A loud thump echoed through the dark room causing Leon to jolt awake with a strangled yell. He had been dreaming about the war again, his heart pounded in his chest like a caged animal and the cold sweat that covered him stung like the pricks of a thousand needles as he took deep shuddering breaths. The cool air of the room eased his suffering, the darkness lit by brief mental flashes of half remembered terrors.
A rustling in the sheets next to him was followed by a pair of arms wrapping around his chest. Natalia leaned her chin on his shoulder and asked “Did you have another nightmare Leon?”
Leon nodded silently and allowed the feeling of her pressing into his back calm him. His undershirt was slicking to him and his head was pounding. His entire right side was hurting as if he had been submerged in scalding water.
Leon took a deep breath and asked “Why do you continue to stay with me Nat? I'm very clearly damaged goods.”
She shushed him and planted a tender kiss on his ear before whispering “Yes you are, but you are my damaged goods. And I like to hold onto what’s mine.”
Leon chuckled at that and said “And I am yours, yours alone.” he shuffled around till he sat on the edge of the bed. Pulling her to his side he hugged her and said “I don’t know what I would do without you Nat. I can’t believe it took me so long to let you love me. I’m sorry.” he said sadly, a single tear threatening to wrest its way from his eye.
Natalia just smiled, her teeth starkly white in the dimly lit cabin. “Not as sorry as I am that I missed out for as long as I did. You are a terrific lover you know.” she told him unashamedly.
Leon blushed and ducked his head “Um, thanks. You are great too.” he fumbled to which she socked him with a pillow.
He fell backwards on the bed laughing and she laid down on his chest, pinning him in place.
“Oof, get off, you weigh a ton!” he joked loudly, he could have easily picked her up but decided to let her play a bit more.
She gasped “How could you say that, you are the fat one.” and she poked his belly hard. Leon doubled over with a grunt dislodging her in the process.
“Hey, don’t do that, that tickles.” he grumbled a little bit annoyed.
She giggled girlishly and kneeled on the covers. “Well, aren't you going to get me back?”
Leon smiled as evilly as he could and spouted “Oh, just wait till I get my hands on you!”
He chased her around the bed as she giggled wildly, tripping over a pillow he thumped into the floor with a grunt. Sitting up and rubbing his chest he shot her a look and said “Ow.”
Natalia hopped back onto the bed and patted the sheets next to her. He crawled over and onto the bed beside her and asked “Do you ever get tired of it all?”
She looked at him and asked “Sure, whatever it all is. What do you mean exactly by that?”
Leon groaned and said “Please, none of the psychology studies here. I am just curious. Do you ever miss home, Earth, everything we left behind?” He looked at her imploringly, trying to let her know how serious he was about it.
She sighed and took a moment to think. He could see the scrunching of her eyebrows as she thought deeply. After a moment she said “After almost three years this has become my new normal. When I feel overwhelmed I take a walk, when I need to be alone I go to the yard. When I want to talk I have twelve of the greatest people within a billion miles to do it with.” he smiled at her as she continued. “So to answer that question… No. I don’t miss it all. The rat race, constantly trying to overachieve to get noticed. Scrambling to make bills. No, I don't miss it at all.”
Leon nodded and said “I do sometimes. The peacefulness of no responsibility. I was retired you know.” She smiled and he asked “I’m sorry for waking you, would you like to go back to sleep? I would.”
She just poked his side and rolled under the covers. He gave the smallest sigh and followed, love was a strange thing.
**********
It was early, too early in Leon’s opinion. He drank a cup of cider and leaned against the table in the dining hall. He wasn’t the only one around. He could see Sabine and Chad sitting close together at the other table. Chris had just left and he turned as Taylor walked in.
Waving to the man, Leon scooted over and made room for him. Taylor nodded to him and walked to the other side of the room to grab a tray and some breakfast.
Soon he walked over and sat across from Leon, despite Leon having motioned for him to sit adjoining.
“Hey Leon, what’s up?” Taylor asked him curiously.
Leon gave him a look of exasperation and replied “Why does something have to be up for me to talk to you Taylor? No, there isn’t anything up. I was just wanting to talk to you, how have you been.” He looked at the man as he finished, Taylor had a spoon halfway to his mouth and was looking at his cams device.
