“Oh, uh, no... I’m coming now!”
Major General Solbrig closed the cabinet slowly and made sure his arm compartment was secure as he left the engine room and walked out and saw Major General Reingle wearing the OBA standing by the desk waiting for him.
“Do you want to go now?” asked Major General Reingle.
Major General Solbrig looked at him. “Are you kidding me? I want to be the second transhuman to walk on Snakardekus!”
Major General Reingle laughed. “That’s fine.”
He grabbed the OBA and grabbed the vial, and moved it into place, then he moved the OBA and inserted it into his mouth. He then secured the arms behind his head.
“You ready?” Major General Reingle asked.
“I believe I’m ready.” As he talked, his voice sounded exactly like Major General Reingle’s.
“Got your extra vials?”
“Right here.” Major General Solbrig patted his robotic arm.
Major General Solbrig followed Major General Reingle as they walked towards the door to the outside world of Snakardekus. Major General Reingle pressed the button, and the doors slid open. He walked cautiously out of the Drakdel and down the ramp onto the hard-rocky ground. He turned behind him, and he saw that Major General Solbrig was only a few steps behind him.
“I don’t understand this, Reingle.”
“What’s that?”
“How are we able to just wear the OBA without any sort of contaminants affecting us from the environment?”
“I have no clue, but it works. Plus, look at the bright side; we don’t have to wear big bulky suits or anything like that!”
Major General Solbrig nodded. “You’re right, I do not miss those suits at all. Show me where you have explored, Reingle.”
He nodded and walked to the area that he had been to by the slope leading to the sand and stopped.
“This is it?”
“Mmhmm. This is as far as I went.”
“This is not even what, thirty feet?” Major General Solbrig asked
“I realize that.” Major General Reingle agreed. “I scanned objects and waited.”
“I mean, I can’t say much I didn’t do anything in the Drakdel... you know I was thinking, is something strange to you?”
“What’s that?” Major General Reingle felt that nervous feeling coming over him again.
“Are you sweating?”
Major General Reingle was relieved he did not ask about that feeling, but he hadn’t thought about the weather. He knew it was windy and hot, but the thought did not come across his mind.
“No, I’m not. In fact, I’m not even hot.”
“I know it is hot out here, but I feel the coolness of the air from the OBA in my lungs, and I’m not sweating at all...this is odd don’t you think?”
“Hmm... do you think it is because of the OBA’s?” asked Major General Reingle.
“Could be.” Major General Solbrig shrugged. “I doubt it is the weather, especially by how arid it is out here. Just odd, you know?”
“Very odd.”
“Well come on, let’s continue exploring.” Major General Solbrig pointed down on the slope.
Major General Reingle looked at him nervously and spoke. “Uh...yeah sure. Say, why don’t you lead? I was the first transhuman to step foot on Snakardekus, why don’t you be the first one to explore more of it?”
“You sure about that?”
“Absolutely, go for it!”
“Well, alright. Follow me then.”
Phew. Thought Solbrig wasn’t going to agree. Major General Reingle stepped aside and moved his hands to point in the direction of the slope.
“After you.”
“Oh, you’re too nice,” he chuckled.
Major General Solbrig walked slowly down the slope with Major General Reingle trailing behind him. The terrain was rocky, but manageable to not fall down easily. They reached the end of the hill and stepped on the desert sand.
“You feel that, Reingle?”
“What’s that?”
“Sand. It’s just like Nuwurth. Should we scan it?”
“I don’t see why not. We do need a database of everything we encounter on Snakardekus.”
“Scan away then!”
Major General Reingle swiped open his INH and tapped the “Scan” button and pointed to the ground.
◆◆◆
SCANNING…………………………ONE MOMENT PLEASE
◆◆◆
He looked at Major General Solbrig as his INH scanned the sand. He pointed in the distance.
“You see that?”
“The air?” asked Major General Reingle.
“Yeah. Air refraction. Same thing back on Nuwurth.”
“Yeah, that’s good to know,” Major General Reingle noted. “Seems like the planets aren’t so different.”
“Seems that way, is the scan done yet?”
“Uh, well...” As Major General Reingle spoke, his INH scan was done and appeared in front of him. He swiped his hand forward and projected it for both of them to see.
