Space Bound: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology

by J. E. Feldman

  Her intercom chimed. She ran her hand through her hair and hoped that it was word that the Nova had arrived to pick her up.

  She pressed the button of the intercom on her wall. “Yeah?”

  “The Nova was delayed, captain,” Traven’s voice came through clearly and apologetically. “They are on their way still, but it will be a few hours longer than expected. They will be here by 2300 hours.”

  She leaned up against the wall and closed her eyes in frustration. “Thank you, commander.”

  She walked to her computer terminal and opened the slipstream but didn’t connect it to anything. She just listened to the strange, eerie static for a while.

  “James?” she whispered to the open static. “Can you hear me?” Of course, no reply came.

  She set up a link and recorded a short video message to her children, asking them to be strong and that she would be there soon. She tried to send it through the slipstream, but there was a poor connection, and it wouldn’t go through.

  Something about the static had changed, and it sounded off to her. Maybe the terraforming process caused interference in the slipstream signals. Perhaps that was why there was a poor connection. She set it to send as soon as the slipstream cleared up.

  She composed a similar video for her sister, thanking her for watching the kids, but before she could finish it, the ship rocked and jolted. She nearly fell out of her chair. It didn’t feel like they hit something, but rather like something grabbed the vessel and shook it.

  Instinct from years of training and experience took over, and she rushed to the intercom. “Commander, what’s going on?”

  “We have it under control, captain,” Traven said.

  Since she was officially on leave and Traven was acting captain, that was the appropriate response from her, but the dismissal bothered Amanda.

  She took the portable two-way communicator off the intercom, put it on her belt, and left her room. She walked to the mess again, where there was no one now, but there were windows out into space. She could see a sliver of Nichelle on the port side, but no enemy ships or anything unusual. Had something gone wrong with the terraforming process?

  It was hard to see without the power of the bridge’s screen, but from the window, she thought the planet looked like it had a light atmosphere where there hadn’t been one before.

  The ship jolted a second time. Amanda steadied herself and looked out the window for the cause of the rocking—still nothing. There were plenty of things out in space that could cause such an effect, but without being on the bridge and knowing the details, she could only guess as to what was happening.

  “Captain,” Traven’s voice came over the intercom. “I’m sorry to do this, but your presence is required on the bridge.”

  “Finally,” she said as she pulled her intercom off her belt and spoke into it. “On my way.”

  She replaced the device and rushed to the bridge; whatever was going on, she was thankful for the distraction. A crisis was far better than wallowing in a deep depression in her quarters where she was useless to do anything about her troubles.

  Traven sat in the captain’s chair, and the rest of the bridge crew quickly performed all kinds of tasks. Traven saw her and pointed to Amanda’s office door. Amanda nodded and followed Traven there.

  Once she closed the door, Amanda spoke up, “What’s going on?”

  “Captain, is there anything in the Officer’s Code where I can return you to active duty without getting court-marshaled?”

  Amanda thought for a moment. “Section 4, Article 2 of the code states that a captain can reactivate an officer on leave in dire situations and so long as the officer is not on medical leave.”

  “Very well, as acting captain, I am invoking Section 4, Article 2 of the Officer’ Code. You are hereby returned to active duty, and I relinquish command of the Bending Crane to you. I’m sorry, captain, I’m in over my head, and I don’t have the time to wait for a slipstream communique with Command. There’s interference causing heavy delays at the moment.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Nichelle is inhabited, captain.”

  “What?” Amanda said, surprised. “But the data report was clean; even Command cleared it.”

  “Yes,” Traven said, “I know. But after twelve hours of terraforming, we started to notice some strange patterns in the weak atmosphere of the planet.”

  “From the project? We start with the atmosphere.”

  “Yes, but the patterns in the atmosphere weren’t natural and clearly intentional. We slowed the process, but—”

  “But you can’t stop it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Why didn’t you contact Command as soon as you saw the anomaly?”

  “We tried, but something is interfering with the slipstream connection. I think it’s intentional. I slowed the terraforming as much as possible and proceeded to have the crew scan for life. We still found nothing alive as we know it. But the patterns our sensors have been picking up appear to be the sign of intelligence.” Traven handed her a data stick.

  Despite feeling tired and worn, Amanda took the stick, plugged it into the computer, and looked over the data.

  “You’re right, “Amanda said. “This is not random. Shit, this isn’t good. If we started the terraforming process on an inhabited world, this would be above my head too. But how is it inhabited? We did a full deep scan and looked at all the information with a fine-toothed comb and even had Command confirm it.”

  “Yes,” Traven said. “And Command gave us the go-ahead. I double-checked the data myself after we first noticed the anomaly. Captain, I’m confident we didn’t miss something; there was no evidence of life on Nichelle. It’s like once we started, it exposed the life.”

  “Maybe the lifeform exists in a way we can’t detect,” Amanda said. “An energy being or something.” There were many odd types of life in the universe, so it wasn’t out of the realm of plausibility.

