by Colin Weldon
“Hello, Carrie,” came a soft voice from behind her.
She turned slowly recognising the sound. Her mother’s beautiful eyes met hers. She smiled kindly at her. Carrie looked deeply into her eyes and wanted to embrace her, but suddenly found herself unable to move. Jennifer Barrington stood serenely before her daughter and extended her hand. Carrie felt herself able to move her arms and raised one of them up to take her mother’s hand.
“Where are you?” Carrie asked.
“I am always,” Jennifer responded.
“What do you mean?” Carrie asked.
“You look as I had always imagined you would,” Jennifer said.
Carrie’s eyes began to water as tears began to fall uncontrollably down her cheeks.
“Where are you?” she said, “I need you.”
“You must find us,” Jennifer said.
“Who?” Carrie said.
“Carrie, you must go with Tyrell,” Jennifer said.
“What is wrong with me, why am I so different?” Carrie said.
Jennifer gave her daughter a warm smile. “You are of us, Carrie. You must go with Tyrell,” she replied.
Carrie suddenly felt tired.
“I am not strong enough for this, what am I supposed to do?” she said.
“Go with Tyrell,” Jennifer said.
Carrie nodded slowly.
“Where?” she said.
Jennifer released Carrie’s hand and began walking away from her. Carrie tried to follow, but felt heavy. She could not walk.
“Wait!” she cried, “Mother wait!”
Jennifer continued to walk away from her and fade into nothingness.
“Go with Tyrell,” her voice said, seemingly carried by the wind.
Carrie began to cry uncontrollably. A large booming sound made her turn and look up at the sky. The world she was standing on suddenly grew dark, as a huge object began to descend through the atmosphere. A mechanical voice rippled through the sky as a familiar mechanical structure approached her.
“Tar … Gla … Gdu!”
The planet sized monster filled the sky all the way to the horizon. She could see its gigantic moving parts churn and move organically as it approached her. She was unable to move, as the planet sized machine began to split its equator and open up. The sky lit up in flames and scorched the clouds as it approached her. It hit the surface of the field with a force that knocked Carrie clean off her feet and sent her crashing to the ground. She looked up at the huge opening that had appeared as the Targlagdu began to bite down into the field swallowing it whole. The ground crumbled beneath her as the mouth began to close all around her. She saw deep inside the planet monster, right to its heart. A large rotating cube. The surrounding rock and soil began to close in on her, crushing her sides and covering her in soil. She felt her bones crack under the pressure and released a last scream as she was swallowed up and eaten.
She awoke on the bio bed screaming. Her hands outstretched. Smoke filled the medical bay as she tried to catch her breath. She could feel her wet hair clinging to her face, as sweat and tears poured down. She looked around trying to get control of her panic. Meridian and Brubaker were on the ground covering their heads. She suddenly realised that her nightmare had triggered her to release an electrical charge from her fingertips and she snapped her arms back towards her chest folding her arms.
“Chase?” she said suddenly concerned that she had caused someone injury.
There was silence in the medical bay as the smoke from a nearby console rose slowly from its surface. Meridian and Brubaker rose slowly from the floor and approached her.
“I’m okay, Dice, looks like you had a nightmare,” Meridian said looking around at the console.
“My God, I am so sorry. Did I hurt anyone?” Carrie said.
Brubaker blew a breath out and shook her head.
“Everyone is fine, Carrie, just lay back and relax for a moment,” she said.
Carrie did as she was asked and placed her hands on her face. She suddenly felt like she was a danger to everyone on board.
“That was some nightmare,” Meridian said, “Remind me not to invite you for a sleep over,” she said smiling and pushing wet hair away from Carrie’s face.
“I’m sorry,” Carrie said.
“Don’t worry about it, Dice, it keeps us all on our toes. You should really say sorry to Brubaker, you broke her computer,” she said laughing.
“Don’t worry, the bloody thing hasn’t worked properly since it was installed, you actually did me a favour,” Brubaker replied.
The three women began to laugh as they looked around the medical bay.
“I think we should revisit the superhero hypothesis,” she added, “I know an ex-husband I’d like to do that to.”
Carrie smiled lightly before thinking back to the dream, if it was a dream.
“Chase,” she said.
Meridian paused.
“Yes, Carrie,” she replied.
“I think that machine planet knows where we are. I think it’s coming for us,” she replied.
Meridian’s face suddenly turned pale.
“I think it wants me,” she said to her.
Meridian didn’t answer.
7
The Unity
The last three days had been relatively uneventful. Aron volunteered for the night shift so that he could be alone. The tension between India and Stanley was making the task of deploying the buoys a little more tiresome than expected and he needed some time off from it. He figured if they were going to kill each other, then it was probably better to sleep through it and see who wins. Vishal had provided them with thirteen long range communications satellites. They had been largely experimental and largely believed to have been a waste of colonial resources, but Arturo had pressed for the project to be developed many years earlier. Aron had to hand it to the chancellor. Whatever you said about the conditions he kept the colonists in, he had to admit that at least they were all still alive.
