Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Total void

Gottlieb’s back rises up and away from the body of the orbital gun, as his arm reaches back to latch himself into place with the tether. The carbine hook clicks into the small railing around the upper edge of the gun.

 

He drifts, moving away from the station, but only as far as the rope that is attached to the suit will allow him to go. However, all of these actions happen in a state of vague mindlessness. His attention, his focus and all of his thoughts are lost in the very same void that has swallowed the sun itself.

 

The star, so massive that it would fill his entire field of view under normal circumstances, is now simply gone.

 

Space remains as dark as it would ever be under any circumstances, the sparse lights that reach him, cast from the distant celestial bodies, which dot his peripheral vision, do little to catch his eye.

 

— The rope pulls taut as he reaches its end.

 

A zombie flies past him, drifting off into the emptiness of space. Gottlieb watches Johann or Jakob or whatever the hell his name was floating away into nothingness. He gives the man who he had shared a cryo-pod with a somewhat sarcastic salute, before returning his attention to the sun that is simply not where it ought to be.

 

He isn’t sure for how long he floats in the emptiness of space, looking around himself, as if someone had just pushed the entire sun to the side and out of his vision as a prank. But after a while, Gottlieb gives up the ghost and grabs hold of the rope to pull himself back in towards the only land available for his feet to find.

 

Carefully, he grabs hold of the gun and the railing and pulls himself back to the ladder, climbing down back onto the platform, before heading into the airlock.

 

Gottlieb spares one last glance over his shoulder, before heading inside, keeping a sharp eye out for any zombies he might have missed.

 

He hadn’t counted them as they flew out, after all.

 

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Gottlieb marches down the corridor, grabbing hold of the pole in the shaft down to the gunner’s bay. He floats downward, reaching the bottom, only to realize as he gets there that he is still wearing the space-suit.

 

Whatever.

 

Holding the helmet under his arm, he walks towards the console, having one or two very critical questions for Kai, whenever the lights turn back on.

 

— Something thuds against his boot.

 

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Gottlieb looks down at the human corpse, laying there, its head having been bashed in by a metal pipe.

 

He tilts his head, looking at the body.

 

It’s the captain’s.

 

“Neat,” says Gottlieb, flipping the corpse over with his boot to make sure that it’s really a corpse in the sense that it’s dead-dead and not just dead.

 

The captain, acting appropriately for a dead person, does not move.

 

Gottlieb lifts his vision, staring at the goblin that hides in the darkness, beneath an emergency light that shines with a red hue. Does she even notice that the corner she’s hiding in is bright? It doesn’t seem like a great hiding spot.

 

His eyes look up towards the emergency lamp.

 

— Maybe goblins are like hamsters or rats or whatever, in that they can’t see red light?

 

He shrugs, not caring too much, as he makes his way back to his chair. His boots let out a sticky ripping sound as he walks over a pool of drying blood. “Good work,” he says, flashing Grunheide a thumbs-up, before throwing himself on to his chair. It slides along the rail, spinning as it moves towards the end of the console.

 

Gottlieb grabs the rifle, sets it down to his side and kicks his feet up to wait.

 

Any minute now…

 

The goblin crawls out from her hiding spot.

 

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