Captive

Chapter 1

Captive

By T.A. Creech

“Proximity Alert. Unknown Spatial Anomaly. Twenty thousand kilometers to port.”

As the cool, androgynous voice of the computer mindlessly spat out its warning, Justin rolled his chair over to the navigation console, cut off the blaring emergency signal and keyed up a visual of the jewel-like solar system he stumbled into hours before. The blazing, blue, twin stars serenely danced together in the velvet blackness to the starboard side, along with the first three barren gems of planets. To port were the other three, a bright emerald beauty of a world and two bright gas giants beyond that. Nothing else, especially an object big enough to be an anomaly. Then again, Justin wasn’t an astrophysicist by any stretch of the imagination, so how would he know?

The instruments weren’t telling him anything he could decipher either. Only that his ship, the Nitti, was caught in some kind of gravity sink and was being pulled towards it, and the fourth planet incidentally. The rest of the information scrolling across his screen controlled by the outdated sensor array looked like a whole bunch of science techno-jargon he did not understand. So Justin did what he did best and fell back to standard operating procedure.

Well, at least emergency protocol wasn’t rocket science. “Okay, computer. Let’s try a full stop first.”

“Executing full stop.”

A lurching grind as the thrusters cut out was the first clue that something was seriously wrong, the second was his ship still moving, drifting port side and down. That was a bit disconcerting, but he clamped down on his urge to panic like some green recruit. “Why didn’t we stop?”

“Gravitational pull increased. Eighteen thousand kilometers to anomaly and closing.”

That wasn’t an outcome he was expecting. s**t. He was starting to think that maybe he should have stayed a soldier. This exploring nonsense wasn’t going to end well for him, he could feel it. “Full reverse, full power.”

The computer complied, and the ship gave a jerk, pulling against the thing that had his ship trapped with no success. The sudden blare of the warning klaxon was deafening.

“Warning. Hull compromised. Venting oxygen. Ten minutes until oxygen levels reach critical low.”

“So let’s try something else.” Of course, the computer didn’t answer Justin, not that he wanted it to. Stupid machine. Wracking his brain, he finally latched on to another possibility. “Let’s try full power to thrusters and break out going forward, on my mark.”

“Warning. Possibility of further entanglement with anomaly’s gravitational pull.”

“Gotta take that risk. Directional controls to console.” The control panel lit up like an electrical storm, neon blues and greens adding to the bright lights of the blue suns coming from the view screen. Sweat starting to bead along his forehead and dampened his dark brown hair. If this didn’t work, he would become a grease stain on the atmosphere of the stunning world he was starting to hurtle toward, if he was lucky. “Full power in three, two, one. Mark!”

The sudden surge of speed pinned Justin to his chair for half a heartbeat.

“Spatial anomaly fifteen thousand meters and closing. Imminent collision in five minutes, forty seconds. Oxygen levels continuing to decline. Six minutes of air remaining.”

Damn, that was bad. “If this works, how long will it take to break free of the anomaly?”

“Unknown.”

“Great.” Just what he needed. Another thing to f**k things up. He started to very slowly direct the Nitti, aiming for the northern pole of the planet the anomaly seemed closest to. Hopefully he could pass over it and use it as a shield while he patched up the hull.

A sudden jump in acceleration had Justin gritting his teeth, trying not to let his fear swamp him. He continued his course correction, banking just a little harder and trying to coax his suddenly leveling ship to nose just a little higher. “Why are we are going faster?”

“Unknown.”

“Well, something had to cause it!” Yelling at the computer wasn’t going to help matters, but it sure did give him some outlet for his stress. He just wished he dared to move a hand off the control panel so he could punch the damn thing. “Do a sensor sweep and see if anything else is boosting the pull of the anomaly.”

“Unknown.”

Justin was quickly losing patience and his calm. “Did you even complete the sensor sweep?”

“Unknown.”

An icy trickle of fear broke through his control and made its way down Justin’s spine. It was nothing short of a miracle, and probably his military training, that this part of procedure he remembered perfectly. “Diagnostic of ship’s systems.”

“Unknown.”

Justin moved fast, pushed over to the other end of the panel, and input his override code into the computer. It was a matter of seconds before Justin was manually patched into the entire system, bypassing the suddenly malfunctioning standard interface. Fingers dancing over the keys, Justin brought up the ship’s status.

His heart started racing.

Warning: Auxiliary power failure

Warning: Sensors failing

Warning: Engine failing

Warning: Oxygen depletion imminent

Warning: Main computer failure

Warning: Hull compromised

Justin looked away from the litany of death scrolling across the console screen. Naturally, his eyes were drawn to the glowing jewel of a world and the mint-colored clouds that swirled in its atmosphere.

Inspiration struck him like a lightning strike, because only potentially habitable worlds had air currents if he remembered his science right. Justin pulled up the sensor program and ran it, hoping the stupid thing worked enough to at least tell him what kind of atmosphere it might have.

The ship bucked again, doing a strange shimmy, and then picked up more speed just as the sensors relayed back the planet’s information. Justin cursed his luck and gave the data display a quick glance before sliding back over to the directional controls. Class M. He could breathe on that green ball of salvation.

It was a slim hope to hold on to.

The neon lights of the directional controls flickered erratically for a couple of precious seconds but stayed lit and functional, which was a miracle in and of itself. Justin acted quickly, nosing his ship down, trying his damnedest to aim for the planet peacefully floating in space below him and locking in the route. Without the computer to guide him, it was a crapshoot.

When he was sure there was nothing else he could do, Justin sat back in the chair and buckled in.

Justin watched the stunning planet grow larger in the slowly dimming view screen intently and prayed to the Gods he hoped were really watching over people like him. The Nitti hit the outer atmosphere like it was a slab of concert, but somehow the ship managed to hold together.

The quick deceleration made him light-headed. Seconds later and the deafening impact with the ground was the last thing he heard as the darkness consumed him.