Into The Void

by Ryan Frieda

  The keywords required certain phrases and words to be typed into a hidden console, that could only be activated by using the bridge controls a certain way. After the hidden console opened up and the keywords typed, there then came a key phrase to say in a certain way. After that, a specific spot on the wall needed to be touched by an organic, so the droids Jamie controlled couldn't do it, then another phrase said. Only four people ever knew all the details. The only other way it can be opened is if Jamie opened it herself but still the wall needed to be touched by an organic so one of the droids she controlled wouldn't be able to do it. The wall was close to 20 feet long and 7 ½ feet tall. No one could have known where to touch the wall. If Jamie initialized the opening, then another set of walls would fold in opening the AI core to look more like a trapezoid then small rectangular box. It would also indicating she started the process. It was designed to be more opening and psychologically welcoming to Captain Steele, as if a human was opening themselves up to someone as an indication of trust.

  The console that housed her was only about 3 inches tall and looked like a cube. The console was designed of durable carbon nano aggravated diamond rods laced neutron star fiber. It was the exact same thing the DSSM suits were made of, however there were two differences. Outside the core of this console is nothing but pure neutron star fiber with the diamond rods followed with a sheet of metal on the outside hiding the neutron star fiber. It was much like steel rods in concrete with some kind of material outside the concrete for hiding the concrete for decorative purposes. It could withstand almost any force. At the very core of this console is where Jamie was. Every single time she asked to come out of the AI core she had the console float at the holographic center of her being, where her heart would have been. She didn't need to have the console float there to be able to take a holographic form but normally she would do it. The only exceptions were when Captain Steele couldn't directly protect her, like when he was on a mission or asleep. She just really enjoyed being around him.

  The console had been badly damaged. There were burn marks from where the creatures had tried to cut into it. The door to the AI core was torn apart with part of it sitting on the ground. There were also burn marks where the door fit into the room meaning they used explosives to get into the room. The AI core also had taken burns to the inside of it. No one knew where the AI core is other than him, mankind's top three generals, and about five other scientists and engineers. It was impossible for those creatures to know about it. There was no way they should have known that she was there.

  They had gotten through some of the neutron star fiber and Captain Steele could see inside the core. He could see where the console had been torn out of where it sat in the AI core. Every aspect of security the console and AI core had was torn apart. He could even see the chip inside the console and saw it had been burned. He knew what it meant.

  “Jamie...”

  Captain Steele looked at the core. Maybe he should have went straight into the bridge to kill them. If he had maybe she wouldn't be gone. He thought he had more time. He thought they hadn't gotten into the console. He wasn't sure they had even gotten the console out. They were standing at the door. How could they have gotten in so fast?

  “Jamie... I'm sorry...” Captain Steele said.

  Jamie was the best friend he had ever had. They spent so long on the ship with just each other. They had grown a special bond. He hated her at first but she grew on him.

  “I'm so sorry,” Captain Steele said with tears coming to his eyes, “I'm so sorry.”

  He thought about how when he first started the mission he tried so hard to forget about her. She was always there. It was annoying. He thought she was just some artificial intelligence that was supposed to remind him to do things but she came through for him time after time and looked out for him. He had been with her on this ship for just over 130 years. Time had flown by so fast. She had kept him company over the years and he had come to enjoy every minute of it. She came to his rescue time after time after time. She had saved his life more times than he can remember and when it came time for him to do the same for her he had failed.

  Tears welled up in his eyes and he clutched the console close to his chest and cried.

  “I'm so sorry Jamie. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you... I'm so, so, sorry,” He cried.

  “I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have...” His words drifted off as he wept.

  Captain Steele laid down on the floor and cried. He just didn't care anymore. To him, there was no point in continuing the mission. The Milky Way might be gone anyway. He could still run the ship and complete the mission without Jamie, but it would be much harder. What was the point? He wouldn't know if anyone was left in the Milky Way until after he made the gate and tried it to see if they make it through. There was no point. Even if he thought of a way out the dimensional rift he would be truly alone. He didn't even realize it but Jamie was the only thing that was really keeping him going. He cared about her a lot. He knew that she cared about him a lot too.

  Captain Steele continued to cry. He couldn't help but think about all the things he should have done, all the things he should have said.

  “Jamie... I...”

  The words just wouldn't come. It felt like someone had stabbed his heart with red hot jagged dagger and dragged it downward ripping his heart open. His heart was in pain. The emotional pain was so strong he could feel it physically. Someone he loved was taken from him too soon. He thought back to those final words they spoke.

  Captain Steele thought about them again then he realized that she seemed distracted. Was she occupied with the creatures? Why didn't she ask for help? She would have asked for help. Why was she so distracted right before she asked for help? She would have been watching the images from his DSSM's feed but wasn't.

