The infinity constellations, pilot part 3

Chapter 3: Rough start

The soldier lowered his gun a little. A bit frustrated at Sam's complete ignorance. "I saw your vehicle leave the stargate just after ours closed. What is that? How did you get here? From where did you dial? And state your names."

The light of the specter speeder faded with a zapp. It startled the soldier and the civilians around it. Tucker had opened the hatch, closing it behind him. He ran towards us without glancing at the people staring. "Sam, you're not gonna belief this! We are in space! I can't get a fix on any known location and we are traveling at impossible speeds for any spacecraft to date! Wherever the portal threw us, it's far away from Earth." He noticed the soldier standing next to us, looking up and down. "Look at that. I should train in the army as well. The ladies would swoon over me. Argh. Sam that was rude!... yikes and painful." He whined about the leg that Sam had kicked twice, with full force. The soldier groaned at the sight, showing a slight grin. "I'm master-sergeant Greer, I ask you for the last time; name, base and explanation of your arrival. We are in an emergency situation. If you don't comply, I'm allowed to use force." The riffle was raised again. Not that it could harm us, while we wear our combat suits. Luckily he didn't know that. We tensed despite knowing that, holding our hands above our heads. A bullet still hurt when fired at point blank. I decided to take the lead, lest Sam anger him into shooting. "I'm Jasmine Fenton, the one on the ground is my younger brother Danny Fenton. The woman on my left is Sam Manson and the male on my right is Tucker Foley. We are not affiliated with any military base and our arrival was just as much an coincidence as yours." The grip on his gun strengthened. "Speak the truth. All of you are wearing high spec Kevlar suits. Are you from a classified military base? What is your mission!"

I glanced at Sam, what now? We can't just tell them about ghosts and a government agency hunting us down. Sam snorted, pushing the gun away from us. Her face was ready to explode in anger at the soldier. "As you've said. Our group is highly classified, you can refer to us as the phantom squad. We will only speak with your leader about our objectives. As for our arrival; We got here by accident. A portal lit up out of nowhere, just like that thing over there and dragged us in. We aren't the enemy and are unarmed as you can see." I followed up on her words. "If it calms your mind, we'll stay here while your people sort out this mess. One of our team members is down and needs constant surveillance. You can interrogate us another time. Right now they need your help. We can lend medical aid and tech support as well. Sam is our medical officer and Tucker our engineer. He may be able to help with the life support of this spaceship." The soldier Greer snorted. "How can he help with a ship build by the ancients? You… Manson, see if you can help lieutenant Johansen with the injured. Foley follow me to the other engineers. See if you can help get this place running." Both nodded. Sam, not very pleased about being called by her last name. She almost attacked him with her booth if Tucker hadn't nudged her in the side.

Greer walked off with Tucker and I remained with Danny on my lap. Sam sought out the medical officer that Greer had mentioned. Danny was showing no signs of waking up. Was this because of the hit or pure exhaustion from keeping the explosion contained. I was biting my thumb while activating the com in my ear. They were still active, since Danny was its energy source. "Guys, we need to think about our explanation and fast. We can't blatantly tell them that we hunt ghost and get hunted by power-hungry governments! It needs to be logical and untraceable. If we can believe Clockwork, than this place should be a parallel universe. That creates a whole new amount of problems. Our specter speeder is a giant red alert for our identities. And we need a good explanation for the portal accident. Any ideas?" Sam answered. She stepped away from the patient she was checking. "Why not use what we've got? Tuck any idea where or in what we are? Is the technology ahead of ours so that we can explain our hovercraft?" A long silence ended in an exited squeak and a loud shout. I cringed at the volume. "You are so not gonna believe this… We are on a FREAKING spaceship. A 'giant', by aliens created, ancient spaceship! Eli and I are watching if from a large observation deck." I didn't know who Eli was, but Tucker sounded enthusiastic. So it was probably his fellow tech nerd. My focus fell on Danny as I stroked his hair. "So Clockwork held up his end of the bargain? He granted Danny's lifelong dream on being an astronaut, venturing into space." Tucker chuckled. "Oh, mine as well. Didn't you hear me? A freaking, super, technology charged, unmanned, alien SPACESHIP! Oh, I can't wait to check it's systems out, what you Eli!" enthusiastic agreement sounded over the com. Tuckers voice whispered soon after. "Sorry guys, I'll have to keep quiet so that a certain soldier doesn't rob my com. The situations just took a bad turn. Greer is keeping a scientist under shot. I'll update you on our current stats when the situations calms down."

