Into The Void

by Ryan Frieda

  “I've already walked on a star but I also want to say that I was the first person to fall asleep inside a star,” Captain Steele said.

  Jamie laughed.

  “Very well. Sleep tight. Just make sure you bring me back those samples and make sure you come back alive,” Jamie replied.

  “Very well,” Captain Steele replied

  When Captain Steele got back to the ship, he placed the tests in the lab, got a bite to eat, played a game with Jamie, worked to maintain the ships hull, then after several hours, went to bed in his comfortable bed.

  “Nothing beats a nice bed after a long day of work,” Captain Steele said as he fell asleep.

  Chapter 17

  Oscillation Devastation

  Captain Steele awoke slowly rolling out of bed, his body stiff with age, and headed toward the bridge.

  “Morning Jamie.”

  “Good morning John.”

  “How are you this wonderful morning?” Captain Steele asked.

  “I am doing pretty well. And yourself?”

  “Doing good.”

  “It always amazes me how you can just assume that it's morning when there is no natural light to tell you what time it is,” Jamie said.

  “Well, I just got up so regardless of the actual time it is my morning.”

  “Good point. Even if it is night in the United States of America on Earth, and it is daytime at mission control on the planet we started this journey from,” Jamie said.

  “Being out here is different than most space traveling. Normally there are lots of stars around you in close proximity, usually not more than three to four light years away, in all directions. Usually you're in the space between solar systems, between stars, but out here your between galaxies. Most veteran soldiers know how to cope in interstellar space, the space between solar systems. It's usually only two to five days tops before your back into a solar system. But when your in interstellar space it's still a little different than being in orbit around a planet. In interstellar space there is less light, less ways to orient yourself and the stars aren't in their normal spots. It changes because your moving around the galaxy. However, if you do it enough, it all kinda becomes normal. Out here in intergalactic space it's really different because whole galaxies are just a single dot twinkling way in the distance and their not as plentiful as the stars in the Milky Way. Anyways, you up for a game of chess?” Captain Steele asked as he grabbed a box of cereal.

  “I am up for it.”

  Captain Steele and Jamie played several games of chess.

  “Three to two. I win three times, you win twice. Not bad considering I'm playing against an artificial intelligence,” Captain Steele said, “You must be throwing games.”

  “Never! I would never. On my honor as an artificial intelligence.”

  “What honor? I'm pretty sure your lost that somewhere between the Galactic Edge and here.”

  Jamie laughed.

  “I am sure you lost yours, not the other way around,” Jamie replied.

  “No, I've always had mine. I don't know what your talking about.”

  “Let's face it John, it has been over 100 years since you left the galactic edge. Your telling me that you, a human, who makes mistakes, has kept some of his honor?”

  “Yes. And you don't make mistakes Jamie? Like destroying my ship by pushing it faster than it was ever meant to go? In fact, if I remember correctly, it was so bad that you lost the lab AND the ship was held together by a thread. You messed up so much that you almost let down everyone in the Milky Way,” Captain Steele said.

  “Granted, but it was a cost analysis. You needed help, and I had to get here. Plus, the Instant Teleportation Device would be better built with human hands.”

  “That doesn't change the fact that you could still build it without me.”

  “That's true. However, I am here to keep you safe and make sure you complete the mission.”

  “That is true.”

  “And I did save your life.”

  “Yeah, you did,” Captain Steele said smiling.

  Captain Steele walked over to the lab to check on the samples of the black dwarf and saw they were still processing. He figured it may take years if not decades for them to be properly analyzed.

  Captain Steele then walked over to the rec room so he could work out and then relax. He turned on a movie, watched it, then went to the lab. He had to send a log of what's happened.

  “I got to go do another crappy log. I don't even know why we do these anymore. It's not like anyone in the Milky Way will get these anytime soon. It'll probably take decades.”

  “Yes, but with a steady stream of them they should be getting them every two weeks,” Jamie said.

  “Yeah, but most of the time there is nothing to report. It's literally, I worked out, I slept, I ate, and then I repeated. The only time these are any good is when we come across something. Which, most of the time, there's not crap out here. I guess it's just another reason they call it 'the great void'.”

  Captain Steele cleared his throat before starting.

  “Captain John Steele, Date, year 4120, month 10, week 4, standard Milky Way year. Log number 5,932.”

  “I've spent a long time out here. After 120 years I still don't get use to the cold, lack of light, and silence. I know I've recommended it before, but next time you retards back in the lab send someone out here make sure it's with a group of people. Jamie, the artificial intelligence, is great at a lot of things, and she pretty much covers it all, but she's just not human. It's weird really... there is almost a psychological disconnect here. Humans need other humans to function properly. We were not made to do life alone. We need friends, other humans to talk to, to interact with. Jamie covers all this, and I am very, very, very grateful for her, however there is something about seeing another human being in the flesh that is important. Her holographic form isn't the same thing.

