Gravity (Dark Anomaly Book 1)

by Marina Simcoe

  What was I doing?

  I might have just discovered a way to finally escape the Dark Anomaly. Now, was definitely not the time to get distracted by its captain.

  I no longer felt sad for Malahki possibly having to remain a gender neutral forever. Now, I was actually envious of the damirian’s morose serenity. Wouldn’t it be a blessing? Not to be affected by hormones at the most inconvenient of times?

  As we walked down the corridor, I watched the floor under my feet carefully. A short distance before my room, I spotted a dusting of dirt and some tiny twigs stuck in the cracks between the floor tiles. Passing by, I took a closer look at the wall in that area, noting a gap where a loose panel covered another entrance into the tunnel.

  That must be the kink that Malahki had talked about. From here on, the tunnel went to the waste sorting room by the farm, to the airlock near it, and to the storage room with my spacesuit.

  I now had the way to freedom figured out.

  What I still needed was a chance to get out of my room.

  Alone.

  Chapter 13

  AS SOON AS VRATEUS left after breakfast the next morning, I spent the entire time until lunch studying the door panel.

  Using the breakfast utensil, I pried the top cover open but couldn’t figure out how to change the program to add my palm print. The technology differed from what I was used to. It was much older too.

  At lunchtime, I quickly put the cover back on, then dashed to the bed that Vrateus had found somewhere to replace my sleeping pallet. It was large and comfortable, and aside from the clothing rack and a small table, it was the only furniture I had in this room. I sat on the bed, while Vrateus carried my lunch in and exchanged a few sentences with me.

  The moment he left, I continued to work on the panel.

  By dinnertime, I’d only figured out the way to disable it, unlocking the door. Before Vrateus returned, I quickly re-attached the cover.

  The confirmation light went on and the signal sounded when Vrateus touched the panel outside. However, the lock was no longer functioning. Thankfully, Vrateus didn’t notice that as the doors slid open the way they always did. As he entered my room, his focus was on the two plates of food in his hands.

  “This was cooked this afternoon.” He handed me a plate. “Can you smell any trace of fuhnid mushrooms here?”

  I took the plate from him, bringing it to my nose and inhaling deeply. It smelled of wet earth and grease. Not appetizing, at all.

  For a moment, I wondered if I should volunteer to make a decent meal for them. Although I wasn’t the greatest cook, I was sure I could still whip up something more appealing than this. I would use some plants from Malahki’s garden as herbs. Maybe experiment with different grains—try to soak them and the meat in water for a while, to get rid of that musty earthy smell.

  The thought of having to cook in that kitchen, though, immediately turned me off the idea. Even if I stayed on the Dark Anomaly for the rest of my life, I’d rather eat the gray, dirt-smelling stew than spend any time in the company of Krakhil and whatever helpers he had there.

  “No smell of mushrooms here.” I gave Vrateus the plate back then sniffed the second plate. “Or here. Just the usual, meat and grains.”

  The pleasant aroma of the deadly mushrooms would have actually improved that smell.

  “Thank you.” Vrateus left one plate on the table, taking the second one back to the door. “Enjoy your dinner.”

  I stared at his wide back as he departed, noting his posture relax a little after my confirmation. The weight this man had to carry on his shoulders to keep this place from falling apart was enormous.

  Having gotten to know the Dark Anomaly and its inhabitants by now, I understood much better the gargantuan task Vrateus had undertaken. I marvelled at his resolve and his ability to keep order here. I even felt sympathy for him, too. He was doing it all alone, saving the people who didn’t even realize they were being saved. None of them appreciated his efforts. No one cared or truly helped, either.

  Taking a seat on the floor by the door, I propped the big round clock in front of me, watching the time. Guessing that the dinner should be done soon, I calculated the approximate time when life on the Anomaly would finally quiet down. The crew and their captain should settle down for the night at some point.

  Then, I would sneak out, down the waste disposal tunnel, and to the spacesuit storage room.