Not long after the soldiers and three people including Tucker returned to our current location. They set up a search group. Sam and Tucker would follow the groups for scouting and I would remain with Danny. The soldier taking the lead had identified himself as lieutenant Scott. He warned everyone that the ship was old and damaged. Tuckers expression soured when hearing it. He walked off with a group, before using his com. "The situation on the ship is not good. It was too good to be true, as always. Clockwork screwed us over big time. I'm joining Eli to keep everything in check." Sam interrupted. "Keep your grudge for later. Guys I'm in the halls. This place has chambers ready for use, it's ridiculous how massive this ship is. Once we get the clear, we'll move Danny to one of them. That will give me the room to examine his wounds." Soon after Tucker started cursing. "Damn it. Eli opened a door that was supposed to remain closed. Guys we are only occupying a fraction of the entire ship. Many areas are closed off or damaged. Eli, I'll check the other doors that shouldn't be opened." Whatever happened had alerted Tucker. Sam used the com not much later. "We just got summoned back. It seems that the leading professor named 'Rush' had an announcement to make. Jazz, I'll be joining you. Any movement from Danny yet?" Sadly I had to disappoint her. Danny was barely even breathing. Which was normal for him by the way. All his human 'living' functions were near the danger limits of a normal human. Sam kept a medical journal with Danny's specific baselines. But we couldn't examine him in front of others, not when he was still playing a light bulb.

A thin male with brown messy hair, dressed in green clothing held up a silver white case. This should be doctor Rush, as the military personal called him. "In this case, are five ancient communication stones. They work over fast distances in real time." An older male, having the same air as a politician, who looked like a wreck questioned the ability to communicate to earth. Doctor Rush answered him. "Yes, you physically take control of the individual on the other end. I brought these with us in the event we ended up somewhere out of range of normal communication." That almost sounded like overshadowing. Not like Danny could possess a person somewhere on earth from here, but the principal sounded the same. Sam who had walked beside me, tensed. She whispered. "That's bad. If they can communicate with Earth, it means that our identities can be searched. We need to make our story match with whatever our parallel self's had." I bit my thumb, while doctor Rush and the crowd were quarrelling. The politician was apparently the united states senator. I did not recognise his face, so this could be a different world or a different time period. Although their clothes suggested that we had remained close to our own time. Doctor Rush placed himself in charge, with clear disagreement of the crowd. He spoke some lofty words about repairing this ship and then spat back that there was need of clear command. Sam furrowed her brows. She didn't like the man, neither did I. Tucker stood next to a young man a bit wide for his age. An example of what Tucker could have looked like if he hadn't joined ghost patrols, keeping healthy exercise instead of gaming all day long. The young man shouted that they only had a few hours of air left. I frowned at his words. His words could cause another bout of panic. If not bad enough, the Senator collapsed in the midst of the crowd.

I glanced up at Sam who was biting her lip. "Go help her. We need to remain in their good graces. That will make them believing us easier." She nodded, kneeling down beside the woman with blond hair. The medic according to the crowd, but the problem was clearly out of her expertise. Doctor Rush told everyone to find accommodation on the ship. This was what we had waited for. He was not a very 'social' person, pulling a lot of hatred by calling most of the crowd useless. Not that I minded for now. It would keep the attention away from us and Danny. A woman with dark curly hair started a budding uprising. Was she insane? It was clear that they had no way off the ship. Starting a fight was the last thing you wanted with a meagre medical supply and what 'one' medic? If not for Sam, the situation would get even worse. The woman with dark hair was raising her voice, accusing him of not trying to get them home. And honestly I'd want to keep it that way. No earth, means less danger for Danny. The military personal got antsy as well. This was getting dangerous. Should I drag Danny out into the halls to let them fight or interfere? Luckily, lieutenant… Scott held up his gun forcing the military personal back in line. Reminding them that he was put in charge by colonel Young. Someone I had yet to spot. He reminded the civilians that if they stepped out of line, they would be locked up. It was efficient and clear. He stepped forward. His voice clear in the now silent hall. "Doctor Rush is right about a couple of things. First off… we all have to work together. And second of all, we don't all have to stay here. So let's…let's move out…Go on move, it's okay."

Sam tapped her com. "I'll first move the senator with Johansen, then I'll return to help you with Danny." Tucker kept track of where the people were moving in and chose a lone and empty corridor for us. We lifted Danny with the three of us to the empty room at the end. Tucker had 'claimed' the other three rooms as ours. This way the first in the hall could warn the one that remained in the room with Danny. Tucker even set up a small motion sensor to detect anyone entering our hall. I laid Danny on a bed with golden white blankets. The colours were rather posh and out of style. Almost as bad as Vlads green and gold decoration in his mansion. Sam lingered in the room near the door, talking to me and Tucker via the coms, since Tucker was placing monitoring equipment in the hall. "So, a spaceship of aliens and we arrived in.. what did the soldier call it?" I spoke up. "A stargate. Tucker, do you think that you can get some more info on this from your 'buddy'?" Tucker snorted. "His name is Eli Wallace. He got dragged into this by a videogame. Apparently they had a problem cracking the code for the stargate and he managed to solve it. He's rather proud of it. He called the symbols 'chivrons'. Their stargate dialled nine, just like ours did. Alright, I planted a few camera's along the hall. Shall I join Eli and doctor Vlad?"

