The Void

Join the galactic navy they said, you will see the space squids they said, it is going to be fun they said. I would honestly appreciate, if they bothered to add the other stuff into the ads. Like how bloody cold the space is. And empty.

It is so empty that you can get the void sickness. They don't talk about that, nasty stuff I tell ya. When you are on board with your mates, you are usually safe from it, but when you go overboard... even for a routine hull inspection, it can get you. The old dogs speak of shadows creeping in on ya out there, when you are hanging there on the ropes, all alone. They say that it will whisper to ya, and that if ya acknowledge that... then you are a goner, the sickness will take ya.

And if nobody notices, it will take the ship and the rest of the crew with ya. It is crazy innit? Stories like that, they creep ya out. But it was fun, they were just stories, the void sickness, it was nasty stuff, folks would get thrown overboard, into the emptiness, to stop it from spreading. But you never know 'till it's late that it has taken root.

I guess Herbert was really good at hiding things, he always kept to himself, hell I even though he had it when we met in the docks, 'cause he was talking to himself.

I don't know how he got it. He never went for hull inspections, he just spent time with the engines. Maybe he felt lonely, maybe he invited the void in. I just know that I might be the only one who got away. Away from the ship. I thought that I would just jump into the little boat for an emergency, collect those that would jump, sort out those who contracted it and sail for the nearest port, but... there was nobody else jumping from the ship. They just... stood there. Staring at me. So I sailed.

But I must have gone the wrong way, or we strayed from our plotted course. I do not know where I am. And I can hear them. Whispering in my ear. I am now truly lost.