Image from Pixabay by Ebenezer42

Kamryn yawned and stretched, checking the chronometer. There were seventy two hours left in her shift. She’d been awake for almost twelve full weeks and was feeling the strain. Theron and Mia slept peacefully in their cryopods and the temptation to wake one of them for a conversation was overwhelming.

Halcyon Corp had started the process of leap frogging its pilots so it could save money on crew pay. Didn’t have to pay them if they weren’t awake. The problem was the toll this took on the pilots’ psyche. No human action for twelve weeks at a stretch was detrimental to their mental health.

“No wonder why Caleb and Sofia quit after just two runs,” Kamryn muttered. The trip was supposed to take eight months. Each pilot would be awake for a third of the journey. Kamryn had drawn the short straw and gotten the first third.

She checked with the computer for the millionth time that day to make sure there were no course corrections needed and picked up her tablet. She’d gotten a lot of reading done. She was almost through her coursework for her next level piloting license. Perhaps she could transfer to a different company after this.

“Fek,” she muttered. “The contract.”

Of course she couldn’t. She was under binding contract with Halcyon for another two years because they’d paid to put her through the pilot academy. Two more years of these kinds of runs. Kamryn wasn’t sure if she could handle it.

Something skittered across the floor. Kamryn looked up, startled. There weren’t supposed to be any vermin on the ship. She watched for a moment, thinking it must have been her imagination when a giant silver bug – nothing she’d ever seen before – ran across the floor in front of her.

She yelped and jumped to her feet, startled. She pulled out her gun and began stalking the creature. It skittered and hissed and stayed just out of her line of sight.

For the next three days, Kamryn played a game of hide and seek with the insect. Never catching it, but always seeing it out of the corner of her vision. The timer went off and Theron woke up.

“Kam, time for sleep,” he told her.

“Theron, there’s some big alien bug on the ship,” she told him, eyes wild. “I’ve been stalking it for three days.”

“Kam, you’re seeing things. There are no alien bugs on the ship. The life form detector would be going off,” Theron said soothingly.

“It’s broken then because I have been chasing this thing for three days,” Kamryn protested.

“Come on, Kam. Let’s put you to sleep. Some rest will do you good,” Theron said.

“Be careful, Theron,” Kamryn said as he maneuvered her into the now vacant cryopod. “It’s fekking huge.” She closed her eyes and as the cryo system kicked in she drifted off to sleep.

*************

“What’s her name?” the official asked looking at the figure in the cryopod.

“Pilot Kamryn Wells, sir,” the medic said.

“And our other pilot said she broke under the strain?” the official asked.

“Yes sir. Claimed there was a giant alien bug on the ship,” the medic said.

“Leave her in the crypod then. She’s a danger to society if she’s mentally unstable,” the official said.

“Yes sir,” the medic said. The cryopod was stashed in a warehouse with eleven other cryopods, all containing pilots who’d broken under the strain of Halcyon Corp’s new leap frogging policy.