Eleven Unveiled (Imortum)

by Kord Stone

  Jason drew in a quick breath and asked, “Could we store the bombs in the void storage?”

  Calia shook her head. “I do not know much about it, since I only just found out about its existence, but I would not want to try to dematerialize dark matter. I am almost certain it would detonate.”

  “We don’t need to dematerialize it; we could carry the bomb in and leave it there,” he replied.

  Calia got a puzzled look on her face. “I would think it is more of a virtual location, like base storage.”

  Jason shook his head. “No, I’ve actually been in there. The entrance is off the second level. I inadvertently opened a passage when I was wondering where everything went after it was removed from the ship. It’s a massive room, I didn’t venture very far in there, but it appeared large enough to house a coliseum or two, and it’s cluttered with artifacts from who knows how far back. When you enter, you get the same phase shift as entering this room from the ship. And I think these ships are the only way to access the room. I was only in there a minute or so before, but I think it may be an option.”

  Justin had been accessing the data on the room as they spoke and he whistled. “Damn, you’re right. It’s an actual room in the core of a collapsed star. According to this, it was a red giant at one time that burned out and compressed…and the only way into it is through these TDS ships.”

  Calia’s mood seemed to perk up a bit. “We will have to send a probe through and scan to see if there is anything in there that will inadvertently set the bombs off. Anything matter reactive would have to be removed, but if it is clear we should be able to store them in there.”

  Something was nagging at Justin and he just figured out what it was. “How are we going to get them into the ship? You said we couldn’t dematerialize them, so transporting them is out.”

  Jerren smiled and said, “Spacewalk. Alise did say there’s a porthole or doorway off the ship somewhere, right?” Alise nodded and he continued, “We get into spacesuits and perform a manual capture.”

  The girls did not look happy and Calia spoke up, “We have environment suits, but there is no way for you to maneuver out there. I would not suggest transporting to them either. That technology displaces matter from the area to allow the new matter to occupy the space, and there is always a chance it could detonate the bomb as well. We would have to tether you to the ship and hope you could get ahold of it then pull you back in.”

  Jerren was looking at them as if they were messing with him. “You mean to tell me you do not have EVA packs? Or anything like them at least?”

  Calia asked, “What is an EVA pack?”

  “It’s an extra vehicular activity pack, or a jetpack made for maneuvering outside of a space station or shuttle. Our space program uses them on Earth. They were made for the astronauts, but we were testing the jetpacks from them to see if we could extend the range of our para-rescue jumps. It was promising but a month into testing, some of our jetpacks and EVA suits were stolen…and…uh…DAMN!” Jerren said in apparent bemusement.

  “What?” The other occupants of the room all asked at once.

  Jerren smiled. “We took them…or will take them. We had six of the older jetpacks on loan from NASA, and three of them disappeared without a trace. We need them, and I know where they were stored at the time of their disappearance.”

  Jason said, “Okay let’s say we get the suits and use them to collect the bombs. Will they even fit through the hatch? If I remember right the hatch is not very large.”

  Calia replied, “The dark matter bombs are spherical and they only measure fifteen centimeters in diameter. The size is not going to be the problem. The weight however, is going to be an issue. They each weigh thirty-six thousand centoner.”

  Jerren asked, “What is a centoner?”

  Alise answered him, “It is a metric measurement based in atomic weight. It would roughly equate to four thousand pounds.”

  “Damn that is heavy for such a small object. So how do we move them once we get them on the ship?” Justin asked.

  “It will be best to use gravity boots and we can cut the gravity to the sections of the ship as they pass through. Our problem will be maneuvering them once they are in the void storage. We will have to see if there is anything in the room that can be used to move them,” Alise said.

  Jerren laughed, drawing their attention. “We’re making it harder than it has to be. We have to go to Earth for the EVA packs anyway, right? We can just snag two floor jacks with saddles. The bombs should cradle nicely on them and we can roll them around without any hassles. We might want to get some utility tape while we’re at it as well. You can never have too much utility tape.” Jerren said with a smirk.

  Jason looked at Justin. “It sounds like a good plan. I can take my ship back to Earth to get the supplies we need. I have a few things to get on my list as well.”

  Justin nodded in agreement. “That sounds good to me. We’ll head to Serqalin and send out a probe to locate a good time to perform the reset. While we’re waiting for your ship to make it to Earth, we can probe the void storage and make sure it’s going to be safe to store the dark matter bombs in there.”

  “Are we going to bring the supplies through here? Or are we going to wait until your ship gets back to Serqalin for the bomb retrieval?”

  “I think I would prefer it if our ship was nearby.” Jason asked Calia, “Is it possible to daisy chain the probes?”

  “If you mean quantum signal bouncing, then yes we can. But the signal gets degraded if it is transmitted through more than three probes. Not to mention the latency issues that will arise. At maximum distance over three probes the time delay will be nearly five minutes,” Calia stated.

