Galactic Startup

by Brian Whiting

  “What is it?” Mason asked when he reached his destination, nursing his head. Amanda was at the end of a corridor.

  “The bulkhead suddenly closed. Half my stuff is on the other side. What happened?”

  “My apologies Amanda,” said Kalibri, typically placid. “I should have warned you. I am cycling breathable air in this section. In twenty seconds you can safely remove your suits.”

  There was a thrill for the crew as they gathered, stepping out of the skins they had worn for several days. Soon everyone had stripped down to their underwear. Everyone except Mac, who merely removed his helmet.

  “What’s wrong, Mac?” asked Amanda.

  “Uh, no thanks. I’ll just wait for the Destiny,” Mac replied awkwardly.

  “That could take days,” Wilma said.

  “Actually, Kalibri confirmed the Destiny is about five hours away.” Mason smiled as the rest of the crew cheered.

  In an attempt to be helpful Amanda walked over to Mac and broke the waistline seal in his suit. She only managed to separate the torso and the pants a few inches when she realized why Mac didn’t want to take the suit off and quickly re-applied the seal.

  “Sorry,” she said, while Mac expectantly looked at her.

  Amanda’s face had turned bright red.

  “I thought about trying that, once. How does it feel?”

  “I didn’t plan it like this but now that I’ve done it, I prefer it.”

  Wilma figured if Amanda reattached the suit, there must be a good reason and left it alone. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know why. She looked on down the hallway. It looked like a college dormitory, with tools, equipment, food and trash splayed out all over the place.

  “Commander Mason. If you can get the other reactor online, I might be able to initialize the fusion reactor. This should return functionality to all available systems,” Kalibri stated.

  “Sounds good. Which way?”

  “Apologies, Commander. You’ll need your EVA suit to walk around the wreckage outside. There is too much damage between your location and the second reactor room. There is a good possibility you can enter from outside.”

  Commander Mason sighed, grudgingly reinstalling himself within the suit.

  “Do you want some help? I can come with you,” said Wilma, smiling at him brightly.

  “No, I’ve got it, thanks.” He picked up his tools, failing to notice her disappointment as he walked away down a corridor.

  Amanda, who had been watching, walked up to Wilma.

  “Got the hots for our commander, do you?”

  “Yeah, I can’t lie about that. Hardcore crushing. I’ve got posters of him in my bedroom, which bothered all my boyfriends to no end.”

  After exiting through an airlock, Mason returned to the rocky surface of Titan, picking his way around the larger debris towards the rear of the ship. It was marvelous to behold, against the vast backdrop of Saturn.

  “How glorious you must have been in your prime,” Mason mumbled to himself as he climbed over some debris to reach the exposed deck of the hull.

  Kalibri monitored Mason’s progress with heightened interest.

  Once he gained entry again, he walked down a short hallway, noticing the doors on the left side were closed. The one on the right was open.

  “Kalibri, are the doors in this hallway functioning?”

  Kalibri spent five seconds thinking of the best response.

  “No. The doors are stuck in their current configuration. Please proceed.”

  Mason walked into the open room. In the center was the reactor, surrounded by three thick metallic rings. Each corner of the reactor stood huge devices pointing towards its center. Mason moved towards the input console and cut away the biochemical control ports, exposing strange liquid infused cables. Then followed Kalibri’s instructions.

  Amanda, Jorge and Wilma sat in the main hallway while they waited for Mason’s return.

  “Why didn’t you finish taking Mac’s EVA suit off?” Jorge glanced over at Mac, then back to Amanda.

  “Birthday suits,” she smirked, shook her head and wondered If Wilma would get the reference.

  “As far as ships go, this one is weird.” Wilma ran her hand through her hair, noticing the smell of it.

  “What do you mean?” Jorge asked.

  “There are no signs, no writing, no screens. It’s like who ever built this ship has no interest in using their eyes.”

  Jorge considered the point.

  “You’re right. I believe the Theans may be blind. That’s why everything is smooth, and they have these tracks in the hallways.”