Leon snapped his fingers, jolting the younger man and grabbing his attention. “Hey, I asked you how you are doing.” He said.
Taylor set his spoon down and bowed his head briefly. “I have been doing fine Leon, it’s just. Well, it’s just Terry. She has been bugging me lately, mood swings and hormone imbalances.” He said.
Leon raised an eyebrow. “Any reason in particular for these mood swings of hers?”
The other man shook his head. Taking a bit of his food he chewed while typing something on his cams device. “No. Not that I can tell, other than her being a woman after all. They do sometimes experience hormonal shifts you know.”
Leon nodded and said “Yes I do. Well, keep me updated on her behavior, if she gets too emotionally compromised we might need to issue her some rest time. For her safety and the safety of the crew. Everyone on duty needs to remain in complete control.” Leon watched the man’s face scrunch a little. He obviously had issues with the plan but remained silent.
“Yeah. I am sure she’s fine. It's just, well I worry about her you know.” Taylor told him a bit anxiously.
Leon smiled and reached across the small table to pat him on the shoulder. “I know you do Taylor, and I’m sure she does as well. So don’t let it get between you two. Alright?”
Taylor nodded and looked back at his breakfast. Leon stood and took his own plate to the dish bin. He put it away and then turned to leave the room. As he did he saw Joice wave to him from the door. Leon strolled over to her and fell in alongside as she walked towards one of the four ladder spokes connecting the spinning habitat ring to the Leif Erikson’s core.
She waved a hand idly as she spoke up saying “Leon. We are coming up on another one of those so-labeled habitable worlds. Another one from the database we recovered from that alien ruin.”
Leon nodded. “We are scheduled to drop out of warp in about two hours. It should be interesting.” He said as they reached a ladder.
“As interesting as the last system?” She asked dryly.
Leon just shrugged. “Last system was obviously different from what the archives had reported. A few dozen millennia will do that to a place ya know.” He joked to her.
Joice just shook her head and asked him in a sincere tone “Yeah, but is it always the case? Because if it is then maybe we should consider giving the archive a rest. Going back to the old system perhaps?”
Leon waved her comment away. “Not likely. This is the best lead we have so far. Possibly the best lead we will ever find. Solid evidence of other intelligence in the universe, intelligence at least somewhat like us in behavior if not form.”
Joice looked at him curiously as she grabbed the first ladder rung. “Like us how?” she asked him curiously. He raised an eyebrow and she said “Oh just humor me. I'm interested in what you were going to say.”
Leon shrugged and pointed out “They seem to be curious beings. Inquisitive as are we, they studied their surroundings and focused on habitable planets making me believe they were also resource hungry expansionists like us. The fact that they lived and worked together in such large quantities points towards a very well developed social structure as well. They seem to be more like us than unlike us actually.” he said matter-of-factly.
Joice nodded and started up the ladder down to the ship's core. “That’s about what I was expecting to hear. I’ll meet you on the bridge Leon.” he heard her say as she ascended the tube.
Leon turned and walked back the way he had come. He would indeed be meeting her and the other bridge crew, just not yet. He had something he wanted to check on first.
Leon walked along the curving hallway towards the quarantine area. It was only a short walk past the gym room and swimming area which doubled as the ship's water storage. Soon he reached a series of more heavily pressurized doors with full airlocks and decontamination rings. It was through the first one of these that he walked, looking through the small armoured window at the room's sole occupant.
He stepped up to the first door and input his security code. The door slid open silently, its seals much more complex than the simple doors that sealed their rooms. As the door shut behind him the room was bathed in dim purple light that heated his skin briefly. After the ultraviolet bath he keyed the second door which admitted him into a small but well furnished room complete with lounge chair and dresser.
He crossed the room without looking at the bed and sat in the lounge chair. Settling himself comfortably, he looked across the room. On the edge of the bed looking a little worse for wear was Aden. the small dark haired man scratched his head idly and looked at Leon with a bit of shame and trepidation.
Leon asked “How are you feeling today Aden? Has Natalia come by to talk to you recently?”
