Chapter 2: Shadows in the Void
995 Words
There’s something about uncharted space that makes your skin crawl. Maybe it’s the quiet—too quiet. Or maybe it’s knowing that out here, anything could be lurking, watching, waiting.
As we dropped out of warp, The Horizon glided into the black void of sector 19-Beta. No planets, no stars, no asteroids. Just endless nothing. It was eerie, even for me.
“Great,” Zara muttered over the comms from the engine bay. “Empty space. Love that for us. Super inviting.”
“Don’t jinx it,” I replied, scanning the faint readings on the navigation panel. The distress signal was still pinging, but weakly—like a candle flickering in the wind. “Tia, what’s the signal look like now?”
Tia leaned closer to her console, chewing the end of her pen—a habit I’d tried and failed to break. “Still coming from dead ahead, but it’s all static. Whatever sent it, it’s barely holding on.”
I frowned. The voice from earlier had sounded desperate, but now there was nothing but a faint whine of static. Not a great sign.
“I don’t like this,” Zara’s voice cut in again, crackling slightly over the intercom. “It’s too quiet. No debris, no ships, not even a rock. It’s like someone vacuumed space.”
“You’re literally the one who said it might be a trap,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but I didn’t mean I wanted to be right!” she shot back.
I snorted. “Noted. Keep the engines warm. We might need to make a fast exit.”
Zara grumbled something incoherent, but I knew she was already running through her mental checklist. Zara Kai might complain like it was her second job, but she never let us down. If anything went wrong out here, she’d be ready.
“Captain,” Tia said, cutting through my thoughts. Her voice had dropped to that quiet, serious tone she only used when something was really wrong. “I’ve got something on sensors. Dead ahead.”
I turned toward her. “What kind of something?”
“Hard to say,” she replied, her fingers dancing across the console. “It’s big. Metallic. Could be a ship, but it’s… not moving.”
“Not moving?” I echoed, frowning. “That’s strange.”
“That’s bad,” Zara corrected over the intercom.
Ignoring her, I leaned closer to the viewport. At first, I couldn’t see anything. Just the endless black. But then, there it was—a faint silhouette against the void. A massive structure, its edges sharp and angular, like a claw frozen mid-swipe.
“It’s a ship,” I said softly, though I wasn’t sure if I was reassuring myself or the crew.
“Not like any ship I’ve ever seen,” Tia murmured.
She wasn’t wrong. The thing looked ancient, its hull covered in dark, jagged panels that seemed to absorb the faint light of nearby stars.
“Any life signs?” I asked.
“Scanning,” Tia replied. After a few tense seconds, she shook her head. “Nothing. No movement, no heat signatures.”
I tapped my fingers against the armrest of my chair, my mind racing. The distress signal had to have come from somewhere. But if this ship was dead in the water…
“What’s the call, Captain?” Tia asked, turning to look at me.
I hesitated. This was the part I hated about being in charge. Every decision weighed a little heavier when you knew the lives of your crew were riding on it.
Before I could answer, Zara’s voice broke through the silence. “Let me guess—you’re going to want to board it, aren’t you?”
“We need to know if someone’s alive over there,” I said, already standing up.
“Of course we do,” Zara muttered. “Because running toward creepy, abandoned ships in the middle of nowhere is the responsible thing to do.”
“Zara, you’re with me,” I said, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair.
There was a long pause on the intercom. Then: “I hate you.”
“I know.”
Minutes later, Zara and I were suiting up in the airlock. She was still grumbling under her breath, but I knew she wouldn’t let me go alone. That was the thing about Zara—she could complain all she wanted, but when it came down to it, she had my back every time.
“This is such a bad idea,” she said, adjusting the seal on her helmet.
“Probably,” I admitted, checking my oxygen supply.
“See, this is why you’re lucky I like you, Nova. Any other captain? I’d lock the airlock behind them and call it a day.”
“Good thing I’m your favorite,” I said with a grin.
She didn’t respond, but I caught the faintest smirk as she double-checked her toolkit.
We stepped into the docking corridor, the airlock hissing as it cycled. The abandoned ship loomed ahead, its dark hull pressing against The Horizon like a sleeping beast. My stomach churned, but I ignored it.
“Remember,” I said as the outer door opened, “we’re just here to check for survivors. Get in, get out. Easy.”
Zara snorted. “Famous last words.”
We crossed the threshold, our boots clanging against the cold, metallic floor. The air inside was stale, the kind of stillness that made your hair stand on end. My flashlight beam cut through the darkness, revealing walls lined with strange markings—symbols I didn’t recognize.
“You see this?” I asked, pointing at the symbols.
Zara nodded, her eyes narrowing. “Yeah. And I don’t like it. Let’s find your survivors and get out of here.”
But as we moved deeper into the ship, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we weren’t alone.
- Writer
