by Tom Chattle
"Damnit," she muttered. She had hoped the energy reserves Moreau had detected would mean the vessel still had some lingering power.
"Here, stand back." Bauer had followed behind her, and she carefully guided two Marines along the ledge to the door. They removed tools from one of their packs and set to work levering the hatch free.
After some struggling, the hatch dropped open with a squeal and a hiss before it broke off and tumbled into the ravine below, almost like the Wilde Star itself objected to the intrusion.
Without waiting, Chen ducked into the hatch. Her eyes needed a moment to adjust to the dark. A smoky haze still filled the interior, all the electronics dead, their lights inactive.
She pulled a flashlight from a pouch on her utility jacket and clicked it on. A scan of the inside of the small ship revealed twisted bulkheads and loose objects scattered everywhere, but there was no sign of anyone.
Gunny Haynes entered the hatch behind her, letting out a low whistle. "I'm surprised this thing is as intact as it appears."
"Intact, maybe, but not stable," Bauer cautioned from the entry.
Moreau followed them in, referencing her scanner. "Still not reading any life signs, but that lingering energy reading is coming from the direction of the cockpit."
Chen got her bearings, then pointed forward and waited for Moreau's nod of confirmation. She edged her way around a fallen wing spar and hurried down the narrow hallway that joined to the cockpit area. Open doors on either side seemed to lead to private rooms; all looked chaotic and bereft of human life. She pulled her way up the cockpit ladder and stopped abruptly, her heart dropping.
Two seats sat in tandem in front of the smashed canopy screen. A limp body hung in the restraints of each. Instinctively, she reached forward to check for a pulse on either, but she knew it was no use. They were stone cold and stiff; no doubt they died on impact with the planet's surface.
Chen had done a lot of things in her relatively short life, but she had never been this close to dead bodies. Even the couple of flight training accidents that had happened at the Academy had been observed and mourned from a distance, not up and close, cramped in the small cockpit with them. She resisted the urge to retreat down the ladder and scanned the cockpit for the energy reading Moreau had been adamant about. The cockpit was dark—there was no sign of any power readings coming from the consoles.
Chen was about to give up when she spied a faint glow half hidden by the leg of one of the pilots. She took a deep breath, reached for it, and retrieved a still functional commpad from the man's pocket. She let the air in her lungs out in a rush, fled down the ladder, turned her back to it, and closed her eyes.
"Auri, are you okay?"
She opened them to see Bauer in front of her, concern on her faintly illuminated face. "Yes, I think so." With a jerk of the head, she motioned up to the cockpit behind her. "The pilots didn't make it. One of them had this." She held out the pad with a shaking hand and almost dropped it.
Bauer reached out, clasped her hand with an armored glove, and took the pad from her loose grasp with the other. "Auri, it's okay." She glanced up at the cockpit entry then put the other arm around Chen's shoulder. "Come on, let's get back to the others and see if there's anything useful on this thing."
Chen nodded dumbly and allowed herself to be guided along by the taller woman. "Doesn't it bother you what happened to them?"
"Their deaths? Of course, it does." Bauer sighed. "Look, I haven't been in combat before, but when accidents happen on the ground, they're up close and personal."
Anger and embarrassment crept through Chen the closer they got to the main area of the ship. "It shouldn't have affected me that much." She jerked her arm from Bauer's grip.
Bauer stopped and turned to her, an eyebrow raised. "Auri, you just saw two dead people—which I'm guessing you've never seen before—up close on an alien planet. It would be a problem if it didn't affect you." A smile tugged at her lips. "Now stop being a prideful moron and pull yourself together."
The playful insult snapped Chen out of her bad mood, something that usually took a wild night of alcohol, mistakes, and regret. She shook her head and smacked Bauer on the arm, the solid surface an immediate cause for regret. "Ow." She flexed her hand ruefully.
