Fire

Posted on Sunday, 19 April 2020 - 5:30pm by Lieutenant Alex Kingsley

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Location: Shuttle 1, Dark Nebula
Timeline: Current

Somewhere, someone was crying.

Reaching out, Alex paused the music and listened. All in her room was quiet, with just her books, terminal and workstation for company. And beyond that? Nothing. Wondering if the hours spent on her presentation was playing tricks on her. Maybe she should have gone with her mother to the parade. Outside her neat and orderly room, her mother had prepared enough food for a small army. In a few hours half of the street would come together. It would be loud, it would be mad. It would fun.

It would be distracting.

Yet later, after his shift at the shipyard was over, her father would call and they’d finish planning. Just five more days and he’d be on a rare few days of leave.

So she wanted to finish this - she frowned, glancing down at her meticulous notes. Only now they were adorned with sketches. Over and over, until most of the page was hidden.

“Wormholes?” Confused she stared at the page. Why? Her project was on molecular biology, not astrophysics. Before she could worry too much - although fear did stab at her at the idea of losing her notes - the crying came back. No, not just crying. Wailing. Saving her work she stood, only now realising the sunlight filtering through the curtain was an odd hue. Red or dark orange maybe...

Curious she moved to the window, pulling back the curtain and her eyes going wide. Impossible! The normal grey clouds were gone, replaced by a wall of fire which seemed to ripple through the sky. Consuming everything. In horror she watched the wall of fire, watched it consume buildings and people as it came towards her.

Strong hands rested on her shoulder as her father stood behind her. “Happy First Contact Day, princess.”

“But you are on Mars,” she began, turning. Horrified she looked up, a scream dying on her lips as she truly saw him now. His features burned beyond recognition, his body seeming to burn while she could only watch. And then the fire came for her too...

OFF