Rock peeled off the dome’s surface in large chunks, like scabs of a wound. It seemed that nothing was able to attach to the surface. I had warned the team to be as delicate as possible when uncovering it, only to be told they’d taken all possible precautions. That was not entirely the case, but given the threat of Cassandrians hanging over our heads, the compromise was acceptable.
“I thought there’d be ripples,” the colonel said through comm.
“Not always. They might appear when I get closer.”
“Why don’t you? You can pass through that.”
“It’s not about the entrance, sir, it’s about the general area.”
The surface of the uncovered dome was smooth, almost glistening under the light. That was inevitably about to change the moment I got within a meter from it. At that point, symbols would emerge, covering the entire surface. Out of them, I needed to find the fractal one that allowed me to enter inside. The issue was that there was no telling where it might appear. The larger surface area increased the chances of me finding out. Ideally, I would wait for the entire dome to be uncovered before I made my attempt. As usual, circumstances didn’t allow it.
Another large chunk of rock fell down, almost doubling the visible surface. A little more and the dimensions of the tunnel would be the only things limiting what I could see of the dome.
“Sof, do a check of my suit sys,” I said.
“Everything is in order. Or do you want a deep diagnostic?”
“General will do for now.” I took a step forward. “There’s a forty-three percent chance that all local communications are severed when I come in contact with the dome.”
“Alternatives are in place,” the XO said from the ship. “You have the go-ahead to proceed.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Equipped with nothing by my personal weapon and some basic monitoring devices, I continued forward. At every step, I reviewed all my past experiences with third-contact domes, running dozens of simulations in parallel. I had even composed a possible range of symbols based on the new shape of the rods we’d acquired so far.
One step from the cobalt surface, the dome reacted, as I knew it would. The metal rippled, causing a series of symbols to emerge, arranged in neat rows.
“Symbols have appeared,” I announced. “Most of the patterns match the rods we have. Some don’t, suggesting that there are a few of unfamiliar design inside.” I looked up or down. “No fractal symbols present.”
Before anyone could make a comment, I reached forward and slid my hand along the dome. The entire row turned.
“What the hell?!” I heard the XO shout in comm.
“I’ll try to see if I can find the entry symbol by rotating the rest,” I said after the fact. “I’ll know whether there’s one in fourteen minutes.”
“Next time, Ensign, tell us what actions you’re taking before you do so,” Quinn said. She didn’t sound at all pleased.
“Aye, captain. My bad.” I continued. “Were the changes observed at the other contact points?”
“Movement was consistent with the speed by which you turned the row,” Sof said. “I’ve already started creating a database.”
“Thanks, Sof.” I knew he was monitoring my actions, aiming to catch me at a fault. In the past, I would have been annoyed. Now, I welcomed having an independent set of eyes to confirm what I was doing.
Seeing all symbols on the dome’s surface was similar to arranging a puzzle cube. The difference was that instead of aiming to get each side to be of a similar color, here I just had to rotate horizontal and diagonal rows in hex-like fashion until there was no spot uncovered. The overall size of the dome made that a long and repetitive process.
There were no fractals on the horizontal belt of rows the opening let me see. After a few minutes, both diagonals were also exhausted. That was unfortunate, requiring a lot of additional manipulations.
As more symbols were revealed, the chances of a fractal being there diminished.
“The key symbol isn’t here,” I said. “Sof, confirm that I haven’t missed anything.”
“The entire surface of the dome has been mapped,” the ship confirmed. “There are no fractal symbols present."
This complicated matters slightly. It meant that I needed an additional artifact to get inside. Given the nature of the ship, though, I strongly suspected they had more than enough aboard just waiting for the occasion. All that was required was the captain’s authorization.
“Is there a key symbol aboard the Sof, captain?” I asked.
“Check again,” Quinn ordered. “I want confirmation.”
It wasn’t an unreasonable request. After another twenty minutes, she had it. I didn’t rush, methodically going through all the symbols on the dome’s surface.
The object was retrieved from storage and sent down via a dedicated shuttle pod. All I had to do was wait for it to reach me. I had also requested for a second fractal artifact that would allow me to enter fractal space. Originally, I had no reason to do so. Taking advantage of our communication blackout, though, the captain had no way of checking. There was over a fifty-percent chance that she would be furious at me once she found out, but this wouldn’t be the first time I got in trouble with a superior or a family member.
“Would you like some food, ma’am?” someone from the ground team asked. “I’ll send down some food tubes.”
“No, thanks.” Now that I no longer had to monitor my calcium levels, I preferred to avoid the standard ground troop sludge for as long as possible. “How are things going on up there?”
“Moving ahead of schedule, ma’am. Surface layer is easier to remove than we thought.”
“That’s good.”
