The sun beat down on the white shores of a beach, baking the sand until the salt waves swelled, curled, broke, and drove themselves further inland with each passing hour to cool the smoldering grains. Eventually the ocean pushed itself forward enough to begin soaking the clothes of a man lying on the shore, his breathing indicative of heavy sleep. The tide inched up until eventually pooling under his nose and mouth, rousting him from his slumber.
He awoke with a panic and frantically pushed himself up from the sand and seated himself on the beach, brushing the sand from his face and jumpsuit and trying to get his vision to focus. He slapped his face and body, scanned the horizon. All he could see for miles was an endless ocean in front of him and a seemingly endless beach on all sides. He shifted his weight to support himself with a hand and twisted his torso to look behind only to be greeted by some dunes and an outcropping of rocks with some prickly looking flora. He sighed and shifted forward again to stare out at the vast expanse of water in front of him. He closed his eyes and listened to the waves rolling in, breaking and flowing over his boots and soaking his pants. He thought to himself how he should move away from the water, but didn't. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten where he was but he didn't really care. He felt at peace.
An hour passed, maybe more, before the man stood up and decided he should look around and find out exactly where he was. He heard the cries of some seagulls and turned to see them soaring over the dunes and land a few meters from where he was standing. They bobbled around chatted amongst one another, occasionally eyeing the strange man before returning to their bird business. Looking back down at the sand he noticed there were shells on the beach that he didn't remember being there before. Behind him the rocky outcropping now had moss on the rocks and there were small bushes interlaced between the bunches of dune grasses. What the hell is going on? the man thought to himself, I'm losing it.
A loud thud and mechanical movements echoed behind him - beyond the dunes - and interrupted his thoughts. A Titan! he thought. Time to run. And run he did, scrambling to get his footing. He dashed to the rock outcropping and backed against the rock face in order to shield himself from the inbound Titan. The rocks should hide his position at least for a time. If the mech came onto the beach he might be able to sneak over the dunes and make a run for it without being noticed.
The thuds increased in intensity and the ground shook more violently the closer the footsteps came.
Pilot Cooper? Mechanical whirring and the sounds of hydraulic pistons hissing and decompressing rushed over the rocks.
Pilot Cooper, reveal yourself. We don't have much time.
"BT?!" Cooper yelled from the rocks and ran out from the their protective shade overlooking the dunes. BT's hulking mass stood there scanning the beach before finding Cooper and walking towards him, crushing plants as he lumbered along.
"BT, what is going on? Where are we? My mind is all foggy and I can't remember how I got here."
Cooper, this is going to be a bit much to take. You should sit down. I will sit with you.
"Uh…. ok. Ok, buddy, you got it." Cooper reseated himself on the beach and BT worked his way over to him and lowered his massive frame down onto the sand next to him. "Spill it, BT. My head is spinning and I have no idea what's happening. Please help me understand what's going on," Cooper said in a panicked voice.
It is complicated, pilot. I will do my best to explain it in a manner you will understand.
"Gee, thanks…" Cooper replied, feeling dejected.
From all the data I have been able to collect, we are in 'Nullspace'. Do you remember when I self-destructed my core to destroy the Fold Weapon?
"Somewhat," Cooper said. "Wait… yes, I remember. Agh!" His hands shot up and gripped his head. There was a pounding there as the faint memory of hot white light came flooding back to him.
Believing you have died produces a residual traumatic effect on the mind as it attempts to process what has happened.
"So I'm not dead?" Cooper genuinely sounded surprised. The infinite beach, BT, it all seemed to fit in with him being dead.
Not by my calculations. Cooper, every object has a certain frequency it resonates at; in physics this is referred to as its 'Natural Frequency'. If two of these frequencies manage to sync up, the energy signature is multiplied several times over, depending on the amplitudes of the frequencies.
"Uhhh…." Cooper was starting to get lost.
Stay with me. In the year 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed on Terra because an earthquake produced the same frequency as the bridge's structure itself. The asphalt looked like a giant sine wave once the earthquake & bridges' energies aligned and it ripped the bridge apart. The same thing happened with us. The energy signatures from the Fold Weapon and my core aligned momentarily and created a tear in Minkowski Spacetime - slingshotting us through the 4th dimension - time. Unfortunately, that resonance cascade lasted only a few picoseconds and was not powerful enough to fully send us to another confirmed Minkowski coordinate set. As such, we are in a space between timelines. Nullspace.
"Then how are we here?" Cooper asked, concern creeping into his voice. "How do we get back? DO we get back?" More panic.
We might be able to make it back. I have done the math. I would tell you the likelihood of success but it is low. You had better not think about it.
"Shit. SHIT!" Cooper yelled in frustration.
