Strange New Worlds

by Kevin McLaughlin

  It was pitted, pock-marked with what looked like hundreds of small impacts, but the surface must have been nearly smooth once upon a time. How long had it been out there drifting to collect so much damage?

  “Still no energy readings,” Ayala said. “I’m not getting anything from it at all.”

  “And yet, it is producing energy of some sort,” Majel said.

  “How so?” Beth asked.

  “The planet’s speed is such that it must be exerting a nearly constant thrust in some manner, or it would tumble out of this orbit,” Majel replied. “Also, it isn’t spinning. At this distance from the star, there’s no reason for it to be tidally locked. And yet, it is.”

  The Satori was only a thousand miles away now, and Beth could only see the planet’s horizon, not the whole sphere. “Give us a full orbit. Let’s see what we’re looking at.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Foster replied.

  Their ship picked up speed, gliding over the planet’s surface toward the bright side. Daylight sprang into view and with it an even better look at the surface. Despite its black color, there were bits of the planet which gleamed in the light.

  “Definitely metal. Picking up traces of it around the surface, almost like an atmosphere. Probably flung out as dust by meteor strikes,” Ayala said. “I’m betting the entire surface is made of it.”

  “Larger perturbation of the surface ahead,” Majel said.

  “Holy shit,” Beth breathed.

  ‘Perturbation’ was one way to put it. From Beth’s point of view, it looked like something had blasted into the planet’s surface with enough force to churn up the grand-daddy of all craters. The ground around the impact site was wildly torn, shredded edges reaching into the sky like a wound. She’d never seen that sort of damage to any planetary surface before. The ragged edges of the crater must have extended hundreds of miles up from the surface.

  Beth zoomed in on the image as they flew closer to the impact site. She couldn’t see the bottom. How deep did the thing go? It was all in shadow.

  “What’s our scan say about the bottom of that hole?” Beth asked. The Satori’s scanners were alien in origin, and far more detailed than anything humanity had come up with.

  “That there isn’t one,” Ayala replied. He made a gesture with his hand and threw the image from his screen onto the main one.

  There wasn’t a bottom to the crater because they’d been right about their assumptions. The planet was just a shell, perhaps a few kilometers thick. The inside of the thing was hollow, and whatever hit it tore right through the crust like it was tissue paper.

  “Moving us toward the mouth of the hole,” Foster said.

  He sounded nervous to Beth, and she supposed there was good reason for concern. But this could be an incredible opportunity as well! Tech like this was beyond even that of the Naga and Kkiktchikut. The knowledge they gleaned from this place could save humanity.

  “Steady as we go, Adam,” Beth said. “Be ready to jump out if we see anything weird down there, but let’s go have a peek.”

  “Weird? Ma’am, that whole thing is weird,” Foster replied.

  She couldn’t disagree. The sheer scope of the object was remarkable, and everything they saw just added more questions to the growing pile.

  “Got something strange on our scans,” Ayala said.

  “Dangerous?” Beth asked.

  “Not sure yet. It looks like an energy reading, but it’s not. The scans aren’t sure what to make of it,” he replied. “Whatever it is, it’s at the precise center of the sphere’s hollow center.”

  “A power source for their ship?” Beth asked.

  “That would be logical, but I can’t give you any conclusions without more data,” Ayala replied. “We are getting some scan data now on the interior of the shell, though. It’s riddled with open spaces. Looks like rooms, hallways…architecture.”

  Whatever had blocked their scans from penetrating the surface obviously didn’t cover the hole in the shell. As the Satori slowly descended into the pit, more data flowed across Beth’s screen, faster than she could read it all. The place was big enough that finding any specific details would be like digging up a needle in a haystack. Luckily, one member of the crew excelled at that.

  “Majel, look over this scan data. Find me a way into the interior of the shell,” Beth said.

  “Processing now,” Majel replied. “Multiple locations found that appear to be points of ingress. Marking the nearest one on the main screen.”