  Amanda sat in the hallway, not engaging in their conversation while she stared at the wall in front of her.

  “Does Alex ever lighten up?”

  Wilma looked at her with a frown as she shifted mental gears.

  “He’s always been a serious person,” Jorge said, thoughtfully. “One time we were throwing a frisbee near a pond. Alex was chasing after it when the frisbee landed right next to this big old goose. Ugly old creature, with a deformed-looking head. Alex takes a deep breath and slowly reaches down to pick up the frisbee. That goose opens up its wings and squawks like you wouldn’t believe. Alex just froze, inches away. Finally, he reached out just a little bit further. Man… the goose lost it. It bit Alex right on the nose and jumped on him. Pinned him to the ground. Rest of us left him to his fate, we ran away in terror. The goose kept pecking at his face. Alex turned over, got on his hands and feet and ran like hell. It chased him around half the pond. We laughed until it hurt. That was a good day,” Jorge finished.

  “Did you guys get the frisbee?” Amanda wondered.

  “Not that day. I went back for it the next day. I’ve still got it, come to think of it.”

  “Well I for one am definitely going to share that story with the rest of the crew,” Wilma grinned.

  The lighting in the hall faded for a moment, and then got much brighter.

  “What was that?”

  “That was the fusion reactor coming online,” said the quiet voice of Kalibri in one of the nearby EVA helmets. Amanda pulled out the headset in the helmet and put it on her head.

  “Good to hear, Kalibri.”

  “Primary systems are initializing. I have active communication with Captain Alex,” Kalibri stated.

  “Nice. Kalibri has Alex on the comms.” Amanda smiled at Jorge and Wilma.

  “Oww! Did you feel that?” Wilma yelped. They had all felt it. “Ahhh… there it is again. What the hell is that?”

  “It is this ship’s version of an alert,” Kalibri stated calmly.

  “An alert for what?” Amanda asked, even as the ship gave the three of them another electric shock.

  “Can you make it stop?” Wilma cried, loud enough for Kalibri to hear through Amanda’s headset. The shocks ceased.

  “Kalibri, what is the alert for?”

  “There is a Zorn vessel on approach.”

  The silence in the corridor was as electric as the floor had just been.

  “Holy…”

  “Status,” barked the voice of Mason on the comm. “Can anyone hear me?”

  “Yeah, it’s Amanda.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know. Kalibri said something about the Zorn and went quiet.”

  “I got the same message. Kalibri won’t respond,” said Mason “I’m returning to your position as fast as I can. Repairs are complete.”

  “Kalibri, put me in contact with Alex,” Amanda demanded.

  “You have connection,” Kalibri responded, to her surprise.

  “Alex. Alex, what’s your ETA?” Amanda asked, while the others began preparing their EVA suits.

  “About four hours. Why?” crackled a familiar voice.

  “Turn around!” Amanda fumbled her headset as she tried to put her helmet on too quickly.

  “There’s a Zorn ship on approach.”

  She waited for a reply. After a few seconds her ear
piece began to omit a quiet, high-pitched squeal, quickly growing louder until she was forced to pull off her helmet. She saw the others had done the same.

  “What the hell is that?” Wilma shouted.

  “It is a Zorn jammer,” Kalibri advised.

  “Kalibri, what is going on?” Amanda asked. But the digiform had fallen silent once more, too overwhelmed by its calculations and monitoring the initializing systems.

  Mason ducked behind a large piece of wreckage as he watched the Zorn ship approach, deceleration thrusters firing. The ship looked like an ice cream cone split lengthways down the middle, and it was about to land on the flat side in the same landing zone the Destiny had selected. Mason looked at the Surprise. It was fairly close, but getting there would mean walking directly in front of the Zorn vessel.

  The pointed tip of the Zorn ship split open and three… aliens emerged without suits. They had four very long legs and walked like a spider. There were also four much shorter arms. The chest looked like one solid piece and everything on the body was connected to it. There was not much of a head to speak of. Just a protrusion of what appeared to be a long black bone that stuck out and above the center piece.

