The ship sank into the expanse with absolutely no effort. Blinding neon greens, yellows, and pinks flooded the cabin between the white flashes of lightning that rocked the hull. Alerts of every kind popped up repeatedly over the command console in front of Cooper, before disappearing and immediately reasserting themselves. The sensor data fizzed with static, every so often showing something very large flashing past the ship. Even the accelerometers struggled, unable to decide if they were still moving or not.

Power fluctuated over the ship causing doors to open and close by themselves, lights to flicker, and the ship comms to humm a deep, low tone that awakened some ancient ingrained fear from deep inside the recesses of Cooper’s mind.

The flight controls thrashed as though they had multiple minds of their own and none could agree. His console spat out numerous windows filled with languages he couldn’t understand as he wrestled to bring the ship to heel. The hull groaned in pain, warping under some invisible pressure. Over all of it, an alarm wailed warning of the engines imminent, catastrophic failure.

He spun around in his chair to find that Addison had already unbuckled herself and was attending to a sobbing Juliette. She looked at him with a terrified expression that begged the question: What do we do now?

“We need to get Harlen, make sure he’s okay, and get to the lifeboat.”

“Will it even fire like this?” She motioned to the door that seemed to be in an argument with itself.

“I don’t know, but we can’t stay here. Who knows when life support will be affected. It’s our only chance.”

Addison didn’t argue. She pulled Juliette free and held her tightly to her chest. Cooper approached the door and searched the cabin for something to jam it open. Unfortunately everything in the bridge was either soft or attached. With the lack of any other options, he took a deep breath and placed his own body in the way of the closing door. It pressed hard against his chest, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if it was going to stop, then the safety kicked in and the pressure let up. Pressing his back hard into it, he could feel it trying to close on him again. Addison squeezed past him and he released the door to resume its argument.

Somewhere outside the ship a massive explosion rumbled past, shaking everything inside and pelting the outer armor with debris. One of the pirates had followed them in. Cooper couldn’t say he was especially cut up over their demise.

New warning lights came on alerting them to a puncture somewhere in the hull. Another alarm warned of toxins in the ventilation. An automated voice informed them to expect immediate docking. It was impossible to tell what was real and what was just part of the medley of anomalies.

Then a strangeness passed through Cooper and he took several large breaths to steady himself. His mind, or consciousness, he wasn’t quite sure which, began to strobe. As though reality was blinking off and on. Each jolt only seemed to last no longer than a second. But with it came a moment of disorientation. His skull, while not painful, felt like it was one size too small and there was the oddest sensation of wearing a hat, even though there was nothing on his head.

He noticed Addison rubbing her eyes and breathing deeply as well. “What is that?” she asked quietly.

“Nothing we can worry about now,” Cooper said as he forced himself to push on forward.

The ship wasn’t large and it didn’t take them long to reach the personnel quarters. Harlen’s crib was a Perspex case mounted to the floor close to their own sleeping units. He lay inside, swaddled in a tiny sleeping bag that was attached to the sides like webbing. Harlen was awake and crying loudly. When he saw his father, he struggled to pull his arms free, reaching out desperately to be picked up.

Pulling him from the crib, Cooper rocked him gently as he shushed the little man. Harlen looked up to him with his big brown eyes and cooed happily. Dad was here, it’s going to be alright.

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Quickly, they made their way to the ship’s lifeboats and began fastening in. The ship's systems had almost completely failed and they were working by the dim red glow of the emergency lighting.

Once he was satisfied that the others were strapped in, Cooper pulled the hatch closed and began the launch procedures. He tried the automatic launch sequence first, but halfway through, it jolted and stopped altogether. He cursed loudly and kicked the floor in frustration.

“I’ve got to manually launch.” he muttered as he pulled up a panel on the floor revealing several leavers. Bracing himself against the nearest seat, he pulled each of the leavers expecting to be blasted free of the ship. Instead nothing happened. He pulled them again but still nothing. “What the hell?”

Setting them back into position he moved to the hatch. “They aren't firing. There’s an emergency release just outside, in the corridor. I’m going to pull that and hopefully it will be enough for these to fire.”

“Be careful,” Addison called to him before she noticed Harlen trying desperately to squirm out of his restraints. He was squealing now and she had to unbuckle herself to wrangle his arms back under the belts.

Cooper was outside when he heard a little voice call to him.

“Daddy, wait.”

He spun around to see Juliette out of her seat and making her way to him. Addison screamed her name as the young girl pulled toward Cooper in the corridor and hugged him tightly.

Picking her up he quickly stepped towards the pod when everything went silent. The lights came back on, the comms stopped humming, he couldn’t feel any lightning hitting the hull. It was as though everything had returned to normal, and for that moment, everything had. Including the launch sequence for the life-boat.

The hatch closed automatically and a countdown began. Cooper, who was in mid stride, landed against the porthole looking into the pod. Addison stared back at him terrified and confused. She fumbled with her seatbelt, desperate to get free and to the controls. But by the time she was standing the sequence had completed. As she stared in horror through the porthole, all Cooper could do was mouth the words ‘I love you’ as the pod launched into the sea of color.

He held Juliette close. She was asking questions that he could barely hear as the pit in his stomach grew denser. As if in response, the moment of serenity passed and the ship once again succumbed to chaos. It shuddered as lighting hammered the hull, and groaned as some unseen force slowly contorted the fuselage.

In the dark, with Juliette close, Cooper no longer cared. There was no way out now. It was only a matter of time before something detrimental failed and death would take them. He tried to force his last thoughts of his family. Of a time when everyone was happy. But the memory of his wife was too fresh. Her terrified expression was etched into his mind.

He was all set to accept their end, when he heard Juliette’s tiny voice. A shrill tinkling against the backdrop of madness. She was asking if everything was going to be alright. The question pierced him through the chest. He wanted to lie and say yes. To tell her to not be afraid; that it will all be over soon. But the words caught in his throat, and once again something burned deep inside of him. No. She wouldn’t die there. They wouldn’t die there. Not when he could still fight. When he still had options.

With Juliette in his arms, Cooper raced toward engineering. Everything around him shuddered and groaned. Light flickered between normal and emergency. His own mind began strobing more and more, causing him to blink in and out of consciousness.

It was a small ship and the engine room was not that far away physically, but the journey felt as though it took a lifetime. When he finally arrived, he found the engine in as much disarray as the rest of the ship. That was no surprise.

The maneuvering jets, as well as the main thrusters had been bursting haphazardly the entire time. But inside the expanse he couldn’t feel the movement. There was no way of knowing what angle the ship was on. He had to try anyway.

Using every manual override he had access to, Cooper forced the flow of fuel to the maneuvering jets to stop and redirect to the main thrusters. He had to reach his hand directly into the hot engine to pull the feeder open as far as it would go and hold it. As searing pain shot through his arm, Cooper silently thanked whatever god was listening that he had never upgraded his ship. The newer engines were built completely differently, and there was no way that he knew of to force extra thrust. His hope was that by jetting directly forward he would eventually come back out of the expanse. It was a slim chance, depending on a lot of variables going right, including the miniscule possibility that he was even facing the right direction. But if this was going to be the end, he was going to die trying.

Juliette had never left his side. As his brain continued to flicker more and more he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her in tight. Whatever happened now, at least she wasn’t alone. As he passed into oblivion, Cooper made sure his final thoughts were of his family.