The hydrogen tail from the comet stretched out into a triangle that spread over six hundred kilometres. Wang maneuverer the Phoenix just above the cascading waves of hydrogen, skimming along the top, absorbing fuel for the reactor. Light from the thrusters reflected and refracted of the ice into a thousand rainbows through the ship’s port. Mia didn’t have time to enjoy the spectacle. “This should put us almost to capacity. Why is the tail so huge?”
“Usually a comet’s tail is only visible when it gets close to a star, but our engines give off just enough light to get a good look,” Wang explained while carefully keeping his hands on the throttle. “It won’t last long. We’ll burn off most of the dust. With luck, the right people will see it.”
“Or with a lot of bad luck, the Kalashnikov will find us and kill us all,” Mia said grimly.
Wang ignored her and continued to check his monitors. They were now close enough to collect solid readings on their destination. “Captain, I don’t think this is actually a comet.”
She tilted her head, confused. “What do you mean? You said it was a comet.”
“A comet seemed like the right fit from a distance, especially with the amount of hydrogen in the tail.” Wang smiled uneasily, not liking being caught surprised. “Scans estimate that the nucleus of that planetoid has a diameter of almost a thousand kilometres with a super-thick core. This could be an iron ball planetoid, with an unusually thick ice layer.”
“If this really is a rogue planetoid with metals, why hasn’t it been mined?” Even objects near the rim were tagged by deep miners. “Search for any claim beacons, and see if you can track the orbit to verify that it hasn’t been by any of the colonies recently.”
Wang fervently entered the calculations into his computer and flicked a switch activating a holo-display. “This old girl has been in a really wide orbit through the lower spiral of the Milky Way. I think this is as close as it’s been to a star in almost ten thousand years.”
“Does that account for stellar drift?” Mia asked, curious.
Wang rolled his eyes and continued to enter commands into the computer. “Yes, Captain. And look at that, it might have come near Old Earth.” He pointed to a beam of light in the display that took the rogue planetoid through a reverse path that lead to Sol 1 - the birth place of humanity. “It would have crossed Old Earth’s orbit ten thousand years ago. Small wonder it isn’t on any of our charts. The early humans wouldn’t have advanced much past fire by then.”
“I’m sure that its orbit has changed over the years,” Mia argued. “Asteroids, solar wind, or any number of a dozen different hazards could have changed the course, even if only slightly.”
“If it has, it was a long time ago,” Wang said, putting the sensor readings on the main screen. “The background radiation is fairly unique. I don’t think it’s been near a star in a very long time. We’re on the outside of the orbit of a class M star with weak radiation output. I don’t see anything else that could cause these readings.”
She smiled for the first time since waking. Maybe their luck was starting to change. “Well then, our profit margin might not be shot after all. If it turns out being worth anything, we can sell it to a university or a mining corp.”
Styles entered the command cabin, holding a thermos. “More coffee?”
Mia extended her cup and nodded gratefully. “That’s uncommonly kind.”
“My life is in your hands. I can’t let you fall asleep at the stick,” Styles replied as he poured the coffee. He glanced out the command cabin screen, startled to see the massive planetoid in the distance. “I don’t understand why the hell we’re going so close to that thing?”
Wang offered one of his annoyed faces. “It’s a good vacation spot. I’m thinking of retiring there.”
Styles stared at the pilot without blinking, opening and closing his hands. “Sometimes I think we’ve lost a certain element of our survival instinct in our evolution. What sort of weasel could mock a man like that and not expect a smack to the mouth? I could just reach out and snap your neck like a twig, and then finish your coffee before you dropped to the deck. If I felt like taking my time, I could simply choke the life out of you while you stared up at me helpless.”
“Shut it, Styles!”
“Captain, I’ve been slaving away at the stove all day, and I’ll follow orders. I just want to know the plan is all,” Styles complained.
“That planetoid looks like a proper comet from a distance and thus likely shows up on all sorts of astrological maps. If we’re lucky, all sorts of monitoring stations track it,” Mia explained.
“You think that one of the stations will see us?”
“Not at first,” Mia said. “But we’re going to alter the orbit.”
“What good will that do? We’re years away from anything useful,” Styles asked, irritated.
“Cultellus Ursus will detect the course change if we pull this off and with luck, they’ll send a ship to investigate.”
“And, if we’re lucky, this rock will actually be worth something,” Wang added. “Scans show potential for heavy metals. Might even find something Mouse can cobble together to replace our slipstream filament so we can leave on our own steam.”
“Really?” Styles said. He suddenly seemed a lot less worried.
“If you are done here, Styles suit up and gather your tools. We should take a couple of soil samples so we can register a proper claim either way,” Mia said with a knowing wink. “We could all retire from this.”
Styles set the thermos on the control board and quickly left the command cabin. “You don’t need to take samples to make a claim,” Wang replied, amused.
“If all goes well, we’re going to be on that rock for quite some time before pushing it into the new orbit. Giving Styles something to do will go a long way towards bringing us a bit of calm,” Mia said, smirking. “I figure you’ve been working hard and deserve a chance to finish your coffee.”
Wang clicked the com. “Mouse, we’re pulling into our landing orbit.”
Mouse’s high-pitched voice buzzed on the link. “Understood. I’m strapping myself in now.”
“I found a good spot on the southern axis,” Mia said. She highlighted a spot on the screen that denoted a small ice valley on the southern hemisphere.
“That’s going to make the course change difficult,” Wang complained.
Mia nodded. “According to the sensors, that side has the thickest density of metal under the thinnest layer of ice. We’ll have the lowest chance of sinking there. Best of a bad lot. The ice is thicker everywhere else, and we could get stuck.”
“I’m on it, Captain.”
It was a slow, difficult landing. The nucleus was egg shaped, which was odd, as most planetoids have a roughly spherical shape due to gravitational formation. Wang had to match the slight rotation of the comet’s nucleus and slowly descend to its orbit. Then, he landed the sleek, one hundred-eighty meter long cargo vessel upon the targeted area. As the weight of the Phoenix pressed heavy upon the ice field, the landing struts dug into the ice and slowly skidded to a stop.
The ground beneath the Phoenix bucked wildly and then stopped. Mia and Wang glanced at each other worried and then when it became clear that the landing had held they laughed.
“Alright, protocol people.”
