by Ryan Frieda
“Head directly ahead. You should find another open hole to enter the ship.”
“Thanks Jamie.”
Captain Steele headed straight ahead for several minutes before feeling he was being watch again. He looked all around him and didn't see anything. His instincts were always correct before but he hadn't been himself recently so he wasn't sure what was going on. He kept on moving ahead anyway.
“Jamie, anything abnormal coming up on those scans?”
“No John.”
“Scan for anything moving even me.”
“I will John.”
Captain Steele continued forward before his light on his gun showed another hole in the object. This hole was extremely tall and not very wide. He was able to turn sideways and barely squeeze through the hole. He shimmed along this wall for a long time hoping not to run into any obstacles as he was barely small enough to move along this hallway. As he moved along he noticed more detailed sketches in the wall. This time it depicted very tall creatures with several legs. The creatures were about four dozen feet tall, had several legs, had a roundish head at the top of them with eyes all over, with two antenna on top pointing in different directions, and appeared to be covered in scales. There where several diagrams of these creatures.
“Jamie, save these pictures. Tell me what you can about them when you have time to analyze them.”
Captain Steele continued through the area until reaching a hallway the size of the first one he entered when he first entered the object. He saw the lights moving to his left so he continued down that way. He continued to move down the wall before his suit picked up a life form behind him. As he spun around the life form indicator disappeared and he saw nothing.
“What aren't you telling me about this object Jamie?”
“I have given you all the data I have.”
“Do more to tell me about this object. I know it's a space ship of some kind, but I'm not sure where it's from or how long it's been here.”
“I have no more data on it other that what you've discovered.” Jamie said.
Captain Steele continued to move forward wondering if following the lights on a derelict ship that could be tens of millions of years old was a good idea. He moved forward until reaching a vary large room that seemed to have air but there was a shimmering glow throughout it.
“John stop! That room contains the atmosphere of Mendelevium. It is radioactive and I am not sure what it will do to you. I recommend you do not enter.”
“Why does the air shimmer?”
“Unknown. It is possible that it a unique property of the Mendelevium.”
“I'm going in.”
Captain Steele entered the room and as he did it felt as if he was walking through thick water. He felt at times as if a force was pushing him back and then forward.
“This is... incredible. It's almost like jello. The vary air itself seems to vibrating to my movements. It's like nothing I have ever heard of.”
As Captain Steele walked he turned around. He could see the shimmering atmosphere reacting to his movements. The air was actually tangible but extremely light like jello. Captain Steele took one of the three of his additional back up gear items and threw it at the wall to see if he could feel the vibrating air from its movements. Much to his amazement he could.
“Jamie! The entire area reacts to everything. You feel everything. It's incredible! When something moves 10 feet away you feel it. You feel it but it's not too heavy. It's like having jello pushed lightly back against you. This is huge discovery. I am collecting a large sample and will return with it. Please prepare a secure container for it.”
Captain Steele continued to walk before finding a broken piece of the floor lying on the ground. He picked it up, packed it as a sample and moved on. He continued moving forward in the very large room until coming to a great chasm. He looked for a way around and after failing to find one decided to jump straight up to see if he could spot something to climb up to. The air seemed to carry him several yards up before slowly sinking back down. He looked across the chasm and found a hexagon shaped object about 3 yards away. He took several steps back and made a running jump for it. He floated over the chasm and landed on the object. He saw another object in the distance and made a jump for it.
Captain Steele did this numerous times until he saw one that he wasn't sure he could make. He ran and jumped for it anyway knowing it was the only way across and he saw that he was going to land short of the platform and decided to stretch his hand out and rotate his body so that he could grab it. He was surprised to find that he could change his direction mid jump. He continued to make his way across the chasm finding it both interesting and slightly disorienting to be able to change direction in the middle of his jump.
“John please be careful crossing the dangerous chasm.”
“If I want to jump 30 feet up and 30 feet forward only to change directions mid jump I will.”
“Then please be very very careful.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. I'll be careful. No need to blow a casket over it, or a valve, or whatever else you'd blow up considering your an AI.”
Captain Steele decided to take several more jumps while looking around for what could have lived in such in environment. After making it to another platform he noticed 4 hallways with lights heading toward a central platform. He approached this platform and there was a square where all the lights that were coming from the ground met. On this square there were several detailed diagrams carved into the floor of several creatures, including the ape like one and the tall creature. One creature was much larger than the rest and the other 4 creatures where in front of it. The large creature changed shapes every single time the lights in the floor came to it.
Captain Steele marveled at the carvings. The carvings were pulsating and changing as the lights met it. He picked up his knife and stuck it into the grooves of one of the carvings. As the carvings changed his knife was stuck in the floor until the carvings changed back. The ground was actually changing.
