Dark empty void

Deep in the void of space, a single freighter lay adrift. The ship remains stationary, hidden within an asteroid belt. The smaller ship houses medical supplies, and a crew of seven people. Their mission is to stay hidden until called upon.

In the cockpit, the captain sits at the helm. A woman, early thirties, with medium short brown hair, and eyes sits staring at the monitor. Displayed on the screen is a simple radar system, with green dots signifying the asteroids around them. To her left, her co-captain, and twin sister sits staring at a similar display. To the captain's right sits the interstellar guide: the person who manages the coms, and constellation map.

The interstellar guide is a male, late forties, with short black hair, and blue eyes. The monitor he looks at is filled with stars, and different hues of blue. Displaying the Milky Way, the monitor shows a single red line from one star, halfway across to another.

Each one of them wears the same uniform, a black military blazer, with a red streak down it’s right side. On each of their right chests sits a pin showing the position they carry. The captain has a golden star, while the co-captains is silver. The guide’s pin is that of the planet earth, made out of bronze.

Each of them stares at their respective monitors, as they each begin to grow with boredom. Holding her hands together, the co-captain reaches into the air to stretch her arms. “Man, this is so boring. How do you guys handle this for months at a time?” She turns around in her seat to look at her sister. “I’ve only been here a week, and I'm already bored out of my mind.”

Taking a stern glance at her sister, the captain responds “hey, i need you to pay attention. We don’t know what’s going to show up, and that’s why we're hidden.” glancing back down at the monitor, the captain continues, “although, i don't disagree with you it is boring.” the guide chuckles under breath.

Using her right arm, the co-captain gestures to the guide. “See! Even he agrees this is boring!” turning back around in her seat, she throws her head back against the chair, draping her hair over it. Letting out a groan, she spins in the chair, as she looks up at the ceiling. “Is there anything fun we can do?”

Shaking her head, the captain glances over at the guide. “Hey, after why don’t you go take her for a walk on one of the asteroids.” With this comment, the co-captain stops spinning. “She could use the change of scenery.”

With pure joy in her eyes, the co-captain looks at the guide. As the guide spins around in his chair, he raises his eyebrow at the co-captain, then to the captain herself. “Gloria, you don’t really expect me to take her for a walk do you?”

The co-captains face quickly changes to annoyance as she glares down the guide. “That’s rude Mark. I’m not a dog!” the words come out nearly like a growl. Turning to Gloria, her expression changes once more, this time to puppy dog eyes.

With a smirk, and a chuckle, Gloria looks at her sister. “You could’ve fooled me stacy.” her sister's face turns back to pouty as she looks at her sister. “But fine, if Mark won’t, I guess I'll take you for a walk.“

Puffing her cheeks out to pout, Stacy mumbles “you didn’t have to say it like that.” turning away she slowly gets up. Taking in a deep breath, she slowly lets it out. “But, if it means I'll get to see something other than the inside of this dull ship, I'll take it.” She quickly turns around, and heads for the door behind the captain's seat.

As Stacy walks out the door, Gloria shakes her head before standing up. “That girl, she’s changed so much this past year.” with concern in his eyes, Mark turns back to his map. Starting to walk towards the door herself, Gloria looks over her shoulder, “you don’t mind watching things for a bit, do ya?” Mark simply waves his hand, as Gloria walks out the door.

Making her way quickly through the halls of the ship, Stacy turns to her left at a four way intersection. Right in front of her now, an airlock sits, leading to the outside. Quickly running through, she puts her face against the small window of the door. Outside is nothing but different asteroids.

Turning the corner, Gloria smiles at her sister. “Hey, we still need to put on our space suits, don’t forget that.” walking to the side of the room, Gloria opens up a locker. Inside the locker sits a traditional looking space suit.

