The Numinous

by Michie, Tristan

  James glanced down the stairs, if Markus had heard a voice then they had since moved on. He turned to Markus.

  “Did you get anything from the terminals?” Asked James.

  “No, I tried the one in that office but I don't have a code. Figured the rest would be the same. We should get down to the next deck, see where that voice came from.”

  “No need,” said James. “Listen.”

  James was right, there was no need. There were footsteps slowly walking up the stairs.

  8

  What had fallen from the stairs? Louise looked around in the darkness as best she could but found nothing. Where did Edward go? Was someone up there? Was that who she heard on the tannoy just then? She felt alone and terrified, what had Edward seen emerging from the shadows? It must have been a hallucination; as she had seen nothing but darkness, but he was convinced something was there.

  But so was I!

  She remembered back to her own experiences after waking up, first the strange insect things and then whatever was stood in the corridor and subsequently followed her back to her room. That had seemed real, very real so it stands to reason Edward had experienced something similar. But where had he gone? Could that have been him up the stairs, maybe he dropped or banged against something in his panic.

  She walked to the foot of the stairs and looked up into the darkness, and then she saw it. A flash light beam cut through the dark at the top of the stairs. Moments later she heard two separate voices. She couldn't tell what was being said, but it sounded like there were two males at the top of the stairs.

  “Edward?” she muttered “Is Edward up there?”

  She quietly made her way up the metal stairs, it was difficult in the dim lighting; her footsteps could probably be heard down the other end of the deck.

  As she neared the next floor she could make out two people leaning over the railings at the top of the stairs, pointing a flash light at her. Instinct forced her to raise her hands.

  “Edward? Is that you?” She asked, her voice giving away her apprehension.

  “Edward?” One of the men said, he sounded on edge. “No, we haven't seen anyone by that name.”

  “We haven't seen anyone else at all until now.” The other man said, he sounded a lot more confident than his friend.

  They both stepped back as Louise reached the top of the stairs.

  “Who are you anyway?” Said the first man.

  Can I trust these people?

  “I'm Louise Sims. I was with an older man, Edward Burnly, until ten minutes ago. We heard an announcement to come up here”

  “Yeah that was me. So what happened? Where did he go?” The confident man asked.

  “Um, it was when the lights went out, look hold on a sec, who are you?” She said.

  “I'm James Horton, this is Markus Clyde. We found each other a few hours ago, been trying to figure out this mess ever since.”

  “OK.” Louise started, she was still feeling apprehensive. “Me and Edward had been with each other a few hours as well, we were on our way to Medical.”

  How much should I tell them?

  She paused. She didn't know these men, she wanted to believe they were friendly but Edwards suspicions were in her head.

  “It's OK.” James said to her. “You can talk to us, we're in this together.”

  He seemed sincere to Louise, there was almost an air of authority about him.

  But what about Markus, he seemed a bit too quiet.

  James noticed Louise' eyes glance at Markus, Markus had also noticed her looking at him. He held his hands up at her.

  “Look.” Markus began. “I'm cool, this whole thing is shitting me up if I’m honest; but like James said, we're in this together – we're all on the same side.”

  Maybe I should give them a chance.

  “OK.” Louise began to talk. “It was a few minutes ago on the next deck down, Edward thought he saw something down one of the corridors, he started panicking and then the lights went out. When they came back on he was gone. I was hoping he might have been up here with you.”

  “Sorry, we haven't seen anyone else at all until now” Markus said, “perhaps he's ran off frightened? James, put out another tannoy for him, tell him to make his way back up here and that Louise is with us.”

  “OK,” said James, “Yes, good idea!”

  James ran back through engineering to the ComSpeak unit.

  “This is a call for Edward Burnly, I am James Horton, please make your way back up to the engineering deck, we have Louise with us. There are three of us up here, let's try and stick together!”

  James then ran back to Markus and Louise. Returning, flustered, Louise thanked him. James then went on to say, “Look, There's an office back in Engineering, lets go back there and compare notes. We already have a plan we were about to put in action. But now we've met you, maybe we have a better chance working out what the hell has gone on in this ship.”

  James and Markus led Louise to the office in Engineering. When they entered James gestured at Louise to sit down on the chair.

  “Thanks.” She said as she gratefully excepted the seat.

  The lighting still seemed to be holding out; although it was still the emergency lighting, it was significantly brighter and stable than it had been.

  “So what happened with the lights?” Louise asked.

  “I restarted the reactor,” said James. “Shut down some unnecessary systems, and here we go. Power is still low but everything is currently working more efficiently.”

  “I take it you are something to do with Engineering then?” Louise asked James.

  “As far as I know, yeah. I know that sounds stupid but when I woke up that’s the only vivid memories I had. What about you?” James replied.

  Louise looked at the floor, she still couldn't remember for sure what she did. Nothing was really coming back. She knew all about Hyper-sleep side effects so assumed she was something to do with Medical, but she could quite have easily been something to do with Stasis.

  “I don't actually remember.” She said “All I know is when I awoke I knew a lot about Hyper-sleep side effects, I'm thinking maybe I'm something to do with Medical perhaps. In all honesty though, I don't know. What about you Markus?”

