Fiction: Space Out Homeland

Space Out: Homeland

            “What,” Captain Gabi said, “is that.”

            She was looking out the viewport of the front of the ship, where a large purple swirling mass was hovering ominously.

            “It’s an anomaly,” Skreet Akar said helpfully.

            Gabi huffed. “Well, I know that,” she said, “What kind of anomaly is it?”

            Skreet fiddled with some dials at his workstation, looked at a readout, then said, “An anomalous one.”

            “An anomalous anomaly,” Gabi repeated, “Thank you so much. I’m so glad I picked you to be my helmsman.”

            Skreet gave her a lazy salute and spun around in his chair.

            “In his defense,” Dr. Vin Vinyet said, turning from the dials at his own station, “There’s really no way of knowing what this is. The elements are too alien and variegated for our sensors to scan, and even if we could scan it, we don’t have a database to help identification. Now, if we connected with a People’s Alliance database-“

            “No Alliance,” Gabi snapped, “What part of us being pirates do you not understand?”

            “Look, I’m just here because I owe you for saving my life,” Vin snapped back, “But that thing could kill us if we don’t find out what it is.”

            “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Gabi said, moving to the captain’s station at the front of the bridge. “But we’re going to do it without any connection to the Alliance.”

            She pushed the button for the intercom and said, “Savvie, Tular, get up to the bridge now. We have a problem.”

            There was a rustling from directly below them where the sleep rooms were, and a minute later they heard the clattering sounds of two sets of feet coming up the stairs.

            Savvie’s voice, as usual, preceded her as she said, “Someone had better be dying, because I was having a really good nap and- holy mother of Magnus.” Her voice died away as she reached the bridge and caught sight of the anomaly.

            She moved aside to make room for Tular, who gave a small, surprised cough when he reached the top of the stairs.

            “What,” Savvie said, unknowingly echoing Gabi’s words from minutes before, “is that.”

            “An anomalous anomaly,” Skreet announced, throwing his arms wide and grinning with sharp, pointed teeth, “We don’t have a clue. We’re clueless. Which is why we called you, since clueless is your specialty.”

            Savvie snorted and walked over to punch him in the shoulder. “Very clever, Akar. How long did it take you to think that one up, a week?”

            “For you, Savvie Makel, it only took a day,” Skreet retorted, still grinning and rubbing his shoulder.

            “Can we focus?” Gabi demanded, “We still need to figure out what this thing is, and what it means for us. Savvie, check all communication in the area. See if anyone else has come across this. Tular, check the engines and make sure the anomaly isn’t messing with anything important.”

            They both nodded and went to their stations on opposite sides of the bridge.

            Gabi walked over to Skreet and said, “Keep us as far away from that thing as possible while still keeping us in sight.”

            Skreet flipped some buttons and said, “I’ll try, Cap, but it might be tricky. This thing moves on its own, and it reacts to everything I do.”

            “What?” Gabi said, gazing out at the thing in front of the ship.

            “Yeah, look,” Skreet said. He pushed a button and brushed his hand across the control screen, moving the ship upwards. The anomaly seemed to vibrate back and forth for a second before it moved upwards to resume its position directly in front of the ship.

            “That’s impossible,” Gabi breathed.

            Vin took this point to interject, saying, “That’s why I think we should-“

            The whole bridge groaned in unison.

            “Vinny, give it a rest with the Alliance thing,” Savvie said, “We’re criminals and vagabonds, they don’t want anything to do with us.”

            “But the captain is a Magnanite,” Vin protested, not noticing the way Gabi stiffened, “I’m sure that would give her a lot of leeway, which we could use to get what we need.”

            “I don’t want anything to do with my status or the Alliance,” Gabi said, drawing her shoulders back and narrowing her eyes, “End of discussion.”

            There was an uncomfortable silence that lasted until Savvie said, “Hey, speaking of criminal behavior, I just caught a report that an Alliance cruiser made that might be relevant. I’m working on decrypting it, but you know how Alliance codes are. It might take a while.”

            “Work as fast as you can,” Gabi said. “I want to get the hell away from this thing.”

            At that moment, Tular coughed and waved Gabi over. As soon as she was next to him, he pointed at the screens and said, “Power levels started fluctuating.”

            Gabi looked at the numbers on the screens, moving up and down alarmingly fast, and said, “How long has this been happening?”

            Tular shrugged. “Thirty seconds, maybe.”

            “That’s not good. Skreet, you-“ she stopped.

            There was a weird, vibrating feeling coming from the floors and walls of the ship. It rattled the old consoles and made everyone’s teeth chatter.

            Gabi looked out the viewport and saw that the anomaly was bigger, closer, covering the whole screen.

            “It’s surrounded us, Cap,” Skreet said, almost yelling over the increasing vibrations.

            The screens were all flickering and flashing different colors. The ship itself seemed to be humming a distorted cacophony as they all held on as tight as they could.

            Then, with a sudden ka-chunk, the vibrating stopped and all the lights on the ship went out.

            For a few seconds there was only the sound of ragged breathing. Then, one by one, the sounds of the ship began to come on, starting with the engine and ending with the humming of the lights.

            “Is everyone okay?” Gabi said, pulling herself up.

Author Notes: Some non-poetry this time. Who doesn't love space pirates? I know I love space pirates to pieces. However, love for a concept doesn't translate into a story. I've read loads of stories with a great concept and no story, no character development, and no theme. Alas, that's what this turned out to be. The story was flimsy bordering on nonexistent, and the characters were as flat as a sheet of paper. Maybe I'll return to it sometime.