Silent screams

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

"That's because 'they' are all idiots," Jack replied to Maddison as he slowly drifted his way over to her. "Of course you can't hear a scream in a vacuum, sound doesn't carry in a vacuum. I reckon the saying should have been "No one can hear you scream if they don't have their comms open."

Maddison rolled her eyes in reply as they finished their work on the minor repairs. They'd hit a dust cloud a little too fast for their deflectors to react, but slow enough that the cloud hadn't caused more than minor damage.

"It's like, any space faring species would know that. Why is it even a saying?"

"Because people like to say things, just like you," Maddison replied, voice croaky, still recovering from cryosleep. "We don't all need to talk."

"And those that do seem to need to talk, just keep on talking," a grumbling voice reached their ears via the comms. "Hurry up, you two."

"Yes boss," Jack and Maddison replied as they worked on the last of the repairs.

Moving carefully over the exterior of the colony ship, the pair made their way inside, sealing the hatch. As the air finished filling the hatch, the pair of crewmates wriggled out of their space suits. With a whoosh, the door opened, giving them access to the main walkway, lit with the dimmest of lights for any crew who were needed to be awoken during the centuries long voyage.

“Can I buy you a drink Maddie?” Jack asked, walking with her towards the bridge.

Maddison, amused, threw a glance and a smirk in his direction. “We’re in deep space and you’re trying to flirt with someone who is on military assignment, with you, while you have no coin and while you’re still in your cryosleep suit.”

“And?”

Maddison shook her head in amazement as she stepped ahead of him and through the door to the bridge. “Repairs done Captain Reex,” she stated to a furry, humanoid shape as she lazily saluted, with Jack hurriedly following suit.

The Lexian, one of the Alliance races allied with humans, was half the human crew's height and vaguely cat-like. Four ears, overly large eyes and mouth, extra digits on hands and feet and fur everywhere and always a gravelly voice, regardless of cryosleep. He waved his hand dismissively, turning back to the computer terminal closest to him.

“Other than the cloud,” Jack asked, heading to another terminal, “was there anything of note out here?”

“Actually, yes,” Reex replied. “Of all bloody things, there’s a distress signal coming from the system we’re at the edge of.”

Jack and Maddison exchanged a quick glance before sitting at their terminals. “Should I wake anyone else, sir?” Maddison asked as she initiated the scanners.

“Hold off on that yet. What are you seeing?”

“Alpha class planet with several moons, a couple of asteroid belts, the cloud we hit and nothing else,” she replied, pushing the system scan info to his terminal.

“I’m getting pre or early space exploration type signals. Radio waves mostly,” Jack said. “Nothing clear, it's mostly distorted.”

“But the distress signal is clear and coming in on a subspace channel,” Reex replied. Sighing, he turned and looked at Maddison. “May as well wake up Gillian and her team.”

Nodding, Maddison left the bridge, making her way to cryo controls to begin the wake up process.

“Captain?” Jack asked, without asking the questions he wanted to ask.

“If there’s a distress signal all the way out here, they may be able to give us information that will help us.”

“Or, alternatively, they might just rip through us,” Jack replied.

“That’s why Gillian is being woken up.”

“Aye captain.”