Chapter 2METEOR STORM, DEEP SPACE, UNITED EARTH ALLIANCE
9:32, JANUARY 21st, 2226, TERRAN STANDARD TIME
Cain adjusted his restraining belt, and gazed out through one of the shuttle’s viewports at the
Destiny, rapidly disappearing behind them. They’d arrived at their destination just over an hour ago – a meteor storm to the galactic north of Earth that had been giving off strange energy signatures. Cain had been placed in command of the landing party, which consisted mostly of UESMC marines, most of them of Lunar descent.
“This is ridiculous,” Lieutenant Bradley said, interrupting Cain’s reminiscences, “why the hell are we sending members of the command crew on an away mission? What if something happens to us, huh? Who’s going to fly the ship then?”
“You want to know why he sent us, Terran?” Cain asked, “he sent me because Lunars are adept at surviving in such conditions. I imagine he sent you because you annoy him.”
Bradley rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to piloting the ship. Unfortunately, he did so only just in time to see a micrometeorite strike the shuttle’s cockpit viewport.
“Oh, shit.”
The viewport cracked.
“We’re slagged.”
“Terran?” Cain said, “What’s going on up there?”
“The fore viewport’s been compromised! We’ve got about twenty seconds before it shatters and we’re all killed by explosive decompression!”
Cain shook his head. That was nowhere near long enough to get back to the Destiny. There was only one thing to do.
“Keep heading towards the anomaly,” he ordered, “at least that way something good will come of this.”
“Are you completely insane?”
“Do it, Terran.”
“Yessir, right away, sir…”
Bradley gripped the controls and flew the ship further into the storm, dodging meteors and slowly watching the viewport crack widen. This was it. They were all going to die.
Then he crested the edge of the one of the meteors, and saw what they had come for.
The Destiny
’s shuttle, approaching the anomalyIt seemed at first like a small purple sun, a star system in miniature. Then they noticed how it moved, pulsing and undulating across its surface, almost as if it was alive.
The crack widened. It was about to break open.
Then they hit the edge of the anomaly, and everything went black.
* * *
UES
DESTINY, DEEP SPACE, UNITED EARTH ALLIANCE
10:01, JANUARY 21st, 2226, TERRAN STANDARD TIME
Bradley awoke with a groan, rubbing his forehead. It took a few seconds for his vision to clear, but when it did, he realized that he was in the
Destiny’s medbay. How the hell had he…
“You alright lieutenant?”
Bradley turned to the sound of the voice. Captain Yu was floating above his bed, smiling.
“Captain? But… but how…”
“We found your shuttle drifting on the outer edge of the meteor storm. Apparently after the viewport cracked you somehow managed to fly your way out before passing out.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Bradley said, “shouldn’t we all be slagged right about now?”
“We did a thorough examination of the shuttle,” Yu explained, “the cracks in the port had been fused shut.”
Bradley shook his head.
“How the hell did that happen?”
* * *
CHICAGO, EARTH, UNITED EARTH ALLIANCE
11:48, JANUARY 22nd, 2226, TERRAN STANDARD TIME
“Mister President!”
Bradley turned his head at the sound of the voice. Marshall was pushing her way through the crowds in the Residence halls toward him. He pulled up and turned around.
“What is it, Doctor?”
“My team’s received final word of the analysis of the anomaly the
Destiny found. It’s good news, sir.”
“Really?”
“Yes. From what we can tell, it seems to be an energy matrix created by some ancient alien race for the purposes of repairing starships. It’s far beyond our ability to reproduce, but we’ve managed to build a prototype of a similar device on basic principles. It should improve our ability to maintain our own starships.”
Bradley nodded.
“Sounds useful. Now, is there anything else? My lunch is waiting.”
Marshall smiled.
“We’ve also completed our analysis of the Crash data, and we found something very interesting.”
Bradley raised an eyebrow.
“You see, sir, the difficulty with modern Terran scientific practice is that it’s really only applicable on Earth. On other worlds, and in space, conditions change dramatically. A railgun that works on Earth might not work on another world with a stronger magnetic field.”
“I’m going to pretend I understood that.”
