Ideal Comics
Everything Great About Comics
Space, 1951 - An Odyssey (Chapter 6)
26 January, 2010 by chris
Another chapter, as the story progresses. I should probably give credit where credit is due. Considering the awesome cover I posted last time... that was drawn by Cary Baker, a dude who draws for us sometimes.
Space, 1951 - An Odyssey
by Chris Lawton and Mathew D. Rhys
"This is nice," she says, breaking the silence. "We haven't just sat and talked since we left."
"We haven't had a moment of downtime since we left," he replies.
"This is nice," she repeats, unable to think of anything else to say.
"Yes," he answers after a moment's thought. "It is."
Their eyes meet and linger for a moment; and they feel a connection, a connection which is immediately broken by an alarm blaring through the ship. But, this isn't an alarm of warning, but of notification. He smiles and stands and leaves the galley, heading back toward the bridge. She wipes her eyes, removing what few tears linger, and follows him.
"What is it?" she asks.
"The diagnostics are done," he answers, scrolling through the information on a display screen.
"Are we alright?"
"According to this, we are," he says. A hint of a smile enters his voice, and it warms her heart. After all, it's the first glimmer of hope that they've had in weeks.
"We can go back to full speed?" she ventures.
"Absolutely," he says, wasting not a moment. He dashes to the console, turning dials and pulling levers. "Hang on," he says and Space bends around them as the Progressive Gradient Drive powers up, and the ship accelerates to maximum speed.
Their celebration is short-lived, however, as a sound shutters through the ship-a throaty, gurgling sound. Their heads snap around, as they seek out the source of the hellish sound.
"Is the ship supposed to sound like that?" She asks.
"It most certainly is not."
The sound grows faster and louder, until it seems to come from all around them. He mutters a curse under his breath, and dashes off to the engine room, to investigate. Hot on his heels, she follows-not out of a desire to help, but rather out of curiosity.
As she moves through the hallway, the ship bucks and she's thrown against a door. She pushes herself back upright, but pauses. With her hand on the door, she feels the rumbling from within. The sound appears to be louder here. It's the door to a storeroom.
She opens the door and can feel the rumbling in her chest and she knows she's close to discovering the source.
"Mar! I think it's in here!" She calls out to him, and then turns to the darkness within. As she moves through the room, the rumbling becomes nearly unbearable. On the far wall she sees a blinking, red light. "Mar!" she calls one more time, hoping he hears her.
The light is next to a lever, for which she cautiously reaches. As she pulls the handle, Mar rounds the door into the storeroom.
"NOOOOO!" he shouts, reaching out to her, but it's too late. Fifty-gallons of water dump out of a spout in the ceiling, over her, and into the grated floor.
"What just happened?" She shouts, drenched from head to toe.
"You just tripped the emergency pressure valve in the coolant system," he says, laughing. "There must have been an air bubble developing in the system. I should have thought of that. There's a bleeder valve on the other wall."
He continues to laugh, as she shoots him a glare. "I don't find anything funny about it. What do we do now? Are we out of water?"
"No," he says, chuckling. "The water goes through the grate in the floor, through a filtration system, and back into the storage tanks. We'll be fine."
"So, then, what now?"
"Well, I suppose we could get you a towel."