Bauer smirked. "Impact-reactive amour. You shouldn't have hit so hard." She chuckled, then turned back and entered the room where Moreau, Haynes, and a pair of Marines were gathered. She held up the pad before her. "Lieutenant Chen found this in the cockpit."
Moreau scurried over to retrieve the pad, activated the screen, and scrolled through the menus. "It appears to be optimized for holo-editing." A few more moments passed while she examined the data. "It seems like it has a lot of raw holo-shots for whatever Ms. Wilde was filming." She looked up, confused. "Why would the pilot have this?"
"Running a small crew like this?" Chen mused, "They probably had people doing multiple jobs. It's quite possible the pilot was her editor as well."
"Makes sense," Bauer agreed. "Are there any recordings that might point to why they were here in the first place?"
"Give me a moment..." Moreau spent some time searching the pad then righted an upended crate and set the device on it. She leaned over, tapped the screen, and stepped back.
A small glowing figure about a foot high filled the space above it, flickering as she adjusted her near-perfect hair. "Okay, intro from the top, Kit?" The tiny figure of Katrina Wilde cleared her throat, auburn eyebrows knitting over her flawless face. "For this episode of Wilde at Heart, we've brought the Wilde Star out to the edges of the explored galaxy. The reason? To investigate clues we found in ancient texts excavated from a site in Iraq, the historical location of the ancient city of Babylon. In those texts, researchers discovered evidence that the ancient Babylonians had contact with a mystical race of powerful beings from the stars. One star in particular." Wilde's image stepped to one side, revealing a distant star behind them. "This is Arcturus, guardian of the bear. Our investigation will begin from afar, scanning the system for any leads on our journey to discover more about this supposed ancient race." The figure looked up and drew a hand across her throat before the image cut out.
"Well," Chen broke the silence, "normally, I'd ridicule her dubious information, but we did get attacked by the remnants of an alien defense system."
"Yeah, kind of changes your perspective, doesn't it?" Bauer snorted. "Is there anything else?"
Chen felt like she'd heard reports in the news a few years back about something similar. She hadn't possessed more than a passing interest and had gotten the impression it hadn't been taken very seriously by the scientific community.
Moreau picked the device back up. "There was one more dated a day later, just a few hours before the scheduled check-in they missed." She tapped away, set the pad down again, and adjusted the angle.
Katrina Wilde's image once again sprang to life before them. "This is just amazing, truly unheard of in human history. Not only did we find a planet that should not have been where it is, now we are closing on what appears to be a satellite of non-human origin. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen, we're looking at an alien satellite." The image zoomed in on the same structure that had attacked the Valiant.
"I can see where this is going," Bauer murmured to Chen.
Wilde chattered on about the discovery in increasingly flowery terms when a jumbled voice spoke from off-image. Wilde snapped around and peered at the satellite through the window. Chen watched it deploy in the background of the image, energy crackling across it. "Kit, please tell me you're getting this?" An affirmation was called out, and the image zoomed in further. Moments later, the satellite blossomed with light and the image shook, turning to black. A scream and some yells jumbled together before the recording cut out.
"It doesn't help us much, but at least it's confirmation of what we suspect happened to this ship," Chen stated. Scanning the murky ship, she fiddled with the edges of her mask, which was starting to i
tch. "There are no traces of other crew, right?"
Bauer shook her head. "Apart from the two you found, there's not a trace of anyone. How many people were on board again?".
Chen thought back to the crew manifest she'd read earlier. "Five total, including Wilde herself."
"So, we're still missing three." Bauer frowned, kicking the cold remains of a portable heat-lamp, empty food wrapper strewn around it. "From the looks of it, they probably camped out in the wreck for a while."
"Hey, LT?" one of the Marines called from the back of the space.
Bauer turned to face the man. "What is it, Kaufman?"
The Marine gestured to a small door set into the bulkhead. "All of the emergency ration packs are gone. Somebody cleaned these cabinets out."
"That's not an accident." Chen shook her head. "They should have been carrying enough to last for months. They must have decided to gear up and leave sometime after the crash."
