by Travis Sande
"The amount of energy stored out there is far beyond what the solar shield of the suits are capable of withstanding. If you’re suggesting what I think you are, even if we were able to somehow open one of the porthole viewers and the ship didn't immediately disintegrate from the energy, we would see nothing." Yanna contradicted Luke’s suggestion.
"We don't have any sensors on the outside of the ship? How do we monitor the energy in the RIP bubble?" Hank asked.
"There are sensors, but they are all photo sensors that give us an accurate measurement of the energy trapped in our RIP bubble." Yanna said. "The only way we could establish a presence is if the vessel had inadvertently covered one of the sensors."
"I believe the possibility an error of that magnitude would be overlooked by something this advanced is miniscule." Eilik said. "In regard to lowering the blast shields, Vryl are equipped with multiple lenses capable of filtering most photonic wavelengths. I could potentially adorn a solar shield and be able to view into the RIP bubble. The only issue would be opening the blast shields to facilitate that operation. The stored RIP energy would exceed the tolerance of the internal ship mechanics as well as my biology."
"That's where the dyronium from the rift matrix would come in. We could build a temporary shelter surrounding the porthole to deflect that energy." Luke said. "Perhaps we could modify the suit with the same plates to protect you?"
"The solar shield would not withstand the barrage. It would not be safe for anyone, including Eilik, to attempt this." Yanna pointed out.
"I have cameras all over the ship, could we modify one of those with a filter of some kind. I know it wouldn't last long in those conditions, but it might last long enough to get a glimpse." Hank was still standing, excited to be developing a plan of action.
"I am not willing to take the risk with Eilik. We can rule that out immediately. Luke, Eilik, Yanna, would it be possible to modify one of the cameras onboard?" Lorn explored Hank’s idea.
"Possible, yes. Possible with our current resources, unknown." Eilik said.
"Luke, I want you working on the shielding required to seal off one of the aft portholes. Derrick, you’re with Luke.” The commander decided to end the speculation and begin. “Yanna, I want you and Nik working on that lens filter to get us a look outside. Hank, we need one or several of your cameras. Ben, remain on the bridge to continue brainstorming possible courses of action with Eilik. If there is something out there and it's an organic life form, I want to know our options. Kim and Sian, I want you two floating to provide aid to any crewmember in distress. We are in uncharted territory for both the Vryl and mankind. We need to keep our wits about us and work our way out of this."
Derrick was astounded by the commander's ability to immediately assess the situation and delegate. Adorning a commanding presence in what seemed like the blink of an eye. When they entered the room, he was behaving seemingly as a peer, brainstorming about their fate. Once an idea was put forth it was incredible to watch his organization and command disperse the room into meaningful tasks.
"Remember," Lorn continued. "We still have no confirmation on what could have caused this. Do not forfeit your composure to the unknown. Remain calm, we will correct what has happened." The room jumped into action as the commander finished. No one hesitated for a second. They all had their orders, and they moved to complete them.
Derrick immediately left for the aft of the ship with Luke. The two of them would need to find a way to dismantle the rift matrix shielding and apply it to the aft porthole. There had to be a way they could seal it in to allow one of Hank's cameras the ability to see out.
"Head to the upper deck and grab my equipment. I left it in a storage locker just outside the rec area after we used it there." Luke said as he pointed to the upper access door. The two of them split as Luke continued to the aft engineering section and Derrick diverted to the upper deck.
Several storage lockers and compartments lined most of the corridors on the ship. They were used to store spare parts or small tools specific to the area. Derrick ran to the last locker on the left just before the entrance to the rec area. He opened it and quickly grabbed the bag of Luke's tools. The bag was filled with everything he had used to cut away the plating and membrane earlier.
As Derrick turned around, ready to return, he noticed mist pouring out of the bio-lab door. He hesitated before starting down the corridor toward the lower deck. Somehow the decon cycle appeared to be active with the door still ajar. Derrick approached the opening and cautiously peered inside from a distance. The room was completely overwhelmed with mist. As he tried to make out any detail, a dull amber hue became visible within. Derrick decided to move closer to investigate what was happening.
Just as he took a step closer, a massive shadow started moving inside; it was at least eight feet tall. Derrick watched it crawl from left to right across the opening. Long spindly legs supported the giant figure as Derrick’s heart jumped into his throat. Shocked, he backed away from the bio-lab until he contacted the adjacent wall. The collision caused him to drop the bag of Luke’s tools. Terrified by what he had just seen, Derrick wanted to get off the upper deck as soon as possible. He looked down, quickly retrieved the tools and prepared to make a swift exit. As his eyes returned to the bio-lab door, he saw the door was closed with no mist in sight.
“What was that?!” Derrick yelled to himself, shaken.
Mustering all his courage, Derrick moved back to the door. He wanted to take a look inside to see if he could locate whatever was casting that shadow. There was no way Ben had followed him up, but Derrick thought it was possibly an optical illusion altering the shape of one of the crew members.
