Dusk of Defiance (The Era of Ensemble Book 1) Read Free Page A

evening to paint, craft, or mould things for your own living quarters or for other peoples use. But the one thing Luke was most interested in when he got the brochure for the UCSC Defiance was the mood elevating drugs which were vented throughout the spaceship to keep morale high. Previous space travel had reiterated their invaluable contribution to long voyages. A lifestyle necessity minimising the risk to space dementia.
    The darkness of t he shadows were unnerving Luke. He moved down the corridor away from the stairs, as he heard another noise from a nearby room. He slowly walked across the golden brown wooden floor until he reached the door. He cautiously muted his own footsteps. He could hear a low mumble of a voice from inside. “Hello?” He said once again, but there was no answer. Luke gently pressed the touch pad on the side of the wall and the door opened. The mumble was louder, but he couldn’t make any sense of it. He walked into the room. It was a small housing unit, specifically developed for a group of people who provided a lower tier of work aboard the ship. Luke glanced around the small living space, there was a television in a tiny cramped hole, a brown and bland two piece suite, a small table with two chairs either side, and a shelf with the ornaments that were once stacked upon it, in smithereens on the floor. Luke didn’t notice the smashed ornaments until he stepped on them. He looked down to the ground as he heard the crunch. The ornaments which had been created by someone in an evening crafting class were shattered and scattered across the floor. The room and the ship, were in a state of disarray. He ignored the condition of the room and carried on searching for the groaning sounds, which he could hear from behind the bedroom door.
    The door had a handle rather than a touch pad, mostly to simulate a more Earth like environment. Luke placed his hand on the handle and twisted it until the door opened. A woman was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, her arms wrapped around half a toy bear which looked like it had been chewed apart by some sort of beast. The woman’s light blond hair covered her face, and she had scratches and cuts all along her arms.
    “ Are you okay?” Luke asked as he slowly stepped closer to the woman. She didn’t turn to face him. She just rocked back and forth with the half destroyed toy bear in her arms. An unrecognisable language left her lips. He wondered if it was even a language at all, it just sounded gibberish. As he watched the woman, his mind raced. What's going on? What have I awoken to? Why was I the last person to wake from cryogenic sleep? He snapped out of his thoughts, and glanced back towards the woman at the foot of the bed. He looked around the room. The wardrobe was open and one outfit hung on a hanger. It was a cleaners uniform. She's a cleaner, but look at the state of this apartment . He turned to the bed and looked at the blanket, and then at the woman. Her clothes were torn and most of her skin was visible. He grabbed the blanket from the bed and laid it over the woman’s legs. If she's not going to acknowledge me, at the very least, she's going to keep warm.
    Luke left the woman, closed the door behind him, and walked back into the hall. The shadow wasn't her. That woman couldn't have been the figure I saw before. There must be more people around here somewhere . He checked to his right, and then to his left. But before he could decide which way to move, a noise emanated from his right. He slowly and steadily walked to where he thought he had heard the sound. The adrenalin was pumping again as his heart began to race. He felt a forceful instinctive urge to fight for his life. This surge of adrenalin can’t be good for my heart . Why do I feel so nervous? He cautiously moved towards the edge of the wall where the corridor turned left. He glanced around the corner. He couldn’t see anything. Maybe I imagined the noise . But then he heard the