The Cosmic Bullet: The Enigma Series, Part One

by Andrew C Broderick

  Drew’s stomach flipped. If this went bad, he’d go down in infamy as the first person swallowed by an alien spacecraft—a cosmic Jonah. He took a deep breath. He’d warped, begged, and cajoled his way this far. No turning back now.

  Drew took his helmet and latched it onto his suit.

  “Now, do I take the laser cutter, or don’t I?” he asked.

  “Take it,” Achilles said. “Never know what you might need it for.”

  “Agreed.”

  Drew grabbed the device, which vaguely resembled a machine gun but much fatter, and put it in the airlock along with a spherical device the size of a soccer ball.

  Drew felt his spacesuit expand and tauten as the air was leaked from the tiny space.

  “Sigma, I’m preparing to open the outer hatch into the Enigma.”

  “Copy you, Drew. Good luck.”

  He touched a green button and then an orange button next to the large circular hatch. It slowly swung open into pitch darkness.

  “Sending the probe in.”

  He pressed a button on the small sphere, and tossed it gently through the still-opening door. Drew could see dancing red dots reflected from a very dark surface inside, as the probe mapped its environment with laser beams. Drew’s monocle showed a hexagon-sized space roughly the size of a large walk-in closet. “You seeing this?”

  “Yup,” Achilles replied. “Seems to be just a chamber with flat walls, about six feet deep.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire structure was a honeycomb just under the skin, and this is one of thousands of identical cells.”

  “Okay, how about withdrawing now, Drew?” said Chris, audibly anxious.

  “Not yet. I’m going in to check it out, and see what’s beyond here.”

  Drew grabbed the lip of the hatch and pulled himself through into the empty space, dragging the laser cutter with him. It was just like being upside down, looking at a barnacle-encrusted bulkhead inside the wreck of an old freighter in Lake Michigan. He smiled at the thought of the contrast between his wreck diving days and the inside of something so vast and alien, billions of miles from home.

  Chris’ voice cut into his reverie. “How are you going to know what’s beyond it without cutting a hole in the wall?”

  “That’s why I’ve got the cutter with me.”

  “Oh, dear God in heaven, no! It’s too dangerous!”

  “It’ll be be fine. I’ll just bore a hole an inch across through to the next layer before cutting a larger one,” Drew answered as he drifted. “That way I can make sure there’s nothing dangerous beyond.” He aimed the laser cutter at the flat wall, opposite his entry point, darkened his helmet visor, and switched on the beam. The diamond-hard carbon glowed white hot under the intense, pulverizing ray. Drew focused on a single spot until the beam shone through into still more empty space.

  “I’m through. The probe’s detecting no gases apart from the vapor from cutting, so it looks like there’s a vacuum beyond.”

  “Cut a bigger hole and put the probe through,” Achilles said.

  “Roger that.”

  Drew took his time cutting a circular hole. But he didn’t stop at a one-foot diameter. His pulse raced as he cut away at something constructed light years away, by beings he couldn’t imagine, in a civilization he couldn’t even begin to guess about, tens of thousands of years ago.

  Finally, he closed the circuit. With a nudge, a roughly six-foot circle of Q-carbon detached from the ship and began drifting, turning slowly. Drew gave it another gentle shove and it disappeared from his headlight beam into black space beyond.

  “Commencing investigation of the next space,” Drew said. He pushed the probe inside.

  “Looks like a circular tunnel,” Achilles said. “’Bout twelve feet in diameter, and of undetermined length.”

  “Yup. I’m going to go take a look.”

  “Okay, I’m starting to get nervous now. You don’t want to pull back?”

  “The probe’s gone 100 feet in. It shows nothing, so I’ll let it keep going. If there’s anything to see, we’ll see it.”

  Drew pulled himself carefully through the opening. The only light was that shining in from the airlock, one chamber away, which was swallowed on contact by the jet black surface. Drew paused. Okay, I think I’ve gone far enough. Then the hairs on the back of his arms stood on end and a nameless whisper passed through his soul. For a second, Drew felt a connection with something beyond himself. His radio blacked out to static, the monocle in his helmet scrambled, and an alarm tone sounded ominously as the computer on his left wrist shut down and began rebooting.

