by Nick Pond
The Space Shark and her following pups were near Playa De Sontos, whilst a giant ship (in the shape of a cruise ship) was propelling away from the asteroids atmosphere. It is considered an eye of beauty, mostly because of its grand towering giant structure, and the bright light beams which were shining out of its millions of port holes. “Dub Starz” was scrawled along the side in pink and blue neon lighting. The “Dub Starz” hosted the biggest nightclub/concert venue in the solar system. It also had extras on board too; swimming pool, 2 casino floors, and a theme park. In total it holds a capacity for 20,000 Ravers and lunatics.
“IT’S TIIME TO PAARTY!” Keagan screamed, as he sped round the disco floor on a pair of glowing green roller blades.
Wearing shorts, and a casual flower power Hawaiian shirt, you would never guess this was the space ship owner and captain. Loving the fact his home and job is all contained in one place; Keagan enjoys life, and especially in meeting the many club participants who pass through staying on-board for months on end. As he approaches a spiral staircase, Keagan decides to jump onto the railings, and grinds down them as he descends to the lower floor in style. Before he could get time to get his keys out from his back pocket and open his office door, a voice looms over him from the shadows.
“Keagan!” A deep voice rumbled, which was nearly as screechy as someone’s fingernails going down a chalk board.
Keagan recognized the voice, and in that instance span around; to see his mother!
“What are you doing out? Get back in your room!” Keagan screamed, as his mother always sucked out any 'coolness' from him in an instant – and instantaneously turned him into a sulky teenager.
“You always were a disappointment! They are going to kill you! Why can't you be more like your brother?”
“Who's going to kill me?!”
“Them! Those people you go off with during the early hours! Don't you think I don't know! Stupid boy!” His mum hissed, “And you've not let me iron that shirt for several weeks now! Look at that stain! You really are a disappointment aren’t you?!”
“Get off me! Shut up! Oh mother! Go back to your room you stupid old crone! I'll deal with them murdering thugs!”
His mum let out a disapproving growl, as she wandered off back down the corridor using her metal framed walker; whilst Keagan proceeded to enter his ship cabin. Keagan wasn’t one to show off or be the best – but his port room humbly hosted a gigantic king size bed with silk smooth sheets, complimented with a giant wall screen which acted as a futuristic television, and an en-suite bathroom housing a massive hot tub. But tucked in the corner were his desk, computer, and a massive diagram of the solar system with pins stuck in on different coordinates. He held a small toy model of a shark, which made him swipe off all the pins from the map as they fell to the floor, and Keagan's face twisted into a look of utter horror, as he stared at the menacing toy shark in his hand. He then elevated to a panic when he screamed and ripped off the map from the wall.
“Shit! What have I gone and done now!” A panicked Keagan spoke, as he clutched his forehead and fell back on his bed; reflecting on the aforementioned horror that could potentially ensue.
After a few minutes he turns to the bedside cabinet, as if he just remembered something... Something he put in there earlier. Opening a draw and pulling out a see-through bag containing a white powder, he then goes to his en-suite bathroom door. He opens and shuts the door behind him as he revels in the peace and quiet, when suddenly there is a knock at the entrance door.
“Keagan! Keagan!! Jesus Christ! Open up Keagan!”
The Space Shark swam nearby; as the “Dub Starz” moved slowly through open space, a void of nothingness, a mere passageway between more interesting places. The music and light pollution coming from the ship, penetrated the darkness, emitting loud vibrations of energy, and are all being sensed by the fierce space predator. She was merely waiting for her moment. Her mouth opened, displaying her rows of sharp jagged teeth, as she seemed to be giving out a signal in radio-active energy – her two pups then glided over to her side and proceeded to advance towards the ship.
Keagan was now sharing his cabin with a short plump man. Wearing a similar garish shirt to Keagan, and smoking a Cuban cigar; he was trying to tell Keagan how it is.
“So... Err... You fucked up! We have got to turn round, go up or down, anywhere!” Shouted the panicked man; a man who seemed to be using a cigar as a form of oxygen mask, as he inhaled all the nicotine manically.
Keagan wasn’t much on displaying emotion, especially negativity or fear, when in the company of other people.
“We’ll be fine! Stop panicking! You’re forgetting I’m in charge!” He shouted trying to pretend to know what he’s doing, but his straight hard face would suddenly turn to a look of horror and grimace for a few seconds before he recomposed his face muscles to how they were.
“We are inside Space Shark territory?! Seriously? You are insane! We know that she’s recently given birth, she will go crazy! The Space Shark could be highly territorial protecting their young!”
“Just take it easy, relax, this ship is much smaller than the average military craft that gets attacked... They won’t even know we’re here! Imagine it! The first company to host public viewing of the Space Shark! This stuff makes money!” Keagan defended.
There was a minute silence between the two, as the man digested Keagan’s point of view. He looked at him.
“You need locking up! And fast!”
