Chapter 8
Once everyone had calmed down and taken their places, Dani looked to Zadria. “Alright mission coordinator, what’s the plan?”
“We’re clear to set a course for the target wormhole. Sending coordinates to Cruz now.” Zadria tapped away at her console.
“Cruz, plot a course. Let’s go see what we’re working with.” Dani sat back in her chair. “Lock solar screens.”
“Solar screens locked,” Jag echoed.
“Firing engines.” Dani engaged the engines and gripped the controls, looking at the map now displayed on the holographic screen at the center of the bridge. The wormhole wasn’t far away at all. In fact, the closeness of its location was almost suspicious. She tried to push the doubt to the back of her mind as she locked the autopilot in on their destination, just outside of the wormhole’s pull. “Autopilot engaged.”
Dani sat back and stared at the display. She focused on taking deep, even breaths, determined not to let her nervousness show. The last time she dove into a wormhole, it was because they didn’t have a choice. While her options were limited, she worried about putting her crew in danger.
Dani cleared her throat. “We’re here. Cassia, open up communication with Houston.”
“Communications channel open.”
“Alright, Houston, are we ready to rock and roll?”
Patrick’s image appeared on the large, floor-to-ceiling screen. A number of the Houston’s crewmembers stood behind him. “You have a go. Resume communications on the other side. Houston out.” The image blipped away.
Dani refocused the holographic display on the wormhole. The three-dimensional funnel projected before the crew. “There she is. Let’s strap in.”
Dani kept an eye on her console until all crew members were properly restrained.
“Zadria, remember to breathe,” Dani called out as the panel flashed, indicating Zadria’s rising vitals.
“Yes, Captain,” Zadria’s shaky voice replied.
Dani took another look at the holographic funnel. This is it. You’ve got this.
“It’s time to see our gal face to face. Bring her up on the main screen, Jag.”
Jag nodded and flipped a switch. “Crew, meet Hilda.”
The large interior display screen flickered before revealing their target.
“Hilda?” Dani asked.
“It would be rude to enter without knowing her name, wouldn’t it?” Jag flashed a cheeky grin.
Dani shook her head, laughing softly, and turned her attention to the screen.
An astounding view of space was projected before them. Billions of stars were suspended at various distances as far as they could see. Bits of space dust and larger debris wafted quietly along in the vacuum before spiraling around like glitter down a drain. Without the debris, Hilda would have been practically invisible, aside from the soft white light emanating from within the funnel itself.
Dani stared into the funnel, her mouth dry. “Well, crew, are you ready to do this?”
Silence greeted her. She looked around the bridge at the eyes locked on the screen ahead. Fear, excitement, Dani couldn’t tell for sure, but she felt it too.
“Do I need to shock you all to get an answer?” Dani laughed.
Cruz broke the silence with the ding of his bell.
“You know I’m ready.” Jag was next.
“Good here,” Cassia said quietly.
“Ready as ever,” Howard said from behind her.
“Zadria?” Dani peered over at the white-faced girl. “You alright over there?”
“Y-yes.”
“Alright, we love the unknown and it doesn’t get much more unknown than this, right?” Dani took a few deep breaths herself. “Let’s spit out that first device and get this show on the road.”
“Tracker orb launching...” Jag suspended his finger over the button dramatically until a look from Dani caused him to drop it. “Now.”
Dani watched as the orb, microscopic compared to Hilda, launched toward its target. “Well, no sense in delaying things.”
Dani disengaged the autopilot, grabbed the controls, and pushed Osirion forward into the gaping maw of the unknown. Her adrenaline pushed through her veins, the palms of her hands dampening slightly. The console lit up, showing a rise in vitals for all crewmembers but nothing within dangerous levels, yet. The most elevated set of vitals belonged to her.
Carl meowed and rubbed up against Dani’s leg. She gently nudged him away with her foot, hoping the crew wouldn’t sense what Cassia’s therapy animal did. Dani struggled to keep her breathing steady as they neared the entrance. The terror of what happened last time haunted her every thought. Fear suddenly seized her. She wondered if it was too late to turn back.
She quickly glanced at Jag out of the corner of her eye. He was watching her, looking a bit nervous himself. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t maintain a neutral expression on her face. She felt her forehead wrinkle with worry.
Jag must have seen the change as well. He offered Dani a small smile and an encouraging nod.
His support helped her grab onto her composure once more. Dani took a deep breath and refocused her attention on the scene before her. “Bring up the aft camera, half screen, and prepare to launch the second tracker orb.”
The vast emptiness of space appeared on half of the floor-to-ceiling display. Behind, she could see the Houston, silently suspended among the stars, a quiet observer to their potential doom. Ahead, a swirling storm of dust and light awaited them.
Dani increased power to the engines and accelerated into the funnel. At first, it didn’t seem as though anything had changed. The ride was smooth as the spacescape around them fell away and was replaced by the softly glowing whiteness of the wormhole’s interior.