Aden muttered something under his breath and then pointed at him saying “You of all people on this ship should know how I feel. I feel doomed, doomed.” he repeated more softly.
Leon nodded and asked “This isn't being recorded Aden. You can speak freely.”
Aden looked him over and asked “You know I wasn't crazy, yet you let them lock me up like some sort of… Wild beast!” he shouted, standing to his feet. His fists balled up and his knuckles white as bone.
Leon raised both hands and made a calming gesture. “Aden please, settle down. I believe you, I just didn't let the knowledge push me to breaking. You on the other hand. You got yourself addicted to those pills. You got yourself admitted into this room through your actions and your actions alone. I thought after almost three months we had gotten past this.” Leon said as placatingly as he could. He was in no real danger from the man, three months in quarantine with little to do for exercise had withered the man’s muscle mass somewhat.
Aden sat with a grunt and grumbled slightly. Leon implored him “Aden, I want to help you, we all do. Please, you have to work with us on this though. I can assure you that I have only the best interests of the crew in mind. At all times. You on the other hand acted selfishly and nearly caused a catastrophe. Imagine the panic on this ship if the knowledge of our uninvited guest had gotten out.” He tried to rationalize. He hated every word of it though, lying to the crew. Lying to Natalia. It was hurting him in ways that he could scarcely describe, and the fact that Dr. Kimathi was now in on the secret as well didn't do anything to ease his conscience.
Instead of deriding him, Aden seemed to calm slightly. The rational thinking having a calming effect on the paranoia that had seeped into the man’s mind. It was as if he had been infected and was only just now recovering from the effects of direct contact with the entity as he had started to call it. This thing, this entity was equal parts mysterious and terrifying to him, but as he had stated to Aden he was not letting his emotions control him. He was made of stronger stuff than that.
Aden looked around the room and asked “Where is it now?”
Leon patted the wall next to him and said “You seem to be safe from it in here Aden. The walls are heavily shielded against radiation. I don't know what this thing is any more than you do, but I do know its made of the same stuff as the rest of the universe. And it seems to obey the same laws of physics we do, so it cant pass through energized and shielded materials.”
Aden coughed and said “You didn't answer the question Leon. Do you know where that thing is?”
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Leon frowned. He hadn't even realised that he had dodged the question. “I, still don’t know Aden. I haven't gotten any odd energy readings since the day we put you in here, maybe it left?” he said hopefully but recoiled as Aden yelled.
“No! It’s still here somewhere, on the ship. Just waiting for me to leave so it can destroy me!” the smaller man said as he dove into the covers of his bed.
Leon gave a sigh. It was always the same, the conversations would stay on track for a while, but Aden would always eventually end up hiding in his bed. Too afraid for his life to even peek from the covers. He had been sober and free of withdrawal symptoms for more than a month now. But he was still suffering from paranoia and mental trauma, Leon stood and walked to the edge of the bed.
Sitting down he reached over and patted the man’s shoulder. Aden whimpered and curled up tighter.
Feeling like there was nothing in this universe he could do to help the poor man Leon said “Aden, i don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want me to you know.”
Aden remained silent and so he stood and walked to the door. As he pressed the button to open it he heard a rustling from behind him and Aden asked him “No, wait! Leon, please don’t go yet. Will you stay here with me? For a little while?” Aden’s voice was broken like his spirit. Leon cursed in his mind, what manner of creature would do this to another being, and for what reason?
He ignored the door which beeped and then closed itself ten seconds later as he walked to the bed once more and sat on the edge. He put out a hand and patted the man’s shoulder again comfortingly. Aden smiled from a tiny gap in the covers and rocked slightly back and forth. Leon started to hum a tuneless melody to himself. Aden gave a small sigh and closed his eyes.
For a time Leon stayed like that, comforting a friend as best he could. Aden soon fell asleep but Leon continued to hum, the action calming him as much as it had calmed Aden.
After a while he felt his wrist buzz and looked down. He was being recalled to the bridge, they were about to make the warp translation. Leon carefully stood and exited the room so as not to disturb Aden who had fallen into a deep peaceful sleep. He shook his head sadly at the state of the man.
