Tantalus (The Hidden Book 1)

by Phil Maxey

  “Unable to identify, more data required.”

  “Well that makes no sense. I’ll run a diagnostic on the sensors,” said Evan, tapping options on his own wrist device.

  “Okay so they got mysterious fruit that can’t be seen by the ship’s AI. That’s not the point. People are buying them, the Archons are their new best friends, I’ve even seen some of those freaks out recruiting. What we going to do about it?” said Seth.

  “We have to do something. They haven’t been threatening yet, but with the numbers they have, if they decided not to comply we would have a problem controlling them,” said Ash.

  “I’ll meet with Carr, see if I can find out what their game plan is. Meanwhile, Ash, task some of your people to keep a close eye on them, especially what’s going on with the organics, where they got them, and if they are growing them.”

  She nodded.

  Luke smiled. “The irony is, we actually need fresh food.”

  “Yes, it is most convenient,” said Evgeni.

  “Evan, what’s our ETA at the station?”

  “Another two days, Captain.”

  “Let’s keep a cap on this situation, I don’t want another battle taking place on this ship. Dismissed.” Everyone got and up and started to leave. “Weber, a word before you go.” Weber sat. Luke waited until they were alone. “Any progress on your analysis of the hidden?”

  “I need more time.”

  “You’ve already had over a week, is there nothing you can tell me that we could use? What about that material you got back from the Moon colony?”

  “It’s a sophisticated polymer compound that blocks sensors, but beyond that it’s nothing special, which leads me to believe there were other reasons the hidden chose not to kill the girl.”

  “And the readings you took from the time in the pump control room? You were up close to it.”

  Weber looked away. “The readings were inconclusive—or.”

  “Or?”

  “Or my equipment was not functioning correctly.”

  “Do you have any theory at all of what it is?”

  “As a scientist, I do not speculate.”

  “Make an exception.”

  Weber took in a deep breath. “Obviously, it is a form of life in the sense that it is a sentient. But it consists of no known compounds that we would usually associate with life. When I scanned it with my equipment, the readings came back that there was nothing there, as if it was an illusion that we were all seeing. Obviously, it exists, we have seen it, and it has affected us and its environment, but it would seem to exist at a quantum level or perhaps it exists in a parallel reality, and what we are seeing is just its manifestation in our own universe.”

  Luke sighed.

  “Like I say, I need more time. Sometimes there is a temperature drop, but that seems to only be associated with when it is drawing power from a fusion reactor. I will understand what it is eventually, you have my word.”

  Luke nodded, and Weber got to his feet and left. He didn’t understand much of what Weber just explained to him, he just hoped that the old scientist would give him a weapon to use against it at some point.

  CHAPTER 41

  “Twenty thousand meters and closing, Captain,” said Watkins as the Tantalus neared Station fifteen at the edge of the asteroid belt.

  “Bring us to a stop around fifteen kilometers, I don’t want us to get too close.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  The main bridge screen displayed the station which resembled an elongated spinning top.

  “Cohen, any readings?”

  Before Seth could answer, another smaller screen appeared over the main station image, of a blonde-haired woman in her thirties, her face was smeared with small patches of black grease and she was wearing an EA uniform. “Are you there? I’m reading a ship in our vicinity, but our sensors are damaged, so I’m sending this message on all frequencies. If—”

  Luke stood up from his seat. “Is this live?”

  “It would appear that it is, Captain,” said Haywood.

  “Connect us to her.”

  Haywood tapped his screen, and the woman’s expression changed to one of relief. “Please, can you help us? Have you been infected as well?” Tears started to roll down her face.

  “I’m Captain Luke Carter of the Tantalus. We are here to rescue you. What’s your status?”

  She turned, smiling, and waving behind her. “Yes, oh thank you! Our status, yes, there are around a hundred of us, we are all that’s left, we managed to jettison all the infected into space.”

  “What about the hidden?” The woman looked confused. “The strange black mist which is associated with the infection, have you seen that?”

  “No.”

  “Is your reactor still functioning?” Luke walked to Seth’s screen showing a display of the station, and with the words “Minimal energy output detected” flashing next to it.

  “No, our reactor was going to explode so we shut it down just in time. Most of the station still has air though.”

  “That could have been what saved them,” said Weber from the back of the bridge.

  “Do you have room for us?”

  “More than enough room—what’s your name, Commander?”

  “Oh right, I’m Commander Anika Gutridge.” More happy faces appeared behind her.

  “Okay, give us a few minutes Commander, I’ll be right back. Hold on.” He tapped on Haywood's screen, pausing the connection. He then looked at Weber. “How sure are we that the hidden is not on the station?”

  “We can’t be, other than perhaps the actions they took, stopped the hidden from getting a foothold. Ground bases don’t have the jettison option.”

  A flashing red dot appeared on the main screen. “Captain, they are attempting to communicate again.”

  “Get a shuttle and a team ready, we will go over, take a look, and if it feels safe, start ferrying everyone over to us.”

