ISO- Beyond the solar system

by Travis Sande

  After a brief silence the room began to disperse. Eilik was quick to make his way back to the bridge. Derrick was about to leave and head for the upper deck when Kim stopped him.

  "Do you need a hand with the rec area? I haven't seen it yet and I used to have a garden back home. It wasn't anything crazy, but I am sure I could be useful." Kim said to him.

  "Of course, could always use a hand." Derrick said, excited to have the company. “If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a visit anyway.”

  "I'm coming too, but I intend to check out some of the games up there." Hank snuck up behind them.

  There was a large party all headed for the upper deck as they exited the conference room. Nik and Yanna joined the group, heading for Yanna’s lab on the upper deck. The two of them would have their work cut out for them as the contamination delay Sian implemented set them back roughly two hours. With Hank accompanying Kim and Derrick to the rec area, there would be five crew in total.

  They all discussed their excitement for the return to normalcy as they ascended the stairs to the upper deck. Once at the top, Yanna and Nik separated and headed into the Physics lab.

  "Enjoy your games, Hank." Nik said, clearly jealous.

  "Enjoy your... whatever you two are doing." Hank replied.

  "Thanks." Nik said with a chuckle.

  “Just experiments at the edge of our understanding that could quite literally change the landscape for all humanity. No big deal.” Yanna said with a big smile for Hank.

  “Yeah, well I reset the camera in the engineering corridor this morning.” Hank said before turning to Derrick. “It was flickering a bit.”

  “Take that, Yanna!” Derrick said, hoping to get a reaction from Yanna. “Hank fixed a camera!”

  “Oh… No, it got worse actually.” Hank laughed.

  Yanna just rolled her eyes at the two of them and disappeared inside the physics lab.

  The remaining three, Derrick, Hank, and Kim all entered the rec area. The lighting was still lowered from earlier and Hank was quick to adjust it.

  "Lighting, normal." He said, before Derrick had the chance.

  The room slowly lit up all around them. The vegetation was overgrown or sickly in several places. It lacked the awe-inspiring presence of the first time Derrick entered the room. The lush green atmosphere had been replaced with a slightly muted version of itself. Kim was still taken aback by it as Derrick looked over at her. Her eyes scanned the room as a smile broke out on her face.

  "It's beautiful." Kim said, captured by it.

  “It is.” Derrick was captured by Kim’s awe as he looked at her. Catching himself lingering on her too long he stuttered. "I mean… It's nice, but once we are done, it will be beautiful." Derrick turned his attention back to the rec area.

  "Good luck you guys, I believe in you." Hank said as he was already securing one of the headsets in the virtual reality section of the room. He appeared to ignore the haptic feedback harness that accompanied that section. It was clear he just wanted to get in and try some stuff out.

  "I had no idea he was such a gamer." Derrick made small talk with Kim as the moved deeper into the room.

  "We lacked a rec area for two days before he annexed the galley." Kim laughed.

  "You have a point." Derrick smirked.

  The two of them began surveying the damage. It was substantially less than Derrick had initially thought. The grasses that coated many sections of the floor were genetically altered to grow to a certain length. The planters that housed all the bio aesthetics were similar to the soil in the garden area. Pre-loaded with nutrients and moisture that must have helped push them through the blackout. The biggest job was going to be simply cutting away any dead tissue that was sacrificed for the survival of the plants. With the power restored, Derrick would also check and ensure the irrigation system was up and running.

  "This isn't that bad, actually." Derrick began opening one of the maintenance cabinets under one of the larger plants.

  "Yeah, some pretty hearty stuff in here." Kim stood behind Derrick, still browsing the room with her eyes.

  "Typically, some of these are quite fragile, I think genetic modification played a pretty big role in their survival. When they decided to expand the bio presence in here they consulted with Ben. I talk to him about it while I tend the garden sometimes." Derrick told Kim. "He was pretty frustrated at the designer's plans. They kept picking high humidity plants. The idea was to create a rainforest like aesthetic in here. Ben and a team of geneticists were forced to adapt their choices to better suit this room. They managed to splice several species of alpine tree into the DNA of everything you see. That made them more resistant to temperature and humidity changes. There were limitations and humidity in here was still going to be an issue with all the electronics." Derrick felt like he was talking a bit too much while he and Kim worked their way around the room trimming the trees and bushes. "Am I talking too much?"

