The New Flesh

As the sun’s blaze of luminance crested over the outer edge of Jupiter, Manny thought that he had never seen a more beautiful sight in all of his life. Throughout his travels through space, he had seen many wondrous sights, but this was by far his favorite. Most of the time staring out into space is quite boring. Much like looking into the night sky, but this was unparalleled with anything he had ever seen before. He needed something good in his life with what had been going on. Then he heard it: the howling.

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Since their arrival in the orbit of Jupiter, Manny and his crew sporadically heard a loud pitch sound. It almost sounded like a wolf baby crying. It was then that Manny realized that the sound always began the second they were on the dark side of Jupiter. He wondered if something could actually be living down there in the mass of swirling gas clouds. Something that did not like the dark. He was shocked out of his deep train of thought by a sound behind him.

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“Captain, I just found Ensign Williams dead sir. He appears to have died from some sort of a trauma to his head.”

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“Damn it lieutenant! All right, put him in sick bay with the rest of them. How close is Ensign Eagle to getting our systems back online?”

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“I’m not sure, sir, but he has to be almost finished. I spoke with him over an hour ago, and he told me that he needed only about another hour to restore the system.”

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The mission had been nothing but hell since they had first heard the howling from the dark side of Jupiter. First, the systems unexpectedly went down, and then crew members were being found dead. The only survivors at this point were Manny, Lieutenant Bacon, and Ensign Eagle. All of the others had perished from strange occurrences. All Manny wanted was to get the systems back online and get the hell away from this godforsaken planet.

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The excitement he had once felt for this mission was astounding. He had been personally selected to captain the mission to Jupiter and lead the research of the Great Red Spot. It was a fact finding mission beyond anything that had even been documented by history, and he, Manuel Ortega, was selected to be the leader of this groundbreaking adventure. Now he wished he hadn’t.

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The howling increased. It was enough to drive a man crazy. What could be making that horrible shrill from the depths of the gas giant? How could anything be living down there? And what connection did the howling have to do with his crew’s mysterious deaths? He heard a noise behind him and turned around.

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“Oh, Ensign Eagle. Are we back online yet?” he asked as he saw the engineer walking toward him.

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“Yes sir, we are, but I’m afraid that it’s not going to do you any good,” the Ensign answered.

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“What are you talking about, Ensign? Explain yourself!”

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“You see, you won’t be coming back to Earth with me,” he responded.

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“How dare you speak to a commanding officer like that! What you are saying to me is mutinous! I will have Lieutenant Bacon lock you up in the brig for that comment!” Manny screamed at him.
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“That will be sort of hard for the Lieu to accomplish as I just got done smashing his head in back in the infirmary. It squashed like an over-ripe grapefruit. It was beautiful.”.

“It’s been you? You’ve been doing this? But why?” Manny questioned.

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“Because when I get back to Earth, I’m set for life. As the only survivor to a mission gone horribly wrong, I’ll be renowned as a national hero. I’ll be showered with fame and fortune. Back when I was on Earth, I used to get a thrill out of strangling a hooker on occasion. I loved the sensation of watching the fear in those stupid bitches’ eyes as they realized that they were going to die. It was exhilarating! But now I found something even more thrilling. There’s nothing like killing someone while you’re in space!”

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“You’re insane,” Manny responded. “So you turned the systems offline and murdered the crew. What are you going to do when they find the bodies after you return to Earth?”

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“There won’t be any bodies because I’m going to vacuum them out through the airlock. I’ve got plenty of time to cover my tracks. It’s a long trip home.”

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“And what about the howling? What is it?” Manny asked.

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“I have no idea,” Ensign Eagle told him. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I care about is watching your face as I do this!”

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Ensign Eagle suddenly lifted a large metal tool into the air and slammed it down with great force toward Manny’s head. Manny tried to block the blow with his arms, but he only partially thwarted the attack. He felt the bones in his forearm shatter as the metal rod crashed into him. The impact knocked him out of his seat and onto the ground where Ensign Eagle proceeded to stand over him and repeatedly hit him with the makeshift weapon. He felt the life being pulled away from him and all he heard was the howling as his mind faded to black. The howling on the dark side of Jupiter.

"The Dark Side of Jupiter"
Copyright: © 2009 B. A. Sans

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B. A. Sans writes for both adults and children. His work has been published in numerous literary magazines such as Boston Literary, Necrotic Tissue, and Stories for Children Magazine. He has also written two adult novels and two middle grade novels for which he is currently searching for representation.