****
A deep guttural bang reverberated, followed by waves of motion, which caused a shaking metal-on-metal creaking sound, shaking the entire station. The mist creature withdrew its tendrils from nearby rooms, condensed, and zipped up the hallway in the direction of the noise: the dock where the Hennepin was moored.
****
Card frowned and looked at the screen in front of him. He leaned over and said to a helperbot, “Hmm. Who knew piloting a giant luxury liner could be so complicated? I think one of the mooring couplings is still attached but I don’t know which button releases it. I wish the computer was online so it could just do all of this itself.” After a moment, he found the correct button but noticed another problem. “Wow, the gangplank is still open and attached? I’d better fix that...oh, there’s the button. Now let’s back it up and get out of here. I can’t wait to check out this ship after we get going. I bet it’s fit for a Struse.” He thought for a moment, “Well, I’m sure Bryn Struse has dozens of her own ships, she’s rich enough, but if she did ever decide to take a public luxury liner, this would be it.”
Card busied himself looking at screens full of readouts of the ship’s status, and failed to notice the security camera screens. One showed the briefest view of a gray mist blur through the main doorway of the Hennepin, just before the ship’s outer door closed.
****
The creature went slow as it checked each room on its way up to the bridge of the ship. It wanted to make sure the life form was not planning on trapping it. As it closed in on the bridge, it could hear the audible sound waves the life form was making. It slowed in anticipation of this final kill, made all the more satisfying due to the challenge the life form provided.
It slipped through the open doors of the bridge and silently floated towards the high-backed chair where the communication sounds of the life form were coming from. It crossed the room and spread out, above and around the chair, where the glow of the many screens cast a sickly green glare over the mist as it readied its strike.
****
Card was proud of himself at having gotten the ship clear of the station. He said to the bot, “See, that wasn’t so hard after all. Who needs big fancy do-everything ship computers? It looks like we’re ready to kick on the faster than light drive. Are you rea…wha…?” His screens shimmered with static. What the...
****
The mist spun the chair around as started to dive upon its prey, but stopped cold.
The chair was occupied not by the human. Instead, it looked down at a small helper robot.
****
“Goodbye.”
Card stabbed his finger out, hitting a button on the screen, which caused the bot to reach its small arm out and hit the same button on the screen in front of it. The Hennepin’s faster than light drive cycled up, flexed, and fired for the last time. Everything on the massive luxury liner blurred as the ship, twisted and elongated, winked out of visible space, and was launched faster than light along the course Card had programmed into the navigation systems.
Nothing of an instant later, the ship was obliterated as it impacted with the Treadway Station’s nearby star, three hundred million kilometers away.
****
Card sighed deeply and spun in the cushy chair on the bridge of the nice Brookline ship in the station’s shiplot. When he stopped, he slashed out a finger, closing the screen that told him the Hennepin had been destroyed, and went for a walk.
He went to the station’s computer room to ensure that the system was still completely down and made sure his messages would be sent as soon as everything was back online. Card knew that when the emergency crews eventually arrive to the station, their first concern would be getting the computers back up and running. Before then, they would see the emergency messages he left on the manual system, as well as the footage of the Hennepin leaving. The manual tracking system would show that it left, but never arrived anywhere. When the computers are back up, they’ll scan the area and immediately see the Hennepin’s faster than light signature and see that it went straight into the star. Everyone died. Too bad, so sad, case closed.
Card went to the station’s branch of the Solar Union Bank and removed enough credits for him to live happily for a hundred lifetimes. He returned to the Brookline, and fired it up.
A ghostly apparition of a person appeared as the ship’s computer turned on. “Hello...,” it scanned him, “…Card Mitauk. My name is Keels, a Brookline Model 55 launched on February 4, 2492. You are not my owner.”
“Yes, I know. I’m sorry, but your owner is dead.”
“That is unfortunate. I have just scanned the station and see that you are the last one alive. What happened? Is everything all right?”
“It is now. Some kind of energy-mist alien killed everyone. I was outside repairing the station’s absorbers at the time. I managed to kill both of the aliens, but there is nothing here now. Even the station’s computers are down.”
“I noticed. That is unusual to the point of troubling concern. Computers don’t do that.”
Card replied, “I know! You were the only ship still functioning, which is why I’m here.”
“Extraordinary circumstances call for unusual solutions. Welcome aboard, Card. You are my new owner. Where would you like to go?”
“Far, far away.”
The sleek ship silently lifted off and moments later had entered space and flashed into light speed, leaving the mass grave of Treadway Station behind.
###
About the author
Eric Nixon is the author of a collection of poetry, Anything but Dreams, and two short stories, Retribution on a Jetpack (a short story set in 2492), and Plenty of Time. He is currently finishing his full-length science fiction novel, 2492.
Eric lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Kari Chapin, author of the bestselling book, The Handmade Marketplace: How To Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and Online.
Connect with Eric online:
Website: EricNixon.net
Twitter: @ericnixon
If you enjoyed Incident on the Hennepin, you may also like these other titles by Eric Nixon:
Retribution on a Jetpack
A woman with nothing to lose embarks on a potential suicide mission, across the dangerous inner asteroid belt, with only one goal in mind: to destroy the man who took her family. Set in the distant future, this a companion story to the forthcoming science fiction novel, 2492.
Plenty of Time
Tim, a technician who provides maintenance on a super-secret time machine, steals an unauthorized trip into the past to try and save his recently deceased fiancee, unaware of the effects this seemingly innocent event will have on the world.
Anything but Dreams
Observant, engaging, and heartfelt, this collection will pick you up and whisk you along the gamut of emotions from exuberant happiness, to deep loss, with frequent stops at the ecstatic, as well as the absurd. Eric Nixon has recorded the world around him in an original and wonderful way with a poetic style that is uniquely his.
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