Claimed: Unchartered Territory

by Nia K. Foxx

  This sucked.

  The vibration from the craft came to an unexpected end as her ship was belched from the wormholes interior and out into open space.

  Around her a constellation came into view and with it the realization that she hadn’t died.

  Dallas took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly to help soothe her rattled nerves. But it would take more than a few breathing techniques to get the erratic hammering of her heart under control. She felt the first step in her recovery would be to silence the unnecessary emergency signal. There was no need in being redundant because she already knew she was in trouble, with a capital HOLY SHIT.

  A diagnostic check indicated the ship had made it through intact, for the most part. But she was forced to seal off yet another area due to atmospheric leaks.

  The ships sensors were intermittent at best, and the solar sails were still unresponsive. But other than that it was a successful, albeit unexpected, voyage. She was surprised to see communications back online, at least somewhat. Dejectedly she noted they only seemed capable of a one way transmission. Restoring full communication would rank high on her priority list.

  But there was another problem weighing heavily on her mind. She had no way of getting back to her own galaxy. Her journey through demonstrated that the singularity flowed in one direction and unless another wormhole existed with an opposite trajectory she was going to remain thoroughly and utterly lost. Her usual self-restraint gave way to an explosion of frustration. Dallas slammed the side of her fist against the control panel in front of her. Little relief was to be had in the action but she welcomed the subsequent ache as further testament to her survival.

  She activated the ships internal recorder while opening the communication link to mission control.

  “Captain Dallas Mann of Juno XI, mission log.”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat trying not to think about the fact she might never return to earth. The reality was even more reason to make sure the International Aeronautical Community also known as the IAC had as much information as possible, if only to prevent them sending out another vessel for research and recovery. Well at least for research anyway. She was at the end of her contract and no longer of much value to them so there was little chance of an actual recovery mission for her. Still she felt a need to document her experience. It wasn’t worth the risk to have another person end up in her predicament. She felt it was her duty as the Juno captain and a scientist to document any and all information about her journey.

  “…Juno XI has made an unexpected trip through the wormhole with minor complications. My communications appear to have a one way link, if it’s transmitting or for how long I’m not sure. It’s my belief that the wormhole is not a fixed point in space but rather it moves at an undetermined speed and has only a one way flow. My recommendation is that further study of the wormhole’s patterns be studied before sending additional manned crafts to observe. At this point I can only assume I have emerged in or around the same area as the second probe. The little information received from the probe isn’t sufficient enough to make a conclusive determination at this point.”

  Dallas engaged the ship’s engines which seemed to hesitate only slightly before igniting. It was another thing to be thankful for in a situation which she didn’t think could yield many positives. She rotated the ship for a better view of her surroundings, not that she would find any familiar bearings in the unchartered territory.

  “I’ll have better luck playing ini mini miny moe,” she muttered under her breath.

  Lost was lost no matter what direction she chose to travel.

  For several seconds she sank into her chair and let her mind wander back to the life she left behind on earth. It might not have been much by some people’s estimations but she enjoyed it. The future she expected to have at the end of the mission was a bright one. This was to be her final trip to fulfill the Orphanages contract and now she would never return home.

  Dallas shook off the thought knowing it would only give way to the panic attack hovering so close. She hadn’t felt this vulnerable since she was a child and her mother left for the lunar colony without her. It wasn’t an emotion she cared to revisit.

  An object came into view from the observation window on her starboard side, interrupting her destructive thought pattern.

  Her heart lurched.

  A planet.

  But not just any planet.

  It looked familiarly like the one she’d spied from the probes transmissions. It loomed large. Imposingly alien. She could clearly make out distinct blue bodies of what she previously believed to be water along with patches of green and an abundance of orange.

  If there was water and vegetation it could possibly sustain life. The thought of a forced landing was something she didn’t relish or wanted to even consider but the oxygen levels were low from the atmospheric leaks and her choices were slim. She had less than five weeks of air supply left. A month wasn’t a long time especially not to determine if she should risk landing on the planet’s surface. She could speculate about whether there was water or plant life from now until eternity but without an actual sample of the planet’s atmosphere she wouldn’t know if she could actually survive on it.

  In that moment Dallas remembered the undeployed rover.

  A bubble of laughter erupted from inside catching her off guard.

  “See what happens when you start to give in to fear, you don’t think straight. And apparently you spend a lot of time talking to yourself too.”

  She would send the rover down. It could be her salvation or a confirmation of her possible doom. She was choosing to go with the more positive thought.

  Dallas resumed transmission. “Fuel levels are stable but two atmospheric leaks have reduced the oxygen levels. I don’t expect life support to last more than a few weeks barring any more complications. Deploying the rover to the planet seems the best plan of action to verify if it’s capable of sustaining human life. Ending communication.” she relayed to anyone who might be listening to the transmission.

  She was beyond grateful when all systems registered positive for the rover launch and was in the process of deployment when the ship lurched harder than she experienced coming through the wormhole.

