The planet orbits so far from its sun that it is classified as a Sunless.
Snow-covered fields and mountains on this dark planet hide underground rivers of shining purple plasma. Plasma is the fifth form of matter. It is between liquid and gas, high-energy, and volatile.
On the sunless planet, a plasma rig is the only place habitable by humans. Plasma rigs perform a process called Flame Mining. This type of mining creates turbulent magnetic fields that kill robots and electronic processors. Without AI, plasma facilities are run by men's brute force and old-school mechanical machines.
On this Sunless, a lonely plasma rig extracts, transforms, and relays plasma energy to cyberplanets.
Working in the rig requires strength. It does not hire women.
The Captain
The captain is confused.
Extreme situations are not new to him. As the security captain of a highly unstable plasma rig, he’s been through many of them. This morning, he saved three of his men’s lives by preventing a truck from unloading prematurely.
Still
This one
This one right in front of him.
This one is different.
Ten minutes ago, at 01:14 in the morning, he received a radio call about unusual activity in the men’s resting area, branch C14.
He kept asking for a description of the situation over the radio, but the other side was too confused, they could not give a proper description.
When the captain arrived at the resting area, he saw men staring at the wall at the far end of the corridor.
This corridor has two rows of bunk beds on each side. 15 men are standing inside the corridor, mostly wearing their sleeping shorts, all staring at the wall at the far end.
The captain searches for Lucas, he is the one who radioed in. In the dimly lit corridor, he finds Lucas holding his radio, staring at the far end like the rest of the men standing in the dormitory. Lucas is wearing a working jumpsuit with a yellow worker’s helmet. When the captain reaches Lucas, he sees what is in front of the men on the wall.
The wall is changing;
A circular hole is forming in the middle of the wall, around 2 meters in diameter. It looks like a giant round digging tool is digging into the wall from the other side and has now reached its destination. However, there is barely any noise. It's just a soft whistle with a rhythm.
ZzzZzzZzzZzzZ
No, the captain has never seen anything like this. He starts walking closer, cautiously passing between the men standing in the corridor, he has to ask some of the men to move so he can reach the far end. All men are dumbfounded. The captain points his torch at the wall. The corridor is half-lit and the captain wants to ascertain that he is not staring at an illusion.
A few seconds later, small sharp teeth start protruding out of the wall; five circular rolls of teeth, varying diameters, encircled within each other. It seems like those rolls of teeth have been digging through the wall, into the room, by rapidly rotating.
No, this is not an illusion. Whatever is growing out of the wall, is alive.
A few moments pass like a lifetime.
Suddenly an extension protrudes from the middle of the round hole, like a tongue. The extension grows out with an enormous speed, it reaches the head of Lucas, his yellow helmet falls as the tongue attaches to the side of Lucas’s head and immediately drags Lucas into the rolls of teeth. His screaming face passes in front of the captain in a fraction of a second. Not enough time for him to react, but enough for him to remember that Lucas was just a 16-year-old who had joined the rig, under the captain's protection, only a few months ago. As his screeching face passes in front of the captain's petrified look, he is reminded of the teenager's smiling face this morning stating high hopes for "starting the rig-punk lifestyle". Lucas is violently dragged into the center of the circular teeth, which right now is growing oozing shapeless flesh. Lucas's head is rapidly buried fully in the creature and his screaming stops followed by a loud breaking sound;
Crunch! His body becomes lifeless. The creature slowly sucks in the dead body.
The captain shouts from the depths of his lungs: “EVERYONE GET OUT!”
Plasma is romantically described as "close to what the flame of a candle is made of"
Rule #1
Encourage patience
“GET OUT!”
The captain yells for the second time as he sprints towards the end of the room pushing the two men close to him to go as fast as possible. He keeps one eye on the giant round mouth on the wall that is slowly swallowing Lucas. This is the chance to escape before the mouth can grab the next victim.
As the men in the corridor sprint towards the other end, one of them, who is wearing sleeping shorts, runs towards his pillow, grabs a handgun from under the pillow, and starts shooting at the mouth. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The unformed flesh of the creature absorbs the bullets like they are made of flesh. Lucas’s legs are still outside the mouth, slowly being sucked in. They look lifeless.
