Be Not Afraid
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This is a sci-fi/horror-ish flash fiction, because I wanted to write something. It was inspired by this song/music video featuring images of saturn. This is not your standard kind of story from me, but anyway I won’t make excuses before you’ve read it. Please enjoy the story!
It was a bad dream. The tell-tale pop and hiss of micrometeors, and air escaping. Sensors detected the depressurization immediately, and alarms began to sound. I ran to the emergency locker where our flash suits were stored. I pulled mine on, and felt the gentle hiss of the pressure seal. Calvin and Rachel were getting out of their seats—Rachel had her hand extended towards me to receive her flash suit. Calvin looked quickly to the right, and that was the end. A meteor smashed through the bridge, I remember Rachels hand floating in place for a moment frozen in time, framed by the crescent of Saturn, a halo made of it’s rings. Only a moment—then chaos.
I held on for dear life while the ship depressurized and spun out of control. Closing emergency airlocks. The creaking and groaning of the ship. Moving to the rear of the ship on instinct. Passing out.
Was it a dream? I woke up, hopeful, feeling counterintuitively well rested. Then, I tried moving. My arms groaned—the effect of clinging on to the ship while all its atmosphere was sucked out the gaping hole where Calvin and Rachel once stood. The realization fell upon me like a weight—I reached out wildly for my Oxygen tank. I checked the gauge—6 hours remaining. That would be enough time—surely, surely it would. There were shipyards around Saturn, they would hear our distress signal. They would see the debris field. Someone would come.
I had retreated to the engine room—after the emergency airlocks sealed, some latent atmosphere remained but it was too thin—plus the micrometeor holes probably were still leaking whatever remained. Nevertheless, even in the low atmosphere, the engine room was comfortably warm, engine heat mingling with body heat and escaping into the dark.
I wasn’t the engineer, I specialized in sensors, so I could feel my way around the room in the dark but even if I found something, I was sure I wouldn’t know what it was. I didn’t know if the ship was still spinning or not—maybe we were in a terminal orbit around Saturn, maybe there was just enough force to push us into interplanetary space to be lost forever. Space was big. I hugged my knees to my chest, and felt whole again. I saw a flash in my mind of Rachels disembodied hand. My stomach churned.
Not in the suit, not in the suit.
The ship creaked and groaned, as the physical and thermal stresses flexed the hull. I shuddered involuntarily.
Is this how it ends?
I don’t know how much time passed. I listened to the rhythmic groaning of the ship—and it sounded, faintly, like breathing. Like the ship was some leviathan, and I was some space-faring Jonah, trapped in the belly of the beast while it slept.
New sounds echoed in my ears. Footsteps? It sounded like something was just outside the door. I stood, tentatively, slowly, quietly. I put my hand out and felt for the wall. I walked forward, sliding my foot along the floor, afraid I would fall. I felt along the wall, until—yes! The unmistakable emergency switch for the door. I pulled the lever, and the door rushed open soundlessly—
I gasped, and fell backwards—it was a pair of glowing white eyes atop a black form. It stood in the doorway, faintly illumined by sparks and vainly flashing lights in the hallway behind it.
I scrambled back away from the door, from the thing, and when I’d hit the opposite wall a pain finally shot up my wrist—sprained, probably, when I fell. I grabbed my arm and winced.
The dark figure stood, indifferently, at the door. I felt like it’s eyes were boring into me, unblinking, unfeeling.
What do you want? I blurted out. My futile words echoed in my helmet.
It ducked into the room, lowering what I presume was it’s head to cross the threshold. Could it hear me?
What are you? I asked, more calmly though still frightened, my heartbeat thumping in my neck.
It stood, bitterly indifferent, eyes locked on me. Unmoving.
Carefully, slowly, I stood back up.
Are you a ghost? I asked. It made no sign of understanding me.
I reached out my hand, cautiously, to touch the dark form beneath the glowing white eyes.
To this, it did react. As my hand grew closer, it shifted—like it was shifting weight. Something about it’s eyes changed.
As my hand reached the form, a wave pulsed through the dark figure. In an instant, the dark form engulfed my hand, it slithered up my arm, and stopped at my shoulder—a mysterious appendage reaching out from the form, making my arm tingly-numb.
A voice vibrated through my suit, up my arm, into my helmet.
“BE NOT AFRAID,” it said.
I was afraid.
“COME WITH ME,” it rumbled.
I nodded.
I took a step forward, following the dark form out of the engine room. It ducked it’s head, and stepped through—I followed. The floor of the spaceship became soft, I looked down and grass was rising. When I looked up, I could no longer see the ship, it was a meadow at twilight. And look! Up ahead! There was Calvin, and Rachel too! I was so relieved to see them. I ran up to them, laughing. We embraced, all smiles. Calvin was more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. Rachel was glowing beautifully.
A sudden feeling made the hair on my neck stand up, like I was being watched. I turned to look—the dark form was standing a ways away, it’s white eyes ever locked on mine. Next to it was a black door, and through it the engine room.
I nodded wordlessly. The dark form stepped back across the threshold. The door closed behind it—leaving only this endlessly green meadow.
It was like a dream.
The End
Thank you very much for reading! I have wanted to write a story inspired by that video for a long time, so I hope it turned out to your liking. If you enjoyed this story, please consider sharing it with a friend!
Please consider leaving a like, telling me what you thought in the comments, or sharing this story on Notes. If you would like to read more, please check out my collection of longer fiction at The Volume.
God bless!
AJPM
"It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up magazine."
Oof. Zero-gravity nausea. That'd be a killer.