  “If so, this is bad,” Traven said. “We can’t stop the process. The planet can become unstable if we try.”

  Amanda nodded. It was why Command built the technology without an off-switch. “How slow are things running now?”

  “As slow as we can. At the rate we’re going, the planet will remain stable but terraform within two years rather than one. That is as slow as we can go.”

  Traven sat down across from the desk. “Captain, what do we do?”

  Amanda assessed the situation. They were on a difficult time crunch, their slipstream communications were blocked, and the Nova was on its way to take her home so she could bury her husband.

  “The Nova!” she said, excited. “Are we able to contact the Nova?”

  “I don’t know. The last transmission we got from them was before the communication interference.”

  “It may be possible that the Nova is close enough that the interference won’t cause trouble. Try to establish a connection with them and patch it through here.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said, standing. She walked to the door and turned. “Captain, I’m sorry to have to bring you in like this right now. Please understand that I would never have if the situation weren’t dire. I know this has to be difficult for you.”

  Amanda looked at the woman who had been her second-in-command for only a year and smiled. “Thank you, Lexie, but honestly, the work will keep my mind off of the pain. Thank you for bringing me in. I think I need this until I can go home.”

  Traven nodded and walked out.

  Amanda changed into her spare uniform she kept in the office just in case. She folded up her civilian clothing and placed it in the closet.

  Traven’s voice came over the intercom. “Captain, the interference doesn’t seem to be as bad with the Nova. There’s lag, but we can communicate. Patching you through to Captain Santos.”

  “Thank you, commander,” she said.

  Her screen blinked to life, and Captain Ralph Santos appeared. Amanda didn’t know him well,
but she had met him before.

  “Captain Hansley,” he said. “I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s passing. We are on our way and will reach you as soon as we can. We are moving as fast as non-emergency regulations allow.”

  “Thank you, Captain Santos,” Amanda said, “but that is not why I am calling. We have an emergency here in the Fron System, and our long-range slipstream communications are out. We can reach you because you’re close enough. We need you to act as a messenger boy and deliver a report to Command for us.”

  There was another long pause of lag before Santos said, “I see. Very well, Captain. What is happening?”

  Amanda explained the situation. Project Exo Homeland wasn’t a secret; in fact, it was a public mission. It would be surprising if Santos didn’t know what the Bending Crane was doing in the Fron System. She explained the project, the failures of finding a suitable planet, and how Nichelle seemed to be the right world for the mission. And the issues they were now having.

  “Life? Are you sure?” Santos asked.

  “Sure enough to pull me back from leave while I’m emotionally distracted. We can’t reach Command, so we need you to do it for us and let them know what’s happening. I’ll transmit the data to you so you can show them.”

  “I can do that, captain,” Santos said after the lag time. “Do you need us to stop our approach?”

  “It may be wise.”

  “Will do. We will contact Command for you, transmit your data. I will call you as soon as we hear back. What will you do in the meantime?”

  Amanda began a slipstream data transfer, the lag causing it to run much slower than she would have liked, but there was nothing she could do for that. “The data’s on its way. It may take a while with the lag. I plan to try to establish contact with the life forms if I can.”

  After the lag, Santos nodded. “Are you sure you’re fit for duty?”

  “I’m alright. This will help me stay focused. If I feel like I’m unable to do my job, I will give command back to Traven and only advise her. You have my word.”

  “Take care, captain.”

  The slipstream returned to static, but the transfer took another ten minutes. The slipstream static interference still looked and sounded odd to her, with patterns that weren’t usually there.

  With the data sent to the Nova, Amanda walked out of her office and onto the bridge. She looked her crew over and smiled. “I’m sure you’ve heard something is going on with my personal life and that I went on emergency leave to deal with it. That is true, but right now, we have work to do. I want to know who we disturbed down there, where they are, and I want to try to establish communication if we can. The Nova will halt their approach to this sector and aid us as a communication relay for Command. Let’s get to work.”

  The crew responded in unison, “Yes, captain.”

  Amanda sat down in her chair and looked over the data on her screen. She noted that there were odd atmospheric patterns that wouldn’t be there during the normal terraforming process. “Have we analyzed the pattern of the interference in the slipstream?”

  “No, ma’am,” her communications officer, Lieutenant Jay, said.

  “Do it. Compare it to the atmospheric patterns too; there may be a connection.”

  “Captain,” Traven said, “our scans still show no signs of life. Whatever it is, it’s either so deep into the planet that our scans can’t pick them up, or they’re not life as we understand it. Maybe silicon-based?”

  “Silicon or energy-based life forms,” Amanda said. “There are theories I’ve read on that kind of life existing.”

  “It seems unlikely though, captain,” her science officer Lieutenant Walton said. “At least on a planet like Nichelle.”

  “Try adjusting our scans to look for that kind of life anyway,” Amanda said.

  Over the next few hours, the crew worked together to propose theories and quickly debunk them for one reason or the other.

  “Captain,” Lieutenant Jay said, “the Nova is transmitting.”

