Into the Dark (And Two Other Stories) by Robert Kroese

Author:Robert Kroese [Kroese, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: St. Culain Press
Published: 2013-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

DE-PRESSURIZATION COMPLETE

Above this message was an image of Serena, standing in the airlock, smiling placidly at him. She wasn’t wearing a pressure suit.

The display now read:

OPENING EXTERNAL DOOR

“No!” Matt screamed. “Serena, stop! What are you doing?”

The door slid open, revealing the dark of deep space and a smattering of stars.

Serena pantomimed blowing a kiss to him. Then she turned and launched herself into the blackness.

As her figure grew smaller, Matt stared in disbelief. Why would she do this? It made no sense. They had agreed, for Christ’s sake. She was supposed to be the one to pilot the Morgana home.

Her words echoed in Matt’s brain: I can’t! You don’t understand. I can’t make it without you!

Disbelief was followed by waves of anger and grief – and then self-pity. Well, he thought. Now we’re both fucked.

Serena’s limp body drifted away as if pulled by the darkness of space.

To Matt’s credit, he didn’t bother to entertain vain hopes of rescuing her. She’d asphyxiate before he even had his suit on. He watched her float away until she was a tiny white speck in the blackness, and then kept watching for what might well have been hours. There was nothing else for him to do.

He hadn’t been exaggerating when he told her he was incapable of navigating the Morgana back to Earth. It would have been a challenge for him even if he had a full supply of oxygen, and with his already barely adequate intellect compromised by grief and oxygen deprivation, he didn’t have a chance.

At last he looked away, and the reality of the situation hit him: he was alone. As alone as anyone had ever been, 300 million kilometers from the nearest human being. 300 million kilometers. Another meaningless number. What mattered was that Serena was gone, her frozen body drifting slowly into deep space.

Matt dragged himself numbly to the control center, strapping himself into his chair. He tapped in the thrust vectors Serena had given him earlier, and then activated the Morgana’s distress beacon. Serena’s vectors would get the Morgana around Jupiter and headed roughly in the direction of Earth. CMS would pick up the distress call, run a remote diagnostic, and discover that both crew members were dead. They would then send a salvage mission to retrieve the Morgana and its haul. The job would get done, even though the crew wouldn’t be around to see it.

Matt mechanically unstrapped himself and navigated toward the medical locker. He swallowed a handful of narcotics and then made his way back to the airlock and began donning his space suit. He was under no illusion about his own gallantry; following Serena into the void fully conscious and sans space suit was probably the romantic thing to do, but Matt had no desire to die of a pulmonary embolism, exploding lungs, or any of the other conditions that ultimately led to death in a vacuum. No, he would stick to the plan, even if Serena hadn’t: he would launch himself into space and drift into a narcotic slumber, dying peacefully when his 30-minute oxygen supply gave out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.