The Complete First Season - Episodes 1-5

by J. L. Stowers

  “Understood, Osirion. We’ll sit tight,” Dani reported back. “Any word from the Houston?”

  “Not yet,” Cassia mumbled. “You can’t just stay out there. You don’t have any rations.”

  “Hey.” Dani smiled at Jag as she replied to Cassia, “We’ll be fine.”

  Dani muted her comm and then the cruiser dash comm so Osirion wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation, then Jag did the same with his.

  “Hey, looks like we might be out here a while,” she started. “Thanks for coming with me on this totally horrifying waste of time.”

  Jag laughed. “Anytime. Though maybe we leave the black oozy stuff alone from here on out?”

  “Agreed.”

  “You know, there’s one thing I don’t understand.” Jag turned toward her, scratching his head.

  Dani raised her eyebrows. “Just one thing?”

  “Heh, right?” He flashed his charming smile. “But if they’re all dead, who sent the distress signal?”

  Dani sat upright, a moment of panic running through her body. “Do you think we missed someone?”

  “Well, I’m just saying, if a black space ooze creature was walking around in people suits, maybe I’d stay hidden.” Jag shrugged. “I dunno, maybe I’m overthinking it.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Dani stared out the window at the Raleigh and the zombie-like humans floating near the airlock. She wondered if she had been too careless. What if someone was alive on that ship and she missed it? They hadn’t looked everywhere. It was completely possible that someone triggered the distress signal and hid in the ducts or a cupboard somewhere. Still, she couldn’t risk Jag’s life on a ‘maybe.’

  “I see those wheels turning, missy. You better knock that off. I didn’t mean to send you into a spiral.”

  Dani attempted a half-hearted smile.

  “Look, Dani, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something...” Jag trailed off, looking down at his hands.

  “Guys, we just picked up the Houston on the long-range scanners. They’re out of our ICC zone, but I sent them our location.” Cassia’s cheeriness was a relief.

  “Oh, sweet.” Jag grinned.

  “Wait, what were you wanting to tell me?” Dani furrowed her brow.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. It can wait.” He winked and sat up straight, peering out the windshield.

  They spent the next few minutes in silence until a brilliant flash appeared near Osirion. As soon as their eyes recovered from the bright light, they could see the Houston and all its glory, instantly making Osirion seem like a toy.

  “You think Patrick will be mad?” Jag turned to her.

  “Probably,” Dani answered.

  Jag laughed. “Excellent.”

  Dani couldn’t help but smile and shake her head.

  “What have you done?” Patrick’s voice projected anger even through the comm.

  “Here we go.” Dani sighed and reached over to unmute them.

  “It took you long enough.” Dani smirked.

  Patrick laughed. “Alright, now that we got that out of the way... well done.”

  Jag and Dani exchanged a confused glance.

  “We’re downloading the data report right now. I have analysts standing by to review it. I hear you encountered an alien organism?”

  “That’s right,” Dani said. “And, if you direct your attention to that ship over there and the crewmen flapping around it, you’ll see it firsthand.”

  “I’ll have our team analyze the organism as soon as we get you and your crew taken care of.”

  “Also, I have a few questions. First of all, why was there another GC shi—”

  “There will be plenty of time for questions after we analyze the data.”

  Dani shook her fist at the speaker when Patrick interrupted her, causing Jag to laugh.

  “Jag, you sound like you made it through okay. Greeeaaaaat.” The sarcasm spilled from the speakers.

  “Sorry to disappoint, boss man. Can’t get rid of me that easy, you know.”

  Patrick sighed audibly through the speaker. “Okay, Jag, please bring the cruiser around to Dock 4. We’ll have a decontamination crew waiting for you there. Osirion will fall into orbit around Houston until the two of you are able to return.”

  “Copy.” Dani wrinkled her nose at the thought of having to spend more time on the Houston.

  “Oh, and congratulations. Out.”

  “What a tool,” Jag said as he grabbed the controls once more.