The captain runs to the shooter and grabs his arm, the men look at each other in panic for one moment, they both sprint to the door at the other end of the corridor.
The captain is the last one to pass the door to the hallway. He locks the door and steps back. He is unsure whether that tongue can pass through the flimsy wooden panels.
"Captain!"
They hear the faint scream of a man from the far end of the concrete windowless hallway. The hallway is lit by buzzing yellow lights dancing off brass tubes on the walls. The silhouette of a man appears running towards them from the far end. He is wearing a yellow worker’s helmet and a jumpsuit. As he gets close he shouts: “THINGS ARE GROWING OUT OF WALLS EVERYWHERE!”
The captain cannot waste any more time. He raises his radio and orders: “Doug, contact CASTEL. Ask for immediate backup.”
Doug responds immediately on the radio: “They already know. They are sending a convoy." Doug sounds alert. "They recommend we take cover in areas with Faraday-Cage protection. They say the creature is most likely a Vermillion worm.”
A Vermillion worm? The captain heard about this in his re-training three years ago. What was it? A massive worm with an enormous main body and smaller branches that dig inside plasma facilities. So those creatures growing out of his walls must be just the branches. The main body is somewhere much deeper.
The captain knew they did not have the equipment against a Vermillion worm on the rig. He also knew that the worm must never be disturbed with regular weapons. He has to act fast. He pushes his memory to remember which walls in his rigs have Faraday Cage installed. “Bert, announce that everyone takes cover in one of four monitor towers." The captain has to get every man in the rig to one of the four flare exhausts…every 865…
…fuck.
The alarm sounds throughout the facility.
"Everyone follow me to monitor tower three." The captain starts running. He shouts his lungs out at any man he sees to make them run like their life depends on it. Halfway to the control tower, he remembers something important “Doug, ask CASTEL how much their convoy weighs. We need to balance the portal.”
“7 tons 116 kilos,” Doug replies on the radio.
“Fuck fuck.”
CASTEL is a private megacorporation that manages all trades involving plasma rigs. The bio-cyber company also provides security backup in rare emergencies such as a Vermillion worm.
A round white room dimly lit by artificial yellow lights. In the center, a brightly lit glass incubator stands on a white one-meter cubicle.
A red-haired woman with green cat-like eyes, wearing a white coat and a face mask, slowly moves her gloved arms inside the incubator. Rose is very diligent when she removes the lid of a glass flask holding crystal pink liquid. She aspirates 3 drops into her pipette. Slowly she moves the pipette to a petri dish in the middle of the incubator. She anchors her arm on the table and aims at the center of the dish, inside, a 1-centimeter blob of poorly formed flesh slowly mimics Rose's every move, specifically her arm with the pipette.
The pipette's tip halts over the blob, 5 centimeters away. The flesh slightly rises as if trying to reach the tip.
Rose takes a deep breath and exhales. It does nothing to calm the worried look in her eyes. She turns her neck to look at the only other person in the room. A silent observer, protected head to toe in a white hazmat suit is standing 50 centimeters behind her, holding a tablet, ready to write. Rose can almost see her reflection in the observer's chrome visor.
"I hope she knows how loud her breathing is inside that overprotective suit." Rose takes another deep breath and dismisses this thought. She turns her head back to the incubator, The blob of flesh is eagerly stretched towards the pipette. Rose closes her eyes and repeats the instructions in her head "Give one drop, wait 20 seconds, if no reaction, give a second drop." She opens her eyes. The blob is no longer stretched upward, it is covered with a crystal-pink liquid. Rose frowns. She looks at her pipette. It is empty.
"How many drops was that?!" the observer yells behind her. Startled, Rose's mind goes blank.
The blob absorbs the liquid. Slowly it grows.
Rose shockingly removes her arms from the incubator gloves and steps back. The observer violently grabs her by the back of her white-coat collar and throws her on the floor. The blob's growing speed increases as poorly formed arms shape out. Claw-like protrusions appear on top of the rapidly growing flesh. The observer pushes two transparent buttons on the corner of the incubator window. A see-through tube running along the inner corners of the incubator starts shaking. In a few seconds, the 50-by-100-cm glass box is s crammed with moving flesh. The word JAMMED appears on the front glass, just under the see-through buttons.
