Nightmare Awoken

A Story by MixedSignals

A short-ish sci-fi thriller. Any and all feedback appreciated!!!!

Transmitting:

Mayday… Danahar… date 1945.2

…... reporting from Quandar-3. Do not respond…. I repeat... base is under attack…. survivors….Do not contact… Do not land…. must be…Over…out

“Han! Come in! Commander Han! Report to the bridge immediately!” That was how my day started. That was how my day often started. When they didn’t need me to translate the latest idiot request from the traders, it was translating the newest instructions from whatever base we happened to be passing. I suppose that’s what you get for signing up for a boring job ferrying around traders on the outskirts of civilization. Most officers spent the deepspace leg holed up in their compartments, while I spent it running around mediating arguments in six languages " something I did not sign up for. Real boring and relaxingly recuperative, right? Try telling that to the captain; as far as he was concerned all this running around was good for me. What I thought about the whole arrangement was seen as quite simply irrelevant. The admiralty was happy with it and so was Touq; any complaint on my part was likely to land me in the nearest psych ward for treatment of undo mental strain. Which meant the best thing for me to do was affix my most annoyingly cheerful expression firmly in place and get to the bridge ASAP.

Unfortunately, ASAP at 0330 hours is not exactly up to Captain Touq’s pride-of-the-fleet standards. So at the conclusion of my morning alarm, which seemed a little more irately emphatic than usual, I sat down to what I thought was the first bright spot in a very long voyage. The translation itself was easy as it was one of the Fed’s official languages and read:

Mayday… Danahar… date 1945.2

…... reporting from Quandar-3. Do not respond…. I repeat... base is under attack…. survivors….Do not contact… land….base… must be…Over…out.

which of course meant that we would immediately send an away team to investigate, which, as 2^nd Officer I was thankfully obliged, by fleet protocol of all things, to lead. I imagine my face must have lost some insincerity, since Touq told me to wipe that look off my face as he would have sent anyone else if he could. Oops… maybe he was just worried. Even this far out an attack on a base was as serious as it is rare. So I assembled my team " Fonda, since she was a good shot and probably dying to go, David since he actually knew something about medicine, Felville because I owed him, Rusty because he was the best techie on the boat and Vac because it seemed fitting payback to wake the little creep up for a change " and headed, with the first genuine spring in my step in months, for the dock.

“Alright, everyone, as soon as Lieutenant Felville decides to stop flying this tub like a cheap Zenarian water-tanker I’ll start your debrief” and magically, the transport craft stopped tipping madly and shaking. “Ok, good. At 0312 this morning, we received a Mayday Report from the base on Quandar-3. For those of you who have spent the past week asleep with your pagers turned off” the lucky b******s “that’s in the Danahar Galaxy, so we’re pretty much ages away from anything and the planet is completely uninhabited except for the base. The report seemed pretty well scrambled” understatement of the year “but from what I could extract it seems as though the base was attacked and that there may or may not be booby-traps or an ambush when we get there. As you all know " or maybe you don’t David” never overestimate a newbie’s knowledge or even common sense “our first priority is to find out what happened so we don’t end up getting ourselves or the base-rats hurt. Then we look for and patch up anyone who’s injured and take them and anything else important back to the ship”

“So wha’d ja bring me for?” yawned Fonda. Of course. Like I didn’t know she’d be up for anything that’d get her off that boat for a while.

“This is a reconnaissance/rescue mission and we’re lightly armed. If it turns out to have been an attack and the attackers are still there and they decide to attack us as well " why they would when the Intrepid’s right there is beyond me " then you’ll be useful. Otherwise it’s just a good excuse to stretch yer legs”. Jeesh, her sullen face was even better than mine. “So, please do your best to wake up fully during our pleasant journey and do try to remember that you are all allegedly officers and therefore have no excuse to do anything stupid when we get there.” Like that was possible. Most of my crewmates weren’t exactly top of their class if you know what I mean, hence why they got scuttled to shuttle duty. “Even if there’s nothing this isn’t going to be our normal contract trading work”. With that I settled down and tried to get some sleep, figuring it was a rare commodity and that by now I was used thinking immediately after being woken up. “Verily… run…” It sounded somewhere between a whisper and a croak. Then silence.