Leon could remember the first time they had met, the short New Indian man having immediately impressed him with his dark charm and deep knowledge of xenobiology. He had been part of several of the European expeditions and had actually been one of the first to drill through the ice to the moon’s subsurface ocean. As of their leaving the home system nothing had been found living on Europa yet, but that could very well change by the time their mission was over.
Leon made his way to the bridge quickly, stepping into his voidsuit and grabbing his helmet he entered through the large airlock.
The bridge was a scene of both excitement and disquietude, the air feeling charged as if there was distant lightning on the horizon. Leon drifted to his command chair and strapped himself in, the microgravity of the ship’s non-rotating core making the action absolutely essential. He glanced around, Joice was sitting in the command throne next to him and gave him a thumbs up as she noticed his gaze.
Leon smiled in return and asked “Everything check out for translation?”
The blond haired woman nodded, her long flowing hair in a tight ponytail that drifted over her left shoulder as she replied “Yes indeed. All major systems showing green. We are about four minutes from warp exit, I almost thought you weren’t going to make it.”
Leon chuckled at her comment and said “Oh I wouldn't elect to miss it even if you offered me a thousand shiny things.”
He checked his command console, everything seemed to be in the green just as she had said. He settled himself down for the unpleasantness of a warp translation and wasn't disappointed as the ship dropped from warp. All at once his perception seemed to be filled with delicate glowing lace and the sound of butterfly wings. Almost as soon as he was able to comprehend it the sensation was gone. Only the strange and unpleasant memory remained.
He shook his head to clear it and then checked their position. Twenty-four light hours from the primary, just as they had planned. “Good work Seth, right on target. Taylor, get me a picture of the inner system. Terry, scan for anomalies please.” he commanded.
Joice spoke just after “Samuel, prep the warp core for jump, ten minutes. Sabine, give me a status report of our major systems please. I want to make sure we are in a safe position.”
Leon nodded as she took some of the slack. It was nice having someone as competent as Joice as his second, the woman had an indomitable will and desire to see the mission succeed, likely more so than anyone else on the ship. She was relentless in making sure nothing went wrong, and he knew he could trust her with the ship and crew if anything were to happen to him.
Terry spoke a second later. Her voice calm and cool, giving no hint of the emotional distress Taylor had mentioned to him. “Inner system looks clear at this point, nothing out of the ordinary jumps out at me. Though I would need to do a prolonged scan to determine that for sure.”
Samuel added “Warp core is ready in four minutes, capacitors charging.”
Leon looked at the main viewscreen as Taylor projected an image of the inner system on it. It looked strangely familiar, a bright yellow star and a multitude of bright points that could have been distant planets or large moons. There was even a large comet passing through the inner system as he observed it. The million-kilometer-long tail glittering with a multitude of colors.
The Leif Erikson’s on board telescopes were some of the most powerful ever installed on a ship, capable of incredible resolution and magnification. At the moment Terry had the majority of them scanning the inner system for potential hazards. If nothing was found in the next fifteen minutes he would give Samuel the order to jump them to ten light hours. That was far enough to be safe from any unseen threats from the star, but close enough for them to get decent resolution on the inner system planets if there were any.
Leon sat quietly, letting his bridge crew do their work in silence as he contemplated their position relative to their mission. They had discovered life, intelligence or at least the signs of intelligent life. Today felt new though, it felt important. He sat up straighter as he pulled up the data from the Aori archives.
The system was unnamed but marked as possessing a single terrestrial habitable world. A world of great biodiversity it seemed too. The files didn't mention anything in the way of ground expeditions, but if the Aori were anything like humanity they had most certainly visited the surface sometime in its past.
No evidence would have survived all the passing years though. Unlike the space station, which was a relatively sterile environment all things considered, the planet’s surface was rife with oxygen and other caustic elements that would slowly but surely strip away all traces of past intelligent life. It was popular theory that even large stone monuments, which to him seemed as impregnable as a mountain, would slowly but surely wear away over the eons.
“Jumping in five… four… three… two… ooonnee…” Samuel called out, his voice trailing off as the ship’s warp core blanketed them in a bubble of pure force. This artificial event horizon blocked their sensors and equipment, the viewscreens that had once been so full of light and color, now reduced to a miserable dark gray static.
