Thursday, February 25, 2010

Cryo-psychosis

{[Overgrown 101, unaffiliated with Riftworlds. Maybe I'll do a boring sci-fi horror series of shorts such as this?]}
'Life' (if it could be defined as such) aboard the Starsheen-Cruiser-263 was dull, monotonous, and often boring.
Daree, the single living being, and, consequently, the ship's only janitor was playing with the head of her broom when the siren went off.
The air was unusually cold that estimated morning, and Daree had previously mused on the subject as she babbled to no one in particular- a cryoleak?
She responded to the screaming klaxons in a very candid manner, skipping down the hallway of large blue panes, the only separation between her and the freeze-packed forms of her ancestors. 59 years past, 41 to go, and the voyage would be completed with 100 newly awakened humans and one janitor who was no quite capable of aging.
Or so she had thought. The problem that changed her fate was advertised in immensely contented orange letters that appeared above the archway to the second hallway of cryocaskets.
Leak. Casket C-24.
C-Confined. 24 was the serial number. As she stood before the lightly hissing casket, she flipped through her guidebook until she found the classification. C-Confined, Serial Code 20-30: Convict. Serial Code 24-
she scaled down the page until her finger came to rest on the text below the equally contented orange number.
24- Psychotic, shipped for future brain research: quickly awakened due to delicate brain conditioning. Warning: In the event of a leak, any awakened individuals are instructed to lock themselves in the upper chambers and wait remaining years for law-enforcing personnel to awaken.
Daree glanced upwards just in time to witness the unusually small form fall from the opening casket, arm outstretched. The hands wrapped around Daree's shoulders, and the small but surprisingly motivated form pinned Daree to the cold metal ground.
Big white smile, big dark eyes.
Daree's familiar delusions dissolved at the site of another being, and in the darkness of the ship, the awakened being's breathing disturbed Daree.
She found herself even more disturbed as the tiny-framed woman seized a shard of glass, bent her head down to Daree's ear and whispered a simple, yet chilling phrase.
"Time to play."

5 comments:

  1. love this. it's like classic you, aka predictably brilliantly unpredictable.

    i'm also freaked.

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  2. Psychotic serial killers IN SPACE.
    Agree with Dan completely -- it reads so very much like you. You managed to make it be brilliantly chilling without being like "OMFG BE SCARED GUYZ!"
    Love.
    Write more.
    (Kierstin, that's not a real comment >.> )

    ReplyDelete
  3. AUGH I'M SO CREEPED OUT RIGHT NOW.

    Mission accomplished, Strudles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DISTURBING.
    Really suspenseful and brilliant, but I think I'm gonna go find my happy place.

    ReplyDelete