by Gentry Race
Peering down what looked like a long corridor the size of a skyscraper, Nathan took in his surroundings before risking the first few steps. It was funny how everything seemed relative when there was no visual reference point, like an Earth. Space, time—everything was relative to the individual.
Nathan continued to take the lead, walking farther down to the ship's core.
"Do you think they survived?" Hastings asked.
Nathan was quiet, eyeing his helmet’s HUD interface. Indicators fluctuated wildly, showing the air content as unbreathable for humans, and his compass dial was spinning like crazy. The magnetic forces were off the charts. This place was an unlivable nightmare, yet the Starcadians lived there.
"Looks like we need to tough out a few more hours on air support," Nathan said.
An alarm went off in his helmet HUD, alerting him to Vix’s condition. He turned and saw that she was taking slow, deliberate breaths as she rubbed her chest.
"Vix, are you alright?" Nathan asked, motioning for Hastings to translate his words.
Vix bent over, placing her hands on both knees. She shook her head while struggling to line out her respirations. She signaled to her chest.
"We’ve been through this before, Vix. I’m with you." Hastings soothed Vix in sign, trying to calm her down. “You’re fine. This is just an anxiety attack."
Vix was breathing harder now and signing faster than Nathan had ever seen before.
"She says her chest feels tight..." Hastings translated. "She can't breathe... She needs air. Wait! You can't take it off—" she started to say, but it was too late.
Vix slammed her palm into the side of her helmet, unfolding it back into her thick neck collar. Nathan stood in shock, waiting for the real terror to begin, the agonizing pain and desperate calls for air—but there was nothing. She was fine. She was more than fine. As she stood there, heaving breaths, her respirations began to steady and the alarms in Nathan’s suit began to calm. With a heavy sigh, she smiled in relief.
Everyone briefly exchanged glances with one another before reaching up to their own helmets. As their unprotected heads hit the air, they cautiously inhaled. A smell of freshly dried cotton with a twist of sterile metal filled their noses. It reminded Nathan of being a child and playing near the furnace in the basement of his family's home.
"This doesn't make sense. All indicators say we shouldn't be able to breathe right now," Switch said.
"You’re right; we shouldn't be able to breathe right now," Hastings said in agreement.
"Maybe they’re expecting us?" Nathan proposed.
As Nathan led the 'nauts down the long corridor, he noticed something strange happening at the end wall. It was approaching much faster than it should have been, as if the wall itself were moving toward them—each moving toward one another like a moving walkway at an airport. The physics in this place was amazing.
"Do you see that?" Nathan asked.
Tang stepped next to him, eying the wall that seemed to be approaching them at an eerie speed. "Yeah, something's not right about this place."
When the wall was no more than thirty feet away, it stopped and doglegged to the right in a completely new direction where there had been no corridor before.
"What the fuck?" Tang said.
"Is this place alive?" Hastings asked.
This corridor was much shorter than the last one and opened to a large, cylindrical room that climbed higher than any room Nathan had seen before. Like a tall building with no floors, it was empty, glossy black, and sleek. He was taken aback by its minimalistic structure.
"It's fucking empty," Tang said.
"Let's just fly up," Switch said.
"No, we have to be mindful of Æether use. We haven't secured a secondary source yet," Hastings warned.
Nathan focused his off-colored eye, looking for any perturbations or flutters indicating something that wasn’t on the visible spectrum, but there was nothing. There was a reason they were here, breathing the air, walking freely about.
The Starcadians allowed it.
"Look!" Vix signed, walking closer to the wall.
A set of ascending stairs was unfolding along the panels. Vix cleared the first few steps and looked up at the great height. Nathan watched her inspect the space.
"Well, who's going with her?" Nathan asked.
"It's a dead end," Tang called out.
They could see Vix counting the steps and then stopping to look up and see where they ended just a few stories up. Shrugging, she took a few more steps, and then a few more. Everyone watched as she reached the last step before another set formed.
"Ya see? Just like the hallway," Nathan said.
