Blood on the Horizon
- Chapter 2 -[]
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Regrouping[]
"I'm up," I argued with the blaring of the alarm on my phone, the harsh tone kick-starting my brain.
Reaching into my pocket, I turned off the alarm and let my thumb rest on the surface of my smartphone, a sad smile on my face as I looked at the picture of my wife that secured my phone. A tear floated up from my eye as I stared at it. She had wanted me to delete this picture. She said that it was an awful one. But this picture was my favorite. It captured her, this was my wife when she let her walls down, this was her when she didn't need to put on a face for others.
The tears continued as I unlocked the phone and opened my photos, muted sobs coming from me as I saw just how few pictures I had of my family.
"It's not enough," I wept, the tears floating away from me as I buried my head in my hands. "I should have done more," I muttered as I dried my tears with the sleeve of my shirt.
The tears now faded, I sniffled and grabbed a napkin out of my backpack to blow my nose.
"Why me?" I asked, blowing my nose into the napkin. "Why couldn't you have picked someone else? I have a family, a wife, and two kids that we just adopted. What do I have to offer that no one else did? Huh? I know you can hear me!"
I floated there, the silence pressing down and making me feel ever so small.
"I'm not going to die here," I said after a minute. "This isn't the end of my story, you hear me?!"
I swallowed after a minute, choking back even more sobs as reality set in.
I was alone.
There was nobody left alive on this ship.
My family was gone. And I have no way of ever returning to them.
I felt the anger churn in my gut as I began weeping again, the rage simmering in place as I floated, my fists clenched tightly while drifting through the engine room.
I held down the volume and lock buttons, and shut down my phone, looking at the picture of my wife one last time before I slid the power off switch and the screen went black.
Sniffling one last time, I did the same to my watch and slid it off of my wrist before placing both in my backpack.
Then, taking a deep breath, I stilled myself, centering on what was right in front of me.
Reaching into my cargo pocket, I pulled out the device I had taken from Cromwell's wrist and looked it over before placing it where my old watch had once been.
"Okay," I breathed. "Let's hope that Star League tech works as well as advertised because I have no idea how to move on from here."
The design was remarkably intuitive, with a small dial and a screen that showed the various menus that you could navigate through. In some ways, it reminded me of a rotary phone, and in others, it actually felt like I was using a first-generation smartwatch.
Flipping through the device, I finally found something that piqued my interest.
"Here goes nothing," I said as I pushed down on the control, a small speaker emitting a bit of static as I did so.
>>"This is the automated, step-by-step instructions given for the use of all Star League Naval personnel. While not required, it is highly recommended that you follow these guides. Because even the most experienced personnel can forget something. "<<
"Thank you, Bitchin' Betty," I smiled as I began navigating through the various sections, eventually finding one that said 'refueling'.
>>"First, you will need the proper fuel,"<< Betty stated. >>"Fuel will always be stored in the properly marked containers and will normally be found in the secondary cargo bay near the engine room."<<
"Alright, back the way we came," I said as I pushed myself off of a nearby handhold and floated toward the room's exit, one of the granola bars from my backpack held in my teeth.
"Specially marked containers, my ass." I muttered as I floated through the cargo bay, my light shining back and forth as I tried to identify the stored fuel.
Shining my light back in the direction I had started in, I stopped as something yellow flashed on the edge of my vision, the shining label informing me that it was exactly what I was looking for.
"Now we're cooking with gas," I muttered as I pushed myself toward the container. "One problem," I looked at the massive container. "I don't think I've the mass to move this thing."
"What are my available resources?" I asked out loud as I looked at the container while stroking my beard.
"Didn't Betty say something about Engineer suits having thrusters on one of those guides?" I asked as I flipped back through the comms device on my wrist.
"I can use this," I smiled as relief set in. "I just need to find an engineer. And pray that we're close enough in size for this to work."
"Okay," I finished rolling up my clothes and sticking them into the locker where I had found the uniform I was wearing. "Thrusters should have fuel, so let's see how well they work."
I pushed the small control in the gloves and then screamed as I accelerated toward the ceiling, turning off the thruster just in time for me to flip end over end and hit the top of the room.
"Ow," I groaned as I let myself relax a bit. "That one hurt."
I grabbed at my back and winced at how tight my hamstrings were.
"Alright, we'll try it again, just take it slowly this time, Mark," I said to myself as I reached for the controls again. "Calm, collected easy movement."
I touched the control and yelped as I sped off again.
"Alright," I looked at the fuel container again. "Let's get you moving in the right direction."
Grabbing on, I held it tightly as I triggered the thrusters, pushing us both toward the door that led to the engine room.
"Take it slow and steady, we don't need to get in a rush here," I muttered to myself as I used a small burst from the thrusters to alter our direction slightly. "We'll get there, and then we can see about getting some more lights on in here."
The container shifted and then a sound akin to nails on a chalkboard rang through the cargo bay as it scraped the top of the hallway leading to the engine room.
"Just a little bit longer," I said. "And then we can take a break."