With a grin on her face, Stace quickly trots up to another of the lockers. After Stacy opens her locker, both quickly put their suits on. Bouncing on her feet, Stacy takes another look out the window. “Just remember,” Gloria calls from behind her sister, “we’ll have comms on at all times. If something happens, Mark will help us out, alright.” as Stacy nods, Gloria talks into her mike “right Mark?”

Over the coms, a gruff, and slightly distorted voice echoes through, “yea yea, though i don't expect much to happen. You’re just going for a quick walk on the closest asteroid. The scanner hasn’t picked up any life besides us for the entire belt. Just don’t take too long, don’t know what you two are even expecting.”

With sarcasm in her voice, Gloria responds “thank you Mark.” turning to her sister, Gloria taps a button on the wall behind her. As the button closes the door back into the ship, Gloria moves towards her sister. Reaching for the lever to the airlock, she mutters “ready?”

With an eager smile, Stacy nods. Turning the handle, Gloria opens the door. A loud hiss rings out as the oxygen escapes outside. As the door fully opens, Stacey jumps out of the airlock, straight for the closest asteroid. “Whee!” she yells out, giggling as she flies through the air.

“Hey!” Gloria calls out, reaching out of the airlock. “Be careful!” groaning, Gloria also jumps out of the airlock. As Gloria lands on the asteroid, Stacey is already looking around at the formations. Walking up beside Stacey, Gloria mutters “well, there really isn’t much here.”

Over the coms, a gruff “told you” rings out from Mark. Rolling her eyes Gloria walks around the rock for a bit. Reaching down to the ground, Gloria picks up a smaller rock. As she looks at it for a second, Stacey runs around with her hands in the air.

With a smirk, Gloria takes a glance over at Stacey. “Hey Stacey!” Gloria yells, causing her to stop. As Stacey walks up to her, Gloria tosses the rock to Stacey. “Here, I have an idea.” looking at the rock with confusion, Stacey begins to question what the plan is.

Bending down, Gloria picks up another small rock. With a smirk, she points to one of the other asteroids. “See if you can hit it.” tilting her head, Stacey watches Gloria. Reeling back, Gloria then throws the rock, causing it to soar and hit the asteroid she pointed at.

Giggling, Stacey does the same thing. As her rock flies through space, it completely misses the target. “Aww.” she sulks, watching the rock continue to fly into space. Quickly perking up though, she turns to Gloria. “I know it’s not much, but I am grateful we got to spend time together.”

Smiling in return, Gloria responds “I know, it’s been years since we’ve seen each other.” looking off into space, she begins to remember a time long ago. “Ever since I became a captain, it’s been hard to get time back home.” with a devious look, she grins at Stacey. “So when you said you needed a job, I thought it would be perfect to spend time with my only family.”

Grumbling, Stacey glares at Gloria. “Hey, no fair. I told you the only reason I needed a job was because my acting career was starting to go downhill.” with a sigh, she continues “apparently nobody wants someone like me.”

With concern both on her face, and in her tone, Gloria asks “what exactly happened?” she puts her hand on Stacey’s shoulder as she continues “one minute you were doing great, and the next thing i hear is some story about how you’ve become a drug addict or some shit? Doesn’t look like it to me, you look fine.”

“Well…” Staceys’ voice trails off, as she turns away. Gloria’s arm falls back to her side, as Stacey keeps beginning to walk off. “I wasn’t an addict, but… there was a party… one guy, he… He brought them, but he never told me what it was.” with a half hearted chuckle she continues “guess I should've known.”

“Hey.” Gloria responds, catching up to Stacey. Putting her hand back on Stacey’s shoulder, she smiles “sometimes shit happens. It’s not always your fault but…” turning Stacey around, Gloria looks her right in the eyes. “What matters is that you get back on your feet, and keep moving forwards. That’s why you’re here, right?”

Nodding, Stacey moves closer to Gloria. Putting their arms around each other, they begin to hug as Stacey relaxes her shoulders. Looking in the distance, Stacey mutters, “what’s… what is that?”

