CHAPTER 26
Aboard the Emissary, 18 years later
Did Mak make a mistake? Maybe the system failed. Why am I awake so soon? These thoughts barely had time to cross Alan Jacobs’s mind before he felt the overwhelming urge to vomit. He eased himself upright and grabbed the bag-and-suction device that was designed into the cryobeds for exactly this purpose. As he was in the throes of nausea, he first heard and then saw Mak sitting up in the bed next to him experiencing the same thing.
He looked at the chronometer on the wall and saw that he had not been awakened early, it only seemed like it. Yesterday was actually six ship years ago and eighteen years on Earth, Proxima b, and Luyten b. Eighteen years. Jacobs still had trouble grasping the physical realities imposed by Special Relativity. By now, the fertility problem on Proxima b should have been solved. Maybe another Earth ship had arrived with a cure. Maybe not. What was happening on Earth? Were they still building and sending ships to explore the universe or did humanity self-destruct in some sort of nuclear or biological war? What were the Atlanteans up to? The thoughts and questions rolled through Jacobs’s mind as he sat, wondering if he would experience yet another wave of nausea before he dared to roll out of the cryobed and stand up.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Captain,” Mak offered, who was already standing, albeit unsteadily, next to his cryobed. He sipped at a red liquid from a squeeze bottle. “After we give ourselves the required self-assessment, we can begin awakening the rest of the crew.”
“And we can see what our Atlantean friends might be up to,” added Jacobs. “Clearly, the drive is still running, or we wouldn’t have gravity.”
Two hours later, Jacobs was on the bridge with the primary bridge crew: Cindy Mastrano, his chief engineer; Executive Officer Yohon Koeq; Victor Tarasenko, the sensors and signals officer; Lieutenant Marcus Keaton, weapons officer; and Joni Walker, a Space Force chief warrant officer 5, a true Renaissance woman, with expertise as a navigator, pilot, and nuclear power and propulsion engineer. They were awake, alert, and ready to plan their foray toward Luyten’s Star.
“Victor, what have we got?” Jacobs asked.
“There has been no change in the radio transmission from Luyten b since we left Proxima. The signal strength and content are exactly the same as when we left. The ship began picking up system-wide radio traffic at nearly a half light-year out but didn’t alert us because it appeared to be leakage from the system, strictly planet-to-planet, or, it might be better to say, point-to-point communication. Like the beacon signal, everything is encrypted and unreadable. What is most interesting is the variation in the star’s light curve. It’s too small to be detectable from Earth, but impossible to miss at this distance. From what I can tell from the diminishing brightness, there are some big constructs orbiting the star close in, about the same distance as b, but leading and trailing it at the Lagrange Points. There are also some large reflective structures co-orbiting the star with b, each roughly three to ten kilometers in diameter. They are too small to resolve, and we wouldn’t have detected them had they not been so reflective,”
“Is there anything in the outer system that we might encounter on our way in?”
“Maybe. From what I can tell, some of those point-to-point signals we heard were undoubtedly headed toward something in the star’s Kuiper Belt.”
“It sounds like Luyten’s Star is a busy place. Any news from Proxima?”
“Yes sir, there are several terabytes of messages from Proxima still coming in,” XO Koeq reported. “Keep in mind they are from eighteen years ago, give or take. I had the AI do a basic look-up-front analysis and these are the main data points: one) Our scientists learned a way only a few months after our departure to use nanobots to impregnate Fintidierian eggs with Fintidierian female chromosome sperm; two) there has been a mass number of pregnancies brought to term with multiple female infants; three) there has been no word on the Atlanteans since we left.”
“That’s a win!” The XO slapped his chair arm. “Thank God.”
“Right, Yohon, that has to have gone a long way to fix relations,” Captain Jacobs agreed. “Any word if other ships from Earth have arrived?”
“No sir,” he replied.
“What about from Earth?” Jacobs asked.
“Nothing, but that’s not surprising. We have no way of knowing if our in-flight telemetry was received and, even if it were and they could reply, I doubt they would. Given what happened on Proxima b between the Atlanteans and the Fintidierians, I suspect people back home would not want to broadcast their presence too loudly in this general direction,” Tarasenko hypothesized.
“Sound logic, Vic,” the XO agreed. “Although I’d think the Atlanteans could have already detected Earth a century ago with their level of technology. If they were looking, that is. You’d think that Earth would have at least had the courtesy of sending a message via one of the other ships, though.”