How could a carving in the floor change every couple of seconds? What kind of material was this? It emitted lights, changes shapes, and has multiple atmospheres and even contains them and changes them. It was impossible for it exist. Whatever lived on this ship was much more advanced than anyone could even begin to understand. Being able to build this kind material, this much material, means that it would probably be older than the Milky Way itself. A solid material that can be programmed was incredible. It was the equivalent of wood, metal, or concrete changing its own form and glowing without any help from anyone or anything else. It was the year 4000 and the Milky Way was still centuries away from even being able to do such a thing on a small scale.
Captain Steele wondered if he was in the very middle of the ship because of the 4 hallways leading here to this square. He wondered what the significance of such a center of a ship was. Why a square? Why the changing diagram? Why the diagram? Why so many diagrams?
“You think they knew they wouldn't make it to the Milky Way Jamie? That's why they left the diagrams?”
“It is possible John. I don't have enough data to know. If that is the case, why does there still seem to be power? If they had power they would be able to continue to the Milky Way. The numerous hull breaches would have removed all atmospheres from the ship unless there was power holding the atmosphere in the ship. The light emitting from the floor could be from the material glowing itself or could be from a power source.”
“If there was a power source where would it be Jamie?”
“Unknown. I can tell you that it appears the Mendelevium is being funneled to a location.”
“How long has that been going on?”
“For a long time. Long before you have shown up.”
“Where is it being funneled?”
“To the back of the object. The Mendelevium may have been the power source that was powering the object.”
“If that's the case, why is the ship empty and why has
the object stopped moving?”
“Unknown. It may have been mutiny. That diagram on the ground at your feet hints at this hypothesis but it is not enough.”
“Where is the back of the object Jamie?”
“Take a left and at the next hallway take a right.”
Chapter 6
Memories From The Past
When Captain Steele reached the tail end of the object several hours later he saw a very large object that was eight sided. The object had eight rows of objects. It looked like an eight sided pentagon-just like the one in Washington D.C. on Earth. As Captain Steele approached it a holoscreen came up. He recognized some of the markings on it from other areas of the ship.
“Jamie, give me an analysis.”
“The markings are from the ship. I am not able to translate them. We have no reference point to do so. We would need a Rosetta Stone of sorts to do that. The power is of an unknown source. It is probably the Mendelevium but it is difficult to tell. I recommend you do not touch it. It could power the object right into our ship and straight to the Milky Way. We also have no idea what weapons, if any, are on this object.”
“I want to know. The technology I have seen on this ship is far beyond anything any race could have created. During various times I felt as if I was being watched. Maybe there is something in this object that is still alive, not needing any kind of food, or maybe the object has eyes inside of itself. I must know more. Prepare for download of information Jamie. Let's hope it doesn't kill us, but then again it's not like I will ever see another living creature so what could possibly go wrong?”
Captain Steele put the data pad that was in the arm of his DSSM suit up to the device and let it scan the object.
“Jamie, you getting it?”
“No, there is too much information. I am unable to even sort through it.”
“What do you mean 'too much' to even sort through it?”
“The way they store information is not the same as we do. After converting the electronic information storing system to ours its clear that this console has more information in its storage banks than any known amount of storage space possible. Not even 10 yobibits can begin to store this info,” Jamie said.
“English bot. I'm not a scientist,” Captain Steele replied.
“There is the system of holding electronic information. There is a byte, then a kilobyte, then megabyte, gigabyte, then petabyte, then exabyte, then zettabyte, then yottabyte. A yobibits is the yottabyet size storage only it is measured in powers of 2-”
“Simple please. Keep it simple. Explain the amount in simple terms please.”
“There is slightly more than 1,000 bytes in a kilobyte, and 1,000 kilobytes in a megabyte, and 1,000 megabytes in a gigabyte and so on. So, one yottabyte is approximately 1 with 8 sets of 3 zeros. So it's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or one septillian bytes of storage.”
“Your telling me that there is more info in that console alone than we have space for you to hold? You have the most space of any computer program out there.”
“Yes, you are correct John. However you are also wrong. Remember the briefing? I have 500 yottabytes of free storage.”
“Then whats the problem?”
“I said that not even 10 yobibits can begin sorting through this or arranging it. What I mean is that 10 yottabytes is just the beginning.”
“So, there is more?”
“Much much more.”
“How much more?”
“Preliminary estimates are at least 3,000 times more.”
“Wow. Can you change yourself so you use their way of storing things on your Holographic Disk Drive?”
“No John I can not. It would require a complete overhaul of our entire systems with information we don't have. They may be using some kind of heat-assistant magnetic recording to record to DNA in three dimensions to four dimensions. I'm not sure how they store their information but it's clear it is not initially compatible with ours but I can however transfer the information to us,” Jamie said.
“Sort through it and see if you can find anything good. If you think your going to run out of space then transmit it at FTL speeds back to the launch platform. Let them know you got some good stuff coming their way.”