  Definitely time to get out of here. Drew fought rising panic as he pulled himself back along the tether into the hexagonal chamber and then into the airlock. He mashed the ‘close’ button and the thick hatch swung slowly inwards. He yanked in the trailing tether just in time for it not to get caught.

  “You okay?” Chris asked.

  “Uh… yeah, I’m fine,” Drew answered, shaking.

  “Your comms died. What happened?”

  “Not sure. I think it was just an electrical problem in the suit. I’m back in the airlock now, heading home.” Drew wasn’t ready to say it to the others yet, but now he knew the Enigma was no longer just an inert lump.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Holy crap!” Storm said, looking out of the right-hand window. “It’s absolutely enormous.”

  “Yeah,” Desira squinted as she scanned the length of the Enigma.

  “USS Sigma, MSS Zephyr, five mile zone,” Jane said.

  “Acknowledged. Welcome to the Enigma,” Holly said tersely.

  “It’s hard to conceive of how far out we are,” Dmitry said. “Nothing for billions of miles. The chances of this thing passing close enough to a ROS station to be observed are infinitesimally small. Yet it happened.”

  “We gotta get to work as soon as possible,” Storm said. “Opinions on our MO?”

  “Cut ‘n’ grab,” Desira said.

  “That part’s pretty easy. Where are we going to put the titanium sheets? I’d love to just toss them into the cargo hold, but there’s no way that’d work.”

  “Put the three-meter basket on the left claw. Just have to cut it in two-and-a-half meter squares.”

  Storm did the calculations in his head. “Yeah, I guess that could work. I wanted to cut larger sheets, but that’s okay.” He turned to Jane. “Take us in to about 100 yards range.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m assuming this ship has external floodlights?” Dmitry said,

  “Uh, no, actually.”

  “Crap! It’s too dark to see what we’re doing well, otherwise.”

  “Might just have to work near the front, where there’s at least some illumination,” Desira said. “You put the claim in?”

  “Yep.” Storm smiled widely. “She’s legally ours.”

  As if he was reading Storm’s mind, Drew’s voice came from the comms. “So, you’re here to desecrate it?”

  “Yes I am,” Storm said, sing-song.

  “Why don’t you just go and start plundering Macchu Picchu or the Pyramids? It’s about the same.”

  “Heh. You always were one with the wit, Drew.”

  “Don’t dodge the issue.”

  “I’m not. Well, maybe I am, but I care less about this thing than I do about being able to take Anna home. I don’t suppose you’d care to know that her stepfather’s mistreating her? Verbal abuse, at least, from what I hear.”

  There was an awkward silence. Storm savored the jab.

  “No, I didn’t. But you’re still vandalizing a priceless treasure.”

  “We’re going to remove maybe one percent of the surface, if that. Unless…” Storm looked over at Dmitry, who shrugged and parted his hands.

  “Unless what?” said Dmitry.

  I’ll tell you later, Storm mouthed.

  “Come up with another plan?” Drew said, mocking.

  Storm touched the ‘mute’ button. �
��I thought of a way we can capture it in solar orbit so we can get to it without a warp ship.”

  “What?”

  “Hook tugs up to it and slow it down.”

  “What?” Desira said. “You’re serious?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where we gonna get the money for that?”

  “We’d have to form a new company and get venture funding,” Storm said.

  “Good luck. What would you call it, the Alien Spaceship Plundering Company?”

  “You know, I still think there might be far more valuable stuff inside,” Dmitry said, stroking his chin. “I want to bore into it.”

  “Hopefully the laser’ll cut into Q-carbon.”

  “Should. It’s jet black, it’ll absorb 100% of the heat.”

  “That’s some scary crap though, don’t you think?” Desira said. “You don’t know what’s in there.”

  “I think my brother might be able to help us out there,” Storm said, with a wry grin. “He’ll probably burrow into that sucker like a worm into an apple, if he hasn’t already. Then we’ll know if it’s safe.”