The door then slammed, as he left the room.
Meanwhile, on one of the nightclub floors, two young girls were next to the big glass porthole; as one sobbed her heart out.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me! I just have the worst luck! Attract all the wrong sort of guys! Why can’t something go right for once?” She cried.
“Sandy! Look out behind you!” A voice screamed.
A Space Shark with its mouth wide open was up against the port hole. The whole room instantly turned into a frenzy of screaming people running around like headless chickens. She was only one of the Space Shark pups; the mother was still further back allowing her young to orchestrate the attack. Glass shattered everywhere in the room, as all the oxygen got pulled out within not even a split second. For those that didn’t make it to an emergency space suit (As common as fire extinguishers on board a sea vessel, but space suits were contained inside an orange box and it self inflates over the participant when you pull the emergency cord) everyone clutched their necks in pain when they realized they could no longer breathe. The intruding shark was small enough to fit through the giant port hole, as she breached the “Dub Starz”; whilst shards of glass flew in all around her. It wasn't long before her sister then followed her in, and the two Space Sharks were now inside. The majority were dead on the dance floor, apart from a group of five who were inside space suits – and scrambling to grab something, as the gravity holding them down was now obsolete. Meanwhile, the two Space Sharks roamed the room effortlessly as they explored the contents of their catch, in contrast to the not so elegant humans flapping around and trying to gasp for breath. Zara – one of the lucky ones to have managed to put on a space suit, turned on her head set which allowed her to speak to the control room. She didn't work for the space ship, but was there on business on behalf of the Playa De Sontos government. However, just as she was about to make a move of assassination, she was upstaged by a fish living in space.
“Control... It's Zara! Major problem on floor B – do not under any circumstance open any doors... The rooms now breached to the space vacuum!”
There was a silence, which was interrupted by a click.
“This is control... We copy! What is the breach?”
“Sharks!” Zara screamed, as one of the pups started poking her snout towards her slowly showing her teeth, as her radio signal was naturally alerting the beast to her position.
She grabbed the suited man next to her; who seemed to be motionless in shock. It was amazing that he was
able to put on the suit in time – as now he appeared very redundant. The second shark glided over their heads, waving her tail side to side, and showing her dark gray underbelly, and her dark long and pointy pectoral fins. As Zara watched in shock at the creature; she then tried to clear her thoughts on what to do next. She heard the stories, especially from Zipper - her romantic partner, but she has never seen anything like this herself before...
Nelson sitting in the space ships flight room; suddenly wished he wasn't so bright enough to be qualified to be here. A red cross flashed across the second floor map on his computer screen where floor B was located – and the other members in the room were exacerbated to what to do.
“Fire off the flares! Call for help!” A man snapped taking off his headset, “We're going to have to evacuate... A whole floor is breached, this ship will buckle and collapse and no ones got a clue to how long she can hold for!”
Some of the co-pilots began to panic.
“Let’s sound the alarm! Order everyone to the escape pods! Make sure our position is recorded on our signals! We won't last more than 48 hours in them escape capsules...” This order came from a man, who carried a massive gray beard, and is wearing a nostalgic old white sailors hat, which is centuries old - which managed to last through the hardships of life. The simple days of sailors crossing the ocean just to get to a destination seemed so much simpler back then for the hat. And the big bearded man’s name is Gary. It is a name which went extinct hundreds of years ago, but came back bigger than ever as a one man show with this guy. This was the ship’s captain.
“Someone get hold of Keagan!” One of the crew members barked.
Keagan already sensed there was trouble – as he was ready to leave his cabin with a packed suitcase.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” He kept saying under his breath.
As he went out to close the door, something had occurred to him that he had forgotten something. He ran to the bathroom, and then ran back out the door, holding again his little plastic baggie.
“Things might get bit tense... Just in case,”
His cell phone began to ring. He answered it, and before he could greet the caller; a shouting voice absorbed all the room’s energy into a severely distressed tone.
“You’re a fucking ass-hole! You know that!”
It was a voice from one of the men in the control room. Angus – one of the pilot coordinators, who has a soft spot for Indian curries. In fact, he was more gutted at having to surrender a dish of lamb Passanda from all this commotion starting off, rather than the well-being of his safety. It took 3 security officers to drag him away from the restaurant.
“Look calm down...” Keagan tried to reassure, “I’m on my way! Have we evacuated?”
“No! I thought I’d serve everyone up as a feast! You stupid bastard!”