Wang remained in the command cabin to calculate the required thrust to change the course of the planetoid. This was a complication manoeuvre and the crew couldn’t afford for him to be wrong.
Mia and Styles donned EVA suits to manually adjust the pitch of the engines and fired holding cables over the skids to hold the ship tight to the planetoid. Once Wang calculated the length of the required burn, they’d be able to push planetoid into a new course, but it would take a full burn to accomplish the task.
Meanwhile, Mouse repaired the holes in the hull and reinforced any weakened structures.
They worked quietly for almost an hour before hitting their first snag. Wang toggled the com-link. “Captain,
something is really off with my calculations.”
Styles groaned. He was standing on the starboard engine helping align it for the manoeuvre. “Don’t tell me we did this for nothing.”
Mia silenced Styles with a gesture. “What is it?”
“This rock masses more than it should, even for an iron ball. Take a look.” Wang sent a wave of data over the com-link. A series of measurements flashed over the screens in their EVA helmets. “Our scanners can’t seem to identify the metals mixed in with the rock under the ice. The density readings are all wrong.”
“What does that mean?” Styles asked.
“We’ll have to do a longer burn to change course.” Mia stepped gingerly onto the ice. She looked at the haze of ice turning to mist and escaping the orbit of the planetoid. “There might be caverns below us. The rock might not be as stable as we were hoping. Before we burn, we should try to see how stable this rock is. Scanners can’t penetrate past the ice.
“We’ll look around a bit and see if we can bring back a sample.” Mia didn’t need complications.
The Phoenix wasn’t equipped for a full-scale mining operation, but it did have a wide range of tools that could be used for almost any situation. There was always a chance of finding a score on a new planet. Corporations paid huge bounties on planets ripe for terraforming between trade routes. Discovering new or rare elements could jack the bounties so high that it was like winning the lottery a hundred times. The crew had done dozens of surveys, but thus far hadn’t found anything of note.
The Phoenix had a large array of search lights and a high beam on to illuminate the area. The ice reflected and magnified the light enough to threaten blindness. The EVA’s helmet shield closed, allowing some light through and more reliance of the suits screens. Styles and Mia first carried out giant heaters to melt the top layers of ice. Once activated, the white ice quickly dissipated into a hazy mist and trailed off the limited gravity of the planetoid. There was just enough gravity on the rock to keep them in place, provided they did jump, as a precaution Mia had them fire pitons into the ground and tie themselves to the planetoid.
Once the internal patches were sealed, Mouse donned her EVA suit and joined them outside to weld an additional hull plate to the aft section of the Phoenix.
Mia opened the cargo hold and used the lift to pull out drilling equipment. Styles used a jackhammer to crack the second layer of ice and to build a lower staging area for the burns. They lifted the drill platform onto the staging area and locked it into place. Under standard planetary gravity, it would have taken twenty men and a hydraulic lift to perform this manoeuvre, but Mia and Styles let the low gravity do most of the work and gently guided it into position.
“It would be nice if Wang could get off his pretty ass and help us,” Styles grumbled.
“Wang has his job.”
“Some job!” Styles sneered. “Sitting on his ass while we’re digging in the ice.”
“If we want to be rescued, he has to do the math correctly. We have to hit the target arc so this planetoid triggers all the possible monitoring systems. Imagine playing pool on a table the size of a soccer field, and we only get one shot. You think you can do the math, get to it. Otherwise, do the job and quit your bitching!”
“I’m sorry, Captain. There’s just something about this rock that makes me edgy, you know?”
Mia understood. She put a gloved hand on his shoulder. He barely felt it through the padded EVA suit, but the comfort of contact seemed to calm him down. Styles was a giant of a man who knew how to use his height to intimidate, but Mia couldn’t help but look at him as a younger brother who had somehow out outgrown her over the summer. “Yeah, I understand. Nothing about this rock feels right, but this is our best way out of here. I need you in the game without getting too ornery.”
Styles revved the drill a couple times and grinned. “Sure thing.”
They drilled thirty meters down before the press stopped cold. The pipes shook wildly. Confused, Mia shut down the engine and motioned to Styles. He turned the retracting crank on and then eased the excess slack from the drill pipes. After it cleared the surface, they bent down near the hole to examine the bit. It had been designed to withstand most common rock and metal formations, but they discovered that it had cracked and then split. “We still have that diamond tipped bit?” Mia asked.
“Been saving it for a rainy day, Captain.”
Mia impatiently gestured for Styles to get on track. “Let’s see how she does then.”
The diamond-tipped drill bit made it five additional meters and then shattered. Styles shook his head with disbelief. “Captain, I worked the mines at Laoshin for two years once. Never seen a high-pressured artificial diamond bit break like that.”
Mia tapped the ship-wide com button on her wrist. “Mouse, what do we have in the way of scanning equipment?”
“I have a portable scanner on my belt. It’s very short range; ten meters at best,” Mouse reported through the hiss of the com-link. “It works pretty well. I use it mostly to check radiation, temperature, and take vids of those hard-to-reach places.”
“Can you bring it down? We’ve got a problem.”
They duct-taped the scanner to the end of the drill and set it for general scanning. Styles rigged the pipes to return to the bottom of the shaft, stopping half a meter from the bottom. They waited five minutes and then retrieved it.
“Let’s take it inside and view it over lunch,” Mia decided. She flicked a switch on her wrist. “Wang, can you take a break and meet us in the galley?”
Wang didn’t answer for almost a minute. Mia toggled the com-link twice more before he answered. “Shit, Captain, this isn’t working!”
“Wang? You ok?”
There was something unsettling about the tone of the pilot’s voice. “No. The numbers aren’t working! I should be done by now, but I can’t figure out the pitch or the yaw. It’s like space changes every time I try to check my work. I must be going out of my mind.”
Mia tapped the comm. “Ease up there, Wang. Take a break and meet us in the galley. We have something to take a look at. It’s not like we’re going anywhere until we’re ready.”
Styles heated up a spicy chicken gumbo while Mouse, Wang, and Mia replayed the video on the monitor. The shaft passed through thirty meters of ice lit, only by the flashlight on the camera lens. Ice gradually gave way to sheets of dirt and rock. The radiation counter clicks increased in frequency. “I’ve never seen a frequency like that!” Mouse observed, excited.
“It looks fairly low-level, so it shouldn’t be too dangerous,” Wang added.
