The Weight of The World
Chapter 10
Author's Note: Remember when I said that I was gonna focus more time on this? I remember. Life is hard. Anyway, I'M STILL ALIVE! So if you people are still alive as well, let's continue!
As my hands came into contact with the warm sand of the beach, I quickly reached up and ripped my mask off. All I could hear were the frantic gasps for air as I coughed and lazily dragged myself out of the water, before rolling over onto my back in exhaustion. The wet sand was quickly displaced by my violent shivering as I desperately tried to suck in air and cough up the accumulated water that had leaked through my rebreather at the same time, the two actions fighting each other. I realized that I couldn't remember ever being this tired…the fight with the boneshark had been exhausting for sure, and definitely hadn't helped, but that wasn't the main reason I was devoid of all energy.
No…that honor went to my seaglide for running out of charge! I mean seriously, it had the nerve to sputter and die just three hundred meters from my destination! As I slowly regained feeling in my limbs, I realized that I was less angry at my trusty seaglide, and more so at myself for somehow forgetting to replace the battery amidst all the preparation I had done before coming here, so stupid!
Despite my self-reprimand however, I couldn't help but chuckle a little in relief. The hard part was over. I just had to sit here until the Sunbeam arrived, explain what had happened, and then no doubt be escorted to a bed where I could finally get some proper sleep. I was so tired of the lifepod's cold metal floor. There were still quite a few unsolved mysteries on this planet, but at this point I couldn't care less. I just wanted it all to be over, and maybe get a job someplace closer to Earthif Alterra gave me even half the compensation I deserved.
I sat quietly in my head for several minutes, reveling in the feeling of solid land once more, but it wasn't long before I remembered that I was stranded on an evil planet that always wanted me dead. I quickly sat up, ignoring my sore body's protests as I whipped my head around, searching for signs of anything that could be a threat. I couldn't help but take note of how keen my senses had become in the short time I'd been here. However, this beach was even more barren than the last one, for better or worse. I relaxed, before shakily placing my feet underneath me. I slowly stood up with a groan, my legs wobbly from the now unfamiliar motion of walking. After getting my bearings, I began to explore the new island.
It then dawned on me that this rendezvous point was even MORE quiet somehow. I once again searched for any signs of human presence. The lack of other survivors at Keen's rendezvous had already led me to believe that I was the only one left, but the Sunbeam had sent out a wide-band signal to the entire area. I hadn't saved the location to my PDA, and yet I was still receiving the waypoint, so anyone else with a functioning PDA would've gotten the same directions I had. While I had yet to move from the beach, this island was small enough that I should've been spotted by now, or at the very least been able to hear the others. I may have already come to terms with the possibility that I was alone, but having another nail in the coffin was still just as heartbreaking.
Suddenly, the implications of being rescued alone finally dawned on me. The more I thought about what I would actually say to the people back home, the more concerned I got. This was no minor incident, the Aurora had been the flagship of Alterra's massive fleet of expansion vessels. With the ship's crash happening under mysterious circumstances, and me seemingly being the only survivor, it was entirely possible that some would accuse me for what happened! In situations like this people were always quick to assign blame to the only known variable, I've seen it done many times. It didn't help that I already sort of had a reputation for my distaste of the Board of Directors.
I shook the negativity from my head. No matter what happened, it was surely better than staying here, right?I didn't come this far just to bail on rescue when it arrived. If shit hit the fan in court, I would just quietly slip away to some backwater trans-gov, it's not like I had any real family or moral connection to Alterra. Worst case scenario I could always join the TSF for a couple tours to pay off any debt rather than going to prison, but if this whole situation has taught me anything, it's that I don't belong in a fight. I nodded in confirmation of my options for the future, before returning to the present.
I distracted myself from the distressing thoughts by focusing on Arbalest. The water around this island was unusually clear, and through it I could see the stalker chasing some kind of small green and purple fish I'd never seen before. It took him several minutes to catch it, with his prey being unusually agile. The alien shark became increasingly frustrated with every last-second turn the fish made, making me smile every time. When he finally caught it, he rewarded it's tenacity by tearing it apart with a vicious shake of his head, getting very little actual food in the process. It seemed to make him happy though, and I suppose that's enough.
Deciding I'd wasted enough time, I took my mind off my friend's antics, and returned to surveying the area. This island was noticeably more barren than the larger floating one, with just a few bulbo trees and some patches of grass surrounding them. For the most part it was just rocks and sand, it wouldn't be remarkable in any way on Earth, but it's existence in this endless ocean might as well make it paradise by comparison. A small mountain rose from the center of the island, the peak being circled by a dozen skyrays. All I cared about though was that the beach was flat and wide enough to land a small ship on, and the lack of trees made it an infinitely safer place to touch down on than the other island I had been to. The Sunbeam had chosen well.
My anxiety over being alone mixed with my sheer giddiness at finally being rescued, coalescing into a bittersweet state of mind where I really just felt more numb than excited.
Figuring I had time to explore a little before the Sunbeam arrived, I started out across the beach, eager to learn what I could before leaving. As soon as I rounded the nearest bend though, my curiosity had its fill. My eyes went wide and I held my breath as my legs suddenly felt weak again. The sight before me triggered a state of such shock and awe that it felt like my brain was doing backflips in my skull just trying to process it.