Breaking the hug, Gloria turns around. Looking around, nothing but space and rock surround them. “I don’t see anything.” Gloria mutters, as she continues looking. Chuckling, mentions “you’re probably ju…” *Crack* the sound of something hitting rock rings out.

Quickly turning around, Gloria looks in the distance. Stacey, already facing the other way, raises her arm to point. “O. over there. I saw something.” taking a step back, she begins to shake. “It almost looked like a giant, b. black lizard.”

Continuing to shake, Stacey takes another step back. “What's going on out there?” Mark's voice comes over the coms. Looking around, Gloria carefully looks around the asteroid. Still shaking, Stacey's eyes dart to her right.

Putting her hand on her sister's shoulder, Gloria pulls her back. “Get behind me.” she mentions, keeping her arm in front of Stacey. Keeping her sister behind her, Gloria slowly starts walking backwards towards the ship. “Something out here.” Gloria mutters into her coms.

Back in the ship, Mark jumps into the captain's seat. Looking at the display, only two white blips appear on the radar. “I’m not seeing anything.” flipping a few switches to the side, the radar zooms in. a better outline of the asteroid appears on the screen, accompanied by only two blips still.

Shaking his head, he continues “yea, there’s nothing out there. You sure she’s not just spooked?” standing up from the seat, he looks out the window. “Damn, from this angle I can't see anything.”

“There!” one of the voices calls from over the radio. “Look out!” she yells. *crash* the sound of breaking glass echoes over the coms. Frantically jumping out of his seat, Mark heads back over to his station.

With sweat running down his face, he touches a few buttons to the left of his monitor. “No! Stacey!” the voice calls from the coms. “Come on! No, don't you dare die on me! Mark, get Emma! Stacey needs medical attention now!”

“On it!” Mark yells, running out of the cockpit. Running through the corridor, Mark passes the airlock. Running past it, he heads to the back room. As the door slides upwards to open, Mark scrambles into the new room.

The dining room where he now stands is small. Only three tables sit, and an opening to the kitchen in the back. With the tables and chairs being made of metal, they all maintain a greyish color.

“Emma!” Mark yells, running up to the younger lady at the table. Panting, he nearly slams his hands on the table she sits at. Looking up at him, she sits eating a standard hamburger. Her curly red hair runs down to her shoulders, while the freckles on her face highlight her forest green eyes. Panting, Mark looks her dead in the eyes, “Somethings happened, we need you now!”

Worry quickly overcomes her face, before she nods and jumps up. Turning around, Mark runs back out the door. Quickly following him, Emma chases after him. “What happened? It sounds serious.”

Gritting his teeth, Mark responds “i don’t know.” he quickly turns to the airlock, as Gloria holds Stacey inside. Hitting a button on the control pad, the door flies open. Nearly in tears, Gloria rushes through the door. “Quickly!” Emma looks down to see Staecy’s helmet busted open.

At a quick glance, a small stab wound appears on the right side of Staceys neck. Putting her hands to stacey’s neck, Emma checks for her pulse. As blood slowly spills out from her neck, Stecey lays there motionless in Glorias hands.

Closing her eyes, anger takes over Emma’s face. “She… she’s gone…” a single tear begins to run down Emma’s face, as Gloria stands there in shock. Clenching her fist, Emma turns away, and looks up at Mark.

With fear in his eyes, Mark turns to Gloria “wha… what happened?” he asks, his voice cold and distant. “How… did this…” his face slowly turns blank, as he looks on with dread. With tears running down her face, Gloria looks at them both.

With a cracky voice, she turns to Emma “thats it? Isn’t there something we can do? We’re on a medical supply ship. We have to have something!” Gloria pleads, but Emma just turns away.

Holding back tears herself, she spits “i know!” struggling to breath, she continues “we have all this crap here, but none of it will save her. A wound like that while exposed to space caused her to die faster than normal. There’s nothing I, or anyone else can do…”

As the three stand there, a new voice calls from the direction of the diner. “What's going on here!” a man in his mid twenties walks up. Completely bald, his strong blue eyes look at the three standing there. His eyes fixated on the dead body, as his gaze intensified. “How, what’s going on here?”