  "No, I like it, helps pass the time and I am curious about it." Kim was always a good listener.

  "Holy shit!" Hank could be heard yelling about his experiences in VR.

  "I guess he likes it." Kim laughed.

  "How can you tell?" Derrick laughed with her.

  "So how did Ben figure out the humidity issue?" Kim asked, returning to the prior topic.

  "In short, they didn't. Their abilities only went so far, and a certain level of humidity was still required. Enter Luke; he created a new venting system for all the electronics in this room. Actually, Eilik played a part too. All the electronics in here are totally air tight and shielded on this side of the room. All the heat escapes into the surrounding area outside. From there it's collected and utilized to aid in heating the room. I would be lying if I said I fully understand it." Derrick finished.

  "That sounds impressive, I’ll have to ask him about it." Kim said as her CCD went off. "Oh, looks like I have a new appointment. It shouldn't be long. Do you need me to come back and help finish when I’m done?" Kim asked.

  "It shouldn't need much more work today. If you want to come back, just do it for recreational reasons." Derrick smiled and continued cutting away dead tissue on a particularly unhealthy tree.

  "I’ll talk to you soon then." Kim said as she turned to leave. "Bye, Hank!" She yelled as she walked past him. After getting no response, she turned and smiled at Derrick as she made her way out of the room.

  Derrick continued removing all the dead material from the rec area. It started to look fresh as he finished. The room felt peaceful once again as he carried all the trimmings to the reclamation pod. Hank was still fully immersed in his VR experience as he walked by. Derrick wanted to give it a shot, but he had to complete his maintenance of the garden first. He was cut short earlier with Luke and there was still work to be done. He left Hank to his games and took off to the bio lab.

  While entering the bio lab, Derrick was surprised by Yanna. She jumped in behind him and joined him in the decon room. "Hello." She said, in her best innocent voice. She was up to something.

  "Hello, Yanna. You know access in here is restricted and I can't cycle it with you in here." Derrick reminded her.

  "I just wanted to speak with Ben, and you actually." She said.

  "We can request Ben join us outside but without permission from the commander, I can't let you inside." Derrick said.

  Derrick stepped outside the bio lab and into the corridor. Yanna followed closely behind him. He looked at his CCD and entered a schedule request for Ben to join them outside. Ben clearly noticed the two of them enter the decon room and agreed to meet them outside almost immediately.

  "He is on his way out, decon will be a few seconds. What is this about?" Derrick asked. “Aren’t you behind schedule on your own tasks?”

  "I just want to understand what is going on." Yanna said. “This shouldn’t take long.”

  "Any questions you have might be better directed at the commander." Derrick suggested.

  "It's nothing too serious and I
wanted to hear your thoughts." Yanna was getting annoyed at all of Derrick’s attempts to deflect the situation. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Just then, the bio lab doors opened, and Ben came walking out to meet them. It had been a long time since Derrick had seen him out of his suit. His brown hair replaced the familiar yellow of the decon suit.

  "Yes?" Ben said. "I don't want to leave the specimen alone for long so can we make this quick, please?"

  "Yes, I just wanted to ask you guys something." Yanna paused.

  "Go ahead." Derrick was curious to hear what she wanted to get off her chest.

  "Is all of our information being translated through Eilik? He's the only one that has access to the Rift matrix." Yanna’s concerns became immediately clear, she was worried about Eilik’s loyalties.

  "Everything he receives is given to the commander. Both have access to it." Ben knew where she was headed and attempted to cut her off.

  "I understand that, but it just seems like Eilik is the only one capable of monitoring the matrix properly. Could he be manipulating that data?" Yanna stuck to her accusatory tone.