Derrick pressed himself up against the wall to the left of the doorway and carefully waved his CCD over the access sensor. He could see the doors slide open, but no mist escaped. Derrick banged the back of his head on the wall behind him, fighting with the prospect of moving. Forfeiting his apprehension, Derrick pressed himself to move into the open door. Looking inside, he saw the familiar red glow of the decon room. Nothing looked odd and it was as if nothing had happened at all. Derrick knew he had to get back down to Luke and with nothing obvious out of place he decided to turn back toward the stairs to the lower deck. He didn’t know what he had just seen, but all the physical evidence refuted it. Shaking his head, Derrick rushed to get off the upper deck.
Once on the lower deck, he moved quickly through the galley. He could see Hank already standing on one of the tables dismantling an overhead camera.
"I hope this works." Derrick said as he briskly walked past Hank. He was able to push the bio-lab experience to the back of his mind and focus on the task in front of him.
"It will, these things are sturdy, I upgraded them from the basic spec." Hank freed the camera from its housing and started pulling it down.
"Oh, that's great." Derrick rushed through, trying to make up lost time with Luke.
"They won't survive a nuclear reactor, but it might give us an extra moment." Hank disconnected the camera from the wiring in the ceiling and tossed it in the container at his feet.
Derrick moved through the engineering door, and into the room that previously held the unstable rift matrix. Inside, he saw Luke already working on the panel Eilik had used to shut down the rift.
"Got em!" Derrick said as he ran into the room and dropped the bag. "What are you doing there?"
"Just ensuring all safety protocols are disabled. According to the system, it's not advised to tamper with the shielding. Eilik gave me the codes to override it." Luke was working on the terminal in the center of the room. Derrick was astonished to see it still operational after the blast it sustained earlier.
Derrick began unpacking the bag of tools, laying out different pieces of equipment around the floor for easy access. Luke continued to plug away at the panel, getting everything ready. Suddenly, the lights within the room shut down. Luke must have been making progress.
"Looks like the override i
s simply a total power rerouting from this section. We should be able to begin. Pass me the plasma wand." Luke said, his voice piercing the darkness.
A light quickly came into existence pointing in Derrick's direction. Luke had pulled out a flashlight. It blinded Derrick at first until Luke pointed it down to the ground, highlighting the tools.
"Come hold the flashlight for me, we need to get at least fifteen panels down." Luke motioned for Derrick to join him.
Derrick grabbed the wand and moved in toward Luke, handing the wand to him as he grabbed the flashlight with his free hand. Derrick converted the flashlight beam into lamp mode and lit up the room in a dull light.
“Yeah, that’s probably a better idea.” Luke laughed. His voice and laughter echoed off the walls. The entire situation felt eerily isolated.
"There's another wand there, you were trained on basic function, right?" Luke asked.
"Yes." Derrick recalled a very basic training program that provided knowledge to all the crewmembers. The idea was to equip each member with the capability to perform fundamental repairs to the ship. The training included plasma wand usage. "I can use it just fine, I just don't know where to cut. You say 'panels’, but I don't see any junction points.”
"Everything here is sealed with a fine dyronium mole weld. We will need to use the density scanner to find exactly where they are. In all honesty we don't need to ensure the panels stay intact. I am going to be rigging the porthole cage together anyway. Just try to keep your cuts as straight as you can. Use the guide arm if you must. Did the course have guide arm training?" Luke asked.
"Hmm, no." Derrick grabbed the extra plasma wand and began fiddling with it.
"It’s simple, just grab that arm, attach it to the middle of the section you want to remove and then it will guide you around it. Ideally, we want as few welds as possible for obvious reasons. Just use the arm and cut out some sections for me." Luke finished with a hint of frustration directed at Derrick’s lack of knowledge.
Derrick picked up the guide arm and moved to the wall nearest him. He set down the arm and wand, moving back to grab a density scanner.
"Forget the scanner, just cut me some sections. The weld standards are designed to withstand the entire year of punishment. We are talking seconds or less here. Just start.” Luke’s voice became urgent.
Luke lowered his face shield and immediately began cutting out sections freehand. Derrick moved to an adjacent section of the room to begin working. He attached the arm, fixated the wand to the end and tested moving it around the limits. Grateful for the guide, Derrick threw on his face shield and turned on the wand. Following the limits of the arm, he slowly worked around a section. The arm kept the lines straight as he traced a square shape out of the wall. Derrick ensured he maintained the speed suggested in training for a complete cut.
The two of them worked until they had enough dyronium plates to create Luke's porthole cage. Fifteen in total were sprawled around the room. Each section was heavy and lay where it fell once the cut was finished. Luke and Derrick each grabbed one section at a time and began carrying them to the aft porthole. They had to make separate trips for each piece. Once Luke had made two trips he left the rest to Derrick and began planning how to shield the porthole.
Hank was there as well with several cameras. Derrick noticed Yanna toting several pieces of her lab. It appeared as though she was taking existing solar shields and attempting to modify them. They would have to be able to filter out far more energy than the basic shield if they were going to get a glimpse.
"Where's Nik?" Derrick said as he slammed the last section of dyronium down.
"She's back on the bridge, I have everything I need down here and there's nothing left to do but figure this out." Yanna said. "No sense having her stand around here."
"How's it looking?" Derrick asked.