As everyone stands there, Mark’s the first one to break the silence. “The captain. And co-captain. Went out for a walk on the asteroids.'' He talks slowly, still trying to wrap his head around everything. “Then they were attacked. By something.”

Growing with both anger and concern, the new guy looks at Staceys dead body. “If there’s something out there, then we need to get ready. If it killed one of our crew… then it will pay dearly. With it’s life.”

Trying to clear her nose, Gloria sniffs as tears continue rolling down her face. “Emma?” slowly turning, Emma looks at Gloria with sorrowful eyes. “Can. Can we take her to the medbay? We… we could…”

Nodding, Emma slowly turns in the opposite direction. “Yes. come on.'' Starting to walk away, Gloria follows Emma through the hallways. Opening a new door, they all walk into a room with a few glass cabinets. All of the cabinets are filled with various different medicines.

Gesturing to the only table in the room, Emma mutters “put her there.” nodding, Gloria sets her down. With tears still filling her eyes, she gently puts her hand on Stacey’s face. With a quick motion, Emma puts her hair in a ponytail. Picking up a syringe, she quickly moves over to Stacey.

Inserting the needle into Stacey's arm, she steadily draws a vial of blood. Moving over to a computer, she sets the vial in a glass container. Sitting in her seat, she starts tapping at a computer. “Uhm…” Gloria interrupts, “ shou…” taking a deep breath, she starts again. “We need to get ready, incase that creature comes back.”

Turning in her chair, Emma grins at Gloria “already on it.” turning back in her seat, she taps a few more keys. “By analyzing her blood, we can determine what attacked her. If there’s any abnormalities, we might be able to find out something about that thing.” quickly typing away, an error message pops up, covering the screen. “Shit!”

Shaking her head, Gloria walks up to Emma. “password expired?''groaning, Emma puts her hands to her head. “Hey, I'll go get Tyler. He’ll be able to fix it faster than anyone.” nodding, Emma stands up and walks over to Stacey’s body.

As Gloria begins to walk out the door, Emma calls out “hey, be careful. We don’t know what’ll happen.” smirking, Gloria walks out of the door, leaving Emma alone. After only a few seconds, the man from before enters the room.

Walking up to Emma, he puts his hands behind his back. “Anything suspicious?” he asks, looking down at her. Shaking her head, she glances over at Stacey. Keeping his posture, the guy looks over as well. “I see.” relaxing himself, he walks over to the body. “It’s hard to lose someone. I can’t imagine what Gloria is thinking right now.”

With a huff, Emma looks at him. “Really Chaz? I bet you i can guess what she’s thinking clear as day.” raising an eyebrow, he looks back at her. “The only reason she’s keeping it together is because she wants that creature dead. You heard her talk about her sister before, she loved her. Once we-”

*clang* the sounds of metal scraping metal, rings out. *crash* the sounds of objects falling, echo’s through the whole ship. *crash* heavy objects slamming into the ground, *crunch* followed by wood breaking.

Worry overtakes Chaz as he glances back at Emma. “the storage.” pulling a pistol out from his coat, he quickly runs out the door. Following close behind him, Emma keeps on his tail. As they reach the corridor, Chaz stops. Taking a quick glance around the corner, the hallway remains completely empty.

Quickly hurrying down the hall, he stops halfway to the dining hall. Turning to his left, a single door sits in the middle of the hallway. Pressing the button to its side, the door rushes open, revealing a small winding staircase. Rushing forwards, Chaz quickly runs down the single flight of stairs.

Reaching another door, he hits the button next to it. As the door rushes open, he points his gun forwards, but freezes. Blood splattered all over the wall in front of him. Trying to shake off his fear, he turns to his right. Turning to his left, he sees a pair of legs get dragged back behind a broken crate.

