The Rumour kill

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But when you’re living on a star freighter, let me tell you, Everyone hears everything eventually.

No-one and nowhere is safe from the eyes and ears of the biggest gossip on the U.S.S Serpentine, Elsie Matter. She prided herself on knowing the ins and outs of the ship from Bridge to Brig, but this time she was going to see something she wished she hadn’t.

Elsie was hiding inside one of the ventilation tubes in the engine room as she often did. She had figured out months ago that the large metal tubes had great acoustics and gave her a view of most of the dark, hot room, a spot where crew members and passengers often came for secret (or not so secret) liaisons. She would often spend hours laying around in the tubes waiting for the gossip to come to her. It was really too easy.

Ooh. We got a live one! She grinned to herself as she heard the large metal door squeak open and the sound of 2 pairs of footfalls clanging on the metal floor coming closer.

“But… What if we get caught…?” came a woman’s voice that she didn't recognise.

Oh this is gonna get good….

“Oh....Captain!” came the voice again, a whispered gasp. Elsie was sure her eyebrows shot through the roof. Captain?! She wriggled as quietly as she could to get a better angle but still couldn’t see who was speaking.

A rhythmic Clanging started and Elsie shuddered as she listened in on the Captain's little tryst, her mind racing. Captain Marshall was, as far as she knew, a fine, upstanding citizen, not one to be dallying with someone in the engine room of his ship. Also, he was married. To the President of New Australia no less, who was stationed back home on Ferrah while they were off bringing medicine and food to the other planets in range.

The moans, clangs and squeals heightened and then the clanging finally stopped. Thank god. She wiggled around again trying to get a glimpse of who was doing the banging. She liked her gossip to be founded in truth not guesses, after all. Wouldn’t want to start a rumour about the captain screwing around without being sure it was actually him and not some rookies roleplaying for kicks.

She finally got a brief glimpse of the pair as the woman bent to pull up her stockings – she wore a red dress and had long black hair but Elsie couldn’t get a good look at her face. The Captain stood behind her, doing up his pants.

“Well. Thank you for that.” Said the Captain, all business. Yep, definitely him.

“You’re welcome sir, I’d love to do it again some time…. ” the woman reached for his arm, stroking it gently.

“That won’t be necessary.” The Captains tone was dark.

“Oh?” the woman was confused at this sudden change in mood. She took a step away from him, her back still to the tube Elsie was hiding in.

Suddenly the woman in Red was moving haphazardly toward the railing in front of her hiding place with panic in her eyes, grabbing at her throat. Elsie was confused until she noticed the blood streaming through her fingers, soaking her chest and merging with the red of her dress. Elsie felt like the woman was staring straight at her even though she was sure she couldn’t be seen through the grated end of the tube. Her eyes pleading, “Help me!” she mouthed, but no sound came out. Elsie was frozen in fear as she watched the life drain out of the dying woman’s face.

The Captain grabbed the back of her now soaked dress before she could fall to the ground and threw her into the nearby garbage disposal chute, unceremoniously pushing her shoes and bag in after her then flushing her out into space as though she was nothing but a piece of trash. Just. Gone.

Elsie covered her mouth to keep from whimpering as she lay in the tube, watching the Captain check himself for blood before straightening his collar and leaving the room as though nothing had happened. The door slammed heavily behind him.

“Holy SHIT.” Elsie whispered to herself, shaking. Suddenly the tube felt as though it was so small that she couldn’t breathe. She pushed her way out through the grate and climbed down, avoiding the spot where the young woman had been killed, trying to get her breathing back to normal. She looked around as she did her breathing exercises, trying to see if there was any evidence left behind. Most of the blood had gone onto the woman’s dress but the rest had dripped straight through the grate-like floor and into the darkness below, anything that was left would look like engine grease by tomorrow in this heat. Suddenly she noticed Something sparkling out of the corner of her eye. Wedged into a corner by the railing was a diamond earring, small and beautiful, though now red from blood. Elsie carefully placed it on a tissue she found in her satchel bag.

"Who were you?" she wonders aloud as she stares at the earring in her hand, wondering what to do about what she had just seen.

She replaced the grate on the ventilation tube and got the hell out of there.