by Joseph Rhea
“Why would the—?” Vee started to ask, but AJ cut her off.
“It’s worse than the Scimitar,” she whispered. As the group parted for him, he saw that she was correct.
“It’s just a bubble cloud,” he guessed when he saw the line of shapes blocking their path ahead. “A wall of bubbles. There’s probably a fault line out there, like the Rift. Something natural causing it.”
“There’s nothing natural about them,” Jessie said as she sat back down at her console.
“Them?” Jake asked.
On cue, Jessie magnified a section of the display and Jake saw that she was correct; the wall was actually a series of closely-spaced but separate objects.
“Those aren’t bubble clouds,” Raines said.
“Then what are they?” Vee asked.
“Bring us to a full stop, Vee,” AJ said. Vee moved swiftly to her helm and killed the thrusters. The bridge went suddenly and unnervingly silent. Jake had forgotten just how quiet his ship was when the thrusters weren’t operating.
“We’re still moving,” AJ said, pointing to the movement of the line on the display. “Are we in a tail current?”
Ash was already seated at his navigation console. “Our SOG is zero,” he replied. “We are holding position.”
“Then that wall is moving towards us,” Jake said, feeling a chill run down his back.
“Is now a good time to bring up my idea of turning back?” Dr. Wood said from the stairwell.
“We’re not turning back,” both Jake and AJ said at the same time.
“You can’t seriously expect us to—”
“They’ve stopped,” Raines said.
“See?” AJ said. “We’re not in any danger.” She turned to Jake and, under her breath, asked, “Why did they stop?”
“I know,” Ash said, standing up from his chair. All eyes turned towards him.
“How can you know?” Vee asked, emphasizing the word “you.”
Ash smirked but then replied, “Because I’m the navigator.” He pointed to the chart table. “They are right on the line,” he said, “not ahead of it. Not behind it.”
“What line?” AJ asked.
Jake guessed first. “They are standing right on it,” he said, pointing to the display himself. “That line is our Rubicon point.”
“So,” Dr. Wood whispered from the rear, “I would say that my idea to turn back is looking more appealing now, isn’t it.”
“What are they?” Vee asked. Jake was relieved that no one was agreeing with Wood, at least not yet. Curiosity was sometimes more powerful than fear. Sometimes.
“Let’s go find out,” Jake said, sounding braver than he really was.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” Ash asked.
“I know I want to see what they are,” Jessie said. Ash gave her a dirty look.
“Take us ahead,” AJ ordered, and Vee quickly responded. As the Wave lunged forward, she added, “Not too fast. Let’s not startle them.”
“Right,” Vee said. “We don’t want the captains of those ships thinking we are some kind of threat.”
“You think those are ships out there?” AJ asked.
Vee shrugged. “What else could they be?”
“We’re a long way from civilization,” Jake added. “Where did they come from?”
“From the lost colony, of course,” Vee said matter-of-factly. “The one we came all the way out here to find.” She looked back at the chart table. “I bet that’s our welcoming party.”
Ash stared at the table, his eyes wide with either fear or wonder, maybe both. “They don’t look very welcoming,” he said. “It looks more like they are drawing a line and daring us to cross it.”
Vee frowned at him. “They don’t know who we are,” she said. “For all they know, we are the lead ship of an invading armada.”
“I think you’ve been reading too many of my books, granddaughter,” Raines said.
“Books?” Jessie asked.
Vee smiled, her attention diverted for a moment. “My grandfather writes adventure stories when he’s not either fixing the ship or preparing meals.”
“Is there anything you don’t do?” AJ asked. Even she had taken her eyes off the display, so it was Jake who saw the change first.
“Full stop!” he yelled. All eyes looked at him then quickly turned back to the table. The objects were now moving directly towards them, breaking up the straight-line formation as they came.
“They’re attacking!” AJ yelled. “Evasive maneuvers, Vee!”
“I don’t know any evasive maneuvers,” she yelled back.
“I said, full stop!” Jake ordered again. When AJ glared at him, he pointed to the numbers below the lead objects on the table. “We can’t move that fast, even going bubbly. If we can’t outrun them, then we stop and face them.”
“We’ll be fine once they realize we’re not a threat,” Vee said as she brought the Wave to a full stop.
“I’ll try to make contact,” Jessie said. “Let them know we mean no harm.”
“You should come here, Jake,” Jane interrupted. He looked up and saw her standing at the command station in the bow, staring out the forward viewport. In all the commotion, he had forgotten she was still on the bridge. She was sneaky like that, somehow able to slip in and out of rooms without being seen.
“We’re kind of busy right now, Jane,” he said as he looked back at the images on the table.
“We need options, people,” AJ said. “The lead ships are less than five minutes away.”
“They’re not ships,” Jane said then turned to look at Jake over her thin shoulder. “And they are already here.”
The overhead lights of the bridge suddenly went dark, and then the chart table turned itself off. One by one, the four bridge consoles powered down as well. Only the command console next to Jane stayed lit, surrounding her in a kind of halo.
“What just happened?” AJ yelled.
