by Amanda Rose
“Sorry, Merrick. It’s nice to see you! Come in, please,” she said and stepped out of the way to let him enter. Merrick walked in and she closed the door behind him. “How is everything going with the move?” she asked.
“Finished yesterday, everything’s in my new quarters, I just have to unpack it all now,” he smiled, “Thank you for asking.”
“Of course. You’re going to love it aboard the Bastion, this place is a hub of wonder,” she said, meaning it.
“I’m surprised you didn’t volunteer to stay as our ambassador yourself,” he said.
Norita felt caught off guard, “What do you mean?”
“It’s quite obvious you love it here, you’ve barely set foot on the Saisei since we’ve arrived,” he said.
Norite felt her face flush, “Oh… well, I, you know there’s been…” she struggled to find the right words.
“I’m not judging, I think you deserve a respite, but I felt you should know many of the counselors have been gossiping,” Merrick explained.
Norita sighed, “Thank you. I can’t say I’m surprised to hear it either.”
“Don’t let it fluster you, those windbags can talk until they’re blue in the face,” Merrick said, and they both laughed.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. You were the only level-headed person in the room during any debate,” she said, and affectionately gave him a hug, “But I’m so happy for you. There’s no one better to be our liaison.”
Merrick hugged her back, “That means a lot. And hey, maybe hold some elections? Get some new blood in the room.”
“You know, I just might do that,” Norita smiled. “I’m sorry I can’t stay to chat more, I have a meeting with the Conclave I have to get going to.”
“Why don’t I come along?” Merrick suggested, “I’ll be the one dealing with them directly soon enough, and I’d appreciate the introduction.”
“See, this is why you’re the right choice for this job. You always consider all the angles and know the right thing to say,” she nudged him playfully with her elbow and winked at him.
Merrick chuckled, “Let’s hope the Conclave sees it that favorably.”
Norita quickly went to the bathroom, straightened out her clothing, and then grabbed a few data pads she needed to take along for the meeting. Then she and Merrick left her quarters together and meandered down the walkway towards the assembly hall. It was relatively quiet in the political wing today, with very little foot traffic. It created for a somber feel. The sounds of the birds in the trees, and the flowing water of the aqueduct was that much more prominent.
“This place feels like paradise,” Merrick said, admiring the views.
“It certainly feels that way today. It never gets bad, really, although I can tell you to watch your step when it’s a busy day here; politicians from any race seem to parade around with the same level of self-entitlement,” she whispered in a giggle.
Merrick laughed, enjoying Norita’s company very much. He had always respected her as a leader, with her down to earth attitude. Why do politicians always have to get so high and mighty on power, and so bitterly argumentative? It was an ongoing pet peeve for him.
Reasonable, level headed discussions, had always been Merrick’s vision in politics, but in reality, he’d seen that less than 1% of the time when dealing with the Saisei council. The prospect of new minds, with hopefully new outlooks, was the main allure for him to come aboard the Bastion. If he could instill real change that would positively impact lives, he could feel content that he’d contributed to the greater good.
“So, where do you think the Saisei will head when you finally disembark from the Bastion?” Merrick asked.
“Oh,” Norita hummed, “To be honest I haven’t been focused on it much, though I guess it’s coming up isn’t it? The Conclave will be issuing us a list of planets we could colonize. It seems pertinent for us to set a course to go check them out when we’re ready to leave.”
“Human beings back planet side… that’ll be interesting,” Merrick said, imagining it.
“It’s strange isn’t it? I’ve dreamt about living on a planet since I was a girl. Imagining the blue sky, wide open spaces… but, to be completely honest, it terrifies me. What do we know about living on a planet? Dealing with weather? And then there’s disease, and our bodies adapting to the natural biology of whatever planet we build on, and real gravity… I don’t know…” she sighed.
Merrick nodded, “it will be a challenge. But,” he stopped walking, and Norita stopped next to him, and then he pointed up at the simulated blue sky with its wisps of cloud, “this isn’t even real, and you haven’t been able to pull yourself away for weeks. Whatever the risks, and the difficulties in making it work, it will be worth it.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking him in the eye. “You’re right, it will be worth it,” then she giggled, “See? Always knowing the right thing to say.”
They walked jovially the rest of the way to the assembly room. Once they reached the anti-chamber, the attendant was there and ready to walk them in immediately. Merrick found himself in just as much wonderment as Norita had felt the first time she’d walked through those massive doors.
They walked up the short pathway and then stood before the speakers. Norita bowed, and Merrick matched her movement. An array of introductions and congratulations for Merrick began the meeting. After that Merrick stood stoically next to Norita and said very little as he watched her converse with the speakers.
Merrick had always been an introvert and loved to study human nature. As a boy one of his mentors had said to him, “Speak little, and listen much. That is the way of the wise man.” He had taken the advice to heart, and it had always served him well.
