Set Adrift

Cold, always cold. He turns up the heat but it never helps. The panel said that the temperature inside was comfortable. Comfortable? He always did think that computers lied. It was so cold. The thermal wraps didn’t even help. He would need to complain to the captain about this. Though the captain was one of Them. Cyborgs were just as bad as Androids. Not to be trusted any of them. Besides anyone with real money and standing could afford tissue replacement, so only the poor and insane ever became Cyborgs. The trip was supposed to be a pleasure trip not a frozen cruise. Three days that’s all it was supposed to be, three blissful days. Instead it had been 5 frozen weeks. The steward mentioned something about avoiding a maelstrom but refused to elaborate on it. Cursed androids. Besides where was the steward he was supposed to be bringing by the evening meal. He began to see his breath rise like a fog to the top of the room. He tried to raise the bridge to complain about these poor conditions. The only response was recording that was broken and looping, “…ige is unavailable. Stay in your room and someone will…..”. The alarm light began flashing and he went to the panel. Room oxygen was low. Low? How could it be low it was connected to the ship. He could stand no more of this. He walked to the door intending on storming the bridge in outrage. But once he opened the door he and anything else that was no anchored down got sucked out into the vacuum of space. The ship was gone. His room had been jettisoned like a life raft in the black emptiness. The last thought to pass through his mind as he froze was, I always knew they couldn’t be trusted.