  Captain Steele pulled up the cameras on the bridge's holoscreens. He pulled through some footage and saw Jamie's holographic form there on the bridge. She looked to be busy and then all of the sudden the screens went black for a couple seconds then it cuts to her suddenly turning toward the direction of the portside airlock. Then she was shot with some kind of gun. Her form looked to be electrocuted before it disappeared.

  Captain Steele looked through the footage again. Why did the camera's go black? They always worked. Something happened. He had to know. Jamie was dead because he wasn't fast enough. He wanted to know. He needed to know everything that happened. Something was missing but he couldn't figure out what. He watched it again and again from different cameras. The only cameras that went black were the bridge cameras and it was just before anything happened. The external cameras don't show anything happening outside. He had to know what happened. He had to know but explanation evaded him. He couldn't figure out what had happened.

  Captain Steele paused to collect his thoughts. Eventually he decided that it was best for him to continue the mission. Jamie would have wanted him to. No matter what, he had to try. It's what she would want. The intense pain in his heart didn't leave, but he had to move on. He had come so far and he couldn't go back. He slowly stepped back to the portside airlock, looked back towards the bridge, and decided to go and grab the Endeavor's engines. He would be able to get enough working parts from them to fix the engines.

  Captain Steele set a navigation marker on his DSSM's navigation system for his ship and then headed towards the Endeavor.

  Captain Steele made his way back to the Space Shuttle Endeavor moving around debris from ships. He quickly paused at the massive ships that had entered the dimensional rift. They looked very familiar. They looked like ships from the Milky Way, only newer and upgraded. He couldn't figure out what they were doing here or even how they got here. He looked to see if he could find any bodies. If he found some he might be able to recognize them to be from the Milky Way. He carefully looked around the debris field and failed to see any. After being unable to find any he carefully went to where he thought the engines were. He saw they were damaged so badly he could hardly
tell if they were engines. He headed to another ship and found the engines were far to big for any parts to be shared between his ship and this one. One engine on that ship was large enough to fit the length of his entire ship. He searched a third ship and failed to even find the engines. He searched the immediate area around the ship for anything he could use and didn't find anything.

  After being unable to find any engines or engine parts that could be used, Captain Steele headed back towards the Endeavor using his DSSM's navigational system. He wasn't sure why his DSSM suit was able to keep track of the Endeavor's location but not his own. Maybe he traveled too fast for the nav system in his DSSM suit to keep track of.

  Captain Steele wasn't previously aware of how far off course he was until the ship entering the dimensional rift caused him to divert his course. He had only found his ship because of the ships entering the dimensional rift caused him to go in another direction. He would have never found his ship if they didn't show up.

  Captain Steele was about five miles out from the Endeavor when he really started wondering if the engine parts were compatible. He knew they were his only shot of getting the engines to work. He also wondered about how the Endeavor got into the dimensional rift when he remembers seeing videos of it exploding. Some parts were recovered but a lot of it disintegrated.

  Captain Steele was just outside the Endeavor. He gently landed on it. He peaked into the windows on the front of the ship and didn't see anyone inside. He quickly located a hole in the side and climbed in activating his magnetic boots so he could stay attached to the floor. There was no gravity in this ship unlike the first three he entered in the dimensional rift. He activated his heat vision and started searching the ship. He didn't want to run into any more of those things. He moved from the crew cabin and into the middeck where storage would have been kept. He then made his way around floating debris and was surprised to find no cargo anywhere. Most of the cargo was never recovered when it disintegrated.

  Captain Steele continued searching the ship as he made his way from the middle deck to aft fuselage where the main engines would be. He checked them over and saw they had had minor damage. The reason the last flight of the Endeavor ended in disaster was because of a critical temperature failure in the engines. The engines completely disintegrated at the upper level of the atmosphere at speed of mach 30, or close to 10,200 miles per second, a little more than 10.2 times faster than needed to escape the pull of gravity on Triton.

  Captain Steele started to carefully cut the engines out of their place with a special torch so he could pull them back to his ship. He slowly cut around where the engines were in the hull, careful not to cut anything important on the other side. After successfully cutting them out from the hull he headed outside the ship to cut from there. He wanted to see if the airlock still worked and approached it. He laid his hand on the airlock door and looked out.

  The Endeavor was a shinning example of human ingenuity and skill. It was a part of the United State's space program for so long before being retired and then brought back into service. It was a symbol of Earth, of mankind. It was an iconic design that everyone in the milky way knew. This design lasted so long while actively being used and then stood the test of time again in the museum. No one could believe something so old would last so long. They put it back in service due to its durability with new retrofits. It looked almost the exact same with the paint design and shape. This shuttle design was used when mankind first met other races in the Milky Way. Mankind had stepped foot on a rocky planet around Barnard's Star. The star had several planets and was only about 6 light years away from Earth's solar system. Mankind had settled on that planet for a year and then set out for the next planet in the system. When they left orbit they came across another race. It was first contact and it was peaceful. The shuttle used that day was the Space Shuttle Discovery and it was the first contact with another race of sentient beings.

