Ghosts of the Vale

by Paul Grover

  “Tish! I have him. I can’t get back until I run out of rope. Get Monica to the airlock. I think I have burns. I suspect Alex has too.”

  “Affirm,” Tish replied. Her voice was flat, full of suppressed emotion.

  Several seconds passed. The cable jolted Mira as it reached its full length, the air forced from her lungs as it pulled taught.

  “You okay, Kite?”

  “Yeah, this is just like old times. You, me, starlight and some weird alien shit.”

  “You love it, flyboy.”

  “Yeah… thanks for this Mira. I thought I was dead.”

  “Alex… I’m sorry if I come across as a little uncaring, but you are my friend. I couldn’t lose you.”

  He pressed his helmet against hers and smiled behind the glass.

  “Let’s head back. You know Monica will go ape-shit over the stunt you just pulled,” Alex said.

  Mira did, but she had a greater worry.

  “Monica I can handle. It’s Tish that bothers me. She sounds pissed off.”

  Mira pulled herself back toward the ship. Each pull on the rigid wire increased her relative velocity; she was soon speeding toward the Second Chance. She collided with the hull, bounced twice before securing herself with her mag boots. Alex did the same. They walked toward the airlock in comfortable silence.

  “You think they’re really in there?” Alex pointed to the alien structure.

  “That’s what Zenia told me. We have the key to destroying them,” she replied.

  Mira stared at the dark object and thought of the dream of falling into the darkness. It wasn’t just the size of the Mothernode that awed her, it was its age. Zenia was even older. When the Pharn had built this structure humans had been simple hunter gatherers making basic tools from stone. The Pharn had been capable of faster than light travel for millennia, breaking free of their home system before humans had stood upright and walked onto the plains of Africa. She was humbled at the thought.

  The idea of using the cube to destroy the Blackened bothered her. She had told no one of her unease, not even Tish.

  “Killing them… I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do, Alex. It’s genocide. I don’t have the right to do that to another species.”

  Alex clicked his link. “I understand. Whatever you decide, I’ll support you Thorny.”

  The airlock was open when they arrived.

  Mira collapsed onto the deck as the outer door slammed closed and the pressure built. Exhaustion and fatigue washed over her. Alex leant on the bulkhead.

  Super-heated steam vented through the airlock followed by a low-level radiation blast as the decontamination system cleaned their suits.

  Alex removed his helmet. His face was flushed, his hair matted with sweat.

  Mira opened her visor and breathed deeply. “Are you hurt Alex? I feel like arse.”

  “Maybe some bruises from the impact on the ship but overall fine. I was off the hull when the blast came in, so I got away with it.”

  Mira groaned and sat up. Her body ached. Alex knelt beside her and helped her with her helmet.

  She panted, sucking down air in long painful gasps.

  “Breathe Mira,” Alex said.

  She did as he told her and eventually the world stabilised.

  “I have seen dumb acts and heroic acts. That was a combination of both,” Alex said.

  He helped her to her feet. Mira staggered and he supported her.

  “I have to get this suit off,” she said.

  “I’ll get Tish or Shannon.”

  “It’s okay Alex. I’ve seen your chivalrous side.”

  Mira managed to remove one of her gloves but needed help with other. He eased the suit off.

  “Mira… this is weird,” he said.

  “What? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a naked girl before.”

  “No… I mean yes… you have flash burns. I’ve seen nothing like them before.”

  Mira eased the suit down. An inflamed red burn covered her shoulders; it extended down her back and over her stomach. As she pulled the suit over her hips she could see it marked her thighs. The intricate weave of burns resembled a forest of ferns.

  “It doesn’t look serious, but…” She winced. “It stings like sunburn.” She removed the suit without Alex’s help.

  He found an insulation blanket and gave it to her.

  Monica and Shannon arrived in the corridor.

  “Do you need any help?” Shannon asked. She gasped when she saw Mira’s burns.

