Claimed: Unchartered Territory

by Nia K. Foxx

  “Let’s try to keep it that way,” the nervous humor in his voice registered through the headsets and mirrored her own feelings.

  “Prepping probe one for launch.”

  Juno XI was equipped with three interstellar probes each with its own scanners and sensors to take readings around the singularity and eventually into the void. Dallas set the trajectory for the path the first probe was to follow near the rim.

  “Probe one is locked and loaded,” she confirmed.

  “You have permission to launch at your ready.”

  “Initiating countdown sequence.”

  Five... four...

  Dallas silently followed along with the digital count.

  One, she mouthed and jettisoned the probe. She saw it as it sped from her ship and towards the anomaly.

  “Dallas, we have a visual on the probe from your vessel.”

  “Good, I’m engaging the probe’s scanners now.” Working as she spoke Dallas initiated a monitor that would allow her and mission control to see all the images picked up by the probe.

  “The probes transmission are intact, are you getting this Bobby?”

  “Looking good on this end. Let’s see if you can get it to navigate away from the singularity for some measurements.”

  “Roger that.”

  The probe responded without a hitch to her commands swinging away from the distortion.

  “Amazing,” Dallas couldn’t help but utter as the probe projected back a live feed of the objects size measuring it far larger than they originally estimated. If her calculations were correct, six maybe more of her ships could fit within the opening. She looked to her primary monitor as the probe began transmitting the anomaly’s properties.

  “Dallas was a sensor check performed prior to launch?” Bobby asked.

  “I performed a manual one last night and a diagnostic before I let her loose,” she confirmed but understood why the question was asked. According to the data being received the anomaly didn’t seem to be emitting any levels of radiation, which should have been impossible. With it being so close to Jupiter’s orbit there should have been a significant presence. Even with her ship’s shielding there were trace levels present in her cabin.

  “Are you seeing the same levels of radiation we are here?”

  “If you’re seeing zero than so am I, but I’m also picking up a strong electromagnetic field.”

  “We’re getting those readings now. This is incredible!”

  Dallas shared the same sentiment. She’d never seen anything like it. “I-I think we might very well be staring into the eye of a wormhole,” she uttered more to herself than the mission control team.

  “Is the second probe ready for deployment?”

  “It can be, but is there authorization to go ahead of schedule?”

  “I’m staring at it on my screen you’re all green,” he replied.

  “That’s enough for me. Probe two is ready to launch.”

  “On your mark Dallas,” Bobby confirmed.

  She launched the second probe into the mouth of the abyss. Minutes ticked by with the only transmission being dead air, or at least that’s the way it appeared on her screen from the information being transmitted back to her. Dallas worried the scanner had been damaged by the electromagnetic field and was in the process of typing in recall instructions when her screen suddenly lit up with a constellation formation unlike anything she’d ever seen.

  “Mission Control we have a visual,” she said unable to control the smile in her voice.

  “Roger that Dallas, we are seeing it clearly on this end too.”

  “Reducing probe’s speed to perform a three-sixty scan,” she advised even as she entered the new instructions.

  The probe’s shielding obviously held up through the abyss because it transmitted back devastatingly clear images. Dallas was right. It wasn’t any constellation she recognized.

  It was true.

  The obsidian mass in front of her was not a black hole but an actual wormhole.

  One.

  No.

  Two moons were visible and orbited a distant sun. And just as the probe was nearing the completion of its rotation she caught her first glimpse of what was possibly a planet. Dallas paused the rotation cycle to move the probe in for a closer inspection of the far off world.

  “It appears to be a planet,” she all but muttered not sure if she were doing so for herself or the mission control team.

  There was a long silence.

  “Is that…” Bobby trailed off but they were seeing the same transmission so Dallas knew what he was about to say.

  “Water,” she supplied. “It looks like a large body of water and land formations.”

  Like earth, but different. From their vantage they could glean various colors, huge amounts of orange intermixed in some areas with green. Could it represent vegetation? If, so what other sort of life could the planet sustain.

  “Is that right, am I seeing the makings of plant life?” Bobby asked.

  “It’s only speculation for now, we’ll have to send the rover through to the surface to be certain,” she clarified stamping down the excitement bubbling inside her at the find. “First, I want to send the probe on a rotation of this hemisphere.”

  “Roger that Dallas.”

  With new command inputs for the probe, she was in the process of executing the surveillance protocols when there was a sudden flash from the planet’s surface.

  The screen went dark.

  All transmission ended.

  Dallas could hear the scurrying of feet mixed with confused conversation in the mission control tower.

  “What happened?” Bobby asked.

  “Not sure,” was all she could provide as she went through a system check then attempted to bring the probe back online.

  Nothing worked. For good measure she ran through the diagnostics again and made several more unsuccessful tries at restoring control of the probe.

  She slumped back in her command seat feeling as if she’d just run a marathon. “It’s gone.”

  “How soon can we launch the rover?”

