Starflare Universe – Ghosts-5
801 Words
“The ghosts… the ghosts… they’ve got into the generators! I don’t know how they did it but the generators are ready to blow. They’re running hot and every safety cut-out has failed. We can’t risk entering hyperspace, even if we made it we couldn’t get anywhere before the generators blew. We have to get off the ship. We have to get away! I think… I think we’ll have to take the shuttles.”
Joe stopped the playback there. He’d watched the clip a dozen times already but it still sent chills through him. The video showed the captain of the Sundrenched and was the last but one recording Sparks had been able to retrieve.
Ghosts. Joe would have laughed if he couldn’t see the man’s eyes, the look of horror on his face. The captain had been terrified, so scared he was talking about using a short range shuttle to leave the ship while in the middle of interstellar space, rather than try to fix whatever was wrong with the generators.
Even then Joe would have written it off as a breakdown on the captain’s part if it wasn’t for the videos of the rest of the crew. He’d reviewed thirty or more now, all of them talking about ghosts. The stories varied from easily-explainable system failures to strange occurrences such as objects moving with video evidence they really did. Whatever happened on the ship, the ghosts got the blame.
There was no doubt the crew believed the ship to be haunted. Joe was starting to consider the fact they might be right. Several of his troopers had already reported hearing strange noises or seeing odd lights. Were they just submitting to the peculiar atmosphere and the tales of what had happened to the crew?
At least they were nearly finished with the deserted ship. Most of the cargo had been transferred already. Soon the salvage operation would enter the next phase — taking the high value items from the Sundrenched itself. They should be completely finished within forty minutes, then they could leave the haunted ship far behind.
He brought up the final video Sparks had retrieved. The Sundrenched’s captain was almost unrecognisable. The stress was gone, as was the fear. He looked calm, relieved. His voice was much firmer as he spoke.
“We’re saved. Thank the stars, we’re saved. I don’t know what the odds are of another ship being anywhere near here, let alone picking up our distress beacon, and I don’t care. The Dazanter is here and it’s taking my crew as fast as they can cycle through the airlock. There’s one more group going now, then I’ll go through on my own. The captain should be last off his ship, of course, but I’ll be more than happy to leave the Sundrenched to the ghosts… for as long as it lasts.”
The video cut off there, leaving more questions than answers. One in particular was bugging Joe. He opened a comm channel.
“Sparks,” he said. “Have you finished yet?”
“I’d have told you if I did, Captain.”
“I know. Sorry. Something about this whole situation has me on edge.”
“Just one thing? I can name five off the top of my head. Ah… wait a second… here we go… make that six things. I’ve finished searching the Sundrenched’s status logs. There was no instability in the generators at any time.”
“You’re sure? Not even a glitch in the systems which made it seem like the generators were in trouble?”
“No, nothing. The logs record what’s going on in the system and which alerts are being generated. I’m sorry Captain, there never was any problem with the generators.”
“How about the ship they transferred to… are there any records of that?”
“Yes. It was definitely there and docked with the Sundrenched for twenty minutes or so. The airlock was cycled a number of times then it undocked and left.”
“Alright. Thanks. Let me know if you come across anything else important.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Joe sat for several seconds, considering what he’d just learnt. He really needed an hour or two to think this through, to work out just what was happening, but his instincts told him they didn’t have anywhere near that long. He opened a different comm channel.
“Blaze, terminate the mission. Execute a hostile withdrawal.”
“What… why Captain? No one has been attacked have they?”
“No, not yet, but I’m getting a really bad feeling about the Sundrenched. I want everyone off that ship within five minutes and I plan to be leaving the area in ten.”
“Alright, you’re the boss. I just hope you know what you’re doing. Leaving with a part-empty hold without grabbing some of the goods over here is going to take some explaining to the lads.”
“Blaze, I don’t give a s**t. You know me. You know my hunches are right more often than they’re wrong. Now get your men the hell out of there.”
“Aye, Captain.”
- Writer
