Into the Void (Beyond Humanity Book 1)
Page 15
Those with seats stood, as everyone began talking over one another, each recounting the events of the last hours and each of the various moments they thought would be the end. Meaning he had not been the only one on board convinced he'd been about to die. The others had thought it as well, just refused to act on it. And they were already trying to learn from what had happened. About the energy surge, the aliens, all of it.
Interesting. If these humans—"I'm getting energy signatures, new ones!" Gwynn said, interrupting his train of thought. Gone was any hint of the joy everyone had been feeling not so long ago. Gone was any prospect of the day's final meal.
"They caught us?" the captain asked, his tone unknowable. Was he contemplating death again now too?
"No. It's coming from the other direction. There's a lot of them though, and the readings are different. There are so many of them. And there's something massive out there."
"Is it too late to turn around? We could be headed straight toward their stronghold in the void."
Toroque'que straightened his back, hoping for a better look, but the sensors were no longer on display. If these readings were different from the ones they were trying to avoid, this could be a useful development, but the humans were beginning to panic all over again.
"If we turn, we're headed right back to where we were just trying to run from," the electronic voice that belonged to Lincoln said.
"Then re-adjust away from both," Gwynn said. "This place is pretty damn big."
"May I see the sensor data?" Toroque'que asked.
"Fine, we'll switch our bearings, veer off from the direction we're heading, but not turn around," Captain Oliver said, using his hands to signal the pilot as he spoke. And not hearing Toroque'que's request.
Or ignoring it.
"If I could see the sensor information, I may be able to tell you what it is the computer is seeing."
The others continued. Everyone other than himself, Evie, those without voices and Safa who had gone back to studying her computer screen, speaking together, not hearing one another.
"Miss Evie, would pass me one of the portacomputers?"
The human woman handed over one of the screens without question, only watching with interest as he fumbled to use the controls that would allow him to make the screen larger and easier to read. This device had not been made for hands like his.
In working with Sprocket he had seen how to turn these devices on and off, and how to pull up different files. He'd been hoping there was an obvious way to link with the ship's computers as he had seen others do, but there was no simple connection.
"Can you show me the ship's sensor readouts?"
Toroque'que followed along as Evie entered a few commands, hoping to do it for himself the next time it was necessary. Seconds later, he had everything he needed.
Several dots danced around the screen at the edge of sensor range. Each one, when selected showed the composition of what was being picked up by sensors. Some of the alloys were unknown to human computers, but there was enough to make out basic information.
Most of the smaller objects were in fact ships like the ones they were running from, though they were too far away to tell exactly the kinds of vessels. But the biggest object, the one that all the others were moving around belonged to a different race entirely, one Toroque'que recognized if was not entirely familiar with.
"Excuse me," Toroque'que said, trying again a second time and louder when the people around him still failed to respond. "Humans!"
That managed to get their attention. Nobody spoke as every face, human and otherwise turned to face him.
"My apologies. But I have information that may be of value. Not all these ships, and that is what I believe makes up most of what we are seeing, not all of them belong to the Hshazir. They are engaged with another race, the Rohtet. I have not encountered them, but I do not believe them to be hostile. There people rarely interact with other races, but they are extremely advanced. If they are in battle with the Hshazir, they might persevere."
"You're sure?" the captain asked.
"Of who they are, yes, I am sure. I cannot say what is happening, only guess."
"What does it matter if they are different aliens?" Gwynn asked, not looking at Toroque'que. "They could still destroy us in a second."
"I do not believe that to be the case."
Either Gwynn hadn't heard him, or she didn't care. "We have no idea what either race wants, how they see us, or if they'll destroy us on site. I vote we don't take the chance."
Ahh, so that was it then. As far as Gwynn was concerned, maybe for all of them, aliens meant bad news, a threat. He was a threat, as was Linna, probably even the knick.
He had met species like this before, who only interacted with different races out of necessity and never fully able to trust those whose faces were different from their own. He had hoped for better from the humans.
"You're right, we don't know," the captain said, sending Toroque'que’s disappointment to new heights. "But no matter what these people are like, they must want to get out of here as badly as we do. Let's get a closer look." The captain decided without asking for anyone else to cast their opinion. "Return to our original heading. We'll see on sensors if the Rohtet lose, and can hopefully get out of range again during the aftermath. But this is our best shot at making an ally. We have to try."
They were headed into a battle with no way to defend themselves. And all because Toroque'que had thought it was a good plan. Perhaps this would be the last day of his life after all.
At least it was going to be an interesting one.
Chapter Nineteen – Oliver
Despite the change of plans, Oliver's crew still needed to eat. He'd offered to keep watch on the bridge so Lincoln would have a chance to refuel with everyone else.
He'd eat. Eventually. He didn't seem to have much of an appetite these days.
When he got home, then he'd eat his fill.
For now, watching his ship drifting toward the chaotic sensor data they were getting was enough to keep Oliver's body going. It looked like there were fewer of the tiny ships surrounding the bigger object, but it was hard to say for sure. Like everything else, the Lexiconis hadn't been designed to keep up with this kind of information.