Keagan despised being the blame of a bad situation, and so hung up the call. He ran down the corridor carrying his luggage, and noticed where the bottom of the spiral stairs used to be was now covered by a thick solid metal door. This is bad, it was the airtight door; it would only be shut if the vacuum was inside the ship. The corridor was unusually very quiet, and no one was about; as it kept intimidating Zipper with its eerie atmosphere. As he came to the corner, the next corridor was pitch black and all the lights were out. Some of the cabin doors were left open, and debris from peoples’ belongings was scattered across the Persian patterned carpet laid down the hallway. A thought flickered across Zipper’s mind, as he was still stood at the corner looking down the dark corridor; which must have been like deciding to choose whether to jump into a black hole or not. Looking back at the previous corridor he went down, and seeing the metal door again, he realized he could hear thumping – getting louder and louder against the metal. As even from a distance, he could see the vibrations on the hatch from the brute force of whatever it is behind it. And Keagan wasn't keen to stay and find out...
“Oh my god! What the hell is that?”
The mother Space Shark appeared before them through the panels of glass facing the front of the ship. They were overwhelmed by her enormous size, and knew she would have no problem bringing down the ship and everyone inside it. And the escape pods would just be swallowed whole by this space animal. Everyone in the control room held their breath as she came past the window, looking as if the creature was looking for something, as she pointed her investigating snout in different directions. A moment later she disappeared from view, as she came round the side of the “Dub Starz”. She was in fact in tune with her pup’s energetic signals, and was just simply following them round the outside of the ship.
“Now what do we do?”
“People are going to be evacuating in the pods any second, should we stop them?”
The captain interjected from the questions of his crew, as he flips a shiny gold coin in his hand and catches it, “Either way – we’re dead! If there is the remotest chance, and I mean a grain of dust in the wind chance we survive, it’ll be getting away in one them pods,”
The room fell silent, as everyone began to pull the cords for their emergency space suits, and scrambling out the control room to find the nearest emergency escape pod.
Zara has taken charge with a problem of her own, as she managed to bind the other four men behind her with rope, as the Space Shark pup still circled what used to be the dance floor room. She was exhausted mentally and physically as she lost contact with the control room.
“Control... This is Zara! What’s going on? Do you copy?”
Further silence remained, with the room now taken over by the outside space vacuum; the only sound which existed to Zara was what was made available inside her space helmet. Losing hope of making contact – she then turned to her inner thoughts for a way to try and get out of here. As the moment hit her on what to do next – she felt a massive tug and suddenly started spinning; with no way to stop without the help of gravity; the required force to help remain on the ground and in balance. Zara caught sight of the man in the space suit behind her; realizing half of his body was inside the mouth of the juvenile Shark, being mutilated. All in silence – clouds of blood expanded from his position, as the creature chewed through the space suit until she got down to the bone. Still spinning, Zara realized she was out of arms reach from the dancing pole, as she strained to stretch her hand towards it – only to regain balance. The other three space men still attached to the rope, behind the corpse, are trying to cut themselves loose. Where Zara was spinning, she didn't realize she was reeling in the rope towards her and everything else attached to it; including the feasting shark. Her fingertips just about touched the pole, as she span around another time – she then made the successful grab. Coming to an abrupt stop, consequently with heaps of pain on her arm, she didn't hesitate to untie the rope around her waist, as she saw the hurtling space men and shark coming towards her. She lowered herself by pulling herself down the pole, witnessing the Shark finally letting go of her prey; but everyone else thrown against the wall. The Space Shark then proceeded to circle around the room. Zara's thoughts were then placed back in her head – there's an escape pod on this floor.
The mother Space Shark circled around the “Dub Starz” continuing to monitor her juniors inside. Her senses picked up on new vibrations, which were getting closer and heading towards her direction. It was enough to distract her from the ship, as her pectoral fins in swimming motion allowed her to turn facing the distant deep space – sparkling stars coming out in the darkness, including shooting stars which were leaving glittering trails in the darkness. In contrast with such beauty and magnificence, the Space Shark's instinct turned territorial and ready for fight – as she knew she was being hunted. Her eyes caught a colony of dark shapes gliding nearer from the horizon.
Keagan ran down the pitch black corridor as he heard sounds of scrambling coming from inside the passing cabins – but he didn't take notice, as he tried to not trip over a suitcase and spilled out clothes which were abandoned in the middle of
the floor. He found himself with no vision, as running turned to fumbling his hands in the dark to make his way down. He knew he didn't have much time, and his thoughts flickered the hatch will be breached soon – I need a space suit! Silence was again upon him, not even the sound of the shark barging the door. Did it stop? Or was he just too far away to hear it? Keagan struggled to let go of the questions that kept popping into his head, and instead tried to focus on the matter in hand. He just wished he spent more time knowing everything on his ship, rather than just only being in his usual places partying and taking drugs. More observance would have gone a long way for Keagan at this moment. He carried on following the corridor down, which went on for a good while. Soon he heard another noise... It was a crinkling sound. And he saw a flash light come from one of the cabins.
“Hello?” Keagan shouted.
The torchlight shone out from the cabin into the corridor, whilst Keagan shielded his eyes. The light seemed to be getting nearer.
“It's not safe out there!” A voice shouted.
“It's me, Keagan the ship owner... How many of you?!”