  Dallas could practically feel Bobby’s anticipation through space.

  “We should analyze the data we have first before attempting the final launch.”

  “Of course, but how long are we talking? A few hours?”

  “More like a day or two. Something interfered with that probe and we need to know what we missed.”

  “Let’s aim for a day then,” he insisted but she knew he was only parroting the order of their superiors as it flashed across his monitor.

  Her thoughts shifted from the anxious group of people back on earth to what might have caused the probe to malfunction. That flash was definitely something other than the probe burning up in the planet’s atmosphere. She had to have answers before proceeding; no way was she going to have her last mission be a bust because some suits wanted to go off half cocked.

  ***

  Chezar, Sector Two (the other side of the wormhole)

  “Watch Leader, sensors are picking up an unidentified object emerging from the aperture,” the centurion on duty reported.

  “Pull it up on screen,” his superior ordered.

  The object on the viewer generated a buzz of interest in the room.

  “Another sphere, this makes a second in less than two creons,” the Watch Leader muttered before moving into the isolation room which also doubled as his private office. There he could patch in to his commanding leader for further instruction.

  Outside the tower room personnel were riveted by the projection of the alien device flying miles above the planet’s surface. There wasn’t a long wait before the Watch Leader stepped back into the tower room.

  “Bring the device in,” he ordered. “Looks like E’rth has sent us another treat.”

  ***

  A frustrated Dallas shifted away from the monitor she’d poured over for countless hours. Mission control would remain silent until their ne
xt appointed check-in or unless the team had new information to report. Her tired eyes could barely see straight, which only added to her annoyance.

  She checked the time and groaned at the lapse since she’d last bothered with it. Normally, she held to a sleep schedule which kept in line with the Eastern Standard time zone, but she was up well passed her bedtime. A couple hours of downtime should give her tired eyes and body the rest it needed to approach the data again.

  “Mission control I’m going to get a few winks, someone make sure Bobby does the same.”

  There was an unidentified chuckle from the other end. “Roger that Dallas.”

  Dallas abandoned the command area for her nearby bunk compartment. It was close quarters but contained the one essential item she needed. Settling on the bunk she could almost hear her body thanking her for the coming reprieve. No sooner then she laid her head on the pillow her heavy eyelids drifted down and sweet sleep claimed her.

  ***

  It was a dream, of that she was certain. She knew it because only her mind could drudge up such a spectacular looking creature. She smiled in recognition. He’d starred briefly in a few dreams since her departure. Part man and part… well whatever he was it made for a perfectly decadent dream. Not like that time she’d dreamt about her third year chemistry professor with the bad hair augmentation.

  She shuddered.

  This man… creature was pure fantasy. His face, although interesting, was inconsequential. Even his odd coloring didn’t give her pause. He was, after all, a figment of her imagination. All that mattered was the business he had going on underneath those fitted leather pants. She let her gaze linger on the growing bulge that was right where it was supposed to be. He made an unrecognizable sound which drew her attention away from her area of interest.

  “Did you say something big fella?” And boy was he big. Like get a major crook in your neck big if he stood too close.

  He uttered something else completely unintelligible to her.

  “Sorry sweetie, I speak four languages and Wookie isn’t one of them. But I don’t think that should matter much since neither one of us are here to discuss the origins of the universe. God, I hope that’s not what we’re supposed to be doing.”

  He made a deep throaty sound she interpreted as laughter before closing the small span of space separating them.

  She was right, they didn’t need words. And Dallas had to admit she liked his style. Firm hands on her ass hoisting her up to bring them eye level.

  “Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” she whispered at seeing dark lavender eyes staring back at her. So close there was no mistaking the raised flesh between his brows making him look dangerously wild.

  Exciting.

  This was going to be fun.

  Chapter Three

  Whoever thought to call an emergency drill right at the beginning of the best damned dream… ever, was definitely in for an earful.

  Her weary body protested as Dallas pushed the fuzzy cloud of tiredness from her mind. She swore it felt like she’d just closed her eyes. The haze faded as she registered the internal flashing lights accompanying the high pitched warning signal.

  “Ah hell,” she muttered stumbling from her quarters and down the short distance to the command deck. Her ship blazed red with warning lights. Drill or not it was definitely the boost of adrenaline she needed to come to full alertness. She slid into her seat letting fingers fly over the controls to run system checks, absently remembering to slip in her ear piece.

  “Juno to mission control.”

  No response.

  She tried again.

  Still nothing. There wasn’t a chance for a third attempt.

  The ship quaked, jostling her in her seat.

  “Well that wasn’t a simulation.” She flipped the switch to raise the shielding from the observation windows. Her heart raced at the thought of having been hit by space debris or worse an asteroid.

  How had her sensors not detected anything? Why hadn’t her shielding deflected the object?

  There was only the briefest seconds of relief at seeing unobstructed air space before the ship quaked again. Only this time the shaking didn’t stop.