Her face is still warm. But it looks cold. Cold and frozen in place. There is still terror in her dull eyes while a little trail of blood finally breaks free of her white, crackling lips. I’m frozen too. Frozen in disbelief. They’d just… Just… No, I can’t believe what I’d seen. It’s just not possible. While I’m still staring dumbstruck at her face, my hands start frantically searching her tattered body of their own accord. By the time I realize what I’m doing I’ve grabbed her rank pin, pager and scanner and am trying to pry her increasingly stiff hand off her gun. Somehow I know, even if I run, I’m going to need it. But no, I can’t run. I can’t panic. That’s how they’d gotten to Elyra. They know they’re causing a panic. That’s the whole idea. Even seasoned officers freaked when they saw what happened… no… no I have to hide. Maybe if I’m quiet they’ll miss me. I’m running now, trying to tell myself that I’m slipping on water, just running by the stream home for lunch. I’m not… it’s not. No! No I have to stay calm, I keep thinking, struggling for control as the shock finally begins to wear off. I burst outside, hazily registering that I’m lucky to be able to go outside on a planet like this. I sneak past a few ramshackle buildings. People on this planet don’t even use modern building materials. They’ve noticed that too. I abruptly realize the acrid scent on the air is smoke; that the wind must be coming in my direction. Even as the buildings nearest the base burn, I think that if I’m lucky maybe they’ll be less likely to notice me with the wind bringing my sounds, scent and body heat away from them and the smoke masking my passage. Finally I’m in the middle of the town " if you can call it that. I try not to look around as I make my way to the well. Even when we first got there I hated that thing. What a stupid useless ide…Shoot! I duck inside a building. I hear them coming, talking to each other. Moving slowly, trying to stay quiet, I crawl to where I can look out. I have to see where they’re going, THWACK!

“OUCH! What the hell are you doing!”

“Sorry Verily” it was Rusty “ya did say not to sleep”. I glared at him. He’d kicked me. Hard. “And what makes you think I was sleeping?” I inquired icily.

“Yer eyes were shut” he said calmly. “And ya usually don’t mutter ta yerself when yer awake”. Damn. He knew I wouldn’t do anything. Only goes to show, never crew with someone you went to school with. “I wasn’t sleeping. I was going over protocols”. He only laughed. David tried unsuccessfully to smother a snicker. Him, I would do something to. And he knew it, which was why he paled slightly when I gave him my rather well-practiced threatening look. It was good, I’ll admit. Rusty only laughed harder. David was abruptly saved from the vengeance of my overburdened annoyance by Felville, who very innocently told us we were just getting ready to land. I stood, gathering a few scanners and a mini-medi-pack. I knew Felville could land this thing smoothly in his sleep, and he knew better than to pretend otherwise. The others started getting up as well, stretching awkwardly in the cramped space.

“Felville, put us down close enough to the base so we can carry stuff but not so close that we set off any traps”. Ramming an airmask over my head I motioned for the others to get moving. “Vac, take the bigger medi-pack so David has his hands free”. I would probably regret putting the two I knew least about together, but whatever.

As it turned out, there were no traps, and we got to the doors of the base without mishap. Then, “Hmm. Looks like the doors are sealed”. Typical. I had been wondering what was taking Rusty so long with them. “Well, be careful. If there was an attack they probably put all the doors on lockdown. And we don’t know if there’re a few scared base-rats waiting to shoot whoever opens the door”.