Sam grumbled. "So I'm not the only one seeing the resemblance?" I glanced up, to see her agitated. "What do you think Jazz, is he a dangerous treat or just a fruitloop? Should we remove him?" I shook my head. "He has many similarities and obsession oozing from his body language, but that may just be what we need. He wants the power to lead, to decide. If I'm right, he wants to stay on this ship without interference from 'earth'. That would be the most ideal for us. If they can't reach earth physical…" Sam finished the sentence. "Then they can't harm or capture Danny. If the situation is dire we'll just pop in the specter speeder and fly off. Fine, we keep fruitloop 2.0 around. Back to our portal/stargate problem. Tucker can you share anything about it. What can it do according to Eli?" Tucker had already found his way around the halls and chimed in. "Well, it can dial earth and any planet in range of it with a stargate. It's like the portals of the ghost zone, you can land anywhere but instead of everywhere in time, stargates can get you anywhere in the galaxy." Sam walked towards me and sat down on the bed. "What if we change the 'ghost zone' into the infinite constellation? Isn't the 'infinite realms' the official name anyway? What if we change 'ghost' to alien? Your parents were quite biased Jazz. They wouldn't notice the difference between ghosts and aliens. As long as they can call it ghosts and prove others wrong they would be satisfied. If Clockwork isn't lying about Amity Park disappearing, then any proof of their 'mistake' would be gone or incomplete as well."

I didn't like the way she talked about my parents, but she was painfully right. It was part of the reason that they never found out that their own son was half-death. A ghost can't be a living human, aka impossible. It was either black or white with them. One ghost is evil and they decide that all ghost are evil. Everything they said was right and everyone else was wrong even if it could be proven. I groaned at my parents former stubbornness. "Sadly I can't deny that. If they contact earth and search for us it could even help solve a lot of uncertainties. Amity Park disappeared because of the portal. If we switch artificial portal with artificial stargate, we can even explain why our city vanished." Tucker spoke in a low voice. "It would help us with a lot of peculiarities. The artificial stargate could only lock-on the infinite constellations because of the needed energy. But in return, the energy kept the stargate permanently open. According to Eli, these things drain the energy network and need a specific amount. One of the reasons that we can't currently dial to earth." Yeah, that could work. "With the permanent portal, the other side would sends scouts. Exposing us to not so peaceful 'alien-species' and give us a reason to fend them off. It's not really lying, just switching names and still far from the truth. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the ghosts were actual aliens in their lifetime."

I stared in those purple eyes, who had found mine. Sam was rather agitated. We had to get our stories straight. "That still leaves us with a few things. What will we call the ghosts as? How do we explain our combat suits, age and the conflicts with the G.I.W? If Amity Park existed here, a portal would too. We don't know how much the G.I.W in this universe did. During our quest of closing portals we reached many parallel dimensions. What if we blew one up on this earth as well?" Sam growled, her amethyst eyes almost burning in rage. "Those cursed white wraiths!.. That's it! W.I.G Wraith interstellar government. Make those fu'kers an alien enemy of both humans and ghosts. It's not like we're lying about them. Those rotten monsters killed 'them' in cold blood. Destroyed our homes without a shred of humanity! Not much different from a scheming invasive alien species." I could feel the anger and grief radiate off of her and grasped her hand. I gave it a soft pinch to show my support. "Easy Sam. We destroyed their labs, their portals. Clockwork, the master of time guaranteed our success in separating earth and the… infinite constellation. They must have suffered severe backlash in every dimension that touched the ghostzone." She pinched back as I focused on Tucker on the other end of the com.

"Tucker, once you have free time, try to create and document our backstory. Write down our 'origins' so that we and Danny won't slip up. If we want to make this believable, we need to keep our story straight. You are recording this conversation for reference right?" Tucker hummed in response. "Man, I can't believe what I'm seeing. Yep, I'm in technology heaven! Literally if we don't find a solution for the life support." The both of us groaned at this antics. Sam stood up from the bed. "Jazz, keep your eyes on Danny and see if you can remember your Latin. Danny mentioned that the death languages of earth were based on different dialects of death-speak. So we can pretend…" I followed her idea. "We can use Latin or Greek to translate the names like an translation. So ghost in Latin would either be Phantasma, phasma, spectre or even Laruan. Wait where are you going?" Sam glanced at Danny. "I'm going to fetch my backpack and medical supplies. I don't want to advertise our hidden supplies. We still need to examine Danny. He should have been awake by now. I'll fetch yours and Danny's as well." I nodded, seeing her leave the room. Sam activated her com. "What if we separate the good from the bad ghosts? Not like they can prove us wrong? The G.I.W blatantly stole all their research from the Fentons, who had been biased. The Phantasma can be the good ones… if Danny needs to show himself or accidently slips up.