“Did you hear what she said?” Ash asked as he jumped to his feet, but Jake was already moving past him. When he reached Jane, she turned back to the viewport and said, “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
Jake looked out but couldn’t see anything at first. As the rest of the crew gathered around him, he reached for the control to amplify the view, but then that console powered down as well. They all stood there in complete darkness for several seconds.
AJ whispered, “The emergency lights should be on. This doesn’t make any sense.” She was standing so close to him, he could feel her breath against his neck. Jane was right in front of him, and in between, he felt oddly disoriented. Then his eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and what he saw out the viewport froze his blood.
Chapter 08
“Do you all see that?” Jessie asked from somewhere in front of him. She was the shortest of his crew, so he guessed that she had moved up front to get a better view.
“I see it,” Vee said, “but I’m not sure what I’m looking at.”
Outside the viewport, long pillars of darkness hung down from somewhere above his ship. As his pupils dilated even further, Jake saw that the dark parts were actually the surrounding water; the places in between were glowing slightly red. “What are those?” he asked.
Jane turned in the dark and put her lips next to his ear. “They are legs, sweetheart.”
Jake felt his body go limp and felt a strange sense of vertigo. Was the ship tilting? Then it dawned on him that he was just reacting to that last word. Stacy had called him sweetheart, and nobody before or after her death had used it until now. Why Jane chose that particular moment to try it out was anyone’s guess, but in doing so, it made him completely miss the important part of what she was trying to tell him. Luckily, AJ overheard.
“Those are legs?” she asked and turned it into a warning. “Those things are legs!”
“Legs to what?” Ash asked, a slight tremor in his voice.
“Something really quite large,” Dr. Wood said, his voice sounding
surprisingly calm. “And there are more of them.”
Jake turned and saw Wood’s silhouette in front of the starboard viewport. Beyond him, more “legs” could be seen. “Any idea what they are?” Jake asked.
Before he could answer, the bridge lights came back on. Raines smiled from his engineering console in the rear. “Whatever they are, they put out a dampening field. Pretty strong one, but I’ve got it taken care of now.”
“So, are these ships or aren’t they?” AJ asked.
Raines nodded. “They have to be,” he replied. “Nothing living generates that much power.”
Jake looked at the crew surrounding him. “Okay, people. Let’s get back to our stations, and find out for sure who or what our guest are.”
As the rest of the crew headed aft, AJ stood next to Jake at the command console and boosted the viewports’ low-light filters to maximum. Even Jane took a step backwards when the visitors came into view.
“Not so sure those are ships,” he said.
“They have to be, Captain,” Raines said behind him. “If you…” His voice trailed off, and Jake guessed that the engineer had just looked up from his console and was finally seeing what Jake and the others were staring at.
Directly in front of the Rogue Wave, a dozen or more shapes floated in the water. They had large sectional bodies with what looked like six to eight thick legs hanging down below.
“What are those?” Vee asked.
To Jake’s surprise, it was Dr. Wood who answered. “I believe those are isopods, although I’ve never imagined anything so large.”
“Isopods?” Jake asked.
“I believe he is referring to a species that lived long ago in Earth’s ocean,” Raines answered then turned to Wood. “I’ll admit that they look somewhat similar to the one picture I have ever seen of an isopod, but what would make you even think of such an ancient creature?”
Wood smiled at him. “The scavenger was one too.”
Raines thought for a moment. “I see the similarity now,” he said. “But the scavenger was a machine, not a living creature.”
Wood shook his head. “It was more than just a machine, Dr. Raines. Surely you noticed that when you operated on it.”
Raines looked confused. “I don’t see what you’re getting at. It was just a machine, a highly complex machine that was obviously built before the Fall of Man, using technology we no longer possess, but a machine none the less.”
Wood looked out the viewport at the floating shapes. “I think you all should consider the possibility that the scavenger, and by extension, these creatures, are in fact metal-based life forms. Living machines, if you prefer.”
“That’s crazy,” Ash said, a look of barely-disguised fear growing on his face.
“How would such a thing get out here?” AJ asked. “Who would have built such dangerous things? Who would have authorized their construction?”
“If they were built before the Fall,” Vee added, “then you could assume—”
“They weren’t built,” Jake interrupted. “If I understand what Dr. Wood is saying, those things are alive. As in, we didn’t create them. As in, they were here before we came.”
“Exactly,” Wood said as he walked up to get a closer look out the forward viewport. “I believe we are looking at the original inhabitants of this world. They were here before us, and they belong here more than we do.”
“Metal-based life forms?” Vee asked. “Is that possible?”
“This is a scientific discovery far greater than anything we have ever experienced,” Raines said as he walked up to stand beside Wood. “To be here for first contact, is an honor.”
“I’m hoping for no contact at all,” Jake said. “We know absolutely nothing about these things. They could be hostile.”
“There has been no sign of hostility,” Wood said, sounding annoyed.
AJ spoke up. “They came to us, remember? They are currently blocking our path. I’d consider that a potentially hostile action.”
“And in case no one else noticed,” Jessie said, “the one right above us is more than three times bigger than us. Some of the ones farther away are even bigger.”