“No. This was done manually. That’s why I’m having trouble overriding it”. There was a soft hiss and some whirring. So it wasn’t just me, it really was freezing out here. “Ah, there we go”. Unfortunately, there we didn’t go. It was the same with every door we came to. Each one had been sealed manually and took Rusty a while to hack open. And there were a lot of them. David looked relieved that nothing had happened and Fonda said she was almost disappointed that they didn’t hear any sounds of a fight, but the hairs were just about jumping off the back of my neck: where was everyone? Bases were always well-manned, especially in the middle of nowhere. They had to be to keep the occupants from going crazy. But we saw no one. No people, no bodies, no signs of life or a struggle, just an endless procession of locked doors between the entrance and the command room.

It took us about an hour to reach the main area of the compound and the command room inside it. We still hadn’t found any signs of life and I was jitterier than ever. “Rusty, see if you can get their computer back online. Felville, Vac go out that way” jerking my head to my right “and see if you can find anyone or anything strange. Come back here when you do or when you hit a dead end. Fonda, David, go the other way and do the same”. So far only Rusty had noticed my discomfort, the rest just had a mixture of boredom and vague confusion on their faces. This only made me worse " they’d kill themselves if I didn’t watch them and be no help to boot.

“What’s up?” Rusty had tactfully waited until the others were out of earshot. “Feels wrong. Just feels wrong”. I got one of those patented raised eyebrows. Well, he deserved my elaboration. “The message said they’d been attacked, right? So where are their attackers? Where are they for that matter?” He actually looked around. It was almost comical. “Think, did you see anything at all to indicate anyone has been here at all” He shook his head slowly. “But…”

“Bu-ut, if there’d been any kind of a normal fight, there’d be signs. So what’s going on? I don’t like it. Especially not when I have to babysit these idiots.” Rusty just shrugged. Typical. He pushed buttons and ran programs and left all the thinking and worrying to me, as always. Fonda and David reappeared. “Anything?”

“No. We didn’t see anything, and we kept going down that hall” Fonda jerked a thumb back where they’d come. “All the doors were locked along the way, and when we got to the end, that door was too.” Suddenly lights started coming on. I stiffened, and then heard the gentle whirring of the main computer. “Aha! Now I’ve gotcha!” Rusty sounded victorious.

“Commander Han? Come in, it’s Lieutenant Vac”

“Alright Vac, what is it?”

“We’ve found a door. It’s open, down the main hall you sent us. We’re going in, just thought you’d want to know.” Rusty and I looked at each other. Then we looked at the computer. Then at Fonda and David. “Alright, come on,” I didn’t like to do it but then, what choice did I have? Sending Fonda and David after the other two was just letting the blind lead the blind. And I wasn’t about to leave Rusty by himself. He didn’t argue and I took that to mean I’d gotten him as nerved out as I was, though I knew he’d never admit it.

Then we got to the door. It was locked. David and Vac were nowhere to be seen. “Bloody hell... Fonda, start paging those two, see where they went. Rusty can you get that door open in under a minute?” He pushed a few buttons and put his ear to the door. “Nope”

“Back to the command room all of you, we’ll see if we can track them using the main computer.” David looked as though he were about to speak, but didn’t. He was pale and his eyes were round. Well, at least he’s finally figured out something’s wrong. “Neither one’s responding” even the implacable Fonda sounded a bit worried. “Well keep trying. There might be interference in a building with this much insulation.” I was already hustling down the hall. When we reached the command room, Rusty immediately started jabbing the screen. “What the…?” I looked at Rusty. He sounded completely bewildered. There was a click and he held up a little black box with one of those new, souped-up mini circuit boards on one side. “What is going on here!?” he almost shouted. “This was fine when we left!”

“What is it?” I was trying to sound calm, even as my stomach sank to my knees.

“This is the power source of the entire main computer system. It was completely intact when we left here”

“What’s wrong with it now?” I asked as my stomach hit the floor.

“It’s completely fried. Gonzo. We can’t start this computer without it”. I noticed the gentle thrum was gone, but most of the lights were still on. No wonder I hadn’t noticed. “So why’re the lights still on?” He looked up at the ceiling. “They must be on different power sources, with the main computer dictating everything.”

