The Numinous

by Michie, Tristan

  “OK.” She said to herself,

  “You have been in Stasis, probably for sometime. Those creatures you saw earlier were just hallucinations brought on by long hyper-sleep.” She pondered what she had just told herself for a few moments.

  “The emergency lighting seems to be on, clearly there is a power related problem here.” She stopped talking to herself and stood against the Stasis chamber in silence.

  “OK, here’s what we are going to do. First, get clothes from your locker. Second, try and remember how to get to the medical deck and get your head looked at. Lastly, find out what has been going on.”

  She slowly crossed the room to the lockers, her bare feet were frozen on the floor, in fact the whole place seemed a lot colder than it should. She opened both lockers and looked inside, both contained woman’s clothing, yet she couldn't remember which was hers. Neither lockers nor Stasis chambers were numbered or signed in any way. She put on the clothes which looked right and slowly walked back to the chamber, each step she took felt like her head was splitting open. She had vague memories of what to do when awakening from hyper-sleep, the first she had already done, calm yourself and talk reasonably about what you are going to do next, don't let panic and fear take over. Also rehydrating was important, she remembered the compartment fitted to all Stasis chambers, opened it and took the water and nutrients drink from within. She drank them all, screamed aloud at the sudden stomach cramps and slid back down onto the floor, clutching herself as her body was wracked in pain.

  Eventually the pain started to subside, she pulled herself back up, perhaps a little too quick considering the head injury she had already sustained and nearly passed out. She stood against the chamber, waiting for the light headedness to pass. Slowly she walked towards the door, it slid open In a jerky fashion.

  “Power really has become an issue.” She said to herself.

  She walked out of the room into a narrow corridor, the emergency lighting wasn't as effective out here, both ways the corridor looked dark and gloomy. The red light made for a sinister scene. She couldn't remember which way the medical deck was, so just walked, hoping that something would trigger her memories.

  She couldn't remember anything before going into Stasis sleep, nothing substantial anyway. Her life was a blur, she knew she was serving on a large ship and she new how to behave once out of Stasis. As for everything else she had no idea, did she have family? Friends? What was her role aboard this ship? She couldn't even remember her own name. She was more than aware that this was a temporary side effect of Stasis, but it kept a small level of panic bubbling, just below the surface.

  She reached the end of the corridor, doors stood to her left and right, both of which were named 'Hyper-sleep Lounge 5' and “Hyper-sleep Lounge 6'. She approached number 5, the door slid open, smoothly but slowly. Inside the room was black, no lighting at all was on in this room. She couldn't see how many Stasis chambers were in here, but the few she could see all displayed a red light.

  “Empty.” She said as she turned to room 6.

  The door to room six wouldn't open at first, she could hear the hydraulics in the door trying to work, but they just weren't getting enough power. She grabbed the edge of the door as best she could and pulled, the door started to open slightly. She pulled until there was a gap big enough to squeeze through. Unlike room Five, this room was lit, albeit with red light, but lit none the less. This room was large, big enough for at least twenty Stasis chambers. Most of the chambers had the red light on them, signifying an empty 'bed', but one of them had a green light, she walked over to the chamber and peered in through the glass window. A man was inside, she guessed he was in his sixties, with grey hair and a grey unkempt beard. He looked in good health. She considered starting the 'waking procedure', but decided against it. At least not until she had found out what was going on. There was a computer terminal on the far wall, the screen was flickering on and off which made it difficult to read. The computer currently had a plan of the room she stood in on screen, she could see the occupied chamber, she selected it. After a brief pause, static rained across the screen, threatened to switch itself off then stabilised again. The new screen brought up the chambers current occupier, a man by the name of Edward Burnly followed by his identification number. She didn't have high enough authorisation clearance to see anything else about him, but at least she had a name. It was at that moment she turned away from the computer,

  “Stupid bitch!” She said to herself smiling,

  She walked out of the room back into the corridor,

  “Why didn't I check the damn terminal in my own room?!”

  Halfway back down the corridor she stopped dead.

  What was that?

  Her heart began to beat just a little bit faster as she stood in silence in the corridor, she could hear something, like footsteps and not very far away, slowly coming down the corridor towards her.

  She could feel panic beginning to rise, someone was here in the gloom with her and for some reason it was really starting to scare her. The room back to her Stasis chamber was about twenty foot in front of her, she could be there in seconds, yet something was freezing her to the spot. Her rational mind kicked in,

  “Don't be stupid now, you told yourself earlier about hallucinations, a normal symptom of hyper-sleep. It doesn't always have to be visual, sometimes audible hallucinations are just as common.” It said to her.

  But she couldn't or wouldn't listen, something about this whole experience was very real, not any sort of hallucination, and she knew the longer she stood here the more vulnerable she was.

  Panic streaked through her.

  Move!

