prison in a loop

Submitted into Contest #219 in response to: Set your story in a type of prison cell.... view prompt

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Drama Science Fiction Mystery

Earth in 2222 doesn't exist anymore, well not as you know it. After the A.I. era, the world went on a nuclear war. A nuclear war that nobody knew who started it, but it went on for about five years. That's when a lot of us went to outer space to live peacefully. I live on my vessel, my life, my love, Evelyn is the name of my ship, she's everything to me. It's a garbage ship, we collect the debris, those non-functioning satellites, or the old ship parts floating in space. We recycle those parts, that's how we make a living out here. Believe me, there are a lot of parts adrift in Earth's orbit. I have a crew with me operating this ship. A crew of nine men, and women no children aboard. That's my number one rule. After fifteen years in space grabbing all sorts of parts, it's like a second nature of ours, everyone in my crew knows what they have to do. Where slowing down, my guess is there's a ship floating in space with serviceable parts we want to grab from this wreckage. I told my crew to scan for living organisms but, they already did it. no sign of life, but there is something wrong. The scan picks up something like a female voice in the ship but, no sign of life. It can't be A.I. They're not allowed in space. Half of the ship was destroyed with some kind of a blast, maybe a meteor rained something powerful.

My chief commander tells me is some kind of countdown. By the time I realized what it was. It was too late for us, too close we couldn't do anything except run in the opposite direction. The wreckage ship exploded in a blast in a second it wasn't there anymore and all the pieces parts, and bolts flew our way destroying the front of our ship. all of the crew are dead exploding with the impact of the little parts blowing holes in Evelyn. the bolts coming in and the air going out. My ship was built like a pirate ship, my room is all the way back. I run as fast as I can and lock the door behind me. My chief commander arrived after me at the door, I could see her in the little glass. I saw her fly out of the ship by a-holes as small as a cell phone. I'm now alone in my room and in my vessel. the blast has passed now, and I'm floating without control. In my room, I have a control panel, but I can't drive the ship. With all the damage the blast did to my Ship I would take a chance starting the engines. So I'm stuck in my room, I can see on the screen that there is no more oxygen in the ship, just in my room. I have an emergency space suit in here, but it only has fifteen minutes of air in the respiratory emergency suit. What if, I stay here,. I have about twenty-four hours of oxygen After that I will die.

After 18 hours alone in space without engines working, it's starting to get cold, I may die of hypothermia instead of suffocating. I don't believe it, I built my own prison, and I'm going to die in it. Can't get out, if I open the door there's no coming back. There is one thing I'm going to try if nobody finds me. It's starting the engines back, and see what happens. on the control panel, I can see I still have fuel, but I don't know what's going to happen. 

With two hours left of Oxygen, it's time to try the engines. I put on the emergency suite, I have to go to the cockpit to start the engines. open the room door, all the air pushing me out of the room. There was blood everywhere. clairy every body as died in the blast. Took me five minutes to come to the cockpit, so I only had ten minutes left in the suit. There is the engine's start button. I push it with my eyes closed. Evelyn starts counting the countdown before the engine restarts. Fifteen minutes before the engines start.

My ten minutes are almost up. I sit in a corner and wait, I won't even see the engine start. Don't know what is going to happen. Just as Marc dies in his emergency suit, there's a vessel cruising by slowing down.

Slowing down there's a ship floating in space with good parts we want to grab from this wreckage. I told my crew to scan for living organisms but, they already did it. No sign of life, but there is something wrong. The scan picks up something like a female voice in the ship, but no sign of life. Can't be A.I. They are not allowed in space. Half of the ship is destroyed by some kind of blast. Maybe meteor rain or something powerful. My chief commander tells me that is some kind of countdown. By the time I realized what it was. It was too late for us, too close we couldn't do anything except run in the opposite direction. The wreckage ship explodes in a second. The blast destroyed my ship and killed all of my crew, stuck in the back of what's left of Evelyn, in prison in my own vessel. I can't get out floating in space.

Two hours left of Oxygen. I think I died in that meteorite rain because I couldn't re-live this blast over and over again. This time, I won't restart the engines. I will see what happens next. He lays down on the bed and waits. An alert flashes on the control screen. Zero percentage of oxygen. The ship will destroyed in ten minutes, and the countdown starts now.

A ship comes up to Evelyn's side. Inside that ship, Marc tells his crew to shut down the engines, and we are going to collect what we can from the wreckage vessel. Scan for life forms. No life on board Sir, says his chief commander. Wait I hear a countdown.

 three, two, one.....

The vessel exploded into millions of pieces. The blast kills all of my crew team.

October 09, 2023 14:09

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2 comments

Ellie Jay Moore
19:53 Oct 19, 2023

Great premise, love the idea of humans now living and working in space after AI and war! Sad ending!

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M.R. Simon
17:09 Oct 20, 2023

Thank you for reading my story, and your comment. Reply appreciated.

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