Acamedus

Academes. A scientific ship, sent into deep space with a crew of five. Their purpose to find life amongst the many thousands of galaxies. Ten years later they still orbit the realms of space. Serendipity shone in the darkness, its brilliantness sparked a tremor in Josh. He smiled ‘yes’

 Captain Harry Chief stared sightlessly ahead. In control of the whole ship, he was a ‘fair captain’ the crew thought. He’d been on duty for forty-two hours despite Josh who was second in command, pointedly asking him to ‘take a break.’ He ignored Josh and kept his eyes on the far horizon, of nothingness.

. Josh could, but didn’t want to, over-ride Harry. He felt that to start questioning Harry, he would perhaps, close down altogether. Josh thought Harry was losing the plot.

There seemed to be an in-difference in the whole crew lately, something was amiss. Gone was the banter and joviality they shared during shifts. Often hilarity had won the day but it kept loneliness and boredom from setting in. They seemed to be hiding secrets?  Josh was perplexed. Henry, the onboard robot and communications master showed signs of erratic behavior too. On twenty-four- seven alert from ground control, Henry’s information was invaluable to the rest of the crew.In the last seventy- two hours there had been no communication, save for unending scrabble and interference. Despite Josh’s concerns, Henry was unperturbed. His monotonous reply of, ‘everything is under control sir,’ was all he got. Josh knew things weren’t. The controls told one thing and Henry another. They’d been circling the same area for the last three months. How could no one else see? Perhaps I’m going mad? Josh pondered. Over and over he checked his computer readings, but couldn’t get an answer that satisfied his mind. Captain Henry didn’t seem to care. He was working on automatic pilot, closing ranks, shutting down, in body and mind.

His senses dulled after a sleepless night, Josh made his way to the galley for a cup of fresh coffee. He greeted Tom as he passed.  Tom didn’t even acknowledge Josh’s presence. Only Gizmo’s manic screech followed him down the walkway.

Frank spent every waking hour cooking dishes no one ate. He ran red-raw fingers through his  black thinning-hair and turned his headphones up. The supplies from the living garden and most of the basic food were gone. Everything was either; dried out or ice-burnt. It all tasted the same, disgusting. In the ships glass house, the fruit trees, monitored by Henry, should have by now borne plentiful supplies of fresh fruit? But only straggly thin shoots hung from them. The herbs and vegetables were the same. Something was wrong. They’d be down to biscuits and recycled water if things didn’t improve. Fred shrugged his weary shoulders and tapped his feet to the boom in his ears.

 Seated at the table with his meager dried bananas and tasteless biscuits, Josh heard Frank in the store cupboard. The grunts and explosive words gave vent to the mood he was in. Josh decided against asking if? There was anything else to eat. At least the coffee was hot. Draining his cup, he made his way to the command port.

Deep in the ship’s innards Pedro was busy.  His job to keep the ships power energy levels evenly balanced meant working on his own. He preferred too. The rest of the crew thought him strange, obnoxious and bad-mouthed. ‘He’s not a full shilling,’ Frank had told them. ‘Jealous,’ Pedro’s scarred mind, told him. He didn’t get on well with humans. He preferred the creatures that inhabited his glass jars. He smiled and watched them squirm in their liquid life and crooned, ‘soon my pets soon’

 A ten- year-old Pedro had been a normal fun- loving chap. But witnessing the cruel and horrendous treatment his father inflicted on his mother, it warped his young mind as he’d watched her, yet again, kicked and battered to a bloody pulp. ‘Never again!’ Pedro had vowed that night as his father slept off a drunken stupor. Pedro slit his father’s throat and cut his tongue out. He then stuffed it in a jar of liquid. He’d felt exhilarated. He’d been sent to a juvenile detention centre for five years. Whilst there, he kept his nose clean and devoured everything he could on nuclear power and sciences. Through sheer determination he’d graduated from College with a degree in bio-technical science and succeeded in getting a job with NASA. As a last minute replacement, he was asked to crew the Academes. It’s his job to get them home safe. Pedro had ideas of his own …

From the control centre, Josh noted Harry seemed to be no better and sent a message for the crew to join him A.S.A.P. Pedro heard but took no notice. He never did.  Frank didn’t hear. His headphones blasted ‘Tyrant ghoul’s ‘cd. He’s in a top-notch restaurant cooking Steak-Diane with mushroom and red-wine sauce, crunchy onion rings and freshly cut chips. He turns the steak over…

‘Coffee, what I’d give for a decent cup of coffee.’ Tom droned as he made his way to the galley. Gizmo as usual, mimicked him.  Gizmo was Tom’s friend. He’d just turned up one morning as Tom struggled with the concepts of wires and controls. Usually Tom could work with his eyes closed, but, that day, his mind had shut down. Gizmo popped up from nowhere and began to help. He knew what Tom was going to do before Tom did himself. Tom had laughed out loud for the first time in months. Now Gizmo was his constant companion. The others couldn’t see him, but who cared? Tom knew he was there. Gizmo brightened up Tom’s rather drab and mundane days.  Gizmo could mimic the crew’s voices and habits to perfection. Subtly, he’d started to tell Tom what to do. Tom never questioned him.  They reached the galley and Tom poured a large mug of steaming hot coffee, He sat by the rear of the galley and relaxed. Gizmo told him to ignore Josh’s message that flashed above his head.