It wouldn't be long now.
Only then did it occur to Oliver that he should have been recording all this right from the beginning. Like a captain's log, or even an old-fashioned journal or video diary. If they ever made it out of here, people would want to know what had happened on board the Lexiconis. He and his crew would be interviewed countless times.
If he'd been back home right then, instead of in the void himself, and he heard about a crew who had encountered alien life and had made it back, he'd be devouring everything he could about the crew, the ship, their recounts of what had happened, any files or videos that were made public.
The ship itself would have recorded a lot of the sensor data and view screen footage automatically, so it wasn't like they didn't have anything to show for themselves. They might even still have aliens on board their ship when …
If. He was getting ahead of himself. Getting home was still uncertain. And unlikely.
It was possible that years from now someone else would discover the void as well as how to get out of it, and they'd find the battered, old Lexiconis somewhere inside. The crew would have long since mummified, and their records would be all anyone else ever knew of them.
Well that was a bleak thought. But working on expanding the records he kept would probably be useful no matter what the outcome was, if not for him then for history.
Metal on metal clinked from somewhere behind Oliver. In an instant, his body was in full alert as he spun toward the sound, feeling foolish as soon as he saw its cause. Sprocket was standing just inside the hatch, his toolbox on the ground beside him. They locked eyes on one another moments later before Sprocket cocked his head upward in a silent hello.
"Everything okay?"
"Right, yeah. Go on."
Sprocket went straight to the front of the bridge, not sparing another glance for Oliver.
From the back, he looked like the same guy Oliver had known for years now. Sprocket was tall, broad-shouldered, and easy to spot in a crowd, maybe even a little intimidating. Until he started talking to you, when he became the most approachable guy in the world.
But that hadn't been the man that had been on board the ship ever since they'd gotten here. At least not when it came to Oliver. Sprocket still joked and laughed with everyone else, even the people he'd only known for a matter of days. But Oliver got minimal answers, no eye-contact, and barely any acknowledgement beyond what was required to keep the ship flying.
It wasn't even as if Oliver didn't know why. He was every bit as furious with himself as Sprocket was. And if they hadn't been at a very real risk of dying at any moment, he may have even let it go. Or let Sprocket take the time he needed to deal with whatever was going on in his head.
Nothing was guaranteed anymore.
"Do you have a minute?"
Sprocket grunted, his head still under the helm station. "One second."
The next several minutes were increasingly uncomfortable. But it would be weird for Oliver to walk away now. Or maybe that was exactly what Sprocket wanted to see happen. He'd rarely ever taken this long to run a diagnostic before.
Finally, he reappeared, pulling himself back out onto the bridge but still flat on his back. "Yeah?"
"Checking in. See how you're doing. This has all been insane, and it doesn't look like we're at the finish line yet."
"All good here, boss." Sprocket sat, throwing everything he'd been holding back into his open tool box.
"Give it up, Walker. I get it, you're not happy. You're pissed we took this job and that we're stuck here. But if we're going to get out of this, we can't be operating like this. It's going to get us all killed."
"Oh, now I'm the one that's going to get us all killed. It's on me now? Sure, you decide to ignore the plan, ignore everything you'd promised. And for what, so you could fly around and play captain? It wasn't even an interesting job. But because I'm not good with how you've handled this, I'm the one that's putting us all at risk. That's rich."
"Hey." Oliver held up his hands in surrender. He'd been more than half expecting Sprocket to just insist he was fine and storm off. Then Oliver could have said he had tried. "I didn't force you into this. Hell, you were excited. We both were. Yeah, it wasn't saving the galaxy, but it was a job that got us out of the core and paid damn well."
"Not well enough for this," Sprocket said. Oh yeah, like the pay was the problem here.
"What? You think I planned this?"
"Just shut the hell up, Oliver!" Sprocket's even tone was beginning to shake away. "I should never have been here. In a few days, Elaine's going to start wondering where I am. Then a few weeks after that, she'll give birth to our child, and I won't be there. I'll probably be dead by then. And all because I listened to you." Oliver was stunned. Not at what his friend was saying—he'd told himself all this and more a thousand times by now. But he'd never so much as heard his friend raise his voice before. And now it had come to this.
"So that's it then. I'm the bad guy here? Fuck the last three years, and everything we've ever talked about doing. You're going to be a dad now, so I'm just the old buddy holding you back? Or not even that. Just some boss. Just some paycheck. A crap job and the reason for all your problems. You would have been miserable on any other ship, and you know it. Hell, you were getting bored on this ship. We both were."
Sprocket raised his head, squaring his shoulders as he readied his response, but Oliver wasn't done yet. "You don't wield any responsibility for your own decisions? That must be nice. Because you can damn well be sure I'm holding myself responsible for everything I've done. And what you've done. And Gwynn, and Safa, and Lincoln. I've got it all." He thumped his fist down against Gwynn's station.