  “I know that humans back when the internet first came out suffered from a lack of social interaction while still having social interaction with other individuals over the internet. They failed to develop the necessary skills and failed to have other chemicals in their brain develop right or act correctly. People who communicated purely over the internet actually felt more lonely. They felt less good. The simple fact of the matter was that face to face interaction is needed. However, even though Jamie is as human as an AI can get, she is still not human.

  “We came across a black dwarf. I walked on the surface, went inside it, and slept inside it for a bit just for experimental purposes. We came across several interesting properties. As I walked along the surface of it I found a cave. The star had collapsed but it still had caverns in it. I am sending all my findings to you on it. I assume that the material had collapsed in such a violent matter that the entire star wasn't compressed. I also think that due to the Pauli Exclusion Principle that the material vibrated because of the electrons not having a place to stay and that they caused the caves by moving the material as it collapsed. I am sending you video from the suit and the scans of the material will be sent to you when their done.

  “Captain Steele out.”

  Captain Steele ended the log and looked up to see Jamie glaring at him.

  “Alright alright... who, or what, did I piss off, screw up, or annoy now?” he asked.

  “You called them retards. I do not think they will like that,” Jamie said.

  “I've done almost 6,000 of these things. Can't I be unprofessional once? Can't I have some fun once?” Captain Steele asked.

  “No. The entire galaxy is going to see those.”

  “This, Jamie, is why I keep you around. It's all the lovely little reminders you give me when I mess up,” Captain Steele said.

  “I also can't believe you also said 'felt less good.' Such terrible grammar and sentence structure.”

  “I was having fun! Come on Jamie. You act like one log out of 6,000 is going to forever ruin our mission.”

  “Also, you slept inside the
star 'for experimental purposes'?” Jamie said suspiciously.

  “A little embellishment... 'for experimental purposes'.”

  “You really shouldn't lie on your logs John.”

  “See? This is why I keep you around Jamie. It's all the lovely little reminders you give me when I mess up.”

  “Even after 120 years I still can't figure you out. Are you joking or are you serious?”

  “Well, you up for another game of chess? The stakes will be high-”

  “Let me guess... they'll be high 'for experiential purposes?'” Jamie said interrupted him.

  “Nope, because I'm going to embellish this to hell and back!”

  Captain John Steele awoke when the ship started to shake.

  “Jamie what's going on?” Captain Steele asked.

  “Seems to be some kind of electrical storm,” Jamie replied.

  “Aaaaaannnnd how exactly does that happen when were out in the middle of fricken nowhere?” Captain Steele asked.

  “It seems there is a large-”

  “I changed my mind, I don't really care. I just want to know is the ship going to be alright? It's rocking pretty bad,” Captain Steele said.

  “Yes John.”

  “I just know that its taken more abuse than it was ever designed to take.”

  “It should be fine John.”

  “As long as its okay from space lightning then I'll go back to sleep. Because, you know, turbulence shouldn't happen in the vacuum of space,” Captain Steele said as he turned to go to bed.

  “I'll let you know if anything else changes,” Jamie said.

  “Thank you Jamie.”

  Captain Steele went back to bed when there was a large explosion causing the ship to decompress.

  “What the hell was that? Jamie? Jamie! Fix that!” Captain Steele yelled.

  Captain Steele ran towards the air lock to start putting on his DSSM suit. He could feel the effects of vacuum on his skin, causing the water to rise to the surface and evaporate. He could also feel the liquid in his body start to boil causing bubbles. He felt the pull of the breach in the hull of the ship as the air started to leave the ship. The ship started to loose gravity and he started to float off the ground. He would need to pull and push himself across the ship to a secure location.

  “Shut the bulkhead Jamie!”

  “It won't respond! Nothing is responding!”

  “Give me some help here. Help me get to the airlock to change.”

  Jamie sent some droids to help Captain Steele get to the airlock as the ship decompressed. She also had some of the droids try to block the hole in the hull of the ship. This caused one of the droids to get pulled out.

  Captain Steele could feel the hair on his skin start to lift up and his skin started to tingle. He knew what was coming. He reached his hand out and quickly touched the ship then pulled it back. Right as he pulled his hand off the metal in the ship he could feel the hair on his skin start to lift up and his skin started to tingle again. He tried to touch the metal of the ship again but when he did the ship was struck with lightning again. The current ran throughout the ship and reached out and struck him. The lightning was so strong it was some how going through the insulation of the ship.

  Captain Steele felt an intense heat run throughout his body before coming to consciousness again. He noticed he was further away from his suit than he was a second ago. He pushed and pulled himself toward his DSSM suits. He felt the hair raise on his skin again and braced for another strike of lightning. He saw the lighting bolts arc throughout the ship and strike him. He again felt an intense amount of heat before coming to. He knew he must be temporarily passing out.

  Captain Steele pushed and pulled himself closer to the airlock where his DSSM suits were. He knew with the effects of vacuum creeping its way through the ship he only had a couple minutes tops. He could feel the lightning about to strike again and he pushed himself as far as possible. Another burst of intense heat and then he came to. Another burst quickly followed with him coming to shortly after. He could feel the effects of vacuuming causing his skin to bloat.

  “Jamie get that damned bulkhead shut!” Captain Steele yelled.

