The Lost Ship by John Hopkins

Author:John Hopkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC028000 FICTION / Science Fiction / General
FIC028010 FICTION / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
FIC028090 FICTION / Science Fiction / Alien Contact
FIC028070 FICTION / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
Publisher: Hopart Publishing
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Rachel | PTB HQ, Scotland

03:33 a.m. | September 29, 2044

The last-minute postponement of a welcome dinner left the jetlagged couple with nothing to do but retire to their suite and crash atop the cushy bed—Owen wrapped like a burrito and Rachel face up toward the tiled ceiling.

*****

Rachel bolts upright and sleepwalks out the apartment door and into the long corridor. Shuffling barefoot past shuttered rooms under the pale blue night-mode lighting, she turns left at an intersection, losing herself in Level B’s maze. Pausing at an alcove furnished with a sofa and table, her somnambulant stare fixates on a luminous entity emerging from the shadows.

The essence intensifies, sharpening into the ghostly profile of a bearded man out of time garbed in a flowing long-sleeved tunic cinched at the waist under a bright red cloak.

“I don’t know you.”

“Of course not.”

“Should I?”

The medieval figure shifts toward Rachel, revealing his bloodied and beaten face and a jeweled dagger jutting from his chest,

“Methinks it best if you do not.”

With his point made, the phantasm resumes his haunting path, fading through a wall.

“Mrs. Haig, are you lost?”

The simple question shatters the quietude, jarring Rachel from another nocturnal stroll. Goosebumped in the chill recycled air under thin cotton pajama pants and a loose tank top, she watches a beguiling synthetic sister approach out of the shadows.

Flush with embarrassment, Rachel tries to speak, but the dark-haired beauty with a mischievous twinkle on her smoky-eyed countenance presses a fingertip to her lips, mouthing, “Quiet.” Taking Rachel by the hand, she leads her back to her room.

Rachel heaves a relieved sigh at the door to her suite, hoping no one else witnessed her paranormal rendevous, “Thanks. I owe you one.”

The woman leans close in her PTB lab coat and places a hand at Rachel’s waist to whisper in her ear, “Do spirits invade your dreams?”

Rattled by the hypnotic beauty’s query, Rachel manages to blurt out, “Yes.”

“We see ghosts, too.” Pressing Rachel against the door, Number 1 kisses her lips before stepping back with an impish smile, “Good night, Mrs. Haig.”

Rachel puts a hand to her mouth, watching the replicant take long, confident strides down the low-lit corridor, “Whoa. What the hell just happened?”

Swooning from the mystifying encounter, Rachel tiptoes into the darkened suite, shedding pajamas onto the floor before awakening her bedmate to satiate an overwhelming passionate desire.

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