Nobody heard the screaming

Author: Miyoshi Akachi

Original post:

A short fiction piece for Just About.

Somewhere in a forgotten system
Unknown Date

The ship was quiet but for a few lights as it sat on the fringes of that lonely star system; the system's primary shone in the distance, a spot not much brighter than others dotting the otherwise dark endless sky.

"I don't know why we have to sit out here and do routine check-ups." Second Technician Doroty Lesset spoke into the com as she walked down one of the many corridors crisscrossing the ship and leading into its bowels.

"You know how capsuleers are." came the reply from First Technician Tyler Vandof, sitting at the main technical station a few decks above "Sometimes their reasoning is unfathomable."

She made a tsk tsk sound as she reached the maintenance panel highlighted in her overview "Here we are." She grunted as the panel proved to be harder than expected to open: a good pull had the metal panel detach itself from its housing.

"Now..." She observed the electronics housed into the panel: cables came in and out, a few lights stared in silence. Without a diagram, it would be kind of impossible to find the problem. She checked her work order and the associated diagram and then she got to work.

A few minutes passed by and then a few more as the ship kept on sitting quietly in the darkness. "How is it going Dorothy?" Tyler asked as he checked the remote diagnostic: the panel was open and highlighted in red, as it should "Dorothy?"

He turned to another technician "Do we have com problems?” “Nothing to my knowledge.” Came the dry reply. He shrugged at first, but then, time passed and no feedback came, the remote diagnostic reported no change: the panel was still open for maintenance. Then and only then, Dorothy's online status light flickered off.

"I guess I'll go take a look. Looks like Dorothy is no more online but the panel is still open." His main guess was some kind of technical problems, it could happen that certain ship systems interfered with internal wireless communication, or maybe her com gear had died, which was also possible.

He knew the ship pretty well, like most of the crew, and he didn't have trouble making his way through corridors and access ladders. Only... he felt chill, an unreasonable feeling for a ship with an environmental control holding the temperature stable and constant. Also did it all feel kind of… darker? Another unreasonable assumption as the lights were once again set at a standard power and they were not in idle or emergency status.

He came into the corridor where Dorothy had opened the panel... And there was nothing but the open panel "Dorothy?" He called out but there was no answer; in fact, it felt too silent, even the ever present vibration of the ship was barely audible. "If it's a game it's no fun." He warned, taking a look around, feeling a growing uneasiness.

He took a look into the open maintenance panel but all was as it should... but for Dorothy's power tool, inserted into a valve’s calibration socket. Why would she leave it there...?

At the technical station nobody worried, in fact someone even went as far as guessing that the First and Second Technician had disappeared for some... ah, in depth technical review. They did not worry, at least until the power run out and communications died, then they did worry.

“Ah! Everyone is dead." He chuckled powering off the screen on which he had read the little horror tale. It was just as he expected: people disappearing, and dying, in a lone ship deep in space. In fact, nobody truly knew what could lurk out there and that was perfect for these little horror stories. He didn’t really believe in cosmic darkness or alien entities crawling up into a ship or into his station, he had lived too long in dangerous and often remote stations to really be fooled. Whatever happened it was due to either a human touch or a physical process and nothing else.

He stretched as he got up from his chair, it was time for a routine walk around. He grabbed his jacket and headed out into the bowels of the lone, and mostly automated, mining installation; the cluster of asteroids and prefabricated structures sat in the furthest asteroid belt from the dim, primary star. Far away from prying eyes and noisy interruptions.

The pad’s screen flickered “Nobody heard the screaming.” it appeared as it was written on the last page of the tale. Someone screamed down below but nobody heard it.