Tandem of Terror Read Online Free PDF

came to my own eyes as
they froze solid.
    I awoke later inside the chamber which passed
for a cyro-bed and knew instantly that something had gone wrong.
The hatch of the locker opened spilling me onto the floor. I lay
there shivering, barely able to see as my body rejected being
forced back into the world of the living. Spasms over took me and I
wretched and gagged violently.
    Red emergency lights flickered through out
the room. A static filled voice screamed over the transport's
internal comm. system.
    " All personnel, this is not
a drill. Repeat this is not a drill. We have been intercepted by a
fleet of Alkar raiders. This transport is being boarded. All
personnel to battlestations!"
    I looked around the storage room to see how
the other members of my squad were reacting, to realize in horror,
that I was alone. The corpses of my fellow soldiers floated inside
their vats. Only mine had opened. I shuddered at the thought of how
they must have died, drowning in their own fluids and waste.
    My training overrode reason as I pulled
myself to my feet, slipping on the wet metal floor and rushed over
to the area where our gear was kept. I dressed in a blur, grabbing
up my rifle and slung it onto my shoulder. I opened the compartment
next to my own and picked up a second rifle as well. No other
member of my squad would be needing it now.
    My heart thundered in my chest as I reached
the room's main door. My mind struggling to recall the code to open
it. Then I remembered, the door could only be opened from the
outside. The Alliance trusted its own soldiers little more than it
did the Alkar. If newbies were allowed access to the ship
unsupervised, the Alliance feared they might mutiny and turn the
transport around for home.
    In my rage, I hurled myself against the blast
door again and again, until my anger subsided and I collapsed to
the floor battered and bruised. The internal comm. erupted with
life again, the frantic voice of an officer pleading for help
echoed inside the chamber, as I sat helplessly. Then the comm. went
dead as the whole ship shook violently. I imagined the hull
breaches leaking air into the void as Alkar beam weapons sliced
into the vessel around me.
    The storage room however remained so far
untouched by the horrors occurring outside. I thought of using my
rifle to cut my way free but discarded the notion quickly as I
remembered rooms such as this were magnetically sealed.
    I pressed my ear to the door and listened. I
could hear the sounds of combat outside. Officers screaming as they
cut down by the Alkar. Then there was only silence.
    My fear gave way to exhaustion as time crept
by and I slept with head propped awkwardly against the wall. This
time when I awoke, my world was dark and cold. The red flicker of
the lights were gone. I imagined the transport floating powerlessly
among the stars. Death would come with the cold if I did not perish
from lack of air first.
    I dug through the equipment lockers until I
found my squad's breathing units. They were designed for surface
use in hostile environments and not meant to last long. I estimated
that if I used every member of the squad's gear, that I may have
enough air for two weeks at most.
    One of the members of the squad had been
assigned as an engineer and in his gear I found a small laser
welder. I used it to superheat areas of the hull in the room and
stood beside the glowing wall shivering and watching my own breath
drift out of the breather-unit's filters into the darkness around
me. My only hope was that someone, human or Alkar would find this
chamber and open it to investigate.
    I grew with each passing day to feel more
betrayed by my world and more and more helpless. I missed my wife
and longed for her embrace but even more I missed my art and the
feel of my old fashioned key board beneath my fingers. I knew I had
to find to a way to write all of this down, even if just for
myself, and my stomach rumbled with hunger. I couldn't remember the
last time I