  “That looks like a lightning strike,” Monica said. “It’s mild. You were lucky. I could put something on it, but you’ll enjoy it more if Tish does it. You know I’ve seen people get burns like that Skin Inked. I can do it for you.”

  Mira declined with a smile.

  “Nah, I hate SkInks. Have you checked Zenia out?”

  “She is in medbay, taking on fluids and eating crackers. She is interesting.”

  Mira reached for a flight suit and pulled it on.

  “I’m going forward to prep us for descent. Hopefully Tish can tell me something useful.”

  “What about your burns?” Shannon said.

  Mira shrugged and winced.

  “Some painkillers would help.”

  Shannon told her she would bring them up.

  “Alex, we’ll need you up front. This will take all three of us.”

  “Tish gave me a job before we left. I need to hit a data terminal first.”

  Mira headed forward, already wondering what mysteries the sphere would reveal.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MIRA pulled her jacket on as she walked onto the flight deck. She winced as the synthetic material of her flight suit dragged across the burns on her back.

  “Hey, Tish.” Her voice was hesitant.

  Tish stood and glared at Mira. “That was a dick move, Mira, you were lucky it paid off.”

  “I'm sorry. I acted before I thought it through. I couldn’t let Alex go.”

  “We could have gone after him in the ship.”

  Mira moved toward her. Tish remained tense and looked away. “He didn’t have the air and the sensors on this bucket are not up to tracking a small object.”

  “I know Mira… but I can’t keep going through this with you… I don’t want to lose you. I can’t live like that…”

  “Tish… I’m sorry…”

  Her heart was pounding for the wrong reasons. Tish pulled Mira close.

  “I saw Zoe die. It broke my heart and I hardly knew her. I don’t want you to die and you constantly try to kill yourself.” Tish spoke with trembling lips.

  Mira held her. Tish had a point. The past few weeks had been intense. She had lost track of the number of times she had come close to death.

  And now I don’t have that special ability…

  “Tish, what we do is risky, and I don’t always think things through. For the first time in years I don’t want to die. I’ll try my best.”

  “Promise me!”

  “I promise you, I won’t die.”

  “I won’t either, I promise.”

  Mira pointed to the sphere. “What do you know?”

  Tish relaxed.

  “The swarm returned a truckload of data while you were being a dick in space,” Tish said as she hopped into the copilot's chair. “It’s big and hollow. The crust is 100 km thick at the thickest point and 60 at its thinnest. Composition… pretty much unknown. Some kind of exotic polyp is my best guess. It has a low return rate on radar. Don’t be fooled by the size; it has relatively little mass so external gravity is negligible.”

  “There must be distortion,” Mira replied, not wanting to doubt Tish’s analysis.

  “It’s like the thing is transparent. I’m detecting the gravimetric disturbance of the star and the system, not the sphere. We’re in a realm of applied physics that goes beyond our comprehension,” Tish said while staring at the object.

  The data was impressive. Mira could only guess how such an object
could have been constructed. She thought of those strange root growths she had seen on the Sagan.

  “Here’s the best bit,” Tish said. She tapped on her pad. A stylised representation of the sphere appeared on the display. It showed energy waves passing over the surface and a stream of energy exiting from the upper polar area.

  “What is that?” Mira asked.

  “Its energy being passed through some kind of dimensional rift. A hyperspatial portal. Where it leads is anyone's guess.”

  To the Pharn Collective… Mira thought.

  “How much energy?” Mira whispered.

  “The total energy coming from the star inside… less some losses due to inefficiencies in the collection process and whatever it takes to run the portal. Either way Mira, what you are looking at is level 2 on the Kardashev scale.”

  “What do you do with that much energy?” Mira whispered.

  “Anything you want,” Tish replied.

  Mira studied the data. Tish had worked hard putting it together.

  “Million buck question… Can we land on it?” she asked.

  “I thought we had a bust on landing. Like you said the sensors on the Chance are not up to it.” She put her hand on the console. “Sorry.”

