Messages in the Dark

Wednesday has come around again and I’m happy to present this week’s flash fiction.

The low buzz of voices pulled at Ryan, both dragging and shoving him deeper into the station section. As we turned a final corner, doors stood open more than midway down the corridor. I swore time dilated, because suddenly I stood looking at the team working within. Security, medical, all the usual suspects.

Plus one downed data clerk still sprawled over his desk. Ship crew Draften. Who attacked a clerk whose soul duty was updating the file directory with information blasts from Earth?

Medic Sterling was the first to spot me, her head turning impossibly slow to note me in the doorway. Straightening she walked over to me and shook her head. “The same as the rest. Brain activity just terminated. However, this time the victim tried to write something as he died.” Holding up her pad she showed me the display. “And then in the dark he comes”

I took the pad and scowled at the message. “He comes?”

Sterling shrugged. “Fits in with the voice record crew Trelling was recording though.” Her eyes grew distant before she recited “For from void is void.”

I grunted. “Almost like a campy sci-fi novel,” I said. The data record before the message only showed information processing normal for a data clerk. “Only, I find it less amusing when it’s six of my crew dead.” Handing the pad back to her I scowled. “Chase that interference before anymore die.”

Sterling nodded. I wished there’d been hope in that movement.

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