  Alise turned to Jason. “Our ship has set course for Earth.” She told the rest of the group, “It will take our ship four days to get there from here and three to return to Serqalin. That will give us a few days to examine the void storage. We will drop the probes after we pass Serqalin on our way to Earth.”

  Jerren seemed to be mulling something over and said, “That’ll be cutting it close to when TDS 5 will arrive at Serqalin.”

  Calia said, “Okay, I have our ship headed to Serqalin now, and we will stop just in range of the probe I will launch, and position it on the opposite side of the planet from where the other dark matter bombs are located, and begin scanning. And if TDS 5 arrives early we can perform the GMP sooner. I think we should start our examination of the void storage in about an hour. How does that sound to everyone?”

  They all agreed. Jerren accompanied Jason and Alise to work out the details of their end of the mission, and Justin followed Calia back into their ship.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Upon reentering TDS 3, Justin took hold of Calia and turned her toward him, looked deep into her eyes and said, “I am truly sorry. When I left this ship to help my brother and Alise I didn’t take into account how it would impact you.”

  Calia felt the flood of emotions surge. The fear, pain and sorrow seemed to course from her, and she could see that Justin felt it as well.

  He appeared to get choked up a moment, regained himself as he croaked out, “That’s how you feel when you think of it?”

  She nodded. “Whenever you or anyone reminds me of it, I seem to relive the emotions. It was not as bad this time as it was the last few times it has happened. The effect seems to be diminished when you are in physical contact with me though.”

  He furrowed his brow and said, “I felt it before when we were talking, but I didn’t know what was causing it. Is there anything I can do to help alleviate the feelings?”

  She smiled at him. “I do not think so. It does help knowing you are aware of the problem, and I hope that it will lessen in time. I think the problem is because of how I feel about you. I greatly admired Atlas. We spent hundreds of thousands of years on this ship together and I do miss him, but the thought of his death does not affect me this way. There is just something about you, and I cannot expl
ain it.”

  Justin frowned and said, “If I or anyone for that matter says anything that triggers this feeling in you again, and I am around I want you to take hold of my hand. I do not want you to go through this alone. You were right in the master control room. I should have informed you of what I was going to do and why. My only excuse for not doing so is I’m not used to telling anyone what I’m doing. That has changed. I do not want you to have to feel that way ever again.” He bent down and kissed her ever so gently.

  Her heart was fluttering. She knew he was being sincere and truly felt sorrow for what he had put her through. Her emotions almost lifted her off the floor when he kissed her. She broke the kiss and looked up into his eyes as her hand slid down his pants. “It would appear I did not break it after all.” She let out a little laugh. “Maybe we can try harder this time.”

  Justin smiled. “You are welcome to try—”

  She took a firm grip of his shaft, which made him groan, then he planted a ravenous kiss on her lips.

  They spent what time they had left in the bedroom making love and talking. He surprised her when out of the blue he asked if she would like to share the bedchamber with him. “Uh…” she got out not knowing what to say.

  Justin quickly said, “If you don’t want to, it’s not a problem. We can set something up on the second level.”

  She could tell her non-response pained him and decided to have fun with him a little before answering. In a harsh tone, she said, “What kind of girl do you take me for? I only just met you and now you want to keep me in your room as some sort of trophy or a sex slave?”

  Justin didn’t know where he’d gone wrong. Calia seemed so happy and contented a moment ago. All he wanted to do was make her feel welcome. He paled and said, “No…no…it’s not like that—”

  Her smile and laughter cut his explanation short and she said, “I was only teasing you. I would love to reside here with you, but do not start thinking I am your servant.”

  He stammered, “I…I would never—”

  She kissed him passionately then said, “You take everything too seriously. You should lighten up a bit. Besides, you are my servant, remember?” She smiled seductively.

  He smiled back at her and said, “We don’t have time for that, remember? You did tell them an hour, and we’ve just used a lot of that up.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Justin and Calia entered the void storage after a few minutes of debate. Calia wanted to stay behind and make sure they were able to re-open the archway just in case. She did not know much about the void storage and was afraid they would not be able to re-open the passage if they were both in there at once, but Justin persuaded her to enter, by reminding her that Jason was able to call for the archway from within, and it was technically off the ship and it would be her first time.

  After the shimmer passed, they looked around for the others but all they could see was remnants from eons of storage. Walkways were the only spaces left open. Otherwise the places where items were to be stored were piled, some in stacks as high as houses and others only a foot or two high. They called out to Alise, Jason and Jerren, but soon realized that if they were in there, they were too far away to hear them.

  Justin marveled at the size of the cavernous room and said, “When Jason described this place, he seriously underestimated the size and grandeur of the room.”

  Calia chuckled and replied, “He did say he had only been in here a minute or two and didn’t venture too far in.”

  The chamber was immense. They tried to yell for the others again, but there was still no response. They figured they were just too far away to hear them yelling, so Justin activated his life monitor and called out to them.

  It was Jason who responded, “Where are you? We have been calling for you for a few minutes now.”

