Ignorance.
18 Oct 2016Hersilia
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."- H.P. Lovecraft, 1928.The Indagator hung ungainly within the ice rings of a deep blue gas giant. Taking shelter in the shadow of a large bulbous asteroid. If one was to see the ship they would think of it as wreckage. The once matte green paint job was now blackened and scorched by the gunfire of the pirates that had wished her dead. Thick smoke bellowed from the heavily damaged engines concealing the ship nearly as well as the shadow from the asteroid, but it could also bring unwanted attention by a trained military eye. Hersilia rushed around inside the Indagator fixing broken systems as quickly as she could. A hand reached into a ragged pocket and pulled out a dirty cloth to wipe a sweat covered brow. The heat inside of the ship was rising, earlier the ship had been put into silent running. Closing the heat vents so not to give off any signature to other ships in the vicinity. It had to be done to avoid the pirates that quickly followed her one jump after the other. Finally she had made enough distance from them to be able to find a place to hide and go dark. The interior was filled with a flashing red light, it didn't help with the precise work which was needed to fix the correct systems. She squinted subconsciously as she tried to find the correct set of wires, her head was starting to hurt. Eventually the red flashing ceased. Hersilia let out a sigh of relief and blinked a few times to clear her eyes as she raised her face to the ceiling. All systems were working to the best of their ability. She shut her eyes and listened to them all quietly humming away. A smile of satisfaction spread over her face and she let herself fall into a relaxed sitting position on the cold metal floor.
She was exhausted, the past few days had been anguishing. Running constantly from a ferocious group of pirates who were hell-bent on having their revenge for the death of their boss. Being interdicted in every other system. It was a miracle she had managed to get this far, especially in the condition she was in. She let out a gasp of surprise as she leaned backwards to rest against the wall. It was cold compared to her body temperature, she had dis-guarded her robes shortly after setting the ship to go into silent running knowing that it was going to get very hot. Now she wore a black tank-top and for her legs she had tied parts of her robes into a skirt-like garment. Her gun holster was still positioned by the small of her back, she dare not remove it just in case that the nasal sounding man from before had found out where she was and wanted that 'talk'. The heat within the ship was starting to become unbearable. She pressed her metallic arm to her cheek.
"You could come in use for one thing at least..." she muttered as she tried her best to cool off against the cold metal. It didn't work. A groan of frustration as she tossed and turned, trying to stay as cool as possible. She stood up, blurry eyed from the heat and lack of liquid. She hadn't eaten anything or drank much since her departure from Daedalus. There had been no time after the pirate attack and she hadn't needed it before then. It was time to turn off silent running, she couldn't take it anymore. A step towards the main control panel caused her head to spin and an awful feeling rose in her gut causing her legs to give way, she fell hard.
The cold blanket of darkness enveloped her once again. Her pale skin shone like a beacon, beaming light as some sort of warning to others, not to come near. The light was, in part, obscured by her dark hair floating up and around her as if submerged in water. Eyes closed she hung lifelessly in nothing. The mechanical limb had gone but the ends of her remaining fingers and toes had started to go a light blue, the same occurred on her collar bone, ribs and hips. Her pale eyelids were stained with the same blueish tinge, the skin was also discoloured around her cheek bones and lips. The smell of searing hot metal and burning flesh reached her senses. With each slow, shallow breath more of the scent wafted into her nose. Suddenly a blast of air exited her nostrils as the scent triggered the neurons at the back of her nasal tract. Her electric full-blue eyes flashed open as she violently exhaled, spluttered and coughed. She instantly knew where she was and if it was possible she paled even more in the horror of the realisation.
"Could this be?" a thought crossed her mind. Witchspace. She had thought. It couldn't be. There was no way of getting here. There. She had heard rumors of people being dragged out of a hyper-space jump into Witchspace. No one ever came back, those who said that it had happened to them had been dismissed as liars and attention seekers, or just plain lunatics. Overall though, when someone had gone missing and the rumor of being dragged into Witchspace surfaced they weren't going to come back. Hersilias' heart rate picked up the pace as she thought over this. She needed to smoke. To relax. She shut her eyes again trying to wake up. Surely it was a dream. This isn't real. A deep droning reverberated around her, the hair on her body stood on end. Partially in curiosity, partially in fear. She could see nothing but darkness being shrouded by the glow from her own body. The droning changed into a grumbling, guttural and organic sound. A loud dripping or could it be a slopping joined the almost life-like wails and calls. She reached for her gun instinctively. Nothing. Her fingers grasped at nothing. Her heart picked up again along with her breathing. Shorter and faster breaths now. She had to think. The low grumbling came closer along with the abhorrent wet slapping the chittering of chitin rubbing together, the scuttling of a million legs, the voices a million beings, screaming in pleasure and agony. Hersilias' brow furled in pain, it was all becoming too much. Her own voice had joined the screaming, howling cacophony. Burning lava swam through her nervous system, each synapse in her mind flared all at once, each pain receptor burst. The voices swarmed and molded around her brain. Dark black cracks slowly started to form within the pure electric oceans that were her eyes. Her voice now sounded above all others. Shrieking as the burning pain had reached her sight. She covered both of her eyes with her remaining hand hoping that somehow this would make the pain disappear. No relief was given. She took her hand away and lifted her head upwards screaming as the final pieces of blue within her eyes streamed out in her tears as if it were mascara. She blinked instinctively to try and stop the burn. As she opened her eyelids once more, her once gorgeous blue eyes that everyone said were so pretty were now lakes of pure darkness.