  After I had finished the thick stew on my plate, I waited until a significant amount of time had passed.

  When I could reasonably assume that most of the crew had gone to bed, I stole to the door and placed my ear to it, listening carefully for any noise. When no sound came, I quietly pushed the door aside. Sticking my head out, I made sure no one was out there.

  The corridor seemed deserted. Though, its bright lights remained on. For a moment, I wondered where Vrateus’s room was and whether he would be asleep, too. Even the captain needed to rest sometimes.

  Once out of my room, I slid the door closed behind me. Unfortunately, with the panel in my room being disabled, I could no longer lock the door from the outside.

  With any luck, my disappearance wouldn’t be discovered until tomorrow morning when Vrateus would come by with breakfast. By then, I should be far away from here, in another place and even another time.

  I ran to the part of the corridor where I had seen the dust and twigs from the garden on the floor. Tapping along the panels on the wall, I found the one with the tunnel behind it. A ribbed, rubbery strip ran along it on the bottom, moving noiselessly as a conveyor belt.

  Quickly, I slid into the tunnel. Lying down with my back on the belt, I let it carry me along.

  The space was rather narrow. I pressed my arms to my sides to make sure I didn’t get accidently stuck along the way. Malahki had spoken about going down here, occasionally. The damirian was tall but slender, only a little wider in the shoulders than me. I doubted Vrateus would fit through here, though. Definitely none of the errocks would.

  That was good. Even if anyone discovered how I had escape and where I was heading, they would have to use the corridor to catch up with me, which should take them considerably longer.

  A faint murmur of voices came from up ahead, making me realize I must be nearing the waste processing room. I had hoped no one would be there at this hour. Now, I scrambled for a way to slow myself down. Falling out of the chute in front of the undersexed aliens who had used me as a visual stimulus for self-pleasuring for the past three weeks would be a disaster.

  Pressing my arms and feet into the walls of the narrow tunnel, I lifted my body off the conveyor belt. The rubbery material of the soles of my boots connected well with the uneven surface of the walls, allowing me to control my climb down this slanted section of the tunnel.

  The voices grew louder as I progressed. Several of Vrateus’s crew members were there in the room, yelling and arguing by the sound of it.

  Keeping my eyes on the tunnel up ahead, I stopped moving as soon as a brightly lit opening came into view.

  Judging by the voices, there must be at least four of them out there, but it could be more than that. Not all the males in this place were vocal. Some, like Qen, the tentacled alien who got shot in the kitchen, acted without saying a word.

  Even four would have been too many. I had no weapons to fight them with.

  Flexing the muscles in my arms and legs, I hovered inside the tunnel. Suspended over the conveyor belt, I knew I wouldn’t last long. Eventually, my legs would give out, and the belt would propel me out into the room.

  Although the arguing grew louder, I failed to understand what the four were fighting over. Only a few words reached me in the tunnel, most of them were curses.

  My legs felt numb and my arms shook. I prayed no garbage would come from behind and push me out of the tunnel.

  A fifth voice joined the group in the room, yelling at the rest to get the fuck out. After that, all went quiet.

  Afraid to move, I rema
ined in the tunnel a bit longer, waiting for any noise from the outside. When none came, I relaxed my muscles, letting myself fall back onto the conveyor belt. It took me into the room, dumping me onto a pile of dirt and twigs.

  I exhaled with relief, finding the room empty. Picking up a thicker stick from those lying around, I was glad to have at least some kind of weapon, now.

  The room was filled with crates stacked along the walls. Piles of garbage littered the floor. Stepping around them on my way to the exit, I realized that what seemed to be aimless littering must have had a system. The contents of the crates were sorted by the type of material. Unsorted waste piled up on the floor, to be processed next.

  The arched doors to the room remained open, and I quietly snuck closer, listening for any voices or footsteps. When none came, I carefully poked my head out.

