The Cosmic Bullet: The Enigma Series, Part One

by Andrew C Broderick

  “What if it doesn’t work?” Desira said.

  “Then I guess we won’t see the inside after all,” Storm said.

  “I doubt NASA has a more powerful laser, at least on the Sigma,” Dmitry said. “So, if we don’t get in, neither do they.”

  “True,” Storm smiled.

  “Look! We did it!” Desira whooped as a circle of the jet-black, heavy Q-carbon drifted slowly, free of the rest of the hull.

  “Sweet!” Storm said. He grabbed the piece with the claw and tossed it aside.

  “See anything inside?” Dmitry said.

  “Not a damn thing,” Storm said. “But it’s hollow. Can’t tell how deep though.”

  “Shine the light on it again,” Desira said. “Make a grid pattern.”

  Storm made the necessary adjustments and projected the laser into the hole. “There’s a flat surface a little ways back. It’s at an angle to the hole we made, but aligned with the axis of the ship.”

  “So we’re calling it a ship now?”

  “Heh. I guess we are. No point in denying what it is.” Storm paused for a long moment. “I really want to see what’s further inside.”

  “So burn through that wall and see what’s there.”

  ****

  Lockers, fire control panel, structure and communication center, lockers, fire control panel, structure and communication center. Drew watched them pass by again and again, as he spun slowly in place in a circular, constricted area of the ship between the main work area and the cockpit. He still hadn’t told anybody about the strange encounter inside the Enigma. Maybe he’d just imagined it? Was the suit malfunction a fluke?

  “When are you going to send the report about exploring inside it?” Holly asked.

  “I’m still waiting for a … suitable time,” Drew said.

  “You were so incredibly anxious to get in there, and now you’ve done it you don’t want to tell the rest of the solar system about it? I’m sensing this has something to do with your brother.”

  “Yeah, I guess it does.”

  “Why do you hate him so much?”

  “I don’t hate him. There’s just a very strong dislike there. Not to mention that I’m pissed beyond belief that they’ve caught the Enigma like a fish, and now it’ll be impossible to study it without somehow keeping pace with its changing velocity.”

  Holly nodded. She, too, was rotating slowly ten feet away in the cockpit, spinning in the opposite direction to Drew, her knees tucked up to her chest. “You know, if you don’t send that report soon he may well beat you to it. It wouldn’t matter that you were the first one inside. People will remember who reports it first.”

  The weird experience inside the Enigma was real, Drew thought. I’m not making it up. Storm’ll encounter it too. But I still don’t want to be beaten to the punch.

  “I guess you’re right,” he said. “I should just send it.” He floated over to the cockpit where he opened a midair display that showed all the files cued up to send back to Earth. He dragged the video containing his report, with only a short clip of video since he didn’t yet want anyone to know his suit had malfunctioned, and dragged it to the outbox. It promptly disappeared. “There. Now people on Earth will know in a little over seven hours.”

  “So, our brief is just to stay here and watch the Enigma?” Holly asked.

  “Yep. Monitoring it on all frequencies, seeing if there are any fluctuations in temperature or other variables.”

  “Do you want to explore inside it more?”

  “Heck yes! There have to be secrets in there beyond imagining.”

  “They haven’t started decelerating it yet, so what’s stopping you?”

  “I, uh, want to track others’ activities around it.”

  “Well, the time window you’ve got is closing. I’ll bet they hook up the tugs soon.”

  Drew ground his teeth. “Damn that whole situation. Damn it to hell.”

  Holly sighed in sympathy.

  “There’ll be precious little we can do,” Drew continued. “About the only way we can study it, at least until it’s in orbit around the Sun, is to attach instruments to it, and even that’ll require negotiations with… them.”

  “Suit check,” a Russian voice said over the comms.

  “Everything’s greenlit,” came Storm’s voice in reply.

  A smile crept across Drew’s face. “Sounds like Storm’s preparing to go EVA. I wonder…”

  “Is something interesting happening finally?” Achilles said as he floated to the front from the crew accommodation area.

  “Seems Storm’s going EVA,” Drew said.

  Achilles raised his eyebrows. “So what does that mean?”

  “Either something related to their operations, or he’s going inside the Enigma.”

  “Oh…”

  “Airlock depressurized,” the Russian voice said. “You are go to exit.”

  “Roger that, opening the outer door,” Storm said.