  A spot not too far away lit up red. “Make for that point and set the ship down,” Beth said.

  Not much gravity, so they wouldn’t be able to land, but the Satori could keep itself in position with mild thruster use easily enough. Their EVA suits had magnetic boots that would hopefully hold on the shell’s alloy.

  “Major Ayala, go round up a security team. We’re going to take a peek inside this thing and see if we can figure out what makes it tick,” Beth said as she rose from her seat.

  Ayala looked her in the eye and gave Beth a half-smile. “I suppose you’re planning to come along?”

  Beth grinned back. “Wild space horses couldn’t keep me away. I’ll meet you in the cargo bay.”

  Nine

  Charline parked her Armor near the camp and snapped her helmet into place. Air hissed in her ears. Annoying, but until they were cleared to take off their suits and try breathing the air, she agreed it wasn’t worth taking chances. Fresh air might be nice, but on a biodiverse world, there was always the chance some bug or another might be bad for them.

  She shook her head, thinking back to the days when they’d gone without such precautions. The first couple of planets the Satori’s crew explored might have melted their faces off with plague. Breathable atmospheric gases didn’t always mean that it was safe for humans.

  The canopy of her suit raised at a touch. She stepped clear of the Armor, climbing down the built-in rungs to the ground. One of the lab bunnies had found something interesting, and she’d been asked to come take a look. She made her way to the hab unit where their science team worked.

  Martelle’s Marines had been busy. They already had two buildings up, the lab and a combination barracks and galley where everyone could eat. An airlock and tube connected the two structures, and they were already putting up a third. Better still, the entire area was already surrounded by an electric fence. Sure, they hadn’t met any wildlife yet, but the memory of ratzards and other dangerous fauna were still fresh in her mind. The fence was a damned good idea.

  Or maybe she was just getting more cautious in her old age. Charline chuckled at the thought. She hadn’t even hit thirty yet, but the things she’d seen and done made her feel much older sometimes.

  The lab had an airlock. Charline’s access code let her in. Once she was inside, the door sealed behind her, and jets of mist streamed down from above. Her suit was being sprayed with decontaminant. She raised her arms so the spray would hit her entire outfit. When it was done, the inner door hissed open.

  “You’re clear to remove your helmet,” Martelle said. He stood just inside the door.

  “Colonel, good to see you. Your people have been going gangbusters out there,” Charline replied.

  “That’s what they do. Come on, the doc said you were going to want to see this, too,” Martelle said.

  He led the way to another door and opened it, ushering her through. Charline thought the gesture antiquated, but she didn’t complain. She knew he meant well.

  Only two people worked inside the main room of the lab unit. One of them was a man she didn’t recognize. The other scientist was someone Charline knew very well. Linda Paris had briefly worked with the crew of the Satori, venturing out with them on a couple of missions. One went badly, and she’d never gone out again. Charline was surprised to see her with the team here.

  “This is Dr. Lawrence, and Dr. Paris here is the team lead,” Martelle said. “She’s a xenobiologist.”

  “I know. We’ve met,�
�� Charline said. She flashed the other woman an uncomfortable smile. The last time they’d been together, Linda fell under alien mind control. While controlled, she’d kissed Charline — very thoroughly. When the aliens were done using Linda, they’d tried to get her to kill herself and almost succeeded.

  Charline drowned her friend to knock her out, rather than letting her just walk out into the ocean. She managed to bring Linda back with CPR. But things had never been the same between them since. She missed the loss of their conversations; Linda was brilliant, and Charline was smart enough that she had trouble finding someone to talk to who could keep up with her.

  “Charline,” Linda said, her voice flat, eyes down.

  “Linda, it’s good to see you,” Charline replied.

  “Likewise,” Linda said. Her body language said otherwise.

  Martelle coughed, seeming to sense the uncomfortable situation. “I brought in a sample. They’ve been analyzing it. The plants here are crazy.”

  “Crazy how?” Charline asked, grateful for the diversion.

