The Dark Solstice

Sci-fi Horror

“Tetra Station going dark in five... four... three... two... one. Going dark, Happy New Year. Oscillating Inc. would like to thank its employees for another successful orbit around the Temba Star. We remind you that during the festivities to enjoy the festivities with caution and to drink responsibly. In the case of serious injury please seek assistance in traversing to the medical facilities. All personnel still on duty during the ten days of dark cycle are to report in on the local channels before swapping shifts.” 

Sera switched off the microphone and the display with the company script. She hated giving live announcements like this, but human resources wanted a more personal touch. Someone had a bug up their butt about the long-term psychological effects of being isolated in the polar regions on this God forsaken rock. If she wanted to interact with people, she wouldn’t have joined management. She closed her eyes and repeated her mantra; five more years. 

She had luckily managed to get rotated in on the Tetra Station upcycle when the mine showed an uptick in production and was riding the wave of productivity that made her eval sheet shine like gold. Unfortunately, being the most junior member landed her on the Dark Watch when the planetary rotation hit its solstice and the entire area was bathed in a strong magnetic field that made anything but hardline communication impossible. For ten days the Tetra Station was cut off from the rest of the world, even satellite communication. 

“Alpha site checking in.” 

Sera brushed a rogue strand of black hair away from her face. She pulled the connection cable from the console and locked the connection port to the receiving end in her ear. 

“Alpha site this is Tetra Station, you pulled the short straw Jerry?” Sera asked. 

“Senior member on site, there was only one straw,” came the reply. 

“Did everyone bail into a turtle for the party, on you?” Sera asked. 

“I got sideswiped, they all put in leave three weeks ahead which is a week before management was supposed to be accepting chits.” 

“You and me both it seems?” Sera sighed. 

“How’s that?” Jerry asked. 

“Democratic vote that I wasn’t invited to.” 

“Sucks to be us,” Jerry laughed. 

“Sure does,” said Sera, “Enjoy your New Years Jerry, I got the other stations checking in.” 

“You too Sera, Alpha Station signing off.” 

“Tetra Station this is Bravo Site, checking in.” 

“Bravo Site this is Tetra Station, I read you,” Sera said coldly. 

She had recognized the voice of Tylin immediately. They had worked together briefly over the last year and to say they were amicable was the professional description. In truth small discrepancies on both sides early on quickly turned into downright enmity that resulted in several company-wide incidents bordering on sabotage. 

“Tetra Station did you authorize personnel transfer from Charlie Site,” Tylin requested. 

Sera could feel the accusatory tone in Tylin’s voice. 

“Bravo Site as was mandated in company policy no movement is authorized during Dark Time. This comes from Celestial management, no one ground side has the authority.” 

“Emergency power is granted to Tetra Station Control during Dark Time giving the manager in charge authorization,” Tylin said snidely. 

“Bravo site, I will remind you to maintain radio integrity as even during Dark Time all exchanges between stations are being recorded. Furthermore, all sites are equipped to handle emergencies pertaining to on-site capabilities. An all-site alert would have to be activated in order to authorize emergency powers. In short, if I had emergency powers to authorize personnel transfer at this time, you would be aware of it.” 

Sera smiled. Being able to quote the rule book no matter how basic to that stuck-up bitch filled her high school levels of glee. She glanced over the different consoles. No sense in giving the bitch a chance to counter her with any unknowns. Charlie site was running dark, same as everyone else. No alarms, no activity, nothing on any screen. She checked the cameras, for all the good it would do. The visuals outside were the same no matter how you chose to watch it. The polar region was silent, stale, and gray coated in a thick layer of carbonized snow. 

“Tetra Station this is Bravo site,” Sera grinned at the barely veiled disdain, “I have readings on the Bravo-Charlie thoroughfare indicating movement of two turtles enroute to Bravo site.” 

Sera pulled up the screen on her center monitor. A three-dimensional overlay of the road between Bravo and Charlie popped up with two flashing red squares slowly moving towards Bravo. Sera checked the logs on the side monitor again and the feed from the ocular recorders. 

“Bravo site I have the motion map, can confirm two terrain utility vehicles enroute to your location. Camera feeds are frozen. Logging errors for maintenance post Dark Time. There are no logs of vehicles or personnel leaving Charlie Site, authorized or unauthorized.” 

“Tetra station, please elaborate.” Tylin’s frustration became apparent. 

“Bravo site, whoever’s driving those turtles simply left Charlie Site,” Sera replied. 

“Tetra Station, how is that possible?” 

“Bravo site, I don’t know. Advise deploying on-site security force. The likely scenario is a group of intoxicated employees decided to take an excursion and are trying to spread cheer.  Catalog the names and any discrepancies that take place.” 

“Tetra Station, confirming advice and taking appropriate action. Logging deployment of security force.” 

Bravo site, data logging seems to be malfunctioning due to unknown circumstances please keep Tetra Station appraised of your situation for records.” 