According to the initial scans, there were several layers that were hard, but scans didn’t account for brittleness. With luck, there was every chance that the dome would be entirely uncovered in just over a week. That wouldn’t make my job any easier, though. Based on the symbols on the surface, I estimated that there were four thousand ninety-six rods inside, without accounting for any surprises.
“I’ll send a few food containers just in case, ma’am,” the man said, no doubt following orders.
There was no point in arguing. Ten seconds later, the drone came from the drill hole, making its way along the access tunnel. Retrieving the case it was carrying, I saw that there were fifteen tubes, providing me sustenance for five days. It was difficult to tell whether this was a subtle hint, or if they had just dropped a prepacked case.
I put it on the ground, next to one of the light sources. Right now, food was an immediate concern and—strangely enough—so was the dome itself. The rainbow nature of the sky was what worried me, along with the fact that I was the only one seeing it. Neither anyone from the exo team, nor the entire crew, saw what I did. Looking through the video feeds, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It was only once I arrived on the planet that there was a difference.
Back when I was on the front, I’d witnessed a few cases of similar nature. The problem was that all of them involved humans…
* * *
Vollux IV, Cassandrian Front, 628.8 A.E. (Age of Expansion)
“Incoming!” Master Sergeant Matias yelled as he jumped on the ground for cover along with hundreds of others.
Statistically, he was already dead. The blast radius of the new Cassandrian weapon was large enough to vaporize anything up to ten kilometers from the site of impact. Trenches didn’t help, and neither did exo-armor.
Three thousand milliseconds later, tens of thousands of ground troops flatlined, sending a cascade of notifications to my conscience core.
“Seventeen percent of ground troops are gone,” I announced on the bridge.
Gibraltar remained silent in the captain's seat, unable to say a word. Technically, he was still in charge of the mission, as were the captains of all the hundred and twelve ships in orbit around the planet. However, there was no illusion that this whole thing was a BICEFI operation—the only thing that kept us in the Vollux system.
All information was restricted and compartmentalized to the point that none of the ships knew what the others were doing. That was typical of the BICEFI. If anything, I was surprised they hadn’t thought quarantined me yet.
“At least more Cassies are getting scorched,” the weapons officer on duty said. She was a long time veteran who had seen more than most on the bridge, and it showed. “Now that it’s over, can we join in the fun?”
“We’ve been told to observe,” Gibraltar muttered.
“Good one. We get to watch the Cassies kick our butts.”
“At least it’s not up here.” The warning tone made it clear that the captain wasn’t in the mood.
To be honest, neither was I. According to all regulations and Fleet directives, the ground troops weren’t considered part of a ship’s crew. The official reason for that was to diminish the pain a ship felt at their death. In truth, I suspected it was to reduce the guilt among officers. Having your troops slaughtered for no apparent reason was bad for the psyche, no matter how desensitized a person became.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“The sky’s changing again!” a grunt yelled from the ground.
The ident block prevented me from knowing who precisely he was. The BICEFI were very strict when it came to that. I wasn’t allowed to see the enemies the troops were fighting, the weapons used, or even the aftermath of the explosions. As far as I was concerned, half the battlefield was perpetually covered black.
“How are we on reinforcements, Elcy?” Gibraltar asked.
“Ours or theirs?” I chose to be snarky.
“Theirs.”
“Scans don’t show any ships in the nearby systems. There’s a twenty-eight percent chance that they’ve abandoned Vollux.”
No one said a word. I had made the exact same analyses multiple times over the last two months and each time a small fleet of Cassie ships would drop in, aiming straight for the planets. It was almost as if something was attracting them there, demanding that they re-transform them into anchor planets. Then again, the same could be said about us.
“Your thoughts on the weapon?” Gibraltar focused on part of the battlefield. The image I could see on his personal screen was completely black.
“I don’t have the authority to see it.” I added a note of irritation to my voice. “It’s stronger than anything the Cassies have used so far. I can see why the BICEFI is concerned. If this becomes the new standard, we’d be losing a lot more ground troops during ground missions.”
“It’s not Cassandrian,” First Lieutenant Sed Daton interrupted. Despite being the communications officer, he spent most of the time saying nothing. “The Cassies don’t cause UADs in such numbers.”
I couldn’t disagree. The term Unidentified Anomalous Death was believed to have been coined by the BICEFI and described an occurrence they preferred no one else look into. Everything associated with UADs tended to disappear from databases, be reports of the deaths themselves. There was widespread speculation that UAD was just a way to classify deaths occurring as a result of cold third-contact. With this amount of fighting, the contact seemed anything but cold.
“Drop it, Sed,” Gibraltar said, more annoyed than alarmed. “It’s just Cassandrians. It’s always Cassandrians.”
