Christian Oesterling - Blank Space - Into the Depths of the Universe

‘All other priorities overwrote, Captain?’ It was Prissy, wanting to know her position.

‘All other priorities overwrote, copied and confirmed.’ It was with that, that the crew of Nightingale began a manhunt, hoping against all possible odds that the whole event was just some freakish nightmare.

The crew of Nightingale, those surviving at least, prowled the silent chambers of the ship. The creaking and groaning put them on edge; they had long since shut out the sound of the engines from their ears. Prissy watched from her overlord position inside the observation room, eyes scanning furiously for anything that might help protect her companions. She couldn’t understand why Duma could have gone rogue. It didn’t make sense to her; they were so close to home after all. There was nothing that he had done wrong, and as far as she knew, their archaeologist didn’t have a guilty conscious of anything. Prissy shuddered, rubbing her arms for warmth, before realizing that she hadn’t shivered due to any cold. There was simply something fundamentally wrong with the situation that they were in as a crew. Something very wrong.

Holden opened the door to the dining room, mugs still lying unwashed. Plates still had the slight remains of the food-sludge clinging to their edges. He held the gun out straight, ready to shoot on sight for anything that moved. He looked behind the door, seeing nobody except his own imagination’s ghosts. Eyes sharp, ears alert, he moved into the center of the room, fully aware of his openness to attack. He had seen the body, gods he had puked over it, thrown up his stomach all over the floor of the ship. He had left it there, stinking in the corridor; thinking that his captain would forgive him for abandoning his janitorial duties under the circumstances. Yuki’s body slashed to ribbons, Holden’s insides hadn’t been able to take it.

As a psychologist and has worked in a mental asylum for several years, he was well aware of the atrocities that people could do to their fellow civilians. He had once worked with a Vernite that had developed an unruly habit of biting the head of anyone who didn’t say ‘please’ at the end of a sentence aimed towards it. He had seen images of the remains of his patient’s meals and had been disgusted yes, but never lost control. The Vernite in question, whose name was Kurochin, was very well mannered, quiet, receptive, and never did anything out of place as long as Holden was working with him. Then again, he always remembered to say ‘please’ at the end of his sentences. Throughout all of the sessions with him, he had found nothing wrong with his brain, no corruption of the mind, absolutely nothing. He had just had a strange habit, a violent little personal colloquialism of the teeth.

Kurochin’s violent behavior had been hidden from his friends and family for over 148 years, his insectoid wings always humming perfectly soundly without ever skipping a beat. Holden now wondered if Duma had had some sort of issue or condition that had lain dormant until now. Maybe the stress of the situation set something off in his head, a little breakage in that mental chain that holds everyone together, and it had sent him just over the edge. Take a knife in the hand; slash everyone up for an inconceivable reason. Perhaps Duma was unaware of it himself.

Holden moved down through the connecting corridor, checking and scanning for any sign of movement. His footsteps, to him, were impossibly loud, and he considered slipping off his shoes and walking barefoot through the ship to avoid detection. After due thought, however, he decided to keep his feet in their scabbards, deciding that the pain of walking on the grated floors would outweigh the advantage he would gain from the silence of having them off. His footfalls were probably quieter than he thought anyway, he decided.

He rounded a corner, whirling to check behind him before a strange sensation came upon him. It was like a throbbing in his head, a pulsating headache of which he had never experienced in his life. He doubled over, the intensity was growing, causing him to lean against the rails of the ship and put his hands to his temples. It was as if someone was trying to probe into his head, attempting to determine all the secrets contained within. The agony was soon becoming excruciating, his vision was starting to blur. He was aware that if Duma saw him in this state, he would be dead quicker than an Eros-fish on a Brykthylosian’s dinner plate.

In his head, he heard the strangest things. He thought he heard Yuki’s voice, however not her voice at the same time. It was as if her voice was being used by someone else, it seemed disembodied and almost possessed. Holden gripped his gun tighter (not aware that he had squeezed the trigger, a hole appearing in the floor beside him) as he heard Duma’s voice as well, although he couldn’t discern what he was saying. Again, his voice sounded as if someone else was speaking through a voice-filter and changing it to Duma’s vocals. It was not right, it felt like a violation of someone’s personality, even if they had apparently lost it and butchered a beautiful young woman. Holden looked from side to side through blurred vision, but could not see Duma slinking down the corridor towards him, muttering under his breath and vowing to kill the brain-man.

Almost as soon as it began, the strangeness faded away, and the throbbing in Holden’s head began to fade. The whole episode had lasted mere seconds, and yet as he panted for breath, exhausted by the event that had befallen him, it seemed as if he had been clutching his head for hours. ‘What happened there?’ he wondered to himself. It wasn’t normal, that was for sure. He hadn’t experienced anything like it in his life, and he didn’t like it. At this stage in one’s life, he thought, he should have experienced most things that life had to throw at him. He was getting on a bit, his cousin had recently told him, and he had to start to take it easy. Having something affect your mind in such a strange way was not taking it easy. Holden soon recovered, however, aware that a knife-wielding psychopath was on the loose, and began to move off on the hunt once again, never noticing the blasted hole in the ship.

Elsewhere in the ship, the other four crewmembers had all had similar experiences. All of them had bent over double, their heads moaning and groaning in an incredibly painful and unpleasant manner. When they regained their composure, however, all of them had thought the incident had occurred only to them, and so completely blanked out the thought of mentioning it on the coms system. They did not remove it from their minds however, and Jenny was still thinking about it as she came around a corner near the very back of the ship. She had recently heard a groan come from this general direction and had moved down there to check it out.

‘Prissy,’ she whispered into the ship. ‘Any sign of him near me? I thought I heard something.’ There was silence, aside from the movement of the ship as it continued on its last frantic speed towards civilization once again.

‘Nothing Jenny, I haven’t seen him this whole time,’ the second in command replied. Prissy looked over all of the monitors, to no avail. The maniac could not be located, and if what Oliver had reported to her was correct, Nightingale couldn’t even find them. Or it still wasn’t cooperating, but either way, they couldn’t use their ship. Prissy continued to look throughout the ship for her demon companion, but couldn’t source him. As her eyes looked over the screens before her, she thought she spotted something, and then, no. No, she didn’t see anything.

‘I’m still looking for him Jenny; he’s a crafty bugger that’s for sure. Duma, never knew you could win the Celestrian hide-and-seek championships,’ she spoke through the ship, and despite the horror of the situation, Jenny couldn’t stifle her laugh. Good old Prissy, way to lighten the situation every time. With renewed energy, but still wary of her surroundings, she set off again in search of the source of the noise she had heard.