Object Classified Tentatively as Iron Star

Interior

Exact Location Unknown

─•~:~•─

They rode down for what seemed like hours in complete silence.

Ginny thought that this might have been Hell.

And the whole way down, Yue kept holding her hand.

Finally, the platform came to a stop.

The metal railings behind them dropped down and disappeared into the blackness. Even low-light mode showed only darkness, except when Ginny held her armoured hand in front of her face, the feint green outline being the only thing to break up the darkness.

With a blink of her eyes, The Molotok's onboard AI switched to heat vision, but revealed only an endless, cold blue, somehow even more menacing than dark black.

She blinked again and switched to phonographic sonar, which would outline in red dots any surface within one hundred kilometres.

The sonar pulsed silently all-around Ginny, a red light emerging briefly in her display.

The sonar line continued until it went out of sight, and nothing came back.

Beside Ginny on the right, Yue flipped on her wrist-mounted flashlight, and Ginny's visor went back automatically to low light.

But the flashlight, which had a range of twenty feet, revealed nothing other than the cold metal surface that looked equally as flat as the surface the two women had just descended from.

The only difference was that there were no longer stars when Ginny looked up.

Neither woman had dared to speak yet or even move.

Finally, after forever, Ginny's confidence and training came back to her.

She flipped open her wrist-comm and selected Kala's frequency. "Tirpitz 1-9 to 2-7, respond!"

No response came back. Ginny selected Ryhr's frequency next, "Tirpitz 1-9 to 2-1, respond!"

And still, there was no response.

She tried again, this time selecting the ship itself, "Tirpitz 1-9 to Actual, respond!"

Nothing. No response at all. Just silence, and darkness.

Yue tried next with her enviro-suits built-in comm, "Tanaka calling Tirpitz, please come in."

Nothing, again.

Finally, Yue turned to look at Ginny.

She had a smile on her face, but Ginny was experienced enough to know that the Commander was terrified, "Well, I can't call anyone either, what now?"

Ginny switched on her rifle's built-in flashlight, as well as her onboard emergency lights, meant to be used by medics to find her in the field if she couldn't respond to comms.

As opposed to the solid white led of Yue's flashlight, Ginny's lights were red.

But they revealed nothing either. Cautiously, Ginny advanced three paces to the front, let her rifle sweep in every direction, and then turned to look at Yue once more.

Yue tried sarcasm this time, "You know, we could do that for hours and still never get anywhere."

Ginny was less amused, "You brought us down here. You're the explorer, you tell me what we're supposed to do!"

"Hey, you came too, Ginny. And honestly, I didn't know what to expect. That's half the fun of exploring."

"This isn't very fun, Yue. Is your tricorder telling you anything?"

Yue opened the device and took some quick scans, its beeping being the only other noise besides each of the woman's re-breathing filters.

After a few seconds, Yue closed the device and shook her head, "Same as before. Surface of Iron-56, Neutronium and Tritanium, and a gravity field of 1.5G's."

"Well, that's fucking great," Ginny said, lowering her rifle and rubbing her armoured forehead in frustration.

"Well, that's fucking great, Ma'am," Yue corrected, "And I'm open to suggestions, Major."

Out of lack of any better ideas, Ginny turned on her external microphones and screamed as loud as she could, "HELLO!"

Hello

Ginny had her rifle up on instinct, seeking targets.

But she still couldn't see anything.

"You heard that too, right?" Yue asked, looking around.

Neither she nor Kath had brought a phaser.

The Marines would be their only protection.

Still scanning for a target, Ginny replied, "I'm not sure 'heard' is the right word…felt it, maybe."

Another thought quickly entered Ginny's mind, disturbing the normally tough Marine, "Are you wearing micro-filters?"

Yue nodded, "Yes. You?"

Ginny raised a single thumb, not daring to speak again.

If she was about to go insane, at least she'd remember her PPE.

Yue stepped forward, away from Ginny's rifle. "Let me try."

She cupped her hands to her plastic helmet and cried, "HELLO?"