  Linda seemed to snap out of wherever her thoughts had taken her as well. “They have far more defensive capability than any plant on Earth, for one thing.”

  In front of her on the workbench was a large glass container. Inside it rested an arm-length section of branch. Charline recognized it as belonging to one of the alien trees native to this world.

  The case had a pair of gloved entry points. Linda inserted her hands into them and reached out toward the branch. Nothing happened as she brought her fingers in close, but as soon as she made contact, the entire branch jumped like it had been jolted with electricity. The movement was fast! All the leaves furled up into small balls.

  “Wow,” Charline said. “So, like a Venus fly-trap?”

  “But in reverse. Most moving plants on Earth use movement to trap prey. It’s worthwhile because catching insects is a high-value process. They get more energy from digesting the prey than they spend moving,” Linda explained.

  Which made sense. Charline felt like there was a catch. “What’s different here?”

  “These trees aren’t reacting to prey to catch it. They’re responding to touch with a defensive movement,” Linda replied. “That’s incredibly expensive, in terms of a plant’s metabolism. To evolve a movement for defense, there must have been enormous evolutionary pressure.”

  Charline’s thoughts raced, putting the ideas together, and drawing conclusions of her own. “Something made it so inhospitable here that the plants had to develop defenses like this or die.”

  Linda nodded. “Yes. What’s even more telling? We’ve only seen six individual species of plants, and all of them have similar defenses.”

  “But we haven’t seen signs of anything that might eat the plants,” Charline said. There’s been nothing during any of her patrols. No movement of any sort. Well, except for the trees, apparently. But no animals, not even bugs.

  “No, we haven’t. Which worries me,” Martelle said. “Doc, shouldn’t there be something here trying to eat this stuff?”

  “Judging by where we are in the planet’s evolutionary cycle? I’d say definitely yes,” Linda replied. “The air here is oxygen-rich, akin to Earth in early prehistory. We should see very large arthropods, for sure.”

  Martelle gave her a blank look that made Charline stifle a chuckle.

  “Big bugs,” Linda added, seeing the lack of comprehension on his face.

  “And me without even a single can of raid,” the Marine replied, his face so deadpan that Charline wasn’t sure whether he’d actually known what an arthropod was after all. She wouldn’t put it past the man to pull the wool over their eyes.

  “But there are no bugs at all. Not even little ones,” Charline protested.

  As she said that she pulled out her tablet, checking the reports from her roving Armor units. A quick scan told her there was no change. They’d swept a five-mile perimeter around the little base. Nothing was moving except the plants, and they jumped only when something touched them. Peculiar? It was starting to feel outright spooky, the way Linda was talking about it.

  “Right, which begs the question, where did they go?” Linda said. “We’ve got a planet with flora that has evolved incredible defensive measures and no sign of fauna at all. Either there was a highly efficient predator here that was wiped out…”

  “Maybe by its own effectiveness? Starved itself out?” Martelle asked.

  “It’s possible. But generally, enough prey survives to sustain the predator population, once the predators have died out in enough numbers,” Linda said. “The other possibility, of course, is problematic, but I’d say it’s more likely.”

  Charline said what they all had to be thinking. “That we’ve got a very efficient predator out there somewhere, and we haven’t seen it yet.”

  Ten

  Luis Ayala was unhappy with this mission for more than one reason, but he’d already learned that his captain wasn’t one for following standard procedure. He’d have more issues with that if her success rate weren’t so damned stellar. Whether it was luck, brilliance, or a combination of the two, Beth Wynn had carried her crew through multiple ordeals with courage and honor. He appreciated that. So did the team, for that matter. Ayala was pretty sure they would all fly into Hell if she asked them to.

  God knew, he probably would, too.

  But she was all about taking chances, and he hated that. The captain belonged on the ship. Beth was taking both the captain and her XO off on an exploratory mission. It would have been unthinkable on a purely military vessel. The Satori was special, though.