As a student of human nature Merrick found it incredibly easy to influence others when he knew what made them tick. He was the voice of reason, and they trusted him implicitly. That same mentor had taught him about subtly mirroring the behavior of anyone he spoke to, which created a subconscious feeling of familiarity in the other person. If the person you’re speaking to has their arms crossed, cross your arms too, the concept was simple, and powerful.
The Conclave had an air of harmony, something Merrick was intensely grateful for. But even among these speakers, there were subtle power struggles. Most obviously Ouct, whose poor manners, and obvious distain and lack of patience grinded on the nerves of the others.
Norita was in the middle of uploading some finalized paperwork about the personnel moving aboard the Bastion when suddenly the intercom came on, “Speakers, this is control room 2, I’m terribly sorry for the interruption, but we have a situation.”
“My apologies,” Saaya said to Norita and Merrick humbly.
Norita shook her head, “It’s quite alright, we understand.”
Zar hit the button to respond, “What is it, control?”
“We have an unidentified ship that came through one of the Heaven’s Eyes at the far reaches of our solar system,” the control room attendant replied.
“Why do you need us for this?” Ouct asked, annoyed.
“Well, sir, the scans are coming back with an Ethlana signature, but visual is unlike anything we’ve seen before. They’re not responding to our hails. We’re not picking up any power readings, but it’s on direct approach full speed towards the station,” the control room attendant explained.
“Which worm hole did it come through?” Ent asked.
“I’m sending you the coordinates now,” the attendant said over the speaker.
A second later the information popped up on their terminals, and each one of the speakers stood looking stunned.
“This can’t be right,” Ouct huffed.
“When’s the last time an expedition went through there?” Ent asked.
“I don’t ever recall one, at least not in my lifetime,” Zar said.
“It’s been a few hundred years,” Saaya said, “But… there’s nothing out there, it leads to the edge of our galaxy, to d
ead space. The last expedition reported back within a month of going.”
“The ship is on a direct trajectory for the station, what do you want us to do?” the attendant asked.
Something about that ship feels wrong, Ecoatay interjected.
“What’s the ETA before it reaches the station?” Zar asked.
“It’s coming fast, just over 3 hours,” the attendant replied.
“We’ll send a ship to intercept, headed by a Black Shadow operative. Standby for further instructions,” Saaya said, then turned off the intercom. She then turned to Norita and Merrick, “I’m sorry, but we’ll need to reschedule.”
“Of course,” Norita said, and bowed.
Merrick and Norita turned and took their leave.
Chapter 14: The Derelict Ship
Norita and Merrick didn’t speak until they were out of ear shot from the attendant who lead them out of the waiting room. “That was odd,” Norita said, finally breaking the silence. They walked at a heightened pace back towards Norita’s stay room.
“Very,” Merrick agreed.
“I haven’t had much time to read about all of the destination that the Heaven’s Eyes lead too from here. Have you?” Norita asked.
“No. I’ve been trying to learn cultural information to prep for life aboard the station,” Merrick replied.
“Dead space at the edge of the glalaxy… Whichever one they were talking about, it must lead exceptionally far away from here. We ran long range scans and added star maps from the Bastion’s data stores to our information banks on the Saisei when we arrived, and this is a massive region full of planets and stars,” Norita said, trying to imagine just how far these wormholes might reach.
“The Heaven’s Eyes are supposed to route destinations throughout our galaxy,” Merrick added, “As far as we know there’s no limit to the distance they can reach. It stands to reason they could extend as far as where the dead space between our galaxy and the next begins.”
“It’s certainly possible. I’ll need to talk to Dr. Takei about the maps,” Norita replied.
They barely said another word until they arrived at Norita’s quarters. Merrick bid her farewell and left to unpack in his new home. After a few moments of pacing within her quarters, Norita sent a quick transition to General Yamamoto, “Takeo, prepare a ship and get one of your best pilots ready. I’ll be there shortly to explain. I’ll meet you in your office.” She then left her room and sped off towards the docking port.
|
It had been nearly 30 minutes since Norita had exited the meeting with the Conclave by the time she made it onto the Saisei. She walked with haste through the corridors on her way to meet General Yamamoto. Something in her gut told her this was important.
When she arrived at his office she found the door open, and he was waiting for her at his desk, with Raiden sitting across from him. Norita instantly felt better seeing both of them in front of her.
“Thank you both for meeting me on such short notice,” she said as she entered the room. And closed the door behind herself. Norita sat down and as quickly as she could she recited what she had heard in the Conclave. “…so, what I want to do is send one of our ships as well to investigate,” she explained.
“It does sound strange, but the Speakers are already sending people to investigate, they might see us as interfering by sending a ship of our own,” Takeo said.
