Beyond the stars – Room 101

These things tend to be short pieces that may or may not be the beginning of something else.  Originally they were 101 words only.  I’m less strict about that now.  They dont always finish, I just like to try and evoke a certain feeling or scene.

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Cal opened his eyes slowly, his head pounding and a searing pain in his chest.  As his senses returned he found himself looking out into the darkness of space, the earth drifting far in the distance.  He was in one of the SS Brunel’s escape pods, he had done enough inspections of them in his time so that he knew.  What he didn’t know was how he’d got there.

He reached for his chest and winced.  There was blood and scorch marks on his tunic and he could smell med-plas.  Someone had patched him up but no matter how hard he tried he had no idea who.

He stabbed a finger at the console in front of him but it was completely dead with the exception of a single blinking red light and a small dial with an indicator reading ten percent.

“Well I have life support” he said to himself tapping the gauge. “For now at least.”

He pulled at the manual ignition lever above his head in an attempt to force a reboot of the pod but there was just a dull click.  A few more pumps resulted in the same result and he pushed the lever back into its housing.  If he couldn’t get the pod back online this was going to be a very short trip.

“Come on baby” he said willing her back into life and shifting uncomfortably in his chair to reach for a panel to his left.  He pulled open a small hatch to reveal the distress beacon which should have been blinking, but wasn’t.

He ran his hands through his hair and cursed.  No power, no distress beacon and life support now less than ten percent.

By his reckoning he had maybe an hour before oxygen levels dropped to critical.