Skylab Slaughter

It was total chaos inside the control room of the Skylab Space Station.  An unknown organism had breached the hull of the far side of the space station and made its way inside.  In a total state of panic, the three terrified astronauts closed a gray metal hatch, sealing themselves off inside the small control room.  Red warning lights flashed and reflected vibrantly off of their bulky bright-white spacesuits as multiple alarms were activated by the hull breech.  Oxygen gauges on the control panels indicated a rapid loss in breathable air and motion sensors revealed that the creature was rapidly moving in their direction.

In the intense panic and confusion, the astronauts screamed over each other:

“MAYDAY HOUSTON MAYDAY!”

“What the f**k is happening?”  WHAT IS THAT THING?”

“HOUSTON!!”

“WE’RE LOSING CABIN PRESSURE!”

“Oxygen at twenty percent!”

“SOMEBODY HELP!”

“HELMETS!  GET YOUR HELMETS ON!”

Fortunately, all three of them managed to don their space helmets before their oxygen was sucked out of the space station.

Dustin was the first astronaut to get his helmet on and he immediately turned his attention to the instrument panel, frantically flipping switches with his puffy-white space gloves.  His heart was beating so fast it felt like it was about to explode as he electronically locked all of the hatches between them and the alien creature.  A row of green lights illuminated on the panel, indicating that all of the hatches were secure.  The chaos and panic in the room began to subside as one of the cameras revealed that the alien was now locked in the compartment on the far side of Skylab.

“Oh thank God!” Dustin said.  His polycarbonate visor was fogged up from his panic breathing, but at least they were safe from the alien.  His fellow astronauts gave him spacesuited hugs and praised him for his quick thinking.

“Mayday Houston, come in Houston.” One of the astronauts tried, receiving only static in response.  “Houston, do you copy?  This is an emergency!” He continued.

“What…what the f**k is that thing?” asked one of the horrified astronauts as the three of them turned their attention to the tiny screen on the instrument panel.  

“I..I..I Don’t know.” Dustin replied, in between heavy breaths.  His heart rate was still high, but he was starting to calm down, slowly, now that the creature was contained.  He felt safe, sealed inside of the control room, and he knew that their spacesuits would provide them with enough oxygen until they figured out a solution to the air leak.  

Dustin gasped in astonishment as he studied the dark-gray creature on the screen, which seemed to be somehow impervious to the oxygenless-vacuum of space.  The alien was large and incredibly muscular, with an oblong head and a humanoid body.  The astronauts could tell, just by looking at its powerful body, that the deep-space creature was some sort of predator.  With no weapons aboard Skylab, the spacemen knew that they would be completely defenseless against the alien, or whatever it was.  Luckily, Dustin had been able to remotely lock all of the hatches from the control room.

The creature moved around rapidly inside of the small compartment that it was trapped in, quickly assessing the rather-delicate aluminum construction of the spacecraft.  Dustin and his fellow astronauts had underestimated the alien.  They were right about it being a predator, but its oblong head contained a massive brain and it was incredibly intelligent.  It was an advanced organism, lethally sophisticated, and it didn’t take long for it to solve the minor inconvenience of the “secured” hatches.

Dustin got an uneasy feeling as the three astronauts continued to watch the alien on the screen.  Its movements weren't erratic, like some sort of animal trapped in a cage.  Rather, they were calculated and intentional, as if it was searching for weaknesses in the metal.

“What’s it doing?” one of the bewildered spacemen asked. 

“It’s thinking!” Dustin replied, with a nervous tremble in his voice.

“OH S**T!”

In that moment, the screen went blank and the astronauts could no longer see the creature.  One of the astronauts tapped on the screen, but it wouldn’t come back on; it was dead.  Then, one by one, the green lights that indicated all of the hatches were secure started to turn red.  Each red light indicated a hatch that had been compromised.  First, the green light for the hatch that the alien was trapped behind turned red and the astronauts realized that they were no longer safe.

“Oh no, please, please no!”  Dustin begged as he looked at the instrument panel in horror.

Four green lights turned into three, and then just two as the creature penetrated through another aluminum hatch with ease.  The defenseless astronauts could hear the alien destroying the hatches; it was a horrific screeching-metallic sound that got louder and louder as the alien got closer to them, hatch by hatch.  One spaceman lost control of his bladder as he helplessly watched the lights turn from green to red.  He felt the warm sensation of urine trickle down his thigh inside of his bulky suit, meanwhile Dustin trembled in his white space boots as tears of terror streamed down his handsome face.  

Watching the growing line of red lights was like hopelessly watching grains of sand slip through an hourglass.  Each red light was a grain of sand being lost as time rapidly slipped away for the doomed astronauts.  Nobody was coming to help them and the failing hatches had been their only hope.

Through the soles of their white space boots, the three horrified astronauts could feel the thunderous vibration of the third hatch being demolished by the alien’s wrath.  The horrifying sound emitted by the creature as it penetrated the third hatch was so loud that it resonated inside of their space helmets, filling their hearts with terror.  The astronauts wrongly assumed that they cleverly trapped the alien, but now they were the ones who were trapped- protected only by the fourth and final hatch.  

