IT HAD TAKEN ALMOST A WEEK for the Conestoga about a week to finish doing routine scans of the previous system, and about a week and a half to jump to the next system, making the next move at faster than average recommended speeds. Olivia didn’t want to drag out the suspense of the mystery, and while she was hopeful something interesting might be waiting for them on the other side, she was also preparing for the worst as well. She made sure that events and even an extra movie night was books for the crew to try to lift spirits if the answer they found was nothing more than their usual boring explorer stuff. Even though she tried her best to rest whenever her shifts were over, Olivia still had trouble getting to sleep. Chen had even offered her medication to help, but she wasn’t ready to turn to that just yet. Her insomnia became worse as they drew closer to the new system, and despite her exhaustion she kept a strong presence for her crew and used a lot of caffeine infused drinks to remain alert during her shifts. The bridge crew was especially nervous in the hours leading to their entry into the now quite popular system. Like the time before, Olivia took her seat and promptly warned the crew as they were about to enter the system. After a brief bump to signify the end of their jump, they had finally arrived. Olivia immediately jump from her chair and walked over to Carter who was already scanning the sector.
“What readings are we getting?” She promptly asked him.
“I’m picking up a heat signature,” Carter answered, “As far as I can tell based on these readings… there is a stable and functioning solar body at the center of this system.”
“Okay, let’s get a look them.” Olivia said, turning to another officer at another panel. “Show is visual.”
The screen in the bridge turn to show what it looked like outside, but there was nothing. No brightness, no glare, no sun. Nothing. There was nothing but darkness looking back at them, which went completely against the readings Carter was getting.
“This is impossible!” Carter said.
“We need to see for ourselves,” Olivia said, as she left the bridge and entered into a conference room that was off to the left. Once inside that room, Olivia walked over to a window and looked in the direction where the sun of this system was supposed to be. There was still nothing to see, which was again quite frustrating.
“What the hell is going on here?” She asked herself.
Olivia impatiently walked back onto the bridge and pointed at Carter.
“I want four probes fired out as soon as possible.” She called out to him, “I want every inch of this system scanned to find out what we’re dealing with here.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Carter said as he was prepping two already.
She was order something else, but the doors to the ridge opened and Doctor Chen emerged from the elevator.
“Is everyone alright?” She asked him, forgetting to ask about their bump from jumping out of light speed.
“No injuries, Captain,” Chen answered, “But I’ve spotted something you might have missed. Where is the nearest window?”
“The conference room,” Olivia answered, “I was just there. I didn’t see anything.”
“Well, I saw something,” Chen said, “But most of the people onboard haven’t noticed it yet. Follow me.”
Olivia followed Chen into the conference room and back to the large window. She saw the same view and looked back at Chen.
“There’s no sun, I get it.” Olivia said, “What did you see?”
“Just look to your far left,” Chen requested, “And tell me what you see.”
“I see stars, a few rocks,” Olivia said, frustration clear in her voice. “This is what we’d normally see out there.”
“Now look to the far right and tell me what you see.” Chen ordered.
“The same thing,” Olivia said, “Stars and debris.”
“Now look into the middle where our star is supposed to be,” Chen requested, “And tell me what you see.”
“I see nothing,” Olivia answered.
“That’s right,” Chen agreed, “But what’s missing?”
Olivia stood there and continue to stare out the window and then if finally dawned on her what Chen had noticed.
“Stars,” Olivia blurted out. “There are no stars in the middle!”
“That’s right,” Chen confirmed, “There is something blocking our view of the stars in the center.”
Just then Carter came into he conference room.
“Captain,” he started, “One of our probes has crashed.”
“Crashed?” Olivia said, “How?”
“I’m not sure,” Carter replied, “But it’s so damaged it cannot fly back.”
Olivia followed Carter back onto the bridge and over to his station.
“How far did it get before making impact?” Olivia asked.
“Not too far,” Carter answered, “What should I do?”