  “I heard that.” Patrick sounded less than enthused.

  Dani reached over and slapped the mute button on the microphone just as they laughed up a storm.

  As Jag neared Dock 4, another ship departed. Through the windshield they could see four fully suited crewmembers. Dani and Jag shared another concerned look before he eased the ship into the dock.

  As promised, a full decontamination crew was standing by. Their blocky-looking decontamination suits made their movements awkward.

  “Now the real fun begins,” Jag said as he shut down the engines and took his hands off the controls.

  The decontamination crew misted the outside of the cruiser with a pink-tinged fog. As the fog settled, there was a bang on the cruiser’s hatch. Dani opened the door and the man offered her his gloved hand. She accepted and climbed out of the ship.

  Once Jag was out, a few members of the decontamination crew climbed inside the ship while Dani and Jag were escorted through a ribbed, plastic tunnel and into a sterilized room. Inside were two twin-sized beds, a private bathroom, and a kitchenette.

  “Wait.” Dani turned back to look through the glass wall. “How long are we going to be in here?”

  Patrick stood on the opposite side of the glass, outside of the tunnel they’d just used. “We aren’t sure yet. Once we have a better analysis we’ll let you know.”

  Dani pursed her lips and nodded reluctantly. “Fine.”

  “Dibs!” Jag shouted as he quickly removed his space suit and jumped onto one of the beds.

  Dani stared at the crumpled suit lying on the ground and shook her head, trying to rid her mind of the bodies on Raleigh. Instead, she tried to picture them alive, which only made her more curious about them.

  “So, Patrick, tell me about the Raleigh,” Dani said as she slipped out of her space suit and placed it in a bin.

  Patrick sighed and began pacing back and forth in front of the glass. “The Raleigh was the first ship to attempt wormhole travel after your happy accident.”

  Dani frowned. “I don’t know that I’d call the hell I went through a happy accident.”

  Patrick held up his hand and continued pacing. “Irrelevant. They actually entered from this side, here in PS505. We didn’t realize the wormhole we sent you into was the other end of this one.”

  Jag joined them at the window after scooping up his suit and tossing it in the bin on top of Dani’s.

  Patrick sighed. “When we failed to find them, we feared the worst. It appears as though the organism attacked their ship mere days after it entered the wormhole.”

  “Wait.” Dani stepped closer to the glass. “What are you basing that assumption on?”

  Patrick stopped pacing and looked at her, perplexed. “Why, the data we downloaded from Raleigh of course. Systems show there was a significant impact causing extensive damage to the ship shortly after they entered the wormhole. The alien organism then began to eat away at the ship after four days.”

  Dani and Jag shared a lingering look of confusion.

  “What now?” Patrick folded his arms over his chest.

  “When we came through the wormhole, the organism hadn’t reached the Raleigh,” Dani said slowly, still working through the statement in her head. “The ship was trapped alongside a massive asteroid.”

  “Which I blew up,” Jag interrupted.

  “Right,” Dani continued. “It was only after we freed it that it encountered the organism.”

  Patrick looked from Dani down to his po
rt-con, punching in the information. “That doesn’t make sense. It must have had an encounter before you arrived.”

  “How long has the Raleigh been missing?” Jag asked.

  “Nearly six full GC months.”

  “When do Raleigh’s logs show they entered the wormhole?” Dani craned her neck in an attempt to see the data he was looking at.

  Patrick sighed and tapped the port-con a few more times, then he froze. His finger poised above the screen, he slowly raised his eyes to Dani’s face. “Four days ago.”

  The three stared at each other momentarily before Patrick turned and walked away, leaving Jag and Dani alone.

  “Weird.” Jag scrunched up his face.

  Dani folded her arms over her chest, watching the door Patrick exited through, hopeful he’d come back soon with an explanation. “I don’t like this, one bit.”

  Chapter 2

  “You’re making my neck tired.” Jag sighed from where he sat on his bed, arms folded across his chest.