  “We could dock the Tantalus, if their docking ports have not been damaged,” said Evan.

  “Let’s go with the shuttle option for now. Start the prep for living quarters for them, as well as food and drink.”

  “They might have food and water on the station we can use,” said Elisa.

  Luke smiled. “Excellent point, XO.”

  * * * * *

  “I would have preferred if you had stayed on Tantalus. Over,” said Elisa through Luke’s space suits internal comms.

  “She’s in capable hands. Over.”

  He looked around the shuttle at Aruna, Omar, Weber, Dower, Burnett and two IMs. Even though they were all wearing the standard space suits, their visors were up. Everyone seemed more at ease than he had seen them for a while.

  “If everything looks okay, we’ll bring them over twenty at a time.” He looked at Weber. “How long will it take for you to get to the reactor?”

  “Around twenty minutes.”

  “That should give us enough time to see what the situation is, and start loading people onto the shuttle. Just to be clear though, keep a close eye on your sensor readings, especially temperature drops. It looks like they managed to rid themselves of the hidden but, just be careful.” Those around nodded in agreement.

  “Docking in ten seconds.” An IM’s voice crackled over their comms.

  The shuttle shook, then stabilized as the docking clamps from the station gripped the hull.

  Luke stood, walked to the hatch, and opened it. Commander Anika Gutridge and two others were standing at the end of the already opened airlock.

  The tall slim blonde commander brushed her hands on her scuffed uniform and walked forward with her hand held out. “Great to meet you, Captain.” Her eyes were drawn to the two large robots disembarking the shuttle behind Luke.

  Luke warmly shook her hand. “Hope you don’t mind us being in our suits, but we might need to examine some areas that are a vacuum.”

  “Not at all.” She turned slightly to her right. “This is lieutenant Commander
Roads, my science officer, and Lieutenant Cruz my security officer.”

  Luke smiled. “Sounds like you have done a good job keeping everyone alive.”

  Anika blinked. “No, not everyone, there were over eight thousand people on this station, now there are barely one hundred.” The dark-haired woman behind the commander looked away, while officer Cruz smiled as if his commander had never commentated.

  Luke turned to those behind him. “This is my science officer lieutenant Weber, my assistant tactical officer lieutenant Anthony, my CMO Omar Chibuzo and two of my security officers, Dower and Burnett. With your permission, Lieutenant Weber would like to inspect your reactor?”

  “Umm, sure, we haven’t been down there since we shut it down. There was a small leakage, but your suits should protect you fine. Lieutenant Cruz can show you the way.”

  Weber moved past Luke and into the corridor behind. “Nah, I’ll find my own way.” He moved off to the left heading towards a junction.

  Luke looked at one of the IMs. “Go with him.”

  “Okay then, how about we show you how we have been surviving, since we have not been able to reach EA central.” The small group started walking towards the elevator.

  A cold feeling of reluctance spread over Luke and the others from Tantalus. “You don’t know what has happened elsewhere in the system?” said Luke.

  Officer Roads looked shocked. “Elsewhere?”

  The three station crew stopped in the corridor.

  “Maybe we should wait until we are in your living quarters before I explain,” said Luke, motioning towards the open space of the elevator.

  “No, please, tell us now,” said Anika with a slight tinge of desperation in her voice.

  Luke took a deep breath. “What happened to this station, also happened on Earth, and all the bases we have visited so far between here and there.”

  Roads put her hand to her mouth.

  “The infection reached Earth?” said Cruz his eyes full of emotion.

  “What happened?” said Anika.

  Luke went to explain more, then stopped. “Perhaps it’s better you see for yourselves. The Tantalus was in orbit when it happened, we have footage that we can upload to your system.”

  “Okay, yes, fine, let’s get to our quarters then,” said Anika entering the elevator.

  The short journey to their living quarters was thick with silence. Eventually the door slid open and light and noise hit them. It was quickly reduced to just light as at least a hundred people of all ages and races stopped talking and looked at their new guests.

  Anika led the group out into a large room which had the look of a shanty town, with makeshift beds, tents and tables with pots and pans on them. “This was formerly a communal area of the station, but it’s where most ended up, and where we made a stand against the infected.” She moved slightly away from the group and looked at the people watching on around her. “This is Captain Carter and his people from the Tantalus, they are here to rescue us—” a ripple of excitement moved through the onlookers “—but I’m afraid they have some bad news which we all need to see.” She looked at Luke and nodded her permission.

  He quickly selected the necessary connections via his wrist device, then looked for the nearest view screen. In the ceiling above their heads, a large inverted pyramid form housed three screens. He moved below them, and tapped the upload option on his wrist. The screen started showing the destruction they originally witnessed on Earth. Gasps and almost inaudible cries of anguish swept across the tired inhabitants of the room.

  Once it was finished, Anika turned to Luke. “But that looked like something else, not just people being infected, it looked like there was something moving across the landscape?”

  “What you call an infection, we call the hidden. It seems to be a sentient life form that can inhabit a host, controlling it. But it also can move freely. It’s especially drawn to energy sources and specifically fusion reactors. You were fortunate you shut yours down before it exploded.”

