Kade thought back to what Aurora had said. She had mentioned that the ship was designed to hold crew members and their families, but at the time Kade hadn’t noticed the actual meaning of those words.
The ship’s sheer size and armour screamed military, but no military would ever allow the crew’s families on board, it was too big a risk.
Kade looked around the room for a few seconds and then resumed her march.
Her grandfather had never actually referred to the Zenith as a warship, at least as far as she could recall, but that was the sense she had gotten from his stories. So was she wrong all this time, she wondered.
She was becoming frustrated as the questions just kept mounting with no end in sight, so she put it all to one side and focused on her objective. All the answers she needed were just a few corridors away, she thought and smiled as she approached the end of the corridor and the double doors in front of her opened. Kade and Nick stepped inside the next area and just froze.
They had stepped onto a balcony like structure that took a semi-circular path carrying on in both directions around an empty central area. This area being, quite literally, a void with no floor or ceiling.
They looked around, dumbfounded, as they tried to understand who in their right mind would design an atrium onto a spaceship.
Across from the balcony area, towards what was undoubtedly the hull of the ship, there was a vast transparent surface. The outside of which was covered by a blast shield.
It was clear that this area was intended as a viewing platform, allowing residents a natural view of the space outside the ship.
“Well…” Nick started to say as he looked around the communal area. “I certainly didn’t expect this.”
“It’s beautiful!” Kade remarked as she looked down, over the balcony’s edge.
The atrium seemed to span the height of the ship. Each level having a wide area balcony overlooking the central open space.
“I bet the view from here would be magnificent if those blast shields were open right now!” Kade said enthusiastically as she looked around.
“Aesthetics aside, it just screams ‘structural weakness’. A few good hits on that blast shield and this entire area would end up in vacuum. Seriously, who designs such an obvious weak spot onto a ship this size?” Nick asked rhetorically.
“Good point,” Kade said. For regardless of how much she liked the overall design, in the event of combat it would be a weakness that could cost lives. To her, this was simply not the design of a warship, and she couldn’t help but wonder if this was actually the ship from the tales after all.
“I wonder where that goes,” Nick said as he looked up towards the far end of the curved vertical shaft while standing at the edge of the balcony.
“There’s no floor either,” Kade said as she looked down the shaft. “It just keeps going. Maybe it goes all the way around the ship?”
As Kade and Nick stood there, trying to figure out if the design served an actual purpose beyond aesthetics, Kade’s intercom activated. Jude was checking in.
“Hey sis, you two still with me?” Jude asked.
“Still here, and you wouldn’t believe what we’re looking at right now. This ship is massive!” Kade replied.
“Compared to that tin can of yours…” Nick started to say but was quickly interrupted by Kade.
“Hey! Don’t bad mouth my ship!”
Jude said in a playful tone, “Focus kiddies!”
“My original point…” Kade said while giving Nick an annoyed sideways look “…was that it would probably take all day to check the lower decks just on this section.”
“No need,” Jude said. “As far as I can tell there isn’t much there. That entire block seems to be a residential area… with no residents.”
Nick said cheerfully, “You managed to break into the system? I’m impressed!”
Jude said, sounding upset, “Yes… well… you do realise that’s not actually a compliment, right? It just means you underestimated my abilities.”
Kade shook her head at Nick with a disappointed look and said, “Don’t mind him sis. What have you found out?” Kade said as Nick seemed completely unfazed that he had caused offence through his poor choice of words.
“I found some information, but I don’t have access to the full network from this node. I’m still trying to track down the central computer core. This ship has some serious security in place.”
“What do you have?” Kade urged her on.
“Mostly just useless trivia. The Zenith is a ‘Zenith class’ ship. Meaning, of course, that it’s the first of its kind. According to this, only two were ever built. The ‘Zenith’ and the ‘Athena’. Unfortunately all the juicy details are restricted.”
“Wait!” Nick interrupted. “There’s a second ship?”
“No. According to what I’ve found the Athena was destroyed almost one hundred years ago, but the files don’t go into much detail,” Jude said.
“Anything else?” Kade asked.
“It arrived in the Sol system almost three months ago, on the 20th of October last year, and it has been holding position here. It seems to be looking for something but no idea what.”
Kade’s expression changed, she couldn’t help but feel anxious. Not only was she starting to question whether this was actually the ship she was searching for and didn’t really trust the contact who had provided the information to its location, but now there was yet another burning question. If the Zenith had been here for months without being detected, how had her contact found it in the first place?
Kade recalled the details from the information pack. She had gone over it so many times she had practically memorised it. The report gave the impression that the ship had been there for a month, but there was no mention as to the original source of the information.
Either the information pack she had received was seriously flawed, or the records which Jude had found were intended as misdirection. Neither of which were particularly good options to contemplate.
“Let’s keep moving,” Kade said, looking at Nick.
“Let me know if you find anything else Jude.”