Hi

"Okay, I'm losing my fucking mind, or something is talking to us…if you can call that talking," Ginny said.

It might have been a little girl's voice, but she couldn't even have been sure about that.

"I think you're right because we can't both be having the same delusion," Yue replied, "I'll try again."

Yue walked another step in the same direction and spoke loudly, without cupping her hands, "My Name is Commander Yue Tanaka, of the Federation Starship Tirpitz."

Hello Yue.

Ginny dropped to one knee, still seeking a target.

This whole mission was starting to seriously damage her calmness.

"That wasn't an echo. Something's talking to us, Yue. Nothing on my motion trackers," she said, nervously.

Yue turned and looked at her, "You're scaring her. Or it. It does sound like a little girl though. If 'sound' is the right word. You try again."

"Fuck that, if it talks again, I open fire!" Ginny replied sharply.

"What are you going to shoot at, Ginny?! There's nothing here!" Yue replied in her own sharp tone, "Just tell her your name."

"Fuck!"

After a few moments, Ginny worked up her courage and spoke to 'her' again, "Tatum, Ginny, Major, OC-MCT, USS Tirpitz."

"Very official, Ginny," Yue replied flatly.

Hi Ginny. Please don't shoot things. It's not nice.

"This is freaking me the fuck out!" Ginny replied, unsure if at this point she was being "spoken" to, or simply losing her mind.

Yue looked up, "We can't see…whatever it is we are speaking to right now."

I'm not 'it' Yue. I am I

"Okay, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase, I can't see you," Yue replied to 'her'

Why not?

"This is completely fucked, Commander. That's it, I'm setting a det-pack, stand clear!" Ginny said, reaching into her pack at her lower back.

"At ease Major, you are not blowing yourself up!" Yue ordered sharply.

Please don't blow yourself up, Ginny. Your det-pack won't work.

"Fucking show yourself already! This isn't funny!"

But I'm already here, Ginny. Why can't you see me?

Worried the Major was either going to shoot herself or her, Yue spoke up quickly, "It's too dark in this place. Our eyes can't see in darkness like this."

Oh. That makes sense. I'm sorry. Give me one second.

Suddenly, the world around Ginny and Yue went completely white.

Ginny slammed her eyes shut and had to fight the instinct to rip off her helmet.

Yue dropped to her knees and tried to cover her own eyes as best as she could.

"Stop it!" Ginny screamed.

Is that too bright?

"Yes! Turn it off!" Ginny screamed back

A second later, the white light faded, about half as intense as it was before.

Ginny cautiously opened her eyes.

Instead of endless black, all she could see now was white. But it no longer hurt her eyes.

Her training came back, and Ginny ran to Yue's side. Yue was still on her knees, "Yue, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just wasn't expecting that," Yue said, slowly rising to her feet.

Is this better?

Ginny still couldn't figure out where this voice was coming from. It, or her, or whatever it was, wasn't speaking to her, as she had just spoken to Yue.

She was feeling the voice rather than hearing it.

Yue, equally as confused looked around, "I can see a little better now, thank you. But I still can't see you."

You two are really difficult to figure out. First, it was too dark, and then, it was too bright. I don't have many options.

Yue started waving her arm, "Obviously you can see me though. Can you see what I'm doing?"

Yes, Yue. You are waving your right arm.

"Can you wave back to me?" Yue asked.

"Did I mention how fucked this is, Ma'am?"

"I don't hear you coming up with any other options, Major!"

Okay. I just waved back. Did you see it?

Yue, still looking up, replied to 'her' voice, "No. I'm sorry. We can obviously communicate by speaking. Although I'm not sure I can say I'm actually hearing you…"

If you can't hear me, how were you able to ask me to wave at you, Yue? You don't make a lot of sense.

Yue looked at Ginny. Ginny shrugged.

"When I speak to Ginny, I can hear her words in my ears. But when you speak to me, it's not the same experience. It's like your voice is, inside…"

Hmm. This is strange. Is it the same experience for you Ginny? Do you hear me inside or outside?

"Inside, I guess," Ginny replied, taking a huge effort to calm herself.

