Notes - Player character is referred to as Dunham throughout the story.
Part 1: Hey, Asshole
Dunham could see the ship. It was much larger than he had expected-- at least twice the size. It was the biggest freighter he’d ever laid eyes on. Not to mention it looked almost untouched. As the massive ship loomed closer and closer, Dunham could only think about how well this salvage would pay. He could feel it in his gut-- this ship would make him rich, would save his skin, really. Contract work had been sparse recently, but this job...this would be the best thing to happen to him in months, maybe even years. So without hesitation-- or caution-- Dunham docked his ship with the massive, derelict freighter.
Once inside, Dunham is surrounded by darkness. The near pitch black made it eerie and difficult to navigate through the Docking Bay. Somehow, though, Dunham managed to find his way to Engineering. He figured there had to be a way to restore the power from there-- he just had to find it. He stumbled over something, tripping and hitting the wall. Fumbling around in the dark, Dunham pulled a switch. Nothing. He let out an exasperated sigh. With his hands on the cold metal of the wall, he slid carefully through Engineering until he found another switch. When he pulled the second switch, there was a loud clanging sound before the ship started to rumble and shake. The next thing he knew, the lights were flickering on. The panel on the wall read Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator-- it was the ship’s emergency power source. As the ship flickered to life, a computerized voice came through the Emergency Announcement System warning of a critical failure.
“All docked vessels and escape pods will be jettisoned in 10...9...8...”
Dunham felt a twinge of fear race through his body, coursing through his veins. His ship. He rushed back to the docking bay, cotton in his mouth. He was so close, though. He was almost there, almost through the door… Slam! The door to his ship closed right in front of his face. He was trapped here. This broken down piece of crap would be his grave. How was he supposed to know that the ship would jettison his only way home, that this freighter would trap him here? Dunham looked around, wondering what he should do with himself for the rest of his short life. He could have turned the RTG off, but there was no point now-- unless he wanted to end his life in complete darkness. His gaze was drawn to the window on the doors through which he could see his ship floating away.
Just as he was ready to sit down and die like a man, the alarms cut out. Silence settled in. Dunham never would have guessed the end would come like this. The silence was closer to nightmarish, rather than calming. He was just getting used to it when a voice came through the speakers.
“Hey, You. The asshole in the Docking Bay. Y’know...I had turned those alarms off for a reason.”
It was a woman’s voice. Dunham could feel his heart pounding, but not with fear, not this time. This time, it was a flurry of excitement, it was survival. Whoever she was, she was what was going to save him.
Part 2: Exposition
“We need to get off the ship. There is one emergency escape pod left. It’s on the bridge, where I am. I can get you here. Just do what I say and you’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Something in the woman’s voice, in her words, made Dunham want to believe her and trust her. It wasn’t like he really had any other option, anyways. Well, he did, but it wasn’t a very good choice-- he could follow her directions and have a chance at survival or he could sit here and do nothing and die for sure. For a moment, though, he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was some kind of trap. Maybe she was some crazy cannibal, luring unsuspecting salvagers to this massive ship just for her next meal. Dunham had to roll his eyes at himself then. That was possibly the stupidest idea that had ever run through his head.
“There’s a maintenance elevator to your right. Do you see it? Get in.”
To his right, the doors were opening on an elevator. The woman’s voice seemed to be echoing throughout the Docking Bay in a weird way. There was a second of hesitation in Dunham’s step before he pushed himself forward, his feet carrying him through the open doors of the elevator.
As the doors closed behind him, the woman’s voice returned. It felt closer here, but Dunham was sure that was just because the room was so much smaller than the Docking Bay. “It was hit by an asteroid. Lord knows where it came from… Everyone was able to escape-- well, at least, that’s what it looks like. You’re probably wondering why I’m still here, though, huh?”
It seemed like she was about to divulge a major secret-- why she was still on this broken down piece of junk-- but the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Dunham stepped out cautiously, possibly more so than was really necessary, but it was almost making up for the complete lack of caution he had shown earlier when he’d lost his ship. At least the lights were on this time...thanks to his stupidity. Looking around, Dunham could see that he was in the main Cargo Hold. It looked like the Holding Dock or something along those lines-- where all the cargo went before it was sorted into the proper containers. There were a good number of crates sitting around. A few of them had labels marking them as dangerous materials and the like. He would have to make sure to stay away from those ones. Most of the crates, though, seemed to be relatively safe-- just basic crates.