  “I’ll take it in my office,” she said.

  She walked to her office and established the connection. There was lag once again, and she had to wait before Santos’ words came through.

  “Captain Hansley, we have contacted Command and provided them with the data you sent us. They are looking it over and will get back to us. We were ordered to continue to Fron and aid you. We have increased our speed. We will be there in a few hours.”

  “Thank you, Captain Santos,” Amanda said and ended the transmission.

  “Captain?” Traven called over the intercom.

  “Yes?”

  “We have something out here.”

  She walked out of her office just as there was another jolt. “What is causing the shaking?”

  “Some kind of force field disturbances,” Walton said.

  “We’re in orbit,” Amanda said.

  “Yes,” Walton said, “but it’s functioning like a tractor beam. It’s been too weak for us to get caught in it. It stopped for a while when we slowed the terraforming. We thought maybe whoever they are have stopped attacking us.”

  “This is getting out of hand,” Amanda said. “What do you have, commander?”

  Traven brought the data up on the screen and showed her. “The interference in the slipstream matches the interference in the atmosphere, and it seems to get worse when the aliens shake the ship.”

  The frequency in the slipstream static and pattern of the atmospheric disturbances did match. Something was trying to get their attention. They needed to find a way to communicate, and they needed to do it fast before they wiped out the planet of whatever life lived there.

  Amanda sat down. She did not know what was happening, and she did not know how to help. Just like she didn’t know the details of how James died, other than it was an accident involving a fall, and she didn’t know what to do about that either. She shook her head. She needed to stay here and now if she wanted to remain in command during this crisis.

  She felt exhausted and not in the best state of mind. She had slept, but it hadn’t been good sleep. She missed James and his soft laugh. Her mind drifted to his love letter.

  I eagerly await for your voice in the static of the slipstream, like whispers in the dark.

  “Like whispers in the dark,” she mumbled to herself. She stood up. “The slipstream! They’re trying to communicate using the slipstream! Examine the pattern further. I want to know what it is. They may be trying to talk to us, but we can’t hear it. Find a way to hear them, Lieutenant Jay.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jay said.

  After an hour of hard work, they found a match.

  Traven walked over with a data stick. “The science department thinks this may help find the pattern in the interference.”

  “Plug it in, let’s see.”

  Traven inserted the stick into her screen and typed out a command. It took the interference appearing on the main screen and compared it to millions of patterns that were similar to it. It ran through hundreds of them every few seconds, but the computer struggled to find a match.

  “We found the pattern,” Traven said. “But it’s not a known language.”

  “Can we get the translator working on it?” Amanda said.

  “How?” Jay said. “It’s not language. It’s interference. There’s nothing to translate. It’s almost as if something is—No, that’s impossible.”

  “Care to explain, lieutenant?”

  “Captain,” Jay said, “these patterns aren’t something talking to us, it’s something searching through the slipstream as if the aliens were reading a hundred years of communique.”

  “How is that possible?” Amanda said.

  “According to what we understand of the slipstream, it’s not,” Walton said.

  “Maybe they know more than we do,” Amanda said. “Let’s work the problem. I need a way to talk to them.”

  Amanda watched the patterns in the slipstream for a while as th
e computer searched for something more recognizable.

  “The Nova is coming out of hyperspace, captain,” her navigator said.

  “Contact them.”

  Santos’s face appeared on the screen, this time without lag. “Captain Hansley. How can we help?”

  “Captain Santos, thank you for coming,” Amanda said. “The lifeforms that live on the planet are trying to communicate with us—we think—but they’re using the slipstream for something. We don’t know what. Can you look at it yourself? Two ships of brilliant people are better than one.”

  “Yes, transfer what you have found already.”

  She nodded to Lieutenant Jay. “Do it.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  “On the way, captain,” Amanda said. “Thank you.”

  Several hours passed with everyone working on finding a solution to the problem, and the longer time went on, the more irritated Amanda became with the situation. Finally, an answer arrived when there was another jolt to the ship, which caused an increase in the slipstream interference.

  “There,” Jay said, his voice excited. “That’s it.”

  “What?” Amanda said, annoyed.

  “When the ship shakes, the interference flares up,” Jay said. “Captain, I’ve been working with the Nova’s communication officer, and we think when the ship is rocked, that’s when they’re trying to talk to us. They appear to be using a series of electromagnetic pulses inside the slipstream itself. They are literally trying to communicate in hyperspace, which means they’re talking faster than light.”

  “They’re trying to talk, but it’s too fast to hear them,” Amanda said, thinking. “Try slowing it down.”

  “Captain, the interference is changing,” Walton said.

  He put it up on the screen. Instead of the normal eerie static of the slipstream, or the new interference, there were pulses in the static.

  “Analyze it,” Traven said.

  “Already on it. It seems to be—” Walton paused. “Captain, it’s mathematical. A series of numbers, in a repeating loop.”

  Jay walked to his terminal and looked. “That’s not just a series of numbers. that’s a slipstream frequency.”