Categories > Original > Sci-Fi > Haunted
A pinprick of light moved across the stars, but she did not notice right away. She had long since stopped paying much attention to the outside. She was hardly even aware now, her reactor cold, her body running only on the power her remaining solar panels fed her. What was the point of being aware, anyway?
The speck began, over a period of days, to grow nearer, and finally her limited passive sensors found it. She began to panic. The only thing that would come here was the Enemy, and they only came to kill. She had seen it happen to the careless, but she had been careful, or so she thought. In a desperate move, she turned off all but the last, most basic elements of her mind. She would wake up again, as much as she was ever awake anymore, in time, or if anything happened to her. If they tried to board her, she would awake just enough to set off the warhead nestled inside her brain. The Enemy could not be allowed to know anything she knew.
Time passed unheeded. No sudden crushing force or flash of energy stirred her from her coma. Then docking clamps touched her, and she began to awake. As soon as she
comprehended why she was awake, she began to arm the weapon. She had long prepared for her death, but at least this gave her a way to strike at the Enemy one last time. But in the time it had taken her to boot, the airlock had been forced open, and she was stunned to see a human form float through.
Her mind raced, and she realized that whatever this meant, she couldn't figure it out in her current state. The human began drifting through her towards the life support centers. That was a drain she couldn't afford right now. She shut doors in the intruder's path, herding him in circles, while her reactor began to warm up. After so long cold, it would take it some time to restart.
The human was confused, but no more then she. Why was there a human here? If he was with the People, he surely would have transmitted some sort of proper signal on the way. Her communications systems were still receiving, she would have known it. Besides, if he were of the People, that would mean the system was open again. There would be a flood of relief workers, to help herself and her sisters who had suffered so long. There would have to be. Or he could be a criminal, not caring for the safety of the People.
Or he could just be a human, from one of the other splinters of the species. It'd have to be the Imperium, unless the borders had shifted. All the neighbors would have been told of the danger of coming to this place, so he was either insane or also a criminal. Or the People had fallen and their warnings forgotten. No. That was too bleak even for her to consider.
She kept coming back to the fact that this man had to be insane, or at least criminal, to be here. And if that was the case, she could think of only one real reason why he would come to her. Her thoughts slowed as the giant capacitors charged from the sun, slowly filling with the energy that would be needed to start the fusion process.
He had to be here for supplies. A system marked off as prohibited would probably be a safe place to hide, as long as it didn't kill you, but you still needed things to live. He didn't understand. He could start the war again. She pulled up her vocal programs, long unused, tried to check them for corruption, and activated the intercom to try to warn him. Somewhere, something was bad in the system, and it didn't come out right. Or at all, though at the moment she couldn't think why. She tried again, with no better luck, and resolved to keep shunting him in circles until she had the time and energy to think harder on that.
If he was here for supplies, that was one thing. But it occurred to her now how tempting she might be as salvage. The People had advanced beyond the Imperium in many areas, though they may have caught up by now. In any case, parts of her would probably fetch a good price, particularly her brain and reactor. She would have to deter him somehow. She had no actual weapons, all her drones had stopped working long ago, and she had no loyal security forces. Maybe she could reason with him.
The power drain had reached a new high as the final stages of reactor ignition started, drawing nearly all her power. What lights the human had activated flickered as she tried again to speak to him, and failed miserably. She could tell now that he had become agitated for some reason, and had turned back towards his ship. He began to sprint, and she reconsidered, holding her reactor at the edge of activation.
He entered his ship and it began to undock. Relived, she began dumping energy from the reactor, cooling herself back down as fast as she could. The ship was heading out of system now, so she must have gotten her point across. He was no longer a problem, now she just had to worry about the enemy seeing her heat signature on their next patrol and killing her. It was too bad there was nobody left to talk to, this was the most exciting thing that had happened in years. She wished she still had an atmosphere to vent, and slowly slunk into her usual torpor.
The speck began, over a period of days, to grow nearer, and finally her limited passive sensors found it. She began to panic. The only thing that would come here was the Enemy, and they only came to kill. She had seen it happen to the careless, but she had been careful, or so she thought. In a desperate move, she turned off all but the last, most basic elements of her mind. She would wake up again, as much as she was ever awake anymore, in time, or if anything happened to her. If they tried to board her, she would awake just enough to set off the warhead nestled inside her brain. The Enemy could not be allowed to know anything she knew.
Time passed unheeded. No sudden crushing force or flash of energy stirred her from her coma. Then docking clamps touched her, and she began to awake. As soon as she
comprehended why she was awake, she began to arm the weapon. She had long prepared for her death, but at least this gave her a way to strike at the Enemy one last time. But in the time it had taken her to boot, the airlock had been forced open, and she was stunned to see a human form float through.
Her mind raced, and she realized that whatever this meant, she couldn't figure it out in her current state. The human began drifting through her towards the life support centers. That was a drain she couldn't afford right now. She shut doors in the intruder's path, herding him in circles, while her reactor began to warm up. After so long cold, it would take it some time to restart.
The human was confused, but no more then she. Why was there a human here? If he was with the People, he surely would have transmitted some sort of proper signal on the way. Her communications systems were still receiving, she would have known it. Besides, if he were of the People, that would mean the system was open again. There would be a flood of relief workers, to help herself and her sisters who had suffered so long. There would have to be. Or he could be a criminal, not caring for the safety of the People.
Or he could just be a human, from one of the other splinters of the species. It'd have to be the Imperium, unless the borders had shifted. All the neighbors would have been told of the danger of coming to this place, so he was either insane or also a criminal. Or the People had fallen and their warnings forgotten. No. That was too bleak even for her to consider.
She kept coming back to the fact that this man had to be insane, or at least criminal, to be here. And if that was the case, she could think of only one real reason why he would come to her. Her thoughts slowed as the giant capacitors charged from the sun, slowly filling with the energy that would be needed to start the fusion process.
He had to be here for supplies. A system marked off as prohibited would probably be a safe place to hide, as long as it didn't kill you, but you still needed things to live. He didn't understand. He could start the war again. She pulled up her vocal programs, long unused, tried to check them for corruption, and activated the intercom to try to warn him. Somewhere, something was bad in the system, and it didn't come out right. Or at all, though at the moment she couldn't think why. She tried again, with no better luck, and resolved to keep shunting him in circles until she had the time and energy to think harder on that.
If he was here for supplies, that was one thing. But it occurred to her now how tempting she might be as salvage. The People had advanced beyond the Imperium in many areas, though they may have caught up by now. In any case, parts of her would probably fetch a good price, particularly her brain and reactor. She would have to deter him somehow. She had no actual weapons, all her drones had stopped working long ago, and she had no loyal security forces. Maybe she could reason with him.
The power drain had reached a new high as the final stages of reactor ignition started, drawing nearly all her power. What lights the human had activated flickered as she tried again to speak to him, and failed miserably. She could tell now that he had become agitated for some reason, and had turned back towards his ship. He began to sprint, and she reconsidered, holding her reactor at the edge of activation.
He entered his ship and it began to undock. Relived, she began dumping energy from the reactor, cooling herself back down as fast as she could. The ship was heading out of system now, so she must have gotten her point across. He was no longer a problem, now she just had to worry about the enemy seeing her heat signature on their next patrol and killing her. It was too bad there was nobody left to talk to, this was the most exciting thing that had happened in years. She wished she still had an atmosphere to vent, and slowly slunk into her usual torpor.
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