Event Horizon

by Scott McElhaney

  “We’ve got the Captain here. Oh, and the XO is right over there,” Stephen said, making sure his camera was picking everything up, “And there’s your digital viewing panel.”

  “Is there a way to talk to Stephen?” Ed asked.

  “No, the com system is messed up. It only works one way,” she said.

  “I can hear you guys just fine,” Stephen said.

  “I guess I was wrong,” she said, grinning at Ed.

  “This thing is always on?” Ed asked, looking around for a microphone.

  “I heard you attacking the doctor, if that’s what you’re worried about. I just figured I was going to stay quiet about it in case you killed her. That way you would have thought that you got away with it. Then I would take this recording and play it on the intercom for the whole ship,” Stephen said, “Sorry to risk your life like that, Doc, but you would have died for a good cause.”

  “I’m kind of sorry it didn’t go further, then,” she replied.

  “Well, it’s still recorded anyway. Maybe attempted murder is enough,” Stephen replied, unhooking the wires behind the panel.

  “Just get the screen and get back here. And stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Ed stated, “This whole recording will get you nothing but a punishment for insubordination.”

  Stephen unhooked the unit then started toward the door before catching sight of a notebook on the control panel. He grabbed it, keeping it out of the view of the camera. Then he left the room and started down the hallway again.

  “Why are you going that way?” Paige asked.

  “The hierarchy of the ship would have most likely gone into the Officer’s Mess. I’m the one risking my life, so I get to make a stop on the way,” he replied.

  “What are you looking for?” Ed asked.

  “Notes or a log,” Stephen said, “Someone would have left something behind for us. I have to believe it.”

  He turned at the end of the passageway and started up another one. After several yards, he turned into the open doorway of the Officer’s Mess. As expected, he found about a dozen corpses seated around the dining tables. Some were on the floor, but the majority of them were seated with their heads down on the tables.

  “Unbelievable. It’s like roaming through a tomb,” Stephen said, pushing aside some of the peoples heads to check the tables beneath them.

  Paige suddenly burst into tears and stepped away from the desk. Stephen heard her in his earpiece then looked back at the person he had just moved. The nametag on his uniform said Morgan - her father. He looked down and saw that indeed, he had a journal in his lap. He reached down, grabbed it, and put it in his suit pocket.

  “I think I’ve got enough. Did you say that I might find that motor you need in the galley?” Stephen asked.

  Ed looked at the screen then put his head in his hand. Paige continued to cry near her file cabinets.

  “Come on back, Stephen. We’ve got enough,” he said.

  “On my way,” he replied.

  . . . . .

  Page 28 of the ISDC Operations Manual

  In an effort to show no favoritism to members of the crew, all the living spaces have been designed the same. The ship supports eighty-five officer quarters which are comprised of three bedrooms, a common area (or living room), a bathroom, and an office. The remaining seven thousand living spaces are designed equal. These are comprised of a central common area (living room), with two bedrooms and a bathroom. If families grow larger, additional beds can be found in Storage Room D, but no more living space will be provided. All common areas include a small corner dinette with a refrigerator and a mini-oven.

  . . . . .

  His hand hovered over the nameplate on the door as he prepared to knock. He glanced down the passageway, grateful that no one was roaming these halls tonight. The rumors that would follow would be dark, twisted, and relentless. He inhaled sharply at that thought. How would he feel about those rumors? How would he feel if…

  The door opened all of a sudden. He lowered the hand that had still been hovering over the nameplate. He peered into the room which he recognized to be nothing but a typical common area. As the ship’s Captain, he had expected her to have some kind of dazzling penthouse suite.

  “Come on in, Chasen,” she hollered from the bedroom on the left, “And close the door.”

  He stepped in and the door closed automatically behind him. He cautiously approached the bedroom and peered inside. The room was made up as an office with a dining table in the middle. Autumn was seated at the table leafing through a book.

  “Is that…” he started, stepping into the room.

  “Yes, come here and look at something,” she said.

  He pulled the chair out from the table and sat down beside her.

  “You’re making this very dangerous for us. Why did you bring this here into your own room?” Chasen asked.

  “I’m serious about this book, Chasen. I’m not finding any reasons why this book was being suppressed. As a matter of fact, I think this may actually be a book of love. It might be the book of love,” she said, looking over at Chasen’s fear-filled expression, “This section called the Old Testament confuses me sometimes, but I think all these laws and sacrifices were just a ‘bandage’ to cover a wound that we caused. There really wasn’t a permanent fix or healing until Jesus arrived in the New Testament.”

  “You’ve read more than I have, so I’m not totally sure what you’re talking about,” he replied.

  “We didn’t get very far when you and I were looking through it. I’ve read a lot more afterward and I think we need to focus on just the New Testament for now. I wanted to talk to you about something called prayer. I need to see what you think,” she said.