"Fantastic!" the observer's sarcasm is clear through her muffled voice. She turns to Rose and orders: "Push the red button". Rose is frozen on the floor, shockingly watching the incubator's walls concave outside as the growing flesh presses against the glass.
"Push the button!" The observer repeats loudly and points to the other side of the room. Rose regains her thoughts. She turns her head in the direction of the gloved fingers, at the other side of the round room. She sees a panel of four round emergency buttons. Without thinking, Rose sprints, and within a few seconds, she reaches the panel. Yellow, blue, green, and red round buttons. Without hesitation, she pushes the red one.
"WARNING, CODE RED ACTIVATED. LAB QUARANTINED" a female robotic voice resonates in the room. Rose hears clicking in the walls surrounding her. They are locked in.
"COMMENCING ACID WASH IN 40 SECONDS."
Rose's heart stops for a moment "Acid wash?!" Her face loses color, "Wait, what am I wearing?" she looks down at her chest. She hopes that her memory is mistaken and she is magically wearing protection. Her hope is shattered as she sees the white coat covering her bosoms. She desperately looks at the observer who is calmly fitting her tablet inside her hazmat suit. She closes the pocket, kneels, and opens a hatch on the floor opposing the incubator. Rose feels hopeful, is this an escape?
Her hope is shattered as she sees a shallow container for a black ax and a gas mask. The observer throws the gas mask at Rose: "Put this on."
Rose immediately puts it on. "Wait, what about the rest of my body?!"
"30 SECONDS"
The observer lays the ax on her shoulder and closes the hatch door. She presses the corner of the white cubicle under the incubator. With a clicking sound one of its walls opens. There is enough space inside the empty cubicle to fit a small human. The observer grabs Rose by the collar and shoves her inside. "Keep your feet off the floor," she closes the wall on Rose.
"20 SECONDS"
The flesh keeps pushing against the glass. The observer stands in front of the incubator and swings the ax in a crescent to her front. Now she is holding the ax with two arms, changing her posture to guard.
"10, 9, 8,..."
Bang! She breaks one of the incubator windows with her ax. The flesh freely grows out of the broken window. On top of the mass of poorly formed arms and claws, a mandible starts forming. The observer grabs the poorly formed mandible with her gloved hand and drags it out of the incubator.
"...7, 6, 5,..."
Nozzles rise out of the round room's walls. The observer holds the growing and moving blob of flesh by its barely formed mandible and keeps it with an extended arm in front of her face. Poorly formed claws move aimlessly as the body of flesh grows bigger, crawling on the floor and surrounding her. A large nozzle descends from the ceiling. The observer holds the mandible right under the nozzle as brain-like tissue slowly forms on top of it.
"...3, 2, 1, COMMENCING"
Green liquid squirts out of nozzles, filling the room air. The room turns darker as the light sources are covered with a crimson mixture of acid and flesh.
A few seconds later, the nozzles stop pouring.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The creature has disappeared from the observer's hand. The room is dimly lit by a red light. The floor is covered with red steaming liquid, and so is the observer.
Rose is breathing heavily inside her gas mask in the pitch-black darkness of the cubicle. Outside is finally silent. She has been keeping her feet off the floor by pushing her back and feet against the opposing walls of the cubicle. The other wall of the cubicle opens. The room outside is barely lit by lights covered with red dissolved flesh. Rose, struggling to keep her feet off the floor, looks up at the observer standing in front of her covered with red steaming goo. She rests her ax on her shoulder, bends her knees, her visor stops at the level of Rose's eyes. She sighs, it resonates inside her hazmat suit, "I'll talk to my sister".
The nozzles squirt again. This time a clear liquid streams through the air and down the walls, slowly washing the acid and blood from the observer and the light sources into newly emerged drains on the floor. Rose hangs to the walls of the cubicle until the squirting stops. Her white coat is now a Pollock artwork.
A few minutes later the observer is in her private changing room.