“There should be a door with a green light over it. Get to that one. The other ones...well, let’s just say that you probably don’t want to go through any of them unless you have an immediate death wish.”
Without question, Dunham navigated his way through the Cargo Holding Dock. He found himself jumping over and climbing up a great number of crates to get to the door that was-- for some reason-- closer to the ceiling than the floor. Dunham figured that there had been a catwalk of some type or other at one point. Overall, the trek to the door was fairly easy. Maybe he was breathing a little heavier than normal, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. Letting out a deep breath, Dunham pushed through the door with the green light over it.
Part 3: A Long Way To Go
Once through the door, Dunham found himself staring at a huge map-like display. It was a tiny room with nothing but the display and a panel of controls-- it certainly wasn’t the bridge. Dunham had nothing to look at but the display that wrapped around most of the room. When he turned around, he found himself looking out a window into the Cargo Holding Dock that he had just come from. His gaze moved back to the display. Upon closer inspection, Dunham could see that the display was, in fact, a map. A map of the ship. Every transit route from the Cargo Holding Dock to basically anywhere else on the ship was shown.
It wasn’t until he was able to see the display-- this massive display of a map-- that Dunham had really understood just how big the ship was. It was massive. He was certain that had it been converted into a ship that could actually sustain life throughout the ship, it could house the entire population of Harmós-- the largest non-Earth colony in all the systems. Dunham wasn’t even sure how many people that was, but he was certain that it was over one million.
Studying the map in front of him, Dunham looked for the path that would lead him to the bridge, to the woman whose voice he’d been following. There were so many paths, so many of them overlapping and intertwining, though, that he found himself getting a headache. Then it started to flicker. The fear that the RTG was failing stuck in his chest.
“Press that big blue button.” There was a layer of static over the woman’s voice, but God, was he glad to hear her at all. Letting out a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding in, Dunham pressed the big blue button. Luckily, it was the only blue button on the panel. The flickering stopped as a single path was highlighted on the map.
“That’s the one you want. It’s the only path from where you are to the bridge that isn’t, well, completely destroyed.” Her comment almost worried him, but there was something in the way she said it that made it feel unimportant. Dunham stared at the path, studying it. It looked like it would be easy enough. Besides, it didn’t even look like it would be that long of a journey. Holding up his left arm as though he were looking at a watch, Dunham scanned the map with his Pan-ix device, essentially downloading the map.
Part 4: Baby Steps
Aside from the door he had come in through, there was only one door leading from the Cargo Control Room. Since going back didn’t seem like a necessarily smart option, Dunham went through the other door. The door had a very different look to it-- bare metal rather than the almost decorated look some of the other doors he’d seen had had.
Going through the door led Dunham into a maintenance shaft. There was a strange wind gusting through the space, giving it a hollow sound. Dunham hadn’t expected it to be so huge-- then again, he should have expected it considering how massive the ship itself was. It seemed like there were a million different paths he could take through here. Just thinking about it, he got himself all turned around and confused. Stopping to take a deep breath, he held up his left arm and opened the map he had downloaded using his Pan-ix device. Panic was setting in, making it difficult to read the map.
“It’s the last door. The one with the blinking green light over it.” The woman’s voice was like a godsend. If it hadn’t been for her, Dunham was sure he would have died right here, in this maintenance shaft, lost in the labyrinth of metal. Her voice was just as clear here as it had been in the other parts of the ship. Glad for the direction from his savior, he moved down the corridor, jumping over gaps in the catwalk as needed. Before long, he had come to the correct door-- just to be sure, though, he glanced around to see if any other door had a blinking green light over it.
Certain it was right, Dunham pushed his way through the door. The next room wasn’t new-- it was Engineering, where he had turned on the power not too long ago. Now, though, he was up on a maintenance catwalk, able to look down on the room below. Unless he wanted to go back to where he started, there was only one way out-- a door on the other side of the room, on the same level as the catwalk he was currently on. He made his way over, avoiding the gaps in the metal walkway has he had done on his way through the corridor earlier.
