Alarms blared and Leon swiveled his command chair to the right to get a better look at the readouts. There were so many flashing warning lights on the board it looked like a red overlay had been placed on the ship's schematics. How had it all gone wrong so quickly? They had exited warp into the Alpha Centauri system just fine and nothing had been amiss. After sending a message to Earth that would take a full four years to arrive, they jumped to their next pre planned destination. Upon arriving they had almost immediately been struck by some sort of fast moving debris. Samuel had yelled they were being attacked but he refused to believe it, there was no way they were under attack. They were in deep space and nothing could possibly know they were here.

Leon had issued a hull breach alarm and the crew had sealed their helmets over their suits to prevent decompression sickness.

He heard Samuel yell "Commander, more impacts on the fourth ring, it's been destroyed! The debris also damaged the surrounding rings too much to function, they have seized!"

Leon gasped, Sabine had been on the fourth ring. Was she gone? She couldn't be gone, she had to be okay. He steeled himself and with supreme effort pushed his emotions back down as he surveyed the new damage. It did indeed look like the after effects of a deliberate attack. Maybe if he could beam out a surrender they would stop firing, if it even was an intelligent force.

Leon opened communications in all frequencies and yelled desperately into the void "This is the UNSS Leif Erikson, please cease hostilities, we are on an explorative mission and bear no ill will. We are unarmed and defenseless, please. Please spare us."

The other crew on the bridge turned to him with wild looks on their panicked faces and he dared to hope it had worked. Suddenly he gasped as a terrible gargling roar issued from the speakers. It seemed to be interference but was in too many different frequencies to narrow down.

Leon watched in horror as the sensors picked up a massive object moving towards them under its own infernal power, it came within a few dozen kilometers of them and stopped. Again that same horrid sound issued from the speakers and Leon did the only thing he could think of "I'm sorry I can't understand you. We are peaceful, we come in peace."

The sound stopped and for a few moments he breathed easy. They had stopped attacking, but at what cost. Who had he lost already?

He sat up straight as Samuel yelled "More contacts Commander, oh god they fired again. They are going to kill us all!"

Leon watched wordlessly as the projectiles crossed the kilometers of empty space in moments and slammed into the ship with devastating force. One by one the other rings were destroyed until it was just the bridge floating in a wasteland of shattered debris scattered from the previous impacts.

Leon jolted in his restraints as there was suddenly a shadowy figure in front of him, he screamed in terror as a dark mist seemed to swell in front of him. The amorphous shape slowly resolves into a vaguely serpentine form. Leon was white with terror as he noticed its eyes, its horrible baleful orange eyes that seemed to be full of more hatred and malice than any one being should have been able to express.

As it lashed towards him he shut his eyes and screamed.

Leon jolted awake coated in a sheen of sweat. He scrambled around as his blankets tangled his limbs, thrashing, he fought off the malign forces he thought were attacking him. After a few seconds the lights in his room came on as his heightened activity activated them. He paused in his frantic struggles, realizing he was still in his room and not on the bridge.

After a few moments he stood and walked to his bathroom, splashing cold water on his face he shuddered at the memory of the shadow monster from his apparent nightmare. What a terrifying dream, he had had nightmares before, but nothing like the one that had just rocked him. He stood over his sink as he took deep calming breaths and looked at his bedraggled reflection in the mirror. He turned off the water as he was no longer using it and tried to comb his hair back into place using his fingers. He was only partially successful.

Leon sighed and trudged back into his room to sit on the edge of his bed heavily, he was so tired. Was it a sign? 'No' He thought to himself, everything was going to be fine. As he sat for a moment, his head in his hands, he tried to wrest the memory out of his mind. He shook his head as the two glowing orange eyes, full of hate and anger once more manifested in his mind's eye.

Leon opened his eyes and stood, he got dressed quickly and stepped out of his room into the hall. It was still a little early so the hall was empty. Walking quickly along the curve of the ring, he made his way to the mess hall with the intention of making a strong pot of coffee. He stopped before entering the room as he saw another crew member already seated at one of the small tables near the wall, not the main table in the center of the room.

Walking over to the appliance area he started on a new pot of coffee and glanced over at the hunched figure. It was Aden, one of the biologists on board.