“Will do,” Jude replied, the comms going silent.
“So…” Nick started to say as he looked around. “…we have a deserted capital class ship, which was supposedly destroyed long before I was born. Belonging to a group most people in the galaxy don’t believe exist. Sitting in the middle of the most secure system in human space for months without being detected. Yep… nothing weird here!” He said with a straight face, which further enhanced the sarcasm.
“Let’s go,” Kade said with an amused look.
At the same time, back in the virtual environment…
Static had been observing his visitors closely, trying to understand them. The virtual environment had been reconfigured to show a composite image of the feeds from the security cameras. In effect he was standing right next to Kade and Nick, listening to their conversation and observing their reactions.
Kade’s expressions betrayed little of her state of mind. Static could tell her anxiety level had been mounting since coming aboard, but little else. And her anxiety was hardly surprising. If anything, she seemed to be handling the situation a little too well.
She moved with purpose, passing up opportunities to examine rooms which could hold clues. She certainly wasn’t your typical explorer, or maybe, she just wished to get the information straight out of Drake. She definitely seemed determined.
Nick, on the other hand, was much easier to read. His movements, reactions and expressions painting a relatively clear picture of his character.
At first glance he came across as good humoured and playful but not particularly bright. And yet he would often show surprising insight, hinting at a greater level of knowledge which was kept hidden. There was no anxiety or fear in his eyes, hinting at either considerable mental fortitude or plain stupidity.
Static walked around his visitors, seeing the Zenith fro
m their perspective, and he overheard them talking about the Athena: the Zenith’s sister ship. This caused his mood to shift dramatically, with his high spirits getting crushed under the weight of past memories.
As he stood there, recalling past events, he felt a hand on his right shoulder holding him gently. His spirits lifting as he turned around to see Nexus.
“It wasn’t your fault. There was nothing you could have done to prevent what happened, you know that,” Nexus said, trying to snap Static out of his rut.
“I know,” Static said, giving a faint smile. “Doesn’t make it any easier to deal with unfortunately.”
“Cheer up!” Nexus said. “I’m finished compiling the information you wanted.”
“OK,” Static said, looking at Nexus with renewed vigour. “The distress beacon?”
“It was configured in advance. They factored in how far out the Zenith’s disruption area extended and made sure the beacon operated at its maximum power level. Whoever did it wasn’t concerned that working at maximum would drain the beacons energy reserves in under five minutes. It was not, however, an automatic launch. Someone triggered it manually.”
“I see, they forced the beacon into flare mode. But that’s only useful when…” Static paused with a concerned look. “Tactical mode!” He ordered. The virtual environment changing once again.
“Nex, are there any other ships in the area?” Static asked as he frantically looked around the tactical overlay which showed all of the surrounding space.
“Nothing on sensors, but they could be hold up just outside our passive sensor range. Or they could be shielded, that’s always a possibility,” Nexus replied.
“I’m not sure which one of those options I like the least. That they somehow know what our sensor range is, or that we just can’t see them. At any rate, this area has been compromised. Start powering up the engines, we may need to leave sooner than intended,” Static ordered as he re-tasked the probe network to focus on the area around the Zenith.
“If we Vortex out like this, the Icarus will…” Nexus said, looking concerned.
“Yes, I know,” Static said in a reassuring voice. “Send out some recovery drones.”
Nexus said happily, “Dispatching drones. I’ll have them move the Icarus to docking bay one.”
Static looked on as a cheerful Nexus called up a virtual interface and started interacting with it.
It always made him smile that Nexus, arguably the most advanced Artificial Intelligence to date, who could easily control the entire ship without blinking a virtual eye, would often choose to interface with the ship’s systems in this clumsy traditional method.
“What?” Nexus asked as she noticed him smiling.
“Hmm?” Static responded instinctively, and then realised he had been staring. “Oh, nothing…” he said as Nexus gave him a questioning glance.
“You said you had the information. Give me the profile highlights on our guests,” he requested.
“Kade Alexander Rist. 33 years old.
Captain of the Icarus.
Parents: Felix Orel Rist and Aria June Alexander.
She has a basic degree in business and holds a class two civilian captain’s licence.
Born on Andreus II, a backwater farming colony.
No record of any military service on file.
Next we have Jude Alexander Rist, 28 years old and Kade’s younger sister.
Navigator of the Icarus and second in command.
A high achiever with several advanced engineering degrees. A communications systems specialist.
Also born on Andreus II.
No mention of a military service record but she was cautioned several times by police forces back in her home colony.”
“Let me guess. Hacking?”
“Yep. She’s a bit of a wild child. She’s fascinated by Artificial Intelligence technology and has tried to hack into the interstellar GAIA network core on multiple occasions, with varying degrees of success.”
“What for?”
“Apparently she just wanted to talk to an AI. The logs don’t say why.”
“You two should get to know each other, she gets to fulfil her wish and we get the inside scoop on what they are doing here. Who’s next?”