“Yeah, like by relaying it via the Samaritan. The Atlanteans know about the ship, thanks to the sleeper who sent that message,” Mastrano said, betraying her “we can find a way to do this” way of thinking that made her a good chief engineer.
“Good thinking, Cindy, but I doubt they would take that risk. If the Atlanteans can read our messages, then even mentioning Earth would be a risk. We don’t believe their sleeper knew about Earth when she sent her message and we should keep it that way,” replied Jacobs.
“I don’t know if I buy that one or not. The Atlanteans had to have records or knowledge of other humans. We can’t have simply randomly sprung up across the galaxy in multiple places with the same DNA. They have to know of Earth,” Mastrano argued. “Hell, I wouldn’t even be surprised if they put us on Earth to start with.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Victor replied. “But given their development status, it is safe to assume they know we’re here. The drive’s exhaust would stand out like a beacon on any sort of UV telescope looking in our general direction as we braked.”
“They might know company is coming, Victor, but as soon as we turned around, and given the distance, they probably lost sight of us,” Mastrano argued.
“Yes, I agree,” Jacobs said. “But we cannot take that for granted. Rather than follow the trajectory we are on, which would be the fastest way in, let’s continue as planned, maneuver a bit, and come in from a slightly different direction. It will take longer, but we can put that time to good use by getting more information about the system—including what might be on the other side of the star. I don’t like surprises. Somebody get Mak to wake up Dr. Gilster and put her on the radio astronomy and observation station as soon as she is able.”
“On it, Captain.” The XO tapped some keys at his console and moved around some virtual images that only he could see through his contact lenses.
“I’ll come up with options and timetables,” Walker said with a slight grin. She immediately cocked her head to look at her display, undoubtedly already plotting a trajectory that would give them the element of surprise.
She’s in her element, Jacobs thought. Good.
Two hours later, the Emissary’s drive ramped up to full power, taking the ship upward from the local ecliptic plane and slightly starboard of their initial trajectory. At these distances, even slight changes would dramatically increase the zone of uncertainty regarding their position farther in the system. Jacobs wanted to learn about the Atlanteans, perhaps even make contact, but he did not want to have a shooting war. He had no illusions regarding the capabilities of his ship’s makeshift weaponry. What they had devised as weapons might not be very effective in the Atlanteans’ home court, especially given their apparent large technological advantage. Remaining hidden, or at least difficult to track, was their best defense.
* * *
Three weeks passed and there was no outward sign that anyone or anything in the system had paid them heed. To Jacobs, that alone was disconcerting. It meant either that they had gone undetected, which was unlikely, or that the Atlanteans were so confident in their superiority that they simply didn’t care. Would the pilot of a modern fighter jet be particularly concerned about the approach of a WWI-era biplane? Maybe. Maybe not. But then again, by comparing the Emissary to a biplane, he might be being more charitable than reality. They were now 1,200 light-minutes from Luyten b and cruising at roughly 3 light-minutes per hour as they made their way inward. It was fast enough to cover the distance needed in a reasonable amount of time and hopefully not too fast to react quickly if they needed to divert toward something interesting along the way—he hoped.
“Captain, thermal picked up something ahead and barely off our current trajectory. It’s not very hot, barely above background, but it’s definitely not natural. Whatever it is, there’s a warm central core and has much colder extremities. And it’s big, at least two hundred fifty meters across,” Tarasenko said, looking up from his console. “I’ll share the thermal images to your screen while I try to get some visible images. But at this distance, I doubt we will see much unless they have very efficient and bright lighting.”
“Cindy, how difficult would it be to do a slow flyby?” Jacobs asked.
“I can get us within two kilometers and to a dead stop, relative, if need be,” she replied.
“I don’t want to stop on the first pass. Let’s keep it at ten to twenty kilometers and take us by at one half kilometer per second. I want a full sensor suite, gathering data as we pass the object. Show me the data in real time on the main screen,” he said.
The thermal image on his viewer was replaced by one of Mastrano’s “pork-chop plots,” which showed curves of the extra energy or characteristic energy required to meet rendezvous points from their current position. In other words, the plots were showing the range of possible intercept times and spacecraft flyby velocities as a function of when in their current flight path they began their course change. To the uninitiated, the graph looked like the contour plots of a topographical map—or a pork chop. To the experienced viewer, it gave all the information necessary to decide how to perform the flyby and when.
“It looks like the sooner we divert, the better the options are for the flyby,” Jacobs declared, knowing that beginning a maneuver in deep space was usually easier to accomplish by beginning sooner, rather than later. He activated the ship-wide speaker system.
