Orvina stood with her back straight, taking deep breaths to steady her nerves while adjusting her uniform. She looked up at the large glass panel in front of her, exhaling loudly and placing both of her larger hands behind her back.

  “Begin trying to establish communication with the station.”

  The comms technician nodded as his fingers danced across the holographic keyboard.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Tense silence filled the bridge for a few moments as everyone waited for the technician to speak again.

  “Communication established and stable, Vice Captain.”

  Orvina cleared her throat as the glass panel flickered to life and the face of a gruff-looking Flarian male appeared. His face lit up, the stern lines disappearing as he saw the Vice Captain.

  “Oh, thank the stars.”

  Orvina let out a soft sigh of relief, and her posture relaxed ever so slightly upon recognising the man on the screen.

  “This is Orvina Vizelis, Vice Captain of the Destroyer-class vessel ‘Solar Echo’. We request permission to dock. We’ve suffered major losses due to unfortunate events. Captain Nubela Argrath has been deemed unfit to command the vessel due to a rapidly deteriorating mental state. Many of the crew require immediate medical attention that exceeds the capabilities of this vessel’s medbay.” She spoke with urgency before the Admiral even had a chance to get a word in.

  The face of Admiral Girlek stood on the screen as if frozen. Orvina wasn’t sure if the connection had been interrupted, and just as she was about to ask the technician, Girlek spoke.

  “What have you done on Kalibash, Orvina Vizelis?”

  His words froze the blood in the Vice Captain’s veins. Girlek was her mentor during her days in the academy; she had known the man for over a decade. The voice with which he spoke, that wretched, blood-curdling sound, was not the voice she remembered. It didn’t even sound like Flarian language or any other language she knew, yet she understood each word perfectly. The question was loaded with anger and contempt, but also with an undertone of sadism, as if whoever borrowed the Admiral’s voice relished in the sight of fear and guilt appearing in Orvina’s expression.

  Orvina stuttered, feeling sharp pain in her head as if someone was driving nails into it.

  “I… I’m sorry, do you mind repeating the question, Sir?”

  “I said: ‘What had happened that resulted in losses of your crewmembers and Captain Nubela’s state?’” The Admiral repeated himself, this time with more concern in his tone.

  Orvina rubbed her forehead and leaned backwards, but steadied herself.

  “I’m losing my fucking mind.”

  Admiral Girlek could see that something was seriously wrong with the Vice Captain and the remaining crew present on the bridge. They all seemed disconnected from their surroundings in some way, exhausted and fidgety.

  “We suspect that the supplies we used were tampered with in some way and resulted in ship-wide poisoning,” Orvina replied.

  “I will provide all information regarding the events that have transpired in great detail in my official report once we dock at the station. Now, I must, once more, request immediate permission to dock.”

  The Admiral’s face turned from worried to stern as he sighed. No matter who asked for permission to dock, a random captain or his friend, in cases such as this, protocol had to be followed.

  “Permission denied, Vice Captain. Keep your vessel in communication range of the station. As the cause of the poisoning has not yet been determined, I cannot risk a potential spread of contamination. I will send interceptors and medics to your vessel immediately, to help the survivors.”

  Orvina’s shoulders slumped in defeat. He continued, this time addressing the Vice Captain in a more friendly manner, hoping to give her and her crew at least a little bit of hope.

  “Hang tight, Orvina. I will send help right away; they will be there in under an hour.”

  “Thank you, Sir.” Orvina bowed her head at the screen.

  “We will maintain a slow course towards the station’s orbit, and will keep our comms channels clear. Over and out.”

  With an audible sigh, she slumped back in her command chair. Her hands were shaking, her gut turning on itself. She thought it was merely the result of finally feeling relief after so long.

  “Finally. This’ll all be over soon.”

  ***

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Nubela awoke to the sound of children laughing. She groaned and rubbed her face, not yet opening her eyes. Her body felt oddly light, despite the ever-present hunger that gnawed on her. The room she was in smelled familiar.

  “Where the hell am I?”

  She felt a warm breeze caress her, and the sound of wind chimes filled the quiet room. Nubela’s eyes opened in an instant, and she bolted upright, looking around frantically.

