Wayward

The Omen

        Alarms blared in Tib's ears as he looked around the flaming Core room. Tib couldn't remember what had happened, all he knew was that the fumes coming from the Trans-Luminal Core were going to kill him if he didn't escape soon. Time seemed to slow for Tib when he slammed the emergency protocol button and began to sprint towards the main lift. As he boarded the lift and pressed the button for the corridor hub he and Lark had been to earlier, he noticed that no one else was in the massive, sprawling deck. Tib thought for a second that maybe they had all gotten out as the shields shut and the lift started upwards. Anxiety filled Tib as he paced back and forth until the lift doors opened up to reveal the same emptiness in the corridor hub. "What?," Tib said to himself, as he now became even more confused and terrified as he looked through the massive windows again, only to see pure and utter darkness replacing the clustered solar system and planet the Ragnus was orbiting before. The darkness he saw was unlike anything Tib had seen before, as it was darker than the deep black hue of space. It seemed almost as though some evil had engulfed, or swallowed, the ship. As Tib stared deep into the foreboding darkness the door directly across from Tib, on the other side of the massive hub, opened, catching Tib's attention. Tib turned his gaze to the opening and was immediately caught off guard as the same darkness on the outside of the ship came pouring through the door almost like a mist. Tib began to move backwards as he realized there was a figure staring at him through the darkness. Tib's soul became cold as he stared back into the figures translucent white eyes. In a flash the figure was standing over Tib, towering over all of Tib's 5'10 frame. Tib couldn't help but to start to hyperventilate as he began to think that maybe he had finally met one of those demons his native grandmother had always warned him about. Just as Tib's breathing began to regain control , the figure began to talk in a voice that Tib's nightmares could only compare to all the souls of the damned screaming at once. "You Can't Escape Me," the figure said with steam pouring out past what seemed like rows of unending needle like teeth in a mouth that looked like it was bigger on the inside than it was out, "You Are All Going To Die Out Here, And I Will Personally See To You, Tiberius," the figure said with a sadistic smile forming around its open mouth. Tib screamed as the figure lunged towards him.

        "All personnel to your post immediately," shouted Admiral Maxwell over the intercom, awaking Tib, who was drenched in sweat. Tib was visibly shaken as he couldn't even recall going to sleep, and was still in uniform. There was a loud thud as Tib sprung up and exited his quarters while he called Lark on his comm. "Lark what's going on?," he said as he headed for the lift to begin his journey down to the Core. "Meet me at hangar bay two, Tib, one of the survey ships had an accident trying to land," Lark explained, "you might want to bring a EV suit, were going to have to repair a leaking plasma conduit on the ships hull." Tib's mind began to think back to his dream, "Was anyone hurt?" "No, not that I know of, but we have to get this conduit repaired if we want to keep anything from happening in the future," Lark answered. "On my way, Lark," Tib said as he switched the lifts destination to Deck 38.

        The doors on the lift opened as Tib walked quickly past them towards an EV station in front of the hangar. Tib's guess, from looking at the damage he could see through the viewports into the hangar and screens on the EV station showing the outer hull damage, was that a faulty gravity beam anchor had slammed the survey ship into the hull of the Ragnus above the hangar entrance. Tib retrieved a bulky and uncomfortable EV suit from the station and began to head into the hangar after having put it on, though leaving the helmet off. Tib had always hated these EV suits. Too large and bulky for his liking as he preferred the one that he had trained with at the Academy. As Tib entered the hangar he could see a red hue starting just outside the atmospheric barrier on the far side of the medium sized deck. The sight was almost mesmerizing with the black and gray deck panels, followed by cyan colored strip lights the length of the floor, all leading to the now vibrant red. Tib was trying to find Lark as he kept making his way through the almost endless rows of spacecraft, eventually bumping into a few marines standing beside a dropship. "Hey Ensign," Tib said as he checked the rank on the marines collar, "have you seen a engineer around here, about my height, kind of angry, and waiting for another engineer?" "Yeah, she's at the very end of the flight deck talking with one of the pilots," the space marine said. "Thanks, Ensign," Tib said as he continued on his journey. Tib had a lot of respect for the space marines, even some friends in the branch, but he also had noticed just how much they had changed. They had lost the grit and can-do attitude that had made them famous to begin with, which really bothered Tib. At this point Tib thought the Union was in a decline, not only in its power and ability to win wars, but it willingness and want to win and prosper. Its patriotism seemed to have vanished somewhere out here in the inky vantablack of the great unknown. It seemed as though the whole Union had become lazily and complacent with the universe as a whole. That didn't sit well with Tib, no, not at all. He loved his Union as much as his family did, but he just couldn't ignore what he was seeing. Tib pushed this out of his mind as he neared where the marine told him Lark was. His feelings on how the Union had changed did not matter right now, the only thing that mattered currently was to keep the Ragnus from hemorrhaging  slowly to death.  As he neared the end of his short journey his mind went back to his dream and what it could possibly mean. A whirlwind of frustration overtook him as he tried to lock down his mind into the professionalism and concentration to be able to do as tedious a job that he was about to undertake. Finally, after seemingly endless rows of spacecraft, he had reached the end and saw Lark. She was standing by a survey ship talking to one of the pilots, something Tib didn't bother getting into as his mind was preoccupied by his dream, emotions, and the situation at hand. As Tib got closer to the ship, he noticed that it had a Zephian phoenix painted on one of it back rudders, ironic to Tib, because that phoenix was noted for its vibrant red almost matching the same red pouring out above the hangar from the conduit. "Lark is there anyone here besides us going out there to fix our little problem?," Tib, said interrupting Lark and the pilot's conversation. "Yeah, Tib, I pulled a couple of the ensigns that had qualification but haven't done anything yet, figured we might as well get some of our greenies feet wet," Lark said with a little smirk. "Well call them to the airlock and let's get this over with," Tib said with his unusual irritation very clear in his voice. Lark was taken a back from this but nodded her head.