  “Sure, what is it?” he asked

  “In this spot of the section called Deuteronomy, it says What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? I think this is a form of communication to God. It seems like He can hear us when we just speak it aloud. Listen to this one,” she said, flipping some of the pages, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. It sounds like God looks into our hearts and knows what we want, but he waits until he hears us ask.”

  He looked up at her, trying to read her expression. Her features only revealed the same excitement she always seemed to have around the book.

  “So we should pray? What should we pray about? How should we pray?” Chasen asked.

  “Too many questions,” she said, patting his arm, “Yes, I think we should pray. It says…” she started to say, thumbing through several chapters, “Here is says - Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. It sounds to me like we still have access to Jesus and he’s willing to help us still.”

  Chasen’s gaze fell to the book in front of Autumn.

  “It seems like we’re dabbling in magic. Are you sure this is something we should be messing with?” he asked.

  “Listen. Didn’t you agree that there was really something peculiar here? Something oddly right?” she asked.

  He shrugged as he found her eyes fixed intently on his. He thought about it a moment longer then nodded.

  “Then what would it hurt to seek out this ‘Lord God’?” she asked, reaching for his hand and holding it in hers, “Will you pray with me? I didn’t want to try it alone.”

  His heart started to race at the feel of her hand inside of his. He always viewed her as his boss and something of a friend. But his mind never gave way to anything beyond that. He never viewed her as a woman at all and he suddenly wondered why. Her hand felt soft and frail inside his. She was a woman and she was always beautiful, but for some reason never noticed. He realized she was still looking for him to respond to her question.

  “Yes,” he choked out with a nod.

  “I guess it’s just something to
be spoken aloud, so let’s join both of our hands together and begin,” she said, reaching for his other hand, “We come to the Lord God in prayer. We’re not sure on your specific name, so we are referring to the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, or simply Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask for you to return to a world of people who have abandoned you. Please don’t abandon us based on what our ancestors have done. As the government of this ship, we ask for help in the remainder of this trip and that you bring us safely to this planet. We don’t know what’s in store for us, so we pray for your help and guidance. Thank you.”

  She smiled at Chasen then started to pull her hands from his. He held onto her hands and kept his gaze locked with hers.

  “I want this, Autumn,” he said, “I think I always have.”

  “You want Jesus?” she asked, “I agree. I felt a sense of peace after we prayed.”

  “Well, that’s part of it, but I think… I think I want you. It’s weird because I never noticed that before,” he said.

  “Don’t get creepy on me, Chasen. You’ve always been my best friend. I don’t want to have to kick you out of my room,” she said with a chuckle.

  “I’m not going to try anything weird and I’m sorry for dropping this on you all of a sudden. I feel that it just somehow dropped onto me like a brick. Just accept that I made it known and let’s forget about it,” he said, pulling his hands away from hers.

  She reached out and took a hold of his hand again.

  “Don’t worry about it, Chasen. If it makes you feel better, I think I’ve always…” she sighed, measuring her words, “I’ve always liked you in that way also. But if it’s alright with you, I’d like to keep it from becoming complicated here on the ship.”

  He looked down at the table and nodded his head.

  “I have a proposition for you, though,” she said.

  “What’s that?” he asked, feeling his heart suddenly race.

  “Let’s keep our relationship exactly as it has always been - nothing different at all. If you’d be willing to do that for me, I’d be willing to be your wife when we land,” she said, “What do you say?”

  “Seriously? You made fun of marriage before. You said a long time ago that marriage is a permanent vow and you were disgusted by the way our world disrespected it. You said that people-”

  “Take it or leave it,” she interrupted with a smile.

  “I’ll take it,” he said, grinning back at her, “But does that mean no…”

  “That means that nothing changes between us here on the ship. Not even in the privacy of this room. I can’t get things all screwed up in my head right now.”

  “Okay, I’ll still take it. But I want you to promise me that right now. It would make me feel better to have a promise to hold onto,” he replied.

  She picked up his hand and brought it to her chest. She held his hand tightly in her grasp and looked into Chasen’s eyes.

  “I promise you. Better yet, I vow to be your wife when we are on the ground and I no longer have to contend with being a Captain,” she said.

  “Thank you,” he said, feeling his eyes well up with tears suddenly, “And I vow to be your faithful husband.”

  . . . . .

  The groan of the Gravitational Field Generators grew louder as he approached the door to the starboard engine room. He punched the ten-digit password in the security panel and the door opened with a hiss. It became immediately evident that the door had been coated in sound suppressors. The groan turned into an earsplitting rumble. He stepped into the room and felt the door close behind him. He was surrounded by monstrous, noisy, steel machines. These mighty machines had been running non-stop for over thirteen years. These awesome machines had the power to literally change the shape of the very fabric of space surrounding the ship. These machines could also kill someone if they got too close.

  . . . . .

  “This is amazing, dude! We’ve got the Captain’s log,” Kyle said, leafing through the pages without even reading.