Moreau's brow furrowed. "Where would they go to?"
Bauer let out a quiet groan. "I think I can guess where. If they'd been stuck here for weeks, were running low on power, and they'd seen the same things we did on the way in, they may have decided to risk moving to find somewhere more sheltered."
Chen picked up the pad and pocketed it. "Well, we better get back out there and find them, then."
Nodding, Haynes gestured the squad toward the hatch. The Marines began to make their exit when the metal hull below them rumbled ominously. Everyone froze, unwilling to make any moves that might upset the precariously balanced ship. With a tortured, metallic squeal, the entire deck shifted, throwing Chen to the floor.
"Everyone out, now!" Bauer yelled, grabbing hold of the bulkhead as the entire wreck twisted. Haynes and the two Marines made it out first, followed swiftly by Moreau.
Chen scrambled up from the twisted deck plating and ran for the hatch. She saw Bauer turn at the exit, hesitant to leave without her. Chen waved her arms. "Go, I'm right behind you!"
With a curt nod, Bauer ducked out into the light, just before the ship shifted on the cliff face and skidded violently in a landslide of loose debris. Chen sprinted across the alarmingly angled deck and launched herself through the hatch the same moment the ship lurched and the cliff edge crumbled away from beneath her. She latched onto a jutting spire of rock and clung on for her life. The remains of the Wilde Star tumbled into the canyon, shedding parts while it rolled down to the bottom of the gorge. It crashed to the jagged rocks below, and a remaining fuel cell must have ruptured, because the intense heat of a deafening explosion rolled up across Chen, prickling her back with fiery warmth.
"Auri!" Bauer's face appeared at the edge of the rock, and an armored hand reached out.
Chen fought against the forceful pull of gravity and tried to pull herself up, but her cold fingers slipped on the sharp rock. She threw all her energy into one movement and grasped Bauer's outstretched wrist, just as the grip from her other hand failed.
Bauer clutched Chen's arm tightly and hauled her up, seemingly with no effort due to the suit's powerful servos.
Chen sprawled unceremoniously on the loose gravel and rubbed her wrist. "Ow."
"I'm sorry." Bauer stared down at her. "I felt a bruised wrist was better than fishing you from the bottom of the canyon."
Chen closed her eyes. "I can live with that." She took a deep breath. "I'm just going to sit here for a minute, if that's okay with everyone else."
"You're in charge." Bauer smirked. "Take all the time you need."
- 15 -
2208.02.19 // 19:45
Wilde Star wreck, Arcturus b
"The entire ship is gone?" McCann's voice came in distorted over the comm, the turbulent atmosphere playing havoc with the transmission.
"Unfortunately," Chen replied. "The entire wreck was unstable, barely hanging onto the cliff. We pulled some interesting data from a pad about why they were here, but any other info went down with it."
"So, what's the plan?" he asked.
"There was no trace of the three survivors. All we know is they left the wreck at some point after the crash. We hunt around for anything else, I guess. Any trace of where they went," Chen replied. "It would have been nice if they left a note or something." After a moment's pause, she changed the subject. "How are the repairs going? Any luck with the long-range comms?"
McCann paused before answering. "Cartwright isn't having much luck. Says it's junk."
"But with a lot more swearing, I imagine." Chen sighed. "Oh well, keep trying. We're going to see what we can find down here."
"Copy that," McCann replied. "Don't be a stranger."
Chen signed off and hooked the commpad back to her belt. As excited as she was about exploring, she'd feel a lot more comfortable if they had a link back to Fleet Command. "Guess we push on?"
Bauer nodded and called over a Marine. "Makati, have you found anything?" While waiting, the Marines had been scouting the immediate area more thoroughly.
"Not a lot here, LT." He shook his head. "But Donovan did find several sets of tracks heading away from the crash site. Didn't see 'em before, too much rock. From the dragging footprints, more than one of them was beat up pretty bad."
"Copy that." Bauer turned to Haynes. "All right, Gunny, let's move out and find these people."
