Ficlets

Beyond The Marked

Something… simply is there. Helmsman Gottlieb shielded his eyes from the immense whiteness. Overpowering and vast, snow and purity.

“Decrease fore view brightness 25%!” choked out the captain. All over the bridge, personnel chirped in choruses of excitement and dread.
“What’s going on?”
“How long were we out?”
“Where are we?”
“When are we?”
“Computer records show 59.4 seconds.” That was capable Gottlieb’s adenoidal voice. “No sign of control. No sign of anything.”

A slow 45-degree turn starboard yielded an anomaly. In Gottlieb’s words “a dense two-dimensional blackness.”

Science officer Truman’s interpretation of computer scans: “No life readings, no matter, it just appears to be a discoloration.” Other discolorations appear in the distance.

A slow spiral around the nearest field and CO Johnson, an longtime lover of the written word, utters under his breath. “Quotation marks. Massive quotation marks.”

The preliminary results of two days of journeying: “IS THAT ACTUALLY …. IT?”

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