  "Get to the point, what are you insinuating?" Ben had enough of the tip toeing.

  "It just seems like this membrane thing is an unnecessary risk for us on a mission of this magnitude. You said it interacts in an incurable way with Vryl physiology. Is it possible Eilik is forcing you to maintain it based on commands from Setu and not the Triumvirate?" Yanna said.

  "I have the utmost respect and trust for Eilik. I can't imagine a scenario where that would happen." Ben scoffed at the possibility.

  "That's not what I asked, we both know it is possible for him to manipulate incoming data. No one on this ship other than him truly understands any of the raw data received." Yanna continued. "It just seems like the Vryl have a lot more to gain by keeping this thing around. A lot more to lose by its destruction."

  "You're right, they do have a lot more on the line with this. The Triumvirate knows that. They also know the Vryl are the most important ally in human history. If Setu has interest in this, then we have interest in this, it's as simple as that. To answer your question, yes, it is possible for Eilik to misguide us. No, I do not think he would ever even consider doing that." Ben concluded.

  "I hope you're right. I would hate to find out that the members on this ship were put at an unnecessary risk simply for Vryl research. There are nine of us and only one of them. It's easy to risk everything when you only make up ten percent of it." Yanna finished her thought. Her skepticism didn’t necessarily end with Eilik, but the entire Vryl population.

  "I understand you don't trust Eilik but put it in perspective. We are holding a rare genetic discovery that could impact the entire Vryl population. Relatively simple and common bacteria on Earth could potentially cause a pandemic on Setu. Combine that with the fact we are flying toward them at nearly five times the speed of light. For all intents and purposes, we are a bio weapon locked on to Setu. It is our duty as an ally to ensure we do everything in our power to prevent a catastrophe here." Ben urged Yanna to understand. "Now put yourself in the shoes of Admiral Lest or General Lorn back home. How could you possibly ignore that situation?"

  "Yeah I guess you're right. Just something about him bothers me." Yanna refused to completely relent.

  "You're letting prejudice impair your judgement." Ben said. "I am a little shocked and disappointed, quite frankly. Eilik has been part of this project since day one. If you believe he would risk anyone onboard you need to re-evaluate your views."

  Ben was clearly becoming heated and Derrick felt a little out of place between them. Not wanting things to get out of control he tried to think of a way to settle the argument. He remembered that Luke had been working closely with Eilik. "You could always talk to Luke about it, I know he has been working with Eilik to understand the matrix. Perhaps he has more information. I have to personally agree with Ben though, Yanna. I just can't see Eilik doing anything like that."

  "Yeah, sorry that I brought it up, I will talk to Luke, Thanks guys." Yanna left for the lower decks.

  "Good luck." Ben said. “Wait, don’t you have work to do?”

  “Nik has it under control, I won’t be long.” Yanna disappeared down the stairwell to the lower deck.

  "Talk to you later, Yanna." Derrick yelled after her.

  Derrick and Ben went back into the bio lab to continue their work. Once inside and the doors closed behind them for decon, Ben couldn't hold his tongue.

  "That really pisses me off. Eilik has been dedicated to this for over three years. The first excuse to question him and she jumps at it." Ben shook his head. “Not only that, she’s behind schedule and she’s off on this witch hunt. Left Nik alone in her lab to do the work.”

  "She's just concerned about us. Honestly, I had never thought about the large-scale implications of this until you just said it in the corridor. I am willing to bet Yanna hadn't either." Derrick tried to empathize with Yanna and calm Ben down.

  "She is very logical and it's her job to extrapolate on data for large scale impact or implementation. I don't think that is the issue. I think she wanted to reach this conclusion and she found an excuse." Ben wasn’t hiding his disappointment.

  "Ben, you're doing the same thing right now. You've already convicted Yanna of the worst-case scenario. Sometimes there's a little nuance with stuff like this, it's not just black and white. Yes, she is very intelligent and usually objective. That doesn't mean she's immune to short sighted reactions." Derrick mostly agreed with Ben but decided to step outside himself for a more objective look.