  “What the hell was that?” Dallas exclaimed after being jerked around like a rag doll in the hands of temperamental child. The lights in the control room flickered off and on before submerging the room in complete darkness. After several seconds backup lighting kicked in and caste the cabin in an eerie blue glow. The control panel was dormant. Communications were completely out, thrusters unresponsive and the steady hum of the oxygen being pumped throughout the ship came to a shuddering stop.

  “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” she said as gravity abandoned her along with all other ship’s functions.

  Mentally, she did a quick estimation of potential available oxygen left inside. It didn’t look good. Hours, if she were lucky. Right now she felt the only luck she had in her favor was of the bad variety.

  That kind of thinking isn’t going to help matters Dallas, so buck up and use that beautiful brain of yours to figure something out, her inner voice encouraged sending her into action.

  Her attempts to bring the ship back online were unsuccessful and she felt drained after running through every protocol several times without even a hiccup of response.

  The ship jerked again but was followed by the strange sensation of movement. She confirmed the feeling to be an actual fact as she looked out the windows only to see the alien planet growing increasingly larger.

  She was being pulled into the planet’s atmosphere.

  “I guess I’ll know soon enough if it’s habitable or not, that’s if the ship doesn’t burn up in the atmosphere without the power to its shielding,” she muttered to the empty room as she unbuckled and floated to retrieve her space suit and helmet. Equipped with its own internal air supply the design was a far cry from the bulky suits worn over a hundred year
s ago. The sleek, fitted design allowed for unhampered mobility. The helmet’s snug fit attached easily to the collar of the suit with only two fasteners which provided an air tight seal. The oxygen flow started as soon as the last closure was in place. A few clicks to the arm controls had her firmly planted on the ground. Beautiful gravity.

  If only the next touch down would go as easy, she thought before going back to strap in.

  ***

  An alien vessel breached Chezarian planetary space. It was all the information needed to move into action. Instead of waiting to be updated on what the craft held Remar chose to go with the embarking team. The ship was larger than their patrol crafts, and he wouldn’t risk sending his centurions into an unknown situation he wasn’t prepared to enter himself. The last time an actual alien ship came through the aperture it had obvious signs of battle and the two crew compliment aboard had blood in their eyes. Four centurions were lost that day before the multi-limbed aliens were put down. Remar refused to allow it to happen again.

  He wanted to see these creatures face to face.

  “Wake my brother and see he is fully briefed. He is to stay secured in the High Command offices until I have given the all clear. We are surely to start getting communications from the other sectors but he is only to inform that we are investigating the matter,” he instructed his advisor.

  “My lord, perhaps your brother should go in your stead...” His Under Commander’s nervous comment trailed off at the hard look Remar shot him.

  He wasn’t a man to be argued with especially not on a matter of importance.

  ***

  Dallas knew something wasn’t right when instead of spiraling towards the planet’s surface her ship continued to move at a regulated speed and on a straight trajectory towards the alien world. It passed through the atmospheric barrier with the barest hint of turbulence.

  For most of the journey she watched in awe as the planet’s surface began to take on more defined shapes and forms. Cloud coverage gave way to stunning red mountain tops, land, and water.

  She couldn’t help but feel a bit of elation even as her steady dissent took her further into the unknown. She thought she saw the flash of something from the surface and craned from her buckled seat for a better view. It was gone too quickly to identify. But her curiosity was piqued by another spark only this time she could make out the formation of the structure it seemed to come from.

  Buildings! Her heart soared. If there were buildings then there was life and obviously intelligent life forms. She was quickly convinced that whatever species lived on the planet was responsible for her ship’s easy entry onto the planet.

  “First contact. This should be documented,” she mumbled wishing everything wasn’t completely offline.

  Dallas’ mind raced to conjure a potential image of the inhabitants from what she could visually glean. It didn’t help. She would just have to wait and hope that her rescuers were from a friendly species.

  An object whizzed by her window, then another. Both moved too quickly for her to make out a form or determine what they might be.

  As she stretched to get a better look a white foamy substance landed on the surface of the glass and began to cover it rapidly. The whole process happened in a matter of seconds making further vision impossible.

  “Okay, so they’re a little private. Still could be friendly.” She repeated the thought several times until she felt the solid thud of her ship touching down. Everything went still. She’d landed or docked. In any case she knew the time for speculation over the alien’s intent was drawing to an end.

  “But just in case…” she unbuckled, while reaching for a metal collapsible rod which could be used as an effective weapon if necessary.

  There was the muffled clang of something scraping against the hull of the ship. Time ticked by slowly before a new sound interrupted the brief silence. It was steel giving way as if being pealed apart. So much for IAC craftsmanship. Obviously the aliens possessed technology which surpassed anything the engineers had thought existed.

  There was no pushing back the anxiety this time. No amount of pep talking could take away the fear of the unknown. She glanced at the bank of lockers and a thought formed.

  “I can’t.”