Osirion’s speed began to increase as they caught the current of the wormhole. Dani was relieved that there was relatively little debris within the throat of the monstrosity, but her instincts warned her she should stay on edge. Ahead, the walls seemed to bend, and Dani failed to slow the ship.
The bridge was as silent as the space they left behind, aside from the occasional beep of the vitals alarms. Dani maintained her focus on the path ahead, unable to check on the crew for even the briefest moment.
“Cassia, watch vitals,” she ordered, her eyes glued to the screen.
The tracker orb disappeared around the bend moments before they got there.
“Tracker orb one, offline,” Jag announced dryly.
Dani had seconds to react. The orb was high in the tunnel, so Dani dipped Osirion low. As the ship accelerated around the bend, she instantly saw the problem. Half of a GC ship, similar to Alaska’s Vengeance, was halted against the roof of the wormhole, a large asteroid embedded in the tunnel preventing it from moving forward. Luckily, there was plenty of room below for them to navigate underneath it.
“Uh, incoming transmission,” Cassia almost asked rather than announced.
“Play it off screen,” Dani quickly replied as she stared in bewilderment.
“This is Captain Walters of the Raleigh. We’re stranded with no engine power. Please assist.”
Dani ran through ways to turn Osirion around, but the wormhole refused to allow her to slow.
“Jag, fire on that asteroid!” Dani called out as they dipped below the ship. “Howard, does this thing have some kind of towing mechanism? Can we pull her out?”
“Panel 3C, yellow controls, Jag,” Howard returned quickly as the asteroid erupted into a cloud of debris that shot down the tunnel ahead of them.
A concentrated gravity beam grabbed hold of the ship and pulled it along behind Osirion, just behind the remaining tracker orb. Alarms started going off across Dani’s console.
“We’re losing too much power. We can’t tow her out, not without knowing how far we have to go still. Was that all there was to the message?”
“Yes, it’s on a loop,” Cassia advised. “I just tried hailing them, but there’s no response.”
<
br /> “Dammit. Send a message. Tell them we are unable to pull them out, but hopefully the current will carry them the rest of the way. If not, we’ve noted their location and will call for help as soon as we’re out.” Dani wasn’t sure they could send help, or if they’d even make it through themselves, but she felt obligated to say something.
“Consider it done.”
“Disengage the gravity beam.” Dani bit her bottom lip as Osirion caught up to the asteroid fragments. “Shields, full power.”
“Check,” Jag’s voice rang out.
Osirion barreled through the debris, the small fragments burning up in the shields, creating a show across the forward camera’s screen. The distance between Osirion and Raleigh began increasing without the gravity beam in place. Through the miniature flames, Dani squinted at something ahead, unable to make it out. The large object eclipsed the lower half of the tunnel. She pulled back, lifting Osirion’s nose to avoid the mass.
“What is that?” She couldn’t help but utter the words out loud.
The mass seemed almost gelatinous and appeared to be heaving gently. The surface bubbled up toward the belly of the ship as they passed overhead. The aft camera showed an extension of the bubble continuing to grow until it met with the tracker orb trailing behind Osirion, engulfing it in its tarry flesh.
“Well that can’t be good.” Dani swallowed hard.
“Can’t we just launch another?” Cassia asked.
“The way Patrick explained it, it has to be launched before we enter the wormhole so they can get a lock on the tracker. They wouldn’t be able to do that in here,” Jag explained.
Dani kept her eyes on the aft screen, waiting to see if the blob would grab onto the GC ship as it swayed along, but the collision alarm brought her attention back to the main screen.
“Oh, shit!” Dani jerked the controls roughly to the side. The oozy distraction had drawn her attention away from the tunnel ahead enough for her to come dangerously close to a large asteroid charging from the opposite direction. Dani cringed as the tip of the rock formation scraped along Osirion’s hull, causing the ship to shudder.
“Damage report?”
“The shields took most of it,” Jag informed. “There was some hull contact, but there doesn’t appear to be any breach.”
Dani exhaled in a sigh of relief. “Looks like we’re coming up on the end.”
The starry night could be seen through the tunnel’s exit ahead, and the crew collectively cheered. Aside from her one misstep, Dani felt pretty good about the journey. She glanced at the vitals and was happy to see everyone was falling down within normal range, except for Zadria.
“Are you okay over there?” Dani asked her.
“Y-yeah,” she stuttered.
“That one wasn’t even that bad!” Jag exclaimed cheerfully.
“Not that bad?” Zadria shouted back. “We nearly died a handful of times, we have no tracker orbs, and we just left another GC ship back there with all kinds of obstacles!”
“Zadria, I need you to calm down.” Dani locked her eyes on the screen again, maneuvering around a few smaller asteroids as they neared the wormhole’s end. “We’ll go over it all in the mission report once we’re out of here.”
Dani took Zadria’s silence as a sign of compliance and took a deep breath as they plunged from the foggy white tunnel into open space once more. She cut the engines, released the controls, and sat back in her chair.
“Cruz, do your thing.” Dani flexed her fingers as Osirion continued to drift farther from the wormhole.
