Encheta Shimoa stared blankly at the even blanker main holoscreen. All that could be seen through the Spatial's cockpit and external cameras was darkness. Thankfully the deep space explorer was designed to withstand a storm such as this.. Just. Encheta and his 2 other crewmembers barely got the craft braced for impact when the dark matter wave came. The hold manifest now said the ship was carrying a fatal exception - he was sure he didn't pick one of those up during this voyage..
Encheta sighed and turned around to a subcomscreen displaying his engineer.
"This doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon Charles.. How's the engines looking?"
"Better than they were before sir" The stocky man replied.
"Number 5 is still offline - I think the fusion chamber in it's cracked so there's nothing I can do about it.. Number 2 is at around 70% efficiency and I'd rather not push it any more than that. The others are fine and dandy though."
Encheta grumbled as he cut the connection to engineering, wondering if his week could get any worse. As he turned himself back to face the main screen again his scanner Op popped out from the hatch.
"Hey Ench, I was jus--"
"Don't call me that Jackie, you know I hate people shortening my name" Encheta snapped
"Hehe.. Well look who's grumpy." Jacqueline teased, throwing him a shiny energy bar packet.
"You haven't eaten in ages, have that and maybe you'll feel better. It's just that you always shorten mine so.."
"Ok ok, I apologise. These doldrems are just getting to me I guess. Coming up to do your regular sweepscan right?" Said Encheta, opening the foodstuf as the young woman nodded in reply. Strawberry pork was never his favourite flavour, but it wasn't all that bad. He took a bite as Jackie started working on the scanner console.
Things had been uneventful since the dark matter came. Almost all the normal duties the exploration team had came to a grinding halt, as near to all of them were concerned with the space around them. Only daily systems checks and what repair work the wave created was left to do. Life was, for the lack of a better word, dreary.
I high pitched beeping, along with a yelp from Jackie, brought Encheta out of his reverie.
"Ay, hello hello! I'm picking up somthing finally!" The scanners Op chirped with glee.
"The dark matter's clearing. Things outside should be visible in a few moments.."
Almost as she said that, the view from the cockpit turned from black to a murky grey. Within the space of a couple of minutes the whole system, featuring a bluey white sun, asteroids and a far off planet, could be clearly seen.
"Well, looks like this week is going to get better after all" Encheta stated, swallowing the last of the energy bar.
"Jackie, can you go down and tell Charles to prep the engines for a testfire? I'll start setting for a course back to Java asap."
Jackie saluted idly and clamboured back down the hatch, and Encheta let out a slight grin as he turned back toward the main console once more. He knew Syana would yell at him for not completing the chart of this system, but frankly he just didn't care. All he wanted to do right now was get to that stations bar as soon as he could and forget about this whole ordeal forever.
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