Only one of the lights was green- it was the light for the control room hatch.  The terrified expression on Dustin’s face was illuminated by the three red lights that were shining through his clear polycarbonate visor.  How could this be happening?  This was supposed to be a peaceful, scientific mission in space.  What was this creature?  Why did it attack Skylab?  So many questions ran through his scientific brain as he trembled by the instrument panel.  

“Please no please… please no!” one of the astronauts quietly cried as he shook uncontrollably in fear.  All three of them were afraid to scream or say anything louder than a whisper, for fear of giving away their location behind the last hatch.  They were all hanging onto the thin-thread of hope that the alien didn’t know they were there and that it would leave without entering the control center.  Their silence seemed to be working and they heard no further sounds from the alien.

Without saying a word, the three spacemen slowly stepped backwards, away from the hatch, and stood tightly together in the far corner of the control room.  The shoulders of their puffy suits pressed into each other like plush pillows as they stood there, shaking in terror.  From the corner, Dustin continued to stare at the last green light while his fellow astronauts stared at the hatch, which was on the opposite side of the room.  There were still no attempts made by the alien to penetrate the final obstacle that stood in between the predator and its prey.  What was it doing?  Why wasn’t it coming for them?  

Then, everything went black.  Pitch-black.  Even the lights on the control panels went dark, and it was dead-silent with the absence of electrical noises.  The terrified astronauts were breathing heavily inside their helmets, which was the only noise that could be heard in the silent, dark room.  But even in the darkness, Dustin noticed that he could still faintly see their white spacesuits.  He felt incredibly vulnerable, knowing that not even the blackness of the room could hide them from the creature because of their suits; if the alien shredded his way through the hatch, he would surely see them.

A gruesome childhood memory flashed into Dustin’s mind.  He suddenly remembered the time that he was at a lake as a boy, watching a beautiful white swan peacefully floating on top of the water.  All of the sudden the swan started squawking as it was violently dragged under the water by a ravenous alligator snapping turtle.  The swan didn’t stand a chance and it never saw the snapper, but the gleaming-white swan was easily spotted by the predator from the dark depths below.

The sound of their own panic breathing was deafening inside of their bubble-shaped space helmets while they trembled in terror in the black silence.  There were no sounds at the hatch.  No attempts by the creature to shred its way through the aluminum.  Seconds felt like minutes as they stood there, pressed up tightly against each other in the corner, waiting on their doom.  Dustin knew that the alien was playing with them and that they would be easy prey.  It could get them whenever it wanted, and that time was now.

One of the astronauts let out a blood-curdling scream as the alien snatched him up in the darkness.  “AHHHHHHHH IT'S GOT ME!  SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!  I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

How it surreptitiously gained access to the control room will forever remain a mystery, but the astronauts would now experience its wrath.  The sound of the astronaut’s excruciating screams echoed loudly off the metal walls, followed by the spray of his blood splattering all over the control room.

“MAYDAY HOUSTON MAYDAY!  WE’RE BEING ATTACKED!” Dustin screamed as he listened to the horrific sounds of his fellow astronaut being killed.  In the darkness he couldn’t see what the alien was doing to his friend, but he could hear the loud and gruesome sounds of the astronaut being ripped apart by the creature.  Soon, the astronaut was no longer screaming and Dustin knew that he was dead.

“SOMEBODY HELP US!” the other astronaut screamed, “OH S**T, NO!  NO!  NOOOOOOO!  AHHHHH! NOOOOO!!! HEEEELLPP!”

Dustin could faintly see his friend helplessly kicking his legs in the air as the alien lifted him up as if he were a little doll.  In one swift, seamless motion the alien threw the astronaut across the room into one of the control panels, which happened to be the main electrical panel for the entire space station.  The brutal impact of the astronaut slamming into the panel smashed in its metal cover, causing it to make contact with the high-voltage wires inside.  The raw power of the electrical current instantly fused the astronaut to the metal panel and his body flailed uncontrollably as he was electrocuted to death.

The sounds of his friend being electrocuted to death were absolutely horrifying; his screams were quickly muted by what sounded like bacon frying in a pan, only much louder.  Dustin could feel the intense vibrations of the merciless electrical currents from across the room as the spaceman was fried to death.

Bright-blue electrical sparks shot out of the panel, around the astronaut’s flailing body, and illuminated the control room like a strobe light.  In the flashes of light, Dustin could see the massive dark-gray alien coming for him like a freight train barreling down the tracks towards a stalled out car.  With each millisecond-long flash of light, the alien was one step closer to him and it didn’t take long for it to cross the small control room.  

Dustin was so terrified that he couldn’t even move his legs.  They felt like they were filled with concrete and his feet felt like they were cemented to the metal floor.  All he could do was scream.  In his final moments, just before the creature got him, Dustin thought about his beautiful-blonde girlfriend back at home, who he’d never see again.  

In the final flash of electrical sparks, Dustin saw that the alien was now directly in front of him, extending out its long black claws.  Its razor-sharp talons shredded right through Dustin’s delicate spacesuit and penetrated deep into his body.  With its talons hooked into the astronaut’s body, the deep-space creature effortlessly lifted his squirming victim off of the ground.  Dustin let out a final blood-curdling scream before the alien ripped him apart; fortunately, his death was quick.

Still floating somewhere in space, the Skylab Space Station has never been revisited by astronauts. What the creature was, where it came from and why it attacked the spacemen will forever remain a mystery.