2

She clenched her fists and swung her arms, they were everywhere, in the air fluttering about her head, crawling on her, on her Stasis chamber, they were all over everything. Thousands of them, like moths only larger – about the size of a fist, but what disturbed her the most was their faces, they looked almost human but with red eyes, small red, nasty looking eyes. These creatures weren't in anyway graceful, their wings were far too big for their bodies which made them fly about in the most peculiar of ways and their limbs were grotesque, spindly little appendages, spiked at the joints and ending in strange looking pincers. They were nasty to behold but didn't seem hostile towards her, but she couldn't bear to be within their swarm. For each one she hit, or crushed with her fist ten more would take their place. She was terrified, tears were streaming down her face, she tried to scream out but couldn't and even if she could the almost deafening 'buzzing' sound they made would probably drown her out. She crawled out from her Stasis chamber, batting wildly with her fists all the while, she slipped and crashed to the floor; hitting her head hard. The last thing she remembered was watching those strange insect-like beasts circling overhead.

Hours could of passed when she finally came to. Her head was pounding, she lifted her hand to her forehead and winced as it brushed against a quite sizeable bump. She felt moisture on her finger tips, she had been bleeding. She slowly sat up and rested herself against the side of the Stasis chamber. The room she was in was silent, nothing moved. She remembered the strange insects that had swarmed all over her. Where were they? There had been thousands of them. She was sat facing the wall so tried to get herself to her feet so she could see the rest of the room. She was overcome with dizziness as soon as she stood up and immediately let herself slide back down the side of the chamber. She slowly got on all fours and crawled out from behind the chamber. The room was small, perhaps four meters each way, with enough room for two Stasis chambers, a computer terminal sat on a desk and two lockers. A door was set into the wall opposite her chamber. A red light on the ceiling above her would intermittently switch off and on, but the room was small enough to be reasonably illuminated. She slowly tried to raise herself up again, this time the dizziness, although quite severe, didn't make her fall back down, she leant against the Stasis chamber for sometime.

“OK.” She said to herself,

“You have been in Stasis, probably for sometime. Those creatures you saw earlier were just hallucinations brought on by long hyper-sleep.” She pondered what she had just told herself for a few moments.

“The emergency lighting seems to be on, clearly there is a power related problem here.” She stopped talking to herself and stood against the Stasis chamber in silence.

“OK, here’s what we are going to do. First, get clothes from your locker. Second, try and remember how to get to the medical deck and get your head looked at. Lastly, find out what has been going on.”

She slowly crossed the room to the lockers, her bare feet were frozen on the floor, in fact the whole place seemed a lot colder than it should. She opened both lockers and looked inside, both contained woman’s clothing, yet she couldn't remember which was hers. Neither lockers nor Stasis chambers were numbered or signed in any way. She put on the clothes which looked right and slowly walked back to the chamber, each step she took felt like her head was splitting open. She had vague memories of what to do when awakening from hyper-sleep, the first she had already done, calm yourself and talk reasonably about what you are going to do next, don't let panic and fear take over. Also rehydrating was important, she remembered the compartment fitted to all Stasis chambers, opened it and took the water and nutrients drink from within. She drank them all, screamed aloud at the sudden stomach cramps and slid back down onto the floor, clutching herself as her body was wracked in pain.

Eventually the pain started to subside, she pulled herself back up, perhaps a little too quick considering the head injury she had already sustained and nearly passed out. She stood against the chamber, waiting for the light headedness to pass. Slowly she walked towards the door, it slid open In a jerky fashion.

“Power really has become an issue.” She said to herself.

She walked out of the room into a narrow corridor, the emergency lighting wasn't as effective out here, both ways the corridor looked dark and gloomy. The red light made for a sinister scene. She couldn't remember which way the medical deck was, so just walked, hoping that something would trigger her memories.

She couldn't remember anything before going into Stasis sleep, nothing substantial anyway. Her life was a blur, she knew she was serving on a large ship and she new how to behave once out of Stasis. As for everything else she had no idea, did she have family? Friends? What was her role aboard this ship? She couldn't even remember her own name. She was more than aware that this was a temporary side effect of Stasis, but it kept a small level of panic bubbling, just below the surface.