Because on the other side of the mountain from where I'd arrived, there was a structure! Not a survival habitat like the Degasi had lived in, but a damn tower. I stumbled in my footing and almost fell over in my surprise. I just barely managed to catch myself, before standing frozen solid as I stared wide-mouthed at the spectacle. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen! The entire building was made up of a bunch of rectangular blocks that appeared to modularly fit together, and they were composed of some kind of dark greenish-blue metal, with green lights dotted all over its surface. Lights! That meant there was power!
The sunlight reflecting off it was nearly blinding. Several thick metal cables appeared to connect the mountain to the base of the tower, suggesting there was maybe even more inside the mountain. A thousand questions were currently running through my head, and I couldn't focus enough on any of them to find an answer. The result is that I just stood there drooling like a moron.
Were it not for all the other strange things I had seen since the crash, I wouldn't have guessed aliens for even a split-second, but in my shaken state I could think of no alternative. The architecture didn't resemble anything I had ever seen before, and working as a phasegate engineer who did a lot of travelling, I had seen just about every style of building there was.
Suddenly realizing how exposed I was, I immediately jumped back behind the corner of the mountain, out of sight of anyone potentially watching from the massive structure. I put a hand to my chest and forced myself to slow my breathing by concentrating on the rhythmic pulsing of my heart, I wouldn't get anywhere by hyperventilating. This was the Sunbeam's landing site? Had they not seen the tower while scanning the island? How was that even possible? Was it cloaked somehow? Did it scramble the light from LiDAR scanning? Had the mountain hidden it from their line of sight? Had they just simply assumed it was built by the survivors?
The number of questions swimming around in my head were obviously not helping me to stay calm, so instead I chose to lower my scope of perception to focus on the importance of survival, a mentality I had learned to appreciate. Were these entities hostile? Could I possibly communicate with them somehow? Was I just being ignorant and this really was of human construction? If not, I wouldn't even know where to start on interpreting their language in any way that would be time-efficient…unless…
My eyes went wide as I had an epiphany. The strange teleporting creature, or creatures, I had encountered multiple times. I had taken to calling them 'warpers' since my PDA refused to assign a name to them, and it seemed fitting. I had long assumed that they were intelligent, especially after I had been saved by one while I was being crushed inside my own seamoth…I suppressed a shiver at that horrible memory. Yet, despite their seemingly advanced technology, I had somehow failed to consider the idea that they could be a planet-spanning civilization with an actual infrastructure and cities!
This was becoming too much to handle very quickly. Coming to terms with fighting for survival had been hard enough, but this? No part of my training had covered what to do here, I was the janitor for god's sake! The only options I could think of were just things I had seen in movies!
The sound of panicked breathing reached my ears, and it took me a couple seconds to realize it was coming from me. So much for getting a grip on myself…I was terrified. There was no way around that, and no amount of breathing exercises were gonna make me feel better. This was fucked.
I fought my brain for control as my body couldn't decide if it wanted to run, or curl up into a fetal position. To be honest, I wouldn't blame it for doing either, but after a few moments of petrified indecision I finally calmed down enough to think semi-clearly. The Sunbeam was going to be here any minute now, perhaps they would have someone better qualified to handle this? My best option was to just wait. I didn't want to risk rushing in and causing some kind of interspecies war because of a translation error…
The Warpers. I had been pretty terrified of them up to this point because of their frightening appearance and demeanor, but who was I to apply human social standards to a sapient alien species? They could have been being polite for all I knew when they showed up out of the blue just to stare at me ominously. The fact that I had never been harmed by one, and even saved once, was increasingly leading me to believe that they were beneficial in nature, and not hostile.
As I waited, I considered every possible course of action. If the warpers were truly responsible for constructing this tower, then I actually did have a starting foundation on translating their language. Thanks to the impressive abilities of Alterra AI, I had already translated part of that message I intercepted. It shouldn't be too hard to manually tweak the program for a more controlled analysis of their speech patterns, and I'm sure whoever the Sunbeam appointed for the task would greatly appreciate the head start...
I stopped myself there. Was I actually considering this? Walking up to an alien structure and what, just wave at it or something? Show them my Aurora ID and hope they let me in? Right...
I took a deep breath and held it for several seconds as I forced myself to come to terms with what I was about to do. First contact with an alien civilization! I would be the first to ever do so in all of Human history! I couldn't afford to screw this up…
I slowly glanced around the corner, just to see that nothing had changed. No scouts had been dispatched from the building upon my arrival, and the structure itself remained just as quiet and inert as before. I somehow found it hard to believe that a race advanced enough to do this, could possibly miss me washing up on the shore so close to them. If it were a human base, I would've immediately shown up on scans. Maybe they were waiting for me to make the first move?
I cautiously stuck a hand out and waved it back and forth. I'm not even entirely sure what I was expecting to accomplish with the gesture, but if there were any snipers or turrets I wasn't taking any chances. After confirming that my arm had definitively not been shot off, I slowly stepped around the corner. Every part of my body shook with anxiety, as I very slowly approached the building, keeping my hands up and open in what was hopefully a universal sign of peace.