  The small corridor outside the door was empty. It led me to a larger, dimly lit room. Here, there were plenty of noises, but they didn’t come from the crew.

  Huge cages stood in rows on the floor and along the walls. The giant centipedes crawled inside them. Their hissing and the rustling of their chitin covered bodies filled the air.

  This was the Dark Anomaly’s vasai farm.

  Holding my stick in front of me, I carefully made my way between the cages, taking care not to come too close to any of them.

  The vasai hissed and screeched as I approached. Some lunged at the cage walls, their massive mandibles closing over the thick rusty bars with loud clanking noises.

  Heavy clusters of black spheres—each about the size of my fist—hung in some of the cages. These must be the vasai eggs Vrateus had spoken about.

  A shudder ran across my shoulders when I thought about the horrific centipedes crawling free around the Anomaly, years ago. Vrateus had said that most had been captured. Did that mean that some might still be out there, possibly even in the tunnel I had just come from?

  Relieved to leave the farm, I exited into the main corridor. My back to the wall, the stick clutched in my sweaty hands, I moved toward the storage room as fast as I dared while making as little noise as possible.

  The door across from the entrance to the storage room with my spacesuit had a large glass insert. Behind it was another one, also with glass in it. The brilliant lights of the Anomaly swirled in their timeless dance beyond them.

  As I had guessed, this was the exit to the outside, leading to my freedom. There were even bright markings on the wall, from the storage room to the glass doors, to show the way to a person wearing a spacesuit, I assumed. The helmets of some of the older suits limited visibility for the one wearing them, making the markings useful.

  The door to the storage room was locked, as could have been expected. I knocked the cover of the door panel off, using my stick. This one turned out to be much easier to tamper with than the one in my room. Instead of a palm print, it was the old primitive technology that required a numeric code to enter. I quickly disabled the lock, bypassing the code.

  The suits were neatly arranged along the walls inside the storage room. Some pieces hung off the hooks, some had been laid out on the shelves. My suit stood to the right, its ridged construction supporting it in the upright position.

  Tossing the stick aside, I searched for the spare fuel cells that had been taken off my ship. I found them nearby then attached them to the back of the suit, connecting its power supply system to the batteries.

  Opening the hatch in the front, I climbed into the suit. Large and clunky with all its systems off, the suit was a self-contained, flexible, and powerful mini spaceship when it was fully functioning.

  First, I turned the life support system on, quickly checking the performance of the other systems, too. Running the diagnostics, I was relieved to discover that the suit was in a perfect working order. Only the outside sound receptors were malfunctioning, which I didn’t need for the escape anyway.

  I programmed the trajectory I’d been calculating and re-calculating for days.

  It’d been nearly three weeks since my crash. That meant more than sixteen years had passed outside of the Anomaly. The term of my mission had long ended. My team must have reported me as dead, lost in space without a trace.

  Most likely, the station was no longer orbiting the Omphi planet. But there might be another station in its place, now. Either way, one of the spacecraft travelling along the trade routes by the water world could intercept my distress signal.

  But first, I had to get off the Dark Anomaly.

  Unlike most celestial bodies, the gravity of the Anomaly was erratic, making orbiting it impossible. If I didn’t gain enough momentum from the start, I risked being sucked back in again. At take-off, the suit’s thrusters needed to be at full power to propel me well beyond the gravitational force of the Anomaly.

  Powering up the exoskeleton of the suit, I moved out of the room, no longer concerned about anyone seeing or hearing me. Inside the suit, I was unreachable, protected, and stronger than anyone on the Anomaly.

  Out in the corridor, I sensed vibrations through the floor. With the suit’s noise sensors malfunctioning, I couldn’t hear any sound from the outside, but I assumed the vibrations came from the footfalls of someone running my way.

  My escape must have been discovered.

  I was safe in the suit, though. There was no need to panic.

