Space can be scary

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But this was completely different. We were in the vacuum of space but there was a piercing scream off the starboard hull of our ship. It shocked us. In essence the alien had screamed right into the metal and caused it to vibrate at the right level. At first the instruments on the board registered just the scream but then felt the weight of the alien , dubbed by one of the Crew, Siobhan as the Banshee.

We had visual in a few moments . It was horrifying. A few screams were emitted by the crew also. The creature looked as horrifying as the scream it emitted.

But where were we? And where did we encounter the Banshee? We were about 2 light years from Alpha Centauri. Past the Oort Cloud and in the gap between solar systems. We were in the newest class of intersolar ship. With faster than light travel. It was just a day per light year. Oh yes you must be wondering when. It was 3022. Who am I? Well I’m Baastian the captain.

We had a few thoughts about removing the creature. It appeared to have dug its claws into the vessel, or it was stuck like a spider is. But at the speeds we were travelling, we didn’t know what kind of organism could live at those speeds.

Siobhan came up with the idea of just going at high speed and keeping on until we came to a planet with atmosphere and trying to burn the damn thing off.

The nearest planet was 2 days away. In the Alpha Centauri system, Could we cope with a screaming Banshee on our ship until then? Or would it open up the ship and cause an explosion? We just didn’t know.

Barbara our first officer and first pilot. Suggested that we do a controlled stop and see if it fell off. Same way things in a car fly forward if you brake sharply.

We weren’t sure. What could we do? It was screaming every minute! At 60 second intervals. You could have cooked a boiled egg to it. 7 screams for a perfect yolk.

What ever happened we could not slow down in case it could penetrate the hull of the ship. We saw that it kept slipping. We were unfortunately at the fastest speed we could make and we couldn’t squeeze anymore speed out of the engines. I say engines but they were specialized photonic drive engines. Relying on the light of the stars. Dr Plackston had developed these. They were the best thing since sliced bread. My right hand man Nicholas and excellent pilot and engineer said that we should try a vibration to scare the damn thing away. You know some minor key frequency to startle it.

We asked the onboard computer to create some fine shrieks. And to transmit them to the starboard hull.

What happened next was unfathomable. Another one appeared. It was clear that sound was attractive to them. This time on the port hull , and with not much difficulty. We considered there must be a shoal of them hearing us in hyperspace. The concept was very new to us and we didn’t know what to do. We sent a message by Faster than Light radio to Alpha Centauri to the 4th planet where we were travelling to , to give them an idea of this animal? Robot. Drone ship. Alien? We couldn’t figure it out. We thought that we should say what had happened immediately in case someone could help or had encountered this creature in the near past. ( Possible but unlikely)

Nicholas held his head in his hands and sobbed. “ never realised that that would bring another one”

By this time some of the crew were pacing and not settling. I told them to get back to their stations and to start making documentation about the creature. Size, estimated weight. Etc.

It was clear that we would have to learn everything about this creature if we were to get to our destination safely.

We scanned the area around the ship to see if there were anymore Banshees ( as we had dubbed them) were present at all in any direction for the limit of our scanners.

We spotted one just one a few spatials off the ship’s backside.

It was gaining on us. It was obviously a pack animal. Maybe we were their prey. But why? We had never encountered this species before or were they small spacecraft?

Several questions remained unanswered but we had to find out. We asked the main computer to recalibrate the sensors to ascertain the nature of the creature now off the back.

The results were startling. It appeared to have a stardrive much like ours but more advanced. Were there aliens inside it and if so what size were they?

We had to use extra scans. Was it carbon based or some other element? We decided to launch a probe and see what happened. We launched it straight into the path of the following one Despite the screams every 30 seconds that the other two things were making we were able to concentrate and actually knock the other thing off course with our probe. We carried no weapons unfortunately. We had not encountered anything in 400 years of plying between Alpha Centauri and Earth. The only things we had were probes and liferaft craft. And one shuttle. We were not about to sacrifice anything other than the probes.

We waited to see if the Banshee hit by the probe would return. It did. It brought four more with it. At this point we were convinced that it either was a ship or a sentient being. We were ready to blow ourselves up . We primed the self destruct just in case. And prepared the life raft craft and shuttle.

The hour of reckoning approached. We now had 6 creatures attached to the hull….