Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Posted on Tue Oct 27th, 2020 @ 12:21pm by Commodore Jacob Kane

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: MD-05 (late)
487 words - 1 OF Standard Post Measure

The tension on the bridge had mounted to the point where Kane had been gripping the armrests of his command chair so tightly that his fingernails were starting to hurt. He needed an escape from it. Besides, it wasn't like they were going anywhere in this strange region of space.

Leaving the duty officer to take the conn, he headed for his ready room just off the bridge. His desk looked a little bit of a mess; probably caused by the various chaotic events that had overtaken the ship.

He moved to pick up a pair of fallen PADDs from the floor, stooping low and reaching out for them - just as the lights suddenly went out.

"Oh, for...Computer. Lights," he barked, probably a little more angry than he'd have liked.

No response. He glanced around, the cool pitch black air around him almost oppressive in its darkness.

"Lights!" he repeated. Nothing doing. No response from the computer. No sound at all. He fumbled around for his desk, which should have been to his left, just about making contact and easing himself back into a standing position. He touched his commbadge. "Kane to Bridge, there's some sort of environmental problem in my ready room." He paused a moment. No response. What the hell is going on... he wondered briefly.

Fidgeting and fumbling around his desk, Kane finally located his workstation, flicking the controls until it lit up a small corner of the room. The shadows danced around him a moment. He could see his breath escape his own mouth: a little puff of steam or smoke. He suddenly felt himself shiver, as though it was freezing cold. Perhaps the environmental controls had completely failed - there was no other explanation for it.

He turned towards the door, sighting a brief sparkle of light and a shape standing in his path. A humanoid form. As tall as he was, and wearing some sort of helmet.

Breen! his mind startled himself into action as the cryosuited figure reached out for him. Diving forward into a tackle out of instinct, Kane was stunned as he barrelled shoulder-first into the wall - apparently having passed through the noncorporeal figure.

He blinked. The lights came back up. The room was empty, and the temperature was back to normal again.

What the hell was that? he wondered to himself. Was the stress of this mission getting to him? It wasn't normal for his mind to be playing those kinds of tricks. Dusting himself down he tentatively returned to his desk and the fallen PADDs. This time he hesitated before picking them up, waiting to see if anything else would trigger. Nothing did; the room was completely normal.

Taking a seat, Kane gave himself a few moments to let his heartbeat return to normal before getting to work trying to work out whether he was going mad.