Episode 51: Into the Satellite
"What's happened?" Starsha's thoughts raced through her mind as she dashed through the palace entryway and down into the sublevels where the main power crystal waited.
She reached the magnificent object and stopped.
Starsha laid her hand on the glowing crystal. The beat of its pulsing heart flowed through her fingers. She could feel it radiating through her entire body. Her hand grew warm as she left it pressed against the crystal.
"Yahweh, protect them!" she pleaded, holding out her other hand. "Connect with the Eratite vessel's engine core." She ordered the Interface.
"Connecting now." The A.I. replied.
Starsha held her breath and waited.
"Everything good for takeoff?" Derek called back to Sandor who occupied the seat behind Wildstar. "This is some plane. I can see why you've been hiding it."
"It wasn't ready for use." Sandor replied simply, and then said, "We're ready to go."
"Alright. Let's get out there and see what that thing is." Derek did one final check of the plane's systems, and asked the crewman on duty in the hangar, "We clear to take off?"
The radio crackled, "You're good to go, Wildstar."
"Thanks."
The bay door slowly opened and the ship shot out into the void.
Derek looked around and wondered again how he would ever manage to keep his bearings out here if the plane's systems decided to go down. He looked at his instruments. To his relief, so far, all of them were working just fine.
"Guess the carbon fiber's doing its job." Derek stole another glance back at Sandor. "So what're we doing once we find this thing?"
"We'll figure that out when we get there." Sandor said, "But one thing's for sure; we have to knock out its power center. Turn it off."
"Well, here goes nothing." Derek muttered to himself. He pushed the plane onward, hoping that luck would keep smiling on them. It was an awfully long way out to whatever was trying to rip the ship apart.
Venture stared down at his station, watching every tiny move of every instrument.
He was glad that they were working again. At least they had that going for them.
"Why did the engine start giving off that field right when we needed it?" he thought, his mind conjuring a hundred possibilities, several of them rather unpleasant, including the thought that Starsha might have sent them into this trap knowingly and that everything up to this point had been a ruse to get them out here alone so that they could die.
He shook his head hard and blinked a few times, trying to rid himself of that particularly awful thought.
He dared a glance away from his terminal for a moment.
Off to his right, Eager was staring at his instruments too, trying to make out anything useful.
The tubby guy had a good handle on stellar phenomena, even before this trip. His resources hadn't been the greatest, but Chris Eager was one of the best in his field.
Mark looked over his left shoulder.
Homer was listening intently to the comm equipment, making sure they hadn't missed some sort of signal from what that thing was out there.
Dash, a bit farther away than Homer, seemed to be thinking about something, though what it might be, Mark had no idea. In Derek's absence, Dash was acting gunnery chief. If they needed to launch an attack, Dash would be the one to head up the effort until Wildstar returned.
Mark looked back out into the void before them.
It was unnerving to peer out into that much emptiness. So many times he'd looked into that deep blackness and found it hard to look away.
He stared deep into the outer darkness, letting his mind float out into it. Out in the void it was silent – nothing to disturb his thoughts, or his peace.
An alarm sucked him out of his trance and his eyes shot down to his station.
"Captain, the pull's getting stronger. The autopilot can't hold us here anymore." Mark reached down to the navigation controls and frantically tried to pull with the auto-navigator.
"Auto-pilot disengaging." The computer droned, not caring that its lack of will might just be their undoing.
Mark gripped the controls so hard that his knuckles turned white. He wrenched the ship to port, trying to steer her out of the field.
"It isn't working, Captain. I can't get her out. And we're fighting to stay where we are. The stress on the hull is rising." Venture's voice wavered as he said it, worry creeping into his already concerned face.
"Pull with everything you've got, Venture. The longer we give Wildstar and Sandor, the better our chances are." The Captain replied.
"I'm trying, Sir, but the pull is so strong."
"Just do what you can." Avatar replied, "After that, it's up to God."