  Dani stopped and glanced down at the floor. There was a considerable difference in the amount of shine along the path she had been pacing. “Oh...”

  “Right. Oh.” Jag stood and walked over to Dani, grabbing her firmly by the shoulders. “You need to relax.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Now, I’m sure there’s something more entertaining to do in here than watching you wear a groove in the floor.” Jag started digging through the cabinets.

  Dani huffed and looked around the quarantine cell. She was starting to feel as though she were a prisoner constantly getting transferred from one cell to another. She longed for the hint of freedom she was afforded on her ship and loathed the bland white interior of the Houston more than ever.

  “Here we go, chess.” Jag smiled as he withdrew the game from the cupboard and carried it toward Dani. “Oh now what is it?”

  “I just hate not knowing things. Patrick hasn’t given us an update in several hours and I need to know what’s going on.”

  Jag set up the board and pieces. “Well, maybe a friendly game will help get your mind off of things.”

  She watched as he placed the pawns and power pieces in their designated places. This wasn’t the first time they had played, but it had been quite some time since their last match. Jag almost always beat her, often boasting about how easy chess is to win if the player fully understands the value each piece brings to the board and doesn’t mind the occasional sacrifice.

  A few moves into their game and Dani’s mind began to wander again. She wondered how the rest of the crew was holding up on Osirion and if the orbit around the Houston was as dull as it was inside.

  “It’s your move.”

  Dani blinked rapidly, bringing the board back into focus. “I’m sorry, I just can’t concentrate.”

  “That’s what you say every time it looks like I’m going to win.” He winked.

  Dani managed a smile and got up from the table, stretching. “I wish they’d let us out of here. I hate not being able to see the stars.”

  Jag nodded. “I hear you there. Why don’t you try to get some rest? I’ll wake you if anyone comes by.”

  Dani yawned; it wasn’t a bad idea. She had barely slept since the quarantine began. The bed felt like a lumpy pile of month-old rations and smelled about the same. But it was softer than the floor, and that was her only other option. Dani crawled into bed and stared up at the overhead light. “Is there any way to turn that thing off?”

  Jag looked around the room. “Afraid not. I don’t see any switches. But... hang on.”

  Dani watched curiously as Jag rifled through the cabinets and drawers before coming up with some tape. He slipped the dark blue pillowcase off of his pillow and used a pen to puncture holes in the thin fabric. After removing the chessboard, he climbed onto the table and taped the pillowcase over the light.

  “Your stars, m’lady,” he said with a deep bow, nearly toppling off of the table.

  Dani laughed. The pillowcase didn’t block all of the light, but it did a fantastic job at dimming the room. The holes in the fabric resembled distant stars and brought a smile to her face. “Clever. Thank you.”

  Jag smiled, pleased with himself, and fell onto his own bed, folding his hands behind his head, staring up at his creation.

  Dani closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, attempting to will her body to sleep. She had gotten pretty good at a type of self-hypnosis to fall asleep quickly, an important skill when her insomnia grew bothersome. Starting with her feet, she began to relax, slipping into unconsciousness before she even reached her knees.

  Her eyes got heavy and she started to feel as though she was drifting weightlessly through space. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but there she was, floating among the space dust at S802-P825-C1106-66d.

  Dani swam through the waterless sea of dark silence. Then, something caught her eye. A glinting metal object drifted toward her, spinning in slow motion as it neared. A signet ring. Could it be? As the ring completed its rotation, a boldly carved ‘D’ circled around to face Dani. Her thoughts echoed in the void around her as though they, too, were part of space. She reached for her father’s ring, stretching her fingers out as far as she could reach, but not far enough.

  She did everything she could to accelerate toward the ring as it passed by her, just out of reach, and continued on its orbit. Dani kicked, thrashing her legs and arms in an effort to get purchase on something, anything. But the blackness closed in on her, holding her, pulling her back into suffocating darkness.

  “Dani.” Jag clawed at the blankets that Dani had managed to tightly wrap herself in during her dream. “Calm down or I can’t get you out.”