No one came… After a fruitless half-hour Josh gave up. Buggar it. He bit his tongue in frustration, blood pooled in his mouth that he spat onto the dirt encrusted floor. Housekeeping seemed to have gone by the wayside and, by the smell, so had hygiene as well as everything else.

He returned to his cabin, slumped on the bed with his head in his hands. Darkness came and still Josh lay there. Serendipity hovered over Josh’s tired and weary body. Its light pulsated over him soothing his mind. A searing pain grabbed Josh’s chest, he groaned and writhed in agony. Minutes later, it was gone. Josh sat up, rubbed his eyes and smiled. He jumped up and jauntily strode back to the control room…

Henry stood behind Captain Harry. It was his duty, to stay on alert at all times. He never tired like humans, nor needed rest or sustenance. Suddenly, a heavy burst of static short- circuited Henry’s main sensory modules. One robotic arm swung out to smash the back of Harry’s head. Harry fell forward as blood poured onto the control’s panels. The circuits fused and burst into flames. Thick- toxic- smoke poured out. He gasped. He couldn’t breathe. Harry’s face contorted in agony and, with one last strangled gargle, he slumped over the burning mass.

 Henry turned and made his way along the empty corridors.

Josh passed Henry without a second glance.  As he neared the control room he smelt smoke!  Then sirens bellowed forward of him; a fire? That was the last thing they needed. He ran along the smoke-filled walkways to central control where black acrid smoke spewed out of the open doorway. Inside, black smoke and flames belched from under the main panels. Oh god! The controls.  A ‘whoosh’ knocked him off his feet as the entire room burst into flames. 

 Josh scrambled to his feet, as he did, his hand grasped something and he jerked back in shock. Grabbing his handkerchief, he tied it over his nose and mouth. Cautiously he bent down and scrabbled in the ash before he picked up something. It looked like remains of a shoe. He was horrified to find a human ankle bone inside. As the thick toxic smoke increased, he fumbled for the emergency switch to open the air vents and slammed hard -The control doors automatically closed, but no rush of fresh air. Josh was trapped. Gasping for air, he fell to the floor…

Serendipity dipped across the blackness to shine into the burnt, blackened room onto Josh‘s inert body. Josh was lifted into the brilliance. The foul air and smoke at was last, sucked out, the fire extinguished.

           Josh wandered amongst the remains. There was nothing, just ash and twisted metal. How he had been saved, he couldn’t remember? He’d woken in the corridor, safe, and the fire out.

 He sent messages over the ships radio, but no one responded. The auxiliary power supply would keep minimum facilities working for a week at the most. He tried in vain to raise Earth but had no joy. The static was worse than ever. He flung the radio in frustration. Harry was dead; he was in command. What was he to do?           

Henry, his main circuit burnt to pieces, blundered his way along the endless corridors. Overhead the sirens screamed out.  Henry’s only mission, kill the intruders. In the galley’s half- light, Tom saw Henry pass and hailed him. ‘Hi Henry, what the hell’s all the fuss about back there, a bomb gone off or something?’

Henry turned and clumsily made his way to where Tom was seated. Henry’s blank- screened face surprised Tom who gave an ear splitting shriek. Gizmo mimicked him. The noise caused dishes and pans to vibrate and smash onto the floor.

 Henry’s arm caught Tom full on the face. Tom’s nose split in two and sent blood and mucus spewing onto the floor. One horrified eye hung by a sinewy thread on his bloody cheek.  Henry’s other arm hit Tom across his forehead. Brains and blood mingled as Tom slowly slid to the floor. Gizmo screeched. Silence ensued save for the fire sirens monotonous boom.

 In the store room, Frank’s earphones exploded that sent him flying across the room. Half-demented with pain, his hands thrust in his smoldering head he stumbled out into the galley and Henry! Who with a mighty thrust of a jagged arm cut Frank in two. Frank landed on Tom’s desecrated body. Their blood joined. His head jerked once, and then lay lifeless. Henry left the mangled bodies where the lay.