  ****

  “I want to stand off to forty miles range,” Drew said.

  Chris frowned. “How come?”

  “In case Storm and company wake a sleeping giant.”

  “Shall I?” Holly asked.

  “Yeah, go ahead. It makes sense.” He turned back to Drew. “You know, we’re going to have to tell them you went inside.”

  Drew thought of the sensation he had felt inside the Enigma. The best comparison he could think of was déjà vu times ten. But, even that momentary rippling of reality didn’t adequately cover it. There had been a presence to it. He’d almost heard his name. Drew had searched through the encyclopedic depths of his mind for any explanation that was physical, psychological, or even psychic. Could it have been a ghost? Brilliant though he was, Drew had never presumed to know everything, or have answers to the metaphysical realm, though he believed them real.

  He was back in the Pennsylvania countryside with Storm, when he was twelve and Storm was eleven. The family was staying in an old farmhouse. While Mom and Dad were gushing over the rustic charm of the house, they’d gone exploring. After heading through the disused farmyard and past the old-but-intact barn, they’d spotted a windmill in the distance. Without even saying anything, they knew it had to be explored. They’d trudged off over a large meadow and up a slight hill, all the way to the towering red and white structure. Its blades hadn’t turned in years. Inside, they found the rusted gears and axle which had once turned a two-ton round stone. The sun shone in through small windows high up in the tapering tower, illuminating dust motes in the air.

  “Check it out,” Storm had said.

  “What?”

  “Under there.” He pointed at some old rusty machinery. “There’s a trapdoor under there.”

  “Where?”

  “You can just see the outline in the dust.”

  Sure enough, there it was, a barely perceptible square on the wood floor.

  “I think we both know what this means.”

  They braced themselves against the wall, and pushed the decaying contraption of iron framework and gears and, with all the strength their young bodies could muster, moved it two feet.

  They looked down at their handiwork. “I’ll let you go first,” Drew had said.

  “Fine, wuss.” Storm scrabbled around in the dirt, but couldn’t get his fingers around the edge. After a few minutes, he’d found a stick, and levered the door open, revealing a dark, vertical shaft. Storm’s bravado had vanished as he leaned over and looked into the blackness. “I don’t like the looks of that.”

  “Still think I’m the wuss?” Drew had smirked.

  Storm shot Drew a glare, and without another word, took to the iron rungs protruding from the wooden side of the shaft and climbed down. Drew had watched, increasingly anxious, as his kid brother disappeared from sight.

  “Storm?”

  “I’m at the bottom. There’s, like, nothing here. Check it out.”

  “Okay.” Drew headed down, until he was standing beside Storm on dirt loosely covered in straw. The air was dry and smelled earthy.

  “What is this place?” Drew had asked.

  “I dunno, man.”

  “Can’t see much.”

  “There’s a passage back there.” Storm pointed. Sure enough, the murk turned into blackness, stretching away. “Now that’s a freakin’ dare right there. What’d ya think, bro?”

  Drew squinted into the blackness, trying to make out any details. “Umm… I’m not too sure about that.”

  “I’ll go if you will,” Storm said, his voice shaky.

  “Okay. Just like twenty feet or so.”

  They crept forward slowly.

  “Wish we had a flashlight,” Drew had said.

  “Yeah.” The blackness was almost total as the pair felt their way forward along the walls of sandy soil. The air grew thick and foul.

  Then Drew’s foot struck something. He stopped and reached down, hardly daring to breathe. His fingers touched something irregular, rough, and then… an eye socket!

  “Jesus Christ! Get out of here!” Drew yelped. Both boys dashed back to the ladder and bolted up, back into light and life, and pelted away from the windmill back across the meadow. Before they were all the way back, Storm stopped to catch his breath, so Drew did likewise. Both panting, they caught each other’s eyes, and burst out laughing.

  The scene dissolved in Drew’s mind, and he was once again looking at the white interior of the Sigma. The parallels between this, one of the only times he’d ever actually bonded with Storm as a brother, and the haunting Enigma before them, were overpowering.