Wondering what the best way to start a conversation would be, Leon was surprised as Aden asked him “Can't sleep either commander? Bad dreams?”

Leon shuddered at the mention of bad dreams and then froze, how in the name of the great filter did he know that he was having bad dreams? It must have just been a lucky guess. Leon grabbed a mug of the newly brewed coffee and walked over to where Aden was sitting. The man was short, with a darker skin tone and short black hair. As he looked up at Leon he saw the man's piercing brown eyes.

Leon sat across from the smaller man at the table and responded “Yes, I had a troubled sleep. Why do you ask, did you experience night terrors as well? It's not uncommon for stress to cause such things.”

Aden looked at him with an unreadable expression and said “Molten orange eyes…”

Leon couldn't help himself, he jumped as if stung and swore as he spilled hot coffee over his hand. Putting down the cup he glared at the man and asked “What made you say that. How could you even have known?” Aden again gave him one of those unreadable looks and took a drink from the cup in front of him.

“I was curious if such a sign had been shown to others, and I am vindicated by your response. You too dreamt of evil spirits and death?” Aden asked him with morbid curiosity.

Leon ducked his head and looked around, his coffee now completely forgotten as a new sense of awareness ripped through his mind as his heart began to beat faster. “You saw the shadow creature too? The one with the glowing orange eyes?” he asked in a slightly frantic voice.

Aden nodded and grimaced saying “Yes, I dreamt of the spirit as well. It bodes ill for us to embark on this mission after such a clear sign of calamity.”

Leon shook his head and said “No way, while I dont understand what happened, there is no way I'm going to cancel the mission over a couple of bad dreams. For all we know we just happened to see something out of the corner of our eyes that our minds then made up into a similar… thing… wait, that makes it sound worse now that I think about it.” he muttered under his breath.

Aden said conspiratorially “We have a name for such a vision where I grew up, but it is unimportant now. The fact that two have witnessed the same entity means that this mission will surely befall some disaster. We should postpone it.” he said softly.

Leon looked at the man in disbelief. He straightened and asked “What? Are you a scientist or a shaman? You want us to cancel what is arguably the most important mission ever to be undertaken in the entire history of our species over a bad dream. No way. Pull yourself together, sure it wasn't a pleasant nightmare, and it's odd that we had similar dreams, but there is surely a more logical explanation to this than the assumption we are all going to die horribly.” Leon said heatedly, his voice rising to a shout.

Aden slunk back a bit at his words, seeming to draw into himself as he hunched down.

Leon breathed in deeply a few times to settle himself before he apologised to the man. “Aden, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled. It's just that I can't let this fail. Evil spirits or no evil spirits, we are going to do this. And I want you with me on this. Can I count on you Aden?” Leon held out his right hand in a placating gesture and then extended it as a gesture of peace.

Aden looked at the proffered hand as if it was a venomous serpent for a few moments before sitting up and taking it in his light grip. “Yes. I trust you Leon, I know you will do everything in your power to see us all through this. I, I will try to be more rational next time. I am sorry the myths of my youth influenced me, but some habits are hard to break, you know.” he said while averting his eyes.

Leon smiled at the man and remarked “Hey, it's not what you say, but what you do that truly matters. And I see a man dedicated to science, to knowledge. We will make it through this Aden, and I dare anything to stand in our way.” Aden seemed to perk up a bit at his words and then nodded.

A smile cracked his features for the first time in their entire conversation as he sat up straight and said “Yes, life is too precious to be wasted hiding from the shadows. If they want us, they can come and get us. We will make this universe proud Leon.”

“Good man, that's the attitude that I like to hear. Now who is up for a little breakfast? Help me in the kitchen, I'm thinking about making stir fry.” Leon said as he stood.

Aden nodded and stood as well, they walked into the meal preparation area and began to gather the necessary ingredients and tools to make the required dish. Leon tried not to dwell too heavily on the conversation and how close it had come to being a disaster for the mission. Luckily, he had been specifically chosen for the mission for his ability to resolve conflict and change peoples minds. Leon was a bit taken aback that he had to use it so many times already though, the mission was certainly a stressful endeavor, but he hadn't expected people to begin cracking so soon. And while you could patch a cracked vase, there was only so much adhesive you could apply before the structure became too damaged to be repaired.