  Markus was busy flicking through the files again, in the hope that this time he would find something useful. He looked up when Louise spoke to him.

  “Erm, I have no idea. There's nothing about before. All I remembered when I woke up was my family.”

  “You have a family?” Louise asked.

  “Yeah, wife and one son; Christopher, he was four when I left.” Markus replied, sadness in his voice.

  The room went silent, Markus went back to his files, James stood watching the flickering terminal on the desk while Louise thought about Edward.

  “Is this amount of memory loss normal?” James asked.

  Louise jumped at the sound of his voice as she was dragged away from her thoughts and back to reality.

  “Yes and no.” She began. “A couple of hours is quite normal after an extended sleep, in simulations of around fifty years, two or three hours seems to be the norm. Shorter periods however can have none to very little in the way of Amnesia, as I'm sure you've experienced before.”

  James nodded his head.

  “I don't understand what's going on here though, personally I've been out of Stasis longer than two or three hours yet memory loss is proving a very real problem.” Louise continued.

  “I think that is probably the same for all of us.” Markus chipped in.

  Again, James nodded in agreement.

  “So what are you saying Louise?” James asked.

  “I don't really know. Either something went wrong with the Stasis chambers or.......”

  “Or what?” Markus asked, worry in his voice.

  “Or we've been asleep in Stasis a lot longer than Fifty years.” Louise replied.

  “No fucking way!” Markus almost shouted. “How the he
ll could we of been asleep that long? Ten years this mission was meant to be, ten fucking years!”

  James quickly grabbed him around the shoulders.

  “Markus, calm down mate! We don't know anything right now, we're just discussing ideas.”

  “I know, but what about my family? What if we have just been drifting aimlessly out here for years? My family.........my Wife and Son are potentially dead.”

  “I'm just guessing.” Louise tried to sound calm and reassuring. “I highly doubt that's what has happened. More than likely we had some kind of malfunction with the Stasis chambers.”

  Markus went back to looking through the files, the thought of extended Hyper-sleep had visibly shaken him.

  “OK, we'll assume malfunction then.” James said. “But that doesn't answer the most important question.”

  “Where the hell is everyone?” Louise asked.

  “Yeah, that one. A crew started this mission of around three hundred people. We are three, with Edward making it four? So where the hell is the other two hundred and ninety six? People don't just disappear!” James responded.

  “I've been trying to figure that out since I've been awake.” Louise said.

  “Hang on” Said Markus. “The bridge is up on the next deck, surely we'll get some answers up there?”

  “I've already thought that.” Said James. “I imagine all the systems we'd need to access will be password protected, like every other bloody thing around here.”

  “Sorry to say, I can't help with that. If I had a password, I've forgotten it.” said Louise.

  “The thing is, I know I have one, I just can't remember the damn thing.” James said.

  The room descended into silence again, the three of them lost in their own thoughts. It was Markus that broke the silence.

  “What do you know about our mission Louise? All we know is that it's for ten years and we were headed for Alpha Centauri.”

  “Yeah, that's right. Things have been coming back to me, what I have so far is; we were heading to Alpha Centauri like you said. We picked up a signal back on Earth, but there was something special about it. The public were only told the basics; discovered a signal, dunno what it is etcetera! In reality there was something much bigger going on, the signal came from the Alpha Centauri system. As for what was special about this signal, I don't remember.” Louise answered.

  “We need to get on the ships computers as soon as we can.” Said James.

  “Do you think this signal has anything to do with the missing crew?” Markus asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine.” Louise replied.

  “James, you said you had a plan, what was it?” Louise asked.

  “Oh yeah, right this isn't especially good news by the way,” he started “but basically, we are on the very end of the ships power supply, hence the emergency lighting. Sooner or later, probably sooner, things are gonna start shutting down. I've bought us some time, but I don't know how much. The plan is to set a course back to Earth and get ourselves back in Stasis, hopefully the ship will make it back before all power runs out.”

  “What happens if it doesn't last?” Louise asked, sounding quite concerned.

  “Well, the Stasis chambers have their own built in life support systems, provided we are in them and already heading home, we should be OK. Answered James.

  “Basically we're fucked.” Markus muttered to himself.

  James glanced across at Markus, a look of grief on his face.

  “But like I said, we need to get to the bridge and set a course home. There's also something else I want to check.” James added.

  “What’s that?” Louise asked.

  “I want to check the escape pods, just to see if they are still here or not.” James replied.

  “You're thinking the crew might of taken them?” Louise asked.

  “It's the only reason I can think of for their absence, maybe something happened and they all left?” James said.

  “It must have been something pretty bloody bad, I mean, for pretty much the entire crew to leave?” Markus said.

  “And leave some of us still in Stasis.” Louise added.

  The thought of being left behind really didn't sit well with the three of them.

  “OK, we don't know for sure how much time we have. Anything we need to do should be done now.” James said.

  “Prioritize, what's most important?” Louise said. “I guess setting a course home?”