  Among other things, it had Majel looking out for it. Once he’d gotten used to the idea of the AI looking over his shoulder all the time, Ayala felt much warmer toward her. “Majel, we’re in the cargo hold. Ready for you to depressurize the area.”

  “Copy. Stand by,” Majel said.

  Warning lights flashed as the cargo bay depressurized. Ayala glanced down at the readout from his spacesuit. The heads-up display gave him not only full readings on his own gear but also basic information on everyone in the boarding party. He was ‘mother’ to the team, in essence. Although again, he felt confident their ship-mother would keep a watchful eye as well.

  Everyone was green. He had four security personnel, himself, and Captain Wynn along for this first survey mission. Ayala shook his head. Six people, to explore a complex the size of a planet? They could bring a thousand people to this place and still be years exploring all its nooks.

  All the same, he couldn’t help but feel excited as well. After all, this was why he’d volunteered to join the US Space Force. His experience with Air Force security forces plus an advanced degree in astrophysics made him a shoo-in for the position. Which was why he’d done those things. Sometimes it felt like his entire life had been leading up to this one job, and it wasn’t far from the truth. Since he’d been a small child, Luis loved watching rockets go up into space. That was where he wanted to be, more than anything.

  Twenty years later, he was out there on the cutting edge of everything humanity could accomplish in the great beyond. Some of it was more frightening than anything else he’d ever been a part of, but even then it was still worth it.

  “All right, by the numbers. Bravo team, follow me out. We’ll secure the area around the hatch. Alpha, follow us in,” Ayala said. Then he opened up a private channel to the two men accompanying Captain Wynn. “Don’t come back without the Captain.”

  “Understood, sir,” they replied.

  Someone chuckled in his ear. Then Majel spoke. “Feeling overprotective, are we?”

  “Listening in, were we?” Ayala replied.

  “I monitor all local communications. Part of our security protocols. I approve of your caution, Major. I have a bad feeling about this thing,” Majel said.

  “Noted, and for what it’s worth, I agree,” Ayala said. “Keep in touch. We might need you.”

  “I’ll be right there watching over your
shoulder,” Majel said.

  That should have been creepy, but it was comforting instead. Every suit had a built-in camera. Majel would monitor the feeds from all six, tracking and identifying objects seen with a speed no human could match. She’d take special care to watch for any possible threats they saw, alerting the teams to them more quickly than they could have reacted on their own.

  He took two steps forward toward the open hatch and leaped, turning off his magnetic boots at the last moment. The momentum from that step carried Ayala outside the Satori. He was floating through space. For an incredible moment, he felt like he hung suspended above the yawning chasm some ancient cataclysm had carved into the sphere’s surface. Looking down into darkness, it felt like he would fall forever into that black void.

  But he wouldn’t. His momentum was more than enough to carry him across the gap. As Ayala drew close to the object’s surface, he pivoted his body in place so that his legs faced the edge of the hole. It was torn, shredded metal creating jagged spots. But most of it looked like it had been liquified by the impact, cooling into huge rounded globs of metal. He’d still need to be cautious about his approach, but the odds of one of them tearing a suit weren’t likely.

  Ayala tucked his knees on approach and activated his mag boots. The boots touched down, and their electromagnets clicked into place. His knees soaked the remaining velocity of his short trip across. This sort of jump was child’s play for a man who used to jump out of airplanes.

  “Touched down. Magnetic lock is solid. Whatever this metal is, it’s got a ferrous component,” Ayala reported. “Rest of Bravo, you’re clear to jump. As soon as you touch down, Alpha will cross.”

  Captain Wynn might chafe at being in the last group to land, but he had to draw the line somewhere! The captain going into danger was one thing. Her being first in, last out like she seemed to prefer? Out of the question. How was he supposed to keep her in one piece if she insisted on putting herself at risk?

  This time she hadn’t protested his group assignments or jump order. Maybe she was just getting more used to working with him? Hard to say for sure. The woman was always full of surprises.