No one commented on the captain's statement, but several found comfort in it. All eyes were riveted on Mark as he held on for the lives of the entire crew.
"It's so… empty out here." Derek said under his breath, "Not even asteroids or space trash, or anything like that." He glanced back at Sandor, "You think this place used to be something else? Before it was a trap, I mean."
Sandor stared out the back window for some time, then said thoughtfully, "Perhaps. The area's very clean; nothing out here that might endanger passing ships. But I can't really say what it once was. Maybe when we get to that unit we'll know more about this place."
"Yeah, maybe. But don't you think this is strange? Why would there even be a trap here – if this is a trap. Maybe we just wandered into something that stopped working. Is this thing even Gamilon? How do we know that we aren't just flying towards some big space creature that eats ships for lunch?"
Sandor nearly laughed at the last conjecture. "Wildstar, if whatever it was were alive, we would have known that by now. It's most likely some sort of satellite. Though what its purpose is, I can only guess at this point. And you may be right. It may simply be malfunctioning."
"What if we can't fix it – or stop it?" Wildstar asked, his voice a bit shaky.
"We have no choice but to stop it." Sandor replied, deathly serious.
Derek didn't respond, just put his head down and took a deep breath. He felt like space was closing in around him. "What if this is the end?" he thought.
He looked up, straining to see the tiny speck that was their destination.
"Can't this thing go any faster?" He thought, irritated that he could do nothing more than he was already doing. He pounded his fist into a bare piece of hull. Pain shot through his hand and up his arm, but he didn't care. The more he thought about the situation, the angrier he became.
Thoughts of Nova, Mark, all the others whisked through his mind. What would happen if he couldn't save them?
"Don't let the stress get to you too much, Wildstar." Sandor said from the back seat.
"Why shouldn't I?" Derek bit back. "We're sitting out here in the middle of this stupid wasteland in space floating towards something that's trying to kill us all and we can't do anything to stop it! What are you doing that makes you so qualified to tell me not to be a little crazy right now?!"
"Praying." Came the simple answer.
Wildstar was so taken aback by that one single word that he said nothing. Instead, he turned his eyes towards their goal and found that his anger had quieted, replace by something else entirely. "Nova, if I never see you again… well, I'll be sorry I didn't have the chance to tell you… something I've wanted to say for a while now…"
"Connection successful." The Interface announced.
Starsha watched as the engine core user interface appeared before her. She skimmed various reports quickly, noting that the engine was already giving off a cancellation field for what appeared to be a strong magnetic pull coming from…
She accessed the radar data. Whatever was pulling the ship in was eighteen hundred megameters away and pulling them in fast.
"Yahweh, help them." She prayed.
The power indicator caught her eye and she saw that the Eratite ship was running on minimal power, thirty percent at best. It was a miracle they were able to resist the magnetic pull at all.
"Prepare to transfer power." Starsha told the Interface.
"Transfer preparations will be complete in five minutes."
Starsha flipped through various security cameras onboard the ship while she waited for the Interface to finish what it was doing. She saw so many faces – ones she'd seen before while she was aboard the ship, and so many others she didn't recognize, but longed to be able to meet and speak with.
She hoped that they all would make it safely to Iscandar and back to Erats.
"Preparations complete."
The young queen took a deep breath, and, hand still pressed against the glowing crystal said, "Begin transfer."
She braced herself for the wave of pain she knew would come.
An instant later, her body felt like it was on fire. This time was worse than the first; every part of her being felt like it would melt with the intense heat caused by the transfer. The crystal pulsed wildly as it sent energy through the queen's connection with the ship's engine core.
Starsha saw the darkness starting to infringe on the corners of her vision.
She fell to her knees, but stubbornly kept her hand against the crystal.
She let out a cry of pain, but through it she uttered another prayer, "Bring them through this, Yahweh. See them to the other side."
She felt her hand slipping from the crystal. "No! It isn't finished!" Her mind begged her body to obey her, but it didn't listen.