After a short cooking experience that left Leon a little annoyed, they sat down to a nice breakfast of cooked vegetables and some fresh fruits. The hydroponic farms allowed for a wide variety of foods, but there were so many little things that were either not sustainable enough, or were too difficult to automate to put in such a delicate environment. For example, they had no chickens or cows, so there was no eggs or milk. They did grow soy though so they would have a substitute for both. Combined with squash it formed all the proteins their bodies required, while simultaneously being not quite satisfying to the soul.

Leon already missed his morning routine of eggs and toast, but he wouldn't let such a minor hurdle get him down. The food was decent and they had meat, it was just not the fatty food he had grown so accustomed to as he lived the comfortable civilian life. Well that would have to change. He would make sure that the food and other such amenities on the ship were as nourishing and exciting as he could manage. Luckily they were able to redistill and purify salt from their wastewater and they had a massive crate of sealed and preserved spices in the main storage hold, so there wouldn't be any issues with flavor at least.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

As for variety, that might present an issue, but with the clever application of different cooking techniques, they should be able to keep the monotony to a minimum.

Aden and Leon finished their small meal and Aden offered to clean up for him to which he was thankful, wishing the man farewell, Leon exited the mess hall. He made his way down the curved hall past the main accommodations area, past the small quarantine area, and then onto the recreational area. Here there was a small gym, a relatively open space for activities such as running and maybe even a small game of soccer. There were even a few uninflated balls in a box near the rear of the room. Leon smiled to himself as he walked over to the gym setup and sat down on a padded bench.

The room was strange. This was one of the few rooms in the ship big enough for the curvature of the rings to be made painfully obvious, the ceiling seemed to bulge down while the floor curved upwards into the ceiling from his perspective. While they had done a great deal of training and simulations in order to get used to the environment, it was still off putting to think that the entirety of the room was flat from a force perspective. If he were to roll a ball ‘up’ the incline, it would not roll back to him as his mind insisted it would, but would remain glued to the floor by the same force that held him down in his current position.

Leon Leaned back on the bench, there was a rack above it for weight training, but it was empty at the moment. The ship was cramped, but it felt empty with all the unpacked and unused equipment. It would take a good while yet before this was to feel like a home. But that's exactly what it was, his home. For at least the next twenty years if nothing went wrong. He kicked himself mentally for even giving a thought to such an occurrence. Nothing was going to happen, his dream was just that, a dream.

Leon checked his cam on his wrist and saw the time was just before seven in the morning, most of the crew would be just waking up from their sleep and then making their way to the mess for breakfast. Leon felt comfortable to just lay back in the gym alone, the slight hum of electricity and the faint vibration of the ship's powerful components making him drowsy. He sat and shook his head to clear it and caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He froze in shock as he looked at the darkened corner where he could have sworn he had seen a flash of movement. He stood slowly to his feet and grabbed a weight off the rack as a crude projectile weapon as he neared the spot.

Leon sighed in relief as he saw the corner was empty. Man that nightmare must have really gotten to him if he was jumping at shadows like this. Turning back around he yelled in shock and jumped about a foot in the air as he saw a smiling face right behind him.

"Wow you are really jumpy today. What's bothering you Leon?" Sabine asked him.

Grasping his chest and doubling over for a minute, Leon caught his breath as his heart slowed and then gave her a look that said he was very unamused. "Nothing is bothering me, I was just surprised to see you, that's all. You snuck up on me on purpose didn't you?" He asked her suspiciously.

She giggled sweetly and shuffled slightly as she said "No…. Why would I do that?"

Leon rolled his eyes and placed the weight back onto the rack he had pulled it from. He walked to her and began to guide her out of the gym as he asked "What are you doing here anyways, why aren't you getting something to eat in the mess?"

She frowned and mumbled "I'm not hungry…"

Leon tutted at her as he replied "Not hungry? Are you worried about the launch, Sabine? Nothing is going to go wrong, I assure you." He said with more confidence than he was really feeling. Part of him was still spooked.