  Captain Steele could feel the water on his skin evaporating. He could feel his skin swelling up all around him. He felt his skin start to tingle again and he braced himself. He saw the lightning strike bouncing from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, all throughout the ship, jumping around inside the ship. He felt an intense heat then an intense pain in his leg as it blew off. He came to and notice that his leg was missing just above the knee. The electricity had blown it off with enough force to propel him forward towards the door with his DSSM suit while simultaneously searing his wound shut from the heat. He grabbed the doorway and pulled himself in. He grabbed the suit and started to put it on as the hair on his skin started to raise up and the tingling sensation started again. He wasn't sure how long this could go on.

  “What's the status of the ship?” Captain Steele yelled to Jamie as he put his DSSM suit on.

  “It's bad, most of the electrical systems are gone. All robots are down. We still have limited engine control. This storm will continue to last for several more months and unless we get to FTL speed we will be here for the next 500 years before every system reboots automatically,” Jamie said.

  Captain Steele put on his suit just as the lightning struck the ship. The lightning passed throughout the ship and struck his suit but his suit prevented any injuries to him.

  “Are you alright Jamie?”

  “I am trying to keep the ship going. These strikes are extremely powerful. There are striking the ship with close to 100 exajoule. That's close to the amount of energy the USA used during the early 2000's,” Jamie said, “That's above our compliance limit for the ship by about 10 times.”

  “If that measurement is anything like the yottabytes of storage on the derelict ship then were in big trouble,” Captain Steele said, “What do I need to do?”

  “Can you fix the engines so we can leave?”

  “I'm on it.”

  Captain John Steele floated over to the engine compartment. When he got there he found evidence of recent fires but assumed the recent loss of atmosphere to the ship, including air, ended that. He definitely liked that. It made his job easier. He started looking for the source of the problem. He could see that the engines still worked but were only running at .5%. He knew that they would need them at at least 50% to get anywhere. He continued to look at them when he noticed that the electricity broke a pipe. That broken pipe caused a valve to turn stopping the coolant to the engines.

  Captain Steele moved to storage to find a replacement pipe. He found one and headed back towards the engine room when he saw lighting arc throughout the ship. He saw it hit his suit but his suit took the lightning without damage to him. He made his way back to the engine room and replaced the pipe and turned the valve but the engines didn't kick into high gear.

  “What's the problem Jamie? Why isn't it working?”

  “You want the good news or bad news?” Jamie asked.

  “Oh I don't know, lets go with good news first,” Captain Steele replied.

  “You get to do a space walk,” Jamie said.

  Captain Steele paused for a moment.

  “What?” Captain Steele replied after several seconds.

  “You get to do a space walk.”

  “Nope. Next solution.”

  “You need to do it John. I don't have control of the droids to do it.”

  “That's not exactly a prudent thing to do considering I've only got one leg. There has to be another way.”

  “There isn't. I've run all the possibilities. You need to repair the engines from the outside. They've taken significant damage and need some of their exterior parts replaced. The doors are not working so I'm going to need you to blow a hole in the hull so you can get parts out of the ship,” Jamie said.

  “What? Are you freaking mad? You sure the lightning strikes hasn't fried your
circuits? Can't we get the electrical system up first then open the doors?”

  “No, the lightning strikes have destroying our electrical systems. We need to leave the area first,” Jamie said.

  “Shoot. Why do the parts need to be replaced?”

  “There are numerous blockages, fried electrical wires, broken nozzles, broken gimbals, and two broken main valves,” Jamie said.

  “That's a lot of parts. Alright. I'm going to blow a hole at the end of this hallway near storage,” Captain Steele said.

  Captain Steele grabbed some of the high end explosives and went near the end of the hallway. He placed some near the end of the hallway and put up plenty of spare hull sheets near the other end of the hall so they would be pulled near the hole as the ship decompressed making the hole smaller. He wasn't sure if the ship could decompress any further but he decided to prepare just in case. He blew the charge and there was a slight suction of air as the hole opened up. The ship apparently didn't have a lot of air left to decompress.

  “Can you rotate the ship Jamie so that I will have some protection from the lightning? I don't think I have more than a single direct hit from the lightning before I die.”

  “I will do everything possible John.”

  Captain Steele grabbed extra pipes to use as lightning rods that he would toss off into space. He knew being near the heat of the engines was dangerous as it was, but having lightning strikes in the area with as much energy as the United States used in the 20th century in a single bolt was a death wish. He knew they didn't have 500 years to sit here either. He approached the hole in the hull and looked out. He could see the storm raging on before him. Bolts of blue and white lightning lit up the sky enough to see black bolts of lightning. He knew this was a terrible idea but he trusted Jamie's judgment and her ability to keep him safe.

  As Captain Steele stepped out into the vacuum of space his Geiger Counter went off showing high levels of radiation that the lightning was causing. He slowly crawled around the ship as Jamie moved the ship around. He was having a hard time crawling around the outside of the ship with his leg blown off. He came near the corner of the ship where just on the other side would be the external part of the engine. He poked his head out around the edge and knew there was a major problem.