by J. N. Chaney
“Do be careful now,” suggested Hitchens.
She eased inside, and I ducked to try and get a better look. Abigail went slowly, staying mindful of the rocks so she didn’t compromise the suit.
“What do you see?” called Hitchens.
I watched her climb up a fallen wall, trying to leverage herself to reach the other side. “The same thing you see out there,” she managed to say, once she had her feet planted again.
“That’s a pity,” Hitchens said, looking at me.
“Wait!” Abigail yelled, and it hurt my ear, since her voice was coming through the com inside my helmet. She was out of my line-of-sight, too, having disappeared behind more debris. “There’s something here, beneath the ground. I can see it through the cracks. It looks like glass and—” She paused. “—perhaps some metal wiring. I’m not certain.”
“Don’t these suits use cameras?” Hitchens asked, looking at me.
Oh, yeah, I thought, slightly embarrassed that I hadn’t remembered something so obvious. I decided to blame it on being completely distracted by the standing tower in the middle of a self-contained, habitable atmosphere on a planet in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere. “Good thinking,” I said. “Siggy, activate Abby’s suitcam and feed it to us.”
“Activating now,” said Sigmond.
The feed appeared in the upper left corner of my visor, showing Abby’s perspective as she dug through some fist-sized stones. Behind them, a small hole that seemed to drop into the basement of whatever this tower was. “Are you seeing this, Doc?”
“Most certainly!” answered Hitchens. I could hear the curious excitement in his voice. It was the sound of a man on the edge of his seat, watching something he considered remarkable unfold before him. “Careful, Ms. Pryar! You’ll want to mind the walls there.”
“I have it,” she said, removing another rock. “Can you see inside yet?”
“Hold your head steady for a second,” I said.
She paused. “Like this?”
“Good. Can you activate your light? The one on your wrist.”
She messed around with her armpad, briefly, and then a steady light appeared. She aimed her arm towards the hole, keeping herself as steady as possible so Hitchens and I could observe. “How’s that?”
There was glass, as she had said, but it was curved like a bowl that had been turned upside down. Beneath it, long tubes ran throughout, with no indication as to their purpose or direction. It was like some kind of machine, but none that I’d ever seen. “Perfect,” I said. “Hitchens, how about it? See anything?”
“Oh, my,” he muttered. “Oh, my, oh, my, would you look at that?”
“Talk, dammit,” I said. “Stop rambling.”
“I’ve seen architecture like that before,” he answered.
“Where? You mean back on Epsilon?” I asked.
“Not quite,” he said. “The pictures I saw were recovered by the Church’s founder many decades ago.”
“You mean that Darrel guy?”
“Darius,” he corrected. “Yes, Darius Clare. I believe one of the images he unearthed looked similar to what we are seeing now.”
“Was there anything else?” I asked.
“There were several, but it’s been a long while since I saw them. Oh, perhaps Frederick could assist us!”
“How’s that?”
“He’s on the ship, so he could transmit them, and he has some experience with the research.”
Less than a minute later, I had Freddie with me on the com. “Think you can find something?” I asked, once Hitchens explained the situation.
“I think so,” he said.
“That doesn’t sound very confident,” I said.
“Sorry, just a second. I need to get my pad. Sigmond, can you transmit my screen to their suits?” asked Freddie. I could hear him breathing rapidly as he ran through the ship. I had to give him credit. He was motivated.
“Certainly,” said Siggy.
I heard some rustling and bumbling on the other side of the line as Freddie hurried to get his pad. “Here, I think. No, wait. Yes! Here it is.”
An image appeared on my visor. It looked similar, as Hitchens had suggested, although it wasn’t the same. This one was surrounded by metal, with fair lighting and clean, no signs of dust or rubble. The architecture around it, while not exactly the same, had identical glyphs and markings, meaning there had to be some kind of connection. What it might be, I couldn’t say, but it was enough to suggest we were on the right path.
The right path. The words echoed in my head. Was that even accurate? How could I know what the right path was when nothing about it had made sense? In what way did any of this connect back to Earth? From what I could tell, sitting here in front of this wreck of a tower, the answer was that it didn’t.
What could be missing? What piece did we need to connect the dots?
I heard a rustling sound nearby.
I started to look down when suddenly the glyphs on the wall lit up, shining a bold cerulean blue. I looked down to see Lex standing there, a wide smile on her face and her open palm on the stone.
Abigail shrieked inside, and Hitchens nearly stumbled back. “Holy!”
I started to say something when the ground shook and I bent my knees. The light on the wall grew brighter at once.
I grabbed Lex by the arm and pulled her away. “Everyone move! Abby get out of there!”
I saw the light fill from within the monument, building to the top and—
A sudden burst exploded from the top of the tower, shooting a single beam of light into the sky. It pierced the clouds, splitting them apart, and went straight into—
Into the moon. The same moon that hadn’t moved since we’d arrived, floating 45 degrees from where I was standing.
The beam struck it somewhere near the equator, and the light expanded quickly, immediately, like electricity in a power grid.
I watched with awe as the moon went from a dead ball of rock to something more. Something mechanical, technological, sophisticated. Why had our sensors not detected this earlier? What was it about this place?
