Station 36

Yiska signalled for Jeff and Phil to move as she edged out of the lab. The lighting hummed and flickered. Maybe a mechanical malfunction, maybe the back-up lights kicking in and the momentary lose of power was just a glitch in the works. A routine defrag of the entire system. Strange though, they'd been stationed on this bio-facility for nearly five years, and this was the first shut down.

Yiska indicated that she was going to check the system for a malfunction. Phil nodded, tapping her earpiece – just in case they needed to talk. The lights dimmed to near dark. The desolation of the research post shocked the young scientists. The closest facility to Leab Ridge station was a 100 clicks. If they needed backup there wasn't a hovercraft or sub-porter that could cover that distance quick enough.

Yiska crept towards the glass doors into sector 4, the automatic lights were on – but there was no one there, so why the over-ride. Taking a deep breath Yiska walked through the doors, they closed effortlessly behind her.

Deep in the heart of the facility it was warm and chaotic, wires running back and forth, panels, turbines and the gentle humming of the filters: a contrast to the clinical lab and research areas. It was quiet and Yiska didn't like it! Given the lab malfunctions, it didn't make sense that this sector seemed unaffected. Moving quietly but swiftly towards the control room, Yiska tried to grasp the situation.

She couldn't think straight, her mind fogged and exhausted from the days working the toxic Canary swamps, looking for life; choking back uppers to stay awake long enough to process specimens before they disintegrated. Each batch continuing to bring some new evolvement that indicated the insects were changing faster than the air toxicity. The inspection tanks crawled with life one minute, then dust and shell the next. It was as though their atmos-tanks couldn't keep up with the insect's metabolic rate. Even with equipment to monitor and adjust the filtration levels, the insects existed beyond their understanding. Why was everything going wrong when they were so close to breaking the environment gap between human and insect? If they could just get a grasp on this they could truly evolve humanity to a new level, adapt like the insects to the changing atmospheric conditions and not be trapped and marginalised in these bio-facilities.

Yiska opened the door into the mainframe control room; the machines seemed normal. She noticed that Instead of the command key flashing on the monitor, ready for the next command prompt, was a sentence waiting to be read. — Mevo evor. Step. Yt's ears new. Step. Yea hud year tyme. Step. Yiska stared at the nonsense; this glitch ran deep.

— Leab Ridge Station 36 Research Facility. Repeat message. Over. She typed her reply into the system. Instantly the message reappeared, — Mevo evor. Step. It's eurs now. Stop. Yeu hud yeur time. Stop. In the middle of deciphering the text the power cut out without a sound. And this time no back up – just blackness. The whole facility seemed to descend into a silence. It took Yiska some time to realise what the unnerving silence was: Over the years they had grown so accustomed, so assured by the sound of the filtration system that now that it wasn't working, a new level of quiet existed. Aware of her breathing in the darkness, Yiska became frightened. Without the back-up systems she didn't know how much oxygen they had. Pressing the side of her earpiece she whispered Phil's name. No response. JEFF! she cried. The communications device began to hiss static. Maybe there was a voice in there – ‘Phil' then radio silence.

She had to get back to the others. In the blank isolation of the moment, logical clarity kicked in. With their power down they would appear as a missing blip on the Western Front of the European Territories map. One of the research facilities would come out this way soon. They'd never done the calculations, but the old-school bio-dome ‘Green House'‚ would probably be photosynthesising enough oxygen for them to wait. Running her hand along the wall Yiska inched her way towards the corridor: silence more than the dark throwing her off balance. She tried to orientate herself, but knocking furniture, she fell, putting out her arms for protection she landed on a thin sticky substance. With great difficulty she pulled away from its grip. As she got to her feet the back-up power kicked in. but not smoothly like last time. It whirred and flickered. The control system buzzed on with an unhealthy gritty noise coming from within. A word appeared again on the monitor at the other end of the room. The floor was now covered in this sticky substance, finding it hard to walk Yiska looked around, the room was laced with what looked like thread. She brushed it out of her way and continued towards the monitor. The word Nitrogen alone on the screen.

Nitrous Oxide! She exclaimed. The screen went blank. New words appeared. This time there were no mistakes, Move over human. You've had your time the world is ours now . Yiska turned to face the keyboard controls. Thin spiky arms with long wispy hairs manipulated the controls. She moved her head up to follow the legs to their source. Towering above the machines was a fully evolved arachnid. It had blown bubbles along its body to trap itself within breathable air. Its head extended for an oversized brain. As she looked at it she saw bits of its exoskeleton begin to disintegrate. A sly smile flickered across her face. Not quite yet she thought. It moved forward, its legs peddling the keyboard. Backing away Yiska glanced at the screen. I may be dying ‚ it wrote. But there are many to come after me.You will die, along with your species.

 

By Anon