“Nick Smith Langstrum, Pilot of the Icarus. His records are forged, good ones too, but pretty much everything I found on him is fake. He keeps no logs on the Icarus central computer. According to Kade’s logs he was recruited around two months ago, after her former pilot disappeared without a trace. And, it gets better!”
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Static asked with a worried expression.
“According to Kade’s last entry, Nick demonstrated knowledge about the Zenith, so I had a quick look into the bridge logs. He didn’t go into any specifics, but he did seem to know about our engines.”
“Great, that’s just great,” Static said sarcastically as he held the back of his neck with his right hand and stared into the distance. A clear sign of concern Nexus had seen many times before. And then said, “So, worst case scenario, we’re dealing with a spy from either a mega-corporation or government agency. I doubt a run of the mill crook would have access to knowledge about the Zenith. Not after the Union went to such extremes last time around to erase everything about us from history. But, at any rate… anything else?”
“The last two are the deactivated synthetics. One male, one female. They don’t appear to be combat models. They also don’t seem to be slaved to the Icarus central computer. According to the records, they came with the ship when the girls inherited it from their grandfather. And Jude has been attempting to reactivate them ever since, apparently without much success.”
“OK, that covers the basics. So, what kind of business is Kade into?” Static asked.
“Her personal mission records paint a mixed picture. The nearest title that would fit her average style of work would be ‘Smuggler’,” Nexus replied.
“Hmm.” Static scratched his head. “Last month we had a pirate ship knocking on our doorstep for no apparent reason, and now a smuggler?”
“What are you thinking?” Nexus asked, worried about his expression.
“I’m thinking that someone is using these peons to flush us out. Or at least, that’s what it looks like. First we get the pirate ship that goes looking for an easy target in an area with no trade routes. Then, a smuggler that somehow knows my access code comes aboard, and not long after our location is exposed for the whole system to see.”
“You think the Sol Union knows we’re here?” Nexus asked, clearly concerned.
“No… maybe… I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out how they got my code to begin with.”
Meanwhile, as Kade and Nick continued their march towards Drake’s location and Jude explored the Zenith’s information network, several events were unfolding in space.
A rather mistreated probe, which Static had used as a battering ram, was slowly limping its way back to the ship. And at the same time, six heavy retrieval drones were heading towards the Icarus in order to tow it into the Zenith’s hangar bay.
Drones, as a technology type, had been around since ancient times. A form of automated tech designed to perform specific functions, from observation to combat and everything in between.
Retrieval drones were the tug-boats of space. Designed to latch onto and relocate ships or structures of considerable mass.
The drones split into groups and began to securely latch onto key locations of the ship’s hull. One by one signalling back to the Zenith that they were ready to begin retrieval. And moments after the last drone reported in, the docking tube interconnecting both ships suddenly detached and began retracting. Effectively stranding the Icarus crew.
At that very moment Jude was reading through every scrap of info she could find. She still hadn’t found the location of the ship’s master computer but she was making progress.
Her visor was displaying the status of several of the Zenith’s s
ystems: the ones she had managed to tap into so far. Suddenly, one of the systems flashed red as the display updated, catching Jude’s attention. And as she focused in on it, to see what had happened, her heart nearly skipped a beat. The docking tube had auto disconnected!
“What?” Jude screamed in a panic.
She ran towards the airlock to check that the Icarus was still there, rushing to the nearby viewport window and hoping the information on her visor was wrong. But what she saw nearly floored her.
The docking tunnel was indeed being retracted. And she could also see several objects stuck to the Icarus’s hull that were flaring up like engines as the ship was slowly being pulled out of position.
“Not good! Not good!! Not good!!!” She all but screamed as she typed into her Echo, trying to connect to the Icarus through the normal comms channels. But the ship wasn’t responding.
“Shit! Kade’s gonna kill me!” She said as she powerlessly stared out of the window, seeing the Icarus being pulled out of her line of sight, towards the front end of the Zenith.
Jude shouted into her intercom, “Kade!”
“Kade! Answer me dammit!” She tried once again, but wasn’t getting a reply.
Jude started to panic. Not only was she stranded but she couldn’t contact her sister.
She went over her suit’s systems again and again, trying to figure out what was wrong, but her Echo unit was showing that her suit was in perfect working order. Her sister just wasn’t responding.
The Sleeper
Just as all seemed lost, Jude heard a gentle voice coming out of thin air, telling her not to worry.
She looked around the empty room but couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from and feared that she had finally lost her mind.
“Calm down,” said the woman’s voice.
“Calm down? Calm down! I am freaking calm! What the hell is going on?” Jude asked as she looked frantically around the room.
“Your visor,” the woman’s voice said calmly.
“What?” Jude realised that her head gear was still on, and in her panic she hadn’t realised the voice was coming from the speakers.
“Lower your visor and you will be able to see me,” the voice said.
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