The space can really be a scary place. When you think about all of that vast space with no limits and borders, it certainly makes you frightened as hell. Dave and Rob were in a scary position right above the orbit of Mars. This is their story.
Dave and Rob are the only members of crew of a small spaceship that is destined to explore and gather data from the biggest Mars satellite Phobos. The name of this satellite derives from Latin language and it means fear. But Dave and Rob never expected they would experience fear on this far away place. Their mission was simple and clear. They just need to gather some rocks from the satellite and that is all. The next step would be to create a mining community on Phobos, but that is still a far away dream.
The small spaceship approached Mars and its satellites in a quick pace. Dave and Rob were operating the spaceship instruments and everything looked normal and without any problems. Then Dave suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the control panel.
“What is this? It must be the malfunction of the control panel. I told them we shouldn’t take this old junk into space again. Where will we get the spare parts if something is broken?” Dave said.
“ Please don’t panic. It is just a small bug in the machinery. I will go and check it out. Just wait for me. “ Rob answered.
“ Hope you will come back in one piece. Just remember not to open the vacuum trash launcher by accident.” Dave joked.
“ I am not that stupid. I fixed spaceships when you were still in diapers. It is not nice to joke with a senior member of crew. “ Rob replied angrily.
“ Yes sir, I know you are an expert in this field. I am truly happy to have you hear with me. “ Dave said sarcastically.
“ You can leave you sarcasm and disbelief back on Earth. I will come back quickly.” Rob mumbled and went straight to the machine room.
Rob arrived to the machine room in few moments. Everything seemed normal. There were no malfunctions and all of the gauges showed the right numbers. But what was the reason for the strange sounds. Rob picked up his tools and equipment. He was ready to make a standard check. It was not the first time for him to do this. He is an experienced spaceship mechanic and he accompanied many spaceship expeditions. Although he is close to his retirement, he still works with the same enthusiasm and energy as the first day he arrived to the Space Mine Company.
“ Mars was never my favorite place to visit. But this job must be done. I am going to disassemble the front panel and see the real cause of this strange sound. “ Rob mumbled to himself.
Rob was ready to disassemble the front panel. He had all of the necessary tools and he has performed this task many times before. It should be easy for him to perform this task. When Rob finished unscrewing the last screw, the sound became horrible and frightening. The whole machinery started to shake and tremble in a furious way. Rob was not sure what was causing this problem. It is certainly not normal and he had never experienced something like this before. The sound increased in intensity and vibrations were becoming unbearable. At last, the front panel fell down and unleashed the surges of pure energy that crushed every bone in Rob’s body. He fell down on the floor and screamed intensively.
“Dave, help me! The machine has gone crazy. Please come down. “
But all of the screaming was completely useless. Dave couldn’t hear him. The machinery poured another surge of unknown energy and turned Rob into a pile of dust. Just like he never existed before. Some strange chemical reaction dissolved all of his body and there was nothing that could help him now.
Dave was still in control room. He watched the control panes and he noticed something unusual.
“ The old bustard is certainly doing some serious check to this machinery. Let him handle it. I will just rest and wait for him. But dammed, what is this horrible sound? He is not making it any better. I think I should go down and check what is wrong. “
Dave was reluctant to go, but it was something that should be done. If he stayed there and did nothing, it wouldn’t help solving this situation. He was down in a moment. He faced the strange situation. The front panel was on the floor and there was no sound of Rob.
“ Where are you old fool? You were here to check the machinery and not to do the nap. Come here immediately.”
This was very strange. Dave thought it was impossible for somebody to disappear in thin air. He decided to make a search. The front panel was down and he wanted to check the back panel. When he arrived close to the back panel, the situation was normal. All of the screws where in the right position and there wasn’t anything wrong with the machinery. He touched the panel and felt the strong vibrations. The sound became louder and it was all frightening and astonishing. Before Dave was able to make any move, the whole back panel exploded and it released the strange surge of energy. Everything was over in a moment. The blast was much stronger now and the machinery released all of the dark matter that was somehow trapped in it. The surge of energy filled the whole spaceship and caused it to disappear from this plane of existence.
Years after this accident, there were many search expeditions that tried to find the disappeared spaceship. There were no results and there was nothing they could find. The whole spaceship disappeared near the Mars orbit. Nobody was sure why there are no pieces of a spaceship or any of the space junk near the place where the spaceship disappeared. Rob and Dave where lost on their last expedition and they were destroyed by an unknown power that always present in the universe. They were consumed by the dark matter and turned into pure energy.