“Of course, sir. The point is, the probe that was used to hack into our system – and that killed Master Williams – was built using the principles of a program designed to automatically calculate the necessary modifications for adapting to different interstellar climates. I’ve ordered my team to start applying these principles to our research.”
Bradley nodded.
“So, that means…”
“If our analysis is correct, this should prove to greatly speed up our research. We’ve decided to apply it to our hyperdrive research. If this works, we should be ably to develop a unified drive to replace the old two-step model.”
Bradley stared at her.
“Trust me, it makes sense.”
“Whatever you say,” he said.
* * *
ABANDONED STARSHIP, DEEP SPACE, UNITED EARTH ALLIANCE
11:39, FEBRUARY 8TH, 2226, TERRAN STANDARD TIME
A dim light flashed briefly in the darkness of the ancient corridors. The low thuds of EVA suits on hard metal echoed through the ship’s hull. They couldn’t be heard in the vacuum, but the explorers could feel the footsteps of their companions through the shaking of the ancient ship’s floors.
“Amazing,” Bradley said, “life support gone, lights are out, and yet the artificial gravity still works.”
“Oh, shut up,” Cain muttered, “Techer, we’ve found the bridge. Get up here and see what you can do.”
Bradley shook his head and leaned over one of the consoles. They’d found the ship drifting in a meteor storm near the Geta System, torn apart, obviously by weapons fire. The ship was ancient, and of a design no Terran had ever seen before, like living tissue, now long dead, bonded to cold steel.
Tanaka stepped onto the ancient bridge, and knelt down near what Bradley assumed was the main control console.
“It has been dead for a long time,” she said, “but I believe that I can restore some basic functionality.”
“Can you make it throw Bradley out an airlock?” Sergeant Tiberius asked. The hulking marine may have been a Lunar, but he had adapted to life in the Alliance Armed Forces far quicker than Cain had, and was familiar enough with the
Destiny’s crew that Bradley was almost sure the comment was a joke. Almost.
The bridge flickered, and, after a short moment, was lit by an eerie light – a dim blue glow that seemed to emanate from no particular light source, but pervaded the entire bridge.
“So, Techer,” Cain said, “what can you tell us?”
“This ship was made by the same race that created the welding energy,” Tanaka replied, “of that I am certain. It appears that the ship was a… a sort of nursery school”
“You mean there were children on this thing?” Bradley asked, “What kind of monster would…”
“It is difficult to say,” Tanaka said, “there are several mentions in the captain’s log of some sort of civil war, but the data has been heavily corrupted.”
“What about the school records?” Bradley asked, “There might be some useful cultural information there.”
“There seems to be a few undamaged files, mostly pertaining to religious figures. Ah, here we are… an image of their gods.”
A hologram appeared in the vacuum before them. There was none of the shimmering that accompanied any Terran hologram, just a crisp, clear picture in the air.
It appeared to be of five robed figures, sitting in a circle. One of the figures wore a hood, obscuring his features, but the faces of the rest were crystal clear.
And very, very human.
* * *
CHICAGO, EARTH, UNITED EARTH ALLIANCE
14:43, FEBRUARY 22ND, 2226, TERRAN STANDARD TIME
“Mister President?”
Bradley looked up from his papers.
“Congratulations on the launch, Doctor Marshall,” he said,, “it’s good to know the Directorate of Research is in such capable hands.”
“I wish that was so, sir.”
Bradley sighed.
“Is the Guild acting up again?”
“They don’t have much tolerance for a non-techer as Director of Research, sir,” Marshall explained, “but internal affairs aren’t really our concern right now. I want you to look at this.”
She dropped a starchart on the desk.
UES Destiny
survey of the Tau Ceti/Geta System“The
Destiny is passing through the Tau Ceti System this week – that’s Geta on the Arcean Standard Starchart – and we’ve uncovered three potentially inhabitable planets.”
Bradley leaned over the starchart.
“The two planets marked with red symbols are oceanic worlds. We’ve begun preliminary research into advanced xenobiology, which should enable us to decipher some possible plans for colonization.”
“What’s this number here?”
He pointed to a small number next to the third planet.
“That’s its class on the Crocher-Burdacelli Scale.”
“So, is an eighteen good?”
