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

‘Nightingale,’ Yuki chirped.

‘Yes Yuki,’ the ship replied.

‘Do you have the results back from Holden’s testing?’

‘I do. Would you like me to send them to your personal Halo-Core?’

‘That would be great Nightingale,’ she said, ‘thank you.’

‘I am pleased to help in any way that I can,’ Nightingale answered. A quick three-note tone told Yuki that the information had arrived. She took her device and pulled up the information in front of her. Projected towards her were various graphs of data, statistics, numbers, and tables. Heart rate, blood rate, blood contamination rate, breathing results, water levels, sugar levels, even DNA mutation rates. Five minutes later, she tossed it onto the table, in the same manner, that Holden had done not long before.

‘So, who’s drugged me?’ he asked in his typical sarcastic tone.

‘Fortunately, nobody. Your biological signs are perfectly normal.’

‘So if I’m right in the body, and you’re right in the head, and we apply these results to everyone because everyone saw the same thing…’

‘Then we reach the conclusion,’ Yuki said, ‘that we really saw the thing on the screen.’

‘This is weird as hell,’ Holden sighed, a slight exasperation in his exhale.

Up in the cockpit, Oliver went over every device he had available to him, to try and find any evidence of tampering with the machinery. Dials were turned, levers pulled and pushed, commands asked of Nightingale and followed through. Several instruction manuals were consulted, including one or two that Oliver didn’t even realize existed.

Nothing.

Everything he tried, attempted, came up empty for him. According to Nightingale, and every instrument and rewind he could try and try again, there had been nothing on that hologram, save for the lonely, isolated blinking of their position in the blank space. He decided to ask how his first and second in command were doing.

‘Nightingale, get me in touch with Leon and Prissy down in the main database.’ Four tone notification.

‘Guys, any luck down there?’ he asked.

‘You won’t believe it. We’ve found the footage, and put it onto my Halo-Core, but I don’t think you’re ready for it,’ Leon came in. Oliver gripped an armrest.

‘Please tell me we’re all sane.’

‘That’s the bizarre thing. Holden and Yuki have come back to tell me that there’s nothing wrong with us, either biologically or psychologically. But this footage, we can see us around the hologram.’

‘And?’ He heard Leon sigh.

‘We’re all pointing at nothing.’ Oliver frowned. Had he just heard his captain correctly?

‘What do you mean we’re all pointing at nothing?’

‘I mean…’ but he never got further than that. Because at that moment, Nightingale lost power, and blacked out.

The lights onboard flickered off, as if someone had attached a hose to them and drained the power, slurping away. The noise reduced as well, Leon felt the engines die as well as heard them, powering down to tick over into idle. The loss of engines meant that the heating also began to fade, drifting away like a piece of debris floating in open space. Holden and Yuki, seconds after the lights disappeared into the black, began to shiver.

The crew, rightly so, we’re in a state of confusion for a good ten seconds. In the dark, with no way to tell what had just happened.

‘Leon, what’s going on?’ Prissy muttered.

‘I don’t know, the engines have just…’

‘The engines have just what? What’s happened, Leon?’

‘They’ve just, died,’ he replied in disbelief.

‘I can’t see a thing. What do you mean they’ve just died?’

‘Well they haven’t completely died, but it’s like someone has put them on standby,’ Leon said. He tried activating the Halo-Core in front of the right engine, but with no response. He moved over to try the left one and ended up getting the same result. He grunted in annoyance, but internally was starting to get worried.

‘I’m going to come down.’

‘Prissy stay up there. If you can’t see a thing then if you trip we’re fucked,’ he commanded.

‘I can’t stay up here…’

‘Prissy that’s an order, stay where you are,’ he repeated, and the footsteps of his second in command stopped. There were a few seconds of complete silence before a small, faint vibration could be felt. Leon frowned and dropped onto his stomach, resting his hands on the floor. Yes, there was definitely some power still there, still going.

‘Captain. Captain, come in, answer.’ It was Oliver, somehow over the coms system. Leon jerked himself upright and looked towards the far corner of the room, towards the speaker.

‘Oliver, what the hell’s going on?’ Back in the cockpit, the navigator of Nightingale was furiously flicking switches, lighting lights and pushing buttons. It was like that old song about the guy that worked in the button factory, and you ended up doing more actions pushing buttons until eventually you were kicking and pushing and nodding and using your tongue and pirouetting like a mental patient in the science labs of Kalvulseah.

‘I’ve not a clue Leon, the thing just died. I’m trying to activate the emergency backup power unit now; it should give us some rudimentary controls and lighting.’ He got up from his chair and ran to a panel of controls on the left wall, in the dark feeling his way for a slot on the wall.

‘How are the others?’ Prissy asked.

‘I’m ok down here,’ Jenny came back.

‘I and Holden are fine in here, just can’t see a thing,’ Yuki answered. The door to the cockpit opened up and Duma entered.

‘Duma, go over there,’ Oliver gestured to his right, ‘and put it into setting 62, see what that does.’ Duma did so silently, bashing into a chair but remaining on his feet. His fingers trailed over the controls with practiced ease, putting them into a predetermined configuration. He alerted Oliver to it having been done, pretty quickly considering it was pitch black he thought proudly to himself, and Oliver finally found the slot he was searching for. He inserted a card into the wall, and a system of faint lights lit up around the ship. It wasn’t much, but enough to see by.

‘Lights are up guys, all doors should work, and I’ve got some controls,’ he informed the crew.

‘I think it would be good to meet up in the cockpit in case something happens again and we are left stumbling blindly in the dark,’ Jenny mentioned.

‘Seconded,’ Prissy piped, making her way casually down the stairs back to Leon, she assumed it would be ok to do that now.

‘Agreed; everyone to the cockpit as quickly as possible. Let’s find out what the hell is going on.’

Jenny was the last to enter the cockpit, a belt with seven XF 50 Alphas and two Automatic Se7er-Gammas over her shoulders. She quickly dispersed the 50’s, one to each crewmember. She kept one Gamma for herself, readjusting it to being slung onto her back, and propped one against the wall. ‘If something happens, this is the place that needs defending,’ she reasoned with them, and that seemed to fly with Leon.

‘So what happened Oliver?’ she asked.

‘Damned if I know. I’m just trying to get Nightingale to play ball with the footage and boom, dead. It was as if someone pulled a switch.’

‘Any idea what could have caused it?’ Holden enquired.

‘I didn’t even know this thing could just shut down on its own,’ Duma said.

‘It shouldn’t be able to, and of all the places to have a major malfunction this is the worst.’

‘We need to get Nightingale back up and running again. This is getting out of hand,’ said Prissy.