Rayne removes her hazmat head cover. She is a young woman with grey eyes and short white hair. She opens the knot on the back of her hazmat collar slowly removing the rest of the hazmat suit. Her body is covered with a tight black armor. A thin layer of interwoven carbon fiber plates.
Rayne steps out of her hazmat suit, leaving it on the floor. She walks barefoot to the entrance of a round tunnel lit by artificial yellow and white lights. As she steps in, she is showered by a gentle stream of water coming from the walls of the short tunnel.
Rayne closes her eyes and enjoys the water streaming down her face for a few seconds. Keeping her eyes closed, she starts removing her black armor piece by piece.
She crosses her arms. Each hand removes the opposite elbow cover, exposing hidden zippers on both sides. She fingers the zippers up and presses them between two fingers, slowly unzipping to her shoulders. Once opened, she removes her left armpiece, letting the gentle stream of water wash her well-toned shoulder. She removes the other armpiece, the stream of water flows down a tattoo of a bird-like creature staring to the front with white eyes. Rayne throws both armpieces on the floor.
Her hands move down along her waist, they find and grasp hidden buckles on both sides of the carbon-fiber breastplate. She removes her breastplate. A black sports bra is soaked by the water streaming down prominent collar bones. On her neck, a purple crystal is horizontally attached to a thin golden chain, slightly etched into the skin. Rayne throws the plates on the floor and unbuckles her belt. She readily slides the armored black pants down her legs and removes them, which leaves her with black leggings covering her up to high waist. The leggings reveal protruding pelvic bones and well-toned thighs. She takes a deep breath.
Sucking her belly button into her diaphragm, Rayne slightly raises her ribcage. She places her right palm on the top of her belly button, her left palm pauses on the curvature of her lower back. Rayne exhales slowly, gently sliding her hands around her waist. Twisting the leggings in harmony with her slow breathing, they loosen and slide down her waist.
Suddenly, the wall on the other side of the tunnel turns into a bright monitor. An enormous portrait of a young blonde woman appears on the empty wall. Rayne is startled. She turns her head away from the monitor, closes her eyes, and tries to calm her nerves. Even though she is familiar with interruptions at the worst times of the day, she did not know that they had placed a communication monitor in her private changing room. Clenching her fist she tries to exhale as inaudible as she can but she cannot help a faint grunt.
The blonde woman is wearing a simple brown pantsuit, her hair is tight in a high ponytail. Her face is expressionless. "Sorry to bother you, this is an emergency."
"I figured." Rayne tries to sound as calm as she can. The tunnel is fully lit by the enormous monitor. She does not want her face to show her anger. She keeps her eyes closed, takes a deep breath, and waves her hand clockwise in the air. The shower stops. She raises her right arm and shouts "headphones!". She waits for a second, nothing happens. Rayne opens her eyes and doubtfully looks at the round ceiling of the shower tunnel "...please?". Finally, a hatchet opens and a pair of black headphones drop into her hand. She puts them on and starts walking towards the monitor. The woman disappears from the screen and numbers start flowing from the bottom of the screen to the top. Occasionally graphs appear. Her leggings are at the level of her pelvic bones, revealing a toned abdomen and multiple old scars.
"I agree, it is a Vermillion worm."
Rayne reaches the wall and stops in front of the screen. She uses her finger to scroll up and down the report a few times. "When is it due to hatch?"
The blonde woman reappears on the screen. She is touching her earpiece. "It seems that it is already hatched."
Rayne exhales in disappointment, she drops the headphones on her shoulders, runs her fingers into her hair, and drains the water. "Meet me there." The blonde woman nods and disappears. The wall turns back to the simple white wall of the changing room. "Jane!" Rayne shouts as she remembers something. The monitor turns back on and the blonde woman reappears. Rayne claps her hands once. The words Recording: OFF appear in the corner of the screen and the blaring of Jane's background is inactivated. She is standing in front of two rows of desks each with monitors occupied by women in pantsuits. All are sticking their necks out of their monitors, curiously staring at Rayne. Jane turns her head and takes a look behind her, she turns her head back at the camera "I am switching to private audio". Her image disappears and the words Audio Call appear.