“We wouldn’t be staying in this forsaken system for so long if it was just Cassandrians,” the lieutenant replied. “Sir.”
Another three percent of my ground troops flatlined. I tried to go back and review their comm logs, but found that all the information had been restricted.
“Twenty percent of ground troops gone, sir,” I said. “Permission to issue a mass withdrawal order? Whatever the mission objectives are, they’re clearly not achieving them.”
“No.” Gibraltar was adamant. “Being there is the mission objective. New grunts will drop in the system, in a week.”
“Have we been ordered to abandon all of our current troops, sir?” A sharp sensation of pain tore through me, as if I’d gone full speed into an asteroid belt.
“Yes, Elcy,” the captain sighed. “And then we’ll send the new ones to join them.”
“Why?”
“That’s the BICEFI’s business. However, we’re not the only ones doing it. What do you think the Cassandrians are doing?”
* * *
The two months I’d spent in the Vollux system encompassed the heaviest fighting I ever saw. In terms of ground troops, millions, while all the time I stayed in orbit, occasionally fighting Cassandrian flotillas. The communications from the ground were largely the same: talk of explosions, Cassandrian attacks, and the sky changing color. Now I was experiencing the same thing, and Cassandrian fleets weren’t all that far away.
Even after all this time, I still didn’t know all the details regarding that mission. While all my memories were unrestricted, that didn’t always help me see things that had been quarantined at the time. The BICEFI had done particularly good work on that occasion to ensure that even in the future, the details of their mission would remain hidden. I could, of course, use my new authority as an arbiter’s aid to be briefed on the mission, but for that I needed to break communication silence. As my second captain used to say, irony lurks behind every corner, always ready to strike.
Sof, how are things aboard? I transmitted directly. Any anomalous behavior detected?
Anxiety levels have decreased ever since the dome was discovered, just as I predicted they would, he replied in a smug fashion.
This was the point at which I was supposed to be happy. However, it made me think of the calm before the storm. It was entirely possible that I was combining worst-case scenarios together, resulting in an implausibly bad outcome. When third contact artifacts were concerned, though, it was never cautious to let one’s guard down.
Under what circumstances are you allowed to get in touch with HQ?
Nothing applicable.
The mission must be monitored somehow.
If it is, I’m not informed. You’ll have to talk with the captain about that, and until the excavation is over, that’s unlikely. On the bright side, the XO ordered that additional teams be sent to help out with the digging. Expect numbers to rank up until they reach three thousand.
In the grand scale of things, three thousand was a minuscule number. Considering the size of an artifact dome, though, it was plenty. A thousand exos contained more metal than the entirety of the dome itself. With three thousand, it would continue non-stop with small teams going in and out on a constant basis. It seemed to be the optimal solution, if it weren’t for the danger of all comms being blocked. Should that happen, three thousand pieces of hardware would instantly be transformed into statues.
The hours dragged on. After a while, I had no choice but to consume a food tube, just so I would do something. There was a point after which reviewing old memories and running simulations was no longer useful.
A drone came down with two metal cases. Each contained a perfect cobalt cube with a fractal symbol on it. One by one, the drone released them, requesting a confirmation for each, then quickly floated up on its way to the surface.
“I received the symbols,” I said in the general channel, letting everyone be aware. If there was any loss of communication, it was going to be now.
“Copy that, Ensign,” the colonel responded almost immediately. “Give us a few minutes to prep.”
“Yes, sir. Waiting for your go ahead.”
I placed the cases one over the other and opened the upper one. Most of the container was filled with foam material, ensuring that the artifact would remain perfectly still. A seven-triangle symbol was etched on top. With enough magnification, one would see that the symbol had fractal properties. There was no telling how much processing power had gone into attempting to figure out its meaning and significance. As far as we knew, this symbol was the only means of allowing a person inside a third-contact dome. What most weren’t aware of—even my current crew—was that there was a ninety-three percent chance that the two artifacts were not inherently connected. Lux had shared in confidence that there were far more fractal artifacts than domes. So far, the partial functions of five had been discovered. No specifics were mentioned, leaving me with the impression that there were at least several more fractal symbols that remained unknown. Given that only entities of a certain nature could force them to react, there was a good chance that the rest would remain inactive for decades to come, maybe longer.
“Everyone’s in position,” the colonel said after two hundred and three seconds. “You’re clear to go.”
“Aye, sir. Captain?”
“Proceed, Elcy,” Quinn confirmed. I had been given the green light.
Gently, I removed the cube from the container and made my way to the revealed patch of dome. The moment both artifacts made contact, several symbols moved away, allowing it to enter. The entire surface rippled again, gaining liquid properties. A second later, I released the cube, letting it disappear altogether. A new symbol appeared on the dome—a fractal symbol.