  As I approached the door with the glass insert that led to the airlock, the panel on the wall next to it lit up. The suit’s glove glowed the same color as the panel. Vrateus must have programmed it for his use. I placed my hand on the panel, and the door slid open. I moved into the chamber, quickly closing the door to the corridor behind me.

  Inside the airlock chamber, I shuffled toward the identical panel on the opposite wall. All I had to do now was to activate the panel for the outside door to open.

  I was almost free.

  Something hard slammed into my back with enough force to make me stagger, even inside the powered suit. Startled, I took another step forward. It proved difficult, as if something or someone held me from behind.

  I activated the three-hundred-sixty vision inside my helmet, to see if the suit had gotten caught on something that was holding me back.

  Instead, I came face to face with Vrateus.

  Both hands wrapped around the connection of the fuel cell, he held on to me. His expression furious, he yelled something I couldn’t hear.

  He was the only one in the airlock with me. Holding on to the suit, he couldn’t even use any of his weapons. They would probably be useless against the material of the suit anyway, even without me engaging the defense shield.

  Despite his significant physical strength, Vrateus was no match for the suit’s thrusters. All I had to do was to engage them, open the outer door, and be on my way.

  If the emissions of the suit engines didn’t burn Vrateus to death on the spot, he would die, blown out into open space with me.

  Surely, he understood that. Yet he wouldn’t let go.

  The man wasn’t stupid, but right now he was acting suicidal.

  Dammit!

  I hit the microphone button inside the suit, hoping it worked even as the sound receptors didn’t.

  “Let me go,” I said loud and clear.

  “No,” he shook his head. Judging by his expression, he yelled it, too, though I couldn’t hear him.

  “I will get help,” I said, sincerely meaning it.

  He shouted back. Unable to hear the words, I could still read his fury as he held on to the suit that would incinerate him at the press of a button. The skin on his sharp cheekbones flushed red. Anger burned in his intense orange eyes, and something else was there, too.

  Fear.

  Raw terror.

  “Please, Vrateus. Please. Let go of me.” I was not giving up now, being this close to my escape, with nothing but this stubborn man between me and my freedom. “Go back inside in the corridor or you will die.”

  “So be it,” his hard expression told me.


  His determination shocked me.

  I realized he wouldn’t let go, dead set to keep me here in this vile place.

  At that moment, I hated him more than ever.

  Then the hatred turned inwards. I loathed myself for being unable to push that damn button. I couldn’t send Vrateus to the certain death, even if the success of my escape depended on it.

  I couldn’t.

  His life for my freedom turned out to be the price I couldn’t pay.

  Self-loathing, I lowered my hand, away from the door panel. Quickly moving to my front, he opened the hatch of the suit then reached inside it to drag me out.

  “I hate you!” I spat in his face.

  Without a word, he crushed me to his chest in a wild embrace that squeezed the air out of me. I wiggled one arm free, slapping him across his cheek, hard.

  Silently, he caught my hand in his, stopping me from hitting him again. Not a muscle moved on his face. It looked like it was set in stone.

  “I hate you,” I hissed again, the rage and hatred burning me from inside like acid, stronger than despair or fear.

  “You would have died,” he finally said, his voice hoarse and repressed.

  “I would’ve been free!” I yelled, struggling against his hold and wishing I could strangle him with my bare hands.

  Yet I couldn’t kill him just a moment earlier when my freedom had been at stake.

  So stupid!

  I groaned, hating myself even more than I hated him.

  “You would have been dead,” he repeated quietly.

  “That’s what you think!” I struggled in his arms. “Your stubbornness, your stupid ignorance has ruined my life.”

  Something dangerous flashed in his eyes. Keeping an arm around my waist, he shoved me toward the suit.

  “Initiate the launch sequence, just like you intended.”

  For one tiny moment, I believed he was setting me free. Then I realized, he only wanted me to send the empty suit into space.

  “Set a one-minute delay,” he added.

  He was getting rid of my only means of escape.