Dauntless- Exploration Class

by Robert Wagner

  Herra stepped aside. "Virgil, what'd you think?"

  He came up beside her. While he examined the door, Herra checked in with Chen, Zayan, and Stanford. "How's everyone holding up?"

  "I don't know what to think. It's all...overwhelming," Zayan voice cracked and his accent grew thicker.

  "I agree. I wonder where all the crew are? Ship this size it had to be in the hundreds. Did they have some kind of escape pods?" Stanford paused and then came back. "Zayan your heart rates a little elevated. Try to take some calming breaths."

  The screeching of metal on metal drew Herra's attention back to the bulkhead. Two grasping tools hung over Virgil's shoulders and he used them to pry apart the two side of the door. Once the open far enough, Virgil retraced them with a thunk.

  "I wasn't sure that was going to work. Whatever material that door is made out of, it's strong."

  "There must be atmosphere on the other side of this door," Chen remarked. "Any way we can close it once we're through?"

  "Sorry, it's stuck this way." Virgil gave a shrug.

  Chen stepped through ahead of Herra and she thought about scolding her for going first. There could've been something dangerous on the other side of the door. She held back the reprimand and followed through the opening, letting Chen take her readings as she went.

  "Interesting. They are sentient beings that are surely humanoid. The air is composed of 70% nitrogen, 29% oxygen, and 0.5% carbon dioxide. Along with other trace elements." Since standard English was her second language, Chen talked in a slow, deliberate manner. Her precise speech made her sound emotionless and detached. Unless she got excited, which was rare. This was one of those occasions and Herra had couldn't understand but three words. She asked Chen to repeat herself again. Slowly, Chen complied.

  "I wonder what that means?" Herra mused.

  She turned, looking forward. They were standing in what you could consider an alcove. The walls compressed on either side a few steps forward into a hallway. The light couldn't penetrate any farther. The walls and floor had the same red and black pattern as before. It seemed less like the various parts were fused together, and more like they were carved out. She was no engineer though. Once they got back to Dauntless and Virgil analyzed the data he was collecting, she'd be curious as to what his results would show.

  Herra could hear the hissing from behind her as atmosphere leaked out into the vacuum. "Let's keeping going, Mystery Inc."

  They plodded down the hallway, Herra in the front, Sanford brought up the rear. She swept her head side to side as they walked, lighting up each door they passed. All of them were sealed. She felt for some reason like these could be crew quarters. Chen must have felt that as well.

  "Commander," Chen said. "Maybe there is a simple explanation for this vessel. The ship could be a new experimental prototype. From one of the Earth governments or corporations. Could explain the unfamiliar style and why it was so far out here. I mean, these look like quarters."

  The way the ship was making her gut feel, Herra didn't think so. She kept that to herself for now though. "Could be, Chen. If we can get to the bridge, or even a terminal, we should get our answer."

  "Want me to muscle open any of these doors we're passing?"

  "No, Virgil. Let's just get to the bridge. I want to solve what this ship is as soon as possible."

  "We don't even know where the bridge would be. If it's an Earth ship, it'd be in the top front. If it's a blockies, then it would be in the middle. If it's something else, who knows."

  "All the more reason to get going then. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

  Herra listened to more mumbling and grumbling over the comm from Virgil. Something about a wild wyrm hunt. Once again she ignored it. She'd learn that was the best way to handle him.

  "Oh Virgil, where's your sense of adventure? You sound like an old grandmother, complaining about the weather." Sanford joked.

  "I like my adventure with the guarantee of a paycheck." Virgil fired back.

  Sanford chided him. "Virgil, dear man. There is more to the galaxy than credits. I, for one, am very excited. Here we may have found something truly new! We could be the first humans on a new alien ship. An experience I've never had before."

  Even though Sanford had a faintly lined face, it was a handsome and dignified one. One that looked much younger than the age he claimed. Herra could see it in his eyes. They looked old, his eyes had seen much and some of it seemed to haunt him. So far during his time with her, he never spoke of his past. Not more than a few hints.