“John, there is more. I have noticed this console has connections to many more consoles. About 50 more.”
“Holy crap! You mean to tell me that there is more information in one of these things than our whole galaxy can hold and that there may be 50 more just like them?”
“Exactly John.”
“If that's the case then what is this thing we are on, how old is it, and what exactly is it doing stranded out here?”
Between those that were left after several trials, and those who survived the suicidal drop, only Dog, Runner, Ruthless, Catalyst, Shadow, Ark Angel, and Captain Steele were left. They had been tested mentally, physically, and emotionally. Several had died. It was the craziest training he had ever done. The worst part was he had no idea what they were training for. They had been stuck together for weeks, leaning on each other to survive, then told to fight each other to the death. He had to kill two because they wouldn't stop fighting him. The training was cruel. If the best of the best had to kill each other off, then this mission was going to be bigger than any of them had ever contemplated could exist.
They were currently on their way to help protect some civilians from pirates. The civilian's ship had gotten attacked when they tried to run and they sent out a distress call. Apparently there was an important diplomat and a high level military official traveling together in that civilian ship. Captain Steele's team needed to find, protect, and try to get information from them for why they were aboard the ship and the information they had on them. Knowing that they were training for something really big, it felt weird to get called out for a real mission.
“Site is one mile out. Prepare for-” The captain of the ship said as the ship was hit by something.
The ship had a major hull breach causing a destabilization of the ship's direction.
“We need to jump now. We need to leave the ship. We'll float there!” Captain Steele yelled as his Combat Suit started to put his helmet up.
“Are you nuts? One mile? We'll never make it under fire. Try to fix the ship's route!” Yelled Dog.
“I'm going. This ship is going to compress if we stay here. I've seen it before. We've been hit with a mine, the hole's too big, ship won't stabilize, so it implodes, tearing the ship in half and shearing anyone who's on it in half before collapsing on them,” Captain Steele said.
Captain Steele stumbled towards the hole as this ship jolted around knowing he needed to time his jump carefully. With the way the ship was spinning he knew he could get hit by it or debris if he didn't time his jump carefully. He waited then jumped. He turned around and saw Runner, Ruthless, Catalyst, Shadow, and Ark Angel jump from the ship. They started towards the last known location of the ship where the mission objective was. He looked back to see Dog attempt to jump from the ship right as the ship compressed and tore in half causing him to be ripped apart violently.
Captain Steele pointed toward the last known location of the mission objective and everyone nodded and headed that way. They all drifted for about 30 minutes, making sure to avoid any mines that were exploding, before coming close to the mission objective. When Captain Steele saw the ship he knew that they were too late. There appeared to be hull breaches and people floating on the outside of the ship. There could be a secure part of the ship where they could be secured safely but it was unlikely. He directed the group to take tactical positions and slowly move in on the ship. He gave an order and they group took out several enemies that were outside the ship silently. The group then descended upon the ship, entering through a hull breach.
They all entered the hull breach and Captain Steele took charge again.
“Runner, Ark Angel, Catalyst, head that way, I'll take everyone else this way. We will spread out until we find them. If they a
re alive, they will be holed up in a secure part of the ship. Once we find them we will need to figure out an extraction plan. Maintain radio silence unless you come across them. Any questions?” Captain Steele asked.
The group shook their heads no. Captain Steele took Ruthless and Shadow and headed toward the bow of the ship. He knew if the people they need to rescue were alive it was going to be one hell of a struggle to do it.
Captain Steele, Ruthless, and Shadow pushed forward moving down the hall, taking out single targets with their hands and groups of enemies with laser precision before they knew what hit them. His group took down man after man, group after group, as if his team was a single organism, taking down its prey in quick succession.
Captain Steele's group moved quietly into a larger room with seven heavily armed intruders that had no gravity to it. He silently told his group to take out two each and he would take the three. He signaled to fire. Shadow and him took out their targets but Ruthless took out one of hers before her gun jammed due to the zero-G and her second target took off. Ruthless ran off after him.
Captain Steele trusted Ruthless to take care of the job and continued on. They needed to continue moving forward. Captain Steele and Shadow continued down the main hall when they took fire. He and Shadow split up and proceeded to return fire.
“Omega. We got survivors,” Captain Steele heard over the com.
“Understood. Guard them. Give us your location, we will be en route shortly,” he replied.
Captain Steele took out his targets and checked for Shadow.
“Shadow?” Captain Steele called out.
Captain Steele waited for several seconds. He was about to call out again when she came around the corner. He signaled for her to follow him and they headed down a corridor. They bolted full speed down the corridor when there was a major explosion at the bridge causing the ship to loose what little gravity was left in it. His Combat Suit kicked into zero-g mode. He made his way towards the survivor's locations when he rounded a corner and saw Ruthless down the hall.