Zero Sphere: A Space Opera Thriller

by Jedaiah Ramnarine

  ‘Goodbye Colin.’ Those are the last words the man hears before abruptly being whisked away to a nether region. The jump stumbles the remnants in such a way that allows Colin to quickly escapes their clutches and flee to another part of their ship. Armed with a cloaking field, Colin wasn’t exactly the easiest prey to track. The first jump sent the ship on an intruder alert. All the alien members were searching for the infiltrator and it would only be a short time before they found him. Colin’s cloaking field was useful but limited, he had to keep moving every chance he could take. The structural integrity of the ship began collapsing due to the unexpected jump. They were nearing the outskirts of a black hole. The gravitational pull stressed the already-damaged ship more than the aliens expected.

  Colin was smart. He picked up on the vulnerability of the aliens and their vessel so he decided to do something, a bit, shall we say – adventurous? At this point, Colin wasn’t very concerned for his life, despite the human’s natural instinct for self-preservation. There weren’t any escape vessels. At least none he could detected using the finite set of tools he had left. He spent a few minutes deciphering the jump sequence LARS left behind and once he figured out approximately 71% of the equation, he settled on the idea that it’d be enough for another jump.

  Sneaking back to the control room, Colin knew he only had one chance to perform another jump and hopefully, this jump would eradicate his enemies. He thought of ways to escape but that did not ever come as priority. Completion of the mission came first and there was no doubt of the man’s adamant nature. At last, he managed to sneak back to the controls and set the destination for another jump with minimal changes. Little would he know, ‘minimal’ changes in spacetimelessness can mean the biggest shifts in one’s planned destination.

  And right as Colin was about to activate the jump, he notices something strange outside the ship’s windows. At first, he thinks it’s some kind of space creature but upon further examination, it’s simply another ship getting closer and closer, and then behind the coming ship – he sees more of them. It’s like they were spawning in the middle of the blackness, coming after them yet Colin’s gut feeling warned him that those ships out there weren’t enemies to the ship he was on. They were allies. So Colin did the best he could – he activated the final jump and an instant, a great collision into fire and into a grand explosion clogged all his senses into blackness and just like that, the memory was consciously lost.

  I opened my eyes to see Colin locked in a meditational posture, struggling to keep his composure through the dark recollection. He was so fixated in the memory that I had to deter him away immediately.

  ‘Colin, open your eyes and look at me.’

  At first he didn’t respond, though I knew fully well he’d heard my voice in his mind

  “Colin.” I said aloud, “Open your eyes and look at me!”

  That would do it. He followed my instruction slowly. His eyes weren’t the same as it was an hour ago when they were all lit and beaming with a newfound sense of joy, wonder and adventure. They were now filled with dread, hurt and anger yet determination and fuel

  “How are you feeling?” I asked

  “Not bad, only a little shaken up.”

  “Breathe slowly. We will do no more today.”

  I got out of my chair and walked over to him, kneeling down to level the height though I’d end up being the one to look up at him with dreamy eyes spelling comfort and love – “You know you don’t have to do this. I can return you to your home anytime you wish.”

  Colin was still wrapping his head around what he just experienced, “No.”

  His eyes squared mine in such a manner that it directly told me ‘I am not leaving you.’

  “I need to tell you something.”

  “What is it?” I spoke softly, knowing he needed comfort and not scolding at this point.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t pick up on it. I guess I’ll tell you now. Astraea, I knew what I was getting into the moment I got on that ancient ship. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to my family, to my son, my father and my mother. I knew it since then and now I want you to listen to me. Since the day I met you, I could not keep my eyes off you. It’s not a matter of your beauty, because without a doubt you are exceptionally gorgeous…”

  I felt a slight sting of embarrassment over the compliment. It made me unintentionally smile. Not to worry, I quickly fixed that and went back into a neutral gaze

  “There’s something about you that I could not deny back then and I still cannot deny it now. I’m not sure how to say it… but… I came here for you Astraea. I launched those coordinates to whatever end of space hoping somehow that I’d find you again.”

  The strings on my heart began plucking itself wildly, dropping me beneath the floor. I could not respond, even if I wanted to. I stood there frozen by what he was telling but beyond that, frozen from the amount of love emitting from this man for me

  “Colin…” I struggled to put together a sentence until a beeping interrupted our juncture.

  It was a call from Logikos

  “Astraea, we’re arriving at the boundary zone. You may want to come take a look at the warp options.” Logikos voice came through my suit – a form of technology we use, implanting sound devices in our suits and answering the ‘calls’ with our minds

  “On my way.” I got up and looked back at Colin. I could not smile, only maintain a serious look that we had unresolved business. I’d found exactly what I needed in his memory and now I discovered more than what I bargained for, “Let’s go, we’ll have to finish this another time.”

  Once we arrived at the command deck, Logikos had already brought up a square holographic screen in his section. I went over to him, my eyes glued to the data on the screen

  “These are singularities the SEEK team discovered?” I discerned upon deciphering the information in front of me

  “That is of correctness. LARS and I have been collaborating in tracking these distinct signatures. They may be related to the ship Colin crashed in.”

