Chapter 12 Preview
The Weight
This preview picks up from the middle of the chapter.
Adam takes a sip, the mug steady in one hand, while the other absently rubs his chin.
His mind drifts, the bitterness of the coffee barely registering.
A sudden wetness pulls him back. Adam pauses, lowering the hand on his chin. Expecting a spill, he instead finds drops of coffee hovering around his skin. They glisten in the artificial light, tiny, weightless globes suspended in midair.
His gaze shifts to his cup. The coffee ripples, but instead of settling, the liquid lifts. A few drops break free, joining the others in their strange suspension.
Adam blinks. The sight doesn’t compute.
Then he feels it—not in his mind, but in his body.
He’s… lighter.
Something’s wrong with the ship.
Carefully, Adam sets the mug down. But instead of the soft clink of porcelain meeting metal, the cup drifts a few centimeters above the table, lazily floating as if gravity has forgotten its purpose.
The ship’s lights abruptly shift to emergency red, bathing the interior in a crimson glow. A soft yet urgent chime pulses through the air, warning of the malfunction.
“Tartar, where are you?” he asks in his ComSpec.
“Engineering with Mr. Nabal, as you requested, sir.”
“What’s going on?” he says as he rises from his seat with unnatural ease. The sensation is disorienting, a warning of the strange and unpredictable events about to unfold.
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“Gravity. Something’s wrong.”
The force returns abruptly, pressing him back into his chair. It’s not subtle or forgiving; it presses down with crushing intensity, as if some unseen hand has pushed down hard on his shoulders.
“There are no anomalies detected in Engineering, sir. However, some Artificial Gravity System stabilizers are experiencing isolated issues in specific sectors. We’re working to isolate the fault. As a precaution, I recommend proceeding to the Command Module to access the AGS kill switch.”
“Copy. Stay in Engineering with Levi. I’m headed there now,” Adam says, exiting the commons, sluggish under the increased weight. He navigates the narrow corridors of the crew module, passing the sleeping quarters and the medical bay, every step heavy and deliberate. The gravity fluctuates wildly; one moment, he’s nearly weightless, his feet barely skimming the floor, and the next, a brutal force makes him feel twice his weight.
Then gravity turns off again.
He grips the side bulkhead, swinging his body forward as if navigating sideways monkey bars.
As Adam passes the Embryo Vault, he peers through the narrow window. Inside, Zoe struggles against the chaos, her face tight with concentration. She stretches to snatch tools and monitoring devices floating erratically in low gravity. Each item is swiftly captured; her movements are precise, determined to protect the fragile systems surrounding her.
Adam forces himself onward, calling out as he nears Engineering. “Levi, what’s going on with my AGS?”
“All green earlier, boss,” Levi replies, his voice thin with uncertainty.
“Well, it’s not green now!” Adam snaps. “I’m hitting the kill switch when I reach the CM.”
The gravity shifts again, throwing Adam off balance. His stomach roils as he fights the disorienting changes.
The fluctuations intensify, coming closer together.
Gravity is gone again.
Adam grips the bulkhead as he floats around a corner, colliding with Lilith. She clutches the wall for balance, her eyes wide with alarm, legs flailing as she fights to steady herself.
“Adam, what’s happening?” her voice trembles.
“Get to a safe place,” he says, gripping her shoulder in reassurance. “Tartar’s working on it. I need to reach the CM.”
Lilith’s fingers tighten on the metal wall, and for a moment, something unspoken passes between them. Then, with a reluctant nod, she lets go of the wall and shifts aside, pressing herself against the bulkhead to let him pass.
Gravity surges again, this time with vengeance. Adam and Lilith are slammed to the deck. The impact steals the breath from his lungs, and he hears her sharp gasp.
She pushes herself up as best she can, muscles straining under the relentless pull of twice her normal weight. Blood trickles from her nose, but in the heightened gravity, it doesn’t just fall—it streaks downward in a thin, rapid line, pulled fiercely by the increased force.
Adam reaches out, torn between urgency and the instinct to help.
“Lilith…” The urge to assist her pulls at him.
But the alarms scream louder as the seconds stretch into painful, conflicting choices.
“Go,” Lilith says, pressing a blood-slicked hand to her nose. “You have to.”