“Holy shit!” yelled Abigail and she threw herself out of the hole in the wall. She clawed to escaped, trying to dig her way out. I reached for her, grabbing her hand and pulling.
She stumbled out of the wall right as the beam died, yet the lines on the wall continued to shine. “What just happened?!”
I pointed to the sky. “See for yourself.”
Her eyes widened when she saw it. “What in the gods names is that?”
“It’s a moon!” exclaimed Lex, smiling.
“It sure is,” I muttered, tilting my head to stare up at it. Of all the things I’d seen today, from rupturing slip tunnels to a pocket atmosphere, I had to admit that a glowing moon topped it all.
“Oh, my goodness,” said Hitchens. His voice surprised me. I’d nearly forgotten he was there. “Frederick, are you also seeing this?”
“I am!” Fred’s voice buzzed with crackling static. “It looks like…couldn’t say for…have Sigmond run a…need to scan.”
“What was that?” I asked.
“…aptain? Hello? You’re…can’t get…”
“It could be interference from this structure,” said Hitchens, motioning to the glowing tower beside us.
“Or the giant moon thing hovering over our heads,” I said.
“Or whatever that tube is,” added Abigail, looking behind me at the tunnel. “Uh, Jace.”
“What?” I asked.
She pointed. “Something’s happening.”
I turned toward the tube entrance to see that it was now lit up inside. Not only that, but the platform in front of it was moving.
The platform pulled apart and an object came rising out of the ground, a vessel of some sort, sleek and black, like a long triangle.
Before I could say anything, a door opened along the leftmost side of the triangle, releasing steam into the air, and the area around it became illuminated
.
“What in the world?” asked Hitchens.
The ground beneath me began to shake, and I turned around to see the tower caving in on itself. “Get back!” I shouted.
The three of them ran toward me, closer to the ship and railway. The tower’s walls cracked, breaking and crumbling, chunks of stone snapping off and falling to the hard dirt. Suddenly, the entire east wall fell away like water, sliding free of the rest, sending dirt and dust towards us. We covered our visors and looked away.
More noise followed as the rest of the tower caved, all of it falling into the underground, creating a large hole and opening the place Abigail had found before. Now, there was a blue glow coming from inside, and I could see the machine turning, spinning, rotating. The light continued to build, growing brighter with the passing seconds.
“It’s all falling!” yelled Abigail.
She was right. The ground around the hole was breaking, snapping off into the inner sanctum. The hole was expanding, and quickly.
“We need to get out of here!” I shouted.
We started to run towards the exit but a divide split along the ground. We stopped, suddenly, and Hitchens nearly slammed into it.
The crack expanded toward him. I grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him, right as the chasm reached him. “Move back!” I ordered.
He scrambled to his feet. “What do we do?!”
“The ship!” yelled Abigail.
I shook my head. “I’m not getting in that thing!”
The break in the earth grew stronger, sucking in the rocks nearest to us. “We don’t have a choice!” shouted Abigail. “Get your stubborn ass in the ship!”
I didn’t argue.
We piled into the triangle and the door closed itself, all on its own. Before I could strap myself in, the ship started moving, entering the tunnel before us.
I looked down at the controls on the front console. They were in another language, totally foreign. I was pretty sure I’d just traded one deathtrap for another.
We began rising through the tube, headed up. “Siggy, can you hear me? Freddie? Does anyone read me?”
No answer this time, not even static. Nothing.
The ship continued to climb the tube, riding what looked like a conveyer belt, pulling us higher and higher. We sat there for several minutes, and I wondered how far this thing went.
But then I felt the ship level and pause, totally stopping. I looked at Abigail, who was seated next to me in the front. “What the fuck is going on, Abby?”
She shook her head. “Why are you asking me?”
“You were the one who said to climb inside!”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Both of you, look!” snapped Hitchens, pointing ahead of us.
A display appeared above us, imposed on the dash screen. It was a number, counting down from 10.
9…
8…
7…
6…
5…
“I don’t like where this is going,” said Abigail.
4…
3…
2…
“Shit,” I muttered.
1…
The ship burst forward, suddenly moving. The momentum forced my head back in the headrest and I clutched the armrests, holding on for dear life.
The lights on the inside of the tunnel came faster and faster as we accelerated, eventually blending into a steady line of glowing blue lines. I expected us to slow down, but that never happened.
We just kept moving, going faster, all without any additional inertia.
Finally, right when I thought we might never escape this tube, another light blinked into existence, far ahead of us, and growing rapidly until we were right up on it.
We flew through the exit, exploding like a bullet from a barrel as we were sent towards the horizon. The walls around us ended and I saw the foggy atmosphere outside. The track beneath us exposed itself as we continued at an astonishing speed. Based on how far up we were, I guessed the tunnel had taken us at least eighty kilometers up, maybe more.
“Where are we going?” asked Lex, calm as ever.
Fuck if I know, I thought.
A sharp dip was just ahead. We dropped as we approached, then came up and into the sky, suddenly aiming towards—
“Look, there!” said Hitchens. “The Moon!”
