Exploring Titan

~9~

As I sprinted across my small room, my bed suddenly shot out of the wall, I trip over it and almost fall out the door.

If it hadn't just immediately slammed shut in my face.

I reel back in pain and agony as a sharp pain ran up my flat nose and straight to my brain.

"Is something bleeding? Dear God, I hope nothing is bleeding!!"

I couldn't tell if the words I said were inside my head or spoken out loud, but I ran to the bathroom to inspect my face nonetheless.

I could not and cannot afford any more blood loss in my body.

I was already in the realm of being declared anaemic. And I had no way of getting my blood levels back up outside of just going home.

Which was becoming a more and more tempting option.

I look back up at my reflection with a cold hard stare.

My light chocolate brown complexion stared back at me, my slightly swollen button nose being the focal point of my attention as the injured area discoloured to a slightly purplish dark pink.

My lips also looked a lot fuller than usual, making me worry if I might have hit them too, but the pain in my nose distracted me from feeling anything else in any other area.

My once puffy cheeks are now slightly hollow as it became evident of how strictly I had to ration food as of late. I wasn't starving myself or anything. I just wasn't eating in excess, and I began to lose weight as a result.

Some envied the situation I was in and I was suddenly being called a "skinny legend". But the day I lose the curves of my voluptuous hips is the day I willingly throw myself out of my ship to drown.

My deep chocolate eyes (gosh, I must be hungry. Especially for chocolate) a near exact colour match to my African as fuck hair.

When the gods decided to bless me with curls, they said 'She'll have the most 4c of 4c hair imaginable!'. Good thing it was long so it looks voluminous and not an imitation rats nest like it looked like all throughout high school.

Those school years were rough, but thank God puberty came back with a vengeance to save my ass.

I walk out of my bathroom and pull the door behind me, assessing my room. The bed had put itself back into the wall, but the ship door was still closed tight.

I walk over to it to test the handle just in case-

Yep. Still locked.

I walk back to my computer and pull out my comfy gaming chair and solemnly sit down in it.

My comments were at war with Carol, blaming her for overriding my ship's systems and almost trying to kill me.

While a small minority pointed out I was already doing a good job of trying to kill myself.

"Ah- what!? I didn't even do anything!!" Carol fumbled to defend herself as she barely even understood what had transpired.

"It wasn't Carol." I suddenly spoke up.

everything seemed to pause for dramatic effect.

I took an audible deep breath to signal to everyone to quiet down.

And when I exhaled, I looked at the camera with an uncharacteristically serious expression.

"So...I was going to start off by saying I have good news and bad news," I begin to say with an amused giggle, "But then I realized what I had was...just news."

I finish off with a mildly hysterical laugh, the realization of my discovery finally sinking it.

"But I'll still categorize it into good and bad just for you. So, which do you want to hear first?"

Comments come flying in.

"Hold on, hold on..." I lean forward and create a little poll for them, and the options between good news and bad news, colour-coded red and blue respectively, begin flying passed one another in a frenzy.

The blue option finally won out with a slight majority.

Bad news first.

"Okay, looks like you want the bad news first," I took a deep breath, preparing myself mentally.

"Oh my God, just sip it out bestie!" Carol pushed, also voting for the bad news first.

I give her a pointed look that clearly said 'Shut up. Now's not the time.', and she got the hint that this wasn't the usual goofy scenario that I'd stumbled my way into, and promptly zipped her lip.

I decided to get it over with like ripping off a bandaid.

Besides, nothing I tell them will affect them in any way. I'm the poor unfortunate soul that has to deal with everything. So why was I so worried on their behalf???

"Okay so, bad news. Carol wasn't the one who did anything because we all know no one but me has sole access to my ship. Even if she could, she'd have to hack into my system. And she'd have to be on the same planet as me to have a chance of doing that, because only then will she have access to the same network system of the nearest satellite."

I wait for a moment of pause to let the information I said fully sink in.

"Which means....something or someone is not only here on Titan with me, but has successfully managed to hack into my ship's system, and probably has full control of it as we speak."

I finished speaking and wait for the chaos.

It was so bad that my chat began to lag as new messages couldn't even come through, and Carol's phone began to blare as her boss/supervisors where desperately calling to get a hold of her and or see if they could speak to me.

I pull one of my legs up on the chair so my knee could reach my chin as a suspicious golden comment surprisingly makes it through the crowd and pops up to the top of my chat.

[💛And the good news?💛]

I smirk at the comment.

"The good news is, they seem benevolent and are trying to keep me alive...maybe."