  “Holly, I’d like to move the ship back to a couple of kilometers from the Enigma, on the same side as them. I want to see what they’re up to.”

  “I’ll have to wake Chris up to ask him…”

  Holly completed the formalities, and the Sigma accelerated gently towards the Enigma.

  “Clear of the crab,” Storm said. “Heading to the hole now.”

  “Yesss!” Drew punched the air. “They’re going in.”

  ****

  The dark circle looked to Storm like a giant worm had burrowed into the vast wall that took up his entire vision. “I never appreciated the size of this thing until I was swimming towards it like a little tadpole.”

  “I can imagine,” Dmitry said. “How’s the edge of the outer hole looking? Anything that’ll snag your suit?”

  “Negative; it burned out cleanly. It must have been a heavy piece of Q-carbon, four inches thick and six feet across.”

  “Yup. So what can you see in there?”

  “Not much that we couldn’t see from the crab. The outer hull goes in towards the inner wall at a slight angle, probably due to our being at the forward section of the ship where it tapers. The connecting surfaces appear to form a hexagon, about twelve feet across. I’m looking at it from the inside now. Not sure what kind of race could have built such a huge object out of Q-carbon with such precision. Every joint and surface seems completely straight.”

  “Are there any features inside?”

  “None at all. I’m going to go through the next wall. The hole in that’s clean, too. Not sure where the cutout piece went; must be inside somewhere.

  “So, my head’s through into the next space. I’m looking around, but can’t see anything. No structure at all.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yup.”

  “D’you suppose the entire Enigma is hollow past that point?”

  “Umm… I don’t know. It would be truly gigantic empty space if it was. I’m kinda scared to go in any further. It’s the belly of the beast.”

  “It’s totally up to you. If you’re worried, come back out.”

  “Okay. My entire body’s inside now. My eyes are adjusting to the dark. Okay, I can see the far side, and it’s only about six feet away. It’s curved. It’s… holy crap! It’s a long tube, about twelve feet wide. No clue how long.”

  “Interesting. Any features on the inside?”

  “Nope. The wall just curves around and over me. I’m in the center now. Okay, I’ve seen enough. I can say I explored it. I’m coming back out.”

  “Roger that.”

  Storm sighed deep a minute later, as he darkened his helmet visor against the glare of the crab’s floodlights. “It was amazing, but I’m glad to be outside again.”

  ****

  Drew’s teeth clenched and his fists balled. “You mean to tell me he got out of there without…?”

  “What’d you mean?” Achilles asked.

  Drew was lost in a flaming, hellish inner place. “That little mother…”

&
nbsp; “Huh?” Holly uttered, looking at Achilles in puzzlement.

  Drew shook his head and forced the flames to subside. His blind rage gave way to a view towards the back of the Sigma. “Um, just… I expected he’d have a suit malfunction.”

  “D’you think yours went wrong because of something in there?”

  “I don’t know. Could have been a magnetic field or something where I entered.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I do know, however, that I’m going back in there now that it seems safe. And nobody’s exploitation of the Enigma’s going to stop me.”

  “But… how?” Achilles asked.

  Drew turned towards the front of the ship and keyed the communications panel. “Storm?”

  “What’s up, old pal?” Storm replied in a sing-song.

  “You’re to stop the braking maneuver. I’m going to explore more of the inside.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re not to attach the tugs to that thrust harness.”

  “Uh, I don’t know who you think you’re talking to. We own the Enigma, and we can do whatever we want with it.”

  “You don’t own it, and never have. It belongs to nobody except the race that built it, and I’m damned if I’m going home without uncovering its secrets.”

  “And what are you going to do about it?”

  “I’ll cut that thrust harness off.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Back off and leave the Enigma be.”

  “Screw you.”

  “I’ll do it. Watch me.”

  “Touch it and I’ll lase your ship, I swear to God.”

  Drew was too stunned to speak, as he tried to collect himself. “You just threatened a US Government ship. You know that’s an act of war, right?”

  Storm remained silent.

  “I’ll have you arrested for treason when you get back. The Moon’s got an extradition treaty with America. You’ll never see the light of day again,” Drew raged.

  Storm had to blink to force his eyes to focus as he neared the crab’s airlock. He entered and closed the door behind him, still too stunned to think clearly. “Um, back inside,” he managed after a minute.

  “Roger that. Pressurizing,” Dmitry said.