Hesitantly swallowing, Chaz walks forwards, aiming his gun in front of him. Slowly walking towards the crate, his footsteps echo through the room. Nearing the crate, he slows his pace. Stopping just short of the crate he takes in a deep breath. Charging around the corner, Chaz aims his gun forwards.

“AAAHH!” Chaz’s scream echoes through the whole ship. *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* three shots ring out, before silence. The clattering of something moving about echoes through the whole ship.

Back in the med bay, Emma quickly mashes at the keys. “Come on, come on!” she yells at the computer, as she frantically tries to reset her password. “Wait, I got it!” reaching into a filing cabinet, she pulls out a book.

Quickly flipping through the pages, she stops near the beginning. “There!” she shouts, as she throws the book aside. As she resumes typing, Mark enters the med bay. With fear in his eyes, he turns to the door, slowly backing away.

As he nears the wall, he looks at Emma, who ignores him and keeps working. “Did you hear that? Oh god. We’re next. If it got Chaz, he was our only soldier.” quivering, he slowly sinks to the floor. “Oh god, oh god!” putting his hands over his head, sweat quickly rushes down his face. “We’re going to die!”

“Shut it!” Emma shouts, as she keeps typing. Suddenly, the error message disappears, as a whirring sound comes from the glass box. “Got it!” after whirring for only a couple seconds, it stops. A flood of data pours onto the screen, as Emma quickly reads it over.

Suddenly flying open, the door out of the med bay retracts. With pure horror on his face, Mark watches the door. Busting through the door, Gloria quickly spins around. Slamming her hand on the button, the door quickly shuts. Pantsing, she slowly drops to her knees.

Catching her breath, she turns to the others. “I… it got them. When I went to get Tyler, it already got him.” raising her knees, she puts her arms around her legs. “Oh god, it almost got me, but I hid… then. Then I saw it get Chaz. it just… it…” looking up, her eyes widen as she looks at Emma.

Sitting in her seat, Emma continues to pour over the data on her screen. “Right right, i already knew all of that… okay, and th-” cutting herself off, she stares at the screen. Standing up, Gloria slowly walks over to Emma.

Slowly walking across the room, Gloria takes a few seconds to get over to Emma. Still quivering, Mark looks up at them. “H. Hey, what's going on? Why is everybody so silent all of a sudden? Are we dead? We’re dead aren’t we? Oh god!” he lowers his head once more, as he continues to panik.

Slowly turning in her chair, Emma looks up at Gloria. “I ran her blood work.” she mutters, gesturing over to the body. “Everything came back normal.” she talks slowly, as she blankly stares up at Gloria. “At first I thought that the creature might just be killing with claws, or something like that.”

A smile begins to form on Glorias face, as she looks down at Emma. “but there was one thing i found, one tiny bit of info that i really did not like.” the two stare, as Glorias face becomes darker. The look she gives Emma was that of pure malice.

Putting her hands behind her back, Gloria smiles wide, as her eyes grow bigger. “Oh? And what exactly is it that you found?” tilting her head to the right, Gloria stares, unblinking at Emma. “Was it the knife that was used to kill her?”

Slowly raising his head, Mark looks at them with a confused expression. “Wh...wha?” looking at Emma, he notices sweat slowly running down her face. A quick glance over at the body and Mark starts to realize.

“No.” Emma stutters. Swallowing to catch herself, she slowly breathes in. “What I found was that the one laying over there isn’t Stacey. So that means… you are.” starting to slowly laugh, Stacey looks down at her.

Laughing harder and harder, Stacey takes a step back. Putting her hand to her face, she looks down at Emma through her fingers. “Oh man, oh god. This was some of the best acting I've ever done. Hehe. haha, HAHAHA!” throwing her arm down, she maniacally laughs into the air, as she takes in the full situation.