  And with that her legs started to move, her heart was racing and as she got to the door she turned and glanced up the corridor. She saw something in the shadows, something moving, no more than twenty foot in front of her. She dived through. The door didn't close behind her, she didn't have time to try and force it closed, panicking she threw herself across the room and ducked down behind her Stasis chamber. She closed her eyes.

  The footsteps stopped, from the sound of it, right outside the open door; and then silence. She waited for what seemed an eternity, the room was filled with the sound of her own heartbeat.

  She had imagined it, she must of done, there was no one here apart from herself. With that she plucked up the courage to look around the corner of the Stasis chamber, before she had barely moved the footsteps began again. Whoever it was, was coming into the room.

  The footsteps sounded strange, more of a drag than a step and less than ten feet away from her. She could barely contain her fear.

  Her rational mind spoke up again,

  “It's not real, get up and have a look, nothing is there!” It screamed at her.

  She opened her eyes, the room seemed darker than it should, darker than it was before. The footsteps had stopped right next to her, her heart was almost beating through her chest, she was on the verge of complete panic. She started to turn her head.

  “Hello.” A voice called out.

  “Hello, is anybody there?” It shouted.

  It sounded close, further up the corridor.

  She could sense eyes on her, eyes staring at her. As though something was just inches from her face, just staring.

  She was cold, so very cold. She felt dizzy and nauseous.

  “I need help!” The distant voice shouted.

  Something was touching her shoulder, cold and wet.

  “Anyone?” The distant voice shouted, as her mind gave into the peacefulness of unconsciousness.

  3

  James Horton had been awake for sometime, he didn't know exactly how long, but long enough to remember his name and get to grips with the symptoms of hyper-sleep. His first few hours of waking life had become a bit of a blur, he remembered the fear and paranoia but that was about it. Each hour that passed revealed a bit more about himself, he remembered he was on a ship, somewhere deep in space. He was one among a crew of aroun
d three hundred, and worked on the engineering deck.

  He had spent the last few hours exploring his immediate surroundings but the ship was huge, it would be sometime before he remembered the place fully, but it was slowly starting to come back to him. He felt a sadness, seemingly alone on a vast ship, where was everyone? Had something happened? The whole time he had been awake he had seen no evidence to suggest anyone else was on-board. He had come across several hyper-sleep lounges, each one had been empty. The computer terminals wouldn't let him look up any in-depth information on the current ship or crew status which frustrated him immensely, he had an authorisation password but just couldn't remember it. If he could look into the ships logs he could determine what was going on, but he had to be patient, other memories had come back to him, he hoped his password would too.

  The power situation was also worrying him, the emergency power was clearly engaged, but even that had a limited lifespan, and judging by it's temperamental nature, it looked as though it was on it's way out. Non essential systems would close down first, lighting would stay up as long as possible, but eventually life support systems would start to fail, and if that happened there would be problems, big problems. The fact that it did look likely to fail in the near future further suggested to him no-one else was on-board, else surely the problem would have been rectified before getting to this point.

  His priority had become engineering, he needed to get to the engineering deck, it really was a matter of life or death. If he could get there he may be able to sort out some of the power issues the ship was having, or at the very least shut down non essential systems to prolong life support. If he could also find his way to his living quarters he may be able to find some record of his password, the computers have floor plans for all the decks on-board. the ship, right down to the smallest detail and could show him exactly how to get to his room and engineering. Unfortunately he needed his password to access those plans, he would have to rely on his own memories, the most important of which just weren't surfacing.

  He stood in the hyper-sleep lounge he had originally awoken in, the door to the nearby locker room stood open. Earlier he had checked all the lockers for anything useful, something that might aid him, The best he came up with was a flash light and replacement batteries. He wasn't able to close the locker room door when he left, it was completely jammed, but it played on his mind. Something about the door being wide open unsettled him, the emergency lighting really wasn't helping. Everything was washed in a red light, a fairly dim light at that and it gave everywhere an odd atmosphere, stupid things like open doors just added to it yet he had no real idea why. With flash light in hand he left the room in the direction of a long dark corridor. Out here the lights were off completely, it was pitch black. Earlier he had ventured up the corridor, checking rooms on either side as he went until he had come to a large door at the end that he just couldn't force open. This time he went in the opposite direction, he held the flash light in front of him and slowly walked forward. The flash light was quite effective, cutting through the darkness as he went, shadows formed and dispersed all around him. Sometimes it was like people were gathered about him, the way the shadows came and went, like they were living things stalking his every move. The corridor was about ten foot wide, here and there control panels were set into walls, with vent access points and dead light fittings along the ceiling. After a few feet he came across a door with a small control panel to it's right.

  “An elevator.” He said to himself.

  He pressed the 'call' button on the panel, nothing seemed to happen, he waited a few seconds and tried again, pressing it several times in the hope it would jog it into life. Nothing, power really was that low.