  In the part of him that could still feel, he was thankful that nobody else had yet commented on his and Drew’s war of words. He switched off his comms so only he could hear what he said, and whispered to himself: “Might have gone too far this time.”

  ****

  When he exited the airlock, his fears were confirmed in Dmitry and Desira’s eyes.

  “What the hell just happened?” Dmitry asked.

  Storm stuttered and threw up his hands. “A little brotherly love.”

  “Come on man, this is nothing to joke about. You and your brother both went seriously overboard. Threats of physical harm? Unbelievable!”

  “I… I know.” Storm, his forehead soaked, avoided their gaze. “Let’s just get back to the Zephyr.”

  “At least that sounds like a good idea,” Desira said as she turned to take the controls.

  “I’ve never seen you flare up like that before,” Dmitry said. “What the hell happened?”

  Storm exhaled loudly. “It goes way back, with Drew and I. There’s a lot of crap there.”

  “This I can tell. You know, this could end badly for us if he reports your threat.”

  “I won’t deny that. But… there’s something about that thing, Dmitry. I want to explore it more.”

  ****

  Several hours passed with no communication between any of the ships.

  “I wonder what hubbub is going on on Earth? In particular, that which we are stirring up,” Dmitry said.

  “Dunno,” Storm said. “I really hope Drew didn’t act on what I said.”

  “So call him and apologize,” Desira said, her voice laden with frustration. “It works wonders.”

  “Not with him it doesn’t.”

  “Good Lord, it’s like watching two toddlers fight over an exceptionally large toy.”

  Storm smiled slightly. “It is pretty damn immature, isn’t it?”

  “So…” Desira, made a ‘come on, spill the rest’ wave of her hand.

  “I’m not calling him.”

  “Oh for God’s sake! Men!”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “Well, you know what? It’s your ass on the line, not ours. We weren’t party to the threat.”

  Storm nodded, and pursed his lips. “So, for a total change of subject, did you know I nearly named the Eris ‘Thunderchild’?”

  “No.”

  “Yeah. I actually wanted to be named Thunderchild when I was a kid.”

  “I suppose it alludes to ‘Storm’ pretty well.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Not to mention that sunny disposition of yours.”

  “Hey!”

  Now Desira was smiling.

  “Guys,” Dmitry said, floating over. “Just had a thought. Do you suppose the Enigma could be related to the Surrey Rapture?”

  “The what?”

  “You’ve never heard of it?”

  “No.”

  “It was a massive fireball that landed in England in 1850. People at the time thought it was the second coming of Christ. The thing that makes it different from a meteor strike is that it took off again, before exploding at a high altitude.”

  Desira massaged her temples. “I remember reading about that.”

  “The Royal Astronomical Society examined the site afterwards and there was no space debris of any kind—further proof that it couldn’t have been a meteor.” Dmitry turned his palms upward. “I’m no historian, or exobiologist, but it makes sense to assume that aliens have already been to Earth, no?”

  Desira opened her mouth to speak, but just shrugged.

  “It’s possible,” Storm said.

  “Guys, I’m picking up another ship about 200,000 miles out,” Jane said.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Probably one of Rapier’s freighters,” Desira said.

  “No. It’s accelerating at four G.”

  “Holy crap!”

  “Yeah. No freighter would do that. It dewarped much closer to the Enigma than we did.”

  “Try calling it.”

  Jane turned to the comms console. “This is the MSS Zephyr calling unknown vessel 200,000 miles sunward of us. Please identify yourself.”

  Several seconds ticked by. Jane turned back to the others with a puzzled look, and then repeated the call twice more. There was only silence.

  “I’ve no idea,” Desira said.

  “Solar Conveyor 4, this is Zephyr. Are you expecting any inbound ships?”

  “Negative, Zephyr. We’ve tried calling them, too. No answer.”

  “Thank you SC4. USS Sigma, do you copy?”

  “Copy,” came Holly’s voice.

  “Any idea who it is?”

  “No. We’re not expecting anyone.”

  “Okay, thanks Sigma.”

  “How long until they’re within 100 miles?” Storm asked.

  “An hour and twenty-one minutes.”

  Storm nodded. “Keep calling them.”

  An anxious hour and nineteen minutes of silence later, a Russian accent sounded over the comms of all three ships. “This is the RSS Vasily Korolev. Russia is now taking possession of the object known as the Enigma. All other ships must depart now.”