After she felt that they were a reasonable distance away, Dani reengaged the thrusters to slow their drift and swung Osirion around to face the funnel’s mouth. She was still hopeful the other ship would make it through, thought she wasn’t sure what they’d find if it did, considering how damaged it was.
The holographic display came up, detailing their location.
“Great work, Cruz.” Dani unclipped her harness and stood up to inspect the display.
A small, dim star anchored the center of the young system. The area between Osirion and the star was thick with dust and chunks of rock. One lowly planetoid orbited close to the star.
“PS505.” Zadria joined Dani at the display.
“You know it?” Dani was impressed that Zadria beat her in the game she and Cruz played frequently. He displayed the star system, and Dani guessed which one it was.
“It just makes sense. The Raleigh was one of the ships commissioned for this project before they brought you in. Their first wormhole expedition started in PS505.” Zadria lowered her voice. “We never saw them again.”
“Looks like it’s time to get reunited.” Jag pointed as the Raleigh tumbled out of the wormhole.
“It’s coming right for us,” Dani ran the few steps back to her seat and strapped in. “Strap in, Z.”
Dani tilted Osirion out of Raleigh’s path. “See if you can’t grab her with the gravity beam, slow her down.”
“Is that wi—” Zadria started.
“On it,” Jag cut her off.
The gravity beam met Raleigh’s underbelly. Dani adjusted the thrusters to help slow the ship considerably until it was locked at Osirion’s side.
“There, keep the beam engaged. It shouldn’t drain too much energy just keeping us connected until help arrives.” Dani stood once more, approaching the screen, squinting.
“Is that...?” Cassia started to ask.
“Looks like it.” Dani sighed. The gelatinous mass from inside the wormhole had attached itself to Raleigh’s side and hitched a ride into open space. Dani rubbed her chin as she stared at its heaving form.
“Cassia, open a line and get a scan on that ship.” Dani frowned. She hadn’t seen anything like the thing wrapped around the Raleigh. She turned away and walked toward Cassia’s station. “What are we looking at?”
Cassia shook her head and pointed at the screen, “Whatever it is, it’s alive. The lifeform readings are off the charts on that side of the ship. Nothing on the other half... but I can’t tell if anyone is onboard under that... thing.”
“Have you been able to get through to them?”
“Not yet. I don’t know if that blobby thing is creating interference or if they’re all... you know.”
Dani nodded and approached the massive screen again, running a hand through her hair. “Do we have any idea how long it will take Houston to find us?”
“Not without the trackers, I’m afraid,” Howard replied.
“We’re in PS505. That’s not far from a GC outpost. We could zip over there and have them send a message,” Cruz suggested.
“No, that’s not advisable,” Zadria interjected. “Dani’s supposed to be dead and this ship isn’t supposed to exist.”
“Well, what do you suggest then?” Cassia sounded mildly annoyed.
Dani continued to stare at the mass. “No, Z’s right. I hope you don’t mind me calling you that.”
“No.” Zadria smiled. “I’ve never had a nickname before. I like it.”
“Wait, you’re taking her side?” Cassia unstrapped and approached Dani.
Dani turned to face her. “I’m not on anyone’s side. The Houston will find us. They had to know losing the trackers was a possibility.”
The molasses-like blob covering the Raleigh stretched and reached away from the ship and out into space in several areas before withdrawing its extensions and stretching further around the ship, the surface bubbling and churning as though it was digesting the Raleigh itself.
Dani ran her fingers across her forehead in an effort to ease the building tension in her face. “What I’m more concerned about right now is that.”
To Be Continued . . .
Uncharted Territory
Ardent Redux Saga:
Episode 3
By
J.L. Stowers
Copyright © 2018 by J. L. Stowers
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used
in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Edition, 2018
Editing: Keri Karandrakis
Cover Art: Tiffany at Dark Matter Book Covers
Visit the author’s website at www.jlstowers.com
Dedication
For my parents: Dennis and Beth.
Because raising me was a true journey into Uncharted Territory.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1
Captain Dani Devereaux paced back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling display in Osirion’s bridge, stopping to examine the black, gelatinous mass slowly engulfing the Raleigh. “How about now?”
“Still nothing on the long-range scanners.” Cassia Simpkins sighed, tossing herself back in her chair.
“Well, shit.” Dani briskly made her way to Cassia’s station, peering over her shoulder. “How long ago did you pick up the distress signal?”
“It started broadcasting about six hours ago, after we exited the wormhole. It’s not the pre-recorded message we got earlier, just the standard distress signal any Galactic Conglomerate ship can activate after systems failure when communication is not possible.”
“That’s activated manually. If someone’s alive over there, shouldn’t we do something?” Jag Reinhart was nose-to-nose with the image of the blob on the screen. “It looks like it’s eating the ship.”
Zadria Swift piped up from her corner, “That’s not advisable. Protocol dictates we are to wait for our commanding ship to find us. Once Houston is here, I’m sure they’ll know what to do.”
The Complete First Season - Episodes 1-5 Page 18