"Did you pay attention to the rig ID?" asks Rayne. "Yes, it is the one from the events of two years ago," Jane replies in a stoic voice.
"You know what to do." Rayne sounds solemn. "Copy that." Jane's tone does not change.
"Wait! Did they install a communication in my bathroom too?"
Jane stays silent.
"Jane?" Rayne does not hide her anger this time.
"I'll file the complaint when we come back," she does not sound reassuring.
CASTEL will be using a Balanced Portal (BP) to send backups. This type of teleport is faster, however, there must be an equal amount of mass teleported back for every amount of mass teleported to the rig.
The captain is inside the monitor hall on the top floor of the central control tower number 3. He had to pass three worm mouths that were still forming on the walls before he finally arrived at the entrance to the five-story control tower.
The central control tower of Exhaust 3 is a five-story building inside a flame tower, standing right on the south pole of the enormous exhaust. The monitor hall is located on top of the control building, from here the captain has access to surveillance videos of the entire rig. He has been guiding his men over the radio to evacuate faster. The monitor hall is an enormous round hall, half of its walls have windows designed to watch over the enormous exhaust of Tower Three and the inner part of the structure around it. The other half of the round wall is covered with monitors. There are rows of desks with multiple old-school analog monitors.
The captain had to watch 11 of his men get swallowed until all the remaining 854 reached one of the four central control towers. Two of his right-hand men, John and RJ, helped him with the task. John had saved the captain’s dogs and brought them with him to the control room. Now he is scanning through surveillance monitors. Oozing flesh of the worm has dug mouths all around the rig, in the walls, in the floors, and a few grown from the ceilings. He counts more than 100 mouth holes, all the same size.
The worm is barely active now. Some holes seem to be oozing blood. Sometimes some wave-like movements can be seen on the holes. Sometimes the holes get empty and the emptied wall inside can be seen.
The captain has his second challenge ahead of him: balance the scale to 7 tons 116kgs, which means that he has to bring 1,616 kg of some matter to the portal’s receiver room.
John and RJ agree that the best way is to gather a group of the strongest and fastest volunteers to bring bags of charcoal from the nearby warehouse, however, neither the receiver room nor the warehouse had Faraday cage protection. The captain quickly passes through surveillance videos and finds a route that has no obvious wormholes.
Blackout
The rig loses power, it is suddenly completely dark.
Pitch black for 5 seconds.
The monitors start turning on one by one. The rig's backup generator seems to be intact. In the light of the rebooting monitors, the captain can see the frightened eyes of the rig employees. Some seem to be having a hard time controlling their frustrations. “The worm must have messed with the power,” says RJ.
A BP has a positive pole and a negative pole. The balancing weight must be close to the negative pole.
Humans should never travel on the negative pole, there is no guarantee they will reach the other end intact.
“What is the ETA on CASTEL?” John is carrying a 50kg bag on his back, running up the dark stairs with the rest of the volunteer. He tries to hide his panting while asking the question.
Thirty-two men volunteered to help the captain with the quest. In the past 20 minutes, each man has been carrying a 50kg bag of powdered charcoal from the warehouse to the BP receiver room upstairs. The backup generators barely illuminate the corridors and some men have to carry a flashlight while almost running the stairs with the heavy bags.
For 10 years the captain has been responsible for the safety and functioning of this rig, and never have his men failed him in any difficult situation, especially when the work required strength and endurance.
“Doug says they will start the transfer as soon as the portal is balanced.” Says RJ while panting. He has been running up and down the route with his flashlight to check the walls for new worm holes. The captain has been running the route, stopping and looking back, waiting and checking the last man to pass him while carrying a smaller bag of 25 kg. The three of them meet momentarily to check the situation. Twenty-two men have just finished delivering their bags and went back to the safety of the control tower. Still 516 kg short, the captain only needed the remaining 10 men to deliver their 50kg bags. With the 25 he was carrying, hopefully, there would be some extra weight to spare.
“CAPTAIN!”
Two men Scream at the bottom of the stairs.
“No!” The Captain drops his weight and runs towards the noises. A hole is forming in the ceiling of the corridor between the stairs and the warehouse door. “RUN!”. The captain and RJ start helping the last two men with their 50 kg bags so they can run faster.
