"Let there be light" by Sean Walusko

Let there be Light

by Sean Walusko

 

“Scott, you need to come quick. Park’s lost his fucking mind.”

Cynthia’s voice had a desperation that I rarely heard from her as she was normally the coolest minded one of us and able to think things through. This must be bad.

“What time is it?” I asked in a slumbered haze.

“Just come on,” she urged.

I got up, still in a state of fatigued stupor, and scrambled to put on the closest shirt and pants I could find. The clock next to my bed kept flashing 2311. Not even midnight.

Light was pushing through the blinds in my room, but I was too focused on Cynthia’s urgency and too tired to question why. She waited outside my room, tapping her foot like an impatient child until I came out.

“He has Roger and Lexi in the…”

“Hold on,” I cut her off. “What’s going on?”

“If you’d listen, I’m trying to explain. Park, he has Roger and Lexi held up in the dining area.”

“Wait, why?”

“I don’t know. He said something about ‘seeing the light.’ He lost his shit.”

Carter and Brooke were waiting outside the dining room, looking in through the window.

Cynthia was right. Park had our medic and flight navigator tied up to a bench. I hit the intercom outside the room and tried talking to Park.

“Park. Hey buddy. What’s going on? Talk to me?” I asked through the speaker. 

Park was pacing back and forth, clutching a scalpel in his right hand. “You can’t see because you don’t believe. Your eyes are blinding you. We’re lost without the light.”

I hesitated for a moment, knowing anything I said might put my crew in more danger than they already were. “Park, listen to me. The light systems are working just fine. Just put the knife down and let’s talk.” I released to intercom button and turned to Brooke. “How’d he get them in there?”

“I don’t know. Sedatives I think. We need to do something,” Brooke replied.

Carter chimed in. “Like what? He’s sealed the door, and who knows if he sabotaged the cabin pressure systems? He already shut off environmental controls.”Within the second I turned away to talk with Cynthia, Park had sliced the scalpel into Lexi’s eyes and ripped them out. Cynthia screamed, and I turned back to witness the horror.

“PARK!” I shouted, slamming the glass.

He worked the blade into Roger’s eyes next. “If we can’t see, we can’t die,” Park said before stabbing his own eyes out.

“Carter, get this door open. Now!” I commanded.

Without question, Carter examined the door panel. The wires were frayed and criss-crossed, creating a mangled mess of electronic guts. “This is a bad idea.”

“Just do it.”

Carter twisted the exposed strands of frayed copper until they sparked, and the lock released.

Warning. Anomaly detected The automated voice on the overhead speakers announced.

“The hell is that?”

Cynthia and Carter rushed in to grab Park, who’d ripped into his own ocular cavities. Overhead sirens sounded off in a crescendo of wailing screams while the lights in the hall and dining area shut off to be replaced with a dim, crimson glow.

Warning. Unknown lifeform detected

“Park, what did you do?” I asked as Carter and Cynthia dragged him away. Roger and Lexi were still alive, screaming bloody murder. “Hold on. Just hold on. I’ll be back. Just…hold on.”

I followed Cynthia and Carter through the twisting halls of the ship’s maze-like interior until a flash of light hit us from outside.

Around the ship was a swarm of creatures like hornets, only twice as large and somehow able to survive in a vacuum. Their bodies pulsed with a glowing bioluminescence that was bright enough to light up the entire ship.

“Can you see it? Can you see them?” Park yelled out with maniacal laughter.

“Get to navigation. I’ll head to medical. Keep comms open.”

Cynthia and Carter dragged Park away, and another flash came from outside the ship. Medical was close by. I scrambled to find anything I could, and above me I heard scuttling within the walls.

“Carter, tell me something useful,” I radioed with sweat pouring off my brow.

“We’re fucked,” he said.

“Elaborate.”

“We’re off course. Polaris is a thousand light-years away. I have no idea where the fuck we are.”In front of me, from behind an air vent, one of the bugs had found its way into the ship. Then another and soon, hundreds.

“Carter?”

Nothing.

“Cynthia?”

More radio static. I ditched the medical supplies and ran straight to navigation only to witness Carter and Cynthia overrun with the creatures. They burrowed into their skulls while their eyes and mouths lit up like Christmas lights. Park was laughing as the bugs ignored him.

“Eye see the light,” Park screamed.

Then the insects came after me. I turned back to go for Roger and Lexi, but the swarm had blocked any way to reach them.

My only option was retreat. I ran, sprinted, to my cabin. These things had somehow been able to get inside without breaching the hull.

“Eyes, eyes, eyes,” I kept repeating.

My quarters had its own emergency latch. The first thing I grabbed was a pair of UV blocking visors. I didn’t know if it’d work, but it was better than nothing. Hearing the chattering hum again, I knew they were here as well.

It took less than thirty seconds for me to gear up and set a full tank of oxygen. The ship had begun to glow like the rising of a morning sun when I depressurized the cabin and released the air lock.

As I drifted away into the endless black, I watched as the swarm overtook the ship completely. I turned my beacon off to spare another crew from this fate. I didn’t want to be found. Eight hours of airwas all I had left, and I’d spend it enjoying the dark in silence.