It was coming into view now, the glowing blue lights of the orbiting goliath, so bright they dominated the sky.
As we drew closer, I could see trenches along the surface of the orb, lights shining from deep within. The chasms stretched across the rock like claw marks.
When we were close to it, I noticed one of the lights growing brighter than the rest. “Look at that,” I said, pointing. “What do you think that—”
The light suddenly consumed us, covering the ship, and I felt a hard tug.
I banged the side of my helmet. “Siggy, talk to me!”
“Hold on!” shouted Abigail.
We turned into the light, heading directly toward one of the Moon’s trenches.
“This must be some sort of magnetic beam,” said Hitchens. “A grapple, perhaps.”
“More like a fucking fish line,” I snapped. “We’ve just been hooked!”
“It’s taking us in,” said Abigail. “Be ready!”
In moments, we dove into the chasm, entering the deeper recesses of this…well, I wasn’t sure. Was it a moon? Was it even natural?
The metallic architecture along the walls seemed to suggest that all of this was artificial, but I’d never heard of anyone building something so big, not like this.
I noticed walkways all along the sides, sealed beneath a transparent, protective surface. Everywhere I looked, I saw pathways, each of them leading in different directions. Whatever this thing was, it was built to be traversed.
“Look there,” said Hitchens, touching my shoulder. “It appears to be opening for us.”
Sure enough, the wall ahead of us was splitting, its doors sliding apart to reveal some sort of landing pad.
The light around us dimmed as we began to slowly drift toward the deck, finally dissipating once our ship was firmly planted.
The deck was massive and well-lit, with several other ships sitting further down, identical to ours. “What the fuck is this?” I finally asked.
As if to answer, the door cracked, sliding down until it formed a set of stairs. Hitchens snapped back in his seat, surprised.
“Relax,” said Abigail. “It’s just opening. Lex, are you okay?”
Lex sat with her legs swinging back and forth, a soft smile on her face. “Uh-huh!”
Abigail squeezed the child’s knee. “Good girl.” She looked at me. “What now?”
Get ahold of Siggy and get the fuck out of here, I wanted to tell her. Run as fast as we can and don’t look back. Blow this fucking rock to hell and then—
The dash lit up, without warning, and a woman’s face appeared. She had white hair and blue eyes, with the look of someone in their mid-twenties.
“Welcome to Titan,” she said.
Twenty-Three
I stared at the woman’s face. “What…who the fuck?”
“I am the host of the Seed colony ship known as Titan. You may refer to me as Athena.”
Abigail leaned closer to the dash, staring at the woman on the screen.
“Are you some kind of A.I.?” I asked.
“I am a true, independently functioning cognitive.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“If I may,” interjected Hitchens. “I believe she is suggesting that she is a sentient A.I.” He cleared his throat. “Or, rather, a self-aware intelligence.”
“That is correct,” said Athena.
“Can you tell us where we are?” I asked.
“Titan, a Seed colony ship currently in close orbit around a class-G planet.”
I furrowed my brow. “What in the galaxy is a seed colony ship?”
“Pleas
e, exit the vehicle and all shall be explained.” The screen went dark, instantly, and we heard her voice coming from outside the ship. “Awaiting your arrival, passengers.”
This was crazy. We were inside some sort of megastructure, talking to a digitized woman. How many more surprises could I fit in a single day?
“I like her,” said Lex from the backseat.
Abigail and I both turned to look at her. “You think she’s nice?” asked the nun.
Lex nodded. “Can we go inside?”
“What do you think, Professor?” I asked Hitchens.
“We’ve come this far, Captain. It seems only natural to continue, though I suggest caution.”
“No doubt about that,” I muttered.
We each climbed out of the ship, one at a time. Hitchens held on to Lex while Abigail and I took out our weapons, ready for anything this place tried to throw at us.
“Your firearms will not be necessary,” said the so-called cognitive.
Abigail looked up into the docking bay. “How do we know we can trust you?”
Athena’s face appeared on the distant wall, a few dozen meters from the triangle ship. “Please, proceed this way so that I might explain.”
I leaned in to Abby. “Keep your trigger finger ready.”
She nodded, holding her rifle against her chest.
The four of us walked toward the rear of the bay, minding the other ships. By my count, there were half a dozen here. I wondered, briefly, if they were weaponized.
“This way,” said Athena before disappearing from the screen.
To the right of where she’d been, I spotted an open corridor. Several pieces of the walls inside were detached, some of which had fallen to the floor. Behind the gaps, I spotted wires and circuitry, although it was beyond anything I’d ever seen. Nothing on The Star resembled this, except maybe in the vaguest of ways. On our way out, I’d have to steal a few pieces, just to see what they’d fetch me.
“Take the next left,” said Athena’s disembodied voice as we rounded the corner.
The door was closed, but slid open when we approached it. “Oh, my,” said Hitchens. “Look at that.”
It looked like a conference room, with a long table at the center. What stood out, and the reason Hitchens saw fit to make his exclamation, was the woman standing behind one of the seats, her hands clasped behind her waist. “Welcome. Please, have a seat.”