At the end of the shaft, a metallic flat surface gleamed. Mouse froze the image and expanded it. “That looks like some sort of hull plate, Captain.”
“Can’t we date the metal, the rocks, or something? Maybe this thing was built by aliens?” Styles asked.
Mia scoffed. “We haven’t found aliens in five hundred years of space travel. I’m thinking it’s unlikely.”
“Then why do the big corps have bounties on alien artefacts, huh?” Styles asked.
Wang rolled his eyes. “Sooner or later, it is a mathematical probability that we’ll find alien civilizations, but we might not meet them for hundreds or thousands of years. Space is huge! We’re barely out of the Old Earth’s local playground.”
“Exact isotope dating requires a mass spectrometer,” Mouse said, slyly. “But I could try to cook something up. Might be fun to study.”
Wang sighed and pushed away his bowl. “Does it matter exactly how old the rock is? The metal has to be man-made. During the Sundering, the brass on all of the sides squared away hundreds of ammo dumps, cache boxes, and weapons in little bunkers just like this and then put them on Omega Carriers and dumped them all over. Some of those bunkers have been around for a hundred years.”
“There could be all sorts of treasure in there: gold, antique weapons, or even working tech from before the Sundering. Collectors pay a mint for stuff. We
gotta break into that vault!” Styles said, serving a plate of steaming sweet rolls.
“Wang, when do we need to start to hit our main burst?”
“We need to start in the next couple of days or we could run out of fuel before we’ll hit the proper vector.” The pilot shook his head wearily. “I’m having a bit of trouble. The numbers almost have a mind of their own. I’d swear that the constants of the universe are plotting against me.”
“You’ve been up for almost twenty hours. I want you to finish dinner and hit your bunk.” Mia folded her arms. “If you won’t go to bed willingly, I’ll have Styles put you to sleep. I’ll leave it to his discretion as to the method of getting you there.”
Styles smiled quietly, clearly hoping that Wang would argue. The pilot groaned and accepted the captain’s order with a nod.
“I’ll have the engines online by tomorrow for when you are ready,” Mouse promised.
Mia shook her head. “Yes, you will, but it can wait until morning. Don’t argue! You inhaled a bunch of smoke and who knows what else? You get tired and make a mistake, we all die.”
Styles raised his hand a bit too eagerly. “Captain, I’d like to volunteer to put Mouse to bed.”
The Captain was unamused. “You and I are going to keep watch. No time for games.”
Styles grunted his disapproval. Mouse laughed, feeling flattered. It looked like he might protest the arrangements, but instead he took a large bite out of the last sweet roll and chewed savagely.
After dinner, Styles and Mia played a competitive game of backgammon over coffee to determine who would take the first watch. Mia won despite his rampant and obvious cheating. Of course, she wasn’t above cheating either, but she rarely got caught.
Mia napped on the couch in the command cabin under a thick blanket while Styles sipped his bitter coffee and monitored the passive scanners. She would have preferred to sleep in her bunk, but knew from experience that Styles would be less likely to slack off if he could physically see her.
Wang and Mouse often wondered why Mia didn’t push Styles out an airlock. He was irresponsible, rude, and often had an unpleasant odour. But she knew if she were trapped with her back against the wall in a dark alley, Styles would be there with his knife ready to cut the throats of their enemies.
Her sleep was brief and shiftless. Mia dreamed of the Sundering Wars, but this time she was pregnant. It was difficult running from the trackers through the barbed wire with her full belly, but she was determined that this time they weren’t going to get her baby. She wasn’t sure what happened to her last child, but it must have been horrible because the thought of it happening again chilled her.
“Captain! Captain! Don’t shoot me!”
Mia slowly became aware of the feel of ivory in her hand. She opened her eyes surprised that she was pressing the muzzle of her pistol into Styles’ sweating forehead. Confused, she directed her pistol away from him and then quietly holstered it. “What happened?”
His eyes were dilated with primal fear. “Hell if I know, Captain. You were sleeping there on the couch like a baby and then the next thing I know you pressed the gun against my skull and started whispering in some gutter language. Then you started yelling at me and ordering me to get started. I didn’t move fast enough and you almost made me eat that pistol.”
She shrugged apologetically. “Sorry. I must have been having flashbacks. Sometimes I get bad dreams, but never like this. I about woke in a puddle of my own sweat and piss.”
He poured a cup of coffee into Mia’s mug and passed it to her. “I’ve deserved it at one point or another. Just kind of surprised you were going to bite the bullet. Would have been sad if I had to kill you.”
It took several moments to calm down. Mia pondered her dream. She had never considered having children; her life was too demanding, but the experience was very real. “How long did I sleep?”
“I’d say just an hour. You still have two hours before your shift.” Styles held out his hand gingerly. “Just give me your pistol before snoozing this time. We’ll all be a bit safer.”
Mia shook her head. The thought of sleep made her gut twitch. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep for a while. You can head to your bunk, if you want.”
The comm buzzed before Styles replied. Mouse’s voice squeaked two or three octaves higher than normal.
“Captain, something's wrong with Wang. I think I just heard him scream!”
“On my way...”
Styles and Mia rushed to Wang’s room. It was in the crew quarters closest to the bridge. Mia drew her pistol and tapped on the porthole. “Wang? You OK in there?”
No answer. Styles banged on the door. “Aw, come on Wang, I just got permission to nap!”
The door slowly unlocked and opened. Mia motioned for Styles to wait and then peeked through the crack. The compartment was completely black. It stank of sweat and rot, which wouldn’t have caused her to blink if it was Styles’ bunk, but Wang grew up as a military brat and learned early to keep his space clean and orderly. “Why are you sitting in the darkness?”
Wang’s sweating face moved closer to the light, causing his almond coloured eyes to squint. His cheeks were puffy and the colour of his skin slightly jaundiced. He waved away her concern. “I was just frustrated, Captain.”
Mia flicked on the light switch. The room was small but serviceable. Clothing was spread out everywhere. Wang was out of his flight suit and wearing a pair of sweatpants and an undershirt. His hair was slick with perspiration and his skin was oily. “You were supposed to be sleeping.”