Finally, though, he got to the door only to find that it was busted. Completely borked. There was no way anything was going to be getting through that door.
“Hmm...well...alright. Hang on.” The woman’s voice lingered in the air as the sound of her using the computer came through the system. The beeps and boops were subtle, overpowered in most cases by the clicking of keys being pressed. “There should be...a ventilation shaft...above you. See it?” Her voice was different-- distant, almost-- maybe it was due to her being distracted by using the computer, trying to find a new route.
Dunham glanced upwards, though, as the woman had suggested. There, above his head, he could see the opening of a ventilation shaft. The cover was missing.
“Hang on. I’ve got it.” She sounded strangely confident. Not that Dunham even really knew what she’d meant by it. As the thought wandered across his mind, a grating sound screeched above his head. Not too long after, there was a loud crash and a crate fell from seemingly nowhere. The crate landed right in front of him, allowing him to climb up. It gave him just the boost he needed to be able to reach the ventilation shaft.
Crawling through the ventilation shaft wasn’t half bad. Compared to all the jumping around he’d been doing, it was easy as pie, actually. Dunham thought, just for a second, that maybe he could crawl all the way to the bridge. That wouldn’t have been half bad. Just as the thought was crossing his mind, the panel of the ventilation shaft he was crawling over gave way beneath him. Next thing he knew, we was falling.
Dunham landed with a thud. Looking around, he figured he could only be in one place-- one of the specialized cargo containers.
“Well. That was...unexpected.” There were some more clicking sounds as the woman utilized her computer on the other end of the Emergency Announcement System. “You’re in the refrigerated cargo container. You need to get out of there before you freeze.” Another pause in her words as she hit a few more buttons. “Oh, nice going, by the way.” He could almost hear her rolling her eyes at him. “Genius.” Her mocking was endearing in a way, and Dunham was half-thankful for it. It was better than being trapped on this ship alone, after all.
It looked like half of the cargo in the refrigerated container was thawing. Dunham wondered what kind of things were kept in the frozen crates and prayed to God that it wasn’t anything dangerous. Lost in thought of crates, Dunham surprised himself when he tripped on something. It sounded metal as it scraped along the metal walkway he had fallen onto. Looking down, he saw it was a panel from the ventilation shaft. he wondered how the panel he’d broken had fallen so far from where he had broken through. It didn’t really matter, though. Dunham ignored it and kept going.
Another step forward, and another. There was a creaking sound coming from the walkway. Dunham looked at his feet, then the door. It was still a ways away. He wondered if he would be able to make it there if he ran. As soon as he bolted, though, the walkway gave way, throwing Dunham down to the half-frozen floor below.
“Oh geez… Alright. Hang on.” Her voice, despite its exasperated tone, was his only companion. Dunham wondered if she was getting tired of helping him through all of this, through all of his mistakes. Still, he was thankful for her voice, for the calming it provided.
There was a grinding sound-- the sound of metal against metal-- coming from under his feet. Dunham thought for sure he was going to die-- that the floor of the container was going to give out, dropping him into space. Instead, the panels of the floor rose up into something resembling a staircase. More than a little astonished, Dunham quickly climbed up to the top, glad that the woman hadn’t simply left him to die alone.
“There should be a button nearby. Press that. The door should open.” Dunham did as she bid him and pressed the button. Not too far away, a door opened. It was almost welcoming. Dunham hurried through the door, exiting the half-frozen container.
Part 5: Oops…
“Looks like the path ahead is blocked. You’ll have to take a...uh...detour.” The sounds of keys clacking came through the Emergency Broadcast System as the woman on the other end looked at what Dunham could only assume was a map for an alternative route. There was a loud beep followed by the woman’s muttering. “Alright...jump down here.”
A pause.
“Go through that...door on the right…” With each word, the woman’s voice seemed to get more distant, as though she were more focused on the map in front of her than the person she was talking to.
“And you’ll go…right...through…”
Another pause, longer this time.
“Oh...the uhhh…” There was a new inflection in her words now. Was it nervousness? Fear? Dunham couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. “Uhh...the hazardous...materials….container...”
Dunham could feel his heart buck in his chest. That sounded more than a little dangerous. Maybe he should have given a second thought to trusting her as long as he had already. Already, though, he had come to the edge of a vile green lake. It was...bubbling, eating away at the metal around it. Dunham wanted to go back, maybe there was another way around-- but he couldn’t go back. He’d jumped down, and there was no way to get back up to where he’d been.