Somehow I felt this was strange enough to be vital: “So why weren’t they on before?” He looked at me blankly. Then a light went on in his eyes and he went as white as an iridium-moon. “Someone had to have turned it off before. The doors would have had to been locked while it was still on, then the computer shut off as usual, with a few extra fire-walls to keep it from being turned back on and make it look like an accident. All the systems would have shut down with it”. My stomach abruptly picked itself off the floor and sky-rocketed, roiling, to my throat. “So, whoever attacked the base somehow managed to get into the building without trouble, remove all the people without trace, lock all the doors and shut down the computer?” Rusty nodded. “So you’re telling me that, not only do unexplained attackers know all about the functioning of a base and its main computer and identity checks, but they’re almost certainly still here, watching us, locking doors and breaking things?” All three of them were looking at me in horror. “Come on, all of you, now” I started walking " not running " back out the way we’d come in. “What about Felville and Vac?” David said in a small voice. I didn’t even break stride.

“Whoever attacked the base has probably already gotten to them, which was why their door was open. They have all the cards, all the control. They know what’s going on, we don’t. If we go after Felville and Vac like this, we’ll probably just end up getting ourselves killed. And the Intrepid will still have no idea what’s happened.” In a gentler voice, I continued. “Look, David, our first duty is to report back what we’ve found. Once we do, we can come back, properly equipped and find out what’s going on. If we get ourselves killed, no one will report back at all and they might just go ahead and send another unprepared away team.” Suddenly I stopped and spun. “Where’s Fonda?” I had already prepared several arguments and orders about why we would not simply charge off, guns blazing, at the nearest door. But she never voiced a complaint. The other two started looking around as well. But there wasn’t much space to look. Just back the way we’d come, down a strait hall, and forward, where we’d already been looking.

“David! Stop!” he had immediately turned back for the command room. “Come back here!” But it was too late: even as I shouted the last door we had passed ghosted shut between us. There was absolute silence. I looked at Rusty, but he just shrugged. “If someone’s got remote on-demand access to the doors, I’ll never get them open in time…” Then we were running, sprinting pell-mell down the hall, making no effort to mask the sound of our passing. In a testament to our physical prowess we made it by maybe eight doors before one slammed shut in front of us. Even as we crashed into the door, Rusty immediately started typing madly on the screen, but to no avail. A few lights abruptly turned on and Rusty began shoving me back away from the door. “We’ve got to move” he panted “that’s the warning light for the gas canisters. We’ve got to get away from it.” I looked back the way we’d come. Nothing but another closed door. “Start praying that it’s only tear gas” he said grimly. Then a door to our right and down the hall a little opened. Rusty pulled me through it, and prodded me forward. This hall was darker and we both dropped our remaining packs, drawing our guns. The door shut behind us.

We began edging down the hall, but still there was nothing. We might have been walking for hours, days. The emergency lighting glowed dully and the air was dead, the only sound was our quiet footsteps and ragged breathing " and my heart. It was beating so loudly I’m not sure I could have heard a freight lift operating. We followed where we were lead, deeper into the maze of hallways, going through doors and around corners and down twisting hallways. I had no clue where we were or where we were going, except away from the entrance, and escape. Then we came through a door and we were in our first room. I paused. Then I heard Fonda scream. How I knew it was her I couldn’t say; I’d never heard her scream in my life and this was long, high, blood-curdling and inhuman.

“Rusty!!!” even before she’d stopped he’d already set off, sprinting across the room towards the sound. Cursing myself, I set off after him, dodging chairs and the occasional bag as I went. I burst into the next room, a big, high-ceilinged affair, just in time to see Rusty, half-way across it, crumple. I didn’t see anything else, just his dark figure as it bent to the side somewhat and buckled. I was so focused I even heard the flat thud as his head hit the floor, all that distance away.

“Hello sweetheart,” Several things happened at once. My head jerked of its own accord off to the right, I realized that I was in the giant mess-hall of the base, people started closing in on me and Vac smiled. It was as creepy as ever. “we missed you, you know”. Creepier, actually. His hand came up; casually clicking the device he held, and just like that all the metal I was wearing was wrenched away from me. All my weapons, my pager, my earrings, even my belt buckle. I managed to hang on to my gun for a few seconds before it too was dragged away, nearly taking my arms with it. Vac chuckled. It was the most menacing sound I’d ever heard. Then he nodded at someone over my shoulder. Instinctively I whipped around and immediately wished I hadn’t. Fonda was there, and not as one of the attackers.

“I have to say though, Verily, you led us on quite the ride. You took us by far the longest to track down” Vac started moving forwards. “Gelsin here couldn’t have been more surprised when he came across your file” again he nodded to someone behind me. I didn’t look. “What was it, hiding in some primeval well with a standard issue knife? No wonder we missed you” Silence. Then laughter; eerie, cold laughter. “Then lurking in therapy for all that time… oh, it took us a long time to find you. Combing through all the captains in the fleet, we even looked at a few admirals” someone off to my left laughed. I have never moved so quietly in my life. I’m barely even breathing. Around microwaves and stacks of trays, my eyes are on the double doors leading to the mess hall.

“We’d nearly given up! So you can imagine my surprise when I signed up for some two-bit trade-guard mission and saw your name on the list. I mean imagine! Here’s a list of all sorts of unknowns and petty officers and then right near the top I see Commander Verily Han. What is a 3-star commander, operational/tactical prodigy and general darling of the fleet doing on such a mission, and not even in command of the ship?” I swallow dryly. Timing is everything. We creep around the doors, waiting at the side so as not to open them. But there’s no way to see into the room, only hear. “Oh, no. No, she’s a second officer after an old angry captain and an Academy drop-out” the hall rang with laughter, but somehow, it sounded like funeral bells.

Gun-fire. The high whizzing sound is unmistakable, urgent. No longer caring about noise we burst through the doors, already shooting. “Then all we had to do was move our operation over a few galaxies, and you’d come right to us. Old Touq might talk, you know, but he’d send you, he’d depend on you” Vac was still walking towards me. Shooting before we even see what we’re shooting at. Then we see it, on the floor, spreading across the mess-hall. Their creation the great tangled mass shuddering somewhat… and them, sitting behind a force field, laughing as we shoot the bodies and each other. “Retreat!” I looked at Fonda again. She was dead, I think. As I turned back, I saw the middle of the mess-hall. My mind went blank. “Run!” Elyra is shouting as loud as she can. “Run, you stupid idiots!” Its mayhem. People screaming, bleeding, running and still shooting. I barely notice anything; somehow I’m already moving too fast to see more than impressions. Back down the hall, through twisting corridors. Whoever was manning the computer obviously didn’t think I’d be leaving: not one door shut in front of me. Already they’re following us, shooting. Something hits the wall in front of me. A tranq-dart? There’s no way in hell I’m being taken alive.

I had to go somewhere they couldn’t track me. Somewhere without cameras. I reached one of those treacherous corners. Run! Verily! This way! Above me, right at the end of the hall was a standard intake vent. This time I knew better than to pause. Adding a little extra speed I didn’t know I possessed I sprinted the last few feet, scrambling up the wall and punching with my fists. “Elyra! Stop, grab those two”. She and our crewmates behind her barely slow. I point at the air vents. I don’t have time to explain “These, no cameras, they go everywhere”. I seized the inside of the pipe, hauling myself up into the tubing. It’s a tight fit: the subsidiary vents are smaller than the main ones, but at least the size told me where to run. There’re footsteps behind us, we run. Bent double I scramble along the tunnel, following the mad maze, always headed towards the bigger tunnels. There’s a scream behind us. And a whizz. “Hurry up, go faster!”

