My dreams have been the inspiration for most if not all my stories. Vivid dreams about life in other worlds has led me to write and draw what I’ve seen. In my last post I discussed a dream I had of a vampire attack aboard a spaceship. That dream inspired me to write a short story about the attack. The story will be released in two parts on my Patreon.
The first part of the short story will be free and the second part will be part of the paid tier on my patreon. Here is part one below:
Starburst had a minimal crew to ship the food from the world Crete to the Outer Rim. I was not looking forward to this month’s trip as it pulled me away from my wife and kids. Still, the credits would help with finances at home. I sat in the mess hall eating some tubers and bug meat when Adriel walked in.
“Morning Wendel, how are you doing?”
“Eh, much the same as any launch date. You?”
“I’m looking forward to our trip through the Outer Rim. I heard there are some crazy life forms out there.”
“A couple of Gorgots aren’t so strange.”
The tentacled sentient life forms were rare to catch sight of. Still I bet they weren’t that exciting to meet. The ship’s priority was to get to the Outer Rim without too much interruption. There was a low likelihood for any encounters with aliens. The route we were taking through the asteroid fields was seldom taken except for mining ships. Our ship was capable of the maneuvers necessary to get through the fields just fine. I finished up the grubs on my plate and got up.
“I’m headed to the bridge,” I put my plate in the sani-unit. Adriel saluted me, his mouth full.
The walk to the bridge was a quick one. Marketing advertisements for soda pop were following me as I approached the bridge. I could have dismissed the advertisements but I didn’t feel like spending the credit to keep the walls clear.
The cost of travel was paid for in part by the advertisements. I was not looking forward to being constantly bombarded with advertisements. The bridge was a blessedly quiet space. I walked to the helm and input my key card. The ship registered my identity.
“Welcome Captain Ella Wendel. Please confirm the coordinates for our heading are correct.”
“Coordinates confirmed.”
“Excellent, we are estimated to arrive in five cycles.”
Five cycles would be a cheap run. The only catch was we would be traveling through the Outer Rim. Hazardous space was an understatement. Oh who cares what could happen, the credits spoke louder than anything else. I rubbed my wrist where my credit chip was implanted. Soon I’d be making a profit off the delivery.
I took a seat and brought up the ship’s travel log. Everything was above board. The ship entered the asteroid field. We were on a different heading than originally planned to get through relatively unscathed. As we passed through there were other ships along the way. Ships parked on asteroids to gather metal deposits. We ignored the hail from one of the mining ships. It was after we reached the midpoint of the field that ships were no longer a presence.
A distress signal came up on the radar – an incessant chime that I had no choice but to pay attention to. The ship in need of help was adrift not tethered to anything.
“Hello, this is captain Wendel, are you in need of assistance?”
No answer. I had to decide whether to let the ship remain adrift and press on or try to save the passengers. Tom, the ship’s engineer, broke my thoughts, “I say we dock them and take whatever valuables are left.”
“Tom, that’s not very kind. We can’t just take their resources.”
“Sure we can, they clearly died or something to be adrift and unreachable. I say we scrub it with sanispray and hop on over to collect the goods.” Tom had a point. We could use the extra credit from salvaged parts.
“Alright I’ll dock them.” I maneuvered the ship next to the port.
“Hello this is Captain Wendel, prepare to be boarded. Please note we will use sanispray on your ship. If the crew does not want a scrub done please respond.”
All that came after my words was silence. And so as we warned a sanispray cleaning was issued. Then I suited up and entered the other ship. We found a hull full of goods. The crew took what could be carried and the rest was marked for later pickup. Tom looked proud of himself.
“I told you they had resources we could grab.”
“I admit you were right. Now to find the right customer.”
Our ship’s display flashed red, “Warning, intruder alert.”
“There was no one on that ship, what are you talking about?”
“Intruder alert.”
Tom looked at a live ship schematic, a red dot was in the mess hall. I brought up a visual of the mess hall. On the screen there was a pale figure. Her hair came down to her waist. She wasn’t alone, a member of the crew was there. The crew member approached the pale figure. She opened her mouth, a set of fangs became visible.
“Oh no, get out of there!”
The crew member couldn’t hear me. They didn’t get away. The creature bit their neck. When she was done feeding she dropped the crew member’s corpse and stared straight into the camera. She didn’t need to say, ‘I’m coming for you’ for me to get the message.
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