Aron listened to the sub light engines as they pushed the ship through the vacuum of space. The gentle vibrations reverberated through the cockpit. He looked out at the stars as they streaked by the windows and wondered if there was anyone really out there. He had thought about just taking the ship and leaving on many occasions. Just setting a course for the nearest star and letting her rip. The thought never lasted long though and he couldn’t have lived with himself knowing the suffering he would leave behind. They had laid out three of the satellite buoys. One every twenty-four hours or so over the last three days and all seemed to be working well. According to Vishal, the relay would need the full thirteen activated before a signal could be transmitted successfully across the distance to The Agathon. Aron had poured himself a coffee and was thinking about his daughter. He liked to picture her the way he envisioned her growing up. He had lived a life with her inside his head. They lived in a small cabin along the shores of a quiet lake on a planet made of green lush forests. They would spend their days fishing and building fires in the open wilderness. He would tell her stories of his great escape from the iron rule of an evil man and she would listen to him in awe. He would teach her about his travels and prepare her for the new world the best way he could. Their home would be made from trees that he had cut down and they would live the rest of their lives in peace. He basked in the warmth of her imaginary love and wondered what it felt like to be happy.
A small blinking light on the corner of his flight console caught his attention. He snapped out of his daydream unwillingly, ignoring it at first, but then turned his head to look at the light. He stared at the blinking communications light then pressed the button underneath it, activating it.
“This is The Unity,” he said.
He was greeted with static. He frowned looking at the light and pressed the console again.
“I repeat; this is The Unity. This is Aron Elstone. Go ahead,” he said again.
Nothing. The crackle on the other end of the comms conti
nued to echo around the cockpit. He decided that it must have been background radiation and disconnected the communications channel. The light blinked off. He sat back in his chair and looked out at the stars.
He sipped his coffee and returned to the forest. He was just in time for dinner with Maya.
The Agathon
“It was definitely a human voice, sir. I wasn’t imagining it,” David Chavel said sitting at the navigational console. He had just arrived at his morning shift.
“Play it again, David,” Barrington said from the captain’s chair.
Chavel punched some commands into his console and the bridge went silent. There was a moment of static.
“… Unity … Elstone ...” The voice from the static said.
It was very faint, but definitely there. The communications channel went dead. Barrington looked at Chavel.
“Probably picking up internal channels, Lieutenant?” he said straightening his back.
Chavel shook his head.
“No, sir, this originated in deep space. I am triangulating it now,” he said.
Barrington fell silent.
“Shit, sorry. I lost it, sir,” Chavel said.
Boyett looked over at Chavel and frowned. He raised his hand apologetically at his momentary break in bridge formality. Barrington saw her give him a little smile and let it go. Boyett turned her head back to her flight controls. The two stars grew larger in the viewers overhead. Barrington glanced around at Jerome Young who was seated at one of the diagnostic consoles.
“Well Jerome, anything you can do to clean up that signal?” Barrington asked. Young had spent most of his life on the Martian moon Phobos analysing the Signal Maker’s transmission being relayed to Earth from the great metallic monolith structure that had been discovered there. He was scratching his prosthetic leg when Barrington had turned to ask him.
“I’ll get right on it, John. The lieutenant is correct though, it seemed to originate in deep space,” he said, “if Tyrell is not available, I could use Carrie up here.”
Barrington nodded and tapped his comm link.
“Carrie Barrington to the bridge,” he said.
“On my way,” she replied.
“Anyone know what Unity or Elstone means?” Barrington said out loud to the rest of the bridge crew.
Silence followed. He turned back in his chair and scratched his chin. Looking at Young scratch his leg had suddenly caused an itch to form under his empty eye socket. He rubbed it gently and looked up at the twin stars.
“Position, Charly?” he said to Boyett, “have we got telemetry on any of those planets yet?”
“Actually, yes, sir, we do,” she said turning to Chavel.
He was still looking at his communications readings from the signal.
“Lieutenant?” Barrington asked.
“Eh, yes, sir, coming in now,” Chavel said reluctantly, moving away from the transmission data and punching in some commands.
One of the view screens, to the right of the main central one, changed to show an image of a planet. It was covered in white with a small green landmass towards its southern pole.
“Seems to be mostly ice covered,” Chavel said, “We are reading an atmosphere, sir.”
Barrington’s heart sank. He hated the cold. Memories of his year spent in the Jycorp training facility in Antarctica came flooding back. He swore he would never be cold again.
“Any sign of life?” Barrington asked.
“Negative, sir, looks like it’s in the middle of an ice age,” Chavel said.
“Any technological or transmissions coming from the surface,” he said.
“Negative,” Chavel said looking at him.
“Any tectonic activity?” Barrington asked trying to cover all the bases.
“No, sir, she looks quiet. Just cold,” Chavel said.
“Should I continue approach, Captain?” Boyett asked now turning to face him.
Barrington thought about it for a second. He nodded silently to her.
The Agathon
Engine Room
He had to get her off the ship. To the others. The Targlagdu would be tracking them. He had to get her to the others before they were completely destroyed.