She reached the end of the corridor, doors stood to her left and right, both of which were named 'Hyper-sleep Lounge 5' and “Hyper-sleep Lounge 6'. She approached number 5, the door slid open, smoothly but slowly. Inside the room was black, no lighting at all was on in this room. She couldn't see how many Stasis chambers were in here, but the few she could see all displayed a red light.

“Empty.” She said as she turned to room 6.

The door to room six wouldn't open at first, she could hear the hydraulics in the door trying to work, but they just weren't getting enough power. She grabbed the edge of the door as best she could and pulled, the door started to open slightly. She pulled until there was a gap big enough to squeeze through. Unlike room Five, this room was lit, albeit with red light, but lit none the less. This room was large, big enough for at least twenty Stasis chambers. Most of the chambers had the red light on them, signifying an empty 'bed', but one of them had a green light, she walked over to the chamber and peered in through the glass window. A man was inside, she guessed he was in his sixties, with grey hair and a grey unkempt beard. He looked in good health. She considered starting the 'waking procedure', but decided against it. At least not until she had found out what was going on. There was a computer terminal on the far wall, the screen was flickering on and off which made it difficult to read. The computer currently had a plan of the room she stood in on screen, she could see the occupied chamber, she selected it. After a brief pause, static rained across the screen, threatened to switch itself off then stabilised again. The new screen brought up the chambers current occupier, a man by the name of Edward Burnly followed by his identification number. She didn't have high enough authorisation clearance to see anything else about him, but at least she had a name. It was at that moment she turned away from the computer,

“Stupid bitch!” She said to herself smiling,

She walked out of the room back into the corridor,

“Why didn't I check the damn terminal in my own room?!”

Halfway back down the corridor she stopped dead.

What was that?

Her heart began to beat just a little bit faster as she stood in silence in the corridor, she could hear something, like footsteps and not very far away, slowly coming down the corridor towards her.

She could feel panic beginning to rise, someone was here in the gloom with her and for some reason it was really starting to scare her. The room back to her Stasis chamber was about twenty foot in front of her, she could be there in seconds, yet something was freezing her to the spot. Her rational mind kicked in,

“Don't be stupid now, you told yourself earlier about hallucinations, a normal symptom of hyper-sleep. It doesn't always have to be visual, sometimes audible hallucinations are just as common.” It said to her.

But she couldn't or wouldn't listen, something about this whole experience was very real, not any sort of hallucination, and she knew the longer she stood here the more vulnerable she was.

Panic streaked through her.

Move!

And with that her legs started to move, her heart was racing and as she got to the door she turned and glanced up the corridor. She saw something in the shadows, something moving, no more than twenty foot in front of her. She dived through. The door didn't close behind her, she didn't have time to try and force it closed, panicking she threw herself across the room and ducked down behind her Stasis chamber. She closed her eyes.

The footsteps stopped, from the sound of it, right outside the open door; and then silence. She waited for what seemed an eternity, the room was filled with the sound of her own heartbeat.

She had imagined it, she must of done, there was no one here apart from herself. With that she plucked up the courage to look around the corner of the Stasis chamber, before she had barely moved the footsteps began again. Whoever it was, was coming into the room.

The footsteps sounded strange, more of a drag than a step and less than ten feet away from her. She could barely contain her fear.

Her rational mind spoke up again,

“It's not real, get up and have a look, nothing is there!” It screamed at her.

She opened her eyes, the room seemed darker than it should, darker than it was before. The footsteps had stopped right next to her, her heart was almost beating through her chest, she was on the verge of complete panic. She started to turn her head.

“Hello.” A voice called out.

“Hello, is anybody there?” It shouted.

It sounded close, further up the corridor.

She could sense eyes on her, eyes staring at her. As though something was just inches from her face, just staring.

She was cold, so very cold. She felt dizzy and nauseous.

“I need help!” The distant voice shouted.

Something was touching her shoulder, cold and wet.

“Anyone?” The distant voice shouted, as her mind gave into the peacefulness of unconsciousness.