Leon gave a small yell as all at once his brain felt as though it was being smashed out by lemons wrapped around a large brick of solid gold. As his vision cleared he cocked his head as the distinct sound of splashing water could be heard. He looked around and saw nothing however, a side effect of the warp transfer he supposed.
A bit shaken, he adjusted himself in his seat and asked “Samuel, please confirm our current position is ten light hours from the primary.”
Samuel rubbed his eyes and muttered something about dolphins as he punched the buttons on his console. After a moment he turned to Leon and confirmed “Yes. Ten light hours from the primary, radiation levels are steady but not alarming. We look clear at the moment.”
Leon nodded soberly, it wouldn't be good to get swamped by a radiation storm at this point. He looked at Terry and asked “Observations of the primary star show now signs of CME activity right?”
She seemed to take a second to orient herself before asking him “I am terribly sorry Leon… But what was the question again?”
Before he could respond Taylor leaned over and whispered something to her. She shook her head and said “No Taylor, I’m just fine. It’s just a spot of nausea, it will pass.” she looked over to Leon and opened her mouth to ask the question again but he cut her off with a wave.
“No it’s fine Terry, I was just curious what your coronal perturbations scans have found. Can we expect any kind of CME activity while we are in the system?” he asked her.
He looked at her concernedly as she looked from her data to him and then back to her data. She seemed to be a touch confused and so Leon said “Terry, you seem a bit off. Are you sure you wouldn't rather go lay down for a few minutes in the infirmary?” He could tell she was still feeling a bit of nausea and the last thing he wanted was another microgravity spew-fest. The last time one of the crew had thrown up in the ship’s zero gravity core it had created a terrible mess. What was worse the section had smelled of vomit for weeks, even with the ship’s air scrubbers and general filtration.
Terry just gave a nod, her face pale and her mouth held tightly shut. Leon looked at Taylor and said “I need you to stay and cover her position. Sabine, would you please help Terry to the infirmary?”
Sabine nodded and unstrapped, drifting to Terry and guiding her towards the airlock gently while speaking soothing words to her friend. Taylor glared after them and then said heatedly “I should be the one taking her to Dr. Kimathi!”
Before the disgruntled man could say any more, Leon butted in. “No, I need you here. She will be fine, we have the finest doctor in the galaxy looking after her, and Sabine will make sure she gets there safely. So please, calm yourself and tell me, is the ship in any danger?”
Taylor shook his head and pounded a clenched fist on his console before turning and bringing up his wife’s data. He looked it over briefly and then answered “Well. I am not an expert in astronomy and heliophysics like her, but from the data we have I see no evidence of heightened solar activity. The star looks as cool as a cucumber.”
Leon nodded and turned to Joice “We have to speculate on the inner system. It looks safe to proceed, I say we jump to the planet directly.” He thought about all the possible things that could go horridly wrong, and then promptly ignored most of them. They were close, close to completing one of his main goals. He admitted to himself that he was being a bit narcissistic in ignoring the risks, but the potential was getting to him.
Joice glanced at Samuel and the young pilot shrugged saying “It seems as safe as any. Jump now or later, it matters little. The star is calm, the planet is there, you can see its signature in the long-range scans. I agree, we have come this far, might as well bring it home.”
Leon smiled widely as Joice nodded and turned to Taylor. The man gave a slight nod while asking “We should wait till Sabine confirms Terry is safe in the infirmary first.”
Smiling, Leon gave him a thumbs up. Of course Taylor would be thinking only of his wife’s safety at the moment. A minute later his console notified him of an incoming message. It was Sabine. She said over the connection “Terry is secure Leon, Blessing says she is just suffering from acute motion sickness. She’s going to be fine, tell Taylor for me. I'll be back on the bridge in a few minutes.” and with that she cut the link abruptly.
Taylor sighed and nodded. Leon pointed at Samuel and said “Two minute countdown, hit it.”
A second later the yellow alert lights began to flash slowly. Leon sat back in his chair, this was by far his least favorite part of the mission. The warp sickness would take them seconds or sometimes hours to recover from, and hitting multiple jumps in a single day was tantamount to torture. It was as if everything he knew and defined as reality was just some hollow shell for beings of incomprehensible nature. As if the universe was just some sort of temporary holding chamber.
