Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 33

Beth hadn't realized she was shaking. Despite going through tremendously unsettling events in her not so distant past, deep down she was terrified. A pit was tightening in her stomach and she felt a heavy feeling, like the fate of the whole human race, was in her hands and that she had just destroyed their chances of survival.

Beth apprehensively removed her hand from the glass walls of the ship's engine. She stepped away and tried to see Liam through the darkness. As she moved she suddenly realized that she was exhausted. She swayed a little bit and tried to regain her balance. She was extremely weak and could barely hold herself up. Not wanting to fall, Beth sat down where she stood. Thoughts of calling out to Liam were far from her mind. All she wanted to do was lie down, curl up into a ball, and sleep forever. And that's what she did, feeling completely drained of all energy, she gave in to her temptations.

"You two stay put. I'm gonna go try and see what's going on." The head engineer said, his voice strangely quiet in the darkness.

"Okay," Liam replied.

He then turned to where Beth had been. He peered into the shadowy blackness, unable to make anything out. "Beth," He called out attentively.

No answer.

He called out once more and still received no response. Fear seized his heart. He called out to Beth a third time and began to step carefully forwards in the direction he suspected her to be. His foot hit something soft. He held his breath as he crouched down. In the silence he could hear the soft inhale and exhale of someone who's asleep. He reached out his hand and found Beth's hair. He gently ran it through his fingers and let out a sigh of relief that she was okay. He quietly sat down by her side and continued stroking her hair. Liam didn't care if he died in the next few hours or if whatever just happened caused the extinction of the human race. If he had Beth beside him, he was contented.

__________

The whole ship was in utter confusion. Numerous distraught people fumbled about, hectically asking questions and freaking out. The ones who had come down with the virus were having an especially miserable time. Illness and worry don't mix well, it just makes you feel sicker.

The captain sat in his office talking with a few key people who had managed to reach him. In the midst of all the panic Captain West was surprisingly calm. He waited patiently as the head engineer rattled on and on about what happened and how he would never have anticipated something like this ever happening.

"It's so strange!" The head engineer said holding a battery-operated tablet. "The power is completely drained. I don't see any way of restoring it, and I don't know how in the heck it happened!"

"How do we still have air?" Someone asked.

"Our air system automatically switched to the backup batteries we have for it when the ship's engine shut off. The batteries powering our air supply will not last forever though. I calculate we have about 10 to 15 days until we run out of oxygen and the batteries die. I have no idea what we're gonna do."

The others in the room all started yelling and talking. Panic was settling in.

"Calm down! Calm down." The captain's voice broke in. "We are okay! We're alive and we are breathing. And I'm sure that we'll figure something out."

The captain's calm and steady voice broke the hysteria and everyone grew quiet.

A woman's voice penetrated the silence. "What's that?"

"What?" The engineer said.

"There's a light. Over there." She pointed, but it was too dark for anybody to see. "The window."

People began looking in the direction the window should be.

"Yes. I see it." Someone said.

The captain got up and made his way over to the window. What he saw astounded him. It was a beautiful sunless sunrise. There was no sun, but there was light. A steadily increasing glow of the most magnificent hues of gold he had ever seen. He stood there watching it, speechless.

"Well! What is it?" The engineer asked.

The captain's trance was broken and he looked back into the lightless room. "A sunrise."

He simply said.

"A sunrise?!" Someone said in disbelief. "Have we all died and gone to heaven?"

"We're all crazy with hysteria!" Another person in the room yelled out and began hyperventilating.

"Our captain's hallucinating! We're doomed!" Yet another voice cried out.

The captain just rolled his eyes at their suggestions as he continued watching the sunrise outside. He began to recognize where they were. "We're on Nyx!" He let out an excited whisper.

"What was that captain? Couldn't hear ya?" The head engineer asked, who was more cool-headed than the majority of people in the room.

The captain turned and was surprised to see there were quite a lot of people who had gathered in his office-quarters. He could now somewhat make out there faces because the light from the window had gotten brighter.

He straightened himself and said in a calm, yet excited voice, "We have arrived at your new home. We are on the planet Nyx."

"How? That's impossible!" Norman Rees, the lead scientist exclaimed. "We had about a year left of travel. I made no mistakes. My calculations and those of others were undeniably correct!"

"And we!.." The captain yelled in joyful tones. "..are undeniably on Nyx."

Dr. Ruth Bridger had made her way to the Captain's quarters as well. Her brain was churning as she listened to the conversation in the room, her thoughts going a mile a minute.

"Teleportation! I knew it!" Ruth thought triumphantly. "I wonder what other abilities the girl may possess? And how in the world did she get the power to move the ship and everyone on it all this way! This is extraordinary! I wonder where she is?"