“Launch two more probes,” Olivia ordered, “But use the crash of the probe to set a boundary so we don’t lose anymore. Get it to orbit around that distance and scan for where it landed and on top of what.”
“Alright,” Carter said as he didn’t understand. “I’ll have them launched soon.”
“Helm,” Olivia called out, “Full stop.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” The pilot at the helm called out.
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Once the other two probes have been launched, they were gathering a lot of data for the ship as it stood still at a safe distance. The last thing Olivia wanted to do was crash her own vessel, so the best plan was to bring the Conestoga to a halt and maintain position until they could learn what they were dealing with.
Once the probes had been out for a half hour making its scans, Carter started to freak out when he got all the readings back. Olivia could tell something was bothering him as she walked over to him. She took position behind him and looked over Carter’s shoulder as the readings came in. They both stared at the readings in disbelief. The structure the probe had crashed into was enormous, taking up more than half of the solar system, and it was not a natural phenomenon.
“What the hell is that thing?” Olivia demanded, needing answers.
“I think it’s time to contact Chief McGregor,” Chen answered.
“No!” Carter said, as he couldn’t believe it.
“Why?” Olivia asked.
“Because it appears he won the pool,” Chen said, “If there is a sun behind whatever our probe crashed into, then it’s clear as day what we’re looking at. It’s a Dyson’s Sphere.”
“Why can’t we see it?” Carter asked.
“There’s no source of light in this system,” Chen answered, “Because it’s inside the sphere.”
Olivia walked over to the screen and again looked at the part of the system that had no stars and it was indeed enormous. She had a hard time believing that whatever was blocking their view was made by someone, or something. Yet rather than believe it, she thought it was better to see it in order to believe it.
“Helm,” She called out, “Take us in closer, but at a very low speed.”
“In what direction?” the pilot asked.
“Towards our crashed probe,” Olivia answered, “As long as we’re heading towards that, we shouldn’t bump into anything.”
“I’m getting more readings from the other probes, and this thing is enormous!” Carter called out, “If this thing was in our own solar system, I would extend from the center all the way out to Jupiter.”
“Good lord,” Chen said, as he was calculating that in his head, “That makes whatever this is over ten thousand times bigger than our own sun.”
“We’re getting very close to our probe,” The pilot called out, “How close do you want to get before we stop again?”
“At least a few hundred miles,” Olivia answered, as she wanted to get a close to this thing as possible without actually crashing her ship into it too.
It was at this point when McGregor came into the bridge, and he looked rather grumpy as he never liked being called up like a dog.
“What the hell is going on?” McGregor called out.
“You need to see this,” Olivia said, pointing at the screen.
“I see nothing,” he said, feeling rather annoyed again.
“There’s no stars,” Olivia explained, “Something is blocking our view of them. Something that is not natural.”
“No friggin’ way!” McGregor said, as he walked closer to her. “Are you sure?”
“We’re checking now,” Olivia explained, “One of our probes actually crashed into it and we’re getting closer to it now to find it.”
“We’re less than 200 miles from our probe,” the pilot called out.
“Full stop again,” Olivia said, unwilling to take any chances. “Launch another probe, Carter. This time do it slowly and send it towards our crashed probe.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Carter said, prepping another probe.
“Sending the probe ahead is smart,” McGregor said, thinking out loud, “Clears a path for the ship to make sure it’s all clear.”
“Precisely,” Olivia said as the probe was launched but this time did so at a slow speed as it slowly approached the crash site.
“Our new probe is less than half a mile from the crash site,” Carter reported, “And there appear to be no obstacles in the way.”
“Take us in closer,” Olivia ordered to the pilot, but come to a stop when were less than a hundred feet from the probe.”
It took the pilot a while to navigate the ship to the distance requested, and the crew it felt like forever as the anticipation was metaphorically killing them. Once they were in position, there was only one thing left to do.
“Lert there be light,” Olivia called out, “Put all spotlights onto our probe.”