  They had only taken a few more steps when Herra felt the ship shudder underneath her. It creaked and groaned ominously. The lights winked back and forth, on and off. It all stopped as randomly as it began.

  "With the damage we've seen, the fact the ship just did that doesn't shock me," Virgil said.

  This started a round of speculation Herra only half listened to. Their chatter stopped when they hit another sealed door in front of them at the end of the hallway. Weird there were no branches going off this hallway. It was just one straight tube. Herra thought.

  "Alright muscles, get up here." Herra stepped to the right and waved Virgil on.

  Virgil repeated the process from before with the same results. Herra made sure to cover the entire opening with her body as soon as Virgil stepped back. She poked her head through the busted door. Her hand drifted down to the blaster locked into her suit at her thigh.

  She was looking into a shaft. Peering down, she could make out a platform of some kind at the edge of her light. Peering up showed her a tunnel of black. She pulled out her head, turned around, and reported to the rest of the crew.

  "It's going to be tricky but we're going to walk the shaft all the way up to the top. From there we can strategically start our search of the ship. We're going to change up our line." Herra pointed at each of them in turn. "It's going to be me, Sanford, Chen, Zayan and Virgil."

  After rearranging themselves, Herra went through the opening. She slid through sideways and stood on the little lip that hung over the shaft. In an exaggerated motion, she brought up her right leg till her knee was chest height. She swung it out towards the wall while tilting her back to face up. The magnetic boot on her right foot gripped the wall. Next came the tricky part. All of her weight held on the one boot while she transferred the rest of her body to the new orientation. She wouldn't fall as there was no gravity, but momentum would bounce her around good. That could lead to internal injuries or rupturing of her suit. She would have to do this as quickly and smoothly as she could. In one motion she pitched and slammed down her left boot onto the wall. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest.

  After giving her body a few moments to adjust she took four steps up. There was no gravity pulling her so walking now was as easy as it was in the hall. Up didn't seem like up anymore. It was just straight ahead. She took a moment to glance down at her vitals readouts. They a little over an hour of oxygen left. They were going to have to speed up the pace.

  Herra held out a steady hand to Sanford as he came out and repeated the same process. Four more steps ahead gave Sanford enough room to help Chen. Four more steps and Chen took Zayan's hand. Zayan's foot planted on the wall at an awkward angle. He swung out. Without warning the ship shook and the walls rippled. Chen's hand slipped. Zayan's reflexive jerk backwards caused his grip on the wall to slip off. The newly restored gravity immediately pulled him down. Herra saw his shocked O of a face through his helmet. He didn't make a sound as he fell. Virgil's hand shot out and grabbed his boot. Zayan's helmet made a soft clanging sound as it tapped the far wall of the shaft.

  Virgil extended over the lip of the shaft. One of his robotic gripper arms extended from his back, clamped on Zayan's ankle, and Virgil began to walk backwards. Again, the power went off as quickly as it had came on. Since Zayan was now perpendicular to the wall, Virgil stopped. With a hand from Chen and Sanford, Zayan got himself safely clamped to the wall.

  "How embarrassing," Z
ayan said after he steadied himself.

  "Nonsense," Herra replied. "We all trip up on the way to getting our space legs. Good fishing, Virgil."

  "Besides, I'm the one who lost my grip. The gravity coming back on surprised me. Sorry." Herra could hear Chen's voice was full of disappoint. She was being too hard on herself.

  "Important thing is everyone's okay. We need to refocus. Once Virgil's through, we need to march up this shaft. no stops and no distractions. We need to reach the top fast, just in case..."

  Once Virgil told her he was clamped and ready, Herra marched forward. Fifteen minutes, later they reached the top. The door at the top of the shaft was already open. Herra didn't know what to make of that. Just in case, she drew her blaster out this time. The five of them ringed the open square. She looked down into the opening. As far as her light could penetrate she saw what looked like railings, chairs, and equipment of some kind. Her visibility was improved because the room was flooded with the multicolored lights of the wormhole outside. There must have been one hell of a massive window in the room, she thought.

