Critical Dawn by Colin F. Barnes, Darren Wearmouth

stasis chamber.”
    Maria had her arm around Erika. She glanced up at Ben and shrugged.
    “Looks like we don’t have a choice,” Ben said. “Hopefully, they’ll be here soon.”
    “You know what?” Maria said. “The Ops Compartment seems comfortable compared to here. And I thought we pulled the short straw.”
    Erika groaned, rubbing her ankle. “Tell me about it.”
    Ben hoped the first person they encountered would be sympathetic and take Erika away for treatment. The last thing he wanted was for word to get around that their team wasn’t capable of making it through a couple of airlocks.
    Especially on his command. He’d worked hard throughout his time and didn’t want any blemish on his record. Or worse: have to go visit the superiors. He remembered one guy, Brad, who screwed up. No one ever saw him again. Must have been transferred, but no one knew for certain.
    Just another of the many mysteries of life on the ship.
    However, this was a chance for the team to prove themselves outside their enclosed domain. Maybe they’d land better job roles. Go up the levels, remove some of the restrictions of working in Ops.
    He also wanted to find out if they were really being watched. There were so many stories that they were always monitored.
    He considered it might just be a case of a rumor to keep the workforce from slacking off, which he could understand. When you were relying on people to maintain a generation ship over the centuries, you didn’t want a group of ill-disciplined people putting everything in jeopardy.
    “Hey, what’s this?” Ethan said.
    He leaned down and picked up a thin piece of metal.
    Ben instantly recognized it by its shape. It was in a letter ‘J’ cut from a foil tray that their food came served in. Jimmy’s bookmark.
    “That’s Jimmy’s. He’s been here too,” Maria said.
    “Must have dropped it on his way out,” Ben said.
    “Don’t blame him. He’ll have a real bookmark,” Erika said. “Can you help me up?”
    Ben began to crouch but bolted up after a siren started to blast. It sounded similar to the ones he’d heard watching clips of twentieth-century car chases. It was different than the usual warnings alarms.
    A cold shiver of dread crawled down his back. Something wasn’t right here. He could just sense it.
    The light on the ceiling began to spin, accompanying his previous thought.
    Behind the large door, he heard a rattling sound, like somebody dropping a chain. The bottom edged shuddered and lifted up a couple of inches, sending bright light streaming into the small room.
    “Hello?” Ben said, “We’re from Ops. Come to run protocol checks on the stasis chamber as per the—”
    The solid door jerked up a few inches at a time. No one responded. He could see shadows beneath the door. He held his arm toward Erika. “Come on. Let’s get you on your feet.”
    He looked down and saw a pair of dark gray, smooth leather boots on the other side. They looked huge, much larger than usual. Just who was that on that on the other side? Ben took a step back as the door continued to rise.

Chapter Seven
    Charlie ignored Pippa’s protests and headed for the sinkhole.
    The sheriff stood in front of him, his arm pressing against Charlie’s chest.
    “I’m sorry, son, I can’t let you get any closer. It’s not safe.”
    “I’ve done this kind of thing before. If that’s one of our kids down there, I want to get down there ASAP. Your guys don’t seem in much of a rush.”
    The fire chief joined the sheriff. “We have to use procedure to make sure no one else gets hurt. We’re doing all we can. We’ll be mounting a rescue shortly.”
    “How?” Charlie said. “You’re busy watching the monitor. You should be having people down there with ropes and climbing gear. But you don’t have any of that stuff, do you? Where are the resources for this kind of rescue?”
    The sheriff looked sheepish. “We’re stretched at the moment is all. We’re managing with what