Prescience

It’s been quite the busy and productive weekend for me! I finished a cross-stitch project for my son, almost finished a quilted table runner that’s been sitting part way done since last October, and got this little scribble done. The #SwiftFicFriday prompt this week threw me for a bit before I came up with something, but I appreciate the challenge. As always, please be sure to stop by and read the other great responses to the prompt.

Prescience

As Marcus drifted in the velvety darkness, a low hum tugged at the edge of his awareness. He knew he should recognize it, but it seemed like so much effort. Marcus didn’t know how long he’d been drifting, or how long he’d been hearing the humming.

At some point, the humming shifted into a higher frequency. Again, it nagged at him. Marcus drifted closer to the humming. Soon, he felt a weight pulling him down. Voices found their way through the darkness. It took him a moment to connect the weight he noticed was his own body.

Marcus opened his eyes, blinking in the harsh light of the ship’s flight deck. He’d been hearing the ship’s engines.

“Marcus! What the hell did you do?” Captain Williams shouted.

He looked around, blinking uncertainly in the bright light. “What did I do?”

“You locked us on a trajectory straight into the wormhole.” Anger forced the captain’s words into a clipped staccato.

Marcus checked his panels, seeing the truth there. “I don’t remember doing that.”

The flight deck went silent. Marcus looked around at the others, who all stared at him, a range of expressions from stunned to horrified on their faces.

“You’ve sent us all into who knows where and you don’t remember?”

He looked at his controls and back at Captain Williams. “No, ma’am, I swear I don’t remember this at all.”

Captain Williams was about to respond when Inish, the ship’s science officer, interrupted. “Ma’am, TR-2817 just sent out some massive solar ejections, and the core is destabilizing further. We need to leave before it collapses into a supernova.”

All eyes fixed back on Marcus as Captain Williams spoke. “I don’t know if it’s prescience or sheer dumb luck, Marcus, but that wormhole may now be our only hope.”