A night at the disco
15 Mar 2021Takamoto
The place was noisy, and dark, and hot, maddeningly hot. I was surrounded by a multitude of sweaty bodies, huddled together, dancing and jumping to the beat, their gaze absent, their figure confused in the fog of the smoke machine. The deafening electronic music pounded my ears, with its repetitive and pressing rhythm, while the bass coming from the massive sound system boomed in my chest.I remember my friends talking to me, but I could barely understand what they were saying: all the people shouting, the music too loud, their voices too faint.
They seemed impatient, as if they were in a hurry, and kept nodding at the emergency exit sign. I thought they wanted to go home, but I came to meet other people and I wasn't ready to leave yet.
I was thirsty, bloody thirsty: I wanted a juice, or maybe a brandy on the rocks with an orange peel, but when I finally made to the bar, they didn't have any juice, there was no more ice and the brandy was gone too.
The DJ was calling everybody to the dance floor as the sound of the latest EDM hit blew from the speakers, then I was suddenly knocked to the ground by the crowd. Everything went dark and I passed out.
When I regained consciousness the crowd was gone. The music was now more repetitive and monotonous, like a warning siren, the red disco lights still flashing around me.
Only the DJ was left, speaking into the microphone, but I couldn't understand what he was saying: "attention", "damage", "attention", "temperature critical", ...
--
It all happened during the people evacuation from Lave Station. A routine flight, as I did many times before: reach the station, board the passengers, being careful to fill up every available seat, bring them to the rescue ship waiting a few megameters away, repeat.
That time I was already out of the hangar, just a couple of annoying alarms on but everything under control, and I was ready to leave the station. Due to a wrong maneuver I got too close to a damaged structure and, when it suddenly exploded, I lost consciousness. After I fainted I had this strange disco dream, but I was lucky enough that the cockpit voice assistant woke me up before the rising temperature could irreparably damage the ship.
Just a moment to figure out where I was and what had happened. I instinctively launched a heatsink, then regained control of the ship and maneuvered towards the airlock, the engine full speed ahead to get out of that hell as quickly as possible.
Ah, the freezing cold of space - there's no better thing when you've just risked your life in a burning starport.
If only I managed to find one last bottle of Lavian Brandy...