* * *
“Can you make out what it’s saying?” Jax asked Li Ying as she listened to the message at her station back aboard the Grey Mouse.
Li shook her head. “It seems to repeat itself,” she muttered. “Like it’s on a loop. Do you hear these beeps?” She played the recording aloud. After the voice finished talking, a series of beeps sounded out. “I think that marks the end of the recording.”
“Yeah,” growled Dryer, gazing out the viewscreen at the planet. “But who recorded it?”
“Could have been anyone on one of these ships,” Vance mused. “Under any other circumstances, this would be the find of the century. Who knows how many alien civilizations are represented here in the form of their spacecraft?”
“I’m more interested in why they’re here to begin with,” Dryer said. “And why none of them left.”
“There’s something else here,” Li said, eyeing the waveform readings on her monitor as the recording played.
“What?” asked Jax.
“There are multiple audio signals encoded into the message,” Li said. “Listen…”
She applied a filter, and suddenly the language changed to something new. It spoke, until the beeps came to signal the start of a new loop.
“I’ll have to play with it some more,” she said. “See what, exactly, is contained within the signal.”
Before Jax could tell her to go ahead, Sarah spoke up. “Mr. Pierson,” she said. “I’ve found something.”
Jax joined Vance and Dryer at Sarah’s station as she called up a datafile on the main viewscreen.
“Your father had a personal folder on the Thundercat’s computer drive,” she said. “There are a number of files here dated after the time they disappeared.”
Jax eyed the files. Some of them were strictly data files. Others appeared to be videos.
“Open the videos in chronological sequence,” he said.
Sarah did as commanded. The first video had an image of Richard Pierson on it. He was in his personal quarters. Jax smiled. His father was in the same Captain’s uniform he was wearing the last time Jax had seen him. His kind, blue eyes gazed into the camera; his chestnut hair and beard neatly trimmed.
“Personal log, entry one…” Richard Pierson began. “The N-wave test did not go as planned. After reviewing our ship’s logs, we found that there was some type of signal which reprogramed our navigational computers moments before the N-wave engine engaged. After further analysis, it seems this signal piggybacks off the quantum gravity waves the engine is meant to tap into, meaning it was impossible to see it until we entered the wave.”
He chuckled.
“It figures, doesn’t it?” he said. “My N-wave theory works by breaking the laws of physics. I guess it’s only natural lawbreakers will be punished somehow…”
He sighed and scratched his beard.
“Now that I know the signal exists, I plan to isolate it. With any luck, there will be a way to shut it off. Or at least, get around it. On the bright side of things… the N-wave engine works! Now I just need to get back home to tell everybody.”
The video ended. Sarah called up the second one.
“Personal log, entry two… isolating the signal is turning out to be more difficult than I anticipated,” Richard said into the camera. “We’ve been conducting mini-wave jumps in an attempt to get a read on it. Of course, all our jumps pull us back into the orbit of this green planet. It’s also draining our power reserves quicker than I’d like. The Thundercat was not outfitted for a long journey. If I don’t get the readings I need soon, we might not have enough energy to keep trying.”
Next video.
“Personal log. I’ve been sending teams out to explore the derelict ships nearby in search of supplies to scavenge,” Pierson said, his hair and beard now longer than in the previous videos. “Under other circumstances, I’d be incredibly excited at the opportunity to study alien vessels such as these. But my teams have thus far found no signs of alien life on the ships. No bodies. No corpses. Very little supplies. However, all the ships here in orbit around the green planet have one thing in common…”
He glared into the camera, his eyes turning cold.
“They all have N-wave engines.”
Vance glanced at Jax. “That would certainly explain why all these ships are here,” the Captain muttered. “They fell into the same trap we did.”
The next video played. Richard Pierson’s beard had grown out, as had his hair, falling to around his shoulders in a shaggy mane. He looked tired.
“I’ve… lost the crew,” he said. “They all headed toward the planet in the shuttles, looking for food. I warned them to stay away. I theorize the planet is made up of a crystalline material which broadcasts the mysterious signal like some intergalactic radio tower. That’s the only way to explain how it’s able to reach so far. They will find no food or water there, but they no longer trust what I have to say. I theorize prolonged exposure to the signal may be affecting our minds. Only a few loyal followers have stayed behind with me. I just need a little more time… I’m so close to finding an answer. I can feel it…”
“There’s only one more video,” Sarah said as she opened the file.
The image of Richard Pierson was in stark contrast to the first video. He looked so thin. His eyes were tired. His beard had grown long, as had his hair. He looked like a completely different man as he stared into the camera.
“To any man or woman of Earth who might find this video,” he said. “I pray you’re never in a position to. But if you do… know that there is hope.” The people on the bridge exchanged glances at Richard Pierson’s words. Considering the circumstances, that was the first bit of good news they’d received. “I am leaving in my files coordinates back to Earth,” he continued. “It took a long time, but I finally figured out where we are. We are in a solar system close to the core of our galaxy, approximately 20 million lightyears from our planet.”
“Hole-lee crap…” muttered Dryer.
“That’s… that’s…” sputtered Vance.
“A hell of a long way from home,” finished Jax.
“You will not be able to make a successful N-wave jump,” Richard continued. “Not until the signal is destroyed. I have discovered the source of it on the planet, the location of which I have also included in these files. I plan to take what crew I have left, and travel to the planet’s surface in an attempt to disable it. If you are here… that means I have failed.”
His face grew sad, and he looked down at his hands as he rubbed them nervously. He chuckled.
“I always wanted to explore strange new worlds… now it seems I’ll have my chance…” He looked back to the camera. “If you’re watching this… you will need to go to the location I’ve marked and disable the signal. I warn you – do not believe anything you hear. Do not believe anything you see. This planet… it is meant to deceive us. There is a secret here… one that the signal’s creator wants kept safe. If you have any hope of escaping, you must do whatever it takes to destroy that signal, so that you can once again journey home.”
He leaned closer to the camera. His face was so big on the screen, Jax felt like his father was looking right at him.
“If you do… and it’s possible… tell my son…”
The hint of a tear began to form in his eye.
“Tell my son, I love him.”
With that, the video went to black. Those on the bridge stood silently for a moment as Richard Pierson’s final words settled on them. One by one, all eyes went to Jax.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Vance.
Jax seethed. If his father had failed, it meant he couldn’t afford to do the same.
“Land the ship,” Jax growled. “We’re going to destroy that signal. And then, we’re getting the hell out of here.”