She nodded and said quietly "I know that everything is going to be okay, but part of me feels like something terrible is going to happen." Leon felt ice in his heart at her words, but he melted it with the fires of his conviction and began to say.

"Nothing is going to happen Sabine. We will complete this mission and return as great explorers." He was going to continue but was interrupted by Chad walking over to them.

"Oh there you are, I was wondering why you left the mess without eating. Hey Leon, ready for the big moment?" Chad said as he walked over to them.

Leon was standing next to Sabine in the hall outside the gym. He looked at the younger man and nodded saying "Yes, everything should be fine. I just want the first launch to be over with so everyone can see that it's all going to be okay."

Chad nodded in understanding and then looked at Sabine questioningly. She shook her head at him saying nothing and he frowned but remained silent. Leon looked between the two and frowned slightly before asking "Is everything all right?"

Sabine piped up and said "Yes. No problems. We should get ready for launch." With that she shook herself slightly and walked off quickly.

Leon looked at Chad who shrugged and fell in beside him as they began walking back towards the housing area. They walked in relative silence, the quiet only broken by the faint sound of their footfalls and the noise of the ship. They walked along the curvature of the ship until they once more reached the residential area of the ring before Chad finally spoke up.

“I think she is feeling a bit stressed. That's why she has been acting out like that lately I think…” Chad mused to him.

Leon nodded and said “It's been getting to a bunch of us, I had trouble sleeping last night, we need to maintain our spirits though. We can't let little things like that stop us from doing what needs to be done.” he said mostly to himself.

Chad nodded once more, not noticing he had been speaking to himself. He looked around briefly and then turned to Leon saying “I am going to head back to my room to try and get ready for launch. I don't want to represent all of humanity with bad morning breath ya know.” he said cheerfully before waving and walking away.

Leon shook his head, that man was always so cheerful, in every situation. There had been times in their training that Chad had ignored an obviously purposefully depressing scenario just in order to make light of the situation. He supposed it was for the best in the long run though, having someone on board who was able to make the most of any given situation was bound to be useful in the future. Leon just wished it wasn't so annoying in the short term.

Leon checked the time, about thirty minutes had passed and it was nearing the time of the launch. He walked back the way they had come to his room, which was near the very end of the row. Entering, he opened his bag and took out a spare change of clothes. He decided that he didn't have time to shower, but he could at least try to freshen up a bit and put on clean clothes. After brushing his teeth and dampening his hair, he changed into a set of fresh clothing and stepped back into the passageway. He could hear voices coming from further up the curve of the hall, out of sight from where he was standing. Making his way along the ring, he soon came across Taylor and Terry talking to each other in the hall outside an open door. As they saw him they hushed up and waved to him.

“Good morning Terry, Taylor.” he said as nonchalantly as he could manage.

Terry said nothing in her normal mute way, but Taylor reddened slightly and said “Heyyy, good morning commander… er, we were just on our way to the bridge. Launch time is coming up quickly. See you there?”

Leon gave him a look and then answered “Yeah. And I didn't see anything. Let's go c'mon.”

They fell in behind him without another word. Leon was telling the truth, he hadn't seen anything, but then again he hadn't needed too. The way they had been acting lately was just screaming romantic involvement. Leon decided to ignore it for now unless it became a problem. Let the two have their fun, as long as they did not waste their own duty time, and as long as it didn't affect their work, then he couldn't have cared less. The instant it started to have a detriment on their work however, he would slap them down hard.

He made his way to the ascending ladder that led to the core of the ship. Looking up its nearly forty-meter length, he was a little daunted by the seemingly massive climb. But he knew that the further he climbed, the easier it would get, till he was just pulling himself along in zero G.

Leon started up the tube, his hands sinking slightly into the light padding covering the rungs. His breathing started to become slightly labored as he climbed, but he could feel himself getting lighter as he neared the core of the ship. Before he realised it, he was weightless and drifting up the ladder with almost no effort. He slowed himself down as he entered the core and came to a stop hanging on one of the inner wall rungs as he waited for the others to catch up. They came through moments later, both looking much less tired than he felt. Damn younglings, making him feel old already. He squared his shoulders in the zero gravity which did nothing but cause him to start drifting slightly.

