Time Slip

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Tanner Fields remembered the Insurance Adjuster mention the saying under his breath when they reviewed the camera footage, eyes unwavering and still.

Tanner recalled how his own sweat trickling down his spine shocked him and made him jump.

He found himself remembering the most terrifying memory despite his mind's objections. He remembered it started with Jamie.

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Jamie adjusted her field scope lens from her HUB helmet with the dialer on the side, rotating the mechanism until the abandoned prison ship was in view.

"That's what we're going after?" She questioned with awe. It was more or less directed out of disbelief than incredulity. It was massive.

"That's the one, Jamie." Tanner replied over the intercom speaker through Jamie's helmet. "It's suppossed to be Captain Planet's headquarters."

Jamie smirked. She and Tanner would watch old cartoons from the 21st century while on downtime in between service jobs and it was a calm memory for her. One of the plus sides of this type of job is the company, she thought. For the first time in a long time, she thought of the beauty of space. Jamie muted the intercom chat to observe the stars in silence.

Standing rooted to the roof of her flight cruiser, she surveyed the abyss of darkness surrounding them. There was such vastness with the stars as her only witness to the frozen environment she was in. She felt insignificant and small compared to the silence of space. A chill ran through her. Stunned, she padded down her flight suit looking for holes in the fabric but found none.

"Weird," Jamie stated to herself. At that moment she saw a flash of green light scurry past her vision. She followed it with her eyes, squinting to track it amongst the multiple satellites in the area with their revolving spotlights.

It lead back to their home ship, the Nazerus, circling the infrared viewing shield where the main communication control was located. It hovered there until the sun-shade flaps flipped up to reveal Tanner behind the glass, waving.

He signaled her, flashing the green laser back and forth over her visor.

"What gives?" Jamie said as she turned the intercom back on.

"Eyes on the prize, girl. You need to make sure you're communicating at all times, Jamie. I'm serious. You're the only one going in the abandoned cruiser so you'll be alone the entirety of the mission. We can't move an inch or the assault drones near the prison ship will self-destruct. Our command post over here is too damn big."

"I just wanted a little silence to appreciate the scenery is all." Tanner noticed a depression in her voice.

"I'll back off, for now. Just get moving because you only have another half hour left of oxygen."

Jamie didn't reply but instead gave a thumbs up so Tanner could see. From her bird's nest view of the twinkling lights of stars, she felt a sense of peace and longing all at once. Unable to discern why she shook her head and forced herself to revert her gaze from the stars to the abandoned prison ship.

Without much effort, she glided down the airlock of the entrance cabin of her own cruiser and was back in her flight command seat within less than a minute. She locked the hatch behind her firmly and let the lack of gravity push her to the front. Jamie felt the short but strong purr of the engine as it hummed to life in the stark silence of the Universe. Watching. Waiting.

Tanner saw Jamie's smaller rig brush past his view, heading towards the larger suspended ship 500 meters away. In his mind he wished her luck, sensing something different about this about this expedition somehow. Tanner heard the Insurance Adjuster approaching footsteps and could tell he was heavy-footed just from the stomping alone. It made him grit his teeth in annoyance.

He sipped his black coffee and placed the ceramic mug back in its holder. He looked down at his salmon-colored shirt and saw a black streak flow downwards. Frowning, he reached for a spare crumpled tissue and began to rub furiously.

"Comfortable?" Billy asked.

Bill Graceson, also known as "Billy The Grace" stepped into view of the flight command cabin. Tanner craned his neck towards him and noted how he looked like a 21st-century salesman in his tan slacks, white button-up, and dark loafers. It made him feel worse, he realized.

"Gravity. I turned the environmental switch off so I could feel more familiar ground. I'm from Earth. Gravity has a way of making this all feel normal at times." Tanner said.

After getting out most of the coffee stain, Tanner turned his attention to his control stick and gently nudged it in the direction of Jamie's smaller cruiser. Billy held onto the headrest of the adjacent chair next to Tanner as their ship turned, the engine beneath his feet rumbling with protest.