Her finger started to slip off the smooth surface.
Just as she was about to lose contact with the power source, strong hands took her by the shoulders and pushed her back towards the crystal.
"Let's get this done." Adam's voice came as a welcome relief. "I don't know exactly what you're doing, but I know you're sending them help."
"Thank you." She managed weakly, "Whatever happens, don't let me lose touch with the crystal until the transfer is complete."
"You got it." Adam replied, supporting the Iscandar queen as she continued the transfer of much-needed power to the Argo's engine core.
Twenty agonizing minutes later, they arrived.
"What is this thing?" Derek looked at the grayish, tubular mass floating in front of the small plane.
"Looks like a satellite, or some kind of communications hub." Sandor replied. "Whatever it is, it's been here for a while – at least two years I'd say."
"How do you know that?" Derek asked.
Sandor pointed to something displayed on the side of the satellite. "One of those symbols is a '2,' and some of the others seem to represent time, but they're nothing like the ones we've seen so far – the ones that indicate days, weeks, or months."
"Oh, right." Derek replied, "Didn't know you knew that much of the Gamilon language."
"I've been putting in a lot of study hours." Sandor replied.
"Well, we made it in one piece." Derek quipped as they pulled up alongside one of the oddest satellites he'd ever seen.
"Should we open the cockpit and go in on tether lines, or should I try to stuff this thing into one of those openings all over this thing?" Derek asked, reaching for his tether line.
"Tethers." Sandor replied, "The EVA suits can withstand the field. They're not metal. And going in on tethers will keep us connected to the plane if something should happen."
"Alright." Derek agreed, fastening his tether to his suit and waiting for Sandor to do the same.
Once the two men were suitably attached to the plane, Wildstar popped open the cockpit.
Derek pushed himself up out of the plane and towards the satellite. He thought Sandor was right behind him, so when he landed near one of the circular openings on the satellite's surface he was puzzled to find that his fellow officer had already landed.
"Hey, Sandor! How'd you get here so fast?"
Sandor didn't answer Wildstar, just took out a small device that Derek didn't recognize.
The young man shook his head and started to walk through the opening in front of him.
"Don't –"
Sandor's warning was cut off by a dazzling display of light as Derek was flung away from the opening in a brilliant, tiny explosion.
"Whoa! What was that?" Derek asked, still dazed from the shock and light.
"Force field." Sandor replied. "I tried to tell you. Is your suit damaged?"
Derek checked his HUD. "Nah. It's fine. But my fingers and toes feel like a bunch of bees are crawling all over them."
"Don't touch anything else unless I say you can." Sandor instructed as he reached out and grabbed Derek's tether, pulling him back to the satellite's surface.
"Whatever you say." Derek replied, relieved that his little mishap hadn't caused any permanent damage.
Once his feet were back on the satellite's outer casing, Wildstar asked, "So, how so we get in?"
"We need to find the power source for the force field. All of these openings," Sandor pointed to the various holes all around the satellite, "Are protected by these fields. There's no way we can get in without disabling the field generator. I'm scanning for anything that could produce these fields right now."
Sandor looked down at his little device again.
The two men were silent for twenty long seconds before the science officer's face lit up.
"This way!" Sandor pointed towards the top of the satellite.
The science officer started walking up the side of the thing and Derek followed him, feeling strange walking on what was akin to the outer wall of a small building. It was like walking up the side of a house.
A few moments later, Sandor stopped in front of Derek and pointed to a small, black object.
"Looks like a flower, or a squid, or something with a lot of arms." Derek commented.
"That's the generator." Sandor said, "I'm sure of it."
"And what if that's just some random space slug that decided to make its home here?" Wildstar quipped.
"I highly doubt that." Sandor replied, "It's giving off signals to all possible entryways."
"So how do we shut it down so we can go i – Whoa!" Derek's hands shot up to cover his helmet's visor as an explosion tore through the blackness in front of him. "I guess shooting it works."