“Oops…”
A static silence crept into the air as Dunham waited for some kind of direction from the woman. His eyes couldn’t help but survey the scene before him-- the toxic lake of hazardous materials. He looked for a way across the toxic waste that would surely kill him if he touched it. For the first time since he began following her directions, Dunham began to worry, began to doubt that should could actually help him out of here. The silence stretched on, growing more and more unsettling.
“Alright.” Her voice was the most welcome sound Dunham could remember hearing in his life. “There should be a console in the middle of the room. Just get to it, and...everything will be...fine.” Despite the doubt that laced her words, Dunham trusted her. A breath that he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding slipped out as he looked around the room, searching for a sign of the console, praying the materials hadn’t destroyed it. When he didn’t see it at first, he started to worry again. Maybe it wasn’t there anymore...maybe he would die in here, choking on acid.
Then he saw it. There it was, bright and gleaming and beautiful. It was his salvation. It was in the middle of the toxic lake. Somehow, though, Dunham managed to make his way to the console. There was one button in the middle that almost seemed to be screaming Push me. Dunham was reaching for it when the woman’s voice broke through the air yet again. “Push the button. The big one.” His fingers had already been on the button. With the woman’s confirmation, he pressed it. The anticipation was killing him-- he expected something amazing to happen now that he’d pressed the button. From above, there was the sound of metal grating against metal, but nothing else happened. Dunham could feel a frown developing on his face.
“Okay...hang on…” The woman’s voice sounded exasperated by now, the clicking of the whatever keys she was using on the other end of the Emergency Announcement System sounding more violent than it had before. The next thing Dunham knew, something that looked like the catwalk fell down, crashing in front of him. It made a perfect bridge for the unjumpable gap that would bring Dunham to the exit on the other side of the room. It wasn’t long before Dunham was able to make his way to the exit.
Safe, he was safe. He’d made it out of the container. Without the help of the woman, though, he was certain he never would have made it. Before him was an elevator, doors open, waiting for him. With no other option, Dunham stepped into the elevator, placing all his faith in the woman he assumed had opened the elevator for him.
When the elevator doors open, Dunham finds himself on the Crew Deck. Staggering out of the elevator, Dunham stares at the space around him, mouth hanging open, aghast.
Part 6: Space
Dunham was having trouble not staring at it-- the gaping hole in the ship, that is. Eyes wide, he just stood there.
“So...yea. I mentioned the whole...asteroid...thing...right?” There was something in her voice that told Dunham she was trying to say something he wouldn’t like. He tried to prepare himself for whatever it was she had to say. It couldn’t be too bad-- he’d just gotten through a room full of hazardous materials that could have easily killed him. How much worse could it honestly get? Dunham was certain that he was ready for just about anything.
“You’ve got to get across the gap.” Except that. Dunham’s breath caught in his throat. How in the world was he supposed to get across that massive gap? Fear gripped at his throat, making it difficult to breath.
He wanted to yell, wanted to scream. He wanted to tell the woman that he was done, and that he was content to die here on the ship and she should escape on her own. She wouldn’t be able to hear him, though. Still, he had options-- either he found a way across, as the woman had suggested, or he sit down and die here. After all the hard work he’d put into surviving, the first option seemed to get better and better.
The sound of the woman using the computer was coming through the Emergency Announcement System. Dunham knew she was doing everything she could to help him. “Tune your Pan-ix radio to frequency 303.0427-- that’s the Emergency Announcement System.” A pause as she waited. “Alright. I hope you’ve got it…” He could hear her in his ear now-- it was strangely comforting to have her voice feel so close. “I’m going to launch you across the gap.” If he could have protested, Dunham would have. “It should give you the momentum you’ll need to reach the other side.” It was funny-- she almost sounded confident. Maybe, if the situation hadn’t been so deadly, Dunham would have actually laughed.
There was nothing else he could do. On his own, he wouldn’t be able to reach the other side, and he had already decided trying was better than sitting here and dying, so he had to trust her.