Haynes threw her a casual salute and began the job of redeploying the Marines with his usual coarse language.
It seemed obvious from the direction of the tracks that the survivors had seen similar images to those the Valiant's crew had from orbit and decided their best hope was to head to the cluster of structures that must have been a city of some sort. It was anyone's guess how far they'd made it, though.
Chen grimaced. "Moreau, if you focus the scanner in the direction of the tracks, are you able to pick anything up at all?"
The ensign unhooked the scanner from her belt, tuned the settings, and pointed it in the right direction. After several seconds moving it back and forth, she sighed. "No, ma'am. All I'm picking up is that weird sensor void we were seeing back on the ship."
Chen nodded. It made sense; whatever was blocking their scans from orbit was powerful.
"Enough talking," Bauer cut in. "Our best bet of finding survivors is to locate them as quickly as possible." With that, she took off and fell in step with Haynes and the other Marines who pushed forward into the mists.
"Guess we better follow." Chen chuckled, leading Moreau after them.
After another forty minutes of their miserable trek through the rocks, Chen was starting to shiver. Even though they'd been keeping up a brisk pace and her muscles burned from the effort, the biting wind cut through her clothing like it wasn't there. The rocky crags had only gotten bigger the closer they got to the sensor void; their peaks now invisible in the dark mist above.
Chen debated asking Bauer for a short break—the high gravity of the world made even a simple trek a lot more taxing—but she didn't want to appear like a weak spacer in front of all these Marines.
"Shit!" A loud curse came from one of the lead scouts.
"What is it?" Bauer called. When there was no immediate response, she rushed forward.
Chen hurried to keep up with her; the high-gravity exertion burned at her lungs.
They didn't have to wait long to find out. They reached the Marines on point, and a vast energy barrier appeared out of nowhere, materializing through the dense fog and completely blocking their path. It shimmered a pearlescent silver, and vibrations rippled across its surface like liquid. It was completely unlike anything humanity had ever made.
"That would explain the sensor void," Moreau whispered from behind, her eyes wide as she took in the sight. She stared at the rough slabs that seemed to form up against it—thrusting from the surface in concentric rings. "It might explain what caused the terrain to change as well. Maybe the vibrations it's giving off are affecting the ground."
"Can we get through it?" Chen wondered. It looked impenetrable, and she wasn't eager to
test that theory.
Bauer kicked her boot around in the loose rock. "Well, all the footprints stop here. Given the amount of them clustered about, it seems like they took a while to figure out their next move." She turned, scanning the surrounding terrain. "There aren't any more tracks, so I guess they decided to go through." She glanced at Chen. "Who's volunteering?"
Chen searched around the ground for a moment and located what she was looking for. She crouched, picked up a fist-sized rock, and tossed it up and down to feel its weight. Before Bauer could object, Chen hurled the rock toward the energy shield and winced in expectation of some kind of violent impact. Instead, the rock sailed straight through the barrier, which formed back up behind it like it was made of thick, gelatinous custard.
Bauer's head snapped to glare at Chen, her jaw grinding. "Can we please get a heads-up next time you do that? What if it hadn't gone through?"
Chen held up her hands in apology. "I had a feeling it would be fine."
"That's great and all, but just because a rock passed through it doesn't mean it's safe for humans." Bauer shook her head.
"If I may?" Moreau spoke up, then waited until Chen and Bauer acknowledged her. She took a deep breath and held up her scanner pack. "If we can pass this through the barrier, I can set it to record while it's going through and see what is on the other side."
Chen smiled. "Good idea, Ensign."
The young woman flushed, averting her eyes.
Bauer turned to address Haynes. "Gunny, we have anything we can mount this thing on? I'd prefer not to just sling it through."
The man nodded. "Strahovski, unpack your tent and get me the central pole." He waited a minute for the Marine to remove her pack. "We don't have all day, Strahovski!"
The Marine hurriedly finished unpacking her tent and handed the requested item to Haynes.