Sweet Nothingness

[RoaringNoodle]

3. Lost Soul

The sound of alarms echoed through the bridge, creating an atmosphere of panic and urgency. Control panels lay in ruins, barely working, with sparking electric wires hanging from the ceiling, lighting up the smoke-filled room. A cruiser in desperate condition drifted through an uncharted region of space. Once a mighty ship capable of holding over two hundred people, it now seemed eerily abandoned.

A smaller explosion shook the hull of the ship, sending shockwaves through the rooms. Only one soul remained on board: Richard. He struggled to crawl back to his seat at the science station on the bridge. Wiping debris off the console, he started interacting with it. His face was focused, his actions precise. The console he worked on flickered in and out of power, but he persevered nevertheless.

The sound of smaller explosions mixed with a larger crackling noise filled the air. Richard stopped for a moment and looked up. A beeping alarm from another console labeled "Engineering" startled him. Frustrated, he picked up a small piece of debris and tossed it onto the console, shouting, "Shut it! I've got no time for you!" The alarm stopped.

"Don't you think it's time to go?" asked a gentle female voice. Richard didn't bother answering at first, still working intently on the terminal. "Hun, please don't hurt yourself," the female voice urged again. "I'm fine... I will be fine..." Richard replied in an annoyed tone. He looked up at the screen, which displayed a map of the region with a trail across it. "Finally... this signature matches..." he muttered under his breath. The alarm from the other console resumed its beeping, and another console joined in, agitating Richard even more. He stood up and walked over to the consoles. "What is it, hun?" asked the female voice. "Not good... I'm losing core stability..." Richard answered as he glanced back at the science panel, where a small loading bar showed 56%. He hurried to the other console to investigate the cause of the alarms. "Crap... millions of credits, cutting-edge technology, and they can't even build a functioning Argo field distributor..." Richard dismissed the alarms by deactivating the problematic component. Suddenly, a larger rumble shook the ship, followed by an overcharged cable exploding near Richard, knocking him to the floor.

With blurred vision and ringing ears, Richard slowly tried to stand up and crawl back to the console. "Hun, it's time to leave," the female voice pleaded again. "N-no, not when I'm this close..." Richard looked up at the screen, now displaying 75%. He stood up unsteadily and pulled out his datapad. The ship's violent shaking made it difficult to maintain his balance, and he stumbled onto the captain's chair. He glanced down at the small monitor next to it, noticing the latest communications that the late captain had received. Richard quickly connected his datapad to download the messages. The ship continued to shake violently, lights flickered, alarms blared from every console, and the smoke and burning hull began to damage the life support systems around him. Time was running out.

"Hun, please... leave now," the female voice implored once more. Richard ignored her and stumbled back to the science console, which now showed 85% completion. "No, no, no, just a little bit more, come on!" As Richard stared at the screen, he caught his reflection. In that reflection, behind him, a female figure appeared – his wife, whom he had been searching for. Richard looked at her, tears forming in his eyes. She placed her hand on his shoulder and said, "My busy circuit board... leave this madness behind, come home."

Richard fought to keep his tears at bay as the screen displayed 94% completion. An automated computer voice echoed throughout the bridge, announcing, "Core integrity failed, evacuate immediately." Richard closed his eyes and heard the gentle female voice again in his head, "Come home."

A once mighty ship drifted into an unknown sector of the system—broken, flaming, and lifeless. An explosion in the distance created a bright flash that lasted for mere seconds before disappearing into the darkness of space. Farther away, in a small escape pod, an injured Richard sat in the pilot seat. The pod was on autopilot, and his datapad, with its broken screen, lay on the dashboard, displaying a map of the system and a trail, along with coordinates and charts.

"We will return home together," Richard vowed

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