His speech was rapid and slurred. Wang couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I just couldn’t sleep, Captain. You know how when you are worried or have a puzzle, you fixate. It’s like that, but a hundred times worse. I really tried to go to sleep, but I kept having flashes about the numbers. I’d go to sleep and wake five or ten minutes later very dizzy. It felt like the ship was turning on her axis.”
Mia reached out to touch her friend and feel his forehead. His skin burned with fever. “What were you dreaming about?”
He shook his head. “You’ll think I’m crazy, but I’m not. The math doesn’t work here. It’s like this planetoid reaches out across more than three dimensions. I had to bend my mind a little to think along those lines, but I have it. I figured it out.”
Mia tried to smile to encourage the crew. “That’s great, Wang! Grab your data pad, and we’ll head to the bridge and test it out on the nav computer.”
Wang blushed slightly. “I didn’t use the data pad, Captain. I did it by hand.”
“You did the math by hand?” Mia asked, impressed. A robust computer could easily solve navigation equations if the pilot entered the proper inputs. Solving the problems by hand could take hours or days to account for stellar drift and objects in motion. “You sure it will work? Those are fairly advanced equations.”
Wang gestured to his bulkhead. He had written symbols and numbers in a delicate hand across the bulkhead in equation format, but it was gibberish as far as Mia could tell. He liked to practice calligraphy in his off hours claiming that it was good meditation and it kept his hands flexible.
She sniffed once more and hoped that she was wrong about the source of the rot scent. It had an all-too-familiar coppery smell. Mia took a closer look at the equations to examine the strange red paint. Glancing over at his desk, she dipped her finger into the inkwell and then smelled her finger. It was blood. “Show me your hands!”
Wang reluctantly pulled his hands out from behind his back. They were both bandaged in several places. “I ran out of ink.”
Mia glanced at the equations once more. “You couldn’t have used the datapad?”
His reply was cold and frightening. “Sometimes, finding the right answer requires a sacrifice.”
“You don’t take razor blades to your fingers! Mia scolded, shaking her friend. “We need you to fly!”
Startled, Wang shivered. He looked around as though in a daze and
then gingerly scratched his head. “Uh, Captain, why are you in my bunk?”
“Damn, this boat is turning into a nut house,” Styles complained through the hatch.
Mia motioned to the equation in blood and patted Wang on the back. “Looks like I’m not the only one to have a waking nightmare.”
“Did I do that?” Wang asked, studying the equations.
“Looks like. Does it mean anything to you?” Mia asked.
The pilot studied the equations for several minutes and when he finally answered; his voice couldn’t help but quiver. “This is like listening to the voice of God. I think this is a set of equations for moving an object with more than three dimensions rapidly through space. Physics suggest that certain shapes can extend beyond the normal dimensions thus appearing to be completely non-Euclidean.”
“We all learned about tesseracts and hyperspace at school. What’s the point?” Mia asked.
Wang shook his head with frustration. “Captain, this equation is the exact inverse of that theory. This is for moving a non-Euclidean construct, like a tesseract, through normal space, instead of putting a ship into hyperspace. Quite amazing, if it’s correct.”
“I just want to go home,” Styles whined quietly.
Mia didn’t have the heart to admonish Styles for killing morale. “Something about this place is giving us all nightmares. Best we not sleep for a while until we know what’s what.” She ran through her mental checklist and realized she had forgotten someone. “Wait! Have you two seen Mouse?” Styles and Wang shook their heads. “Styles take Wang to the command cabin and try to sort out the equations. If he goes crazy, knock him out. I’ll see to Mouse.”
Styles smiled, flashing his teeth to Wang and bowed. Wang grabbed his datapad, took pictures of the equations, and then followed Styles to the command cabin, lost in thought and calculations.
Mia waited until they had left and then crossed the hallway to her mechanic’s room and knocked on the door. “Mouse? Are you there?” She waited in silence for what seemed like a very long time and then banged on the hatch. “I have the override code. I can open any hatch on this ship. Don’t make me use it.”
A familiar voice squeaked from inside of the compartment. “I’m fine, Captain.”
The maglock clicked off, echoing loudly in the silent corridor. Mia sighed with a bit of relief and opened the hatch. “I’m sure you are, but I just need to check on you. Something’s not right on this ship, and we need to stick together until I figure out what’s what.” Mia flicked on the lights to discover Mouse sitting on her bunk, dressed in a white nightshirt, with her arms cradling her legs. “Talk to me, Mouse.”
Mouse tried to cover her eyes with her blue hair, but it wasn’t quite long enough to hide the tears. “I’m fine, just had a dream about the pens. I couldn’t breathe…”
Mia found Mouse years ago in the Jovian Slave Pens. Her parents sold her to escape debt from the Leng Cartel. It took every last credit, but she bought Mouse’s freedom. She tried to dump her in a home for wayward orphans three times. Each time, Mouse managed to sneak away and follow her. Eventually, Mia gave up and let Mouse join the crew. “Everyone seems to be having bad dreams tonight. Must be something in the air.”
“What about you?”
She didn’t like to admit any weakness, but something about her friend’s tears brought out Mia’s nurturing side. “Yeah, me too.”
“The last time I felt so alone and powerless,” Mouse said quietly. “I was in chains…”
Mia hugged her mechanic tightly. “There’s not a power in all of the stars that will make that happen. We’ll fight whatever this is, but we need you up and front. We need our star mechanic in case something goes wrong.”
Mouse wiped the snot and tears from her face. “You can count on me, Captain.”
She left Mouse to get dressed in private and returned to the command cabin. Styles paced back and forth, watching Wang fervently enter data into the pilot keypad. “How is it you are the only one not going crazy, Styles?”
Styles shrugged. “You keep me grounded. Besides someone has to protect the rest of you from this nonsense.”
“How are we doing?”
“It’s working, Captain!” Wang announced excitedly. “The numbers are finally making sense. Why didn’t I see this before?”
“Why would using those equations make things add up for the burn? Where’s the tesseract?” Mia asked.
“That’s just it Captain, this planetoid is a tesseract of some sort,” Wang said, enthralled.
“This ain’t right, Captain. There ain’t anyone human who has this sort of technology,” Styles said, frantic.
Wang nodded, not looking up from his monitor. “He’s right, Captain. This technology is a thousand years ahead of us. That thing trapped in this planetoid is from some sort of advanced species.”
Styles rubbed his hands together joyfully. “We’re going to be rich. Rich!”