"We’re making progress. I am hoping to get several additional filters to enclose around the camera itself. I think trying to make lenses specifically is out of the question. If we can seal a box with some of that dyronium and leave a small window of reinforced solar shield, we might get our look." Yanna sounded hopeful as she paused to look up at Derrick.
"You guys need anything from me, or should I head back to the bridge?" Derrick asked.
"I will need your help over here, grab your mask." Luke said as he motioned to Derrick. "So originally I was going to make a chamber from floor to ceiling around the porthole. That seems wasteful. I am just going to attach a small compartment surrounding the porthole itself that the camera can rest in. That way we can quickly remove a section, replace the camera and try again if we need to. Speaking of which, roughly how many attempts do we have, Hank?"
"We have three attempts; if these bulkier cameras aren't capable, there's no chance the rest will work." Hank was off to the side assisting Yanna with the camera shielding.
Derrick helped Luke weld a small box of dyronium around the porthole. It was a very simple solution to the problem and used far less material than Luke originally planned for.
"Sorry, Derrick, I don't know why I didn't think of this before we went in there. I was thinking it would need to be anchored more securely but this will definitely work given the short time frame." Derrick didn’t feel an apology was necessary but appreciated Luke’s concern.
"I am sure we will find a use for all this somewhere." Derrick looked around at nearly a dozen unused panels on the floor around them.
After completing the box, Luke turned his attention to the cameras and started assisting Yanna. They had run into a problem attempting to provide additional shielding while still limiting the opacity enough to allow the camera to function. Derrick had nothing to add to their project and felt like four people was overkill. Bidding them farewell, he decided to head back to the bridge; leaving the three of them to continue working on the camera.
Derrick ran through the memory of what he saw in the bio-lab door on his solitary commute toward the bridge. Was it just his imagination, or something more sinister? It felt so real, the sensation still sent a chill down his spine just thinking of it. Before long, he was at the door to the bridge. Clearing his mind, Derrick stepped inside.
The bridge was in a similar state to engineering; three members were hovering over Eilik's console; Ben, Eilik, and Nik. Derrick was curious where Sian, Kim and the commander were. The ship seemed to be separated into three teams of three with only Derrick being the odd man out.
"How's the camera coming?" Ben asked as he noticed Derrick approach.
"Luke made a chamber to accept the camera, and now they’re just working on modifying the camera. They don't seem confident in its ability to withstand the energy." Derrick said. "Where is the commander, Kim, or Sian?
"They moved to the aft, I think. They left a few minutes before you arrived. You didn't see them?" Nik seemed puzzled.
"No, strange. I just came from the aft section. They must be working on something. How's everything up here?" Derrick asked.
"It's going well, we have been able to connect to Hank's cameras remotely and are prepared to view them." Ben stood back from the console with his hands on his hips. “It was more difficult to connect remotely than we anticipated. The beefier models Hank picked up were designed for a hardline connection.”
"I hope the camera can withstand the energy long enough to capture something." Derrick continued his approach up to Eilik’s station.
"Eilik also came up with the possibility of using density scanners in the engineering room to verify an external threat." Nik added.
"The scanners should be capable of scanning deep enough to extend beyond the hull. If we do a search of the interior walls, we might be able to locate abnormalities." Eilik casually added to the conversation.
"You’re right, that might be the easiest way for us to find out. I can head down there now and get started on that." Derrick was surprised at the simplicity of the idea. He felt excitement build within him as he stepped back down from the engineering st
ation on the bridge. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of that sooner.”
Derrick left the room and ran back to the aft of the ship. The engineering room was disorganized with Luke and Yanna still working on modifying the camera. Hank was a little less involved, prepping the next two cameras for basic operation.
"You're back." Luke said, lifting his head from the mess of electronics to greet Derrick.
Derrick stumbled inside, breathing heavily from the sprint through the ship. "Eilik suggested using a density scanner around this section to locate any abnormalities. Perhaps if I set them deep enough I can detect the ship outside the hull." Derrick looked around the room.
"That's a great idea, grab that scanner and bring it to me, I will set it for you." Luke pointed to one of the open equipment bags on Derrick’s right.
Derrick grabbed the scanner and brought it to Luke. Luke opened the interface and changed a few settings to increase the depth of the scan. Once he was done, he handed it back to Derrick and instructed him on basic use. Demonstrating on the wall behind him, he showed what different materials would appear as and how to see their limits.
"Got it, thanks." Derrick said as he took the scanner.
"Move about half a meter at a time and allow about five seconds for the scanner to return an accurate reading. I’m ashamed I didn’t think of that.” Luke berated himself as he pulled a length of wire through one of the dyronium shields.
Derrick moved to the aft-most location of the room. He figured this would be the most likely position in the event someone or something was commandeering their vessel. He placed the device as high up the wall as he comfortably could. Derrick wanted to get it as close to the middle of the two decks of the ship as possible.
The device began clicking and ringing as the scan started, and it wasn't long until a graphic appeared on the small screen. Derrick pulled the device off the wall and down closer to look at the reading. It looked very different from Luke's examples. He didn't know exactly what he was looking at and decided to take the reading to Luke.