  Mira smiled, it was so Tish.

  “The swarm detected a signal. I was able amplify and clean it up.” Tish opened a screen and a visual representation of the sphere hovered in front of the HUD. An area close to the equatorial area was highlighted with a red circle.

  A bell like chime rang out through the flight deck speakers, repeating every five seconds.

  “That’s a lifeboat’s locator beacon,” Tish said.

  “Lopez?”

  “Probably, it’s subsurface. I suspected there was a way in. I concentrated the swarm in that area and detected a cavity 600 square kilometres in size.”

  Mira studied the sphere. The beacon meant the life pod had made it down. The occupant might be alive.

  Movement behind her snapped her back to the now. Alex Kite stood behind them.

  “Alex? Are you fit?”

  “Apart from the bruises on my arse where you slammed me into the deck. How about you? Do you need me to rub on some burn cream?”

  “I have it covered,” Tish said. “Do you have something for me?”

  Alex gave her a mini core.

  “Weather forecast,” he said in explanation. “It will allow us to navigate to the target area safely. We should go now because we are about to get a window. I can’t see another for 72 hours.”

  Tish leapt out of her seat and strapped into the engineering consoles station.

  “You take the controls, Mr Alex. You are better pilot than me.”

  Mira froze. Possibilities ran through her mind as she tried to consider every outcome. She snapped into action.

  “Alex, spool the sub lights. Tish load the data to the nav system.” She opened a link. “Everyone strap in. We are going down the rabbit hole.”

  “Mira?” Monica asked over the comm.

  “Alex found a window, so we’re taking it. I can’t promise a smooth ride.”

  A vector appeared on the HUD, a series of rectangles descending to the sphere.

  “Okay here we go, shields front and lower please.”

  “No!” Tish said. “Sorry I forgot; the discharges will be amplified by our shields. They could break us apart.”

  “No shields?”

  “Trust me.”

  Turning back to the controls she rolled the ship on to the descent pattern.

  The sphere was so large it appeared as if they were not moving. The only sign of the increasing closing speed was the relative velocity indicator on the Holo-HUD. Slowly the star field became obscured by the giant object until only darkness filled the viewport. No one spoke, save for Alex occasionally counting down distance.

  Mira sucked her lips between her teeth, only stopping when she noticed the pain

  “We have weather inbound,” Tish reported.

  “I see it,” Mira replied. Off the port side a wave of blue energy cascaded toward them. She rolled the ship so they were running away from it.

  “I am detecting hull ionisation…” Alex said. The ship shook and jolted. “Rogue blasts coming in from different directions. Nothing serious… yet.”

  More vibration was followed by the sound of an explosive discharge echoing through the hull.

  “Tell me that wasn’t bad!” Mira yelled, fighting the controls.

  “It wasn’t bad… Well it could have been worse,” Alex replied.

  A warning flashed on the HUD, too quick for Mira to read.

  “We’ve lost a thruster, rear quadrant…” Tish said. “I think it’s overloaded, that’s all.”

  The yoke vibrated and the Chance demanded more effort before she would respond.

  Another discharge hit. Blue light flared in the viewport. Mira blinked trying to clear her vision.

  “I can’t see!” she yelled over the squawking alarms.

  Seconds passed. Her vision faded back; relief came with it.

  “We’re off course. The micro gravity field has caught us,” she said. “Alex I want a full sublight burn.”

  “You got it, Thorny.”

  She pulled hard on the yoke, using the foot pedals to counter the yaw and righted the ship.

  “30 kilometres above the surface and stable,” Alex reported. “We are under the worst of the weather.”

  “Damage report, Tish”

  “Three thrusters out; one is definitely scrap. I have a dead starboard motivator and several of our external sensors are down. I expected worse.”

  “If we land can we take off?” Mira asked.

  “Yeah, no problem. She might be a handful but she’s a tough girl.”

  Mira tracked across the surface toward the target zone, reducing their relative velocity as they approached.