Oh. Wait. I understand. Let me try something different. Ginny, walk this way, please.

In front of Ginny, a blue arrow appeared on the "ground".

It was identical to the same white arrow that had made both and her Yue get on the platform to come to wherever they were now, except that arrow was white.

Cautiously, and with her rifle raised in front of her, Ginny walked slowly to the end of the blue arrow, about five feet.

When she stopped, she called out, "Okay, I uhh, walked the arrow."

Okay, I understand now. You are three-dimensional things, and you use eyes to see and ears to hear. That makes more sense now.

Yue nodded, "Yes. We are human beings, from a planet called Earth. We travel through space, but we still exist in three dimensions."

It's been a very long time since I did that. You two must be really scared right now.

"Yeah, I'll agree with that, I'm fucking scared!" Ginny replied angrily.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, Ginny.

I'm going to try something different. This is going to be weird for me. I haven't done this in a very long time either. Let me know if I make a mistake.

Suddenly, and without any warning, a little girl appeared to the left of Yue and Ginny.

Ginny instantly turned and aimed her rifle at the girl.

She was human, at least to Ginny's eyes. Bald, and wearing a white dress. Her eyes were black as the surface of the Iron Star, but other than that, she looked like a little girl.

When the girl spoke, it was the same voice that both Ginny and Yue had 'heard', but the words now came from the little girl's mouth, "Is that better? Did I make a mistake?"

Ginny kept her rifle aimed at the girl but said nothing.

The girl looked at her and frowned, "Please don't shoot anything, Ginny."

Yue raised her arm up in a single fist, as she'd seen the Marines do, "Lower your weapon, Major."

Ginny silently complied but kept her finger on the trigger guard as she lowered her rifle.

Yue slowly approached the little girl and sat down in front of her.

"Hello," Yue said in a friendly tone.

"Hi, Yue. You can see me now, right?" the girl asked.

Yue nodded, "Yes, I can see you now. And I'd say you didn't make a mistake either."

"Good, that was really hard. It's strange to be in three-dimensional spaces again," The girl said.

"Do you have a name? Obviously, you know that I am Yue, and that is Ginny," Yue said, pointing at the Marine.

"I am I," the girl replied.

"That isn't really a good name though, is it?" Yue asked politely.

"Why don't we just call her star or something? I'm assuming that's where we still are, inside of a fucking Iron Star?" Ginny asked, less politely.

"Major, relax, that's an order!"

The girl spoke up next, "Don't be mad at Ginny. That name works. I am Star."

"Sorry, Star. I'm just a little stressed out right now," Ginny replied.

"I can see why that is, Ginny. This is probably an incredibly stressful moment. I'm sorry if I made you stressed out."

"That's okay, Star. Ginny just sees things differently than I do. She thought you were going to hurt us," Yue said with a smile.

"I could, very easily if I wanted to. But I don't like to hurt things. I just like to sing."

Ginny was starting to feel her temper raise, and with a great deal of effort, she calmly asked, "Was that you singing to us on the bridge earlier?"

"What is a bridge?" Star asked.

"The bridge is the control centre of the starship we came here on, Tirpitz. We saw an Iron Star on the sensors, and according to our understanding of science, iron stars are not supposed to exist for an awfully long time," Yue explained.

"When we approached it, we received a communication signal from that star, and the first message played a sound that caused us a great deal of pain," Yue said, softly.

"Iron Stars, as you call them, will not exist in your universe for ten to the fifteen hundredth power of years, Yue. But I built one because it is comfortable to live in, for me. Here, I can sing whenever I want to. And sometimes when things come close to my home, I sing to them as well," Star replied.

"Your singing can hurt us though, that's why we came here, to find out where it was coming from and what it was," Yue said.

"That's strange. My songs shouldn't hurt other things. Did you adjust your subspace harmonic filters to .279 as I asked?" Star asked.

"Yes, Star. That stops your songs from hurting us," Yue replied.

"Okay. I figured it would, but I wanted to be sure," Star said

"Could have used that info a year ago," Ginny scoffed.

