Open to suggestions for title. My own current (and first actual) work in progress, critique, but with reason.
Chapter One
The soft grass underfoot, the smell of flowers and the warm, bright sun had always kept Desmond in high spirits. To his left, Desmond spotted a shuttle perched on a hill, along with a crowd of people. Gavin, his best friend, pushed through the crowd and caught sight of him, beckoning him over to the rugged craft. He gave his wife and daughter, whom were wrapped in his arms, one last hug, and said his final farewell before he marched up the hill.
A slight change in the sunlight distracted him for a moment. As he shifted his gaze up toward the sun, he noticed a thin stretch of darkness had crept along its surface like a growing scar, a gaping wound that would not close. A great blast of light nearby sent Desmond into the air and the hard ground had risen quickly to meet him.
*
A disoriented Desmond awoke, lying on a bed in a lightless room. A thundering noise echoed through the room as well as his head. Sweat flowed from his shaking body as he willed himself to sit upright on the side of the bed.
“Lights on,” He said weakly. The Darkness slipped away as the dim lights flickered, growing brighter until the room was devoid of shadows. The dull metal walls, roof and floor surrounding Desmond, gave him a feeling of claustrophobia. A layer of rust coated the corners and edges of the boxed room. His holocomp on a table beside the bed flashed with a red ‘Urgent’ message on the main screen. He accessed the message and found a loud voice yelling at him.
“Des, we need you up here on the bridge ASAP! Ill explain when you get here.”
That was Gavin, he knew that for sure. But who could they be in trouble with now? He wondered.
Desmond slowly rose from the bed, feeling every ounce of the previous sleepless night. He attempted to balance himself by holding his arms outward, like a tightrope artist, until another explosion rocked the room and sent him face first into the metal floor. The collision brought him to his senses from the sharp pain in his nose and as he regained his sense of balance, lifting himself up onto his feet again, he made his way through the auto-slide door into the corridor.
The white-blue lights overhead flickered as the vibrations became more violent. A sudden thunderous crash behind him made Desmond turn his head for a moment to see circuitry and panels blast away from a wall on his cabins side, smashing against the opposite wall. Electricity crackled between the broken cords as they flayed about. Returning his focus to reaching the bridge, Desmond began to dash down the metal corridor, his boots being the only protection from the electricity surges occasionally coursing through the floor.
Safety protocols built into the ships electronic systems had sluggishly detected the anomaly in the corridor and alienated the broken, thrashing cables from the power grid. The downside to this safety feature was that the whole corridor’s lighting also had to be disabled for a time, leaving Desmond in pitch black. In times like these he would normally have to slowly but surely walk against a wall, clinging to anything to keep his balance. But that feeling of helplessness was now lost to him as he made a quick thought to a micro-processor located in his fake left eye, illuminating the hallway in an invisible green light. Sometimes he had managed to convince himself the loss was outweighed by the gain, but this tool could not truly replace that part of him which was gone.
As Desmond reached the stairs at the end of the corridor, he could hear yells from the crew on the bridge above. Surging upward and finally reaching the top, he struggled toward the captains’ chair, his chair, with concerned eyes watching him. Not daring to slouch, he sat upright with his fingers touching the armrest controls. The holographic images relayed directly onto his eye, creating an image as if a screen were placed in front of him.
“Status,” Desmond yelled toward Gavin to his right.
Gavin read off the holocomp in front of him. “Unknown enemy hostiles, sensors are being jammed. Shields are down to 30 percent and will not hold for much longer, and our hyperdrives are not responding. I’ve got someone in engineering taking a look into it.”
Desmond turned to Jakob on his left, their weapon specialist. “Are our weapons operational?”
Jakob brought up an image of the ship on his own holocomp with the weapons systems highlighted. “Our lasers are out of power, torpedoes and missiles we cannot use with a sensor blackout, unless you plan to fly straight at them and get a good view through the front window. Deployed a couple mines in case someone gets lazy and flies straight into a few bits of ‘space-trash’ that wont show up on their scanners until its too late. Overall, were screwed.” The wide grin stretching across Jakob’s face gave Desmond little comfort.
“So, sitting ducks would be our situation then?” The probabilities stacking against them had Desmond sink back into his chair.
William peered back from the pilot seat. “Well no need to thank me for my evasive maneuvering that has been keeping us alive for the past fifteen minutes!” He turned back to the main window and his holoscreen, showing him trajectories of incoming fire.
“OK, we get it Will, see any planets nearby we can hide on?” Desmond said.
William queried the viewing screens. “Nothing to land on, but I can see a gas giant, should be able to lift their sensor scramblers, although they still wont be of any use if we’re still close to it.”
“Take us under the surface, I want them off our tail long enough to find out what is happening to our hyperdrives.” Desmond’s confidence always rose when he had a plan to follow.
“Aye, Captain,” William replied as he maneuvered the ship toward the gas giant.
Thank you for reading.
Dub.
~aquila
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