  “Would we able to track these signatures back to the region they originate from?”

  “Possibly. Difficult to say now. There are still variables LARS is sorting through. Are you ready for the hyper jump, captain?”

  “Wait, there’s something else. Through investigating Colin’s mind telepathically, I was able to discover that there are more of those ships out there.”

  “The remnants?”

  “Certainly.”

  “How would you want to proceed?”

  I looked up to the roof of the ship, “LARS, set detection mode to level 5. Take us to the black site.”

  “I’m on it.” LARS quickly responded.

  This is my favorite part of spacetime travelling – the shifts. We all stood by, silently waving goodbye to our solar system. A sense of masslessness creeps up my spine, the space around us starts bending and in an instant, I feel myself connected to the energy of all things.

  That one fragment in time makes all of this worth it. That light feeling I’d get anytime I moved into another dimension – our ship, our crew, and everything for less than a fraction of a second turns into pure energy as we nullify spacetime, utilizing the hyperdrive technology. Passing through the finematter energy realm fills you with a sensation of the interconnectedness that runs through all life, all matter and even non-existence. It brings a smile to my face every time.

  “We’re here.” Branson duly noted.

  The black site could hardly be considered ‘black’. It was located in a region in spacetime which featured a colorful background of the Milky Way galaxy – its arms spiraling out in wonder, filled with stars, gas and dust; some of which could not be seen by the naked eye.

  “System functions are stable.” Michael noted

  “I am tracking the anomalies. There are currently no active threats available.” LARS added

  “Very well, take us to the SEEK’s graveyard.” I instructed.

&nbs
p; The whole crew sat at the edge of their seats, waiting and dreading for whatever may come. We didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, although LARS was busy scanning the greater distance. No debris of the crash could be seen. All of the remaining wreckage was recovered from our forces. Our next step in the mission was flyby the black site for a final checkup. With everything at ease, at least from the way it seemed, I decided to pass the order to take us into the central warp point in the galaxy – a region of space closer to Sirius. We could not just jump into Sirius. We had to go in such a way that was not bold, but careful and very cautious.

  “I’m picking up something.” Specialist Lea relayed her findings as she hastily typed on her holocomputer terminal – “Magnetic pulls, possibly the singularity we were reading earlier?”

  “The singularities were closed…” Michael spoke under his breath suspiciously.

  Closed indeed. What was she gathering?

  I looked around to see if my limited human vision could see anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. Not a single thing that would alert me, besides the hairs on the back of my head standing up one by one. Colin sensed the disturbance in me. I knew because I could see the uneasy feeling in him.

  “Astraea, I think…” Colin tried to say something to me but I was already marching to Lea’s terminal. I remember looking right at her, she staring back at me, asking with simple facial twitches, ‘what now?’

  “Set…” Soon as I could utter as much as a vocal click, I felt the ground beneath me move, the air tighten up, the ship come to a complete halt and nothing but red light; the light of the final defensive security blinding any other intention I had of investigating the area.

  Stupendously big, dark, elongated ships poured out of the blackness of the sky. One by one, but quickly and surely, I saw what at first looked like about five of them. Then seven, and twelve and the number kept rising as LARS alerted us in the background – “Security measures engaged. Switching to combat mode.”

  Our ship became encased in an energy field that acted like a shield. Tension rang across the air like a silent bell. The crew knew they had to expect the unexpected and as frustrated as they were, they were ready for it. Andrew rushed to the ship’s weapon systems to give LARS the backup it needed, though LARS was fully capable of operating the ship’s weaponry on its own. It was right in this moment I realized what kind of a human I am. The council didn’t only pick me because of my connection to the mission, they picked me because they knew they could depend on me when the storm comes. There has to be those people capable of withstanding the hurricane. And I have no choice but to be one of them.

  “LARS get us out of here.” I shouted with a firm voice, letting my crew know that we will not falter to panic. We will not stop here. We must survive. Outside our ship, the Remnant vessels were in no mood for talking. They opened fire, sending hailstorms of red, energy lasers our way – each blast capable of destroying an entire continent on a planet but thankfully, due to the upgrades of the Martians from the last encounter, we would not be prey. Each shot they took at us, LARS activated an energy field which acted like an absorbing conduit; capturing the energy of the shots used against us, then boiling it to a point which would quickly explode and return the energy back at the attacker.

  Andrew was busy on the ship’s weapon systems, supplying LARS with help by using a manual turret that shot straight lines of energy which moved faster than the speed of light. Each shot connected to the enemy vessels, penetrating them from the entry point to the other side and exposing the broken parts to the vacuum of space. The rest of the crew also got to the manual weapons while Colin crunched his fists looking for something to do. Anything at all. So he ran to the opposite part of the room from me, called on LARS, who by the way, was able to do practically a seemingly endless amount of operations at once. Colin called on LARS to speedily track the regions of space where the ships came from. It was a smart move to do so, although the timing could be considered inconvenient.