Hold on Cooper, I'm not finished. I am keeping you alive in a dormant state inside my chassis. Using your suits emergency medical systems your metabolism has been substantially lowered. A human will consume 22.91L of oxygen per hour under normal conditions. You are currently consuming one-tenth of that amount. 2.291L an hour. My life-support systems have 1.88L of oxygen remaining. Keep in mind that time moves more slowly on the outside compared to here. I have been working to program my remaining battery cells and primary core to recreate the cascade that sent us here to get us back to our timeline but the calculations are complex.
"Ok, so that's good news?"
BT continued as if he didn't process the question.
Back during our scouring of the IMC laboratory that contained the original time-displacement device our minds were temporarily linked. Part of my core personality was ghosted into your mind and vice-versa. As such, I was able to link you to my systems through your helmet and construct this beach visualization in order to provide a temporary tangible reality for your mind. Without some physical representation, your mind might decay by being unable to cope with the concept of non-existence.
"Thanks, I guess?" Cooper felt a wave of despair wash over him.
Here is the problem. I have 3 battery cells for powering my chassis as well as my primary & auxiliary systems - in addition to my main core. One of those cells must be used to keep the life support systems and this constructed reality functioning. That cell is now at 35% power and depleting rapidly. The other two I must overheat and cause another explosion in unison with my core in order to artificially generate a second resonance cascade and bring us back to the Draconis. Those are the last known coordinates I have stored in my memory banks.
"That sounds straight-forward enough. What can I do to help?" Cooper said.
As I begin to create the cascade I am going to syphon power from the remaining battery keeping this reality constructed. Just as you saw more detailed objects appear the longer you sat here, this world will deteriorate and those objects will disappear. You need to focus on stabilizing yourself the best you can.
"Got it." Cooper's confidence has been somewhat restored knowing he could help in at least some small way.
Last thing, pilot. The rift, if I can open it, will be small. I will try and direct the sphere of energy directly to the cockpit but it is unlikely the remainder of my frame will make the journey. We will be dependent on Cmdr Briggs still being near our last known coordinates when we re-enter the Draconis. You won't have much time.
"I think if I was going to back out on you, BT, I would have done it awhile ago… before all this." Cooper motioned his right hand towards the ocean, palm turned upwards.
Copy that, pilot. Shall I begin?
"I'm ready, BT." Cooper focused his gaze forward into the great expanse of ocean in front of him. He tried to clear his mind of any uncertainties he felt towards he and BTs' desperate situation. BT was right. He looked around and saw that the gulls had faded away. The outcropping of rocks disappeared shortly afterwards, then the seashells, and finally scraggly plants dotting the dunes behind him. Continuing to focus forwards the ocean, the grains of sand below him began to deteriorate in quality, becoming more hazy and harder to define in sharp lines.
Prepare yourself, pilot.
"BT, everything is almost gone. I… I don't kno-" Cooper blacked out before he could finish his thought. The water and the sand vanished leaving only his collapsed body in a void of blank white space. His body disappeared but Cooper was unaware, thrown once again into the unknown.
BT checked his calculations one final time before initializing the overheat of his core and remaining battery cells. He was constantly monitoring Cooper's vitals and could see a rise in pulse and increased rapidity of breaths based on the rate of oxygen depletion. Cooper would die of shock soon.
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
CORE DESTRUCT INITIATED
CORE INTEGRITY AT 92%
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
CORE INTEGRITY AT 77%
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
CELL 2 TEMPERATURE CRITICAL
CELL 3 TEMPERATURE CRITICAL
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
BT's HUD continued to flash red and sirens blared inside the cockpit. Cooper remained unconscious as a series of calculations whirred on-screen; BT worked as fast as his processors permitted to override the lock-out system fail-safes. Text slammed the screen full and then scrolled up only to be replaced by another wall of code.
CORE INTEGRITY AT 54%... 35%... 22%... 14%... 4%...
BT used the remaining charge in Cell 1 to record a burst radio transmission if they managed to make it back to the Draconis. It would be broadcast through Cooper's helmet since the energy sphere generated would only be large enough for part of the cockpit to make the trip.
Begin transmission:
To all Militia forces, this is BT-7274 requesting emergency retrieval at coordinates 345.56 X, 449.78 Y, -98.98 Z. Protocol 3: Protect the Pilot… Complete.
His heavy frame rocked and buckled under the immense energy blasts forming. A small blueish-white sphere began to materialize as the two energy signatures collided with one another. BT's systems went black as the core and batteries erupted and sent out clear shockwaves that rippled out from the center of the cascade and cut a hole in the center of him. At last there was nothing left. The remainder of his frame disintegrated into nullspace and his systems shut down.
Repeat:
To all Militia forces, this is BT-7274 requesting emergency retrieval at coordinates 345.56 X, 449.78 Y, -98.98 Z. Protocol 3: Protect the Pilot… Complete.
Repeat:
To all Militia forces, this is BT-7274 requesting emergency retrieval at coordinates 345.56 X, 449.78 Y, -98.98 Z. Protocol 3: Protect the Pilot… Complete.