Tu's Story ~ Part 0 ~ Tu's Vision

Tu had always been sensitive to the vibes of a place & right now every intuitive fibre in her body was telling her that something really bad had happened here.

She had been wary to even enter the abandoned lab, & as she approached the steps leading to the entrance, she felt herself reaching for her sidearm. It wasn't there.

Tu sighed, she had left it back in the ship as usual, & after four solid hours of brain-draining troubleshooting, the defunct navigation system that had caused her to land in this forsaken place, inside her ship was the last place she wanted to be right now. Cursed curiosity overrode the sense of foreboding & as she slipped silently inside, the airlock closed behind her.

It was much like most of the abandoned bases in this system. Left standing like sealed time capsules, differentiated only by the captured transient memories left in the wake of passing whirlwinds of activity.

Tu looked around. Trash covered every surface & spilt onto the floor in random heaps. Above the whir of the life support system, she could hear the sporadic rattle of a loose-fitting panel flapping in the wind.

Sifting absent-mindedly through the useless detritus, something caught her eye. Backlit by the erratic flicker of a dying light, it glowed momentarily. Attracted by its strange translucence, she picked it up. 

Mesmerised by the crystalline object, Tu was surprised by a wave of nauseating dizziness sweeping over her, followed by a storm of unexplainable panic. Overwhelmed, she struggled to catch her breath & keep her balance as everything around her began to morph & fade & out of the shadows of obscurity huge, monstrous figures began to materialise around her.

Caught in the overlay as one reality dissolved into another, Tu grasped with all her mental might to the preferable former. But her efforts in vain, she found herself stood amongst them.

 Overbearing, they filled the room & where their grotesque bodies ended their tangible auras took over enveloping Tu with the stifling stench of dread & despair. Worse, everything, except her, was dripping in blood.

It was some, albeit little comfort that their eyes were closed, as they seemed to sleep standing. Tu dared not move lest she disturb the portent ambience. With as little eyeball movement as possible, she counted nine of them, their pitted & warty skin reminded her of amphibians from Earth, it hung, flabby on them in putrid folds & as they swayed eerily, their huge heavy arms swung at their sides & something disgusting slid from the long nails of their thick fingers.

Certain the creatures would hear her heart slamming in her chest, she tried to level & took a deep breath. Mortified, she watched as a beast opposite her suddenly inhaled. It's bloated nostrils flared, to reveal menhirs of teeth propping up the lips of its ugly mouth. 

The creatures were stirring from their stupor, their sagging eyelids opened to reveal empty caverns of obsidian darkness. Tu began frantically searching for something to protect herself with but the creatures stood between her & anything useful.

Fully awake their bodies began to contort in fitful spasms, flinging bloody drool in every direction. One flailed toward her. Tu still held the object she had found & she hurled it at the beast, she watched as it passed right through the beasts fading head & lost consciousness.

When she awoke, to her relief, the former reality had returned. She wrapped & tucked the artefact into a side pouch & as the lab doors closed behind her, she wanted nothing more than to get back to fixing her ship.