"Yeah, but who’s making them?" Tang asked suspiciously, following Hastings, Nathan, and Switch up the stairs.
Beightol walked to the steps, pressing down to check for weight. Extruding from the wall and slender in size, the stairs looked too weak to hold him. He took a step, and the stair collapsed under him.
"Beightol, stay there and we’ll be back," Nathan called down.
"Whatever’s leading us just made us abandon our 'heavy,'" Tang said, shaking his head.
"Isn't it obvious? They want us here," Nathan said.
At the top of the stairs, they saw that they had reached a lookout with thick acrylic glass overseeing a manufacturing plant of some kind. Troughs of colorful light were carried from station to station like a prized commodity. Hundreds of light-beaming conveyers funneled a bright glowing matter to transporters that entangled in all directions of the universe.
"This is the Æether production," Hastings said, immediately recognizing the substance.
"Amazing," Switch said.
"Who are they sending it to?" Nathan asked.
Switch brought up the bubble and keyboard that extended from his chest. A series of linear graphs ran statistical data at breakneck speed. "My calculations show each conveyor is going to a star system nearby. In this case, the Kiatu system is receiving a large quantum entangled amount."
"Don't doubt it. If you were building an invasion force of resource-sucking bugs, you’d need a large amount to spawn them with," Tang said.
"If Kiatu is receiving a large amount, then those attackers weren't from there," Nathan pointed out.
"Nope. Could be a rival race from another moon," Hastings said, walking to the controls and noticing the small details filling in with the rebuilding process. "But what we should be asking is: where are the Starcadians?"
From the periphery of Nathan's eye, a distortion began to oscillate. He turned his head and watched at the floor level as tiny bits of matter began to build up, interlacing into something greater. Against the black-paneled glass that was everywhere, a humanoid form emerged, as sleek, reflective, and glossy as the ship. Nathan tried to make out the inner details but only saw what looked like stars—thousands of them, as if the being was reflecting the gas, nebulae, and galaxies on its skin.
The Starcadians.
The Starcadian stepped forward in an awkward way, staggering its balance. It shook its oblong head and the nebulae pattern slid over its skin as if it were fixed, just like in space. Nathan wondered if its skin was actually a mirror of some sort.
The being seemed to gain consciousness and stopped in its tracks, shouting something in a language the 'nauts couldn't understand.
"Switch, we need a translation!" Nathan said, never taking his eyes off the tall creature.
"On it. Adapting suits now," Switch said in a reassuring tone.
Small filaments from the crewmembers’ necks crawled to their eardrums and bound to them, instantly converting the muffled sounds the Starcadian was now shouting into plain English.
"Attackers!" the Starcadian yelled. "You shall be punished!"
Nathan stepped back in alarm, looking at Hastings, who was just as confused. The Starcadian raised its right wrist, tapping onto a responsive device that glowed in the light. Just behind the being, on the floor, four more Starcadians began to
form, all identical to the first one. They took an aggressive stance, drawing huge, ax-like weapons made of light.
"Wait! We weren't the ones who attacked!" Nathan yelled.
One of the Starcadians came barreling toward Nathan with its ax raised high. Nathan reacted quickly, assembling a thruster on his forearm and sending a blasting percussion toward the charging Starcadian. The blast of air hit the being hard, sending it flying back into the rest of its group.
Tang voxelized his large cannons while Hastings grew fire spits from each forearm. Vix unsheathed her voxelized blades and Switch stepped back, eyeing Beightol just below, his arms up in the air with concern because the stairs were now entirely gone.
The Starcadians picked themselves back up, shaking their heads—not in confusion, but as a warning. They stuck out their arms and folded into each other like a giant black Rubik’s cube from hell, only morphing into a humanoid shape that was now five times bigger.
"That's a cool trick," Nathan said, nodding his head.
The Grand Starcadian clenched its dark, star-blotted fist and threw it toward Nathan, just missing him as he ducked out of the way.
