Eve

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say, but the far reaches of the universe were ringing with the sounds of Wrens howls as the escape vessel from Explorer One was propelled into the dark, hollow, abyss that night.

The craft now drifting perilously into the black was small, small enough to slip inconspicuously into the vast beyond before the remaining crew of Explorer One were aware that anyone or anything was missing. It was only moments ago that Wren Fletcher was clambering aboard the now deployed escape shuttle, but as she peered out of the porthole behind her, she could no longer see the bullying mass that was the Explorer Ship, which had now disappeared amongst the blanket of space and was just a mote of dust in the secluded sea of speckled stars.

Somehow, the blackness beyond the observation windows made the shuttle seem a lot smaller than it was, as if space itself was slowly compressing her into the bowels of the ship. Every surface was covered by blinking blue buttons or silvery switches, which only made the vessel feel tighter from where she sat between the control panel and the airlock door. The brilliant-white walls and thick metal flooring felt as though they were contracting around her as she struggled to catch her breath. The metallic smell of the titanium plated panels filled her nostrils with every sharp inhale, interrupted only by the sickly-sweet smell of sweat that seeped from every inch of her body.

She wasn’t sure whether it was the adrenaline coursing through her veins, or the recycled oxygen swirling through her lungs, but the heat radiating from her was immense. Beads of sweat ran down her head and tainted her lips with a bitter saltiness. Her hands grappled at the floor beneath her trying to feel the cool touch of metal against her burning skin, only to be met by a swell of oozing, warm liquid between her legs; an unpleasant reminder that her mind could not outrun her body any longer.

Time had been her real affliction over the past nine months, with it moving too quickly to prepare her for what lie ahead but too slowly to notice the drastic changes happening inside of her. She could never have imagined allowing her feeble human biology to hinder her aspirations. Her life so far had been devoted to the exploration of interstellar space. Every normal mammalian inhibition had been quashed by her insatiable ambition to travel to the far corners of the universe and beyond. How unremarkably human would she have been to allow love or the weakness that comes with emotion to come between her and the spaceship she had waited a lifetime to pilot? She couldn’t have envisaged anything as incredible or as fulfilling as this want; that was until she met him.

Even now she couldn’t bear to think of his name, what might have happened to him, nor what the others might have done to him. All she knew was that whatever had been growing inside of her had been the only thing ensuring that the others, aboard Explorer One, hadn’t exposed her to a similar fate. As she cradled her swelling pregnant stomach between her perspiring palms, looking out at the miles of stark black space spiralling passed her, she allowed herself to picture him one last time, one last moment of weakness before her anguish took a hold of her once more.

The pain was all-consuming as her body pulsated, savage and feral in its release. Her fingers suddenly pulled at the tight skin of her bulging abdomen. Her eyes closed tightly waiting for the next short moment of relief, a moment that was becoming less frequent as her muscles contracted beneath her piercing grip. She allowed herself one last bestial cry before swinging her body deliberately and forcefully towards the cockpit in front of her. Her body, bloated and heavy, slunk into the cockpit chair with a heavy boom that shook the expanse of the control panel below. Instinctively, her hands reached up to touch the silver switches scattered above her head in a precise sequence, illuminating the once dark screen in front of her a brilliant blue. Resisting the animalistic urge to push, she focused her attention on the words below her.

Escape module 34 deployed

Heat shields 100%

Radiation detection 0%

CO2 levels stable

Oxygen levels stable

Navigation system online

Tracking systems online

Desperately suppressing her paralysing fear, she began pressing the control screen in haste to take the tracking system offline. If it had been tracking her all this time how long was it before they caught up to her, and if they did would they let her live?

The pain was growing intensely. More heat swelled from within her, and clotted streams of blood began to pour down the inside of her thighs. Sliding down to the floor of the cockpit, aided by the stream of sweat and blood that now covered the harsh metal of the seat, she pulled off her soaked layers of clothing and lay as flat as she could beneath the whir of the console. Tiny stars blurred above her through the steamed glass of the windows as she writhed in agony. Everything around her seemed alien. The systems, the switches, and the science that she had taken so much comfort in previously seemed redundant and fruitless in what was a deeply primal and animalistic juncture.

She had always trusted in her knowledge, confident that her mind could undo any problem and solve any equation that was placed in front of her. Wren had navigated the space between unnamed planets, chartered boldly between black holes, and had seen the last moments of a dying star, but she had never had to trust in her body like this before. Her every cry felt powerless in her efforts to relieve her agony. Every contraction pushed the fragility of her body passed its limits. Every laboured breath felt as heavy against her chest as the emptiness of space felt against the craft. Succumbing to the extremity of her torture, she suddenly felt the weight of the universe moving through her as she folded beneath the pressure, letting out a deeply wild and earthly howl.

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, but as Wren's wails retched into the dark night her shrieks were not the only thing piercing the emptiness anymore.

The stars that had blurred above her were suddenly all around her. Her fingertips buzzed at the feel of flesh that was no longer hers. Wren was no longer alone in the shuttle, in the world, or in the universe. Her baby was here at last and the weight of the universe with all its stars, supernovas, and undiscovered planets had disappeared around her. There was only them. A connection that worldly science could not explain. Wren brought her close to her chest and looked down at the perfect being she now held. “Eve,” she said, “the first of her kind.”