  "It's just disappointing." Ben grabbed a suit and started putting it on.

  "It is also a possibility. As unlikely or even impossible as we think it may be." Derrick continued playing devil’s advocate in defense of Yanna.

  "I just don't want to talk about it." Ben shook his head as he finished putting his suit on.

  "You and Yanna should work this out. For now, I need to go in and finish what Luke and I started this morning." Derrick climbed into a bio-suit and prepared for the decon procedure to finish.

  When Derrick and Ben entered the lab, Ben moved directly back to the containment device. Without saying a word, Ben grabbed a device from the side table. Derrick noticed he started doing a diagnostic of the quarantined membrane mass.

  "All good?" Derrick asked. He was curious if his urgency was due to his frustration, or maybe he saw something odd.

  "Yeah, it's not going anywhere. I have feeling we might need to take small samples into cryo-stasis for our return. They are having real issues replicating this back home." Ben sounded slightly confused. “What are you?” Ben asked aloud to the contained chunk of membrane.

  "If we have to, we have to, I guess." Derrick said. “I’ll be in the greenhouse if you need me.” Derrick had resigned to the fact that the membrane wasn’t just going away any time soon.

  Derrick spent the next hour tending to the garden within the greenhouse. The serenity he felt inside always allowed his mind to wander. The joy of the morning had started to slip away as anxiety surrounding crew relationships raced in his mind. Deep down he agreed with Ben and found it offensive that Yanna was so quick to accuse Eilik of any wrongdoing. He just felt that Yanna deserved a bit more credit and benefit of the doubt. His main concern was the status of Ben and Yanna's friendship. Confrontations like that can sometimes leave a lasting impression on both parties. Yanna didn't exactly leave Ben in the best mood. Derrick pushed those negative thoughts out of his mind and tried to just relax for the remainder of his gardening schedule. He decided that Kim could deal with any of the fallout from the interaction between them.

  Derrick hadn’t had much time to think of Kim and his strange dream. With his mind starting to clear he was able to consider the odd experience; he had no idea what it was about. ‘It's outside?’ What could that possibly mean? The obvious answer was that it was a random, meaningless dream. Derrick would always dwell on his dreams and exp
ress anything recurring to Kim. Since he only had a similar dream twice in over two weeks he didn't consider this one recurring just yet. With the dreams focusing around Kim specifically, it made it slightly more awkward to open up to Kim regarding them. Derrick’s mind refused to rest. It would appear that it hungered for stress. The membrane used to monopolize his inner monologue, but several issues fought to replace it almost immediately upon its resolution. He decided to check out the rec area after he finished his work in the bio lab. He needed to get stuff off his mind and take his prescribed dose of relaxation.

  With his work in the greenhouse coming to a close, he decided to do just that. Derrick packed up all the tools he was using and moved toward the exit. As Derrick left, he saw Ben taking another sample of the membrane.

  “Taking another one?” Derrick asked.

  “Yeah, there hasn’t been any update. I am going to make a request to preserve several smaller samples and destroy the main mass.” Ben moved the small sample he had just cut out of the containment unit and into a cry-cylinder.

  “Is there any reason to preserve more than just small samples?” Derrick was curious if his solution would be accepted by the Triumvirate.

  “The source of the genetic abnormality should be present in the DNA of every mutated cell. A sample should be sufficient which is why I am making the request. I would be much more comfortable with a small tissue sample in cryo-stasis than the whole mass sitting here.” Ben closed the cylinder and prepared to slide it into the cryo-stasis chamber against the rear wall.

  “That makes sense, hopefully they agree with you. I am going to go mess around in the rec area for a couple hours while I have time.” Derrick said. “If you need me, just let me know.”

  “I might lockdown the bio lab and join you shortly. All this has me pretty stressed out.” Ben pushed the cylinder inside the stasis unit and closed the hatch. Ben pushed a button on the exterior wall and the cylinder rotated up and inside the unit. Once there, it was flash frozen and stored in a marked container.