I was startled awake by the ship’s intercom system crackling out a message repeatedly. Still groggy, I swung my feet over the edge of the bunk and listened to find out what was going on. We had been in the slipstream for over two months, and this was the first announcement since.
“All personnel to your stations, I repeat all personnel to your stations. We are dropping out of the slipstream in t-minus eight hundred seconds. Abator Zeal, please report to ship bay four for briefing. All personnel to your stations….” The intercom began to repeat the message.
Hearing my name and title caused me to quickly jump out of my bunk and head into my private shower. My rank had its perks. I still couldn’t believe I had been promoted to the rank of Abator. It has only been eighteen months since I graduated from the Science Academy and was assigned to the F.N. Xistrith.
From a young age, a love for both science and exploration of the unknown set me on my current path. At the academy, I excelled in both of the requirements of space exploration to become an Abator. Those requirements were the science of astrophysics and the rigorous physical exertion of piloting the exploration and science vessel, The Nav. With my academy scores and recommendations from my teachers, I was fast-tracked into one of the few open positions for an Abator on a military scouting vessel.
Abators are a civilian branch that works alongside our nation’s military. We provide the means of research into anomalies and other discoveries the military’s vessels can’t handle. At this moment, we are on our way to the Lolth system. Our people recently helped evacuate as many of the system’s inhabitants as possible back to our homeworld.
Seven rotations ago, their star had gone supernova, wiping out the entire system’s inner worlds. Then four cycles ago, a strange anomaly was detected by one of the military’s reconnaissance vessels studying the after-effects of the supernova.
A tiny prismatic sphere now floated where the planet Eilistraee had once been. Initial reports gave the anomaly the signature of a black hole without any signs of the warping of space around it. It would be my job to investigate this new anomaly. Being my first solo mission, I was beyond excited at the prospect of being the first to study this strange phenomenon.
Finishing up in the shower, I dried off and got into my flight suit. After making sure I was presentable In the mirror, I opened my bulkhead and left. I was grinning the entire time I ran through the halls, dodging various crew members as I made my way down to bay four.
As I walked into the large docking bay, another message alerted the crew we were dropping from slipstream, prompting me to grab onto the closest railing I could find. Within a few moments, the feeling of passing through the warp bubble made my skin crawl. Moving towards the center of the bay, I could see the Nav in all its glory.
It resembled one of the many-eyed creatures from myth. The cockpit at the center was a sizable glassed half dome, resembling an eye. Around this cockpit, extended eight long robotic arms that spread out in a circle. Various instruments extended from each of these limbs above and below the glass eye. The two arms at the sides had graspers for manipulation tasks.
“You’re good to launch as soon as the command comes down from The Tower. The Tower wants you to make two wide passes to see if we can get any additional readings from the long-distance sensor array.” my commander said as I got closer. I gave her a nod of understanding.
I went over to the sidewall and began clipping on the outer parts of my suit. These, along with my basic flight suit, would help sustain me if there were to be any type of catastrophic failure on the NAV. The commander came over and helped me clip on the back parts of my suit. She grabbed my outer helmet from the wall before turning to speak with me.
I watched her scan the bay before she spoke, “I know this is your first mission as our new Abator. If you feel there is any possible chance this anomaly poses you or us any danger, alert us and get your ass back here. The Tower won’t have a second thought about launching a Null missile right at it.”
I began to feel the sweat form and drip down my neck. I swallowed hard before speaking, ”have you ever seen a Null Missle detonate before?”
“I have, twice. It’s both quite beautiful and utterly terrifying. We launched one in the Orel’el system on a planet killer asteroid that came from deep space. It swallowed the asteroid before it hit the planet. Still, the black hole it created destroyed almost a quarter of the infrastructure of the planet before it folded in on itself.”
The commander handed me my outer helmet. I placed it over my head then turned it till I heard the seal click in place. Nodding to the commander, I turned and walked towards the Nav.
The crew already had a small ladder on wheels behind it, and I climbed up through the back hatch. Turning around, I closed and then turned the wheel on the hatch. The system took over and began to close the hatch the rest of the way on its own. I could hear the system begin its diagnostics through my helmet’s communicator.
Buckling myself into the cockpit’s seat, I began to look over the displays to make sure everything was ready for the go-ahead. Seeing everything nominal, I began to meditate and clear my head. I’ve done these hundreds of times with an instructor. Almost every anomaly turns out to be some type of micro-black hole variant that didn’t collapse in on itself.
Once, it was something vastly different: a new type of metal with a crazy magnetic field that could trap radiation within those fields. That had quickly been taken out of our hands, and we had been told to remain silent about it.
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I pulled up the center console so that it was closer to me and began to flip through the long sensor photos and telemetry that had been taken. The anomaly was a beautiful perfect sphere of shimmering colors. A brief video showed the colors changing and pulsing, almost as if it was alive.
Closing out of the visual data, I began to look through the telemetry readings. They showed no signs of space distortion around the anomaly. How was that possible?.
