Part 4
Bowder peered around the corner. There was some very weird crap going on here. Kat had been the first. The captain had found her in her quarters. She had hung herself. Why would the stations priest hang themselves? It had always worried him that they needed a priest anyway!
Then there was Ciera; the youngest of the crew. She would spend nights in her quarters crying. She was only 21 and the stations tech expert. Some kind of whiz kid, captains pet. Ate, drank and slept the corporation. He still had nightmares about finding her body. She hadn't shown up for duty so the captain decided that he was the one to go find her. He had got no answer when he knocked on her door. When he placed his ear against her door he could hear the radio. He managed to override the door code and get in.
Her room lights were turned down to ambient. The radio seemed to be playing a really old pop song. He remembered his sister playing it when she was going out. He closed his eyes. Ronnie. She would have been about the same age. Was that why he had taken Ciera under his wing? Had he been looking for someone to love just as he had loved her? He noticed her night things on the bed and blushed looking away. The music seemed to be coming from the bathroom up ahead.
"Ciera are you in there?" he had shouted but had got no reply. He slowly nudged the door open. It was then he noticed the sea of bloodstained water on the linoleum floor. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off the snake like pattern. His stomach turned and he slowly looked up at the bath. Ciera lay there like an angel. She looked as if she were sleeping. Her naked skin was bloated and white; she had an expression of bliss on her pale face. He looked down at the arm that drooped over the side of the bath. It had an inch long cut along it, enough to sever an artery; she had bled to death. Bowder's heart now took residence in his throat. Why and what had made her do this to herself? He sank to his knees. He felt the cold mixture of water seep through his trousers. The feeling of sorrow for this young girls life was unbearable. He crawled to the bath and drew her head close to his chest and cradled her sobbing.
Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes. The captain had given the preacher and Ciera a burial in space. Bowder hated it. It felt so cold to send the bodies into the emptiness of space. Their families would never get to pay their last respects.
Dr Andra Solomon the station's doctor had given them all what she called risk evaluations. Played with their mind. He didn't need a shrink to tell him he was as sane as the next man. This was his second post for the company. He'd seen it all before. Crew members becoming stir crazy being holed up in this relic. Even gotten into a few fights with most of them. That was his job. To sort out the crew, he was the crew liaison officer. It still made him laugh that title. He wasn't all that good with people. His motto had used to be hit first and ask questions later. It must have been old age that had mellowed him. He ran gnarled tobacco stained fingers through his dirty grey hair. Yep he had seen some pretty freaky stuff in this past few weeks but nothing quite a strange as the rather large blue box that had appeared in the docking area on his usual sweep that night. He fired up his ever faithful laser pistol and waited to see what emerged.