◆◆◆
SCAN COMPLETE
SAND
ROCK AND MINERAL PARTICLES
CONTAINS TRACE ELEMENTS OF SILICON DIOXIDE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, ARAGONITE, GOETHITE
◆◆◆
“Well, that’s good to know, I suppose,”
“Well, there is nothing wrong with the sand, like weathering from the acid rain.” Major General Solbrig pointed out.
Major General Reingle nodded in agreement, and he bent down and grabbed a handful of sand.
“Yep, feels like sand back on Nuwurth.”
Major General Solbrig looked at him and shook his head. “Are you sure we’re supposed to touch that? Remember what the scan said? Some minerals such as Aragonite and Goethite? What are those?”
“Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. If Snakardekus were a deadly place, General Deschner would have told us. Don’t you think so?” Major General Reingle asked.
“I don’t know…Why is it even recognized in the scan?” Major General Solbrig asked.
“You know, that’s a good observation. That’s really odd. Does Nuwurth have Aragonite and Goethite?”
“Not to my knowledge, but who knows. That’s a question for General Deschner.” Major General Solbrig looked around Snakardekus. “Well, where to now?”
“Hmm...well there is literally nothing around. We could go anywhere.”
The Major Generals continued to walk for a while, and Major General Solbrig turned around to speak.
“This seems like a good way to get lost.”
“I mean, I’d argue with you, but you’re right. We are stuck in a desert...”
“At least we can still see the Drakdel from here.” Major General Solbrig pointed behind them with his metal arm. Major General Reingle was concerned and afraid to look behind him.
“Hey! What is that, was that there before, Reingle?”
“Wha...Uh...” Major General Reingle was afraid to turn around.
He slowly turned around and looked to see where he pointed.
“What is that...an opening?” asked Major General Reingle.
“Sure, does look like it. Huh, what are the odds that we parked on top of that?”
Major General Solbrig walked back to where they came from and walked closer to the opening. Major General Reingle felt a sense of uneasiness in the air around him. He was glad he wasn’t alone, and with Solbrig, it made the situation a little relieving. The Major Generals reached the opening and stopped before it.
“What is this, some kind of cave?”
“I think, so...maybe?” Major General Reingle asked.
“Shall we?”
“Do you want me to scan first or...?”
“Nah, don’t worry about it until we get inside. You first?”
Major General Reingle looked at his eyes, then the cave then back at him. He was scared but did not want Major General Solbrig to know.
“Oh no, I couldn’t. You do the honors, Solbrig.”
He shook his head. “Alright.”
The two men walked one by one inside of the cave. The sunlight was becoming further from them as they continued to walk deeper inside. Their implants allowed them to see in the dark clearly. Whenever the transhumans were in a dark area, their eye implants would send a signal out to their brain, which would allow the transhuman's eyes to refract any light to see in the darkness. They blinked their eyes, and their eyes suddenly had a blue glow to them.
The Major Generals continued to walk deeper inside the cave.
“There’s a lot of rocks on the ground.”
“What do you expect? We’re in a cave, Reingle.”
“Well...yeah, but I mean it seems like more rocks than normal.”
“What exactly is normal to you? Does a cave not supposed to have rocks?”
“What’s that?”
“What’s what? A cave?”
“No, look.” Major General Reingle pointed at something in the distance.
“There are lots of rocks over there?” asked Major General Reingle.
“No, look further. On the wall over there.”
They could see a faint object flickering by the rocks.
“What...is that?” asked Major General Reingle.
“I don’t know, but let’s find out! This is the exact thing that General Deschner wants us to scan!”
Major General Reingle felt that presence following him again like it was before. He looked behind himself as they continued to venture forth into the cave. Major General Solbrig looked behind him and noticed that he was walking very slowly.
“You okay back there?” he asked.
“Uh...yeah, sorry I’m just looking at the cave formation. That’s all.” He said nervously.
The Major Generals walked closer to the motion by the rocks.
“Come on, we’re almost there. Get out your INH so we can scan it.”
“Strange, it seems as if these rocks fell from somewhere and stayed here.” Major General Solbrig noted.
“That or they were placed here.”
“Placed? What makes you say that?” asked Major General Solbrig.
“Well, look, rocks don’t just stay in this position, and if you look all around us on the floor, there are a lot of rocks scattered...more than usual.”
“I think you’re seeing what you want to see about the rocks being on the floor, but we can investigate more.” Major General Solbrig added. “We’re on a different planet, one different than our own. Who knows how things react here?”
“You’re right, but we cannot really explore if we don’t get our hands dirty.” Major General Reingle replied.