“H..how?” Marks barely gets out the words, as he stands up. With pure fear in his eyes, he looks at Stacey. “How could you? You lied about a monster?” with a hughes smile, Stacey just nods at Mark. “and then killed your own sister? Why?!”

“Why?” Steacey asks, tilting her head again. “Why, why why why? Hm, why indeed. Her tone changes to anger, “Maybe it has something to do with being out in space for too damn long” then it changes to sorrow “maybe i just wanted to feel wanted.” stopping her changing expressions, she glares through Mark. “or maybe, just maybe. I’m so messed up from the drugs, I thought it would be fun.”

Slowly sliding her chair to Mark, Emma reaches behind her to one of the cabinets. “So that’s it. You’re just doing this for the drugs.” directly behind her, Emma opens the bottom drawer. Out of sight of Stacey, Emma slowly reaches inside the drawer. “You’re just doing this for the drugs? Then why wait? Why not just kill us all right away?”

Chuckling, Stacey responds “why? Well I had to find out a few things. See, doing the drugs on set, behind everyones back, I had to learn how to hide it. I became an even better actress because of them.” growing more serious, she watches Emma closely. Stopping her movements, Emma stares back at Gloria. “I never cared about acting, I just used it as a chance to get higher.”

Letting out a sigh, Stacey lets her guard down. Taking her chance, Emma starts digging around the drawer. “But as to why I had to wait. Well there's a few reasons. First off, I wanted you to be locked out because of your password. So i had to wait for the right time.”

Gritting her teeth, Emma continues to search around the desk. “Second'' Stacey continues, '' I had to grab the gun you keep stored in the drawer you’re looking for.” pure fear suddenly overtakes Emma, as her blood runs cold.

With a smile on her face, Staey reaches behind her and pulls out the handgun. Not hesitating, she points it at Emma. *BANG* The shot rings out, as the bullet hits Emma’s shoulder. Grunting to the pain, she uses her off hand to grab her shoulder.

Starting to giggle, Stacey looks at Emma with pleasure. “Oh, did that hurt? I’m sorry.” walking towards her, Stacey reaches into her pocket with her free hand. “Here, let me help you.” with terror and pain strewn across her face, Emma tears up as she watches Stacey.

Approaching Emma, Stacey quickly pulls out a needle, and sticks it into Emma’s neck. Squeezing the syringe, she pushes a clear liquid into Emma’s neck. After Stacey pulls the needle out, Emma’s body begins to go limp. Her eyes start to glaze over, as her arms drop to the floor.

“What did you do!?” Mark screams out, standing up. Glaring at Stacey, his entire body fills with rage. “I asked you a question, what did you inject into her?” he takes a step towards Stacey, but stops as his eyes catch the gun.

With a stern expression, Stacey looks Mark up and down. “No, I don't think I like the way you look.” he looks him dead in the eye, as she raises the gun. “Get out of the way.” *BANG* The shot rings out, as Mark's body hits the floor. The shot went right through his forehead, just above his right eye.

Giggling with a smile, Stacey turns back to Emma. Straddling her, Stacey sits on Emma's lap, facing her. Gently brushing her face with her free hand, she mutters “you and I are going to have a bit of fun.” she begins to giggle at her thoughts, as she pulls up another syringe.

Sticking the needle part into Emma, she injects the drug into her. Emma’s face becomes numb, as her eyes glaze over. Giggling to herself, Stacey pulls out yet another shot. Sticking it into her own neck, she gently releases it into her. After she finishes, she drops it to the ground. “Oooh yeah… hehe, that’s the stuff…”

Falling back to the ground, she begins to wiggle on the ground. Laughing to herself, she hugs her body as she squirms. Letting out a light sigh, she gets onto her hands and knees. “Oh, one more won’t hurt.” she mutters, pulling out another. Injecting herself again, a huge smile overtakes her. Falling to the ground, face down, her eyes begin to gloss over. Slowly closing them, she passes out onto the floor.