Cyril began the meeting. "Time to go over what we have learnt over the past few days. Calli has been working with a team of specialists from both ships…"
"Ugh, we know," Josh rudely interrupted, much to the disapproval of captain Oisin, "just cut to the chase. What's with this place?"
"Calli will answer any questions we have," said Cyril, showing indifference to Josh's rudeness.
"I want to know about the creepy voices of our dead crew," he said.
"They were artificially generated," Calli began, "voice analysis confirmed that. Their source and purpose, however, is still unknown."
"So they weren't our crew members then
"This is what Maeve managed to retrieve before she…disappeared." A hologram of the sample container dominated the room before the view zoomed in on the myriad of particles within it. "Most of this is sand, and we had to look very closely to see what was concealed within it." The view centred on something that was not a sand particle. It looked a bit like a jellyfish, though it didn't move like one. It was also solid metal, no joints or separations could be seen on its ellipsoid body or short tentacles, yet all of it moved, squeezing through the sand particles like an octopus through a reef.
"What is it?" asked Josh, who seemed to be the only one not moved by this discovery.
"We…don't know," replied Calli, "We're calling them 'nanobots' for now, though we don't know if they are artificial or organic. They do behave in a specific way through, and they respond to external stimulus, though not to light, so it's likely their blind."
"Is this what was…eating our ships?" asked Cyril, who was transfixed on the object.
"We don't know," she said, frustration creeping into her voice, "For all the tests we've done, for all the data we've obtained, we don't know what this is, where it came from, what its purpose is and what role it has played over the past few days."
"How about the zombies then?" asked Josh.
"Analysing the images…did nothing but give me nightmares. We wouldn't be able to find out what they are, and how they came to be, without some sort of sample."
"So, let's just recap," Josh began, "The creepy voices; we don't know their source. The ground eating ships; we don't know for certain what causes that. The zombies in the settlement; we don't know where they came from. These 'jellyfish'; a new discovery, but we don't know what they are. The anomalous energy readings; we…"
"Ok, enough!" yelled Calli.
Silence descended upon the room. As much as they hated to admit it, Josh was right. They have learned nothing.
"Calli, is there anything else?" Cyril asked softly, trying to calm her down.
"No," she sighed. "That was all we had to show for two days worth of analysis."
"So, no reason not to blow this place up," said Josh, "Unless, of course, our 'Lord' wishes to waste more time and resources in an attempt to learn nothing else."
"Josh, you make it so hard to agree with you," said Cyril, who was getting frustrated as well, "But you are right. We have already lost so much for so little. We cannot afford to let this place endanger others. Yet, I won't make the decision alone. This will be a group vote. I say we destroy this place."
Josh crossed his arms, "You already know my stance."
Calli, with the horrible memories of her experience - the 'zombie', her narrow escape, Maeve's lifeless body being dragged into a building - flowing through her mind voted in favour of destruction.
Oisin, regardless of his vote, wouldn't be able to sway the outcome, not that he wanted to anyway. He remembered the Deviant Reprisal being swallowed in a cloud of dust, and his leader's own narrow escape from the same fate. He voted for destruction.
"So, we are in agreement. The task will be carried out at Oisin's discretion."
. . . . . . . . . .
The fighter bay of the Donnager deployed, but instead of a small craft on the pad, there was a massive cannon. The Thunderer cannon, which is where the name of the ship comes from, was designed to combat ground fortifications. While it is capable of firing standard shells, that's not what Thunderer is meant for. It can fire specially designed sonic disruptor shells which generate potent seismic tremors. Anything underground is pulverised by the waves and fortification foundations are shattered, making them easy pickings for weapons which they would normally shrug off. The nanoprobes and whatever else was under there would become indistinguishable from the sand around them.
Despite its power, the Thunderer is still only in prototype stage, so using it requires a strict regimen. The crew buzzed, constantly reporting status and target information to the fire directors in the converted fighter storage bay.
"Cannon loaded," came a voice over comms.
"Cannon loaded, captain, safety disengaged, coils charged," reported the weapons officer.
"Target point acquired, firing solution plotted," the systems officer turned, "Weapon ready, captain."
Oisin gave one last questioning look to Cyril. Despite their unanimous decision to destroy Dixon Dock, the ever looming threat of what may happen chips away at their certainty. Nevertheless, the certain threat of their inaction is far greater than the possible threat of their action. Cyril nodded.
"Command approve. Fire weapon."
"Command approve," echoed the weapons officer.
Moments later, a loud hum sounded for a few seconds before a thump reverberated through the ship as the cannon fired. The metal cylinder tore through space before colliding with the soft sand. The drill bit at the tip submerged the shell even deeper before it detonated. The intense kinetic energy of the explosion was transformed into seismic waves which rocked and pulverised anything solid beneath the surface. Another shell was fired, impacting opposite the settlement from the first. The effect was the same, but the seismic waves from the two shells met under the settlement which caused an even more destructive reaction. The waves bounced back, twice as strong, turning rock into sand. The settlement crumbled as the ground beneath it crumbled.
The waves settled. No seismic activity or energy signatures could be detected. The deed was done. Dixon dock, and whatever it concealed, was destroyed.
. . . . . . . . . .
Despite their efforts being successful, it was pyrrhic victory. For their losses, no real answers were gleaned. Subsequent expeditions into the settlement revealed nothing. The 'mutants' were gone, leaving no trace, and both the Donnager and the Valiant were able to land safely. They stayed for another two days to ensure that they had succeeded in eliminating the nanoprobes.