  They terrified Mason. Everything about them was frightening and wrong. They were pitch black with a slight shine to the exoskeleton. They moved very quickly, and they appeared to be as lethal as anything he had ever seen.

  The Zorn crawled over to the exposed hull, only to be stopped at the first closed bulkhead. One of the creatures pulled something from one of its legs and attached it to the door. They scurried away from the bulkhead and there was a small explosion. They swarmed through the new hole.

  “Amanda. You’re being boarded,” Mason said into his comm unit, but there was no answer. He moved closer to Dark Star, as he did so, a high pitch whine filled his headset, growing swiftly unbearable.

  He turned his headgear off, and made his way towards the out-of-place cargo container known as the USV Surprise.

  ***

  “We are coming up to the crash site.” Cindy was peering into her display screens.

  “Slow our approach. I want to creep over the location.” Alex glanced at the President, who was watching silently.

  As soon as Dark Star was visually in range, there was no mistaking that another vessel had parked next to it.

  “That’s a Zorn scout ship,” the President said, causing everyone on the bridge to turn to him. “I pay attention when I’m given intelligence to read. Kalibri’s data says these vessels are generally crewed by four, with minimal armaments and no boarding pods. They normally don’t engage in battles, as their purpose is to scout out targets.”

  “Did you see that?” Jack asked. “Mimi, replay main view-screen last thirty seconds.”

  Everyone saw it. A large, black spider-thing rushed into the Dark Star from the Zorn scout ship.

  “That thing moved awfully fast.”

  “Mimi, go live on the view-screen”

  As the Destiny continued to approach the location, they saw one of the creatures exit the Dark Star and crawl along the exterior of the wreckage. It scurried about a third of the length of the hull and began to punch holes with its obviously powerful legs.

  “What the hell is it doing?”

  “What ever it’s doing it isn’t good for us.” said Jack, bringing the decoupler weapon online. Without asking Alex for permission, he activated the laser and swept the creature on the outer hull, splitting its rigid body into two pieces.

  “I like where your head’s at son,” said the President.

  “Look. There!” Alex pointed to a cloud of dust forming around the Zorn ship as it lifted off. Soon, it was as high in the moon’s orange haze of an atmosphere as the Destiny. The Zorn ship quickly accelerated away and the Destiny followed.

  “I want a three second beam on it, fire when ready!”

  Jack wasted no time rotating the turret. The beam cut through the outer hull, but it wasn’t clear how much damage had been done. Small puffs of gas were expelled from the scorched hull where the laser had carved a four-foot gash.

  Alex looked at the view-screen data. Power capacity was seventy two percent.

  “Give me a four second shot. This time, try to keep the beam on the same location.”

  Jack was quick to do as he was told. The scout ship began to accelerate away, but it couldn’t outrun the beam. Its thrusters died as gases spewed from two more locations. The beam had completely penetrated both sides of the hull.

  Just then, a small box zipped past the Destiny, just missing the stricken scout ship.

  “Is that the…” Cindy began.

  “It’s the Surprise! Move us away!” Alex commanded. Cindy rotated the disks under the Destiny and applied power. They felt themselves lurch away from the scene.

  “Jack, give that ship another seven seconds before we lose it,” Alex shouted.

  Jack fired the laser at the mid-section of the ship. He let it cut through the entire hull, then brought the laser towards the bottom portion of the ship.

  The ruined and broken ship continued to drift off into space, framed by the great rings of Saturn far behind.

  “We are starting to drift pretty far out,” Cindy said as she eyed the energy displays. The Destiny began to move back towards the orange moon. There was a great explosion from the Zorn ship. The Surprise had returned, making contact with the scout ship at an astounding speed and hurling both ships back towards the surface of Titan. The Destiny was in the debris path, but Cindy was quick to rotate the disks, avoiding an additional collision in the nick of time.

