The Incident

"Alert! Alert! All crewmembers evacuate the ship immediately!" The blaring alarm pierced through the darkness of the sleeping quarters, jolting Leslie Reeves awake. The urgent message sent shockwaves of panic through the crew as chaos erupted, and everyone frantically scrambled for the life pods. Tensions ran high among the crew, and conflicts over rations ignited heated arguments, adding to the mayhem. Amidst the frenzy, Leslie quickly got dressed and made her way to the Emergency Shuttle Bay, determined to secure a spot in one of the life pods.

A familiar voice called out to her amid the turmoil as she navigated through the pandemonium. It was Jackson Reeves, Leslie's husband, who seemed equally startled to see her still on board. "Leslie? Why haven't you left yet?" he asked, his voice laced with frantic concern as he embraced her tightly.

Confused and still trying to gather her bearings, Leslie replied, "I just woke up. What's happening?"

Jackson's expression turned grave as he explained, "The ship detected a black hole. It's... it's something I've never seen before. It's... strange."

Caught off guard by Jackson's seemingly calm demeanor in the face of impending doom, Leslie confronted him, "Why are you fixating on the black hole? Aren't you afraid of dying?"

With a wry smile, Jackson mustered up his resolve and said, "I knew what I'd signed up for. If anything, I'm more of a grunt compared to you."

Frustrated by his nonchalance, Leslie grasped his arm and urged him towards the life pods. "You need to get on one and stop with this Spacecon nonsense," she insisted, her voice tinged with urgency.

As Jackson resignedly boarded a life pod, the ship's alarm continued to blare, adding to the sense of impending crisis. A junior officer's voice crackled over the radio, urging the Captain to give the order to launch the life pods. However, Captain Sebastian Renolds had a different agenda. His disdainful tone cut through the chaos as he denounced the crew's attempt to abandon the ship, emphasizing the importance of their mission.

Seated in her life pod, Leslie was dumbfounded as the Captain's words echoed around her. When she voiced her concerns about her family, the Captain's chilling response left her reeling. "Your family will be compensated and aware of your death, as well as your bravery. This is an order, Space Engineer Reeves. Are you going to defy me?"

With her mind racing, Leslie made a split-second decision and launched her life pod, tuning out the Captain's demands. "Jackson... what are you waiting for? You're not going to throw your life away for this, are you?" The urgency in her voice was palpable as she implored him to join her in the daring attempt to escape the impending calamity.

"tsk... Fine, I'm coming." Jackson says pulling out from the SS Vagabond as he tries to escape from the black hole's grasp following Leslie.

"YOU'LL FUCKING REGRET THIS, BASTARDS! RUN, WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOU TWO! YOU WERE EXPENDABLE, JUST FUCKING GET LOST!" Sebastian shouts over the radio seemingly having a breakdown as he steeled his resolve to see the mission through at all costs. His voice, however, was drowned out by the low rumblings from the Gravitational waves the black hole emitted, causing a massive blackout across the crew and the SS Vagabond. Leslie and Jackson were also caught in it causing them to be sucked into the pull of the black hole along with the others.

"N-No... NO!" Leslie shouts as she presses random buttons on her shuttle hoping to turn it on. As she gazed at the black hole, she regretted following Jackson into joining this job, hoping to settle down and live a peaceful life sometime in the future, only to come to a gruesome end via a black hole. She clasps the necklace Jackson had given her tightly as she closes her eyes awaiting her fate. She opens her eyes due to morbid curiosity overtaking her witnessing the SS Vagabond being swallowed, warping into an unrealistic shape, and no sound being made whatsoever. She cries as she approached slowly, the rumblings getting louder as she accepts her fate being sucked in and faints instantly due to shock.

"-lie! Leslie! Leslie Reeves!" Leslie wakes to the shuttle's AI's panicked voice urging her to wake. "Oh thank the stars! Thought we had lost you there. Name's Stellar Tech Engineer Visionary's Experiment! S.T.E.V.E. for short!"

"S-S.T.E.V.E.?" Leslie sits up groggly as she gauges her surroundings. "W-Why am I not dead?" Leslie asks in a slightly frustrated tone, looking out of the window into the emptiness of the dark abyss called space only lit with distant stars.

"Seems like my readings were wrong. The 'black hole' turned out to be a wormhole." S.T.E.V.E. says rather embarrassed than anything. "I apologize Ms. Reeves."

"N-No... it is fine." Leslie replies calmly feeling bad for S.T.E.V.E. "I'm just happy to be alive currently. What's happened to the others?"

"I can assure you the others are most likely alive as well," S.T.E.V.E. says confidently. "A wormhole wouldn't rip you apart like a black hole would. It just sends you from one place to another in the universe. Think of it as a teleporter."

"... o-oh... I see. Can you get in contact with anyone? Or just gauge a location so we can rendezvous," she pleaded with the AI system, S.T.E.V.E.

The response hit her like a punch in the gut, "I'm sorry... that, I cannot do," S.T.E.V.E. said sadly. "It appears something is blocking our communications." Leslie's frustration grew as she realized that something was interfering with the communication systems, rendering her helpless. But S.T.E.V.E.'s scanners were still operational, offering a glimmer of hope. "Would you want me to constantly scan our surroundings just in case of an encounter with a crew member?" S.T.E.V.E. asked.

"Y-YES!" Leslie shouted, her heart pounding, desperately holding her tablet for any sign of hope. But before she could focus, S.T.E.V.E. informed her about an impending software update. Leslie's panic escalated as the system announced, "Systems restarting, updating S.T.E.V.E. AI. At 2%. Approximate finish time, 22 hours," before powering down against her protests.

Alone and stranded, Leslie clung to her necklace, her tears of helplessness dampening her pillow as she drifted into an uneasy sleep, wishing fervently for it all to be just a bad dream.