My eyes frantically moved over every inch of the structure as I shuffled forward, still a bit wobbly on land. Somehow the complete lack of response was unnerving me far more than if some plasma cannon appeared and erased me from existence.
…Something wasn't right. I was about as far from an expert on intelligent aliens as you could get, but surely something should have happened by now? I was no doubt being watched through some sort of security camera, but I was getting very close to the base now. Speaking of the base of the structure, now that I was closer and not panicking as much, I could clearly see a door. Well, 'door' seemed like an odd description to give what was clearly a forcefield of some kind.
A bright, glowing green wall of energy covered a triangular passage that led into the building. There was a small rectangular podium next to the forcefield that was separated from the rest of the structure, but was made of the same greenish-blue metal as the building so it was clearly related. As I approached it, a loud mechanical sound made me jump as the top of the podium split into four separate panels that slid outwards, revealing some sort of strange purple symbol in the center.
Why did that symbol look so familiar? Shaking the thought from my head, it was obvious that some sort of key was supposed to be inserted into this device, which would presumably drop the forcefield…or disintegrate me, who knew? I took out my scanner, and held it up to the podium. Just as I was about to hit the trigger though, I hesitated. What if the scanning process was perceived as some kind of threat? Figuring I was better safe than sorry, I put the scanner back on my belt. I had really been hinging my plan on confronting whatever grotesque looking monster came out to greet me, but I was at a complete loss at what to do when several more minutes passed and no one had come out still.
Now that I was up close to the building, I could make out more detail in its design. All along the walls there were ornate looking symbols carved deep into the metal, the elegance of which was in odd contrast to the blocky modular appearance of the structure itself. There were long vines covering the base of the building, as if it had been here for a very long time untouched. Was this structure abandoned? It was obviously still powered, judging from the active green lights that adorned its surface and the working forcefield, so it was doubtful that it had been left alone for very long.
As my eyes followed the building to the water line, I now realized that the structure actually went underwater. This was only the part of the building that rose above the ocean. Maybe that's where everyone was? Ocean world, oceanic species, it made sense.
This still didn't seem real. There was no way I was truly standing before an advanced alien civilization. The thought was absurd! The evidence for the contrary was stacking up though, and the sooner I came to terms with it the better off I'd be.
Needing time and space to compile the thoughts racing through my brain, I quickly backed away from the massive tower. The back of my foot caught on something, and the next thing I knew I was falling backwards. The back of my head hit the densely packed sand with a loud thud, and I groaned as I rubbed over the sore spot. I sat up and glared at what I'd tripped over, but then my eyes lit up in recognition.
There was some kind of device on the ground, clearly broken in half. It was made of the same weird material the alien building was, and there was obviously a display of some kind that covered most of one side of the device. A strange symbol that almost looked like a 'U' had been showing when the object was broken in half, and now simply sat there glitching on the destroyed screen. The very same symbol that had been displayed on the podium. What was so familiar about the device though, was that I had one in my lifepod! I had taken it from one of the Degasi bases on the floating island, assuming it was some kind of obscure Mongolian technology.
But it wasn't! It was an alien machine! It was similar in shape and size to my PDA, and did appear to have a holographic display of some kind, maybe it was a computer? Since it clearly matched the symbol and shape of the receptable on the podium by the forcefield, perhaps it was just some kind of key? Regardless, I now had a lead.
I suddenly had to frown though. I was leaving. As much as I desperately wanted to know more, that pull wasn't strong enough to stop me from getting off this cursed rock. The discovery was still here, and my PDA would prove to anyone that I had been the one to make said discovery. I knew Alterra though, and there was no guarantee that this would be made public until they knew its exact nature. It could be many years before I ever heard anything more about what had been found here, if they ever made it public at all. There also wasn't anything stopping the crew of the Sunbeam from hacking my PDA and claiming they had discovered it themselves, assuming they had someone on-board with the right skillset.
Well, this wasn't fair. I had come so far just to be confronted with a mystery unlike any anyone had ever been presented with, just to have it ripped away from me. So many possibilities were running through my head, so many ideas! It's like I was a child again, staring up at the stars and dreaming of all sorts of discoveries. How many relics like this were out there in the vastness of space? How many civilizations lost to time? The human desire to explore had suddenly consumed me, erasing all concepts of hardship...
"Calorie intake recommended."
A strained laugh left my throat as I was shaken from my imagination. As I reached down to grab the bottle from my belt however, the ground shook slightly as a loud BOOM was heard high above me. I instantly recognized the sound of a ship hitting the atmosphere, and jumped to my feet. The captain was clearly inexperienced if he had entered the atmosphere moving so quickly, but that alone wasn't that alarming, it happens all the time.
What did surprise me was the deafening horn sound that suddenly blasted from the alien building I had been leaning against, before the ground started to shake.
Author's Note: CLIFFHANGER! How evil! Especially with my upload schedule. But I REALLY wanted to have the next part all in one chapter, and this one was getting long. As always, please review and let me know how I might improve this story.