  “Yeah, that would make sense. We need to find your friend Edward too, any idea if he had a room or anything he may of headed back to? James asked.

  “I don't know, he didn't remember very much at all from before. I suppose he may of gone back to his Stasis chamber.”

  “Do you know where that is?” James asked.

  “Yeah, I think so. It's where I first saw him. Next deck down, not far from my own chamber. I could probably get back there.” Louise replied.

  “Good, that's good. That leaves checking escape pods and maybe finding my Authorisation code. That's the priorities.” James said.

  “Right, I'll go look for Edward then.” Louise said.

  “Wait a minute, you said you were looking for Medical. What's up?” Markus suddenly asked.

  “Yeah, that's right. With everything going on I'd completely forgotten! I've banged my head a couple times, I was going to find painkillers and something to clean the wound with.”

  “Thought I saw something in your hair.” James said. “OK, Louise go and find Edward and Medical. Markus, are you up for going to find out if we have any escape pods?”

  Markus looked at James, he looked distant, vacant.

  “Markus?” James asked.

  Markus shook away whatever was in his head.

  “Yeah, sorry. What did you say again?” Markus asked, he sounded distant.

  “I asked if you are OK to go and find the escape pods.” James repeated.

  “Uh...... On my own?” Markus replied, he sounded wary.

  “Yes Markus, we need to get this stuff done as soon as possible.” James said, he tried to sound patient.

  “Uh....OK.....Where are they?” Markus asked.

  “Probably the lower decks, is there a storage deck? Probably there.” Louise suggested.

  “OK, yeah I can do that I think.” Markus said, he was still sounding wary.

  “I'll head further down Engineering, I noticed a few rooms down here for crew members; maybe mine is among them and hopefully my code. I'll be around on this deck for a while in case Edward makes his way up here. After that I'll head up to the Bridge.” Said James.

  Before the group separated they got the water and Neutrichoc from Markus' rucksack, sharing them amongst each other.

  “Markus, you better take this seeing as yours is down the bottom of several flights of stairs!” James said while passing his flash light to him.

  “Thanks.” He said, turning it on and off.

  “OK, regardless of what happens we meet back here in one hour.” James requested.

  “Do we have anyway to communicate with each other?” Asked Louise.

  “Yeah sort of, there are ComSpeak units dotted around each deck. I checked while in Engineering, that's what I made the announcement on, they are set to ship wide tannoy. Any issues, we can all hear from anywhere in the ship.”

  “Did you set them to ship wide tannoy?” Markus asked James.

  “Um, no. That's what they were set on already. And yes before you say it I know that only happens in an emergency.” James answered.

  Louise and Markus shot each other a glance.

  “What the hell happened then?” Louise muttered under her breath, feeling the dread creeping up inside her again.

  Marcus and James both looked to the floor, both also feeling the weight of despair creep over them.

  What the hell did happen?

  The three of them, suddenly remembering their tasks in hand, wished each other good luck, James watched as Louise and Markus descended the stairs and
disappeared from sight. With that he walked back through the doors into Engineering and made his way to the rooms he spotted earlier.

  9

  Markus and Louise reached the bottom of the stairs, they had walked in silence on the way down. Louise turned to Markus and wished him luck, she was about to walk away when Markus grabbed her by the arm.

  “Please, don't leave me on my own.” He said to her.

  “It will be OK Markus, just get down to the lower decks, find the escape pods and get back up to Engineering.” She said to him, slightly startled

  “I can't go on my own....... that's when they'll come. They live in the shadows, always watching, always listening.” He said, his voice shaky.

  “Who does?” She asked.

  “I don't know what they are, maybe they are the old crew. I dunno, but they are there, always there.” He replied.

  Louise' thoughts turned back to the shadow she had seen earlier; in the hallway outside her room, how it had followed her, how it had filled her with fear like she had never experienced before.

  “There's nothing here Markus, trust me. You are just experiencing Hyper-sleep side effects. Don't let it get to you.” She said, although she was aware of how easy that was to say. “Any problems just get to the nearest ComSpeak and shout for us.”

  Markus rubbed his eyes, his head was hurting, splitting in fact.

  “Look at it this way, the sooner we get this done the sooner you will be with your family again.” Louise said to him.

  Markus paused, thinking over what she had just said to him.

  “OK” He finally agreed, “I'll go, one hour and we are back upstairs.” He said, checking his watch.

  “One hour.” Louise assured.

  And with that the two of them went their separate ways, Markus took the next flight of stairs down while Louise ventured down the corridor Edward and herself had came up earlier.

  As before, Louise walked through the maze-like corridors of the ship, trying her best to remember the way they had come earlier. Every step she took led her deeper into darkness, even though the lighting was better than it had been before, the place just seemed darker on her own. She stopped outside a small room, it didn't look familiar to her, clearly she was taking a different route back. She stepped inside, it was an office; not unlike the one she had been in with James and Markus. A small desk with terminal built in, some filing cabinets and a chair, on the walls were star charts, pictures of Earth and other planets as well. She noticed something on the floor under the desk and bent down to see what was there. Putting her hand under she pulled out a personal log – a diary, from one of the crew members.