Sandor tugged on Wildstar's tether, "Come on, let's get back down to that opening."
Derek followed without another word.
Soon the opening came back into view and Sandor pulled out his scanner again. He studied the device for a moment, then looked at Derek and nodded, "Go ahead and try walking through it again."
Wildstar took a tentative step forward, then another. He stood at the threshold of the opening, took a deep breath and closed his eyes before stepping over the lip of the opening.
No bright lights punched him out into space this time.
"It's down! The force field's down!" Wildstar exclaimed, feeling the weight of his shipmates' anxiety more acutely now than he had when they'd launched.
He opened his eyes and looked at what lay before him.
A long tunnel, lit by a dim orange light, snaked into the satellite.
"It may only be down for a few minutes." Sandor replied, stepping through the porthole and into the giant alien satellite. He walked past Derek and started down the tunnel. When he saw Wildstar staring blankly he motioned for the young man to follow. "Come on."
Wildstar took a second to react to the science officer's admonition, but once he did, he quickly set a hot pace for Sandor to follow.
The passage walls were rough, pocketed everywhere with tiny holes. Some seemed to hold light sources, while others contained some sort of electrical component that neither of them had ever seen before. Unfortunately there wasn't time to stop and examine them as Argo was still in dire straits.
That wasn't an option they could even afford to consider. They had to find the core of this this - shut it down now. The alternative was… the death of Earth herself.
With love of their homeworld driving them onward, the two followed the trail of energy emanating from the satellite core.
"Captain, our power's coming back!" Orion's voice came to Avatar.
"How?" The Captain asked.
"Don't know." Orion replied, "But I'm glad it is."
"Auto-pilot reinitializing."
Venture slumped back into his seat, relieved to let the computer take the helm again. His arms felt like jelly from pulling so hard for too long.
"Power's up to one hundred percent again, Captain." Orion said.
"Very good. Do we have enough power to get away from the pull of this magnetic field?" Avatar asked.
"Afraid not, Captain." Orion replied, "The field is too strong, and the ship's made of so much metal… she can't pull free."
"Alright." Avatar replied, then said to Venture, "Keep us right where we are. If the field starts pulling us farther in… we'll just have to hold on until Wildstar and Sandor find another solution."
"Aye, Sir." Venture said, willing his limp hands and arms to reach out and grasp the controls – just in case they gave out again.
"Wow…" Derek whispered, "Is this the power center?" He looked all around the expansive cavern. Another ten minutes of walking and twenty of avoiding robotic sentries had led them into this room. The walls were a deep red, as was the floor and ceiling. Everything almost looked like it was covered with hundreds of crimson power cables, like everything in the satellite connected here. Everywhere he looked, he saw red.
Derek stepped into the cavern cautiously, his eyes falling on what had to be the energy core.
In the center of the room towered a giant red knot of cords, connected to the ceiling and floor like a giant hourglass. It glowed with intense heat, almost like it was alive; Derek could feel the warmth all the way from the room's opening.
"Let's disable this thing and get out of here." Derek said to Sandor through the suit's mic. "This place is giving me the creeps."
"I'll need a few minutes with it." Sandor said, "Turning off something like this may prove a challenge. We've never interacted with anything like this before."
"Just get the thing offline." Derek said curtly, a feeling of dread creeping up his spine. "Something doesn't feel right here."
"I agree. I'll work as quickly as I can." Sandor started towards the core with slowly, careful footsteps.
He reached the core without incident and Derek started to breathe a little easier. But just when Sandor reached out to touch the blood-red, corded core shell, they heard a strange voice, feminine, and frightening.
"Li-atah…"
The voice started as a whisper.
"Li-atah…"
Then rose in volume, ending in a fearsome roar.
"MEESA MASHEENA!"
"Uh… Sandor, what did she just say?" Derek asked, the feeling of dread from before now transforming into an acute sense of danger.
"She said, she has us and is going to kill us." The science officer supplied, "Get out of here as fast as you can!"
