“Anywhere else you can think of?” I was naked next to Micheal with my hands combing through my hair as we searched the airlock for anything suspicious. Once we were sure the airlock was clean, we both slipped on our jump suits and pushed to the door Micheal pressed the doorbell button next to the hatch we could faintly hear the jingle on the other side.
Cath was back a minute later with Martin behind her. She was next to the window looking in concern and fright highlighted by the light from our side of the door. “Did you check your shoes? I don’t want any eggs or glowing space rocks in here.”
“All checked. We’re safe.” I said and looked around one last time. The door hissed and opened; I was through without much thought. I immediately gave out orders as we moved to the central pod. “Cath check the cams. I’ll see if there are any systems that stopped. We will need to open the arrays if the motors are dead.”
A thump sounded as something collided with the station. My hair was standing on end as I thought of every possible alien from every movie I watched. I groaned as I rubbed my head. “I need to know what’s out there. And I would rather die first than trying to survive in fear.”
It was promise I made after every scary film I watched. It was always the last guy that suffered the most. I don’t care if the others struggle with survivor’s guilt.
“Camera’s first.” Cath reminded me. She pushed to the side where our monitors were, Micheal followed her, Martin drifted to me. “I know I made fun of the situation but If need be, I can have a look first?”
I shook my head and turned to him. “You’ll confuse them with terms they probably don’t know. Let’s make sure we are in actual danger before we resort to magic.” I looked back at the air lock before making my way to the main hub. Martin followed again as we approached Cath and Micheal.
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“Definitely alien.” I heard Cath say before I saw the thing. On the side of the storage pod attached like a barnacle was a black mass with a rocky texture. And it was breathing. “About 30 centimetres in diameter.” Micheal was on his pad making notes fingers tapped rapidly as he searched our data files for anything remotely similar.
“Is it digging into or effecting the shuttle?” I asked as I joined them.
“No abnormal vibration picked up. We had the thermal cam on it for a second and its ice cold. As far as we can tell it’s just chillen.” I could see Cath wanted to believe what she said. Her hands tightened on joystick for the camera, I could see the image vibrate slightly with her shaking hand.
“Let’s just calm down for a second. We don’t want a hostile creature on our hands.” I put my hand on Cath’s shoulder before she started panicking.
“We’re not in some kind of fiction novel, we need to make sense of this. Magic is just advanced science we don’t know about yet.” I reached over and hit the recording button. “We’ll monitor the creature. I’ll head out and adjust the solar array. We need them unfolded. Cath keep an eye on that, Micheal call BOSS and check with it on what to do. Martin…. No magic.” I pushed off again to the hatch again mentally getting ready for what could be my last spacewalk.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
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The airlock hissed closed; my heart thumped in my chest as the air got sucked out of the airlock. It almost felt like my heart stopped when the outside hatch opened. My hand trembled. I was so careful as I slowly I made my way out. I looked everywhere before I stepped out. I was not going to survive terrified. Die bravely!
“Josh, don’t forget the spanner.”
“Shut the fuck up Cath!!” I grabbed the spanner and hugged it tightly. My heart was in my throat again as I pulled myself to the outside. I would do the storage pod array last. Take it easy then sprint the last step.
“It kind of reminds me of the golems back home, a little rounder than the square ones we used. I bet I could dissect it and find its creation stamp.” Martin was as usual trying to think of ways to help. His perspective might have been helpful if I wasn’t terrified of what was out here with me.
“Martin, one thing at a time please.” I begged as I crawled on the station as quietly as I could.
“Josh, nothing can hear you in space. It’s just us in your helmet.”
“Micheal, Shut up.”
“Yea Micheal, Shut the fuck up.”
“Can you all just stay quiet. I swear if I mute you and the thing comes at me and you can’t say anything to me because I have you muted I will haunt you while this thing slowly kills all of you.”
“I could just use magic.” Martin was again trying to be helpful
“NO MAGIC!”
“Maybe when Josh dies.” Cath said as I made it to the solar array. I was already using the spanner to loosen the joints with one hand while straitening them out with the other hand.
“I would rather die to magic than this thank you.” Once the array was straight, I tightened the bolts on the joints and gave the solar panels a good tug to make sure it was secure.
I swallowed the worry in my throat as I turned to the final destination. I was going to skirt the edges, which means the long way around. I closed my eyes for a second and calmed my mind and body. Before I could chicken out, I crawled to the dark side of the pod and made my way to the opposite end of station.
“Please tell me it hasn’t moved.”
“It hasn’t moved.” Cath reassured.
“Breathing is considered moving.” Martin added.
“I breath right now and I have yet to escape you breathing down my neck.” Cath said menacingly.
“I’m trying to figure out this scrying device you have. Sorry for being curious.”
“Why did I ask.” I sighed in regret as I crawled. I was trying to be quick as the two bickered about light and how to capture it. I would have been more interested if I was in the station with them.
The sound of my heart was in my ears again drowning out everything else. I kept putting one hand in front of the other. When I made it to the solar array, I realised the sound of the crew mates stopped. I refused to think of it as I robotically unfolded the array all the way open. When I fastened the last bolt, I breathed in again and turned to the hatch.
“Any movement?” I asked again. I was tempted to smack the thing with my spanner and run, if it was going chill and give us a fright it deserved a bonk on the head.
“Still no movement. The surrounding temperature on the station is slowly reducing. It seems like it is absorbing all the heat on the panel its resting on. Can’t see where the heat is being stored.”
“Gemstones most likely. I have convinced myself that this creature is a golem.”
“At least he is honest with his theories.” I was outside the hatch again. I didn’t waste another second before pulling myself inside. “Keep the cams active. Micheal, please tell me you have Contacted BOSS and let it know about our situation.” With a last heave I locked the hatch and had the air be repressurised.
“Get me a whiskey please, my hands are shaking.” My heart was hammering in my chest and sweat clung to my hair. “And a space towel please.” I slowly extracted my shaking sweaty limbs from the suit. It was going to be a minute before I was back to normal. At least we will have power for the foreseeable future.
When the second thump sounded my heart was in my head again. I was getting a headache with all this blood rushing and adrenaline. I was hugging my suit tightly as and hiding my head in the bundled suit. “Mother fucker.”
“The thing moved to the solar panel.” Was all I heard before I muted the coms and whimpered in fright.
“Fuck you.”