Chapter 9
“Houston,” Lt. Dish said, “I think we have a problem?”
“Excuse me?” Riina said.
Tim was happy Rinna had said it. Who was Houston?
“Sorry, it’s an Earth thing. It means, well,” Lt. Dish gave a shrug, “that we have a problem.”
“A large problem,” Trac said from his corner of the bridge. “What manner of entity is this?”
Captain Kellen had already slowed their forward momentum and altered their trajectory as soon as their sensors had flagged the unknown entity seeming to arrive just ahead of them.
Was it a ship? It didn’t look like a ship, though for a brief instant, their sensors had caught a shape before it began to spread out.
Tim’s ship, the Najer, had been a lot of places and they had observed a large quantity of ship types.
There tended to be certain similarities among space going vessels.
Similarities that fell into classes, such as shipping, battle, scout.
Of course, each species’ ships had peculiarities, but they still tended to look like, well, ships.
This, whatever it was, did not look like a ship or ships. He wasn’t sure what it looked like.
“Blobs,” Lt. Dish said. “Are we sure they are ships?”
“Miasma,” Riina said. “It is oddly formed and indistinct. If we were to observe this…object…elsewhere, I would postulate that it might be a quasar, cosmic dust, a gravitational wave…it’s too small to be a dark galaxy, but there are some indications…”
She stopped.
“It’s almost bubble-like,” Lt. Dish said. She too rose, as if sitting made it harder to think.
Tim unstrapped and rose, but he experienced no change in his lack of comprehension.
“It is blocking light from the planet,” Tim said.
Perhaps standing had helped? If his comment was helpful?
He did know how planets that were inhabited tended to look from space.
Large clusters of occupants created clusters of light that even showed through storm clouds.
But darkness was slowly spreading across the surface of Arroxan Prime, blotting out all observable light.
“Tim’s right,” Riina said, flashing him a quick, anxious look. “The lights are going out. Or our ability to see them is being mitigated.”
“I should go down,” Trac said. The skitterfin wrapped around his neck lifted its head and looked at him with large, dark eyes.
His words also caused everyone on the bridge to turn and look at him. Tim felt a stab of something. If only he weren’t in this human body. Though it wasn’t completely human.
“We could go down,” Tim said. He might have emphasized the “we.”
“You would slow me down,” Trac said. The skitterfin turned to stare at Tim. Did it agree with Trac?
No one could claim that Trac had been gifted with tact.
Though to be fair, none of them had been gifted with that as robots.
It wasn’t standard in their programming.
Only their lone human, Kraye, might have cause to complain about the lack, since he’d been the only one on board the Najer with feelings.
But he’d never said anything.
“I have enough cybernetics to be useful,” Tim said.
Riina seemed to open her mouth, but then she pressed her lips together.
“No one should go down until we know more. Let’s give the sensors time to collect data. Veirn, any early insights into what that is?”
“I do not believe it is natural,” Veirn said. “There is evidence of propulsion.”
One of the forward screens changed. It took Tim a couple of seconds to process this new data.
“It is an energy trail.” The entity had arrived in the system from almost the opposite side they’d come in from. He started a search through the available Garradian data on what was beyond this system in that direction.
He had cause to know that space was wide, vast, and mysterious. But it was only since he’d become human that he’d processed that information as awe-inspiring and yes, overwhelming. His more finite brain struggled to grasp just how big, while his memories showed previous matter-of-fact acceptance.
The two realities sat uncomfortably together inside his mind.
“I should be on the team that goes to the surface,” Lt. Dish said.
This statement had the benefit of redirecting all attention her way.
“Why…” Riina began. The captain made a sound that was clearly negative.
“Dr. Walker is my mission directive,” she said. “I’m the lone Expedition representative. And I agree, we should get down there and find Dr. Walker and Harold.”
If Dr. Walker was her mission imperative, then Harold was most likely Tim’s, since the robot was Garradian. Or did that make the robot the captain’s imperative?
His human brain was once again experiencing dissonance.
They were still closing in on Arroxan Prime, though at a different angle, one that wouldn’t put them in orbit, but rather send them on a close pass.
Tim suspected that the captain planned to make a wide turn back, which would allow them to examine the other side of the planet and determine how widespread the intrusion was.
“Based on our last communication with Dr. Walker,” Tim said, “our rendezvous coordinates were here.”
He made those coordinates appear on the display that showed them the planet.
“If we dropped a stealth shuttle as we pass by, we should be able to reach those coordinates, collect the doctor, and rendezvous with the Quendala as it makes a wide loop back around.”
“To wait until we’ve made a complete pass risks the loss of Dr. Walker and Harold,” Trac agreed.
“Something disruptive is occurring on the planet surface,” Veirn said. “We are receiving data that could indicate surface explosions.”
“Explosions?” Riina’s voice was sharp. “They have a lot of seismic disruptions…”
“These are not typical of the previously recorded seismic disruptions,” Veirn actually interrupted her.
Tim blinked at this. It was most unusual.
“It is possible,” Veirn continued, “that the alien anomaly we are observing is firing on the planet.”
“We can’t…” Riina began but was interrupted again. By Lt. Dish.
“We can’t leave our people, our person or Harold down there,” she said.
“But beyond that,” Captain Kellen said, “if some entity is attacking Arroxan Prime, it is our duty to discover why and how.”
“And intervene?” Lt. Dish asked the question Tim was thinking.
Kellen hesitated. “I will send data back to Central Command, but it will take time to get a response back. In the meantime, all we can do is assess. We are only seeing one side of the situation.”
“So, you concur that we need to send a team to the surface,” Tim said.
Kellen hesitated, then nodded with clear reluctance. “If Dr. Walker weren’t down there? I’d advise a wait and see for now, but…we need to ascertain his condition and situation.”
“Hasn’t he acquired a side chick?” Lt. Dish asked.
“A…” Riina looked at her.
“A girlfriend?” Lt. Dish prompted. “What about her?”
“It’s not as if we haven’t evacuated at risk individuals before,” Riina said, “but I believe there is her father. And she has family. It could get complicated very quickly.”
Tim found he could grin. “Because that’s never happened before.”
Riina looked at him with her eyes and smiled as they both remembered their mission with General Halliwell and how that had gone.
The moment of connection helped. For just that second, he felt they were friends again.