  "I'm going to jump down and grab one of those railings. Each of you follow me, real nice and easy." Herra counted to three and jumped towards the other side of the shaft. She twirled around so her feet faced the wall rushing up to her. She pushed off of it and dived in slow motion through the hole. Her momentum floated her to the railing. She grabbed it without issue and twisted around again to plant her feet firmly on the deck. Moments later the rest of her crew stood beside her.

  "Well, Herra, looks like you might have lucked out. This sure looks like the command deck to me," Virgil said.

  Herra was proud that her instincts hadn't let her down. She let her vision sweep across the room. It was large and the shapes of what could be the computer systems, stations, and support structures seemed twisted in the colorful light pouring through the window to the space. The railing they were holding onto seemed to split the room in two. Smaller units were in front of it, and bigger structures were behind."Okay people. This is where we get answers. Each of you take a look around but don't leave this deck. I don't want to lose anyone now. Virgil, is this where the signal we picked up is coming from?"

  After sweeping the room with his left arm raised, fingers playing along the input screen, Virgil answered. "I'm not entirely sure but it could be. For the first time, I'm picking up some energy readings. Faint, over in that area." Virgil pointed to Herra's right.

  "You know what to do then. We've got twenty minutes and not one minute longer. Virgil, you and Zayan try to track down the signal and see if you can get anything out of the computer systems. Chen and Sanford, you start at the front and sweep back. " Herra decided she would go to the big, bulky shape in the middle of the deck.

  "This is amazing," Herra heard Chen say though the comm. Herra was clumping towards the ringed metal structure that ran ceiling to floor, with what looked like almost a throne rising up on a platform in the middle of the ring. "How did they make the window so big and one solid piece? If this ship is human, it's technology someone's been hiding."

  Herra reached the middle of the room. Two steps up, and she was on the platform. The solid metal ring rose overhead on both sides of her. The chair was solid red, without cushioning. It had wide armrests, where buttons protruded out on both sides. She used her gauntlet to scan the chair. The readouts told her the composition of the metal and not much else. She put her blaster back into its leg holster. She wondered if she could draw some power out of her suit to get the chair running. Virgil interrupted her train of thought.

  "Herra, I found it. There's a bank of red crystalline rods, about hand length, inside a metal box. My guess, it's an independent power source running the signal."

  "Good work. Gather what information you can from it. Can you give me a guess now? Is it human or Ishalan?"

  "I can do better than that. I can tell you with certainty, this craft is alien. Some of this stuff... I don't know. It looks biomechanical. We're hundreds of years from developing some like this, let alone on this scale. And you know how the Ishalan are about that sort of thing."

  She did indeed. The Ishalan's didn't believe in augmenting their bodies at all. Machines were tools. Biology was sacred. It was profane to a large portion of them to even suggest mixing the two.

  "Well I'll be damned," came Sanford's voice over the com. "I'm really standing in an alien ship. This is a discovery of the century. I wonder if I can get my hands on any living samples. I'm surprised we have yet to see any bodies."

  "Herra, we're about to you. I can see your light," Chen said. "Without power, we haven't found much."

  Herra looked around. She could see two beams over by the shaft they came in to her left. She couldn't see where Virgil and Zayan were. "Okay. You two stay over there. We're going to have to go soon."

  Herra turned her attention back to the chair. She ran her hands over the armrests. In her headlamps she saw markings, what she had to guess was writing, around the row of three buttons across. The other armrest matched it. They'd be able to still frame the video they recorded and analyze it later, when they returned to Earth. A big goofy grin spread across her face as she imagined the praise and admiration she would receive for her discovery. Along with the big, fat payday. She'd finally would be able to pay off her flight school loans, have the Dauntless fixed back up to pristine condition, and maybe even have a vacation for the first time in ten years.

  Deciding this might be the only chance she would get to do it, Herra sat down in the chair. It was big around her, it made her feel like a child sitting in her father's chair. She was able to see over everything in front of her, all the way out into space. It made her feel powerful. Like a queen.