"Vix, spray them,” Nathan ordered, pointing to Vix. "Nauts, let's get to that Æether."
Vix took charge. She ran toward the Starcadians, scraping each blade down the other, spraying a shower of sparks to disorient them. The Grand Starcadian blocked the fiery spits of shatter with its large, glossy hand.
"Let's go. It's the only way down," Nathan called out.
He voxelized two large jets on his shoulder blades and jumped off the edge, down the cylindrical room toward Beightol. Hastings and Switch followed while Tang stood there with menace in his eyes. Vix ran past him, voxelizing her jets and firing them against the artificial gravity.
"Come on, Tang. You're wasting our reserves," Vix yelled.
Nathan slowed his descent, not seeing Tang—defiant till the end. He reversed his direction and saw that Tang was mounting the grey goo weapon he’d tried to use on Nathan during the training session.
The Starcadians had reached the traced kinetic movement of light Vix had laid down and were reaching out to test its volatility. If Tang used the grey goo on the Starcadians, it could destroy all of this—them and the Æether. He had to stop him.
"No, Tang! You'll destroy everything!" Nathan yelled out.
He hit his thrusters on full and barreled straight for Tang, who was now grimacing through threatening teeth, finally able to unleash his berserker rage. Nathan hit him like a ton of bricks and then fired at the Grand Starcadian, who was thrown back and separated into the original five entities.
Tang came to and punched Nathan in the face. Nathan countered, voxelizing a metal frame around his arm and a hand-clamp of metal around his fingers. He grabbed Tang's throat and threw him across the floor, sliding him to the edge to where Vix and Hastings were hovering. They grasped Tang's legs and pulled him with them.
"Time to go, hothead," Nathan said.
Nathan shot to his feet and ran for the edge, sliding on his thigh and falling down into the room. He tried to fire his jets, but things certainly weren’t going as planned. His fall quickened as red lights began to beep furiously around his neck collar. He recognized the warning—Æether reserves exhausted. Nathan began to fall even faster. He looked down to see Vix and Hastings already on the ground with Tang and Switch. Beightol was nowhere to be seen.
"Shit, we're done for," Hastings said, reading her dial. "Where the fuck is Beightol?"
Nathan felt an ominous cold overshadow him like an eclipse of death. The Grand Starcadian had regrouped and flung itself from the edge, now falling just above him. The weight of the large entity would crush Nathan and his team instantly.
The ground was closer now. Vix, Switch, and Hastings aligned themselves under Nathan to help break the impact. Nathan hit them hard, scattering all three a few feet from him. The shadow above grew larger and Nathan felt that he had met his match. Fear flooded his mind, triggering thoughts of his youth—his sister, who was lost in the resistance fight against the Syndicate, and Richter. This thought brought warmth to his face, but then he opened his eyes and realized that the large entity barreling toward them was now gone.
Beightol had come out of nowhere, slamming the Grand Starcadian against the wall. Nathan could see Fery locked around his neck, firing automatic M85 tank machine guns into the creature’s face as Beightol pinned down its large arms. The Grand Starcadian's peppered face turned to a muddy mush just before Beightol let go and stepped back. The entity was weak and slow to get up.
Beightol arched his back and squatted like an Olympic weightlifter. Braces shot out from his legs and bolted into the ground as he grew a 120mm tank cannon twice his size. Fery ran her hands along it as it grew past her. He bent over like a gorilla on all fours, angling toward the Grand Starcadian. Fery swung herself on the cannon like a crazy nymph on a stripper pole.
"Give it to ‘em, Daddy," Fery said.
BOOOOM!
Beightol shot his load and Fery screamed in excitement as she felt the recoil and was bucked from the cannon. Tang broke her fall in a quick grab. Above them, they could see hundreds of Starcadians lining up over the edge.
“What took you so long?” Switch said, smiling.
Stairs began to form from the top, making way for the Starcadians to attack.
“Head back to the ship,” Hastings said.
“The ship is gone,” Fery said.