"Why one year ago? You only just came to my home now," Star asked

"Permission to question Star, Commander?" Ginny asked in a serious tone.

Yue sighed, "Be nice, alright? We still have no idea what's going on here."

"I'm perfectly calm, Yue. And if you don't believe me…here."

Ginny unslung her rifle and handed it to Yue, a surprising show of trust on both of their parts.

While Yue was cradling the XR-118 like it was a large pole, Ginny sat down in front of Star, bringing her armoured head about level with Star's.

"A year ago, the people on Tranbir Nine heard your…song, and they heard it for over a month. They didn't have micro-filters like I'm wearing, and they didn't how to adjust their subspace harmonic filters."

"You hurt them Star, and I had to hurt them back when they tried to hurt me as well."

"What is a Tranbir Nine? Is that also a bridge?" Star asked, innocently.

"It's a planet, look," Ginny said, flipping open her wrist-comm and displaying a holoimage of the planet.

Star looked at it for a few moments.

She then looked back at Ginny, "Oh. A planet. I'm sorry, I forgot that you had things like that in your universe. But no, I don't sing to planets. Unless the planet was close to my home. Did it come here?"

Ginny shook her armoured head, "No. Planets don't move. You had to be there."

"I wasn't there Ginny. I have always been here. I built my home, went inside of it, and I've never left it."

Star then opened her mouth, and Ginny heard that same, familiar low droning noise that sent fear through her body.

Her first instinct was to reach for her assault phaser and shoot Star, but a look from Yue made her stop, for a reason Ginny couldn't understand.

A few seconds later, Star closed her mouth, and then returned to speaking in the same voice she used before, "Was that the song you heard on Tranbir Nine, Ginny?"

Ginny gulped hard and slowly nodded, "Yep. Exactly that. I'll never forget it. And we heard that exact same song, just now on Tirpitz."

"I see. That is remarkably interesting."

"Yeah, I thought so too. But you also just said you weren't the one singing the song on Tranbir Nine. So, am I missing something?" Ginny said, taking an effort to keep herself calm.

"I wasn't there. And I like I said, I only sing to things that come to my home. If Tranbir Nine didn't come to my home, then I didn't sing to it. But if that's the song you heard, It means someone else sang to them," Star replied.

"Someone like you, Star?" Ginny asked, calmer this time.

"Maybe. I can't put the exact time in years, your number scale is much too small. But a very, very, very, long time ago, there used to be others. They sang too. Like me, they didn't like to hurt things, they just liked to sing. But they can hurt things very easily if they want to like I can" Star said.

"So, there are other, things, like you out there?" Ginny asked again.

"I'm not a thing. I am Star."

"Are there other, Stars, Star?" Yue asked, trying a different approach.

"No, Yue. There is only one Star. And I am Star."

"Fuck me, two steps forward and one step back," Ginny said, sighing deeply.

Yue set the rifle down and sat beside Ginny, "Star, you said the others liked to sing too. Are the others like you in any way? I know there is only one Star, and that is you. Would they call themselves something different?"

"Oh. I understand now. It's like how there is only one Yue and one Ginny, but you are both the same. Sorry, three-dimensional space is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be, for how small it is."

Ginny sighed, and looked back up at Star, "That's okay, it confuses me too sometimes Star. I'll try again. Is there anyone else the same as you in our 3D space?"

"Maybe. Like I said, I built my home, went inside, and I haven't ever left it. I only sing to things that come near my home. But the others didn't like to make homes. They wandered around instead. I wonder if they still wander around and sing to things."

"Do you know where the others are right now?" Ginny asked.

"No Ginny, I can only see things that come close to my home. In your number scale, that's about three light years. Unless the others came to my home, I wouldn't be able to see them. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah…I think so. Listen, Star. Can you come with us? We want to find these others," Ginny asked.

"You can't shoot them, Ginny, that isn't nice!" Star said, in a more serious tone than either she or Yue expected.

"I won't shoot them. I just want to talk to them," Ginny said, raising her hands.