“There’s a panel on the floor that looks a bit loose-- it’s next to a huge steam pipe. Stand on that panel.” Dunham did as she requested. A deep breath, he tried to calm himself, tried to stop his heart from hammering in his chest. “Alright. Ready?” He was as ready as he’d ever be-- not that he could actually tell the woman that. “Don’t worry. This won’t kill you.” There was a sound coming from the steam pipe. Dunham was half tempted to look back, but if he did, he might lose his target and get lost in space. On the radio, though, was static-- for the moment. “Probably…”
The next thing he knew, he was launched by the steam pipe and the loose floor panel, hurtling through the massive gap of space where the bulk of the crew desk used to be. His heart was pounding harder than it ever had before. In his ear, though, was the woman’s voice.
“ It’ll be fine. So when I was twenty-three, I was about to graduate from the Coalition Academy. I was going to be a part of the Coalition-- it was a dream come true. I had decided that I would work up until I was able to be a navigation officer. Neat, huh? Anyways…” As he floated farther out, the sound of the woman’s voice grew more and more static until, finally, Dunham could no longer make out the words she was saying.
She was gone. His anchor was gone.
Dunham felt strange-- disconnected and lost. Fear gnawed at him, trying to get under his skin, to make him lose control. He was certain that he was slowing down now. He wasn’t going to make it across. This was the end.
“--cheeseburgers! We didn’t even know they still existed. I guess it was one of the perks of being a female Coalition officer.” Her laughter floated in his ears then. It was almost an otherworldly sound. Dunham had never been so thankful for the sound of another person’s voice before. It seemed as though she hadn’t realized that the radio had cut out-- that she’d just continued her story while he had floated lost and alone through the silence of space.
The woman’s laughter died down just as the other side of the gap got close enough to touch. Dunham reached out and grasped at the broken piping, pulling himself to the safety of the ruined ship. “See?” The sound of her voice had an almost smug quality to it as she spoke. “I told you that you wouldn’t die.”
Part 7: Normal
Slowly, Dunham’s breathing returned to normal. The amount of joy he felt at being back on solid ground and not lost and floating in space wasn’t comparable to the joys of everyday life. It was a joy a person could only understand if they had survived the impossible, if they had avoided death one way or another. Despite the bleak surroundings, he was happy to see them again, to be apart of the abandoned freighter. No longer in need of the radio on his Pan-ix, Dunham turned off the functionality.
“Up ahead the door’s busted. You’ll have to climb through the ventilation shaft.” The woman’s voice was coming through the Emergency Announcement System on the ship, but it was slightly distorted from the proximity to the hole-- it was screwing with the system. Despite the distortion, though, the sound of her voice was welcome-- more than welcome.
Dunham realized then that he had missed her-- actually missed her-- when he’d been floating through the silence of the gap. He wondered for a moment if he could actually miss someone he’d never even seen before or if he had just missed the idea of another person’s voice.
Pushing the thoughts away, Dunham focused on moving forward. He was close to the bridge now, he could feel it. He had come to the part of the ship where the crew had stayed-- there was no way it couldn’t be close to the bridge. Climbing into the vent, he felt a renewed vigor driving him forward.
“Turn to the right...and drop down at the end of that branch.” Everything was going so well. From here on out, it would be easy as pie. “Y’know the first thing I’m doing when we get off this piece of shit? I’m going to get a fraxxin’ strawberry. A real one. Not one of the fake lab-grown things they call strawberries.” Dunham felt like they were growing closer. How that could be without him ever having spoken a single word to her was beyond him, yet he still felt that way. Maybe it wasn’t reciprocated. Maybe he was crazy. Whatever the case, Dunham could hardly wait to meet her face-to-face.
Dropping out of the ventilation shaft, Dunham found himself in the Life Support Chamber. It was half destroyed from the asteroid hitting the ship. One of the panels on the wall was sparking in a way that told anyone looking at it that it was faulty. He passed a dented oxygenizer and a flickering environment stabilizer display. The room was littered with scraps of metal that used to be apart of the walls and ceiling of the chamber. Dunham managed to pick his way through the wreck of the room.
As he moved through the room, he realized he was beginning to be able to feel the cold through his suit. If he didn’t get to the bridge soon, he would likely freeze to death. The thought of freezing made Dunham move a little faster. He hoped that the woman who’d been helping him was at least a little warmer than he was.
