Spaces between. This part was created late (but this base is quite old) and has undergone several changes. Definitely not satisfied with this, it doesn’t get across the feeling I wanted. Missed opportunity to give some humanity to the companion marines. Don’t know if I’ll be re-working it again, though.
Spaces Between
My consciousness comes to before my body does. I am almost awake and the first thing I feel is overwhelming cold. I would shiver, but my motoric functions are still shut down. I can see the glass lid being lifted and condensating water vapour. The battle-hardened face of a man peeks over the edge. For the first time I see the leader without his helmet.
He gives me a few minutes to recover. I move my arms – they’re working. I move my legs – check. He gestures for me to try to rise. Carefully, I step out of the stasis pod. The leader is already prepared to go in himself. We are standing on the floor thanks to an artificial gravity system generating forces less than half of that of the Earth’s.
“The other person is currently sleeping. I have left instructions for you on the main computer. Acquaint yourself with them and ask me any questions before I go in.”
So I go through the cramped corridors into the bridge – a larger room with the main control panel and several auxiliary terminals. And the best of all – there are windows on all sides. The glass on the Sun’s side has darkened in order to not blind us. And it is quite a view – the flaming hell of a stellar nuclear reactor reduced to a simple yellow sphere. I can’t quite see Earth, but the computer aids me and marks it for me. I wouldn’t have recognised it on my own. Mars is too far away as well. Besides our star, I can see myriads of points glowing in all colours. It’s not like on Earth, where the light contamination and atmosphere allows us to only see several – there are truly billions to be seen up here.
I could imagine just about anything and it might be there. Carbon stars with ancient satellites colonised by sentient fungi. Gas giants inhabited by vast meteorological intelligences. Worlds stretched thin across the membrane where the dimensions intersect… impossible to describe with our limited vocabulary the wonders we might one day witness!
What we are witnessing is also beyond words. A new era will have begun and people will start counting years from this event. Everything we know is about to change.
That is, if we survive.
I step over to the main terminal to view the instructions. They are all basic – switch duties, perform a self-diagnostic every four hours, send a radio signal to Earth every twelve hours. I wave to the leader that I have understood and he goes in.
“Take a look at what I found.” says a message on the screen. It is a folder full of text documents labeled in some code I don’t recognise. I decide to investigate it later, first I need something to eat.
The storage is small, as are the tasteless rations inside.
A prompt appears to initialise the self-diagnostic and I accept it.
Then, I open the mystery folder. Inside are dozens of text files labeled in some code I don’t know. I select a random one and take a look.
UAC REPORT FILE: RFGJ8NH DECODED ENTRY 001
COMMON NAME: IMP
Imps are brown humanoid creatures occupying the soldier position in the army of Hell (adn 1.) On their own they posess superhuman strength, but are less resistant to physical and chemical damage. Tests show they also have a thermal resistance higher than any living organism on Earth (adn 2.)They are capable of using reserves of Hell energy(adn 3) to form balls of plasma exceeding 4500 Kelvin which they use as weapons.
Their anatomy is fairly similar to that of a human with a brain similar to that of a human, a spinal cord and a simpler digestive system(adn 4.) Experiments show they are able to consciously control any synaptic register regarding pain, meaning they can quite literally shut it down. Imps seem to treat it as simply feedback (adn 5.)
Imps display a wide variety of behaviour in battle such as rushing, swarming or defensive action. The ferocity varies with test subject(adn 6.) They will often attack without warning anyone they decide to. They evolved (or were made) for efficiency primarily.
The file goes on like this, but I can’t read past the scientific jargon, especially since I’m more concerned with this one word that keeps appearing, “Hell.” The adnotation says it’s just a codename, but I suppose it must have come from somewhere… I hope it won’t matter much.
At the end of the file is an interactive model to view what the creature looks like. The monster I killed in my apartament (I am a murderer) definitely belongs to this species or race, no idea what it really is.
There’s more files here regarding other types of beasts. “Pinkies” being the pink gorillas I saw. “Hellknights” – larger demons bred specifically for battle with a goat snout and hooves. “Cacodemons” – Floating red spheres with a single green eye and a huge maw. “Archviles” – slender and durable commanders capable of more advanced fire manipulation than Imps and an ability to revive their brethren. “Revenants” – weaponised skeletons with a lot of remaining muscle tissue wielding rocket launchers on their shoulders.
I guess we’re fighting demons now.
But there’s more than monsters here. One file regards an artifact called the “soulsphere” being an encapsulation of the life force of a single human being. They have great healing properties on humans. And probably the most interesting phenomenon – “zombiefication” where prolonged exposure to Hell energy leads to the clinical decease of a human, but their bodies will keep functioning mechanically, driven by an unknown force. In some cases they are able to perform complex actions, such as wielding a weapon or even drive a car.
According to the time table, I should go to wake up the other marine and go to sleep myself. I don’t object and remotely turn on the other person’s alarm clock on, then get to my own tiny quarters and drop stiff.
So goes cycle after cycle aboard the rocket. I wake up, shower, eat, bore myself to death, exchange short messages with marines from Earth (with an almost five-minute delay,) trigger the self-diagnostic, wake up the other person and go to sleep myself. The files I’ve seen give me food for thought while I wait for my shift to be over.
At one point I wake up to someone else being on his legs instead of the other marine. He must have woken him up and gone to stasis himself when I was sleeping. But nothing changes in the timetable.
I lost count of how many cycles have passed, it must have been in the dozens. The space marines on Earth say they’ve evacuated the civilians to a safe space, but are being plagued by other problems. Food shortage, diseases, lack of fuel… The demons have hit hard several more times, but they aren’t the only threat. The only thing in our power is to get to Mars and investigate the situation there. Maybe find a way to stop the demons from pouring in.
Eventually, my shift is over. With great relief I signal the other marine to put me back into stasis eager to wake to a whole new world.
Jan. Late 2018.