As he sat there in quiet dread, the airlock opened and Sabine flew onto the bridge. “What the hell, you didn’t give me very much time to get back to the bridge. What were you trying to pull?” she accused, glaring at Leon.
Leon raised his arms “We have a lead, we have no time to waste. None of us are getting any younger after all.” Joice chuckled quietly at the comment but Sabine seemed less than impressed. She just strapped herself back in and settled back into her chair.
Not a moment too soon as the ship made a quick hop into the inner system, by the time he had recovered from the first translation the ship exited warp again. He groaned in discomfort as for the slightest of moments he felt as if his body were being passed through a thin wire extruder.
As soon as his vision cleared he said “Well that was nice, Thank you Samuel for going full throttle again.”
Samuel just shrugged and asked “It’s over with though, that's what matters.”
Leon jerked his head to the side in a disbelieving gesture before turning towards Taylor. “Taylor, please give me an image of the planet.”
Taylor punched a few commands into his console and presently a great greenish sphere appeared on the main screen. Silhouetted against the backdrop of space and with the late afternoon glow illuminating the northern hemisphere, it really was quite a beautiful sight.
“It looks kinda like home, like Earth, doesn't it?” Asked Samuel as they looked at the lonely planet. It had no moon, no proto dust rings and no significant asteroid presence. The world seemed sterile, almost a little too perfect.
Leon said “Launch an orbiter, if it looks good we might launch a probe.”
Sabine seemed to smile at that, but he couldn't see her as she was turned away from him looking at her console. The way her shoulders seemed to square up made him think of her determined features. He watched the feed on the main screen as a small object hurled towards the planet.
The orbiters were small cubesats that had limited operating times of only a few weeks, but that was generally more than long enough for them to collect all the relevant data they needed. They weren’t looking to build a colony after all, just survey data.
The probe took a few minutes to reach its optimal orbital position before it unfurled itself. Taylor sat back in his chair, his harness creaking slightly as it fought to hold him still. “Orbiter is in position, and deployed. Signal is good, strong. It will pass out of visual range in thirty minutes.”
Leon clapped his hands and said “Well, then we should get to work.”
The data flooding in from the small satellite was immense. The powerful miniaturized sensors on it were able to observe and accumulate terrific amounts of raw data that was then beamed to the ship. The ship’s mainframe computer Henry was tasked with assisting in organizing the data. Now that the computer had been reset to factory defaults, it was no longer a real danger to the ship. That had affected its ability to parse raw data however, and so the crew waited in tense silence for five minutes before the first cohesive reports flashed up across their screens.
Taylor sat forwards in his chair. “Wow, it's so similar…” he said quietly, trailing off.
Sabine spoke up next “We need to send a probe, Leon, please let me send a probe.”
Leon looked at his data report. The planet was scarily similar to how the Earth must have been in its prehistoric past. Heavy atmosphere, thick with oxygen and the waste gasses of a thousand active volcanoes. The ground was evenly split between country sized swamps and massive salty seas the size of continents. What captured his attention the most was how closely the vegetation and plant life in general seemed to be familiar.
It looked as if someone who had never seen the trans-Mediterranean rainforest had been asked to draw it from verbal descriptions alone. Everything was at once familiar, and a little bit off. As if the painter had used the wrong brush.
It seemed safe enough however and he smiled widely. Finally, he would get to do it. It had taken just over nine hundred days, but now it was time.
Leon sat up straight and said “Sabine, there won't be a probe launched.” She looked at him, crestfallen and was about to complain when he continued “There won't be any need, because we are taking the SSV to the surface.”
His announcement was met with stunned silence. Joice was looking at him with equal parts surprise and excitement, Taylor looked a bit put off and Sabine had somehow managed to look even more excited than when she had mentioned sending a probe.
Samuel spoke up “Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later.”
Joice asked Leon “Do you have a crew in mind?”
Leon just gave her a nod and said “I have the perfect crew picked out already. Don’t worry Joice, I keep my promises.”