Taking SPACE

SHIPWRECKED

Michael slowly recovered from the jarring yank against the straps that held him. "C...cough..." He drew a deep breath and tried to talk again. "Is... Is everyone okay?"

There was a few moments of silence, then to his relief, the others answered one by one, all except for Daniel.

"Dan, you all right?"

Daniel answered. His voice raw with emotion, "I'm sorry guys... I...I... I almost got us all killed! I'm... I'm so sorry."

Everyone was quiet.

At last Stephanie spoke up. "It's fine. We are all alive and well. That's what matters."

Steven produced a green fluorescent light as he unstrapped. "We're not out of this yet. Thanks to the particle beam and missiles this makeshift cave will be warm for some time." He wiped his forehead. "A tad too warm. And I'm sure I can get some power to the rebreathers but if I had to bet I'd say this ship is shot."

"What about the smugglers or whoever that ship belongs to?" Daniel asked anxiously.

Catherine unstrapped and let herself float around the room towards Daniel. "From the ancient signals I read, everything seemed automated. I don't think anyone is coming to check on what happened to us."

Daniel unstrapped and caught her. She leaned against him, and he gently began to massage the giant welts the straps had left on her. "I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"Maybe, but someone may have been watching." Stephanie said worriedly.

Steven shook his head. "Doubtful from what I'd seen I'd say that ship has been there for hundreds of years without anyone ever knowing it."

Michael nodded. "So for now, our biggest problems are those gun emplacements, and water and food."

"Just water and food. Our ship is dead and destroyed according to their sensors, so those killer asteroids will most likely just power down becoming indistinguishable from the other asteroids like before." Steven said, as he pushed himself to the doorway and touched the door pad. Nothing happened.

Mike unstrapped and glided over. Together they pulled the door back.

"So now what?"

"I get the rebreather back on before we suffocate then we try to figure a way out of this mess." Steven said.

Michael and Steven walked through the doorway, plunging the cockpit into darkness.

Stephanie unstrapped and felt along the bottom of her counsel.

"I... I just don't get it!" Daniel said.

Catherine looked up at him in the dark, trying to see his face. "Don't get what?"

"Why were there so many of them and... and why were they outside of the cloud. You think they'd be surrounding what they're protecting, not forty five K GSU out from it!"

"They were in the cloud, in fact, they were everywhere!" Steph exclaimed, as she found what she was looking for and pulled it out.

"What do you mean they were everywhere?"

"Exactly what I said. The radar showed thousands of the things. They were literally everywhere in the cloud, out of the cloud, around that giant ship. Heck, there was even some floating around randomly in the asteroid field behind us. Don't know if you noticed or not, but your small drone was obliterated before you even had taken back control of the ship."

Stephanie flipped the switch on the object she had pulled out, and the room was lit dimly with a golden light, revealing the jaw-slacking, dumbfounded look on Daniel's face. "How... How could there have been that many?"