"She knows to look for the revolver, right? It's very distinctive." Billy's voice gave a hint of unease.

"Jamie has been in this scene for 11 years. She used to be a Bounty Hunter but the bloodshed turned her off. Hunting for valuables is a bit calmer, apparently." Tanner explained.

"That's all fine and a bag of chips, man. But I'm paying for this with my investor's cash, not you. This needs to work."

Tanner grunted and left the pestering alone. Normally he enjoyed conversation but up here in the darkness of the Universe where it's always cold, there was something about it that made him incredibly nervous.

Billy heard his reply and felt his nerves. He shared them with Tanner. Billy's investors quesioned him one too many times than they usually did with his ventures.

It always brought a profit, so they were mostly pleased. Yet, for this easy picking, they were concerned with the location. Billy didn't blame them, the Eronetca star cluster was the least populated area of all the United Colonies of the Universal Embassy. It was known as a ghost town, Eronetca that is. There were two small planets nearby and a larger gas giant that was mostly uninhabitable because of the harsh environment; thunderstorms with 300 mph winds and ammonia in the air have the ability to turn heads, and not in a good way.

"Whatever you say, man. That firearm is worth more than this ship and that abandoned cruiser combined. As long as she knows what's at stake."

Tanner let the silence of the cabin act as his answer. He hated corporate types. Even in this year of 2179, things are still determined by suits and ties, not people. He switched the chat comm to a better station to make sure he heard Jamie's breathing. Her heart rate was elated for some reason, he thought to himself.

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Jamie reached the abandoned prison cruiser within twenty minutes, deciding not to waste her fuel to get to the entrance hatch. She knew she still had to make it back in one piece and the energy consumption of this machine was incredibly high. She noted her oxygen gauge on her right forearm interface. The screen was cracked from other numerous missions but still managed to get the job done.

With the ease of an experienced explorer, Jamie maneuevered herself to the opening from the conjoined portal and stared at the hatch. The door began to open from the top down and began to falter during its descent. There was a screeching noise as the gears screamed. Jamie rolled her eyes and slipped through the broken door, letting the zero gravity propel her to the heart of the ship.

She noticed right away how eroded everything was here.

"Tanner? You said this was an abandoned prison ship, right? Does it still have live cargo on board?" There was a little bit of feedback as she waited for a response.

"It's been out here for about half a century so I'm pretty sure it's just you on board, currently." He replied but the connection made Jamie grimace.

"Alright, it's nothing but dust and unwashed windows in here so far."

"Keep pushing, use the remote finder tool on your HUB. It's there for a reason, kid."

Jamie snickered. "You're like, what, three years older than me?" She joked. There was nothing but static on the other end when she replied.

Her smile waned until it disappeared altogether when she turned the corner of the glass-plated hallway. Her eyes darted from wall to wall of the mess hall of the ship, soaking in all the terror with it.

The mess hall was abnormally large for a prison ship, she realized. There were ten benches and an equal amount of chairs in the hall. Normally, they would be joined together, side by side for an evening of mediocre food and dangerous entertainment with convicted murders or worse.

However, this eerie environment gave her more questions than answers.

All of the tables, chairs, and benches were strewn across the chamber in various different directions. They were all dented, broken and scattered. Old blood stains, caked with organic material lined every corner of the cabin creating a gruesome scene. The roof of the area, which had a large window meant for sightseeing and detecting other spacecraft looked as if it imploded on itself.

Something came crashing through that window, Jamie thought to herself. And whatever it was, it was huge. The smashed glass was everywhere at once. Her boots crunched with every step as her heart rate spiked in unison. It was a disturbing type of music she didn't much care for. Jamie left the killing part of the previous job she had for a reason.

A reason that just somehow followed her here, in the middle of nowhere in a distant galaxy far from her home on Venus.

She swallowed her fear and walked the length of the hall, one step at a time. It was during this strange pilgrimage that her intercom communications came back to life, Tanner's voice buzzing in her ear.