  “Damn it!” He cursed aloud.

  He stood staring at the elevator door for a few more seconds.

  “Wait.” He thought,

  “If there’s an elevator, there must be a stairwell, and hopefully near by.”

  He turned back down the corridor and continued onwards.

  After about ten foot he found what he sought. The stairwell was right In front of him, on the wall was a map of the deck he was on and signs indicating what decks were above and below.

  “Thank god.” He said to himself, relieved.

  By the looks of this, engineering is two decks up.

  He glanced back down the corridor, he'd had an odd sensation ever since he had woken up. Like he was being followed and constantly watched, he knew it was just the last of the hallucinations hanging on, but what if it wasn't? Something had quite clearly happened to this ship while he had been in Stasis, something quite big, where was everybody? Had they just all up and left? Maybe taking all the escape pods, he decided the escape pods was something he should probably check at some point. Things were not right, so the chances there was someone following him around this dark, barely illuminated ship was at least feasible.

  As he glanced back down the corridor he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, a cold chill ran through him, his eyes were drawn to the furthest and darkest point of the corridor.

  Someone is stood there, Someone is fucking stood there!

  He was rooted to the spot, staring down the corridor. Someone was there, standing perfectly still in the shadows but definitely there.

  “Who's there?” He called.

  “What are you doing?”

  There was no response.

  I must still be hallucinating

  He closed his eyes and rubbed them, they were tired, so very tired. When he opened them, the person, or what he thought was a person was no longer there. He stared long into the darkness but there was no sign of anyone.

  Still seeing things then.

  He turned and faced the stairs and started to slowly walk up. Two flights and he was on the next deck, 'Deck Nine – Primary Stasis Deck' according to the sign. He shone the flash light down the passageway, it was very dark not unlike the lower deck, only this time in the distance he could make out a red glow. There was power on this deck, at least some anyway.

  He was about to continue his ascent up to the engineering deck when he heard a shout.

  “Hello.” It came from somewhere further up the corridor, definitely on this deck. It was a male voice and they sounded agitated.

  “Hello. Is anybody there?”

  James moved away from the stairs and up the corridor slightly.

  “I need help!” It called.

  “Anyone?” And then silence, whoever it was had given up.

  James stood at the end of the corridor and waited, this was the first time he had had any form of contact with anyone else since waking. Who were they? They sounded in distress, maybe even hurt.

  “Engineering can wait a bit longer.” He thought.

  He slowly walked up the corridor, further ahead he heard the sound of a door closing, he started to run through the darkness and tripped, sending the flash light across the floor. The beam of light shone wildly all around the walls and ceiling, finally resting at the foot of a door. James sat himself up, by his feet was a metal bar. He picked it up. Gingerly he got himself to his feet, pain shot through his knee making him wince in pain. Slowly he limped over to the flash light, bent over and picked it up. He was stood outside a door, this must be the door the man had entered.

  The door didn't open automatically so he used the controls to the side. The door opened onto a small locker room, he slowly walked inside. Must of the lockers were open, clothes and random personal items were strewn about the floor.

  Looks like I wasn't the only one gong through peoples stuff.

  At the far end of the room, was another door, he crossed the room towards it. It refused to open, another jammed door. He called out.

  “Hello? Can you hear me? My name is James, I heard you calling. Please let me in if you can.” He was met with silence.

  The doors in this ship were thick steel, he wasn't surprised if the rooms occupant was unable to hear him. He was still carrying the metal
bar in his hand.

  Maybe I can force the door with this.

  He put the thinnest end into a crack at the edge of the door and tried to lever it open. There was barely any give. He tried again, only more forceful. It moved about an inch and stopped. Frustrated he started to hit the door as hard as he could where it had opened slightly. BANG, BANG, BANG, the door open slightly more. BANG, BANG, BANG. He continued bashing at the door but it wasn't budging any further. James raised the bar above his head and brought it down as hard as he could. That was enough to persuade the door to open. James stood at the open door looking into the room.

  It was a hyper-sleep lounge, around twenty Stasis chambers lined the walls. A computer terminal was set into the wall near the door. Someone was in the furthest Stasis chamber, sat up staring at him, they looked terrified. James raised both hands in a peaceful gesture and slowly crossed the room to the Stasis chamber.

  4

  Alpha Centauri, two bright eyes shining from the abyss...

  She opened her eyes and looked into the gloom, it took a moment to remember what had happened. Something had followed her in here, something which had scared her to the point of utter panic. What was it? The room seemed empty now, whatever it was must have gone. Had she just imagined the whole thing? She lifted a hand to her head, the bump seemed bigger, pain shot through her body as her fingers glided over her injury.

  “What’s going on?” She whispered to herself,

  She slowly got to her feet, almost overwhelmed with dizziness and nausea. She held herself against the Stasis chamber momentarily until her head stopped swimming.

  Shouting, someone was calling.