  “No, no, no no! Not again! Not here!”

  The Flarian Captain was once more inside Tomyris’s living room on Kalibash. There was no blood, no corpses, no stench of decay. The room looked exactly as it did when she and her crew first landed in the settlement.

  The laughter grew closer, and the sudden sound of knocking made Nubela jump and turn around towards the back door of the cosy home. Tomyris stood in front of the door already, the sight of her freezing Nubela stiff in place.

  A choir of childish giggling ceased as the knocking returned a second time, this time followed by a voice.

  “Granny Tomyris! Can Miss Nubela come out to play?”

  The old woman said nothing, simply opening the door and then turning to look at the Flarian.

  Nubela could see a group of children standing outside, waiting impatiently for her response. The sight of them only strengthened the feelings of revulsion within her. Even from where she stood, Nubela could see how emaciated they were. Their skin clung to bone like wet leather to a fragile frame. Their eyes, still bright with childish innocence, were accompanied by dark rings around them.

  Compelled by something foreign to her, Nubela slowly approached the door. Tomyris was no longer there by the time the Flarian stepped through the doorframe.

  “You called for me?”

  The children seemed overjoyed to see her, gathering in a circle around the captain. Despite their gaunt appearance, they seemed full of energy, as if starvation did not bother them at all. The leader of the small group spoke, holding a strange object in his hands.

  “Yes. We need one more person for our game!”

  “Game?” Nubela asked.

  The boy, no older than 7 human years, nodded.

  “Yes. We need someone fast, someone strong, to play with us. Please? Just for a little bit?”

  A strange sense of unease filled Nubela’s being. She looked around but saw no one. No humans were in the streets, nor were they looking at her through the windows of their houses. No corpses littered the streets either. The entire settlement was as quiet as the grave, completely devoid of life.

  She turned her attention back to the children, who still eagerly awaited her response.

  “Where are your parents?”

  “The wolves got them.”

  The words reverberated inside Nubela’s head, filling it with physical pain and causing her stumble backwards, leaning against the wall of Tomyris’s house. Kalibash had no native fauna, especially not one native to human-inhabited planets.

  One of the children pointed upwards.

  “They came from above. Hungry. Ate our food. But they were still hungry.”

  Nubela gripped the sides of her head with her bigger hands, squeezing tightly as if hoping that would subdue the throbbing headache. Her stomach ached more than ever before; hunger so intense that she thought it was eating her from the inside.

  There was no longer anything else that she felt. No rage, no resentment towards the species she considered inferior, only starvation occupying every morsel of her. Their starvation, which was now her own.

  “How can you play? Are you not starving?” She whispered, opening her eyes to look at them.

  “We play. When we play, we forget about being hungry. Please, Miss. Play with us. Just a little bit.” Said the children.

  Nubela took a deep, shaky breath and took a step towards them.

  “How do I play?”

  Their faces beamed with joy at her finally agreeing to join in their game. They spoke amongst each other for a moment before the leader of the group raised his hands and presented the object he had been holding the entire time to the Flarian Captain.

  “One person puts on the Grumlag, while the others run and hide.”

  Another child, a dark-haired girl, spoke up.

  “Since you’re new, you have to be the one who chases. That’s the rules.”

  “Yep. Whoever is new that joins the game has to be the beast.” Another added.

  The little boy smiled wider and handed Nubela the Grumlag skull.

  “You’re so big and strong, this will be easy for you. Oh! But you have to count to one hundred before putting it on, so we can find a good spot to hide.”

  Tranquillity was all she felt once the skull was in her hands. The images from her previous nightmares: ones of corpses turning to beasts and hunting her, one of the old woman’s bleating corpse, and the otherworldly monster in the shadows behind her, flashed before her eyes. Yet they caused her no distress anymore. Nubela’s hunger felt like it had disappeared entirely the second she held the Grumlag skull.

  “One… two… three…”

  The children scattered, giggling as they ran, each looking for a place to hide. Nubela stared into the hollow eye sockets of the skull, unable to look away. With each second that she got closer to one hundred, the urge to put the skull on her head became stronger and stronger, requiring noticeable conscious effort to resist it after counting past fifty.