"Jamie? I think I lost her again. Jamie? Can you hear me?"

"Barely. Tan, I think something really bad happened here. There's just absolute carnage everywhere I look. What happened here?"

It was at that moment Billy took Tanner's microphone and directed it to his mouth instead, beaming.

"It's practically a myth, but apparently the old captain of the ship, Branson Bening, somehow went crazy out here in isolation. All eight hundred and eighty-seven souls on board were blown out of the big hole above your head from yours truly. All we have is the black box and Captain Bening's word. They both corroborate each other's stories. He called all of them to the mess hall, even the security guards, and we think he shot the glass ceiling.

We have no way of really knowing because the audio was just shot with this unbearable screeching noise but, there you have it. Do you see the gold revolver anywhere? Bening said it was in the Captain's quarters when the Embassy caught him in the safety shuttle." He breathed heavily in Jamie's helmet, the hunger in his voice more than palpable.

Jamie looked around the wreckage, noticing a few handful of skeletons still in their uniforms, floating harmlessly above her head due to the space exposure.

Her breath hitched, tensing from witnessing Death. Tanner came back, reassuring her. Looking at the video feed of her helmet, he could see what the fuss was.

"Jamie, just head to the far end of the hall to the Captain's quarters. Just get the gun, head back out the hatch and come back. You've got this."

Jamie closed her eyes, thanking her lucky stars for a compassionate shipmate. She slowed her breathing, and continued, determined to seek out what she was employed to find.

The twilight lighting of the adjoining hallway to the mess hall was dimly lit from the satellites floating nearby, which created a strobe effect as Jamie drew nearer to the cabin.

She reached the door to the unit, noticing immediately that the frame was damaged by something of such great force it dented the titanium lining.

"Tanner, I'm here. The door is busted down, the frame is... destroyed. I'm at a loss. What did this? Bening didn't do this. I don't know the man but no human did this, Tanner."

There was a loud thunk as she whirled towards the mess hall, the emptiness of her surroundings causing her heart rate to spike again. She only heard herself, panting, and nothing else.

"Tanner? Do you hear me?"

Jamie pushed through the cabin of the Captain's headquarters feet first and realigned herself to the separate room where the valuables were mostly kept. She noticed there was an oxygen reading in the room and it was sealed.

"Little blessings." She said, but she couldn't bring herself to smile. Not after hearing that noise outside.

Once inside the Captain's quarters bedroom, she removed her helmet and took in fresh oxygen. No need to waste her own if there was still some left here.

She espied the golden revolver almost immediately. It was halfway outside of the small safe beside the king-size bed, as if someone were trying to take it with them in a hurry and left it. That thought in itself worried her almost immediately. She floated over to it, allowing her body to somersault over a broken desk.

Grasping the edge of the bed, she planted her boots and kneeled to grab the gun.

Tanner saw it all. Saw how quickly it all occurred. There was nothing he could do to help her.

A screeching scream erupted behind Jamie as she quickly turned, staring wide-eyed at her visitor.

A gargantuan massive black form, almost mist, emerged from above her. It was lying in wait she knew at once. The crashing form busted through the frame of the cabin, creating a black hole which exposed the stars outside. The computer system of her suit and the ship synched at once, bells and whistles hollering at her to put her helmet back on.

It was too quick.

The black form lunged at her. It had an open gaping mouth with teeth and nothing else. It screamed with such force that her air was taken from her almost instantly.

She aimed the gun at the nightmare, the metal glinting with the revolving satellites in background.

She pulled the trigger. The bullet flew through the form, and it still came for her.

Tanner heard the explosion as the bullet hit the gas canister from the oxygen tank from the discarded helmet at Jamie's feet.

Jamie's body flew in nothingness, a swirling black mass flying towards her at such speed too quick for him to see.

Her scream was heard, loud, as the stars witnessed from above and below.

Tanner froze, unable to move.

The scream carried. Defeaning.