“STOW THE CELEBRATION!” Mia yelled. “We’re stuck between the systems without slipstream. We get home, we celebrate. Until then, we have work to do. In case you haven’t noticed, this place is screwing with our minds.” She pulled her pilot away from the station, forcing him to look into her eyes. “Wang, can we really do this? By that I mean successfully, without all of us dying in horrible agony.”
Wang smiled distantly as he turned towards the numbers once more. “Sure thing, Captain.” His speech seemed quiet for a moment, as though he was light-years away. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed into focus as though waking from a coma. “It will take a series of bursts from the engines; two quick ones to set the vector and a long one to give us the proper punch to go the distance. That should put us on the correct course for civilization.”
Mia toggled the com-link. Her voice echoed throughout the ship. “OK, here’s the deal. Wang’s will announce a countdown at five minutes. He’s going to start the first of a series of bursts from the main engines. Mouse, I need you to make sure the engines are ready for the stress, and if there are any problems, to cut power. Don’t bother asking me first, I trust your judgment.”
The mechanic’s squeaky voice warbled through the com-link. “Give me fifteen minutes and I think I can have the engines prepped.”
“Perfect. Styles and I are suiting up again in case there’s a problem outside.”
Mia studied the landscape of rock and ice through the fogged porthole. The desolation of the valley’s empty planes crept upon her as Wang started the countdown. The e Phoenix’s engines cycled, ready to ignite. Mouse fussed over the fuel mixture and kept her hands steady on the controls in case of a burn out.
There was a cheery calm in the pilot’s voice that worried Mia. Wang had never failed the crew. Why did something feel wrong? Mia caught herself rubbing her stomach. She opened her mouth to order a shutdown, but then stopped. What choice did they have in all of this? If they didn’t try Wang’s equations, they would all die of starvation.
The pilot’s voice echoed over the com-link. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Blue flames flared from the Phoenix’s twin engines. The results were visually disappointing. “Is it working? I can’t tell.” Styles asked, trying to look past Mia.
“It’s working!” Wang announced. “We’re changing the vector. Shut-down to start in ten minutes.”
Vibrations shook the Phoenix. Mia got hold of the railing to keep from falling on her ass. She pulled herself back to the porthole. This wasn’t a problem with the ship; the entire planetoid was beginning to shake and quake.
Heat from the engines began to melt the ice, causing the Phoenix to sink further into it. The blast ignited the hydrogen tail illuminating a river of fire several kilometres long. Styles grinned with a child’s delight. “That almost looks like a Phoenix, Captain.”
Strange that Styles, of all of the people on the ship, is holding it together the best, Mia thought. What did that say about him? “Let’s just hope that the right kind of people see it and come to hel
p.”
“I’d rather fight pirates to death than starve out in the middle of nowhere,” Styles explained. “You can kill a pirate. Death ain’t so easy.”
As the ice and rock shook and crumbled from the planetoid, sections of the metal interior began to become visible. Wang announced the end of the blast over the clinks. “One minute to shut down.” The Phoenix sank further into muck, until it settled against the metallic foundation, and the extremely low temperature froze the liquid once more. Mia tried not to panic as the ice slowly covered the porthole in an oblique haze. This was all part of the plan. Why did she feel a panic coming on?
“Starting shut-down procedure now.”
Mouse cut the engines and the thrusters slowly died. The spark from the planetoid’s tail quickly fizzled into the black void of space dotted with thousands of visible stars. “Two hours until the next burn,” Wang announced over the com-link. There was a slight pause, and then the pilot toggled the link once more. “Captain, you have to see this. Everyone, come to the command cabin!”
The burn had shifted the ground considerably. From the high-angle view of the ship’s command cabin, the horizon of the planetoid nucleus became visible. There was a crack in the crust that revealed more of the metal structure. It was vast beyond belief. Six dividers curved the egg-shaped object into inhuman and obscene arcs and angles.
Mouse blinked. “It’s a ship!”
“It’s got to be three kilometres long!” Styles added. “Think anyone is alive in there?”
“I don’t see how that would be possible from the dating of the ice and rock. That thing has been covered for ten thousand years,” Mouse said, peeking from behind the Captain.
The crew was looking to her for answers. She turned to her pilot. “Are we still lodged in a good position?” Mia asked.
Wang checked the readings from his monitors. “I think so, Captain. The planetoid lost quite a bit of ice and rock during the burn, but we’re lodged between that weird divider and a good portion of the remaining rock. We’d have to try to disengage the tie downs and shake loose. I think we’re safe from additional quakes.”
“See if we can scan this thing now that the rocks are gone,” Mia ordered.
Curious, Mouse hopped into the co-pilot’s chair. “I’m reading more of that low-level radiation.”
Wang charted the size and scope of the object on his monitor. “There’s a possible opening at the apex of the object.”
“OK, good. We’ll have someplace to start looking. Once we get done with the next burst, we can suit up and take the skiff. That will give us ten hours to explore, before we have to do the final burn.”
The second burn went without incident. The plateau remained stable, and the Phoenix was secure. Wang reported that the planetoid was now heading on the proper course to get noticed. Life rarely was simple or easy for Mia, and when there were no further problems, she started to wonder why. The crew prepared themselves for any foreseeable possibility, but there was a potential alien spacecraft on the horizon, and thus the typical rules went right out the porthole. It felt foolish to attempt to visit the craft, but what else could they do?
The sensible thing would be to leave at least one of the crew on the Phoenix to keep watch against the pirates, but she didn’t feel right leaving any of them alone. Wang seemed to be entranced by the numbers and she had no idea how he might react if allowed to be alone. Mouse had one foot on the grave of despair and they needed her tech skills on the run. Styles seemed to have his head in the game, but she need him in case they all found trouble.
The crew slipped into their EVA suits and strapped themselves into the hoverskiff. Styles used one of the industrial heaters to melt the ice from the aft section of the Phoenix, and then he opened the hatch to the launch bay. Wang lowered the skiff onto the surface of the planetoid. Mouse oriented them with the scanner, and then they moved away from the ship, surfing along the ice and leaving behind a serpentine trail of melted and crushed ice and rock.
Mouse looked up to see a rotating galaxy of stars and had to steady herself. Mia smiled and put her arm on her mechanic’s shoulder. “The universe is really big. The trick is to remember perspective.”