When the Conestoga turned on all it’s lights, the probe and its crash site became instantly visible. What it had crashed into was a surface that was metallic, and black which is what made it so hard to see in the first place.
“That is not natural at all,” Chen observed, “Someone built this.”
“Move the ship around,” Olivia said, “I want to see more of this thing.”
As the Conestoga started to roam the surface of the massive object that stood before them, it was all a metallic black panels that seemed endless.
“My god,” McGregor said, even smiling. “We’ve discovered a Dyson’s Sphere!”
“It’s magnificent,” Chen said, looking at the screen in complete awe.
“If he’s right,” Carter called out, “This is the biggest discovery in the history of the entire Confederacy.”
“I’ll be right back,” Olivia said, as she departed the bridge and went back into the same conference room she had been in two times before.
She strolled up to a screen that was on the other side of the room and pressed a few buttons to activate it.
“Computer,” she commanded, “Open an emergency channel to USC Prime, priority red.”
Priority red communications were rarely used because of the amount of power used by the ship to make the call, but it cut down on the delay which was deemed necessary only in cases of extreme situations. The higher broadcast signal cut the delay down from fifteen hours to a mere fifteen seconds, but it was rarely used. This was actually going to be the first time Olivia had ever used it to contact command.
Less than a minute after reaching out, the screen finally changed and an Admiral she was quite familiar with was sitting there and looking rather bothered.
“Captain Howard,” the Admiral started, “This is a first for you.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Olivia confirmed, “I need to report something urgent, and it couldn’t wait for the standard delay.”
“I see,” The Admiral said, a hint of intrigue in his voice. “Report.”
“We’ve encountered a massive structure in our newest system,” Olivia started.
“How massive are we talking here, Captain?” the admiral inquired.
“An artificial object that is at least thousands of times bigger than our own sun.” Olivia answered, “We believe the star of this system is inside of it, and that’s why our telescopes have not been able to observe the star of this particular system.”
“What exactly are you telling me, Captain?” The admiral asked.
“I believe we’ve discovered a Dyson Sphere,” Olivia answered, “A massive construction that is housing a star inside of it and is probably using that star for power.”
“Humans are not capable of building such a massive structure,” the admiral said.
“I’m aware, Sir.” Olivia replied, “Which is why we need to classify the Sphere as alien in nature.”
“So noted,” The admiral said, taking notes as her spoke. “What do you recommend at this time, Captain?”
“Obviously, we need more ships,” Olivia answered, “You need to get every available ship out here to explore and investigate this thing. It’s just too big for one vessel to examine. It would take us years, maybe even decades just to chart the surface. And then we would need a team to try to get inside.”
“No,” the admiral barked back, “No landing parties. We have no idea what’s inside this Sphere, let alone where to find the damn door. We will be sending our best Recon Raiders to investigate whether or not we can get inside. Right now, Conestoga’s only mission is creating a perimeter so that no other ships or probes crash into this gigantic structure.”
“Yes, Sir,” Olivia replied.
“This is the greatest discovery in human history,” the Admiral reminded her, “There will plenty of time and opportunity for everyone to get involved. Even if we sent every one of our recon ships to the sphere, we still might need to use some of the explorer ships to help cover the surface. If this thing is as big as you claim, it will most likely be all hands-on deck kind of situation.”
“The crew will like the sound of that, Sir.” Olivia said.
“That’s good to hear,” The Admiral said, “because your current orders are to keep your distance and not make any attempts to enter the Sphere. Surveillance only, Captain. Are we clear on that?”
“Yes, Admiral.” Olivia said, “Surveillance only.”
“And one last thing, Captain Howard,” The admiral started, “The Conestoga will now live in infamy as the USC vessel that discovered the first Dyson Sphere. That is a once in a lifetime discovery… congratulations.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Olivia said, as she watched the screen go dark. She had her orders, and now it was time to share them with the crew.