  This shuttle design, and the Endeavor with what it's last mission meant to Mankind, is what made Captain Steele want to be a solider. He wanted to explore space. He knew becoming a solider was the best way to do that. He knew that being a solider would give him the ability to see the galaxy.

  Captain Steele stared out through the window, imagining what it would have been like for those first pioneers into space in the 20th century. The awe that struck them when they looked out and saw the Earth, The Blue Marble, in all it's glory, down below them. He opened the air lock door, stepped out, and shut it behind him.

  Captain Steele made his way around to the back of the shuttle and then started to cut out the engine carefully. He felt both terrible and honored at the same time for doing it. This shuttle was a piece of history. This design was used for the first manned deep space exploration missions. This exact shuttle helped colonize space stations around Jupiter and Saturn. It helped set up cities on the moons of both those planets. It also set up a space station to mine the rings of Saturn before disintegrating upon exit to leave our solar system. However, it was now a piece of history that was coming back to help colonize another galaxy.

  Captain Steele smiled knowing that it was going to the best cause it ever could. He cut out the two main engines, attached a short cable to both of the engines, connecting them together, then tied a short cable from him to the engines. He then carefully used his DSSM's thrusters to get back to his ship. He was careful not to run into anything that would damage the engines.

  Captain Steele got back to his ship and started to bring the engines into the ship. He pulled them in then went to the engine room. He looked around at what needed to be fixed. It looked like the engines would work they just needed heavy modification and repair. Thankfully, he had been trained to do that.

  Captain Steele made a list of what was beyond repair, needed to be replaced, and what needed to be repaired. He would be able to “jury rig” some of it so that it served its purpose without being properly repaired. He quickly started to break down the Endeavor's engines and take the parts he needed. He then headed to the engines and started replacing his engines parts that was built several decades ahead of its time in the year 4,000 with the Endeavor's engine parts that were built several decades ahead of it's time from the year 3,500. He wasn't 100% positive if the the engines would work to their full potential, or even at all. He wasn't even sure if the engines would blow up or disintegrate after they left the dimensional rift because the parts borrowed from the Endeavor had disintegrated in the non-dimensional rift universe. He repaired what needed to be repaired and replaced what needed to be replaced.

  Captain Steele worked to make sure all systems were running normally and all systems were green and ready to go. He checked and saw that the systems said the engines were at level yellow and he decided that the 3rd best out of 8 of the system malfunction conditions weren't too bad. Now he had to figure out how to get out of the dimensional rift. He assumed the only thing he could do was just gun the engines and hope they warp out before they hit any debris. He reconsidered his decision and decided to reinforce the hull from the damage he might be doing. As much as he wanted to get out of here he needed the supplies first.

  Captain Steele stepped out of the airlock and decided to clear the path directly in front of him by collect scraps of metal and sealing the holes in the hull of his ship. He looked back at his ship and the pain tore at his heart again. Tears, once again, filled his eyes. He was going to miss talking to Jamie. He missed their fun conversations. He missed her conversations about science. He missed just having her around. He turned away from the ship to continue collecting debris to wield the up the holes in his ship. He grabbed several pieces and turned back toward the ship and headed toward it. Tears flowed from his eyes and down his face. He was reminded of the shotgun blast he took to the face when the tears hit his torn face causing it to sting. He was going to miss her fixing him up over and over and over.

  Captain Steele got back to the ship, sealed the holes, and the walked around the ship. He walked to the bri
dge and looked around. He thought about all the times Jamie would talk to him as he flew the ship or ran diagnostics. He enjoyed her company. She regularly would ask if she could leave her hole that protected her. She would claim wild things like it “made her fly better”, or she “could process things better”, or even “she needed sunlight” but her knew it was really something else. She never was a very good liar. He really did enjoy her company and she enjoyed his. Now, she was gone.

  Captain Steele fixed all the holes in the ship, then started to move all the debris out of the ship's way for close to 5 miles. He then floated back towards the ship. He wanted to talk to her again. To apologize for the way he treated her at the beginning of their journey. He had so much he wanted to say and he was dealing with regret for the first time. What had happened, happened and there was no changing it. No matter how much he wanted it to change he had to face the facts. He wanted to beg for one last chance, to redo things, but he knew he couldn't. He was angry, upset, sad, and frustrated.

  Captain Steele picked up the console. He looked at it and knew that Jamie enjoyed her life as his friend and he really enjoyed her as his friend. He wanted to give her a proper good bye, a proper funeral. He took some some scrap metal and wrote the words: