Last Transmition

Note : Contains Light Gore

No one ever felt lonely on the Trohia. Not that it wasn't a lonely place, there were only three people on the ship and even then they barely ever talked to each other, but they were all chosen for a reason. When they needed to talk about projects together they did so through text, only greeting each other in passing on the ship. The Trohia was as close to a prison as you could get while still getting paid, and the trio were generally considered insane for going up. They would know that if they had access to anyone outside the ship.

Nikki stared at the shredded plants in her greenhouse, a bucket of water in one hand. This was greenhouse one on Nikki's rounds, and the one she was supposed to be harvesting. The ship itself prepared food but as the biochemist one of Nikki's jobs was to bring fresh vegetables to the main rooms. And now they were gone. Nikki put the bucket down heavily and examined the destruction.

"Fuck," She muttered. Then, louder. "Fuck!”

This wasn’t going to kill them. She checked the other greenhouses, of which there were five, and only two remained intact. They had enough food to sustain them even without any working greenhouses, but it was concerning.

Nikki turned on her heel and stalked towards the other branches of the ship.

Owen looked at the trashed wiring with a furrowed brow. They wouldn't die without it, at least not yet, but it was about to get very cold very fast. Why would the others destroy it? It only hurt everyone on the ship. He shivered, as if his body was preparing for the loss of heat, and looked up at the ceiling. He would have to send out a message for earth, but it would take a few days for them to get and respond. With a sigh, he turned and started off towards the main room.

Halfway there Owen paused. It felt strange in the hallway, like everything had shifted slightly and Owen was left stumbling into objects that weren’t there yesterday. Posters lined many of the hallways, once hung for morale, now skipped by the crew's eyes, but these were wrong. Owen turned in a slow circle until his eyes caught on one of the posters, or rather, lack thereof. Down one side of the hallway, just where Owen had passed, at least two posters had been ripped down. It looked as if a knife had been plunged into the wall and dragged for a few feet, taking the middle of two posters with it in a thin line. Owen blinked at it. This was just overkill, was it not? No one even saw the posters. With a sigh he continued off down the hall.

The pair ran into each other in the main room. They both looked mildly startled at the sight of the other person, even if they were looking for the other in the first place.

"Did you rip up the plants?" Nikki said, straight to the point. It took a moment for Owen to understand what Nikki was saying, and he took in a sharp breath at the realization.

"No. Did you break the heating unit?" He questioned back, already predicting the answer.

"Why would I do that?" Nikki snapped. Owen nodded and started off towards the last person on the ship.

“Why would they break the ship?” Owen started. Nikki shrugged as she caught up to Owen.

“How do I know you didn’t do it?” She questioned. Owen glared at her.

“Why would I shred up plants?”

“Why would Ray?”

“Maybe it’s just malfunctioning,” Owen reasoned. Nikki let out a bitter laugh.

“Malfunctioning? Maybe yours is but I’m working with real living plants. They don’t malfunction,” She snapped back. This was the longest they’d talked in the months they’d been up here.

“Did something crash into the ship? Maybe it shook everything up and we just didn’t notice.” Owen shrugged. Nikki grabbed Owens shoulder and spun him around.

“I don’t think you’re listening to me. The entirety of greenhouses one, three, and four are gone. Just, ripped to shreds. I mean we have food, but something is wrong. This is bad shit, Owen,” Nikki said, staring into his eyes. Owen let out a breath and nodded.

“Yeah,” He stepped back and rubbed his arms. It was already chilly, and it was just going to get worse. Nikki watched Owen with sharp eyes before starting off down the hall again. They spent the rest of the walk in silence.

Ray woke up to a sense of dread. They got out of bed and moved about their morning schedule with the same feeling, and prepped the day's research. A thing had been moving across the sky and it was finally close enough to see from the Trohia, and Ray brushed the feeling off as nerves. If they didn’t get good research from this, it wouldn’t get close enough again in ages, especially not close enough to earth. The Trohia project was their final chance.

Ray stared up at the broken telescope in horror. They shifted their weight and bit their lip. This was bad, really bad. They wondered quietly what broke it and then, after a moment's consideration, who broke it. It had to be one of the others on board, but why would they do that? And how? It was tall, encased in glass, near impossible to reach with the simulated gravity. Ray turned around and started down the hallway to find the others.

The Trohia’s emptiness was amplified whenever you tried to look for someone. It seemed to swallow everything except for sound and as the pair walked in silence their footsteps echoed around them. They both knew where Ray’s section was, and had been many times without much thought, but everytime the ship creaked one of them jumped. Owen briefly stopped in the kitchen, just to confirm his fears.

“The food’s not gone,” He clarified to Nikki outside the door. “Just scattered.”

“I thought it was locked up,” She muttered. Owen shrugged.

“The lock was just… ripped off. Like on the floor, jagged edges ripped off,” He expanded. Nikki sighed.

“For the record, I don’t think either of you did this,” She commented as they started the walk again. Owen considered.

“Well if it wasn’t one of us then who was it?”

“Like you said, space debris or something,” She said noncommittally. “Or… you know, aliens.”

“You think aliens broke onto the ship? And none of us have seen them, even though they’ve been apparently ripping everything to shreds.”

“Is it really that hard to consider?”

“Yes,” Owen turned to face Nikki, pausing in the hallway. “It is.”

They stood in a confrontational silence for a breath, the air noticeably cooler now, before it was broken by a string of unusual sounds. Quick footsteps followed by the thud of something much heavier, the screaming of metal being scratched. A scream. The pair barely glanced at each other before darting towards it.

“Oh God.” Owen covered his mouth and stumbled back before quickly course correcting and dropping to his knees next to Ray’s body. They were bleeding from gashes in their chest and stomach, and they grabbed helplessly at Owen’s shoulder.

“Fuck.” Nikki choked, catching herself on a wall. Owen leaned down, trying to peel Ray’s shirt off of their wounds. Ray managed to hook their hand around Owen’s neck and brought him down to their mouth.

“Please-” Ray started, before choking on something in their throat. Owen tugged away but Ray looked so desperate Owen leaned back after just a moment to hear what they had to say.

“What the fuck happened?” Nikki shouted, their voice thick, shouting over Ray’s quiet voice. Owen gagged as thick blood leaked from Ray's mouth and he couldn’t help but stumble away.

Everything was still. Too still. Nikki crouched next to Owen and leaned over Ray’s still body, pressing two fingers to their wrist then neck. Her breath fogged as it grew rapidly colder.

“Dead.” Nikki murmured with a shiver. Owen gagged again and sat down heavily. The ship creaked around them. Somewhere metal scraped against metal. Somewhere something moved on the ship. Nikki stood up and started her way to the communications room, a stunned walk. Something scraped against the ship's walls. She sped up, nearly sprinting now.

Somewhere behind her Owen screamed.

The Trohia command spent three straight days waiting for a response. Messages were sent up hourly, mostly a copy of the first one.

Trohia, This Is Command. Status Report. Respond Immediately.

The news crowded around the building, all clamoring to get more news on the dead ship, but everyone knew the radio silence wasn’t what really concerned them. What really caught the nation's attention was the vessel's last report, a four word check in that was barely decipherable.

We are not alone.