Blood and guts dripped onto the walkway and slowly made its way to the lower floor where it short-circuited the ships wiring as it seeped into controls that kept Academes afloat. Pedro one floor lower cursed as all his computers crashed simultaneously. The lights began to flicker as the power diminished to darkness. Only dim emergency filters shone their feeble light over the room. Chaos erupted, as the animals scared out their wits, began to shriek and shake their cages violently. Pedro was alarmed. They wouldn’t stay put for long and his power over them had gone with the electricity. He felt his way around and grabbed as many of his precious jars as he could manage before leaving the screaming confusion to their own fate. He didn’t have a clue where he was going?  He stumbled along darkened walkways blindly, curses and rants poured out of his malicious slit of a mouth. 

Henry, waved his arms erratically, his head turned in fruitless gestures. His circuits were completely burnt out and it was only pure instinct that kept him moving.

            The sirens boom beat like a drum in Pedro’s manic brain. He had lost all comprehension of what or where he was. Blindly he blundered into something incredibly solid that grabbed him like a vice around his middle. Screaming obscenities, he dropped his precious cargo and helplessly tried in vain to wriggle free. Iron arms tightened around his ribs, caused then to crack and break. One pierced his heart and Pedro’s last rational thought skimmed his brain.’ Too late’… His attacker fell forward onto his lifeless body.

The ship was as quiet as a tomb; Josh had managed to cut the piercing siren silent. His head throbbed in agony. He could hardly think straight. He wondered where the rest of the crew where. He hadn’t heard nor seen any of them for hours. He glanced at the emergency dials. The oxygen levels were getting dangerously low; power was on limited efficiency. Even Henry, Mr. Reliable was nowhere to be found. Perplexed he made his way along the main walkway towards the crew’s quarters. A stench hit him hard to the stomach as he passed the galley. Gagging he pushed open the door. A massacre faced him; blood, guts, bodies and bones were spewed across the dining area. A human head, greeted him with a macabre grimace, Frank’s. The rest of his body slumped over another he didn’t recognize. Only the three stars and bloodied name tag confirmed who it was, Tom.

Oh my God, what the hell has happened; he sat down abruptly as his gaze wandered from Frank’s hideous face to the faceless body of Tom. He couldn’t comprehend how-why- what! His meager breakfast joined the bloody mess. He stumbled out of the galley and moved further along the darkened walk-way towards the rest rooms. A clank-clank suddenly broke the silence. Josh‘s heart beat faster. The others must be down in the labs, thank god.

 The dimly lit stairwell showed no damage Josh was relieved to see. But his bravo deserted him as he turned into the power supply’s room. Pedro’s stiffened body looked as if a steam roller had maneuvered all over him. Not one bone in his body was still intact. Blood splashed the once, pristine-white walls. A trail of bloody gung showed which way his attacker had left. Josh, his mind bordering on lunacy followed.  As he reached the Dead Shute, the three shuttles ready for any eventuality of an emergency exit, still remained intact. No one has left. He didn’t want to think what else he could find. The clank- clank resounded again, this time from the crew’s station. Josh retraced his steps where the steady clank was still audible but faint. Josh pushed the internal door, but it was blocked. Something was behind it stopping him. With all his might he pushed and eventually the door gave way enough for him to slip his right leg through the opening.

 A metal arm grasped his leg and pulled him completely through, that left all his skin hanging off.  Screaming in shock and pain he could just comprehend Henry on the floor his leg continually thumped the floor. His arm still held Josh’s raw bloodied leg in a vice while his other, now mangled metal jabbed the air. His eyes burnt out holes, all features gone, Henry’s power-button still burnt red. Josh reached over and with super-human strength jammed the button hard with his left foot. The light slowly faded. Henry’s arms and legs abruptly fell away to clang to the floor. 

Josh fell to his knees, his body a mass of pain. His brain registered but couldn’t understand - he was in deep shit. How long he lay there he had no idea. The emergency air was showing red. He didn’t have long one way or another. His thoughts turned to his family; he’d never see them now, no chance to say goodbye, he closed his eyes and waited.

Serendipity shone, its bright light turned towards the dying ship. Its light sought out Josh and with a gentleness of an angel lifted Josh’s body into the light. A surge of pure white engulfed him for a moment and he was gone.

Ten years later

Apollo sixty approached the burnt out carcass of the ship. Captain Mark Darling hit the communication button.’ Earth we have found the remains of Academes it’s been dead a long time. No life forces sensed- I’m sorry.’

‘Earth to Captain. Exit and return to Earth. Let the poor souls rest in peace. We’ll never learn what happened to them.’

A sudden ball of light flew across Apollo sixty and stopped directly in front of the control window. A beam of intense heat hit the Captains control panel. As a dazed Captain Mark Darling regained his senses. A message appeared on the ships main computer screen.  I LIVE …