Dixon Dock was no more. Its buildings lay mangled, their interiors exposed the vacuum of space. However, even in this state, the settlement had one more mystery to throw at them. Secret passages were found in several buildings. Analysis revealed they connected the buildings, providing subterranean access between the settlement's more important structures. This in itself was nothing special, settlements and colonies often have underground passageways to allow people to get around without a spacesuit, but these tunnels had been intruded upon. Ground penetrating radar revealed that, in every tunnel, extra openings were carved out. These led to a different tunnel system which had a different, almost organic, architecture. They led even deeper underground, but unfortunately, they were pulverised by the Thunderer shells.
"Lord Caelus?"
"I am satisfied with our investigation, as limited as it was forced to be. Please, extend my gratitude and admiration to you crew and Josh's, they performed brilliantly throughout this whole endeavour."
Oisin bowed, proud of his competency in the eyes of his leader, "It will be an honour, sir."
"Make ready to depart. I will head over to the Valiant and…"
Alarms interrupted them. The ship's normal whit lights were extinguished, replaced with red. Combat lighting. Oisin and Cyril made their way up to the bridge.
"Captain…seismic activity is…"
"I know, I can see it," said Oisin. The ground was shaking. Dust and rocks could be seen vibrating. "It must be a side effect of the Thunderer cannon." Oisin opened a communication line to his crew on the surface. "Abandon the equipment, prepare for a hot retrieval."
The Valiant was already airborne, flying over the mangled settlement, retrieving its crew using the Anaconda's multiple boarding ramps. The Cutter only had one at the front, but it was big, and enough to allow the crew to board quickly and safely. The Valiant was first away, rotating to face up and engaging its massive engines to climb rapidly. Once everyone remaining (including several members of Josh's crew) were on board the Donnager, the large white vessel made the same manoeuvre with a beautiful, soft melody that only Imperial engines are capable of. A few kilometres up, the ship turned to face the settlement.
The ground began to crack and corrugate before sand was flung high and dispersed wide which obscured the view, but not for long. A shape, a shadow, could be seen rising slowly. As the sand settled, the shape rose above the cloud. Despite all the pain and horror this thing wrought, it was difficult to say it wasn't beautiful. It was a structure, most likely a ship, but had no discernible windows or propulsion systems. It was composed of a single flowing spine which started large at one end and tapered back to the rear, though not linearly, it had symmetrical bulges and depressions all along it. At the top were four large 'petals'; beautifully crafted hunks of metal which jutted out perpendicular to the spine. Beneath these petals, also attached to the central spire, were eight spires which folded back and met up with the bottom of the main spire, giving an egg-whisk like appearance. The entire 'hull' was a greyish blue, but when the light from the setting sun hit it, the reflections gave off a purple hue. The entire construct was at least three kilometres long and, from petal to petal, about two kilometres wide.
Swarms of nanoprobes rose up from the sand forming scintillating ribbons which wove through the many trailing spires. They seemed to energise the hull, causing ripples of energy to flow like water wherever they went. The construct sat five hundred meters above the ground for a few minutes before continuing its ascent. It passed close to the Donnager and Valiant, missing them by at least a kilometre, but it payed no attention to the hostile who woke it from its slumber. As it rose, the petals folded up, adding another kilometre to its length. The spires began to glow and pulsate with unknown energy and a glowing bubble began to surround the construct. Moments later, it just disappeared. No flash, no fanfare of energy. It just disappeared.
. . . . . . . . . .
Cyril sat in his room aboard the Donnager, absent-mindedly watching a recording of the large construct, dubbed Violet by Calli, rising from the planet. He wasn't paying much attention to the holo-vid though, he was focused on his thoughts.
If I had used the Seraph, would I have destroyed this…Creature? Ship? Creature ship?
Cyril had no idea how to feel about it. He could say he found it beautiful - Calli had no trouble doing that - but in the end, they don't know what role Violet played. Was it the source of the horror of Dixon Dock, or just a bystander? And even if it was the source, for what possible purpose would such a thing inflict suffering? Was it even aware it was inflicting pain? It's not that great a stretch to call Violet alien, though that being said, it didn't resemble anything like the other two known alien species humanity has encountered; the Thargoids and the Guardians. This was a new player.
Calli requested entry. Cyril granted it. As she walked in, she noticed the holo-vid of Violet playing. "Do you know what that is yet?" she asked.
"I wish." Cyril shook his head in disbelief. "That thing didn't have a scratch on it. It was lying underground for who knows how long, and we fired Thunderer shells at it, but no scratch, not even a dent. No wonder it ignored us as it flew past, we aren't a threat."
Calli sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the room.
"Though, I am curious if the Seraph would be able to harm it."
"Let's hope we never find out," said Calli.
Cyril agreed. If Violet ever returned, it had better be benevolent, otherwise, humanity would be in strife.
There was a long pause in the conversation as the two continued to process what they had witnessed over past few days.
"We were lucky this venture."
"What? No we weren't! We lost two people, not to mention millions of credits worth of ships and equipment."
"We weren't discovered. Nobody stumbled onto us, nobody else learnt about what was here, and I want to keep it that way, at least for now." Cyril leant back and looked at the roof pensively. "Information. Everyone is gathering information, yet the people who should be the ones doing this - the superpowers - aren't. They are too busy looking within, scandals, politics and the like, so they are blissfully unaware of without. Something big is coming, and we need to be ready." Cyril looked back at Calli. "This is our little piece of information. It isn't much, but it may get us closer to whoever, or whatever, is pulling the strings in the galaxy."
"You're not going to go public about what we found here?"
"That depends on the powers that be. The key to being heard isn't to shout to everyone, but to whisper to the right people. Those who seek to use this information will contact us, at least, that's the way it's worked before.
"The Dark Wheel turns; I just have to put myself in just the right position to be swept up by it."