BANG!
The man in front of the captain falls violently to the ground. The captain realizes the reason for the fall was the tongue of the worm; the worm attacked the large man in front of them, the tongue hit the yellow helmet of the man; and the impact pushed him and his bag to the floor.
The tongue, attached to the helmet, drags the helmet back to the mouth behind them, sparing the man. He turns and sits, his mouth is covered in blood running from his nose. He looks at the worm with a look that makes any creature pee itself.
The captain knows this look. It needs a good leash: “MIKE! GRAB THE BAG AND RUN!”
The captain’s shout brings the focus back to the man who just escaped a certain death, he grabs his 50kg bag and sprints up the stairs with an unbelievable speed. The captain feels a momentary relief, he takes a last look at the worm's mouth as he runs up the stairs. It looks like the mouth is trying to remove the helmet to free the tongue by scratching it desperately against the concrete floor.
Plasma is the only source of energy on the dark planet. The rig is designed to heat itself using the excess plasma that occasionally floats up and turns into enormous purple flames. This excess flow of plasma is rather unpredictable. The four towers of the rig are built around 4 plasma exhausts, periodically releasing the excess energy into the resting areas and warming them up. The rig employees are trained to find the nearest door and shelter immediately if they see a purple light at the end of any hallway.
“So, what is the ETA now?” John asks again. They have finally loaded the BP receiver with an extra 1,616kg. The captain had to remove a water fountain from a nearby corridor and toss it in with the rest of the weight, hoping it would compensate for the extra 16 kgs. The BP receiver room is simply an empty room located behind the negative pole of the portal, which is located at the base of the central control tower on the east side. The gate to the positive pole is located on the opposite side and that would be where the convoy arrives.
“God knows! They do their things their way,” replies Mr. Porgo, the head manager and chief financial officer of the rig. The captain was quite surprised to see the man survive the worm, partly because the morbidly obese manager who barely left his room was the only unfit man on the rig.
Mr. Porgo slowly walks towards the captain; as he gets close enough, he lowers his voice and from under his mustache he whispers to the captain: “When they arrive, make sure they don’t poke around too much.”
“I don’t understand sir.” The captain whispers as politely as he can. He looks concerned and tries to hide his frustration by forcing a poker face.
Mr. Porgo’s giant red cheeks become redder than usual, he tries his hardest to not let his anger raise his voice: “Make sure they only look into things they are supposed to look into. Last time they were here they accused us of some bullshit. I don’t want them looking around for evidence or … whatever they call it for something that may have happened two years ago. Understood?”
The captain knows exactly what Mr. Porgo is talking about, but he maintains a poker face: “Yes sir.”
Rule #2 of TBO
A TBO session requires a question.
Rayne is walking through corridors of bookshelves. Her short white hair is dry and bouncy now. She is wearing her black carbon fiber armor with the addition of a black pair of pants. Her comfortable-looking baggy pants have multiple pockets. She walks through a door that says "To The Loading Docks". Three women in carbon fiber arm suits are waiting for her in the other corridor, this corridor is also covered with bookshelves. One of the women is Jane, tall with blonde hair in a ponytail and a stoic look. The third woman is a young brunette with long curly hair and glasses; she timidly approaches Rayne: “Good morning. My name is Karen and I am your SSITI for today, it is an honor to work with you.”
Rayne reaches one of the pockets on her pants and removes a box. She keeps her eyes on Karen: “SSITI?”
“S, S, I, T, I, stands for Secretary Specialized in Today’s Issue,” Karen replies gleefully.
“I see, new abbreviation, I like it…. So, Karen, nice to meet you.” Rayne shakes her hand. “I have read your resume, impressive work on the new aerosolized anti-helminthic.”
Karen smiles and her cheeks turn red “Thank you.”
“Could you and Sheila…”, Rayne points at the second woman, “…please settle in the monitor room? It is going to be a fast-paced day, get ready.”
“Roger.” Both women slightly bow and leave. Jane stays behind and waits until they can no longer hear them.
"Rayne, the first victim was a human."
Rayne's eyes grow big.
"The chicken farm is untouched."
