Lady Lucky, Part 5

Lady Lucky, Part 5

By Matthew “Snooglebum” Wasik

[Missed the first part? Click here to go to the beginning!]

Leomund Skavis cursed, fumbling with the door. He had been looking for something in the storage room when the power went out suddenly. The powered door he was trying to open should have had a way to open it manually, but it seemed to be stuck.

“Hi, mister Skavis!” said a voice behind him. Skavis froze. He knew that voice. He spun around, clicking on his flashlight. But there was no one there.

“No.” he said, disbelief in his voice. “I killed you. I saw you burn. What are you!?”

Lady Lucky, Part 4

Lady Lucky, Part 4

By Matthew “Snooglebum” Wasik

[Missed the first part? Click here to read from the beginning!]

Ty awoke slowly, the roof of the medbay gradually coming into focus. Everything was still blurry, and he was faintly nauseated. He looked to his side, his head lolling awkwardly. He saw Melody, hand-washing her bloodstained medical smock in the sink, the blue-tinged synthwater expunging the blood from the garment.

“Heeeeyyyyy Melody.” he said. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and he could feel a faint pain in his chest. “Watcha doin’?”

Melody looked around and smiled. “Trying not to spread disease.” she said, holding up the smock. “How about yourself? How are you feeling?”

“Feel like my head is a balloon.” answered Ty. “What happened?”

Lady Lucky, Part 3

Lady Lucky, Part 3

By Matthew “Snooglebum” Wasik

[Missed the first part? Click here to go to part 1!]

The Lady Lucky pulled into Parity Station the next day, the ship’s retro rockets firing to correct its course. It passed through the hangar bay’s quietly humming shield bubble, and into the bay proper. A series of midair landing lights glowed brightly, directing Ty to exactly where he should land the Lady Lucky.

“Alright, alright…. we… are on the ground!” said Ty triumphantly. He pressed the comms button and spoke into it: “ladies and gentlemen, feel free to unfasten your seatbelts, not that you needed them because I’m such a damn good pilot.”

Lady Lucky, Part 2

Lady Lucky, Part 2

By Matthew "Snooglebum" Wasik

[Missed the beginning of the series? Click here to go to part 1.]

“So.” said Melody, putting down the book. “Personal question?”

Whisper opened an eye, turning to look at Melody. The two were still in the medbay, Melody having stopped reading mid-sentence. The day was turning to evening, amd the next jump was the last on the Lady Lucky’s journey to the nearest space station.

“Come on babe, we’ve come way too far to worry about that shit. Ask me anything.” said Whisper, grinning. “I mean, it’s our two-year anniversary in, what, a month?”

“Three weeks.” said Melody, smiling. “You were close. I’d give you a prize, but… you already won my heart.”

“Hah! Real smooth, girl. Real smooth.”

“I think you’re exaggerating, but thank you.” said Melody, her smile stretching further.

“So… what was your question?”
The smile slowly vanished from Melody’s face, and her expression turned serious.

“I was just curious…” she started hesitantly, “I know Brands have a sort of mental link to their Patrons… does yours ever talk to you?”

Lady Lucky, Part 1

Lady Lucky, Part 1

By Matthew “Snooglebum” Wasik

There was Old Earth, and then there was the Exodus. Humanity, knowing its world was dying, packed settlers aboard a colony ship and sent them off to the nearest habitable star system. But the ship’s warp drive, untested and unproven, failed them. Instead of arriving at their intended destination, they arrived in a strange, unearthly place. Physics failed on a planetary level, with some planets orbiting around nothing, and others existing in non-spherical states. Anomalies were rampant, great gouts of fire and arcs of electricity springing from nothing. The entire observable universe rotated around a single, massive black hole. Something had gone terribly wrong; this was not the universe as humanity knew it, this was somewhere else entirely.

They called this place the Void.

Welcome to Voidscape.

All was quiet in Estris, an unsettled system off the back end of Collective space. The system was a colorful one, filled with clouds of multicolored gas that joined into a riotous display of color. Arcs of lightning danced from cloud to cloud, throwing their hues into sharp relief, as shards of glass-like debris floated throughout the system, reflecting the light and turning the display truly psychedelic.