“Alrighty, to the bridge then. You okay commander, you look a bit pale.” Taylor said as he turned to look at him.

Leon growled under his breath and muttered “Damn kids…” before he began to move through the tunnel-like space towards the bridge. Leon glided into the main airlock that led to the bridge with Terry and Taylor, they waited for it to cycle before they entered the small alcove before the bridge. There were lockers that held light environment suits which they put on as per regulation. After donning the suits and grabbing the helmets, they entered the bridge itself to see most of the other bridge crew already in place. The was Samuel and Sabine, sitting at their respective stations. Chad was the ship's other engineer and would be in the backup engineering bay further back on the ship along with Chris who was his backup.

Leon said “Alright, you all know what is going on. I expect a nice steady launch, nothing is going to mess with us all the way out here. Keep your heads in the game and let's do this.” The short speech was unnecessary but he felt as though it might be what they needed to hear at a time like this.

Sabine turned to look at him as he sat down and said “Navigational array is online, we have the coordinates plotted. The jump will proceed on schedule.”

Leon put on his headset and nodded before looking at Taylor who pressed a few buttons on his console and said “Establishing a direct link to Earth. Negligible time delay of point three seconds. You are live commander.”

Leon nodded and spoke into his headset “This is commander Muikman of the UNSS Leif Erikson, requesting permission to depart project lead. Do you read me project lead?”

After a few seconds the voice of the director issued through his headset saying “I read you loud and clear commander. You are green for launch. And once more, good luck.”

Leon nodded his head and answered “Copy that Director. We are launching in five minutes. We’ll send you a postcard.” He nodded to Samuel who began to power the warp drive. A strange humming echoed through the ship while simultaneously not making any sound.

Leon cocked his head as the odd sensation built more and more, seeming to vibrate the chair he was sitting on even though he could detect no actual movement. The others seemed to be noticing it too, Leon saw Samuel shake his head as if to clear it and Sabine had her hands clenched on her chairs arms so hard her knuckles were white. Terry was rocking back and forth slightly and he saw Taylor staring straight ahead with his mouth wide open as if hearing something unbelievable.

Leon squinted his eyes closed for a moment as the sensation became nearly unbearable before gasping. The entire world seemed to stretch and twist simultaneously in every direction infinitely. His eyes couldn't perceive the overwhelming sensory information they were receiving, but a crazed part of his mind insisted he was back home sitting on his couch sipping a hot coffee. The feeling of being rent into pieces seemed to stretch on for eternity, but before he had even had a chance to truly comprehend what was happening, the sensation was gone. So quick that he wasn't even sure it had happened. Yet there was a part of his mind that still gibbered in abject terror as if the very essence of reality had been torn and the horror of the great beyond was scratching at the corners of his mind. He shook his head to clear it and the helpless terror faded, but didnt completely go away. Part of him still felt as though they had just made a terrible mistake.

The after images of glowing orange eyes, filled with hatred, flashed through his waking mind and he doubled over, shuddering violently. After a moment to regain himself, he sat back up with a heavy sigh and saw with a start, the sad state of the others. Terry was sitting motionless in her chair and Sabine was holding her head in her hands and muttering to herself quietly. Taylor was rocking in his seat shaking his head muttering something about curtains while Samuel was looking around pale faced as if he had seen a ghost.

Samuel locked eyes with Leon and he instantly saw the panic in them. He knew he had to say something to the crew before something bad happened. Reaching slowly for the intercom button, he pressed it and smacked his parched lips a few times before speaking. “This is Leon.” He croaked out before clearing his throat and trying again. “This is Leon, I apologize for the roughness of our launch. It seems as though there are certain side effects of launching into warp. But I can assure you we will have Dr. Kimathi check everyone over and determine if it's safe or not. I promise you, if we are in any kind of danger I will not allow this mission to proceed. You have my word as captain…” he finished tiredly.

Leon switched his attention over to Samuel and saw the frantic look was gone, replaced by mild fear. He leaned back into his seat. God, he was so tired feeling. Why was he so tired? Would all the jumps be like that? He wondered. He feared to know the answer, for if that was so. He didn't know if he would be able to complete the mission. Imagining twenty years of those reality tearing jumps, he felt scared about the mission for the first time since he had joined.