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the object’s apex. Now that it had been freed from the rocky crust and the ice, they could see that it had a number of visible joints in the hull, making it clear that this section opened. Wang scanned the area. “It looks like some sort of launch bay.”
“How do we open it?” Styles asked.
Wang unstrapped himself from the hoverskiff and hopped outside to investigate. “I’m not sure that we do. If this were a human ship, the controls for that would be coded somehow. Or there would be a manual way to open it in case of an emergency. If this thing has been floating around for ten thousand years, its crew is likely dead.”
Mouse joined Wang, eager and excited, forgetting her fear. “I’d imagine there has to be an airlock, right? Most emergency airlocks are designed to let anyone in. Getting past the inner door is usually the trick.”
Mia smiled at her mechanic and then turned to the crew. “Scatter about and look for anything that might be a hatch or an airlock. Keep in constant communication.”
The crew investigated the area, dispersed widely to increase the odds of finding something. The landscape was a hodgepodge of metal covered in rock and ice. Wang eventually toggled the com. “I found it! Just like I dreamed.”
Mia let that statement go by unchallenged, but her stomach turned. They all made their way to the hatch, staring at it as if it was going to open itself.
“Mouse, think you can open it?”
“I’ll see what I can do. Can’t promise it will be pretty.” Mouse knelt next to the alien airlock and opened her toolbox. Mia watched as the mechanic experimented with the strange controls that she found inside one of the deep cylinders near the hatch. “These critters must have really long fingers.”
The hiss of atmosphere washed past them, as the small hatch opened. The entry was tall, but thin. They each entered, but Styles had to move through the passage sideways due to his broad shoulders. Mouse closed the door behind them and turned a triangle to lock the door. “The other side should open as soon as this room is pressurized.”
Atmosphere vented into the chamber. Red lights flickered. Mouse took readings from her wrist scanner. “Atmosphere is steady, almost Old Earth levels. But I’m reading weird contaminates. We should keep on the suits.”
“What sort of contaminates?” Styles asked, horrified.
Mouse shrugged. “Unknown biological elements, which I suppose makes a certain sort of sense. The computer registered a number of strange carbon molecules.”
The lock on the interior door clicked and then that section of the wall silently folded down onto the deck. “That was brilliant!” Mouse exclaimed.
Beyond the egress there was only darkness. They all adjusted their helmet lights to the gloom. Mouse trigged the flashlights on either side of her helmet. She placed her hand on the internal bulkheads. “The walls are perfectly smooth. No cracks or lines. I can’t even see how the plating goes together. How’s that possible?”
“We need to secure this area before we start marvelling at the wonders.” Mia nodded to Styles. He clicked the safety off his rifle with an overtly macho grunt. “Don’t fire on anyone or anything unless I give the order.”
Mouse was horrified. “Is that needed, Captain?”
“We’re not a threat to them, Captain,” Wang argued softly. He spoke again as an afterthought. “They are dreaming, unaware of our existence.”
Styles edged his rifle towards Wang. “How do you know that? How does he know that, Captain?”
Mia agreed with Styles for once. “Answer the question.”
“I don’t know, Captain. Things come to me. I think maybe whatever’s in there communicates by dreams.”
“I thought whatever was in there was long dead,” Styles countered, nervous.
Wa
ng shrugged. “Maybe some things can’t die. Death might just be a mortal concept.”
Mia and Styles exchanged a worried glance. She gestured to her eyes. He nodded and then turned his head flashlight beams to max and entered through the hatch. Mouse and Wang followed, trailed by the Mia.
Red and blue light glowed from multi-coloured crystals woven into the metal of the walls. As they approached, the lights intensified, as though the vessel registered their presence and needs. The walls and sections curved into alien oval shapes. “It almost looks like we’re inside a living creature and that’s the skeletal system,” Styles observed.
They wandered through the passages lost, encountering similar locked hatches at every intersection. It was a gruelling, time consuming process. “You’d think that the ship would have alarms. Or that there would be an easy way to open these doors,” Mouse complained.
“The builders of this vessel didn’t need locks. They had servants that simply did their will,” Wang explained. “We simply lack the ability to communicate with the ship.”
The hatch opened as though triggered by Wang’s words. They progressed forward without hindrance. Doors, hatches, and access panels opened upon their arrival, almost by will, until they reached an expansive metropolis.
It lay under a gigantic domed section of the vessel somewhere near the presumed forward section. It was built, or rather carved, from some sort of black stone into a horrific landscape that boasted of pyramids, strange apertures, and menacing spires. Mia set her visor to zoom to get a closer look at the city. Horrific grotesque faces were carved into the walls with twisted expressions of agony and elation.
Mia activated her external speakers. “Is anyone here? My crew and I are stranded and need help!”
The dark city of black stone and metal remained silent. It was an uneasy quiet. Mouse touched one of the walls and checked her scanner. “Captain, feel the wall!”
There was a subtle vibration, much like on board any ship. “This wasn’t there before.”
Mouse nodded. “Something turned on the engines.”
“The vessel is awakening,” Wang added dreamily.
“Maybe we can get some help then,” Mia said, hopeful. “Mouse, think you can find the engine?”
Mouse checked her scanner and thought for a moment or two. “I think it is closer to the centre of the vessel, but I’m detecting a shaft on the other end of the city. Looks like some sort of transport system. This place is huge."
On the other side of the city, as Mouse predicted, was a transport shaft. Stepping on it activated a gravity propulsion system, which carried them gently to the next stop within seconds. They made three such trips before entering a massive chamber surrounded by crimson crystals embedded in sleek metallic walls. In the centre of the chamber was a large heart-like object that pumped out fluids and energy through dozens of tubes, which seemed to serve as arteries. There were several consoles with soft, gelatinous buttons.
Mouse pointed to a series of coils connected to the base of the engine. “That’s some sort of fold system, Captain! It’s bigger and more complex than I’ve ever seen.”
“Think they would work on the Phoenix?”
The mechanic examined one of the coils coming from the beating engine and then shook her head. “Maybe if I had several months and a fully equipped machine shop I could build some sort of adapter. I understand the basics of the technology, but I don’t have any practical knowledge.” The mechanic studied the spidery-styled machinery. “A coil is just a filter for charging the fold drives. If this ship uses a coil system, then they must have some sort of filament. If we could find one of those we could limp back to port.”
