made her milky skin glow a strange blue. “Director Kerrigan will see you now.”

“Oh, thank you.” Monday stood and shuffled over to the door that sat behind a half wall behind the secretary’s desk, ignoring the pit in her stomach.

At the door, she stalled, attempting to buy herself some semblance of time to come up with a way to defend herself before entering and figuring out what he had planned for her. The door slid open moments later making all her efforts fruitless. 

“Ah, there you are, come on in.” He said, sitting at his antique wooden desk. 

The office itself was strange, it was like stepping into the past. Wooden shelves lined the wall behind his desk, each shelf was lined with old books, knick-knacks, and recreations of old astronomer’s tools. A deep, wine-red Persian carpet lay sprawled on the floor, she couldn't tell if this was a replica or an actual rug. Either way, it matched the dark cherry color of the wooden furniture very well. Director Kerrigan and Wearor had a very similar taste, Monday just called it old.  Her eyes wandered over the room as she walked to the front of the desk and took a seat after Kerrigan motioned for her to do so. As she sat, she could see that the desk had been modified to accommodate modern technologies, a retracting screen, a glass-faced keyboard, and a holographic projector eye sat affixed to the top of the desk. Kerrigan cleared his throat, drawing Monday’s attention.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve asked you to come to visit me today,” Kerrigan asked, clearly wanting to get to the point.

“Yes,” Monday replied, steeling herself for the answer.

“The administrative board has asked me to pull together a group of qualified individuals for a very important assignment.” He said, tapping at the glass keyboard. “I figured it was time to send you out again. This assignment is a very lengthy one, however. I need you to prepare yourself for the details.”

“Details? Sir?” Monday could feel the knot in her chest slowly unwinding, only to be replaced with confusion. “Isn’t that typically up to the assignment system? To send out instructions and assignment information?”

“Well, yes, typically,” He said, lolling his head to one side. His asymmetrical blonde hair lolled with him, his sharp features seeming hollow in the concentrated light. “But this is a special case.”

Monday simply stared at him, narrowing her eyes just a bit. To trust Kerrigan would have been unheard of, his position and his personality made that impossible. But Monday couldn’t shake the feeling that he was asking her to, if only for a moment. Finally, she acquiesced and shifted herself in the chair to get comfortable. With this silent agreement, a smile spread on Kerrigan’s face and he quickly got to tapping on his glass-faced keyboard. 

“As you are well aware, we have been attempting to further our influence on the surrounding cosmos.” That was Kerrigan’s favorite quote. “Something we’ve been wildly successful within the past one hundred years. However, there is one area we have not been able to trek successfully.”

The projector eye projected a map, a very detailed map, of the surrounding cosmos. Each station was marked along with each waypoint, fuel station, and even the last known location of some of the biggest ships, such as the U.H.G. Norrah and the PMC charter ship, Elliot. Kerrigan moved his fingers over the glass and the map zoomed out, now looking like the view of the dark side of a planet from above, each star a cluster of little lights. Monday’s eyes traveled over the map, watching as they spread out away from the center. Then, she noticed it. Off to the left side of the map was what looked to be a hole, almost like someone had ripped the corner of the map off. It wasn’t as if this area was close to the center of the map, in fact, it was far from it - very far from it. Monday would’ve believed him if he told her that there were just simply no settlers there as the pins around it were few and very far between, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that something about that corner wasn’t right. Kerrigan followed her gaze and gave her a single, solitary nod.

“What you’re looking at is a place we call the Dead Patch.” He said. “We’ve tried to keep it under wraps, but you might have heard a rumor or two about it. Not many ships have had the pleasure of coming out of there alive.”

Monday shot him an incredulous look. “So, what does this have to do with my assignment?” She had a feeling she knew, but she didn’t want it to be true. 

“Lately, we’ve been receiving strange readings from several of the probes we placed in the area.” He said, flipping the map to a set of charts. “We believe it to be one of the data boxes on a ship we lost contact with nearly eighteen years ago.”

Monday was still caught up on the fact that they, or rather he, was sending her out into the dead patch of all places. She could only stare at the map as thoughts flooded her mind. Everything she managed to dig up in the past few years played through her mind, the cogs working together. This was a suicide mission, through and through, she would have to deal with that realization later. Why here? Why now? Monday could only wonder if they had finally caught up with her digging. She’d seen people moved and fired for a lot less than snooping where they shouldn’t have been, the only thing is, she had no clue if she had been caught. She forced the thought into the back of her mind, focusing on what was in front of her. The map.

“I still don’t quite understand why you’re sending a whole team in there, Sir,” she continued, “Especially if it’s just for a data box.”

“I figured you would have some reservations about going,” He said, tapping the glass a few more times. “Do you remember the incident with the WT ship, October?”

“The ship that floated back to us in pieces?” 

“Yes, that ship.” He continued, Monday could tell he knew more than he let on. “From what we have received from the data we’ve been able to pull from the readings, we believe it to be a part of the October. Part of your mission will be to locate and retrieve that ship’s data box as well as it’s AI.”

“Sir, that ship disappeared years before I even started here,” She said. “How are we supposed to find-”

“A tiny little data box and the remnants of an AI in a field of black nothing?” He finished her sentence, much to Monday’s dismay. “We have a signal. Three months ago we started receiving SOS signals from here.” He rolled the map once more, zooming in on the Patch.

“That’s very far from the entrance, sir,” Monday said, letting her hesitance shine through. She wanted a mission, not a death certificate. 

“Half of this route is already charted. All you need to do is get what we asked for, see what you can see, and come back.” He said it like it would be so easy. Like they were stealing candy from a baby. 

Monday eyed the blinking line on the map, a frown forming on her face. The parameters were clear and from the outside, it really did seem that easy. Except it wasn’t. This was way beyond simply digging in some files now, there was something out there they wanted her to find, something besides a little black box and a janky, old AI. She looked back at Kerrington and took a breath, there was no getting out of this, not this time. Her eyes slid back to the map once more, a million more questions and anxieties popping into her head. She didn’t have a choice.

“Alright. I’ll do it.”