  “Sentient? You mean it’s an alien life form?” said Roads.

  “Yes, it appears to be.”

  “And you say all the bases you have visited, have been affected?” said Anika.

  “Apart from one person we found at the lunar colony, you are the first people we have found alive.”

  “Nobody alive on the Mars colony?” said a thickset, bearded man, holding a young girl close to him.

  “No, I’m sorry, we found no-one alive there,’ Luke turned to Omar. “Start checking people out, and get them into groups of twenty for transportation.” Omar nodded and moved off. Luke looked at all the silent people around him. “The Tantalus is a large ship, and we have not been affected by the infection. You will be safe there. Omar, our doctor, will be coming around to you to do a quick medical evaluation, then you will be placed into groups of around twenty to be taken back to our ship. Please start collecting your belongings.” As he finished the noise of the crowd returned as people started frantically packing items into boxes and bags.

  Anika turned to her security officer Cruz. “Lieutenant help them.” She looked back to Luke. “If you will excuse me, I need to get some things together.”

  “Of course.” Roads disappeared into the crowd as well. Luke turned to his own remaining crew behind him. “I want the path from here to the shuttle secure.” Aruna nodded, and she, Dower and Burnett moved back into the elevator, while the IM remained guarding the door.

  Soon groups of twenty were gathering, holding all their worldly goods in tattered bags and broken boxes.

  Commander Gutridge reappeared with a large bag slung over her shoulder, and approached Luke. “I’m ready.”

  “Good, the first group is already on their way to the shuttle. I’ve also launched our second shuttle, so while ones docking with our ship, the other can be docking here. Five trips and we will be done.”

  Anika looked up at the arched beams above them.

  “How long were you commander here?” said Luke.

  “The last three years. I was lieutenant commander before that for four years.”

  “It couldn’t have been easy doing what you had to.”

  Her face grew darker. “They weren’t people anymore. Initially I didn’t believe what was happening, I thought perhaps it was a kind of virus that we could treat, but the infected did things I could not explain. All of us here are lucky to be alive.”

  Twenty-one floors below them, Weber and the IM had finally got to the corridor that led to the reactor room. Small patches of ice lay scattered across the floor and walls and the temperature was hovering around freezing. The lights above them flickered, while those ahead were not functioning at all.

  “Low temperature is consistent with presence of unknown life form,” said the IM.

  “I am well aware of that.”

  “Continuing, would not be advised.”

  “Yes, yes.” Weber raised the extra scanning equipment that was built onto his wrist device towards the reactor room door and activated it. His HUD displayed a three-dimensional energy map of what lay ahead, even penetrating the wall between the corridor and reactor room allowing him to see inside.

  “Ah, now I see you—” He stepped forward cautiously.

  The energy map on his HUD showed a mass of shadowy figures merging and separating, while others circulated around the core of the reactor. “Got you!” He went to pull down the handle to open the reactor room door, when the IM held his hand, stopping him. “What are you doing!” shouted Weber.

  “I have orders from the captain, that you are not to be allowed to endanger yourself or others. There is an eighty-nine percent chance that opening this door will lead—”

  “But what I discover inside could be what allows us to defeat the hidden!” The IM’s grip did not loosen. “Grrr fine, let me go.” The IM did as requested.

  Weber did one last sweep with his scanner, then with the IM, turned and started walking down the corridor. All the lights went out.
They both turned back towards the reactor room door, their own lights providing the only visibility.

  He activated the three-dimension scan once again. The dark shapes were leaving the core of the reactor, flowing away from it, and passing beyond the scanners range. He started walking back towards the reactor rooms door. The flow increased, until it looked like a constant stream of dark energy spilling out of the reactor core. Weber activated his comms. “Captain, I think we have a problem.”

  CHAPTER 42

  Elisa stood on the bridge watching the latest group of people disembark the shuttle. “How many more to go?”

  “Two more shuttle trips should do it, Ma’am,” said Haywood.

  “Switch to a view of the station.” The majestic monolith which was once home to thousands came back into view, floating just above the plane of the asteroids below it. Something caught her attention. She moved closer to the main screen. “What is that?” Those around her all looked at the station.

  “I’m not seeing anything ma’am, what are you referring to?” said Haywood.

  “Zoom into the station, the lower floors.”

  The view flew forwards showing the myriad of windows and docking ports on the outside of the station. It also showed something else.

  “Is that a shadow? Go closer on that.”

  The image of the station grew until they could see what looked like dark patches forming on the outside of the station.

  “What is that?” said Watkins.

  “Oh, that’s not good,” said Evan watching from the back, while tapping away at his own console screen. “I’m seeing huge temperature drops in that area of the station, I think it’s—”

  “Patch me through to the captain,” said Elisa, Haywood nodded. “Captain, I think the hidden is onboard the station, or rather it’s leaving the station, but we can’t tell as of yet where it’s going. Over.” She looked at Seth, “Can you triangulate its destination?”