  “Alex, I need light.”

  He reached to the overhead console and flicked a bank of switches. Cold white light lit the featureless surface beneath them as the Second Chance travelled over the sphere. Mira slowed the ship and Alex activated the ground radar. The active pulses of energy radiating out from the ship mapped the target area. The surface was not smooth. Instead it comprised of raised areas and valleys, with regular variations of around 3km. The map reminded Mira of something woven together.

  Roots, this thing was constructed by the Foglets.

  “I have an aperture 60 kilometres ahead, 37 degrees. It’s big enough for us to fit through. It appears to be sealed by an energy field.” Alex reported.

  “Can we pass though?”

  “I think so.”

  “No,” Tish said, agitation clear in her voice. “Think is not good enough. We have to know.”

  “It’s okay, Tish, I won’t take us through if I have doubts,” Mira reassured her.

  “Sorry,” Tish whispered. She was gripping the console so hard her knuckles were white. She relaxed, just a little.

  “It’s okay, you're right we do nothing if there is doubt,” Mira replied.

  The aperture was circular, 1500 metres in diameter and sealed with what appeared to be an energy curtain, not dissimilar to one of human construction. Mira rolled the ship onto an entry vector and lined up with the centre of the aperture.

  “Give me 15% power, Alex,” she said, without taking her eyes off their heading.

  The distance closed.

  “It is a standard curtain, comparatively weak too. I am detecting a 80% oxygen, 19% nitrogen atmosphere. Some trace gases.” She let the ship’s sensors gather additional data.

  “Gravity is a shade under 1G and temperature is 4 degrees Celsius. It’s cold, but above the line,” she added.

  “Perfect for humans…” Alex murmured.

  “10% power, Mr Kite, and lower the gear,” she said as they crossed the energy curtain. The ship jolted as she entered the structure. A second vibration followed as Alex lowered the landing struts and locked them in place.

>   Black walls surrounded them. They were in a hemispherical tunnel. Blue phosphorescence lit the black walls and rippled forward. Mira thought it resembled landing lights or the artificial guide pattern on a drop ship’s HUD.

  The tunnel gradually curved and opened out into a dark cavernous structure. The ground beneath them was flat.

  “Alex I want full baffles, extend the spoilers. Tish, count me down in altitude and watch the radar. I don’t want to set down on something too soft to support us.”

  They complied. Second Chance settled gracefully onto the ground. When Mira was certain they were supported she cut the power and the landing gear flexed as the struts took the ship’s weight.

  Mira leant back in the seat. Sweat trickled down her back. For all her love of flying, this descent carried no satisfaction. She moved in the seat. The flash burns were sore under her flight suit and for a moment she missed the rapid healing Zenia’s energy had brought.

  Pain is the price of being human Thorn, her Shadow Sister whispered.

  I have paid enough, she replied. So fuck off.

  She laughed, amused at the mental exchange.

  Alex and Tish stared at her. Mira shrugged.

  “Sorry, the voices in my head are kinda funny these days,” she said.

  They ran through checklist as quickly as Tish would allow. When done Mira pushed the seat back.

  “Let’s see what this thing is.”

  The rest of the crew were waiting when Mira, Alex and Tish arrived at the lounge. Monica poured herself a brandy and perched on the arm of a couch, next to Barnes.

  “It’s the last bottle,” Monica said, her voice laced with faux sadness. “We need to work out what we are going to do about it.”

  Mira rubbed her friend’s arm and rested on an arm of a chair.

  “It was a rough descent. We have damage but it’s nothing we can’t handle,” Mira said. “We have the beacon from the Torrence’s lifeboat, so we know Lopez made it this far. Pods support two people for three months. She has no shortage of supplies.”

  “If she got down alive,” Barnes added.

  Planning for the worst makes every success a little sweeter. She remembered when he told her that. It was the eve of her first live drop on Mars. She had been leaping off the walls and Rich Barnes had been there for her.