Rayne looks solemn. She opens the box in her hand,
“Got the maps?”
Jane nods.
Rule #3 of TBA
Something disgusting may be present in a TBA session.
It is neither necessary nor required.
#3-1. But it may be tolerated.
The captain knows he needs to keep calm. But doing nothing in a situation like this is burning him from the inside. It feels as if an oven is turned on inside his chest and the only way to cool it off is by walking from one side of the windowed wall to the other side.
He cannot leave the monitor hall. And he cannot keep his eyes from constantly staring at either the monitors or out of the window to the -now turned off- flame tower. The worm was not making any moves and the silence was making the wait worse.
A flash of purple light appears in the dark flame tower.
The captain looks outside the window. Up until this moment the entire tower was in darkness and the enormous chimney hole was barely visible. But now flashes of light are appearing on both sides of the control tower.
On the ground on both sides of the central control tower grows two round lights on the air in front of the negative and positive gates. They glow intense white and purple light. A connection of light seems to be forming between the two portals. The captain knows these are the positive and the negative ends of a Vacuum Intergalactic Portal that requires a balanced receiver. The surveillance camera in the receiver room shows the charcoal bags disappearing one by one. The water fountain is the last to disappear. Which means, soon the convoy is going to enter from the positive side.
A shadow of a giant robot appears in the light on the right side. The captain is slightly baffled, robots don’t last long on this rig, so, this must be an exoskeleton. Which means that there is a human inside.
The metal exoskeleton is 2.5 meters tall and 1 meter wide. There is no head, only two arms, six insect-like legs and a shapeless trunk. It steps out of the positive portal into the flame tower. It carries a bright light and it checks every wall as it slowly steps forward. The captain knows CASTEL design their exoskeletons small enough to fit into small doors and rooms. This meant that only small women could fit inside their exoskeletons. The captain also knows that this is why CASTEL only hires women.
As the exoskeleton walks forward, a thick cord attached to its back appears out of the portal, the cord extends as the exoskeleton moves forward. The captain knows that these exoskeletons have very short battery life, so they remain connected to an infinite energy source as long as possible.
As the cord extends out of the portal, a human walks out of the portal carrying and guiding the cord. The cord-supporter does not have an exoskeleton, rather what looks like a very skinny black armor, stretching and covering the body, the head is covered with a helmet that glows green from the visor.
Another exoskeleton appears with another armored supporter carrying its cord. In a few seconds 8 more exoskeletons appear, each with its own armored supporter and cord. The first exoskeleton points and blinks its flashlight twice at a location on the massive wall surrounding the flame tower. The captain looks at were the light is pointing and sees a hole; he had missed that hole in the darkness. Two exoskeletons point their gun-arms at the hole and lock. Two other exoskeletons each point their gun-arms at each of the two entrances on the east and west sides of the flame tower and lock. The other exoskeletons continue scanning the walls with their flashlights.
A drone flies out of the positive portal. It flies to the center of the flame exhaust; this exhaust is a dark massive hole now that it is turned off. The drone appears to be scanning the area. Normally, a drone would only last for two to three hours on the rig. The drone finishes its scan in 7 seconds, flies to the negative portal gate and disappears.
Two of the armored-supporters leave their posts and walk to the first exoskeleton that seems to be opening now. The back part of the skeleton opens and rises; a woman appears inside. The woman has short white hair, she is hanging from both sides of the inner trunk with a cord that stretches from her upper back to the inner walls of the exoskeleton. There seems to be some sort of gel on the pilot’s shoulders and arms that connect her bare skin to the cord. As the back door of the exoskeleton opens, the captain notices that the pilot appears to be… sleeping?
The two supporters each put one step on the back of the exoskeleton, then grab and pull the pilot out of the exoskeleton. The pilot is awake now. Was the captain imagining that she was sleeping inside the exoskeleton? She is wearing a black sports bra and black pants with lots of pockets. Her shoulders and arms are bare. There is a tattoo on her right shoulder, the captain cannot recognize the tattoo from the distance. She is not wearing any shoes.