  Stephen sat down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

  “I doubt it’s the actual Flight Log. It’s probably a diary or a last will and testament,” Stephen said, “After all, it’s written on a flimsy notebook.”

  “Aw, listen to this. I have to believe that this isn’t natural. We made it this far without an event. I spoke to the Medical Officer and he’s in agreement. This is sabotage,” Kyle read before looking up at Stephen wide-eyed, “I wonder if he’s talking about the plague.”

  Stephen removed his feet from the table and leaned forward.

  “Hand that over here. Maybe I shouldn’t have got rid of the other book,” he said.

  “You found two books?” Kyle asked, handing the notebook to Stephen.

  “Yeah. One of them was written by Doc’s dad. I figured she might want it,” Stephen replied.

  He opened the notebook and started skimming the pages for keywords that could help explain the notebook’s true purpose or subject. Kyle got up and grabbed a soda from the refrigerator.

  “He is referring to the plague,” Stephen said, “He thinks it was a synthetic virus.”

  “Why would someone try to kill everyone on the ship? That would be suicide for the person who planted it,” Kyle asked, attempting to look over Stephen’s shoulder, “I mean - it’s not like he can fly the ship once everyone is dead.”

  “According to the Captain, it started to run its course about two weeks after a very controversial Mission Report. He believed that there was something said in the Mission Report that started the whole thing,” Stephen said, skimming further.

  “What was in that Mission Report?” he asked, peering over Stephen’s shoulder.

  Stephen continued to skim the pages quickly.

  “Nothing. It doesn’t say. It just sounds like this was a routine meeting they held every year. The crew would gather together to discuss the status of the mission and the supplies. Here’s something,” Stephen said, pausing to read a section, “He says here that there were twenty people in that room and he believes it was one of them who planted this plague. We have to get this to the Captain before it happens again.”

  Week #697

  Chasen sat in the navigator’s chair scrolling through the charts on his viewing panel. The door opened behind him.

  “Have you seen the XO?” Autumn asked, “He’s not responding to the pages.”

  “I don’t recall ever looking for the XO,” Chasen replied, still concentrating on the charts.

  “Well, he’s starting to worry me,” she said, “Could you run a password check on him?”

  Chasen sighed, then closed the chart on his viewing panel. He opened the security tab and proceeded to scroll through until he located the password monitor. He selected the bridge officers and pulled up the report.

  “The last secure room he entered was the starboard engine room and that was three days ago. It doesn’t even reflect that door ever opening again,” Chasen said, looking over at her in confusion. “He never even entered his berthing.”

  “No one should ever have a need to go into those engine rooms,” she muttered, “The GF Generators are deadly with long-term exposure.”

  Chasen and Autumn rushed off the bridge together and ran down the passageway. She pressed the medical emergency button on her communication belt.

  “What’s going on?” Paige’s voice came from the small device on Autumn’s belt.

  “I need you at the starboard engine room. I think the XO has in been there for a few days,” she replied, taking the stairs two-at-a-time.

  They reached the door shortly before Paige. Autumn quickly punched in her code on the door security panel. When the door opened, Paige rushed into the noisy room ahead of Chasen. They immediately discovered Ed lying prostrate on the floor next to a large, black tank. Without delay, Chasen reached down and seized his ankles, pulling him away from all the machinery. Paige grabbed the XO beneath his arms and helped to carry him out of the room.

&nbs
p; “Is he alive?” Autumn asked as they set him on the floor of the passageway.

  The door to the engine room closed, reducing the shuddering noise to only a groan. Paige knelt beside him, pressing a small circular device onto his forehead. Then she brought out a gray handheld scanner and passed it over his chest. She removed the small device from his forehead, read the code, and then flung it angrily down the passageway.

  “He’s still alive, but not for long. His rads are too high. He’s already done too much damage,” she said, looking up at Autumn, “This was intentional.”

  Autumn knelt down and slapped Ed hard on the face.

  “Wake up,” she said heatedly.

  His eyes opened for a second then closed again. She reached out to slap him again, but Paige grabbed a hold of her wrist.

  “Don’t, Captain. You’ll get nothing out of him. He did this to himself and I should have seen it coming,” she said, staring dejectedly at his limp body, “He probably thought I was going to report him. He’s such a pathetic person, I just… well, I didn’t have the heart to.”

  “Report what?” Chasen asked.

  “He attacked me the other day. He tried to kill me,” she replied, “Stephen heard the whole thing while he was retrieving the supplies in the boneyard. Ed was probably worried that we would have gone after him with our ‘airtight case’.”

  “He tried to kill you?” Autumn asked; her expression changing to one of disgust.

  “I started to provoke him once he revealed his true colors. I could have stopped him. The thing was, I… I wanted him to,” she said despondently, “It would have killed two birds with one stone. He would have got caught, and I would have been free.”