“Tetra Station, Bravo site confirms and will update as the situation progresses.” 

Sera bit her lower lip. These situations were not unheard of, but she was keenly aware of an unease that was creeping up on her. A quiet anxiety was building that moved at the pace of the turtles across her screen. Quietly she watched the screen, certain Tylin was doing the same on her end. A blue line appeared between the Bravo site indicator and the red squares with a number below. The roadside tracking system had calculated the distance. Twelve hundred meters slowly ticked down. The minutes ticked by until it reached fifty meters and the turtles stopped. 

“Bravo Site this is Tetra station, monitors indicate the turtles have stopped fifty meters shy of your location. Can you confirm?” Sera asked. 

“Tetra station this is Bravo site, can confirm. Ocular recorders outside the facility have frozen. No readings available. I have a visual, but it is obscured by atmospheric conditions. Security is on standby at the garage,” Tylin replied. 

“Bravo site, what visual do you have?” 

“Tetra station, the turtles have shut down.” 

“Bravo site, say again.” 

“Tetra station, I repeat, turtles have shutdown. No external power readings. No cardiac readings. No company ID readings.” 

The tension in Sera’s gut was gaining mass. 

“Bravo site run analytics for possible catastrophic failure. Check the primary and secondary backups and report back.” 

“Tetra station analytics confirm no anomalies in primary or secondary systems. They just shut down. No activity from vehicles confirmed by management and on-site security.” 

Sera felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck begin to rise. 

“Tetra station this is Bravo Site,” Tylin was alarmed, “I have lost contact with security force.” 

Sera froze in her chair watching the monitors and listening intently. 

“Tetra Station garage has gone dark, security force unreachable.” 

Sera tasted copper in her mouth and realized she had bitten through her lip. Even still, her body refused to move, wild imaginings floated through her head as she listened with rapt attention trying to glean even the smallest fragment of information from what was transpiring at Bravo site. 

“Tetra... -tion, I’ve lost conn... multiple...” 

“Bravo site, Bravo site,” Sera panicked. “No, no, no, not now.” 

There was dull tone droning in Sera’s ear as the comm feed to Bravo site went dead. Recovering herself she began flipping desperately through networked feeds on her different monitors. All the ocular monitors in view of Bravo site were laser activated and non-functioning during the solstice. The tertiary comm lines, emergency hardline links to the satellite facilities. If she could connect to Bravo management console, she could activate the camera feed. 

Tense seconds passed, beads of sweat she was vaguely aware of creeped down her skin inside the company issued jumpsuit. Her fingers furiously tapping echoed in the room as lines of code scrawled across the screen in front of her. Adrenaline infused focus heightened her elation with every successful connection as she delved through the company software, every failure was a devastating loss. Finally, the final connection authorized her access. 

The face of Tylin appeared on her screen. The woman was young but obviously distressed. What had once been a professional company approved bun of hair had degraded to a sweaty mess that clung to her face. Her lips were trembling. 

“Tetra Station, Sera, can you hear me?” 

All the snide sass was gone from Tylin’s voice leaving behind a cowed creature full of fear. 

“Bravo site,” Sera tried to sound professional, “This is Tetra Station.” 

“Something is inside the site. It’s cutting off our electronics. I’ve lost connection to everyone. All stations except management have lost power.” 

“Calm down Tylin,” Sera was acutely aware of the anxiety in her own voice, “What’s going on, I can send help, you just need to...” 

“Everyone’s dead Sera,” Tylin said. 

Sera froze again and it seemed like every inch of her skin was tingling. 

“I can hear them; I can hear them screaming. The children are screaming Sera.” 

Tylin’s head jerked to the side, “They’re coming. Oh my god they’re coming.” 

A methodical thumping could be heard in the background. Tylin turned back to the screen. Her whole body was shaking, and she was beginning to cry. Suddenly there was a crash of metal bending and breaking. 

“Help-.” 

Tylin was violently yanked off screen as she uttered her last word. The feed degenerated into a single single line of optical data before disappearing altogether. 

Sera sank back into her chair. She leaned back letting her hair fall behind the backrest. She savored the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She brought her hands up to her face and dragged the tips of her nails against the skin of her cheeks. The tension seized her and in one glorious moment it overflowed and she spasmed, shaking the chair. 

The adrenaline began to taper off with the tension gone and she laid there basking in the flow of endorphins flooding her brain. A wry smile crossed her face as she tried to imagine the look on Tylin’s face at that moment. She lamented her inability to see it, to feel the sanguine moments of looking at her and being seen. Her hand lowered to her neck, and she gave it a soft squeeze. The thought of what those THINGS were doing to her at that moment tantalized her, maybe even made her jealous. 

She was loathe to leave her languor, but she was given a task. The others would be arriving at Alpha Site and records needed to be maintained. Afterwards they would all rendezvous at Tetra Station and then, oh yes then, The Dark Solstice would truly begin. 

“Sucks to be you Jerry,” she whispered.