He pushes forward, propelled by adrenaline. The corridor narrows as Adam approaches the Command Module. Gravity continues to fluctuate—now too light, then impossibly heavy. Each shift wrings strength from his body, his muscles burning.
Gravity lightens to half and then suddenly doubles again.
It pulls him down hard, pressing him to his knees, his stomach churning violently. He leans against the bulkhead, gripping a railing as he fights the overwhelming urge to retch. Just as bile rises in his throat and spills from his mouth, gravity abruptly shuts off.
The expelled contents, no longer bound by gravity, splatter through the corridor in a disgusting cloud. Globules of partially digested food and stomach acid float lazily, a grotesque constellation around Adam, now weightless in the air. The nauseating smell fills his nostrils, making him gag more.
Without warning, gravity slams back with a vengeance, stronger than ever.
Adam is pile-driven onto the deck, landing on his back. The impact knocks the wind out of him, leaving him gasping like a fish out of water. At the same moment, the floating bile rains down, splattering across his face, uniform, and the floor with a sickening slap.
Gravity is too heavy this time. Way too heavy. It doubles, triples, pressing him harder into the floor.
The weight crushes him, turning every movement into agony. His muscles burn under the pressure, and his bones feel on the verge of cracking. His chest tightens, making each breath a battle.
Then he hears it—a piercing sound that cuts through the mechanical chaos.
Screams.
Lilith’s voice, sharp with fear, and Zoe’s, high and strained, reach him like a dagger to the chest.
The noise sends a surge of panic through Adam, but it’s the silence that follows that terrifies him—if the women aren’t screaming, it means they can’t.
His cheeks sag, skin stretching like putty. Veins bulge, mapping a spiderweb of blue beneath the surface.
“Commander Elwin?” Tartar’s voice crackles through his ComSpec.
He strains to lift his arm, each centimeter a battle as he fights to bring the device near his mouth. “Tartar!” he yells, but silence is his only reply.
Pressure mounts, an invisible giant crushing him into the floor.
Huff, huff, huff. He instinctively breathes out sharply every few seconds, beginning the Anti-G Straining Maneuver. It’s a technique drilled into him during training, muscle memory taking over where conscious thought fails. He clenches every muscle, willing his body to fight the crushing force. His vision narrows, darkness encroaching at the edges as his body struggles to pump blood to his brain.
Gravity grows stronger and stronger.
Now, the ComSpec on his chest presses down on his chest like an anvil.
“Tar— tar…”
It’s no use.
Strength. Courage. He thinks.
That’s no use either.
Blood pools in his back, a warm, sick sensation spreading with each agonizing heartbeat. He can feel his organs shifting, compressed by the unnatural gravity. Every breath is a battle, his lungs straining against the immense pressure.
“Tar—”
Finally, Adam catches sight of Tartar sprinting past him toward the Command Module, eyes pulsing red diamonds. The android moves with seemingly effortless strength, unfazed by the punishing gravity. Yet each step strikes the metal floor with a resounding thud, and the strained whirring of its servos fills the air—vrrr-shk, vrrr-shk, vrrr-shk—the only indication of the tremendous force it battles against.
“Help…” Adam’s voice is a mere whisper, the last audible word he can muster.
His vision narrows, darkness closing in. The effort to stay conscious has become overwhelming.
Strength. Cour…
Adam finds himself paralyzed by a sinking realization.
This is it, he thinks. He closes his eyes, and for the first time in his life…
Help me, he prays. To whom, he doesn’t know. Neither does he care.
Adam only hopes He cares.
A moment passes before he senses a feminine presence, prompting him to open his eyes one last time.
She’s there.
Not a hallucination.
Not this time.
The woman from his dreams. Completely unaffected by gravity.
Her veil stirs gently, defying the oppressive weight as if touched by a soft breeze. When it falls away, her face is revealed, olive skin glowing with an otherworldly sheen. Her amber eyes smolder with an intensity that cuts through the suffocating atmosphere. Her dark hair cascades effortlessly, undisturbed by the crushing force enveloping everything else.
Her lips part. Words form, but no sound escapes.
He feels them instead.
“Meet with me” sears into his mind as everything fades to black.