Warning: This story features bondage-related peril.

Context: This is a short story written for Day 14 of Kinktober 2024 using the prompt words Anomaly and Stretch.

I tapped a button on my spaceship’s console to initiate another scan. The 3-dimensional display of the galaxy re-rendered, showing the same large fuzzy patch as before, still intersecting my flight path. Mysteriously labelled ‘Unknown anomaly’. I set the scanner to repeat on loop. Maybe the nature of it would become clearer once I got closer.

I activated the auto-pilot and swivelled my seat away from the front window, towards the long-range communications panel. After a minute of waiting, my outgoing call to headquarters was answered.

“HQ, I have an anomaly ahead on my delivery flight path. My scanner isn’t giving any information about what it is or whether it’s harmful. Co-ordinates transmitted. I am requesting authorisation for an unscheduled re-routing.”

“Copy that Courier N1474. Please stand by.”

I waited for a reply. My ship was currently coasting through space off a planet slingshot. To reroute I would need to engage thrusters twice, once to break away from the predefined path to give the unknown region a wide berth, and once again to get back on track. Fuel was expensive so getting approval from HQ was required for such deviations.

I was starting to get anxious as the strange spot was only getting closer. We could send messages across galaxies in seconds but we couldn’t get humans to hurry up.

“HQ are you still there? Please advise.”

The 3D scan refreshed. The anomaly was suddenly much much closer than the previous analysis had interpreted. It loomed wide in the front window. Rather than a physical object, all I could see was a roughly circular area distorting the view behind it. The regular distribution of stars was shifted inside the circle, arranged like a kaleidoscope with a higher concentration at the centre.

Several warning lights and sirens suddenly fired off simultaneously in the cockpit. The voice from HQ shouted out from the communications panel.

“Courier N1474, evacuate immediately! Evasive action impossible! Repeat, evacuate immediately!”

I froze in shock for only a second, then rapidly unbuckled from my seat. I sprinted down the small ship into the single-passenger escape pod at the back.

I laid against the soft padding inside the pod, closed the door, and tapped a big red button to initiate the launch. I heard a rising hum as it started up. Any second now, straps would be deployed from slots in the padding to hold me down, ensuring I wouldn’t be tossed against the walls in the event of a turbulent ejection.

As I stared through the pod door’s front window at the inside of my ship, the strangest thing happened. Its walls were rippling. The solid metal was folding, stretching, shrinking, all in regular geometric patterns. The effect was creeping forward, getting closer to the pod.

I rapidly tapped the launch button over and over. I needed to eject immediately!

The hum reached a high pitch and with a loud ping, dozens of grey polyester straps sprung through the air within the pod in front of me. They whipped inwards, pulling against my body.

I realised that re-pressing the button so much wasn’t the right move. The straps were pulling too tightly and there were far more than necessary, with even more still coming. They wrapped over other straps already in place, gradually covering up every last gap. As I yelled, one strap tugged in between my open lips.

My vision distorted and folded inwards.

There was no more spaceship. No more escape pod. No more padding. No more straps. I couldn’t see anything. I could only feel my body existing.

ping

My body was suddenly hugged by straps all over, pulling my legs together, crushing my arms against my sides. They wrapped around my head, gagging and blinfolding me. I tried to shout through them, wriggling like a helpless worm in empty space. They squeezed in constantly, a suffocatingly tight second skin.

Then I felt nothing again. Nothing touching me. Did I imagine that?

p i n g

The pinging sound was slowed down and lower pitched this time, an ominous booming echo. I felt the presence of the straps again, but this time they were much slower moving. Gentle, almost caressing. I tried to pull an arm away from one but it followed my movement, wrapping around my forearm and pulling it back in. Slowly and surely, they closed against me, tightening very gradually. I couldn’t avoid them. They couldn’t be stopped. I writhed within them for a long time.

Then they were gone again. I was free again. I took this moment to try to figure out logically what was happening. Where was I really?

ping!

The straps returned with a fury, all over every last square inch of me in only a quarter of a second, compressing tighter than ever. They pulled my mouth open, adding layer after layer until they were stacked enough to fill my entire mouth. And yet more kept coming to form a full covering over my mouth and cheeks. I struggled like mad. More and more layers built up around me, reducing my panicked thrashing until I literally couldn't move.

Then nothing. I knew this reprieve wouldn’t last. I had to-

ping

“Update on the Courier N1474 anomaly please.”

“Yes sir. After some considerable examination we have determined that the anomaly reported was a fractal tear in spacetime. Space and time splits infinitely into smaller repeating segments in a way that frankly, we don’t fully understand.”

“I see. And the pilot that was caught in it before managing to escape, any chance they survived?”

“Honestly sir, I would hope not. The effect of such a phenomenon on the human mind is unknown. Our best guess is that whatever is happening at the instant the border is crossed becomes a sort of moment suspended in time, reoccurring over and over and over. There’s no telling for how long. Theoretically until the universe ends.”

“Understood. Add the report to the archives and reroute all deliveries to avoid that system in future. Dismissed.”