“You all know what those things are, don’t you?” Jessie asked. When no one answered, she pointed to the window. “Those are what old Shipper stories warned us about. Why we weren’t supposed to cross the border.” She looked outside and then added, “We’re surrounded by the Novum.”
Ash stood up. “I’m with the doc on this. I think we should consider turning back. Right now.”
“Ash, plot a course,” Jake said.
The navigator stared at him. “You’re serious? We’re actually going back?”
“No,” he said. “We’re going through.” He looked at Vee. “Helm, all ahead slow.”
There was only a moment’s hesitation before AJ echoed his words. “You heard the captain. All ahead slow.”
Ash sat down and turned to face his console. He shook his head repeatedly but obeyed orders. Vee looked to be more in control of her emotions as she slid her fingers over her dashboard, setting the thrusters to one quarter speed.
As the Wave moved forward, the creature above them parted its legs and let them pass. One by one, the creatures ahead of them parted as well, allowing them to pass. In ten minutes, they were gone from sonar as well.
“Was that just for show?” AJ asked. “Was that some sort of challenge behavior?”
“If those isopods really are native life forms, then anything is possible.”
“Are they really gone from sonar?” Jake asked Jessie.
She nodded. “Not a sound. No sign of them at all. Disappeared as fast as they appeared.”
Jake nodded. “Then let’s get back to our duties.” He looked at AJ. “You have the bridge.”
Chapter 09
As Jake started down the stairs, he felt someone grab both of his arms at the wrist. And just like that, he was back inside his dream world, back inside the Medical Bay, or interrogation chamber, or whatever it was.
“I need to understand something,” he said to the darkened window in front of him. “Why can’t I remember any details of this place when I’m inside my ship, ‘reliving my memories’ as you call it?”
The doctor came around the side of the bed he was strapped to and offered him a glass of water. When he tugged at the wrist restraints, she placed a straw in the glass and held it to his lips. Against his better judgment, he drank deeply. “To answer your question, when we replay your memories, more of your brain is involved than during a simple dream sequence.”
“So you know what this is like? You’ve had this done to you?” She shook her head and looked away. He turned back to the dark window. They were out there watching him, he knew, hiding their faces, hiding from him. If they were his jurors, people deciding his guilt or innocence, he had a right to face them. “I have the right to face you!” he yelled.
“Not here,” Steele’s voice said from a room speaker. “However, one of them wants to ask a question.” The exterior light came up slightly, and once again he could see the silhouettes of a dozen or so figures seated in two rows, each wearing long black cloaks, their faces hidden by over-sized hoods. They looked like executioners from fables. “Proceed,” Steele said.
One figure from the back row stood. “Can you tell us what those creatures really were?” The voice sounded feminine but obviously altered to hide her identity. Why hide from me? he wondered. I don’t know anyone on Steele’s crew.
Jake shook his head. “We never found—”
“My question was directed to Captain Steele,” the woman interrupted. There was a long pause, and Jake wondered if this person had just stepped across the line with her captain. Then again, maybe being selected as a juror on this ship gave her some degree of anonymity from her wrath.
Steele cleared her throat. “We have no direct evidence of any life forms beyond our borders. Period.”
“But the recordings,” the hooded woman re
plied. “We have his memories. Surely that is—”
“I said we have no direct evidence,” Steele repeated, much more sternly this time. “For all we know, Mr. Stone was hallucinating the entire event.”
Jake noted that she called him “Mister” instead of “Captain.” It was her way of belittling him, he knew. What he didn’t know, and maybe never would, was why she hated him so much. Was it really just that she thought he didn’t deserve to inherit his former captain’s ship? If that was all it was, maybe it would help to tell her that he agreed with her.
Another cloaked figure in the back row stood. “If we can’t distinguish between actual experiences and hallucinations, then how can we proceed?” The juror was male, although his voice was also disguised.
“We can and will proceed because this method is the only way for me to find the truth.”
“You mean for us to find the truth, don’t you?” the man corrected.
“But hallucinations are not the truth,” the original woman replied.
“We will proceed on my authority as captain of this vessel,” Steele said using her command voice. Captain Coal could use that voice too, although his former captain seldom had need of it. A moment later, both jurors sat back down without another word. Apparently, their juror status didn’t give them complete anonymity. “Go ahead, Doctor,” Steele said.
Jake felt the metal against his neck before he could think to react, and the room once again faded from view. He felt the hands holding his wrists let go, and he almost stumbled down the stairwell.
“Are you all right, Captain?” AJ asked.
He looked at his hands then back at AJ and the others on the bridge. “Did someone just grab my arms?”
The crew looked bewildered. “No, Captain,” AJ said then stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder, ushering him down the stairs.
“I’m fine,” he said, feeling a bit uncomfortable with his first mate treating him like a crazy old man. “Really.”
She removed her hand when they reached B-deck but then leaned in close to whisper. “Are you getting enough sleep, Jake?”
“I have no idea,” he admitted. Feeling suddenly a little claustrophobic, he put his hand on the low metal ceiling and tried to push on it. Then, realizing that AJ was staring at him oddly, he quickly dropped his hand. “Lately, I’m not sure whether I’m awake or still dreaming.”
