Project J21
Why was she here? Why did this happen?
Alone.
Isolated.
Trapped. Why?
A 21-year-old should be out partying with friends, or going to work, or studying somewhere. A 21-year-old should not be living in a 6 by 5 metre containment cell in the middle of a space station.
Yeah, you read that right. Space. Mother-freaking outer space.
This isn't even one of those stories about a miraculous girl who, despite her young age, is super smart and works for NASA as an astronaut. No, Jess is here because she's the experiment – not the scientist. A lab rat in its cage.
She doesn't even get to know the people that study her, that's part of the experiment conditions. They wouldn't talk to her, just grab her, run some tests - probably take some blood samples – then just leave. Jess wasn't even allowed to know their names. She couldn't communicate with anyone; no messages leave the station. What family or friends could she even contact anyway? She didn't know if she had any.
More pointless thoughts of hoping for death started to surface in Jess' mind, but then the alarm started. Deafening drones playing over the speakers throughout the entire station. Red lights started flashing all around her. This wasn't one of their tests. Was the exterior of the station breeched? Or was there an oxygen leak? They had one of those last month, but it was fixed within a couple minutes.
Voices started shouting on the other side of her cell door, but Jess couldn't understand what they were saying. The banging of things crashing into each other sounded everywhere.
Jess felt it before she heard it.
Being thrown back till she hit the opposite wall, the rumble of the explosion thrumming against her ears. Did the generator explode? God, she hoped it wasn't the power core. More sirens started, some saying about crew members down in certain sectors, some about other system compromises.
The station was failing around her.
In front of her, the doors of her prison slid back of their own accord. The hallway in front of her had panels sparking, or pipes broken – one end of the passage was completely engulfed in flames. The place was in complete and utter meltdown.
Got to get out. Got to get out.
Launching herself off the wall and out into the hall, Jess used what handholds she could to pull herself along. With no gravity holding her down, Jess sped along, finding not a single member of crew to help her. At least none that were still alive.
She had to get herself out of here. Moving as quickly as she could, she ducked and weaved through the dangerous debris towards where she knew – or rather, hoped – the escape pods would still be.
Not a single one having been launched yet, Jess feared the worst for the rest of the station, but also now doubted her own chances. Throwing herself into the closest one, she slammed her hand down on the launch button as she felt the wave of another explosion hit.
...*...*...*...
Why was she here? Why did this happen?
Alone.
Isolated.
Trapped. Why?
A 21-year-old should be out partying with friends, or going to work, or studying somewhere. A 21-year-old should not be living in a 6 by 5 metre escape pod in the middle of unexplored space.
Yeah, you read that right. Space. Mother-freaking outer space.
__________
This little, snippet story was something short born out of a class writing exercise during one of my days at uni. It's not a story I personally look to continue and develop right now, but maybe one day Jess will be back and have her story fleshed out into something bigger. Otherwise, I'm content to just keep this a very short snippet story for fun.