On the other side of the room, Dunham ran right into a half-jarred door-- the panel was sparking to the right. “Oh. That’s easy-- I’ve got that.” Click click click. Click click. Click click click click. The door spasmed before Dunham’s eyes. “Push on it-- it’ll open.” Dunham moved forward just as a massive spark leapt towards his body, causing him to jump backwards. “I think.” One more try. Dunham leaned his shoulder against the door and pushed on it, forcing it back into the door panel, forcing it open enough for him to slip through.
Behind him, the door slams shut, blocking off the path back. Dunham doesn’t care, though. He’s so close to meeting the woman now-- so close.
Before him waits the Mess Hall. Abandoned.
The empty room was more than a little eerie. It looked as though the people had simply vanished rather than escaped. It was unsettling to look at and even more unsettling to walk through. A shiver slipped down his spine, reminding him of how uncomfortable he was in this forsaken and vacant room. He couldn’t get through it soon enough.
“The elevator-- straight ahead-- will bring you to the bridge.” He wanted to run forward, but it felt like his feet were glued to the spot. Eyes wide, Dunham stared at the elevator as it opened. It seemed so far away, somehow, despite how close it was.
Everything seemed to click then, and Dunham was running. He basically flew across the room and right into the elevator that was waiting for him.
Part 8: False Assumptions
Standing still was hardly an option. Dunham found himself pacing back and forth, back and forth in the tiny space the elevator provided him. This was the longest fraxxing elevator ride he had ever experienced. Well, it felt like it, at least.
Excitement pulsed through his body. Within mere seconds, he would be face-to-face with the woman responsible for saving his life and getting him off this ship. He could still hear the echo of her voice in his head-- the sarcastic remarks and the lovely intonations. He could only imagine what she might look like. As he paced, thinking of her voice, it came through the speaker in the elevator.
“I almost thought you wouldn’t make it all the way here.” Her tinny voice made him smile. He was so eager to get off the elevator, so eager to see her face. “The name’s Kate, by the way.” Every part of him wanted to respond, but he knew she couldn’t hear him. Soon, though, he would be able to talk to her. Soon, he would be on the bridge with her.
The wait was agony.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
No one was there.
Part 9: Alone
A tiny squeal of excitement peals from the woman who was supposed to be on the bridge. As the sound pierces the air, Dunham staggers forward, nearly tumbling from the elevator into the obviously empty room.
“We did it! You’re here! You’re alive!”
It had to be some kind of joke. A sick, sick joke. There was no one here. The woman was not on the bridge waiting for him. It’s clear to see that no one had been on the bridge in a long while. Dunham could feel his stomach drop, his hope fade, and his heart break.
“I never lost faith in you, Kate. I knew you’d be able to get me here. I owe you.” The voice was not the one he was used to-- it was not Kate’s, it belonged to a man.
“Darn right, you do.” Dunham could have sworn he could hear the smile in her mechanical voice. It ripped through him, making him feel like he was going to vomit. His stomach was churning with the disappointment he felt.
“Why don’t we get outta here, huh? I’d say we’ve both had enough adventure for one day.” Dunham walked in a stupor to the console where he could see the recording was playing. A recording. She hadn’t been here the whole time.
“Oh Lord, yes. Say-- what was your name?” Reflex almost brought Dunham to respond. He had waited so long to see her, to meet her-- something that would never happen now.
“Terrance Dwyer. Call me Terr.”
“Nice to finally meet you, Terr. Let’s get out of here before we freeze to death.” As Kate’s recorded voice echoed off the walls, the faint sound of two sets of footsteps could be heard coming through the speakers. Tears sting at his eyes, threatening to overflow. Dunham does everything he can to fight them back. “I’m really glad I’m not stuck on that ship alone…” The sound of her last words was the last straw. The tears slide down Dunham’s face. Kate’s voice fades as the sound of the escape pod closing and launching comes through the speakers. A computerized voice comes through the speakers, “Emergency Announcement playback complete. Emergency Announcement playback repeat.”
There was no doubt in Dunham’s mind.
“Hey, You. The asshole in the Docking Bay. Y’know...I had turned those alarms off for a reason.” As Kate’s voice played through the speakers again, Dunham knew that this ship would be his grave.