“The artifact has been accepted,” I said. “Will proceed to enter the dome. I’d suggest preparing alternative methods of communication, in case there’s a severing.”
The XO had me announce yellow alert, Sof transmitted to me directly. The captain upped it to red.
Good move. There always remained a non-zero chance that the communications severing might be noticed by the Cassies. I’ll keep describing everything I’m doing inside. There might be long pauses or even comm blackouts. Don’t worry about them. I’ll aim to emerge in three hours.
Marking three hours from moment of entry. Good luck.
This was the first time he’d wished me luck and sounded like he meant it. It was too early to tell if we were starting to get along or whether Sof was only concerned with the mission. At this point, I was willing to take anything I was given. Holding my breath, I pressed the fractal symbol.
The entire surface in front of me bent out of shape, pulling me in. From the corner of my eye, I saw it close up again, as I suddenly found myself in a liquid environment. All the lights on my suit had lit up to the make in an attempt to allow me to see, but even that was barely enough. Despite having a consistency close to water, the liquid was murky, only letting me see artifact rods as I passed by them. Like the ones already gathered from the planet, they were different in design to the “common” rods. Their distribution within the dome, though, was the same as I had seen previously, forming four concentric “spheres.”
I relaxed, allowing me the forces to take me to the center. Once I found myself there, all manner of currents disappeared.
“I have successfully entered the dome,” I said, making certain that the suit was recording on a local backup. “It’s full of artifact rods. So far, I haven’t spotted anything else. I’ll start by exploring the area and recording the positions and location of all rods.” I used my hands to propel myself out of the center, like a swimmer. “The artifacts are arranged in four spheres around the center. Based on the number of symbols recorded on the surface, I estimate there to be a thousand and twenty-four in each sphere.”
There was something soothing about swimming through liquid cobalt. I doubt anyone other than a retired battleship would appreciate the sensation, but it combined the best elements of swimming and flying through space. If I had Lux’s authority, I would be tempted to spend weeks within a dome. For all I knew, maybe she had. After all, she was one of the few also capable of entering the third-contact artifacts.
It took me forty-nine minutes to inspect all the artifacts in the inner layer. They were exactly one thousand and twenty-four. Unfortunately, there was no way of telling whether they were natural or the result of Cassandrian mimicry. That was something that others would determine once I safely took them outside.
Doing a quick swim to double check my findings, I then made my way between several rods to start inspecting the second layer. As I did, thoughts of exploration swept through me. There was so much that could be explored, investigated, or even admired. All that was for peaceful times, though.
Combing through the second layer of artifacts took me seventy-two minutes. Based on the simulations I was running, I’d only have enough time to go through a third of the third layer before my three hours were up, so I decided to explore the path from the center to the fractal symbol instead.
“I’ve marked the position and location of all artifacts in the first two layers,” I said. “So far, I have found thirteen different types of rods. I speculate that there’ll be a total of fourteen. I’ll need two more sessions inside the dome before I can confirm that. Depending on the situation outside, taking the artifacts out of the dome will have to wait for tomorrow.”
One major difference between this dome and previous ones was the ease with which I could swim through the liquid section inside. In the past, the resistance had been greater and the domes themselves tended to pull me towards the center to various degrees. Here, I was given more freedom than usual.
As I approached the outer shell of the dome, symbols emerged along it. I held my breath again and pressed the seven triangles. A loud pop filled in my ears, after which I was pulled towards the wall and spat outside.
Thousands of transmissions linked to my core, transferring data of various nature. The vast majority were composed of drone video feeds as they continued to remove the layers of rock above the dome. The rest were Sof’s communication channels.
Glad to finally have you back, the ship said, his words dripping with sarcasm.
“I know.” I ignored his attitude, sending a compressed version of my suit’s findings within the dome. “Captain, the dome looks standard, so far. I can proceed with extracting the rods tomorrow in preparation for—”
“You’ll start getting them out now,” Quinn interrupted me. Her voice had remnants of tension, but vocal analyses suggested that she was in the process of calming down. “Can you get them all out before you sleep?”
“Impossible, ma’am.” I went through the Fleet reports. There was no indication that the Cassandrians were advancing in our direction. I requested to see all visual feed archives of the events taking place in the last three hours, but got denied. “Extracting them all would take three days at least.” No immediate response followed, so after a few seconds, I continued. “I’d also recommend completing the mapping before that. I’ll have it done by tomorrow, and it will reduce risks of unexpected events by—”
“Too late for that.”
“What happened while I was inside, ma’am?” My tone was firmer than it was supposed to be. I fully accepted her as my captain, but with everything at stake, it wasn’t time for vague responses.
“We changed our orbit. Gravitational anomalies have appeared in the system and we can’t establish a pattern.”