Spacegal Ch9 Pt 2
This time he was waiting for her when she came off her shift. He trailed her down the length of Bay 17, through the stretches of corridors that led back to Rec Space 12B, got momentarily distracted by a group of Fronigans using the station as a pit-stop on their way to the planet on a hen night, all clingy dresses and giggles and flirtatious looks, and almost missed her stepping into the elevator – but caught up in time to see which floor she took.
He pulled a scruffy folded map of the station from his back pocket and scanned over the diagram with his finger until he found the right number. The lower levels? Interesting – now he might be getting somewhere. Jareth took the next elevator down and exited cautiously, hoping the time between lifts had put enough distance between them that she wouldn’t hear the pneumatic doors hissing open and closed.
The corridors on this level were dusty enough that he could easily trace her bootprints along them. He hoped he wouldn’t catch anything and already had the sensation of cobwebs clinging to his hair – were there spiders in space? – he’d need to factor in time for a quick shower before reporting back to Draegan’s; couldn’t have them seeing him at anything less than Peak.
Jareth squinted through the gloom, poking his nose into the open doorways of abandoned workshops and stretches of corridor cut short by stacks of desks and chairs blocking the way. He’d heard this part of the station closed because of cost cutting something something boring blah blah, and nobody came down here any more – the perfect place to bring a chick on a date, though, quiet and out of the way. Make up some spooky ghost story, get her hugging in all close...
His mind began to wander and he almost stumbled into the direct line of sight of Cam and that weird little sausage vendor from the canteen around the next corner, and shuffled back quickly, pressing back against the wall and holding his breath. When he was sure he hadn’t been noticed, he ducked into the room behind him and crept beneath the windows along the corridor until he was close enough to hear them.
They were talking about complicated business things like profit margins and upscaling. He drew in a deep breath that was intended to precede a long sigh of boredom, and that’s when it hit him – that smell! What was it? He hastily drew in another breath, and then another, sucking the air deep into his lungs, turning his head every which way. He followed his nose, found an air vent at the bottom of the adjoining wall and lay down on the floor and pressed his face against it. Damn, this beat the smell of Draegan’s burgers by a million billion. He licked his lips, huffing hungrily at the vent. No wonder Draegan wanted in on whatever was going on here.
He waited for them to stop talking and heard their footsteps echoing along the empty corridors, then snuck from his hiding spot and along the corridor to the doorway to the next room. He peered through the grubby windows, seeing a setup that looked familiar to some of the things he’d seen in the back rooms of the canteen, with shiny metal surfaces that were a stark comparison to the dust-caked abandoned rooms on the rest of this level.
Jareth reached for the door handle, then paused and pulled his sleeve down over his hand. He frowned – this was one of his favourite shirts with a cut that really showed off his pecs and he’d hate to stain it with something that wouldn’t wash out. Besides, who’d be fingerprinting the place? This wasn’t a crime scene. He was just having a look – no harm in that, right?
He jiggled the handle, and when it didn’t give, he crunched it hard and broke the mechanism. The door drifted open and the smell hit him full force. The lights were still on and his eyes landed on the racks and racks of sausages cooling on the counter – sausages that were giving off the most delicious, most mouth-watering smell he had ever smelled in his whole damn life.
There were loads of them, trays and trays in rows along the counter and they looked delicious, too. They wouldn’t miss one, would they? He had to taste one. How could he not, with a smell like that? He walked up and down the line of sausages on display, eyeing every one. Would it be better to take one from the middle, or from an end? Which would be least noticed?
One on the end, he decided, and reached for it tentatively. He took the girthy tube in his fingers gently, plucked it from the rack and held it under his nose like a cigar, sniffing it first before taking a little nibble from the tip.
His eyes bulged. God damn he’d never tasted anything like this. He took another bite, and then another, and soon was working his way through the second then third then fifth sausage before he’d even realised what he was doing.
Fuck. Fuck! He didn’t even know what was in these – was he carb-loading? Were there even carbs in sausages usually? They tasted sweet – was there sugar in them? Fuckity shit fuck, he couldn’t be doing with stuffing himself full of sausage! He’d have to cut off shift an hour early and squeeze in an extra gym session just in case.
He backed away from the rack, knocking over an empty steel tray from the counter behind him, and forced himself to step through the door and back out into the corridor. Clearly these sausages had an addictive property, a chemical in the smell that made people crave them and eat sausage uncontrollably! Is that what they were up to? Some kind of sausage take-over?!
Draegan had to be told. Draegan had to be told right god-damn now.
****
In the insurmountable void there exists only nothingness, vast and all-engulfing. Eternal are the masters of this space, the ebb and flow of time that ripples forth the facets of creation and embraces all things through life and in death.
In the insurmountable void there exists only nothingness, vast and...
In the insurmountable...
There is awareness.
There is presence, physical and tangible.
The insurmountable void pushes against all things, expanding for all eternity until all is engulfed -
A congregation of atomic particles coalesce into a cohesive unit giving form to the insurmountable void that engulfs and embraces -
The insurmountable void will not be contained!
****
Cam glanced up from her datapad to the cocoon in the corner of the ceiling, fixing it with a hard stare through the silence.
There was an almost inaudible crack, like an egg breaking, and a little cloud of dust drifted to the floor.
“Oh, shit.”
Thank you for reading! If you liked it, let me know at WelshPixie <3