Tenebris - Excerpt

“It all worked out in the end. You got back safely, and you survived. That’s the important thing.”

He gives me a thankful look.

“Any final thoughts?” I ask.

He nods, takes a few seconds to think.

“It was all…so much. It really scared me, and I had no way of knowing that I was even alive. I don’t know how long I was actually in the blackhole, and that scares me a lot. Even if it was a major breakthrough, the first mission sending a living human through a blackhole…I don’t think I ever want to do something like that again. It was nearly too much for me to handle without a partner there with me, I think. I’m glad we did it, I know that the data we can recover will be revolutionary, but I don’t think it’s worth it to try again with people. It was…terrible. I was so alone…”

His eyes look helpless, far away. I lean forwards and take his hand, and he blinks, starts a little. He laughs quietly as he squeezes my hand back.

“Maybe next time we should play it safe, yeah? Caution is probably better in the long run.”

He nods at me, signalling he’s done.

Alpha cuts the recording.

He exhales heavily. Everyone crowds around him, talking over each other until Hiwara speaks up.

“That sounds like it was terrible,” the engineer says seriously.

He laughs a little. “It really was. We definitely should have sent a dog in first.”

“The important thing,” Dumont chimes in, “Is that you got back safely.”

“Yeah,” Nolan says, and he looks at me, and his eyes are warm, “I’m here now, with you all. I’m not alone anymore.”

I smile back at him.

I ignore the twinge in my mind still screaming at me that something is wrong.