  Justin laughed. “We’ve been doing the same, and it just dawned on me to use the life monitors. We must be on the other side because we could not hear a thing. How is it over there?”

  “Very cluttered, but we may have found a spot to put the bombs. How about you?” Jason asked.

  “We have a few locations that would need items moved around to make room. But if you have space ready, then we should put them on your side,” Justin suggested.

  “Calia sent our probe out to perform a detailed scan of the area a few minutes ago. It should be done with the scans in about fifty minutes. We’re going to poke around a bit and see what we can find while we wait,” Justin informed them.

  “That sounds good. We'll meet you back in the master control room after you collect the data. Just call us when you’re ready.”

  Justin closed out his communications, then he and Calia walked around picking up items and examining them before tossing them back on the piles. The majority of the items were furniture, and it appeared as if the items were dumped there after they were no longer needed. Justin wondered aloud, “Why didn’t they just return the items to base storage? I know I cast a lot of stuff in here when I cleaned the ship, but I didn’t know about base storage at the time. It seems like a waste to just dump it in here.” He wasn’t expecting an answer and was startled when Calia answered.

  “I do not know, but I would bet all of it or at least most of it has been put in here since the Lantins took over running the ships. A lot of it is familiar-looking from over the years. I recognize some of the things you cast off our ship. I didn’t know about the void storage at the time, or how to get rid of the items aboard the ship. It never dawned on me to send it to base storage, not that Atlas or Hyais ever got rid of anything.”

  Something about her statement puzzled him then he remembered. “Just after I cleared the ship you said, ‘so you figured out’ and I cut you off. I figured it was about cleaning the ship but if you didn’t know it could be done…What were you going to say?”

  Calia groaned audibly. “Could we just forget about that? I was being a snide ass at the time, and I really do regret it now.”

  Justin smiled and kissed her on the head. “Sure, it’s not as if I didn’t say things I regret as well. I was a bit short with you—”

  She shook her head. “I deserved it. I was mean to you and I am surprised you even wanted to talk to me after that.” They came to a crossing and turned to the left and Calia let out a whistle. “What…is…that?”

  Justin peered over to where Calia had been looking. They had come upon a ship that seemed to shimmer in color between black, silver and blue as they walked around it. It was about sixty-five feet long, thirty-five feet across and at least twenty feet tall with fins protruding off the back end and sides. It was resting on what appeared to be landing gear but instead of wheels, it had retractable pontoons on the bottom that looked as if they would fit seamlessly into the hull when retracted.

  Justin said, “I have a better question. How did it get in here? It looks like a submarine, but it could also have been a spaceship.” Justin examined the exterior a few minutes but was unable to find a hatch or any means to enter the ship. Justin placed his hand on the hull and marveled at how warm it was. He moved to the nearest pile and searched for something to climb up on so he could examine the top of the craft, but was unable to locate anything of use.

  He considered dragging and stacking items to create a makeshift stairway, but an alarm went off, indicating the probe had finished its scan and Calia looked down at their portable monitor. “This looks good. Let me know when you want to head back. It is fascinating in here, but we do have a job to accomplish.”

  They poked around a while longer then decided it was time to meet up with the others. On the walk back, Justin broke the silence. “I want to come back and examine that ship more closely when we have time.”

  Calia smiled knowingly at him and said, “I would imagine that if you poked around in here long enough, that ship would be one of many things you would want to examine.”

  He looked around as they walked and muttered, “It could take someone a lifetime to sort through all of
this stuff. I just hope we don’t have to go digging through too much of it. It would be one thing to do it for fun or just to see what’s here, but it would be a serious chore to have to do it.”

  Calia chuckled. “I know I would not want that job. Here we are.”

  Justin looked up to find the wall they had entered through and called for the archway, and he said, “Ladies first.” He followed Calia and her probe back into the ship.

  Upon entering, Calia closed her eyes and said, “That is interesting.”

  Justin asked, “What is?”

  She opened her eyes and said, “We were in there for fifty-eight minutes, but no time has passed in here at all… You said the room was in a dead star, right?”

  “That’s what it said in the database, a Red Giant. Why?” he asked.

  “Because the star would have had to be out of phase in its natural state to still be phased out of time after it died. Or someone phased it out, which means there is a massive power source keeping it out of phase… Usually, when a star dies, it goes supernova. If this was a red giant like they stated, then it formed the cavern we were just in by encapsulating the core as the star collapsed in on itself. Or something or someone must have forced a stop of the nuclear fusion and removed minerals that were in there, leaving that cavern. Either way, it is just fascinating.”

  “I can look into it and see if I can dig up anything else in the database if you would like,” Justin offered.

  Calia smiled. “If you would, it will be interesting to see exactly what happened… Anyway, we have our data and it looks like the void storage will work perfectly. There is no radiation or other active elements to worry about. I was a little concerned with it being a dead star. Stars are usually radioactive by nature, but it either burned out or went cold many billions of years ago, or like I said, someone removed it. I think it is time to go inform the others that our plan is a go.”