“How many would you need?”
“I think just one would do the job,” Mouse explained. “We could open one of these coils and snatch it. I doubt it would even hurt the system since there are so many redundant elements. This ship requires a lot of juice to get moving compared to the Phoenix.”
“Do it,” Mia ordered.
Mouse experimented with the console, attempting to control the flow of the energy. There was a telepathic diagram of the vessel that project into their minds. Mia stepped away from the engine until she no longer felt the probe inject the data into her mind. “I’m not sure I like the idea of telepathic controls.”
“The builders use dreams and thoughts to share information and concepts not limited by words and language,” Wang explained. “That’s how I know so much about this place instinctually. I’m the pilot so maybe that’s why they contacted me first.”
“My brain is off limits,” Styles protested as he cradled the rifle.
“Look at this, Captain!” Mouse pointed to something in the air that she only saw in her mind. “Everything that we’d want to know about this vessel is right here.”
“Why don’t you and Wang run down everything for us?” Mia suggested. “I’d rather Styles and I stay telepathy-free at the moment.”
Wang and Mouse took turns detailing information about the vessel. It appeared as though eighty percent of it was hollow, empty space. There were two fold drives at the end of the bottom curve. The engine produced enough energy to power an entire planet, but Mouse couldn’t tell exactly what was charging it. “Wow, this thing is powered by a quantum singularity!”
“Yeah?”
“We need to be careful, or this engine could suck us all through a tiny hole and implode everything,” Mouse said, cheerfully.
“It’s awakening,” Wang announced.
The pilot bumped the mechanic slightly and pressed a series of buttons. The engine lay in the centre of a dome that appeared to have a diameter of roughly fifty meters. The walls of the dome faded, becoming transparent. The vast remainder of the object swirled around them in sea of murky fluid. “It’s like we’re underwater! Could the aliens be aquatic?” Mouse asked.
There was a flurry of movement, causing waves of motion in the dark liquid against the dome. An amorphous tentacle of inky protoplasmic tar touched the crystal. Hundreds of postulating luminous, sickly green bubbles crept along it. The creature was long enough to wrap itself completely around the dome. “Look at that thing!”
“Keep working, Mouse!”
Having shutdown the power to one of the coils, Mouse unbuckled her toolkit and began the process of cutting off a section of the filter. It was large enough that Mouse would be able to make several filaments strips with just this single coil.
After her second cut, the engine purred intensely.
“This is only a servitor,” Wang explained. “The ship is showing me thousands of cities built across the universe. It awaits their masters.”
“A slave?” Mouse asked.
Inhuman flesh pressed together to create sounds and alien words. "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"
“It’s a living tool called a shoggoth without an independent will of its own according to the ship. An independent strain mutated and developed sentience on a world visited thousand years ago. My God! Old Earth! These creatures were on Old Earth a hundred thousand years ago.”
"Tekeli-li!”Tekeli-li!”
Mouse flinched. “What does that mean?”
“It’s the call of the slaves to their slavers. The only voice their masters gave them,” Wang explained. “The ancients left them alive in their pens, alone in the dark knowing that their slaves were effectively immortal while they slept.”
A colossal, ravenous eye opened within the murky primordial sea and focused on the crew inside of the dome. The eye was much larger than the dome and seemed to gleam with unnatural presence. The burden of the gaze weighed down upon them. It emitted a high-pitched scream that, although muted by the dome and the liquid, pierced their ears.
“Back to the ship!” Mia ordered
“Captain, we have to help them!” Mouse protested.
“We restarted the cycle too early, Captain. The Old Ones haven’t properly regenerated, but they are strong enough to snuff us out in an instant,” Wang added. “T
he shoggoth rebelled against them on Old Earth once. I think they would again, if they had a chance.”
“If it can help us escape without eating us, I’m all for it, once we have the filament. Mouse, how are we doing?”
Mouse flashed the thumbs-up sign. She helped Wang lift the chunk of heavy, dense metal shaped into a hook and set it on the ground. “This is heavy.”
“How do we help them?” Mia asked.
Wang banged against the wall. “We need to open their pens!”
“You lot get on the transport and prepare the filament.” Styles glanced up at the crystalized glass dome and chuckled. “I can open the pens.”
Mia nodded, understanding his plan. “You sure this is a good idea? They might try to kill you along with their masters.”
“I’ll be right behind you, Captain.” Styles cocked his rifle and started aiming at the apex of the dome. “You wanna know why this place doesn’t affect me as much as the rest of you? I already saw the worst the universe could shuffle at me during the wars. Wanna know what that was?” Mia didn’t have the courage to ask. “Me. I saw what I was willing to do to survive. Run!”
They ran as fast as they could to return via the gravity shaft. Styles changed the setting on his weapon and fired a series of bursts at the dome. Explosions rocked the vessel, forming a long serpentine crack in the crystal. The shoggoth slammed itself against the crack again and again. "Tekeli-li!”Tekeli-li!” it cried.
“Same to you,” Styles muttered and joined the crew on the gravity lift. Their passage was blocked by a small mob of gibbering, bloated creatures. They were grey, lean sapiential humanoids with large bulbous yellow eyes and shivering webbed hands and feet. They glistened in the light as though they had just slithered from the muck.
Mia held out her hands, submissively. “We don’t want to fight! We need help!”
The foul, mob screeched hideously and bared fangs. They charged hungry for the kill. Mia drew her pistols and fired driving them back only for a moment.
“Duck to the side!” Styles cocked his rifle, set it to auto-burst, and laid down cover fire. The blasts devastated the first wave of the creatures, rending their flesh and splattering their blood to the deck. The carnage briefly sapped their courage until an angry howl from the muck motivated them.
Mia joined Styles in forming a firing line that prevented the creatures from overwhelming them. The first creature to survive the hail of bullets leapt upon Styles and bit into his arm. The sharp fangs tore through the EVA suit and cut into his arm.
Styles screamed and fell back against the bulkhead. Mia turned and blasted the creature’s head from its body, but that allowed the others to ramble forward.
“My suit’s been torn!” Style grumbled.
Mouse set her end of the filament down and fished a suit patch from her pouch. She peeled off the sticker and slapped it over the hole. “Try not to touch the sticky part too much with your skin. I can’t remember if I have the solvent or not,” Mouse warned.
