“It was black and dotted with tiny speckles and flakes of white.”


It had always looked that way. It had looked that way during the time of the first man, it had looked that way before the first man, and it will look the same after the last man. The quote ran through Harold's mind on what seemed to be every morning. The quote was given personally to him when he signed up for his first day of Transcorp. The way the Captain had said it could change people, then again the captain was a very charismatic man. Harold could never be like that, he moved his fingers through his short black hair but they began to gravitate to his face soon after. He grabbed a cup of steamy coffee and began to slurp it like a child. He tapped his fingers rapidly on the touch-pad on his door, it quickly opened and he walked out into the large monochrome corridors soon he reached the movers deck, this was the facility where the laborers would move the crates to the loading dock. They would then be catalogued, This was Harold's job, and then eventually be moved to unloading dock. Harold walked up the thin metal steps to his office. His office was a small room it had large glass windows which aloud him to see the dock below. Although the windows aloud him to see the dock they blocked out the sound of the beeping and screeching machines below.


He sat down at his desk and began to quickly tap his fingers on the keypad, He began to fall into that rhythmic motion he knew all too well. As he worked he slowly got distracted he began to look at the master clock outside hi office in the loading dock. It said Tuesday, December 3, 2196, 12:34:27. As he stared at the clock his mind began to wander he found himself in a nice daydream. He was on Earth back with his wife his two sons and his daughter. They were on the beach, the sun was shining. His boys were building sandcastles and his daughter was swimming.



Suddenly, reality came back to him it was now 12:51 he now began to get back to work Cataloging item 3426, which was a set of computer parts, He now had only 307 more items to go. A few minutes later he stopped again this time he was staring perplexed by the image on his screen he stared a few moments and realized the odd thing he was looking for it lie on the list between item 3507 and 3509. The object was in fact nothing it wasn’t even listed the thing he was looking for was in fact just a blank area. This fascinated him so he decided to call his manager. He pressed a small red button and began to talk he told the manager how the shipment was missing. The manager informed him that it would looked into soon. Later that evening after work he went home and thought, he thought about the crate and it’s contents, he thought so hard that he could not stop thinking about the crate and what was inside. Eventually he planned to look inside the next night. The next day he went to work as he normally would, but when he arrived at his office this time sitting in his chair was the manager himself, he informed Harold in person that what had happened yesterday was a computer error and that someone in the listing department must have made a mistake. As the manager was walking out he stopped, he hesitated a moment, then he handed Harold a pen. The pen was chrome and had the Transcorp. symbol on it. On his way out he filled out a report on his day only to find that the pen was out of ink. After going home he decided to go to bed early today because he would be leaving later he set his clock to wake him up at about 1:30.

At 1:30 his alarm clock awoke him with a discreet buzz. He got out of bed and began to sneak down the hall when he finally reached the deck he faced an unexpected problem, the main door was locked, the door could not be opened unless he held a laborers card for the deck. But he decided that this wouldn't stop him and he went to his own office door and opened it. Now in his office he could break the glass and jump into the deck below. At first he hesitated but then his curiosity got the best of him he picked up his miniature filing cabinet and smashed it through the glass. He jumped through the window and onto the floor his feet fell and the glass crunched. He walked through the rows of shelves and traced the sides of boxes. He counted them until he found what he was looking for but again it was nothing. Maybe they were telling the truth he thought to himself. But suddenly he saw a light flicker at the end of the row, Harold stayed perfectly still thinking they noticed him. But they continued walking on. He looked through the gaps between the large wooden crates that separated him from his antagonist. Harold could not see the shadowy figure carrying the box but could see the numbers painted on the crate as it passed by, 3-5-0-8, Harold's eyes widened in amazement that he had been right, He slowly crept behind the men carrying the crate. Until he found cover behind a crate he peeked over and saw the men next to a wall, they pulled off a panel and pulled a lever that was behind it, it caused the wall to open and they walked into the huge room that was hidden in the ship.


Harold was astonished by the vast amount of extra room the ship had, he figured most of the ships space was filled with the engine room. As the two men left Harold overheard them speaking, too his surprise he recognized one of the voices, it was the captain. Harold waited for them to leave and when they did he dashed from his cover and pulled down the same panel and opened the door. Inside it was amazing, this room had better lighting and tileing than every other part of the ship the crates were also metal. Harold rushed over to the box to check what was inside, he unhinged it, and to his surprise it was another box. It was small and seemed to be hollow but it kind of buzzed inside the box itself fit inside his pocket and so he stuck it there. It was then that it occurred to him that the crates in this room were all the same, this made him curious, so he opened one. On the he was then horrified at the contents of the crate, he could only make out a bit of the frozen body but if there was one thing that stuck out most it was the face. Harold slammed the top down and began to breathe heavily. It took him a moment to truly realize the horror and then he ran out of the room.


But in his escape he was stopped by his own fear and victim to fast fall. When he woke up he was dizzy he found himself bound to a leather chair facing a silhouette of a man back-lit by a thousand lights shining through a dark drape. When his vision became clear he found himself face to face with his tormentor. The eyes that could see into his soul were on him once more and in his calming voice he said

“Harold Let me tell you a story.” Harold looked into the captains eyes in an attempt to counter there piercing gaze.

“Ok then tell me whats going on in that room!” said harold

“First I have to ask what you know.” said the captain

“I was look-erm I mean wandering around the deck trying to find the pen the manager gave me.” said harold

“oh really then,” the captain said while looking at his computer “then why is it in your pocket?”

“Huh, how did you know that?” Said Harold.

“Honestly, you did know we were watching you right?” mocked the captain.

“Why would you do that?” Said Harold

“Because You saw th- never mind.” said the captain angrily

“What are you doing with those bodies!” yelled Harold

“Don’t worry, there more than just bodies, there people.” He said calmly

“Still what are you doing with them!” Harold yelled louder.

The captain went to his desk and pulled out a large syringe, he waved it in front of Harold's face and said “Those bodies are part of our study Harold.”

“What study, why do you need them!” Harold struggled

“Well it appears I’ve told you enough so I’ll just explain the rest”

Harold slumped down in the chair and listened. “You see for many ages man has searched for purpose and we believe we have found the key to finding this secret. It is a known fact that every day galaxy's move apart from each other, and that they are speeding up everyday. Now we believe we have found away to make that stop and actually reverse it, because you see this box, it may be our purpose, inside this box is an odd material we found while trying to extract raw dark matter. We call it Promothium it is an element capable of generating a huge gravitation field it plan to use it to make this field.”

“Yes, so why keep it secret! and why do you have those people?” said Harold

The Captain held up the syringe “You see the element is very unstable, but we have found a way to control it, sort of.”

“What do you mean sort of?” said Harold.

“The element must be used in an environment that has gravity. And to get our desired effects it must be in a stable atmosphere” said the captain

“Still why keep it secret?” Hollered Harold.

“It may erm... explode.” Said the captain

“Still why keep the people?” Harold asked?

“It doesn’t matter!” The captain said with a loud voice

“Why!” Shouted Harold

The captain softened his voice. “It doesn’t matter, because you’ll be joining them.” The captain lunged at Harold’s neck, and the syringe went it, Harold screamed then fell limp.


End?