“Doctor Tyrell, I could use your help over here,” said the pink species named Tosh.
Tyrell had found him to be most competent, but very slow. His immobility was impeding his ability to keep up with Tyrell’s adjustments to the FTL drive. He had covered his tracks as best he could while releasing the coolant valve, but it would not be long until one of the pink species discovered it. Now all he needed was to drain The Betty of some drive plasma and ionise it so that it would react with the leaked substance trailing out behind the ship. The location was the key. He could not attempt it until the ship was situated directly between the two stars. The gravitational eddy would only be susceptible to an explosion at the exact coordinates. He was running out of time and The Betty was not easily accessed at the top of the drive shaft. The entire crew would see him draining it. He needed a diversion. He walked over to Tosh who was monitoring the ship’s engines.
“I think there was an imbalance in the drive plasma during the flight. It didn’t completely seal the subspace bubble around the vessel which meant that we were not completely sealed off from the normal effects of space time. What do you think?” he said.
Tyrell looked at Tosh’s computations in the computer. It was a rudimentary design, but would function well for the pink species to transverse their understanding of the known galaxy. He saw the discrepancy in the computations and without thinking began typing in the algorithms to correct the error. After several seconds he stopped and turned back to Tosh who looked at him in amazement.
“That should rectify the imbalance. The FTL should function within the given parameters,” he said.
Tosh looked at the rows of code.
“Holy shit, Tyrell,” he said, “How did you do that?”
Tyrell looked at him and tried to think of a response that would not raise suspicions.
“I have been working the problem since we figured out our time displacement, Doctor Tosh. If you don’t mind, I would like to sample several microns of the drive plasma to make sure that my analysis of the situation is correct,” he said.
“Eh, hang on, Tyrell, you can’t just extract drive plasma, you could blow the ship up if it isn’t properly controlled,” Tosh said.
He would definitely need a diversion.
“I understand, Doctor. Do not fear, I will try and conduct my experiment with an ionic scanner from outside the drive plasma chamber,” he said, “Tell me, is there a functioning space fairing vessel within this ship?”
“What?” Tosh responded.
Tyrell thought about his phrasing and tried to access the memories of the host body that he had commandeered.
“A shuttle craft,” he said.
The Tosh creature looked at him curiously.
“You know there is, Tyrell, it’s in the main hangar bay on deck twelve. It was probably damaged after the crash, though I don’t think anyone has been down there to check it since we left Mars,” he said.
Tyrell walked away leaving Tosh to mull over the complex math that he had just entered. He walked over to one of the monitoring consoles and looked over the readouts. He had to get everyone out of the room. Just for a few minutes. He looked over the various readouts from the computer screen and honed in on one. He looked around to see if anyone was near. The crew seemed to be buried in their own work. He turned back to the console and typed in an override command coupled with a long string series of codes to reroute the security protocol. Seconds later, a klaxon sounded and a red overhead light began strobing through the engine room.
“Life support failure. Evacuate. Life support failure. Evacuate,” said the soft female computer voice.
He turned to see the crew looking up shocked. They all turned to Tosh who was looking around dazed. There was a moment of hesitation before Tosh respon
ded. “Everyone out!” he shouted loudly, turning his chair around and making for the exit hatch.
Tyrell could feel the air in the engine room growing stale. Crew members were beginning to cough as the oxygen in the room began to evacuate. He mimicked the reactions of the crew around him to make it look like he was being effected.
“Life support failure. Evacuate,” repeated the female voice.
Tyrell watched closely as the crew flocked to the exit. Taking a step backwards he slid in behind a bulkhead and waited. The last of the crew exited the engine room and the doors sealed shut. He was finally alone. His body could feel the depleted oxygen levels and he began to grow slightly dizzy. He slowed his heart rate to half its normal speed and grabbed a small containment bottle. Making his way up to The Betty he slowly unlocked the clamp holding the metal seal in place and slid the long end of the containment bottle inside the glowing fluid.
Two minutes later he had enough of the material for his purpose and moved to the centre of the engine room. He slowly lay on the ground placing the bottle inside his lab coat. He closed his eyes. And waited.
The Agathon
Bridge
“What the hell happened?” Barrington said to Chavel.
The alarm on Chavel’s console had alerted him to the drop in pressure in the engine room.
“Unknown, sir, it’s back up to normal atmosphere now. For some reason, life support failed in the engine room, but only for a few minutes.”
Carrie looked up from the navigational panel in front of her. She had been assisting Young in processing the astronomical data when the alert had sounded.
“Bridge, this is the engine room,” Tosh’s voice came over the comm system.
“Go engine room,” her father said looking concerned. She could feel him on edge and was getting an all too familiar feeling of alert readiness from him.
“We are back inside and checking all systems. Tyrell didn’t make it out in time, sir. He’s being taken to the medical bay,” he said.
The captain glanced over at Carrie and frowned.
“Is he dead?” he asked.
“Negative, bridge, he seems to be unconscious, but still breathing,” Tosh said.