A brunette woman exits the positive portal gate, she is wearing the same outfit as the pilot, except that she is wearing heavy black military boots that slightly glow green from the soles. She runs towards the pilot, stops and bows. The new woman takes off her boots and lets the white-haired woman take them. She then climbs inside the exoskeleton with the help of the armored-supporters.
As the white-haired woman fixes her shoes, the captain realizes she has an apparatus attached to her upper back.
Two women in black armors appear at the positive portal, they are carefully pushing something on wheels: a two meters apparatus that is currently covered with fabric. The two women push the unknown apparatus towards the edge of the enormous exhaust, where the white-haired woman is waiting for them.
The white-haired woman receives the apparatus and moves it close to the edge. The three women carefully remove the fabric. The apparatus appears to be four bending columns holding a purple crystal midair in between them using four fine chains.
The white-haired woman puts black gloves on her hands; she slowly reaches for the crystal using her right glove-covered index finger. She gently touches the crystal to stabilize it. A second passes and suddenly all the lights in the tower come back on. The flame is still off but all the lights are on and the captain feels a slight relief.
A C-MRQ crystal is an extremely rare item that is both symmetrical and not symmetrical at the same time.
The crystal is used in emergency cases to temporarily bring power back to eligible facilities.
Both electricity and electromagnetic waves can be manipulated by this crystal.
Rayne looks around the now well-lit flame tower. The flame is not back on and that is good. She does not want the crystal disturbed. In the next 4 to 5 hours, her life will depend on it.
She glances at the wormhole; this one is empty now and the hollowed-out wall can be seen. The scanner drone did not find any activity in this hall, so that hole must be evacuated at the moment.
Rayne tries to find a way to the monitor hall. She knows it is on top of the central control tower, five stories higher than her level. She can see the round window of the monitor hall from here and she can see the employees staring at her from the window. The lights from the monitors are enough to illuminate some of their faces. Rayne zooms in on them, they look alert, and perhaps slightly angry.
Jane walks out of the positive portal. She is wearing black supporter’s armor without the helmet, carrying her tablet. When she approaches Rayne, she asks whether Rayne wants to start the scanning process.
Rayne nods.
Jane taps on her tablet and the crystal changes color from purple to red. A red hue appears around it that turns into a vertical plane of red light rotating clockwise and scanning every millimeter of the space starting from north.
“Inform the rig employees that the blue light may harm their eyes,” Rayne asks Jane.
The crystal changes color from red to green and scans again.
“Dear employees of plasma rig A175R, we are scanning the area using intense light with different wavelengths. Please protect your eyes from the blue light and refrain from staring into it.” Jane announces in the radio embedded in the collar of her armored suit.
The scanning light changes its color from green to blue. Rayne does not have to close her eyes because she is standing with her back to the crystal. She can see the faces of some rig employees staring at the crystal from the window of the monitor hall. All of them cover their eyes as the light turns blue. All of them except for one who keeps staring until the very last moment before the blue plane of light hits his face.
“There is always one idiot who can’t look away.” Rayne thinks.
Now Rayne has to choose a way to the monitor hall. Which way is the best? Rayne vacillates whether she should take the boring way or risk the more exciting entrance.
Heck with it. Let’s take the fun way.
The captain can’t keep his eyes off of what is going on outside the windows, on his beloved rig. For years he has been taking care of the rig and its hardworking employees, whom he saw as his brothers; now his rig was filled with exoskeletons, drones, and scanners. He tried his best to cover his eyes as the blue light scanner hit his location but something in him just would not let his eyelids move.
This is outrageous, the rig has been run AI-free for centuries. No drones, no robots, men with flesh and bone… did he just risk his men’s lives to bring these here? No this…
The white-haired woman stops in front of the window of the central control tower, directly in front of the captain, on the other side of the enormous empty exhaust. She points her right gloved fingers upwards towards the window of the monitor room, five floors higher than her.
The captain is baffled.
Is she trying to shoot us?
Something hits the wall on top of the window in front of the captain. The captain cannot see what it is because it is on the other side. But in the light, he can see a very fine cord, like a spider cord, spreading from the wall on top of the window…to the white-haired woman’s hand…
One second later
A woman appears on the other side of the window.
Knock knock!