  “I’m not going to go public about entering the Enigma yet,” he announced, with a wry smile. He would let his brother have the scare of a lifetime, should he choose to go inside.

  ****

  “I sure wish we had the Eris instead of this thing,” Storm said.

  “Too right,” Dmitry said. “We need our workhorse with the mods we’ve made, not a freighter with no external lights or laser cutters. But we’ll make it work.” He sat to Storm’s left in the poky cockpit of the crab. Both men watched the screen above the windows in front of them as a progress bar crept slowly along its two-meter width.

  “May the Lord make us ready for what we are about to receive,” Storm joked, to relieve the tension.

  “Yeah,” Desira said from the flight deck. She had a direct view back into the cargo bay, which was about half the size of a school gymnasium. The silver crab had been inserted lengthwise, and was still held in place by brackets.

  Dmitry grunted, watching the yellow bar move. “It’s been two years since this machine’s had a really good workout.”

  “The salvage of the James Lake,” Desira said, nodding.

  “How do you guys feel about what you do?” Jane said, as she faced the front of the flight deck. “I mean, it could be argued you profit from other people’s misfortune.”

  Desira shrugged. “It could also be argued that miners profit from asteroids. What’s your point?”

  “Well, you know…”

  “Go on, say it: We’re bottom feeders,” Desira snapped. “Picking up the pieces of other people’s crashed and abandoned ships. It’s dangerous work, cutting up a ship, harvesting reactor parts and so on. We’re recyclers. Did you ever think about that? We take what nobody else wants and reuse it. Yes, we make money off it, because it’s our business.”

  There was an awkward pause. “I guess the reason I’m asking is that Barlow’s HQ is getting uncomfortable being associated with what people on Earth are starting to call the ransacking of a treasure.”

  Desira shrugged. “Well, tough shit. They chose to lease to us.”

  “Preflights complete, go to launch the crab,” Storm said.

  “Roger that. I’ll release the brackets,” Desira said. After a couple of keystrokes on a midair touch display, t
he dark metal arms pinning the crab into place began to retract, leaving the machine floating freely.

  “Go to exit,” Desira said.

  “Roger that,” Dmitry said. He applied a touch of left thrust, and he and Storm watched the white inner walls of the cargo bay to make sure they didn’t get any closer. Twenty tense seconds later, the veil was lifted and they were looking at the vast curvature of the Enigma.

  “My God!” Storm said. “It’s one thing to see pictures of it, but when you get this close…”

  “Breathtaking,” Dmitry said. “Now, let’s get to ripping panels off it.”

  “Yeah, let’s just take a second to look at the aesthetics. Look at that perfect curvature of the nose. And… check that out”—he pointed—“there are a few dings here and there. It’s probably hit its fair share of debris on its long, fast flight. I expect the whole front section is a giant impact shield. But a shield for what? Somebody or something built this, Dmitry. It looks like a giant cruise ship. But, there’s something in there that we can only guess at.”

  Dmitry nodded. The matte silver surface reflected the crab’s floodlights as they approached.

  “Okay. Stop about twenty meters out,” Storm said. “I’m going to cut slightly above our position. I really don’t feel like being blinded by reflected laser beams. Do you?”

  “I do not. But shouldn’t we get a bit closer? I don’t want to have to chase down those panels once they float away.”

  “Good idea.”

  The crab edged closer, like a parasite on the nose of a whale. Storm adjusted the controls and inserted his arms up to his elbows into the manual sleeves for the crab's arms. As he flexed his forearms, the crab’s meaty claws moved in sync. He pinched his thumb and fingers together, and the heavy pincers on the claws followed suit.

  “Okay, here goes.”

  Storm flexed his right index finger. A square of fire appeared on the metal surface. A piece roughly half the size of a garage door gently floated free, shining as it reflected the glare of their lights back at the them. Storm extended the right claw and grabbed it, pushing it into a large metal basket attached to the left claw. Dmitry smiled and nodded approvingly as Storm repeated the process, exposing more of the black surface beneath.