  She managed to tear the fabric away from her face, her hair clinging to her jawline from the static electricity. Gasping for air, she stared at Jag, bewildered, forgetting for a moment where she was.

  “Must have been some dream,” Jag said, helping her into a seated position as he knelt next to her bed. “You alright?”

  “Uh, yeah. I think so.” Dani smoothed her hair back down before rubbing her hands over her face, starting at the bridge of her nose and working in an outward circle until they stopped over her mouth. She exhaled deeply, the warmth of her breath pushing out between her fingers. Before she could fully gather her thoughts, a tapping came from the glass.

  Patrick stood on the opposite side of the glass with two doctors, drumming on the pane with his knuckle. “Wrap it up, lovebirds. Let’s get you out of here.”

  “We’re clear?” Jag said as he stood and approached the glass.

  Dani pushed herself to her feet, hesitating a moment to make sure her wobbly legs were going to do their job, and joined them.

  “Yes. Our research indicates that the organism is only interested in necrotic tissue and is generally inert to all else.”

  “So, dead stuff,” Jag clarified.

  Patrick sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, ‘dead stuff,’ which means the crew must have expired on impact after their entry into the wormhole, before the organism latched on to the craft.”

  “Expired? They’re people, not yogurt.” Jag glared at Patrick through the glass.

  “Look, I think we all understand what everyone means. We’re not dead, so we’re not at risk.” Dani took a step closer to the glass. “But explain how it reanimated their bodies and sent the distress signal.”

  “As far as we can tell”—Patrick shrugged,—“it produces an electrical charge as a byproduct. The charge is enough to temporarily resume motor functions in a deceased lifeform, and possibly enough to activate the distress signal, but not enough to send an actual message.”

  “Okay, what about the difference in time?” she asked.

  “We’ll have to look into it. We still don’t have a whole lot of data to go off of right now. We’re comparing the data from the Raleigh with Osirion’s recordings. What we’ve seen so far indicates that travel from one end of the wormhole to the other was instantaneous
for Osirion; however, that was clearly not the case. Nor was Raleigh only in there for four days.”

  “That brings us to the most important question of all.” Jag’s eyes widened.

  Patrick looked at Jag curiously. “What’s that?”

  “Why are we still in here?”

  Dani couldn’t help but laugh as Patrick’s face fell in disappointment. She had caught the familiar glimmer in Jag’s eye and chose not to speak up, instead letting Patrick take the setup.

  Jag maintained his charming grin as Patrick called for a guard to unlock the containment unit.

  “The cruiser has been cleared and resupplied. You’re free to join the others on Osirion,” Patrick rattled off the statement before briskly walking from the room.

  Dani turned and raised her eyebrows at Jag.

  “What?” He shrugged.

  “Nothing, let’s get out of here.”

  Patrick wasn’t joking about the supplies. Dani and Jag had to squeeze through the boxes to get to their seats on the cruiser. The cargo hatch was full, as was the rest of the small craft. Jag expertly maneuvered the ship toward Osirion as Dani read over the supply list.

  “Anything good?” Jag asked out of the corner of his mouth.

  “Nothing that stands out. Basic supplies, food, the usual.” She was slightly disappointed that no other luxury dinners would be happening in the future, but she was also happy about the resupply because it meant they wouldn’t be reboarding Houston for a while.

  Dani sighed and tucked the list back into one of the boxes while Jag docked the cruiser on Osirion’s underbelly. “Excited to be back?”

  “Oh, sure, but it wasn’t so bad.”

  Dani arched an eyebrow at him.

  “I mean, sure, the goo and dead people weren’t ideal. But other than that, I was in good company.”

  “So, you’re building a bond with Patrick then?” Dani winked and joked.

  “Oh, sure, you know, always a people pleaser.”

  Dani was amused and curious about the red hue that settled on Jag’s cheeks but didn’t have time to joke about it as a banging on the hatch interrupted her thoughts. Dani hopped up and opened the hatch to see a beaming Cruz.