"I don't mean to interrupt," a small voice interrupted Oliver's rant, along with his train of thought. Safa was standing on the other side of the hatch now, with Lincoln right behind her looking ready to step in if he had to. He hadn't even heard either one of them come in. "Well, that's not true. I very much meant to interrupt. But now that I've got your attention. I suspect you might want to put this conversation on hold. We've got company."
"Something new on sensors?"
"No. Visual range. We're less than an hour out, and an image was starting to come in, but it's still too small to see on the portascreens. We were going to put it up on the big screen." Oliver's eyes darted to where Sprocket stood, still looking like he could go off at any second. "We can come back—"
"No, we're done here," Sprocket said before Oliver had the chance. Without another look, he turned and pressed the sequence required to bring up the cameras surrounding the ship. They cycled through automatically, finally stopping at the front view of the ship.
Knowing Sprocket, if it had been another day, he would have escaped down the hatch to avoid continuing the fight—assuming there wasn't more he was dying for the chance to get off his chest. But today he was as interested as everyone else to see what they were headed toward.
"Can anyone tell me what we're looking at?" Gwynn asked from the back of the room, her head popping up from behind Lincoln.
All Oliver could make out on the view screen was a small grayish blur. And that hardly seemed worth pointing out. But the closer the Lexiconis got, the easier it was to make out details. Oliver could see what was supposed to be
Oliver had thought Torque's home vessel was impossibly massive. This was something else entirely. The Lexiconis was fast approaching an entire city in the sky. He could only take it all in now because they were still far away, but it wouldn't be long before the entire view screen was filled with only a small portion of what they were approaching.
"Well that's kind of cool," Sprocket said. Like everyone else he was leaning toward the screen, like that would give him a closer look, a preview of what was in store.
"It looks like they're still seeing some action." Lincoln pointed out the battle on the ship's computer.
He was right. A minute ago, it had looked as though the city was covered in fog, but now it was clearly two separate fleets of much smaller ships, firing at one another as they dove between the ranks. It was hard to make out exactly what was happening, but the city-ship looked to be winning by a large margin.
"They're fighting back," Gwynn said. "Good on 'em."
"Let's hang back," Oliver said to Lincoln. "With any luck, this will be over before we're in range but approaching while they're already fighting someone else off won't look good."
"Any way we can run a white flag up the side of the ship?" Evie said. She was probably joking, but if there was any chance that these aliens would understand the reference, Oliver would be seriously considering it.
But before the ship had even slowed all the way down, the computer beeped a warning.
"Someone's trying to contact us," Gwynn said almost a minute later after Oliver's heart had nearly beat itself out of his chest, fixated on the screen in front of her. "We're getting a signal and it's coming through the comms, but it's not playing nice with our system. Whatever these people use, it's way ahead of our stuff."
Oliver frowned. "Torque, is there anything you can do to help get that signal through? These people sent an entire fleet of the Hshazir running back to where they came from, destroying who knows how many. The sooner we get in touch with them, the sooner they know we're on their side. At least, I hope we are."
Torque shook his head, the motion looking uncomfortable with the proportions of his body. "I do not know how to accomplish that."
"Gwynn? Lincoln? Any ideas?" Shit. He turned back to Torque, their only link to understanding this new corne
r of the universe. "If we send out a generic message explaining the situation, could they translate that."
"With the Rohtet, it's impossible to say. Though their race is large, they do not communicate between their vessels. Each ship set out from their home world after a nuclear war almost four centuries ago, planning to find new worlds and colonize the galaxy. But I only know of one Rohtet ship to settle on world, most have lived for generations on their ships, reaching further and further out, rarely crossing paths with one another. Occasionally individuals will go out on their own in the name of exploration, but unless this particular ship has dealt with humans before they likely will not know your language."
Since the chances of any of the Rohtet ever having met with humans before was exactly zero, so they'd just have to throw everything at the wall and hope something stuck.
Oliver moved to lean against the back of his usual chair, still staring out at the void beyond his ship. "Start sending whatever you can think of. Text, audio, video, different file types. Broadcast them however you can. However long ago, they were where we are once, and odds are their history books remembers what it was like. If someone's going to cross the technological divide, it's probably going to be them, so let's help however we can."
It was the best they could do right now, but if this didn't work, they'd try something else, then something else. Because for the first time since that energy wave had first hit his ship, Oliver Briggs was waiting for something to happen that could potentially be good news instead of bad. There was nothing they needed right now more than allies. Torque was doing his best, and Linna had literally saved their asses, but Oliver was prepared to take everything he could get.
Linna. It was easy to forget her as along with never speaking, she usually managed to make minimal noise as well, along with nearly blending into any dark corner on his ship, probably on purpose. Safa had been teaching her to sign.
"Safa," he said, pushing his way past Torque and Sprocket. "Can you ask Linna to help put us in touch with the other ship. I have no idea if she's any more tech savvy than Torque, but if there's anything she can do …"