I counted time by my footsteps and how often I could straighten up some. It didn’t seem to be enough. The next one is closer: the whizz is followed by red splattering on the wall in front of me. They were gaining ground. They must have been close enough to shoot clean through him! I take a side tunnel, Elyra with me. We speed up again. Then I came to a dead end. The vent in front of me was blocked by a filter and there were no side tunnels. I heard the running behind me getting closer and started kicking frantically at the vent. It dented but no more.

“Hello again Verily” Vac panted “looks like your favorite trick isn’t going to work this time.” he was smiling again, with gun drawn but pointed towards the floor. I wasn’t fooled. “And no knife either” he laughed, still walking towards me. “What a pity. You were just completely unprepared for this mission. You know” he said, adopting a tone of mock severity and a frown “they say adaptability and ingenuity are the best traits of a good soldier… maybe they were wrong about you.”

He was so close now I could see the sweat shining on his face, even in the dim light. His uniform was sticking to him uncomfortably. I swallowed, frozen. “You know I’ll never let you take me alive” I whispered as I shrank back against the screen. “I don’t see that you’ll have much choice in the matter” he said evenly, moving still closer. But not close enough. I squinted, turning my head to the side, as though I didn’t want to see death coming. The idiot came right up to me and a look of blank shock came over his face as I uncoiled, whipping his own kit-knife out from the small of his back and plunging it, at an angle, through his ribs and into his heart. I smiled grimly: his finger never even got to the trigger and thanks to his arrogance, he was the only other living thing in the vents.

Suddenly I was covered in blood. I stare in shock as Elyra stumbles, the middle of her torso in red tatters. The blood was tacky, warm and I was covered in it. The man who steps out in front of us is already reloading the grenade launcher. Then he isn’t. I watch in confusion as a red ribbon winds its way down his face. It hits his collar before he falls against the wall, the grenade launcher useless on the floor. It takes a good twenty seconds for me to realize I killed him, a perfect shot to the forehead. By then Elyra’s choking whisper is telling me to run. I shoved Vac off me, grimacing as I retrieved the knife and pried his clenched hand off his gun. Then I set to work, hacking at the filter with the knife. When it finally came free, I found myself in the main air system. Thankfully the fans attached to the ceiling were off, but there were ducts leading off in all directions. I silently blessed the boredom of isolated bases: someone had taken the time to label the areas each main duct supplied. In a few minutes I found the one leading outside, near the front of the base. When I got to the end of the duct, I looked through the grating as best as possible. Surprisingly, I saw no one. But yet again, I was stunned by how cold it was: I’d never survive the elements for long.

I sprinted for the transport craft, but I heard no footsteps behind me. I slowed as I reached the craft, fearing a trap, but there was nothing. Once inside, I slammed the door and hit the start-up code, but nothing happened. Frantically pulling the manual start I lever, I saw the problem: the power cylinder was missing, carefully cut out of the engine compartment. The transport craft was as good as dead, they had no need to set a trap. I risked turning on the main power to type, log and send my report:

Mayday Report, Danahar Galaxy, Stardate 1547.7

This is Commander Verily Han, 2^nd Officer of the transport aide/explorer Intrepid, en route to the Sandine Galaxy, reporting from transport pod on Quandar-3. Do not respond, I repeat, do not respond. Everyone here is dead. The base is under attack, there are no survivors. The away team is compromised, all killed but traitor. Do not contact the base, do not attempt to rescue survivors. Do not land, do not seek to assist, it is a trap. I repeat, it is a trap. The base must be destroyed. I repeat, the base must be destroyed from above. Over and out.

Then I turned off the main power, wiped the blood off console, and went to the under-the-seats compartment that everyone always forgets about. Throwing the few contents in the direction of the opened storage locker, I climbed in and laid down lengthwise. Shutting the seats on top of myself I held the sticky knife to my throat and waited, almost grateful that this time there would be no counseling, no pity, and no nightmares.