As soon as they cleared the path, the crew hopped on the transport system. At each stop, more of the creatures waited in ambush. It was a long trudge back to the ship.
“Why don’t they shut down the transport system?” Styles asked.
“Maybe they don’t know how. They don’t look all that bright. Maybe they’ve been around so long they forgot,” Mia suggested.
Wang’s eyes were dilated. He began to slow down. Mouse had to constantly yell at him to keep moving. As they ran through the dark city, more of the creatures attacked. Twice, Wang wandered away from the crew almost into the creature’s arms, but Mia’s determination and occasional crack shots with her pistol stopped them cold.
As the airlock came into sight, the mob seemed to explode in numbers. Thousands of them massed together into a surging wave of fangs. Mia checked her ammo and glanced over to Styles, who just shook his head. They had to run out sooner or later, she just wished it was a little bit later.
Mouse quickly jimmied the airlock and ushered the rest of them through. Slipping inside, she closed it behind her and then unhooked the small blow torch from her belt.
“Mouse, what the hell are you doing?”
“We don’t know they can’t follow us, Captain. I’ll just melt the hinges a little.”
Mouse went to work as the creatures slammed against the hatch and wildly tried to open it. Satisfied, Mouse flashed the Captain a thumb’s-up. As they exited the airlock, Wang glanced back wistfully. As the others ran towards the hoverskiff, he stood listless. Mouse, who was running with the other end of the coil, was jerked back. “Wang! Come on!”
“Something very beautiful is going to happen here,” Wang stated.
“We don’t have time for this,” Mia complained. “Styles bring him.”
Styles quickly subdued Wang, who didn’t defend himself. Styles attached a cable to Wang and then just dragged him along, letting him hang behind him the light gravity. Mia and Styles dragged him back to the hoverskiff and locked him in the back seat. Mouse pulled the filament awkwardly into the hoverskiff. It was close to weightless, but still different to manoeuvre.
As the hoverskiff sped towards the Phoenix, the planetoid started to quake once more. The alien spacecraft started its engines. Plates of metal hull flaked off the surface. Mia had to dodge several plates spinning off the hull, hurtling into space. As the Phoenix entered their view, Mia sent out the command to open the landing pad. The crew slid into safety and quickly sprang into action.
Styles and Mouse carried the filament to the engine room. Mia took off her helmet and shook Wang. Worried, she slipped off his helmet and slapped him across the face. “Wang! Listen to me. We need you. I need you.”
Flinching, Wang opened his eyes. “I can hear it, Captain. Beautiful. Terrible. Demanding worship.”
“I need you to get to the bridge and get us off this rock, now!”
Wang wiped the tears and sweat from his face. “I’ll do my best, Captain.”
“You’ll do better than that, now get to it.”
The pilot slipped into his familiar, comfortable command cabin and immediately seemed to feel better as though here he understood the universe.
“Mouse is connecting the filament to the jump drive, but the main engines should be safe enough,” Mia warned. “We need to not take any hits in the aft section while she is calibrating it.”
Wang grinned with confidence. He hit the lateral thrusters and the Phoenix strained against the cables holding it to the planetoid. The engine groaned. Mia felt sick and was preparing to head outside and cut them free. The engine whined louder before she was thrown to the deck as the cable broke and they were free. The Phoenix took flight over the object. Wang dodged several plates. The planetoid seemed to be cracking, like an egg, allowing the vessel to escape. Sections of the alien hull shattered then drifted away. Buildings and sections of the dark city floated away through the holes. Giant tentacles poked out and tore at the object, attempting to rend it open.
Mia toggled the com-link as the devastation moved closer and closer to the Phoenix. “Mouse, the faster the better.”
Styles replied back. “She’s almost done, Captain. Said it wouldn’t take long to charge up.”
The object’s shell of the object crumbled leaving a scattered array of junk, rocks, and ice. A gargantuan gelatinous behemoth with a single glowing eye and a hundred vicious mouths arose from the debris. It had a dozen tentacles, all of them reaching for the Phoenix.
Wang pulled the Phoenix into a roll to avoid the first tentacle, but under thrusters there was no way the Phoenix could escape.
Mouse toggled the com. “I jerry-rigged it, Captain. Hit it. Either way, you won’t be able to get mad at me.”
Wang activated the main engines. The Phoenix raced forward at full power. The beast somehow kept pace. “It’s following us, Captain. How the hell can it do that?” Styles asked.
“Maybe it was made to fly through space? Who knows? We need to fold now. Mouse, h
ow long?”
“Maybe a minutes to a solid charge.”
Wang took the Phoenix through its paces, avoiding the tentacles and the creature. As the creature moved within striking range, the green light flashed on his console, indicating that the fold generators were charged. The computer had already charted a course, so Wang hit the fold button.
The Phoenix folded into hyperspace. The quick fold jerked Mia’s stomach, but she sighed, relieved. Wang’s eyes widened in terror as the tentacles continued to chase them, even though hyperspace. “Punch it!”
The tentacles were able to chase the Phoenix a short distance, but couldn’t keep pace. Slowly, the hideous tentacles faded from view. Mia slumped into her chair, relieved. Her crew had survived and the ship was intact.
“We should hit our target in about five days, Captain,” Wang announced.
Mia broke out her hidden bottle of bourbon from Old Earth. The crew had done well, and her nerves were shot, so it seemed like a perfect time to celebrate.
Styles held out his arm while Mouse sterilized the abrasion wound. The bite had infected his arm with green pus, but thankfully the pain was fading. He would need a doctor, but with luck the wound would heal. Mia poured each of her crew a drink. “We survived!”
The others, except Wang toasted. “Something wrong, Wang?”
Wang sighed. “Captain, that thing is still out there and now it knows we exist.”
“So, it will never find us, right? I mean it can’t track us across the stars, can’t it?”
“Not us. It doesn’t care about us. Humans, I mean. It knows where we are now. What we are. What we can be if it lets us live. It pulled everything from my mind. Star charts, histories, everything. It’s intelligent, Captain, a billion years ahead of us, and it hates us for our freedom. It believes it created life on Old Earth and was punished for it?”
“You were in contact with it, somehow, weren’t you?”
“The Old Ones came from a dead galaxy, eons ago. Fading light from a distant, dying star. They ruled that galaxy, and one day the monster they created will rule this one.”