Norita shook her head, “I can’t explain it, but I just have a feeling, we need to do this. We’ll say it’s an escort, a ‘thank you’ for accepting us as citizens on the Bastion. Leave the politics to me,” she said to Takeo, then turned to Raiden, “I want to know what’s happening on that ship. Maybe it’s nothing but… I need to know.”
Raiden locked eyes with her and nodded reassuringly, “You got it, ma’am.”
“Go launch,” Norita said and stood up, “I’m going to go explain our ‘gift’ of assistance.”
|
Raiden hurried from the General’s office down to the docking bay. His ship was ready when he arrived. Raiden secured his helmet, and after a quick inspection, he got in the ship and prepared to launch. The Saisei’s bay doors opened up to the massive port of the Bastion, and Raiden carefully navigated his way through the port and out into space. It felt different being out in open space this time, still liberating, but he somehow felt like he was leaving home.
The ship sent out by the Conclave had already departed, so he headed at full speed towards the coordinates that had been uploaded into his flight path. After 10 minutes he was finally able to see the ship in the distance. Is was a small vessel, but larger than the solidary fighter ship Raiden flew in.
He sent a hail, “This is Raiden, from the Saisei, here to offer an escort.”
“Nice to have you along,” he heard Xan’s voice reply.
“Xan?” he asked, surprised.
“Haha, yes, who’d you think?” she replied, clearly amused.
“I don’t know. I was told a member of the Black Shadow was heading the mission, but I guess I thought it’d be someone else,” he said.
“There aren’t many of us, Raiden. I was the only one at the Bastion,” she explained.
“First mission as an operative, huh? Well I’m honored to get to see you in action,” he said warmly.
“Thanks,” she said.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“We’re on an intercept course. Once we reach the ship we’ll try to make contact. If that fails, we’ll dock for an emergency boarding,” Xan told him.
“Got it,” he said.
Raiden continued to follow Xan on course for the rogue ship. It wasn’t long before it was on their sensors, and then within sight. Raiden amplified the image of the ship on his computer monitor. The ship was still far off, so the image wasn’t pristine, but even so it was clear there was something off about it.
“What the hell?” he murmured as he squinted at the video feedback.
The derelict ship was visually unrecognizable as any Ethlana ship he’d seen. The hull was full of holes, but not from any kind of battle, but rather it looked as if the metal had been eaten away. Black-brown tendrils encompassed much of the ship and looked almost as if they were alive. The ship was dark, blending in with the black backdrop of space. It sent a shiver up Raiden’s spine.
As they got closer on their approach vector Raiden began to see the disfigured ship with his own eyes. What could have possibly caused this? He wondered. It was beyond strange. In all his life Raiden had never seen or heard about any organic tissue surviving in the vacuum in space, and yet here, before his eyes, he could tell the tendrils encapsulating the ship were very much alive and moving.
Once they were close they changed course to match that of the derelict ship. Xan’s ship tried sending out hails on a variety of frequencies, but after 5 minutes of failed attempts she announced it was time to board. The secondary docking port on the derelict ship was unusable due to the tendrils, so Raiden and Xan agreed he would dock with her ship and they would then dock Xan’s ship with the derelict ship and board together.
Raiden quickly positioned his ship, aligning it to Xan’s, and with perfect precision matched her ships speed and then docked. He climbed down the attaching hatch which opened into the main cockpit where Xan and two other crewmen were operating the ship. Xan was securing her helmet when Raiden came in. She turned to look at him, “Ready?”
“Let’s do this,” Raiden said, with a sharp nod.
The pilot of Xan’s ship carefully took them in to dock with the derelict ship. Xan and Raiden stared out the window at the ship as they came into contact with it. The thick black-brown tendrils on the hull seemed to be pulsating. “Do you see that?” Raiden asked, feeling nauseated by the sight.
“Yes,” Xan replied, her eyes transfixed on them.
Clunk! The ships connected. “I’m extending the hatch door now,” the co-pilot said. There was a loud creaking as the heavy metal exterior door opened.
Xan looked
to Raiden and tilted her head, indicating for him to follow her. They made their way to the hatch, and Xan opened up a weapons locker near the door. She pulled out a weapon that looked like some sort of advanced assault rifle. Just like the Ethlana ships, their weapons were a stunning white chrome. Xan passed one to Raiden and quickly showed him how to use it, “I’m hoping we don’t need it, but if we do…”
“Better to be prepared,” Raiden agreed.
They holstered the rifles and made their way through the hatch. With the holes throughout the derelict ship they were in zero gravity. Both Raiden and Xan activated the magnetic plating in their boots to hold them against the floor.
Even with their helmet flashlights on full luminosity the derelict ship was incredible dark. The tendrils that engulphed the exterior of the ship were much sparser on the inside. That’s so odd… maybe they survive through photosynthesis? But… they’d have died in dead space then… Raiden tried to wrap his mind around it all.