  The combination of rattling and warning signals merged into a noisy pandemonium.

  Dallas abandoned her attempts at bringing mission control back online focusing instead on identifying what caused her ship to blaze up like the Festival of Lights on Christmas Eve. Luckily the monitors seemed to be functioning properly and began displaying one malfunction after another.

  Sensors, warp propulsion, solar sails, an atmospheric leak, and a whole host of other failures sprung up on her monitors. Definitely beyond the parameters of a normal simulation. Luckily the leak was in a non-essential section of the ship and easily sealed off. She swiveled in her chair to check oxygen levels in the rest of the ship but stopped short at the sight outside the observation windows.

  Jupiter, which should have loomed big as day, was gone. So were its moons… and everything else for that matter. There wasn’t one single solitary star or planet to be seen. Inky blackness surrounded her from all sides in an endless void.

  Instant fear clutched her and try as she might Dallas couldn’t help but give in to a measure of panic.

  “This can’t be.”

  She checked the ships system for her current coordinates. The readings came back with the last directives she’d input which should have kept her at a safe distance from the wormhole. There were no overrides uploaded from the IAC and nothing else to explain why the view outside had changed. Yet she had a growing fear that somehow her ship had found its way into the wormhole. No amount of drift could explain the distance the ship would have had to travel to reach the singularity.

  But what if- she stopped the errant thought knowing it was absurd. But it was the only thing that made sense. The wormhole wasn’t a fixed point in space. It had moved and swallowed her. Well technically it swallowed her ship but she was in it and by default it had gobbled her up too.

  Dallas tried to dismiss the theory as fear.

  “Stupid, stupid,” she berated herself. If only she’d thought about the possibility beforehand. It explained why her original coordinates were off.

  She checked the one thing she hadn’t thought to amidst her current crisis.

  Hope sank as she stared at the digital gauge that monitored the ships speed.

  “That’s not possible,” she muttered at the readings projecting back at her.

  The ship was traveling at a velocity far beyond its capabilities. Her mind struggled as she tried to think of ways to safely slow and reverse her course.

  No matter which way she looked at it there was no way to stop the current course, not if she wanted to keep the ship from ripping apart. She was trapped. Her only hope was to make it through to the other end in one piece. She was on this space ride for the long haul.

  Destination unknown.

  ***

  Chezar, Sector Two...

  “Sir, another object has come through the aperture.”

  The centurion’s words caused an immediate response from his superior.

  “Another sphere?” the Watch Leader asked disbelievingly.

  “No Sir, this is larger, much larger.” The centurion pulled the object up on screen for the Watch Leader to see. “The structure and shape would indicate a vessel.”

  “An alien vessel?” his superior muttered.

  “Open all communication frequencies,” the Watch Leader ordered.

  The centurion quickly complied

  “Alien vessel you are encroaching on the Chezarian home world. Reroute your flight pattern away from the planet or risk capture.” The commander’s stern threat resonated with everyone else in the tower. “Send that out on all known translations.”

  “Nothing sir,” the centurion reported unnecessarily after a long silence.

  “Does the craft have weapon capability?”

  “None that we are able to de
tect.”

  “Lock on it.”

  The directive caused the centurion a moment’s pause before he initiated the tracking device. The next injunction was equally shocking.

  “Open up a line to the High Commander’s office, immediately.”

  “Aye sir.”

  An occasional sphere was one thing, but the arrival of an alien vessel was definite cause for alarm and an immediate leap in the chain of command.

  ***

  As far as deaths went hers was a bit anti-climatic.

  She expected the ship to pull apart and set off a series of explosions creating a light show of epic proportion.

  It always looked so spectacular in the movies.

  Hers was nothing like that.

  In fact it was pretty annoying. Instead of explosions the warning signals continued to scream loudly, the incessant sound bounced around in the ship as if on a mission to torture her into insanity. She wondered at the logic of having it blare so loudly. Maybe it was meant to be a distraction. Take the person’s mind off the very real fact they might just be at the end of their life cycle. Whatever the intent was in the design it was making her head throb. It didn’t help either that she was being jostled around through the whole experience. Maybe it would have been better if she hadn’t thought to strap in at the last minute. She could be blissfully knocked unconscious and not awake to witness her impending demise.

  Death, the word rang in her head.

  Would it hurt?

  Or would everything just go black?

  Was there really a white light she was supposed to go into?

  Dallas waited for her life to flash before her eyes as homage to her existence.

  She waited… for something. Anything!

  Her emancipation from the Orphanage she’d grown up in after her mother left. Her first time with Robbie McCallister, which had lasted all of one hundred and twenty seconds. Yup, she’d counted. Or what about her second time which only tacked on about sixty more seconds. Try as she might she couldn’t get the reel of film that was her life to play out in a montage of heartaches and accomplishments.

  Of course it would all come to an end on a bouncy joyride through a wormhole while being yelled at by the ship she was entombed in.