  The ship rocked and jittered. All around her screens lit up in gold. Red lights flickered on overhead. A earsplitting low pitched alarm filled the air. The markings she saw earlier on the armrest glowed a purple color. A holographic projection winked into view in front of her, between the edges of the metal circle. Herra heard Chen curse in her ear. For the third time it all shut off just as suddenly.

  A vague feeling of dread awoke in the pit of Herra's stomach. "Virgil, Zayan. Let's go now. Meet us at the shaft."

  "Copy...zzz..repeat..." Virgil was breaking up. That didn't make any sense to Herra. They hadn't had any interference to this point. Not even when Virgil was standing next to the power source he found.

  "Virgil. Zayan. Go." She kept the rising concern from her voice. "Do you copy?"

  Nothing.

  "Chen? Sanford?"

  Nothing.

  She looked over towards the shaft. They were still there. She could see their helmet lights. She stood and waved towards them. One of them waved back. She made motions for them to go to the exit. After two attempts she saw them start to move. That's when static ripped through her comm unit and all hell broke loose around her.

  "Herra, do you have to leave now?" Scarlan reached for her. He was still in bed. His sheet feel down, pooling around his lap as he stretched.

  "Unless you're well off enough to pay off my eighty thousand credit debt. Plus, I asked you not to do this when we started. I said I'd be here for two weeks and my two weeks are up."

  It had been her first time to Falese. It was a nice place, as far as new colonies went. The air was cleaner than the scrubbed recycled air of her ship. The last run had been so long it was like her nose forgot there could be so many different scents.

  He looked up at her with the soulful eyes that had swooped her up in the first place the day they met. The rest of his face was frowning like a petulant child. That eased her feeling of walking out. How dare he act so disingenuous.

  "Herra. You said that, I know, and I was okay at first. I didn't know I was going to fall so hard for you."

  Please. She had to keep herself from rolling her eyes. "It's been fun. You're a nice guy. You'll do just fine without me. Thanks for showing me around."

  She left his room and closed the door to his a
partment behind her. She stood there for a moment, then blew a kiss towards the closed door. She did feel something for him. Something she usually didn't from guys she met at spaceports. No way was that feeling strong enough for her to even entertain the idea of settling on one planet though.

  It was time to go scoop Sanford up from whatever bar he was drinking whiskey in, collect Tian from whoever's bed she was sharing, and to get Chen out of the scientific lab she would contemplate quitting the Dauntless to go work at. Virgil would be the easiest to find. He would be back on Dauntless. She loved the ship but he seemed obsessed with it at times, to the point she sometimes secretly worried about him trying to take Dauntless from her.

  These thoughts flew through her head as she waited for the elevator. It dumped her on the bottom floor with a ding. She went through the double glass doors of the building and immediately threw her arm up over her eyes. Why was it so bright outside?

  Squinting between fingers, she saw the city on fire. It was a heaping pile of rubble, blazing. No wait. This isn't right. That's not what happened. The city wasn't destroyed. The Dauntless wasn't destroyed. If it was I could I be...here. Here.

  Herra blinked again at the harsh light coming through her visors. She must have blacked out. What the hell happened? She was laying flat against something hard. Panicked chatter broken up with static filled her ears.

  "Herra...zzz...vitals are wild...zzz...can't..." Sanford.

  "Oh my...zzz...what's happen...zzz..." Zayan.

  "My leg it feel...zzz...Sanfor...zzz...falling..." Chen.

  Herra's view filled with the image of space. Pushing up a few inches, she realized she her body laid against the huge window at the front of the deck. The ship rocked back and forth violently. She rolled onto her back against her will. What she saw took her breath away.

  The bridge seemed sliced diagonally, from where Virgil and Zayan had been, across the seat she last remembered sitting on, and back out of sight. Tortuously twisted metal poked out of the seams cut open. Jagged pieces floated into the air as the thin atmosphere left in the ship rushed out the rent in the ceiling. If the air pressure difference would have been stronger, they'd all be out floating in space by now.