Then further down the report, I read something that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. There was some type of signal radiating outwards from the sphere of multicolor light. This meant an intelligent species might have created the object. Could the Drow have made something that survived their system’s collapse?
“Abator, you are cleared for launch. I repeat, Abator, you are cleared for launch,” came a calm voice through my helmet. I gave my confirmation back, and the crew began to leave the bay.
As soon as the crew confirmed everyone was inside their safety area, the bay doors began to open, revealing the blackness of space and the billions of visible stars without this system’s sun to suppress their radiance. A muffled clang removed me from my wonderment as the massive bay arm began to move my Nav out the bay door and into the emptiness of space. Moments later, the arm let the Nav go, and I began to spin slightly to the right.
With practice ease, I corrected the spin and headed towards the shiny sphere in the distance. Halfway there, I reversed the thrusters to come to a stop and started running my first tests. The tests quickly confirmed the earlier reports. Next, I sent various types of communication signals to the anomaly. This was made up of the standard greeting and prime number strings any advanced civilization should know. Only three other advanced species had been found and contacted until this point. Finding the fourth would have my name in the history books.
After the standard five minutes with no response, I finished the rest of my tests. I pushed the Nav closer to the sphere, only stopping a quarter of the way there to rerun the same tests. With no visible threats from the anomaly, I requested the commander to move into phase two.
“We have confirmed all your readings are nominal. You may proceed to a distance of point two-two light-seconds out and continue your testing,” the commander replied.
I could see the anomaly clearly through the magnification on the cockpit window at that distance. Stunning couldn’t even begin to describe what I was seeing. It was a perfect sphere around a kilometer in diameter. The colors seemed to play across its surface as if clouds of multi-colored gas danced in a rhythmic beat. At a distance of point two-two light seconds away, I could, in theory, retreat at the first sign of anything happening. Here I would run my tests multiple times before going into phase three.
Over an hour later, I got my final test confirmation. I could now move into phase three and get close to the anomaly. With bated breath, I began to maneuver more proximate to the sphere of light. Part of the way there, I got a message from the commander saying the ship’s AI calculated the anomaly’s current position would have placed the object at the center of the planet Xistrith.
Thinking over those implications, I slowly moved closer to the multi-colored wonder in front of me but still ready to high-tail it out here the moment my sensors picked up anything. By the time I got within a kilometer of the anomaly, I could see a reflection of the Nav on its surface.
“Commander, I can see my ship’s reflection on the surface of the object. Almost as if I’m above water. You seeing this?” I said into my helmet.
“We are getting your readings. No one has seen anything like this before. Almost as if water and gases are intermixed within the sphere. Gathriel says she would like samples if possible,” came back moments later.
As I inched closer to the anomaly, alarms began going off. Everything indicating the threat was not coming from the anomaly but off to my right and the blackness of space. A half-second later, the commander started yelling into the communication channel. “A massive swarm of small asteroids are heading your way! I don’t know how the military fucking missed them; get your ass back here now! Get ready to EVAC him now! Go! Go!”
I immediately spun the Nav and full-burned before I began calculating the small slipstream to get me out of the path of my destruction. My world went into a spin before the computer could complete the calculation. I began my breathing rhythms as I worked on getting the Nav stable. Before I could get my world to stop spinning, there was a shudder, and then the vacuum of space caused chaos within the cockpit.
As calm as I could be in the situation, I checked my oxygen levels and began to panic. There were no oxygen levels. The tanks had been destroyed.
“Commander, I’m going to need that EVAC much sooner than expected. My oxygen tanks are null.” I said into my helmet, hoping they could still hear the communication channel.
“I read you, Abator. They are taking off now. As soon as the asteroid swarm passes, they can slipstream to your position in moments.” replied the commander. Her voice came across with all the conviction of a practiced officer.
After a few moments of nothing striking me, I assumed the swarm had passed. I began to stop the Nav from spinning but found most of my thrusters no longer worked. Slamming my fist into the arm of the cockpit chair did nothing to ease my frustration. As I slowly spun, the colorful anomaly came back into view, and it calmed me. I just had to sit tight and wait for the EVAC vessel to come to me. My first mission wouldn’t be a complete failure, but the results could be blamed on the military for not doing a proper deep scan of the system.
I had just begun to meditate and reduce my oxygen consumption when a low ping sounded off in the cockpit. I opened my eyes to see a box of text floating a half meter in front of me as if it was floating in space. Moving my eyes back and forth, the box of text stayed directly in front of me. Scanning it caused me to panic.
[ System Warning! ]
Your imminent death has been calculated.
Would you like to Transfer?
Yes / No
My first thought was, Transfer what? Was this some type of emergency hologram in front of me? I explained what I saw in the comm’s channel. A moment later, I was informed no one knew what I was talking about. The NAV Shuddered before I could respond, and I was forcefully ripped from the cockpit and thrown violently into space. I couldn’t hear myself scream as I looked over at my now missing arm. The suit clamped down at the shoulder, and I felt the air being pushed back inside my suit.
I began to blackout, knowing I had maybe a few minutes of air left inside the suit. Thinking, Yes, I want to transfer, a calm blackness came over me.