Inmate 871

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. The words swam up unbidden to her mind. The only noise in the airlock was the hum of the station and the muted, sporadic thumps and bumps coming from the other side of the hatch. Alex drifted closer to the small window, her breath fogging up the glass. Inmate 871, also known as Alexandra Stiles, watched as a dead man thrashed and clawed at the hatch from the other side, its bloody teeth bared as it screamed in silent fury.

She was in Sector E, a small airlock used for waste disposal where they jettisoned garbage into the empty void. Sometimes they used it to dispose of other things, like bodies. She didn't recognize the man, but there was no mistaking the brown and yellow uniform of the station's guards. Usually, when they jettison the remains, the air pressure sends them out into the endless black. This one, however, got snagged on the hatch and bounced into the side of the station. Then, he crawled his way back to the airlock and has been there ever since. The dead-not-dead guard had been outside the station for nearly four hours without a vac suit, but apparently, that didn't stop whoever-he-use-to-be from trying to get back inside.

“Fascinating...” remarked a reedy voice.

Alex’s heart jumped into her throat as her head snapped around. Peering in from the hatch behind her was the round, impish face of inmate 846. Alex became very still, suddenly wishing she was still alone with the undead spaceman. She didn't remember the prisoner's name, but she recognized his face and number and knew what crimes he had been convicted of. 846 ignored her for the moment and remained where he was. The wisps of his black hair lifted gently off his balding head while his beady blue eyes regarded the reanimated corpse trying to scratch its way back into the station. "It keeps the body functional even in the freezing temperature of space.” The Imp said to himself as much to Alex. Then those eyes shifted, and he looked at her. Alex instinctively pushed herself further away from her fellow inmate and closer to the creature on the other side of the airlock, the lesser of the two evils. While spending most of her time on Gemini Station in her sleep pod or strapped in her workstation, Alex hadn't adapted to moving in zero gravity yet, and she pushed away too hard, her body slamming against the hatch. As she scrambled to stop her momentum and correct her orientation, 846 only smiled, as if her reaction was what he wanted from her. Then his face became disappointed as he grabbed a handhold and pulled himself into the small chamber with her.

“You can relax," 846 said with regret in his voice. He maneuvered towards the small window, and Alex moved to the side of the small chamber, carefully this time, to keep as much distance between them as possible. "There's no time for that, I'm afraid." He brought his impish face within inches of the window, looking at the dead man with a cruel smile on his face. He spoke without breaking eye contact with it. "Crew wants to see you." The words hung in the air as the air in Alex's lungs turned to lead. Her voice sounded small and far away in her head when she spoke. "Why?" she asked. 846 looked to her, the cruel smile never leaving his lips, and he shrugged. "He didn't say why. But you're to come right away." The Imp raised his hand towards the hatch, motioning for her to obey. She looked once more at the poor creature that refused to die and was afraid that if she ever saw it again, it would be from the other side of the glass.

Not exactly accepting her fate but powerless to stop it, Alex drifted past 846 out the hatch and headed down the corridor leading to the bridge.

"Stop," said the reedy voice behind her. Alex stopped herself and, griping the wall, turned to see the Imp pointing down the opposite direction. "This way."

Alex looked down the hallway and back to the Imp. “He’s not on the bridge?” 846 shook his head, the black wisps of his hair swaying back and forth reminding Alex of reeds in the river. “He’s in the brig.” Alex felt a large lump form in her throat and spoke before she knew she was going to. “Why is he in the brig?” The cruel smile crossed the Imp’s lips again as he arched his head forward since it was impossible to lean on the float. Alex thought she could see a gleam in his eye. “For the final stage.” the Imp said. Then he smiled.

The brig was on the other side of the station, and she had plenty of time to work herself into a human-sized sack of anxiety. Johnathan Crew was waiting for her, had a purpose for her. And the Imp was taking her to him to ensure she would get there. Like most on the station, she had never seen Crew before, but she knew him by reputation. The only inmate with 'A' status on the Gemini, the rank reserved for the most dangerous convicts. The ones guilty of genocide or worse. The Imp was a B inmate. His earlier crimes had earned him C status for several years, but before he was caught, his tastes started to include mutilation and cannibalism. Alex was a D, the lowest rank there was. Normally that was the most desired rank; they had the least amount of jail time and the easiest work details. Now, since things have turned upside down, it may as well be a death sentence. The guards were the only ones despised by the general population more than the soft criminals like her. And they were running out of guards.

Nearly a week had passed since Crew had taken control of the station with the aid of the 'visitor'. Alex had feared for her life every second of it. Taking up command on the bridge, Crew's motives and goals were unknowable. He seemed to kill indiscriminately, but he put blanket protection on every D status inmate as long as they continued to maintain the station and carried out any of his directives. Only one inmate ignored his decree, a B status rapist who assaulted one D inmate in the men's room. When Crew was done with the rapist, they had found the body in several smaller pieces, and some of the pieces were still moving.

Meanwhile, all the guards had been rounded up and brought to the brig. It was rumored that was where the 'visitor' took residence, and the thing began its work there. That's when Crew assigned every D inmate to body disposal detail. And she used the term 'body' loosely. The frenzied dead guard outside the airlock was not the worst thing she had jettisoned in the past week.

That was her day-to-day. Surrounded by murderers, thieves and rapists with a maniac on the bridge. A devil in the brig and tossing horrors that used to be humans out of an airlock. She didn't know why this was happening, but she had heard several rumors. It was the beginning of an alien invasion, or the station had become a weapons test. She heard one D inmate say Johnathan Crew made a deal with the devil. Now he had magical powers, commanded demons and turned the station into his own personal Hell. As she and the Imp approached the hatch to the brig, it occurred to Alex that even though the last one was the most unlikely to be true, it was also the most accurate so far. She laughed, but there was no mirth in it.

Behind her, she heard 846's reedy voice say, "It's a good thing you have a sense of humor about this 871. I hear that helps." She turned to see his beady blue eyes glaring back at her. A mad impulse washed over Alex; she wanted to stab those eyes with her thumbs. She may even have done it, but at that exact moment, the hatch to the brig opened, and a pulsating red light poured out into the corridor, bathing her and the Imp in its bloody glow.