  “Dear God. Who was on that thing?” breathed the President. The Surprise had crumpled into a worthless wreck as it tumbled towards the surface of Titan. The scout ship had broken into two pieces where Jack had made his last cut into the hull. Debris from both ships scattered in all directions.

  Alex was watching the power capacity as it dropped. Forty-four percent, forty-one percent, thirty-five percent. He looked at Cindy as she applied more and more power to the drive. He looked at the President, who was clutching the arms of his chair. Finally, Cindy spoke up.

  “We are coasting. We are going to be fine.” Alex checked the power capacity which held steady at twenty one percent. He wasn’t sure when he’d started holding his breath, but he now he felt the whole room exhale with him.

  Everyone watched as the debris continued impacting the surface of Titan. The main sections of both ships crashed in great plumes of dust.

  “Is-” Alex began, only to cower back from a blinding flash of light among the pieces smashing into the surface. The bright white light rapidly faded to violet and was lost.

  “What the hell was that?” No one had an answer. Moon rocks were flung in various directions at incredible speeds. In the wake of the blinding flash, a massive crater was left behind.

  “Dark Star is unharmed. It’s on the other side of the moon,” Cindy offered.

  Jack went to a hatch at the back of the bridge where they had stashed firearms after the incident in China. He took an assault rifle and a few clips of ammunition, looked meaningfully at Alex, and made his way to the EVA room.

  “Damnit! There’s still a spider thing in there with them. Cindy, get us to Dark Star and make it quick.”

  Within a couple minutes and another three percent power loss, the Destiny set down next to the crash site. Jack and Alex and several guards exited the ship in EVA suits, heavily armed.

  “Cindy, I want you in the air. If we flush this thing out, I want a one second blast to cut it down.”

  “You got it!” Cindy replied. “Believe it or not, I’ve got Gloria up here on the turret controls.” Alex looked at Jack, who nodded and continued towards the main breach in the hull.

  “I can’t fit my gloved finger into the trigger port,” said Alex, quietly. He kept fidgeting with his weapon., attempting to make it work with his EVA suit.

  “I’m using a pencil,” Jack replied. Alex looked over at Jack who was
holding the assault rifle with his left hand against his left shoulder, and in his right hand he held a pencil.

  They walked through the first bulkhead that had obviously been subjected to some kind of explosive device. The second bulkhead was freely open. The third was closed, but as they approached, the one behind closed and the one in front opened.

  Alex and Jack looked around.

  “Kalibri. Can you hear me?” Alex asked, but there was no response. He wondered who had opened the bulkhead for them.

  Up ahead, someone was pinned against the wall. When they got closer, they saw it was Brandon, his helmet of off. In the center of his chest was a large appendage, like a leg of the alien, which had pierced through Brandon into the wall behind him, where he hung limply.

  “Oh Brandon… It’s awful,” Alex said, transfixed by the gruesome site. He heard a couple of guards make odd noises behind him.

  “First causality of the Zorn,” Jack replied, coolly. They could hear gasps and muttered cursing from the Destiny over the comms.

  “I think there’s air,” Alex announced trying to keep his voice from shaking. He knew they had to move on.

  “What makes you think that?” said Cindy on the bridge. He couldn’t see her wiping tears from her face.

  “All the crew helmets have been left in a central location.” Alex cracked the seal on his helmet. A few moments later he took a breath. “It’s breathable.” Without much thought he began to strip off his entire suit. Once he was finished, he crouched and held his weapon at the ready. He felt much more comfortable handling the weapon despite losing the protection of the suit. Jack was still wearing his, holding a pencil against the trigger, as was Curtis and the security detail. They proceed down the hallway, tactically inspecting rooms as they passed. Alex spotted movement ahead. Something was flowing in their direction along one of the depressive tracks in the hallway.

  It simply looked like a glob of gel, about the size of large pig. It stopped and extended a part of itself into one of the control slots at a nearby door. The door opened and the thing went inside. Alex and Jack approached cautiously, but the door shut before they reached it.