  Why not? Hide and see what you can from the slats or stand and face whatever is so determined to get in here. Your choice, her inner voice rationalized.

  Put like that Dallas hurried to one of the lockers, crammed herself inside and pulled the door closed in front of her. She took small solace in the metal weapon clasped in her gloved hand.

  Please be friendly, she mouthed.

  Chapter Four

  Twenty centurions stood poised outside the foreign vessel in anticipation of a battle. Only one life form registered on their sensors but it still didn’t give the warriors any indication of what they might be up against.

  “Immobilize if possible, but if it is a choice between you and the creature we take no prisoners,” the order came from Remar.

  Each centurion grunted their understanding.

  The entrance was too narrow to allow more than one of the broadly built centurions through at a time so Remar took the lead. He’d called for his special guard to assist in the confrontation. Each warrior was part of a team hand selected by him.

  He motioned for his men to scatter in groups of two down the narrow corridors. They made quick work of the search through the interconnecting walkways which culminated in them congregating in what appeared to be the command room. The interior only allowed for four males to move about its interior which left the others to linger in the narrow hall.

  “It appears to be empty, High Commander,” a centurion reported after their search of the vessel resulted in nothing.

  Remar used his com-unit to reach the Watch Tower, “Your scanners registered at least one life form?”

  “Aye sir,” the Watch Leader replied. “And sensors indicate you are only five parsecs away from it.”

  “Then there is something here,” Remar advised his centurions as he let his gaze sweep slowly over the room for possible hiding places.

  Perhaps the creature was cloaked, he thought to himself and twirled in the direction of the two pilot seats. For good measure he pat the empty spaces to ensure they were really vacant.

  His gaze roamed the semi-darkened alien ship. Its dim blue lights provided little luminosity. The rafters had been pulled apart to reveal nothing but more metal and padding certainly no place for anything to hide.

  “Has anyone investigated those units?” he motioned towards a slight grouping of metal containers.

  “No sir,” a centurion replied as he approached the items in question.

  The units looked barely large enough to fit an adolescent Chezarians female, but Remar didn’t want any space left unexamined.

  ***

  From inside the locker Dallas couldn’t believe how incredibly hulking the aliens were. Of the ones she could see she doubted any of them were smaller than six foot seven. She made the estimation based on the height of the lockers and her inability to see more than any of their lower chests, that was until one bent to frisk the command chairs.

  Peculiar.

  She stared at the back of his head and the thickly plaited white braid swinging back and forth with his movements, like the tail of a restless tiger. She relaxed a bit at realizing they were humanoid in build. A much better image than the insectoid picture she’d conjured up. Dallas could easily see the alien’s light gray color which was visible through the leather vest like coverings each wore. She considered the tattooed muscled arm of the being and marveled at its sheer size.

  What did he have to do to get them looking like that, she couldn’t help but think.

  The alien turned before stretching back to his full height and she caught a quick glimpse of his face.

  Definitely not a large cockroach, but Dallas had to bite her bottom lip to stifle her surprised gasp.

  Strong, fierce features were unlike a
ny she’d ever seen on a human but she did recall seeing them somewhere.

  Impossible!

  They were dreams.

  But there was no mistaking the deep set of ridges adorning the alien’s forehead. What was even more disturbing was the flash of lavender she saw in the pools of his eyes before he stood.

  Maybe she was wrong. It was dark inside the cabin and she didn’t have the greatest view from the locker, not to mention hers wasn’t the best mental state to be in at the moment. It wasn’t every day a person was sucked through a wormhole and pulled onto an alien planet of giants. Her mind could be playing tricks on her.

  She held her position listening to the sharp exchanges outside. At least it sounded harsh to her but what did she know? They could be casually discussing the weather or their commute into work. The language was deep and guttural sounding.

  Like in her dreams.

  Her heart hitched in her chest when their attention turned to the lockers.

  She’d known it was only a matter of time before the aliens searched them after the mayhem they’d already served up looking through the rafters. Frankly, she was surprised when no one had bothered to look in them first. Dallas held her breath as someone began systematically opening one compartment after another. Her locker shook from the force being exerted on the other units. Each clang brought the seeker closer to discovering her.

  It wouldn’t be long.

  Then what?

  Lines from her favorite vintage sci-fi movies came to mind.

  I come in peace…live long and prosper. Ultimately it didn’t matter what she said because they wouldn’t understand her anyway.

  Her grip tightened on the metal rod.

  She heard the unit next to hers being swung open. Its contents were shifted around non-too-gently by the examiner. But the noise stopped as abruptly as it began. The alien moved on and was in front of her locker.

  Her discovery was inevitable.

  Dallas counted down, five...four...three...

  The door swung open and she noted the surprise etched on the alien’s severe face but even its stunned expression couldn’t diminish the intense appearance. She hadn’t imagined it. They really were rather intimidating looking and the ridges only seemed to accentuate the tough features. He didn’t look like the one she’d observed before, but then again she couldn’t be too certain.