“Do you want to move the rocks away from the light, then?” asked Major General Solbrig.
“I don’t want to bring any trace contaminants back.”
“We’ll wash off, don’t worry!” Major General Solbrig reassured him.
He looked at him out of the corner of his eye, still nervous about the feeling that did not subside from him.
“Sure.”
Major General Solbrig grabbed a rock from the side of the cave and placed it on the floor next to them, then another until the opening was big enough that they could see inside. A blue liquid was hidden in the rocks.
“What is it?”
“It looks like some sort of...liquid? Maybe?”
“I don’t know... why don’t you scan it?”
“Good idea.”
Major General Reingle swiped and opened his INH, tapped on “Files,” and scanned the blue liquid substance in the rocks.
◆◆◆
SCANNING…………………………ONE MOMENT PLEASE
◆◆◆
“I think the scans take longer here than on Nuwurth,” Major General Reingle mentioned.
“Of course, Snakardekus is one hundred and sixty-two million miles away from Nuwurth.”
“Yeah, that would be plausible. When I scanned earlier, it didn’t take this long.”
“Hmm. I have no clue why the change, Reingle.”
A few moments passed, and Major General Reingle was becoming anxious. The look in his eyes wanted to know more about this mysterious blue liquid. He looked around the cave and noticed how dark and quiet it was. “This thing needs to hurry up.”
“I’m sure it’ll be done at any moment-”
“-It’s done!” Major General Reingle swiped his hand forward and projected the image for both of them to see.
◆◆◆
SCAN COMPLETE
UNKNOWN LIQUID SUBSTANCE
CONSISTENCY VARIES
HIGH VISCOSITY PRESENT
◆◆◆
“That’s all...” Major General Reingle sounded annoyed.
“Seems that way.”
He shook his head. “Sometimes, I don’t understand why we scan, especially on a planet like this one. Of course, our scans are going to come up empty.”
“I understand your frustration, but still, this is protocol.” Major General Solbrig explained. “General Deschner wants us to scan everything.”
“Yeah yeah...”
Major General Solbrig bent down and grabbed a rock, and moved it towards the blue liquid.
“What are you doing?” asked Major General Reingle.
“I want to run my own ‘tests’ on this blue liquid.” Major General Solbrig added.
He moved the rock and dropped it gently on the liquid, it did not sink. He looked over his shoulder at Major General Reingle and then looked back. He then pushed the rock down into the liquid, and it did not submerge into the liquid.
“That’s strange. What kind of liquid is that?” asked Major General Reingle.
Major General Solbrig did not answer him; instead, he bent down and grabbed a rock and dropped it from a greater height than before, and it fell on the liquid, bounced, and moved out of the way from it. Then he bent down and moved his metal arm and placed it on top of the liquid.
“What are you doing?” asked Major General Reingle.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Looks like you’re about to stick your metal arm in the liquid.”
He nodded and moved his hand on top of the liquid, then he forced his arm and submerged it and looked down at his hand in the liquid. Major General Reingle watched in anticipation as he had his hand submerged. He left his hand in the substance for a moment and slowly lifted it out of the liquid. The Major Generals looked at his metal hand as he lifted it out, and they noticed that his hand had turned blue like the color of the liquid. The Major Generals looked at his hand then at each other.
“What happened?”
“It dyed my hand...blue?”
“How? Why?” asked Major General Reingle. “What is that stuff?”
“I have no clue. I wonder if it would dye other things that are not metallic.”
“So, when you want to touch things, it is fine, but when I want to, it's not?”
“Well...” Major General Solbrig shrugged him off.
“I know what you’re thinking and don’t do it.”
“Why not? We have to know.” Major General Solbrig stated.
Major General Reingle shook his head. “Fine, if you must. Hopefully, nothing happens to you.”
“What’s the worst that can happen? I get another metal arm. Big deal.” Major General Solbrig looked at him and smirked as he put his other hand on top of the liquid and touched it.
“It feels...like there’s no temperature coming from it, Reingle. Like it’s not warm nor cold, it’s just… liquid.”
“Hmm.” He pondered. “I wonder if that is Snakardekus’ water source?”
Major General Solbrig submerged his hand slowly into the liquid and set it there for a moment.
“The temperature is still not there. It feels like water, but the viscosity is heavier, almost like there’s some sort of weight pushing it.”
The Syndicate's Journey Page 12