She really hoped Star didn't have a lie detector.

"Well, if you see the others, you can try to talk to them. They might be like me and talk to you, but they might just ignore you. Or they could sing to you. Can you sing back? If you adjusted your subspace harmonic filters to .279, you could send a message back on the same frequency using your quantum communications technology, and then you would sing to them."

"Well, regardless, I don't think we can find them without your help, Star."

"I can't leave my home, Ginny. If I left, it wouldn't be my home anymore. I'd have to build a new home, and that's a lot harder than just staying here."

Ginny looked at Yue, "I have lost my mind, because that actually made sense, a little bit anyway."

Yue sighed, "Star, we can look after your home while you're gone. You'd only be away for a little while. Or we can help you build another one."

"No Yue, you can't. Like I said, Iron Stars, as you call them, won't exist in your universe for ten to fifteen hundredth power years. I'd have to wait that long for you to make one, or for the materials I need to make another home to appear. That is much too long to wait, especially if I can't sing. So I can't leave my home," Star said.

Ginny sighed deeply and was about to speak again, but Star cut her off, "But you two have been really nice. And Ginny listened to me when I asked her not to shoot things. So I'll help you talk to the others. Take this."

Star held out her hand, and a small white block appeared suddenly, out of thin air.

Ginny picked it up with her armoured hand and looked at it.

It was about the size of a micro-block and weighed the same too.

However, there was only a small black button in the middle of the device, and no other indication of any tech. The sensors in her helmet couldn't read anything on it.

Yue waved her tricorder over it, but sighed and said, "I can't see anything about that white thing in your hand Ginny, other than it looks like it's made of Iron-56."

"I thought Iron was grey looking?" Ginny asked in confusion.

Star spoke up again, "I made that out of a piece of my home. It just looks that way because you said it was too dark. And then you said it was too bright. So this is about halfway."

"Okay, cool. What's it do?" Ginny asked.

"I guess I'll have to explain it. If you hear a song again anywhere, and you aren't near my home, push the black button and you can talk to me, on the outside like we are now so you don't get scared again."

"I'll be able to hear the song too, and I can tell you if whoever is singing is another, or if it's something else. Depending on who's singing the song, I can help you talk to them, or I can talk to them myself for you if you get scared. It's up to you."

"Well, that sounds pretty useful. Thanks, Star."

"You're welcome, Ginny."

"Uh, Star? I don't mean to be rude, but how do we get back to our ship from here?" Yue asked.

"Why do you have to go back to your ship?" Star asked.

"Little things like eating or sleeping. It's another 3D space thing," Ginny explained.

"Oh. Energy replenishment. I forgot that was important in the third dimension, sorry. You can use the platform over there," Star said, pointing behind both women.

Without a sound, either the same or a completely identical platform that they came in on rose above the ground, and a blue arrow appeared pointing at it.

Ginny and Yue stood up and walked onto the platform.

Yue handed the Marine her rifle, trading for the white device.

Ginny, now much calmer, raised her hand and waved at Star, "Bye Star, see you around."

Star waved back, "Bye Ginny."

And suddenly, the world went dark again, and the platform rose, at the same speed that it came down.

When Ginny figured they were about a third of the way up, she sighed deeply.

"Okay, that was…" she started saying before Yue finished her thoughts for her,

"Fucking weird?"

"Yep, fucking weird," Ginny nodded.

Yue laughed and again took hold of her hand, "Welcome to space, Sharkie. It's weird."

"Yep. And two more things, Yue. Sorry for snapping at you. Tranbir Nine was…" Ginny started to say before Yue again finished her thoughts,

"Hell? I'm starting to get an idea. It's okay Ginny, I'd feel the same way if I went through it too. What's the second thing?"

Ginny held up their hands, making a point to highlight it with her red emergency lights, "I thought we talked about this?"

Yue giggled, "Don't get your panties soaked, Ginny. It's just so we don't fall off the platform. But if it's helping…" and squeezed her hand slightly tighter

For the first time in what felt like forever, Ginny laughed, "It's a good try. I'll give you that much."