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

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well,’ Oliver began, ‘let’s say we find a rock, floating out here in this god-forsaken emptiness that’s got less life than the Abyssal Cluster. What will that tell you? That no bugger has taken a dump out here for a thousand years so it’s ok to claim it as ours?’

‘To be honest I’ve no clue what we are going to find. If we find that there has been something out there and they’ve kicked the bucket, it’s going to be me to find out if anything’s going to come back and eat it, or if it’s actually dead, stuff like that.’

‘You’re our death expert then?’ Duma grinned.

‘That’s about it.’

‘Fair enough, just wondering. ’Cuz we’ve been flying through this for a while and I can’t seem to think of shit that we’d actually find out here in the blank space. How far are they wanting us to go in before we say “nope, nothing here? Go on Celestria, shove another outpost here, no clue who’s going to visit but ah well, I’m sure we can hold events here. Negotiations in the abyss, coming to a Halo-Core near you.”’ Duma shrugged.

‘No clue man, probably better off asking Leon about that, or Prissy.’ Duma informed his pilot.

‘Yeah,’ Oliver sighed, ‘you’re probably right. Thanks, man, have fun doing whatever you’re doing.’ Duma laughed.

‘Nothing interesting, texts and the likes. Have fun with scanning for sod all.’

‘Will do man,’ Oliver said, ‘over and out.’ The navigator switched off the coms system and retreated back into his bubble of fury over a cube with smaller cubes, which endlessly eluded conformity.

It seemed that Duma had barely returned to his work when the door beeped at him. He glanced up from his texts to turn to the door.

‘Who is it?’ he called.

‘It’s me, Yuki’ came the petit, well mannered and graceful voice. Duma bade her entrance, and the door slid open. Yuki walked in, sleek and perfectly poised as always, a slight smile upon her face. Duma thought she was slightly flushed as well, but could not be sure of it. The grey of the ship was starting to get to him.

‘Hey, Yuki, what’s up?’ The young woman sat down in a chair near him.

‘Nothing much, I was just bored. Nothing much really happens does it?’

‘It does seem that we are in the process of exploring absolutely nothing at all. But the pay is good at least, and I have the chance to catch up with some of the reading material that had stacked up lately.’ Yuki laughed, although it was more of a childish giggle in Duma’s opinion.

‘Same here. It’s rather funny, isn’t it? The two of us looking for opposite things. I’m looking for anything alive, and you’re looking for anything that isn’t.’

‘Well, that is certainly one way to look at things. I think Oliver was just saying similar about me being the death expert onboard. Quite morbid I think, but perhaps apt enough.’ Yuki laughed again.

‘What harsh words for such a good looking guy,’ she commented. Duma feigned appreciation.

‘You’re too kind to me, you’re not bad yourself.’ Yuki raised an eyebrow.

‘Only not bad? That’s it?’

‘Well, when I say not bad, I actually mean that you’re pretty damn attractive. Good-natured, kind, friendly, intelligent, amiable, I could go on but I think you get the picture.’ Duma smiled kindly, he meant most of those in the list. Yuki moved in closer to him.

‘Keep going.’ Duma’s surprise was genuine at this simple statement.

‘Oh, ok. Well, you’re pretty funny, especially at mealtimes. That one about the guy that flew into the sun of the Starburst Galaxy was pretty epic.’ Yuki crept closer to him. Duma could almost feel her breath upon him.

‘What else?’

‘Uhh, well, I guess…’ he never got any further. Yuki’s tongue had found its way into his mouth, and her hands were deep into his hair. Duma returned the compliment and the two sat there, embraced, deep into each other’s throats. The fumes both of them were giving off enticed them further, as they got more passionate with every passing second.

Then Nightingale started talking.

‘All crew are to report to the cockpit and bridge at the request of navigator Oliver.’ The couple broke; looking away nervously like two small children caught sneaking downstairs to raid the fridge.

‘Yeah,’ Duma muttered.

‘Hmmm, well…’ Yuki returned. The two sat in silence for a few seconds, the awkwardness hanging in the air like the fading cadence of a singer’s final breath.

‘I guess we’d better see what Oliver wants,’ Duma said, rising from his chair, Yuki swiftly following. She smoothed down her clothes to regain her composure as best she could. Both of them exited the room, not speaking a word to each other, barely glancing at the other, eye contact avoided as eagerly as a recent plague.

The two entered last into the cockpit, the other four having already reached their meeting point.

‘Guys, get here now,’ Oliver said, urgency soaked into his voice like chloroform on a cloth. The two rushed over to a large table, where a hologram was projected up.

‘This is what’s in our vicinity for a stretch of around 30,000km; this is zoomed out to the max. This here,’ he pointed to a flashing red dot in the center, ‘is us, Nightingale.’ Duma nodded to show he understood.

‘Ok, that’s all well and good. So what’s that over there?’ He leaned over through the projection and indicated to a flashing green dot, almost unnoticeable.

‘That,’ Oliver told him, ‘is the point. We’re in the blank space. There’s nothing here.’ Duma shivered.

‘So here’s the question,’ Prissy started. ‘What the fuck is that?’

The blip in question was barely noticeable. The crew fell silent, all staring at the blinking spot, flashing in the distance, hypnotized by it like moths to light.

‘So there is something out here after all,’ Duma spoke, breaking the silence.

‘It would appear so,’ Prissy said. The silence fell again, although all of them could seem to hear the cogs turning in each other’s heads, calculating and plotting, analyzing and deducing the meanings of what they were seeing before their eyes.

‘What actually is it Oliver?’ Leon asked, turning to him. Oliver shrugged.

‘Don’t know. Just pulled up the screen for a look, it’s got a slightly wider range than the monitors upfront, and there it was. Tell you what though,’ Oliver began. He turned around, seemingly to gather some sort of composure.

‘Hey Nightingale,’ he said.

‘Hello Oliver, what can I do for you?’ the woman’s voice was back again, with a soothing, calming quality about it. Leon’s heart was stilled very slightly by the simple politeness of it.

‘Can you put the hologram map into 3D view for me?’

‘Certainly Oliver, one moment.’ The hologram before them floated up, drifting, about a foot, and another foot of hologram appeared above and below this line.

‘This view shows us in three-dimensional space. We’re always in the middle in order to make it easier to calculate the relative position of everything else. The object,’ he pointed to the little icon, ‘is above us, relatively. It’s about half a day’s journey to get it in view of the cameras, if it’s big enough, on cruising speed, about three hours if we floor it,’ Oliver explained.

‘But we still don’t know what it is. Is there a way to get any dimensions, or any other information on it?’ Jenny asked.

‘Nightingale,’ Prissy spoke, hoping that it would pick up on her wish to speak to the ship. It was the first time she had done so.

‘Hello Prissy, what can I do for you?’

‘Can you give us any details on the object in quadrant V54, 88B, 490?’