  Our LARS-0 was able to hold its ground, despite being a far smaller ship, it was also more advanced than the barbaric warcrafts we were fighting. Despite our small advantage, that aspect would soon begin to wane. They had repair units ready at their disposable, but the more disturbing part was more and more of these remnants kept coming. I had already gave the order to LARS to get us out of the region but LARS was also busy trying to make sure we were in one piece. Logikos discovered a pathway we could fly to and use the area to warp a great distance in space. It was a long shot.

  “Let’s go.” I passed the order, checking over Logikos findings – “LARS follow Logikos’ tracks to region BS-14, warp us to COI-75 there.”

  “I’m on it.” LARS responded.

  LARS boosted us to the speed of light in Logikos’ direction, already ready to make the jump. The remnants stayed close on our trail, still firing at any given opportunity. Our ship had not received much damage in the initial attack. For the most part, we didn’t do a bad job so far but that would soon change.

  On route to the warp zone, a shot passed through our energy shield, scratching the ship barely. Then it got worse, we couldn’t stop as we were nearing the warp zone and Branson got a hold of something I’d consider, naturally sinister in the wrong moments.

  A black hole was waiting around the corner.

  Its invisible forces more than making its presence visible with all the swirling gas doing no justice to cover the shadow star, along with its magnetic pull distorting our regular light speed drives. We wouldn’t be able to boost to the pinpointed zone. I realized we’d have no choice. We’d have to do a premature hyperspace jump. The dangers of uncoordinated hyperspace travel ranged from the greatest wonders in the universe to its most fearsome dangers. If one were to think of the problem we face right now as the gravest evil, who knows what would be around the corner when we make that jump?

  “We have to jump now.” I said sternly yet quietly

  “Astraea! If we don’t get to the warp zone we have no idea where we’ll end up!” Michael protested

  “We don’t have time to make it to the warp zone! LARS activate the hyperdrives now. Warp us out of here!”

  “But..”

  “Do it!!”

  A sensation of light crept into the deepest fibers of my body, my sight went blank and the feeling of anger, chaos and survival quickly and momentarily shifted to feelings of bliss, wonder and awe of the universe as we were transmuted into pure energy and spat out into a distant shore in the cosmos.

  At least, that would be the creative way of describing the fact that the very second our eyes came back to reconstructing the grand view of physical reality, we were mere moments away from crashing directly into a mountain.

  “LARS! Pull us up!” I shouted.

  Members of the crew had already braced for impact but I was not about to let that happen. LARS was already on duty to save us without as much as word to be uttered. We barely missed the first ledge, but by the time we sailed across the ledge, we were headed downward toward another lower hill. The power was out. LARS was running the entire system on backup. Branson grabbed a hold of the controls, manually aiming up to assist LARS. The ship’s artificial gravitational field became temporarily disabled and we finally got a taste of the ruckus all around. I was flung into the air, snipped my leg on the ceiling and then I felt a strong arm gripping me from falling any further – Colin. I could not see the other crew directly, only hear the screams and undoubtedly, feel the stress in the air.

  “Come on LARS…” Colin grunted as he held onto me.

  The freefall wouldn’t last forever. If we kept falling at this rate, based on the gravity of the planet, we’d be squished and blown to pieces.

  I knew this, as did everyone else but all we could do was hold on for dear life. Flashes ran through my mind like I was watching a collection of movies, each of them replaying some of the moments in my life I never thought could be so important and in that hazy mist of recollection, I could not de
ny my desire, or my will, more than ever wanted to survive. Needed to survive. I didn’t want to die out here.

  I can’t.

  I won’t.

  No way, not today. LARS, you listen to me. I know you can hear me. You’re been programmed to operate in telepathy. I want to tell you something and I want you to make sure you understand every word I’m saying to you – None of us die today. Get us out of here.

  At the brink of the chaos, and the verge of our seemingly undeniable end, the ship suddenly jerked forward and stopped midair, only feet away from the ground outside. Total silence. No one whispered a word, but from the look on their faces and the intensity clogging my breathing, make no mistake – each and every single one of my crew members were screaming to the top of their lungs. The gravitational fields were restored and through that, I was able to pick myself back up and on my feet to take a look outside.

  “LARS?” I called, being the only person – man or machine, to say anything

  “I am here. We are safe, however the ship is need of repairs.”

  I kept looking outside. I needed to see where we ended up. The dangers of hyperspace, you plot it wrong, you might as well be gone.

  “Where are we?” I asked

  “No longer in the Milky Way…” Branson coldly stated, looking over his terminal as it was back in use – “We’re in the Cognas Galaxy.”

  I listened to his words well as I connected the familiar sights outside. A blue sky, mountain and hilltops with clouds that should, by all means, resemble a world suitable for the goldilocks zone

  “How long on the repairs?” I turned for Michael, even though he was not already seated at a terminal

  “Repairs should take roughly an hour. Most of the systems are down; the energy fields and other defensive arsenal. The data has been uploaded for revision.” LARS spoke for the ship’s tech expert