“What happened to it?”
“The Starcadian ship was engulfing it like it was eating a meal.”
“Told you. Just like a virus,” Switch said.
“Get to those transports,” Nathan ordered.
The assembly line of the Æther production was fast and efficient. Couplers were synced with troughs. Troughs then synched with large cargo transports, which hovered between two thick pads. Nathan watched the cargo ship begin to disappear from one end to the other as if being faxed off in streaming blue light.
Thick, acrylic glass separated the ‘nauts from the production facility. Nathan tried to step forward to engage what had morphed the wall before, but nothing moved. He stepped back and slammed his fist into the wall, denting it in, but the wall reformed instantly.
Nathan looked back to see that the long corridor behind them was closing, collapsing in space toward them. He glanced at Vix, checking her facial nuances. It would only be seconds before she lost it.
“They’ve got us pinned,” Nathan said.
Tang pushed Nathan aside. With fury in his eyes, he engaged the grey goo gun instead of his usual large hand cannons. “Vox your helmets. There’s only one way out.”
“Tang, you can’t use that,” Nathan said.
“Switch says we were like a virus, right?” Tang asked.
Nathan nodded. “Yeah?”
“Well, let's show ‘em what self-replication is all about!” Tang yelled, firing the grey goo.
The sludge hit the wall with a loud thump. Nathan activated his helmet and looked closer through his HUD to see the small nanomachines working their magic, replicating in a frenzy while they consumed the acrylic wall before them.
Tang then changed weapons to a large cannon rotating around from under his arm like a turret. He bolted his back leg into the ground and fired. The air was immediately sucked from the room through a small opening. Tang pushed through and the 'nauts followed him.
“Switch, which one goes to Drækonia?” Nathan asked while rounding the corner. Below, he could see through the metal grating as hundreds of conveyors sent the payloads to their destinations.
“Twenty yards ahead and two levels down,” Switch responded.
The ‘nauts dropped one by one onto the platform below. Nathan could see the dark Starcadians easier now that they contrasted against the white, glowing embers of the Æther. Standing there, watching, Nathan wondered why they’d given up pursuit, but then he realized that that was the case when the enemy had the upper hand.
&
nbsp; Up ahead was a transport that looked like a mix between a large space freighter and a dump truck from Earth. Unique paneling on its side gave away its alien origin just as it turned to receive its next load.
The ‘nauts waited for the bright embers of Æther to fill the transport, then climbed to the top and plopped in. Each ball of light cushioned their fall like a bed of gelatinous orbs. On the side was a securely locked lid that hung over them, magnifying the glow the Æther gave off.
Thoughts of Vix's condition came to Nathan's mind. If they don’t re-up soon with more white matter, he sure wouldn’t want to be around when the suits weren’t able to metabolize their bodies’ output in heat. As his thoughts wandered to him, he saw that she was already in a Zen-like state.
The beaming process began. Interlacing sections disappeared farthest from Nathan in an orderly manner, like a string unraveling from a ball of yarn. The first to go was Beightol and Fery, followed by Switch. It would only be seconds before Tang and Hastings went.
Nathan plucked a small orb from the masses, squeezing the soft yet firm density. The surface texture was like mother of pearl, iridescent and radiant. He’d never seen anything so beautiful up close before, and there he was, with no ship, about to get beamed across the galaxy to another system.
Richter would have loved to have been here.
20
Their journey across the light-years began smoothly, despite the few jostles that sank Nathan and his team deeper into the Æther orbs. An ominous glow lit the team's faces from below, accentuating the exhausting situation they’d all just been through. They needed sleep, but how long would transport take? Nathan scanned the container, adjusting his depth to find the pudgy, long-haired hacker, thinking Switch might be able to answer that question.
Beightol was half-sunken into the mass as well, flicking the small orbs across the way like a bored child at church. Hastings tended to Vix while she was in full trance, both of them meditating. If this wasn’t a test of personal will for a human with claustrophobia, then Nathan would never know what one could be.
