ScareScapes Book Six: Into the Black!

By Jake Bible

The Earth Colony Asteroid Scorpio was launched into space in search of a new home for the human race. Nine-hundred years later than expected, only seven of the Scorpio’s passengers awaken, not one of them an adult. Now, rebuilt with cyber parts, these kids must rely on each other to survive the mysteries of the Scorpio and the dangers of deep space.

Having survived each horror placed before them, the all-kid crew of the Scorpio find them-selves confronted with one final test. With the help of a new crew member, the kids must gain control of the Scorpio’s navigation system before it’s too late. If they fail all on board will perish.

Knowing that they must free their parents from the perpetual hibernation of cryosleep, the kids descend into the depths of the Scorpio. Unstable AIs will not make it easy but the crew knows the fate of their parents and the thousands of sleeping passengers rest in their hands. Scorpio must be saved and nothing can stand in the way!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Permuted
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781618685308

Book preview

ScareScapes Book Six:

Into The Black!

Jake Bible

A PERMUTED PRESS BOOK

Published at Smashwords

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-61868-530-8

SCARESCAPES BOOK Six

Into the Black!

© 2015 by Jake Bible

All Rights Reserved

Cover art by Jack Keely

This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Permuted Press

109 International Drive, Suite 300

Franklin, TN 37067

http://permutedpress.com

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

About the Author

Chapter One

Here I am, standing in front of a group of kids that I don’t know, feeling almost as alone as I felt when I was by myself. I look about and see the bridge of the Scorpio and try to think of it as the Leo, as my ship, as what was my home, but became my nightmare. They stare at me, waiting for me to explain, so I brace myself and dig in.

But, sheesh, once someone starts talking, they all start talking. This isn’t going to be easy.

"When I woke up from cryosleep hibernation on the Earth Colony Asteroid Leo, I was not alone.

"There were four other kids with me. I didn’t know any of them, since there were 9999 other passengers on the spaceship, so it took us a little while to begin to trust each other. We figured out we’d been awakened because our parents were part of the command crew that would run the Leo once the mandatory one-hundred year cryosleep was over.

"The only problem was that the AIs that had been controlling the Leo didn’t wake us up in one-hundred years, but closer to 1000 years. We were 900 years late. And some of us were sick. Very sick.

Cryosleep hibernation takes its toll on the human body, as you know. It may keep people alive, but only as long as they stay in their cryosleep pods. Once out of the pods, all kinds of bad things can happen. Organs begin to shut down, limbs start to atrophy and fall off.

What does atrophy mean?

Hush, let her talk.

Atrophy means that they wither, like old fruit on a tree.

Oh.

Where was I?

The damages of cryosleep, which we all know. You don’t have to tell us what cryosleep can do. These hands are pretty much a perfect example.

Don’t be mean. She’s telling us what happened to her.

I wasn’t being mean; I was just explaining that we are completely aware of what happens to the human body when it’s stuck in cryosleep. If we are supposed to be getting to the cryosleep pod bays now then we should just go. No need to have the new girl tell us her life story.

I have a reason.

Do you? Great.

Be quiet, Bessie. That’s an order.

Uh-oh, an order! I’ll shut my fruiting trap now for sure, Captain!

Ignore her, she’s just grumpy.

Stop calling me grumpy!

Then stop being grumpy!

I’m not grum—

Hey! Can I finish please? This is important. I’m not telling you this so you know my story, I’m telling you this because once we get to the cryosleep pods, we’re going to have to be unbelievably careful if we are going to wake your parents up and keep them alive!

Our parents are going to die?

No, Ajay, they aren’t. Our parents will be fine.

No guarantees.

That is not helping, Bessie!

Neither is wasting time chatting! All I want to do is sleep right now! The longer we wait, the harder it will be to find the energy to run and fight and do whatever we have to do to get from this end of the Scorpio to the other end where the cryosleep pod bays are! Can’t we talk on the way?

No. The AI will be listening. Once we leave the bridge we have to be as silent as possible. Does everyone understand that? As silent as possible.

Why are you all looking at us?

Because you two can’t shut up to save your lives.

Oh, we’ll shut up. Especially since it actually will save our lives.

Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Fruit you, Felix! We don’t talk all the time!

You’re talking right now, Carlos!

What is wrong with you people? Can’t you stop bickering for five seconds? Even the kids I woke up with weren’t this bad! They knew when to speak and when to be quiet! They had discipline!

If they were so disciplined then why aren’t they here?

Because they all died! All of them! And not just them, but every single person in the cryosleep pods! I am the last surviving passenger of the ECA Leo! The last one! Now shut your mouths and pay attention!

Sorry for that, Marilla. I promise everyone will be quiet and listen from here on out.

Thank you, Isla. This is not easy for me to say.

I can only imagine. Please, continue.

Okay, where was I? Oh, right, cryosleep damage. Here’s the deal, kids, the odds of any of your parents surviving are slim to none. It took some of the kids that woke up with me a couple days to even be able to open their eyes, let alone get up and walk and talk. Your parents? I don’t know what will happen when we start the waking process. They could be fine or they could, well…

Not be fine?

Yeah.

How long does the waking up process take? I mean, the actual protocol that will thaw them out so they aren’t in cryosleep anymore. I know you said you have no idea if they’ll wake up right away.

It takes about two hours.

We have to get down there and wait two hours? We’ll be sitting ducks!

Dude, I miss ducks. Remember how we’d sit on those benches and toss them chips and bread?

Yeah, dude, that was fun. It was a bummer when we couldn’t go outside anymore.

Wouldn’t have mattered if you could. The ducks probably died way before the indoor isolation laws went into effect.

Dude, that’s harsh.

Yeah, Felix, no need to be so harsh.

Is this what you call being quiet?

We haven’t left yet. We can talk as much as we fruiting want until we leave.

Yeah, we can totally— Hey! Ow! Fruit, Bessie! Why are you hitting us all the time?

Probably because you deserve it? That’s my personal theory.

Yeah, well, get a different fruiting theory, dude! Because we are both tired of getting smacked upside the head!

This is going to take forever, so I’m just going to talk really fast and hope you people understand me. Once the thawing protocol begins, we have two hours to get to your parents and get them stabilized. We then have to get back up here, hope they wake up so we can get control of the navigation system and don’t go into that black hole that’s right in front of us. If everything goes right then we can change the Scorpio’s course and steer us away from the black hole.

Then we deal with the crazy AI.

Exactly. But, first we deal with the black hole. We go in there and it’s all over.

Hold on...you make it sound like we can start the thawing protocol without being in the pod bays? Is that true?

"Yes, it is. Technically there’s an override here on the bridge, but the override and main bridge controls are locked. The only other place is the infirmary. We have to go there anyway to get gurneys and medical supplies. Your parents will need to have their eyes, noses, and throats flushed with saline, and their