“All hands. Secure for a course change in ten minutes. We’ve found something interesting and we’re going to divert to fly by and check it out. ETA in six hours,” he said and then turned off the microphone.
“Cindy, we’re all yours,” Jacobs said. “Chief Walker, keep running curves and intercepts based on continuous real-time data.”
“Copy, Captain.”
When the maneuver began, Jacobs could feel the subtle shift in the ship’s vector due to the change in acceleration. It wasn’t enough of a change to have posed a danger to anyone on board who might have been unprepared had he not made the announcement, other than perhaps a burned hand or two from hot coffee sloshing, but it was better to have everyone buckled up and prepared. Just in case.
“I’m going to my quarters for a short nap. XO, the ship is yours,” Jacobs said to Koeq as he unbuckled and rose from his chair. Koeq quickly, but not too quickly, moved to take his place. If they had been back at Earth, after their time together on the voyage to Proxima b and his exemplary service there, Koeq would have by now had a ship of his own. He had served well and was definitely ship’s captain material. Unfortunately, they were not likely to return to Earth anytime soon, perhaps not for a long, long time, if ever. Koeq seemed okay with being the XO. That relieved Jacobs, knowing that should anything happen to him, a capable substitute was ready and available. It simply wasn’t fair to Koeq.
Five and a half hours later, Jacobs was back on the bridge, not certain that he was actually ready for whatever lay ahead. He hadn’t really been able to sleep even though he had tried. Five hours hadn’t been enough of a break that sleeping meds were an option. Instead, he had taken an alertness med before returning to the bridge. He checked his crew roster virtual display and noted that more of the crew had been awakened from cryosleep and were being acclimated to their current situation. At the current pace, Mak would have the entire complement up and ready to go. Specifically, Jacobs checked on his security detail. If there were more of those Atlantean warrior types out here, he definitely wanted the SEALs and the rest of the security-trained crew at the ready. Captain Jacobs made himself comfortable in his command chair and strapped himself in.
“XO, report.”
“Closing in on the object now, Captain,” Koeq replied. “It’s big. Really big.”
“How big?”
“Our long-range imagery and AI analysis shows that it is over two kilometers in length and about one kilometer in diameter. The albedo measurements suggest that it is a manufactured object and not just an asteroid. Besides that, well, it started moving toward us hours ago,” the XO said.
“Moving toward us?”
“Yes, sir. It isn’t moving very quickly, but it turned in our direction and started closing the gap at the same speed that we are approaching it. We are currently twenty light-minutes’ distance between us,” the XO explained.
“Alright, full stop relative!” Captain Jacobs ordered. “Get me Rain up here as soon as possible. I don’t care if she’s still in her cryo jammies.”
“Roger that!”
“CHENG!”
“Yes, Captain,” Mastrano replied from Engineering.
“I need a full sensor sweep of the object using everything we have,” he ordered.
“Been doing that, Captain,” Mastrano said. “I’m not really sure what I can tell you yet other than the fact that the thing is very large, it looks shiny, and seems to be able to match our propulsion with no detectable exhaust products. Also, it doesn’t appear to be very hot either.”
“Any electromagnetic signals?”
“Negative, Captain. But I’ll keep at it,” Mastrano finished.
“Comms, hail it.”
“What frequency bands, Captain?” Victor Tarasenko asked.
“All of them.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Captain! There are two of them now!” the XO exclaimed. “One closing from twenty light-minutes out still and one is now ten kilometers dead ahead of us!”
“Joni! Turn us around and point the Samara Drive exhaust port right at that thing. And keep it on it!” Jacobs commanded.
“Which one?” Walker sounded puzzled.
“The one right in front of us, Joni!” Jacobs shouted. “Victor! Any return signals?”
“Nothing as far as I can tell, Captain. I’m still hailing at every frequency,” Victor replied.
“What is that?!” Walker shouted from the navigation console. “Do you see it?”
“Layla! Zoom in on whatever that projectile is coming toward us!” Captain Jacobs shouted to the ship’s AI.
“Yes, Captain,” Layla responded.
“Analysis?”
“It appears to be a fast-moving probe or maybe a missile,” Layla replied.
“Evasive maneuvers, Joni!” Jacobs ordered. “Full thrusters to port!”
“You might as well save the fuel, Captain,” Layla said. “There is not enough impulse from our maneuvering thrusters to get us clear of the incoming projectile.”
“Shit!” the XO exclaimed.
“All hands, this is the captain! Prepare for impact and possible hull breech!”
“Impact in four, three, two, one!” Layla counted down.
There was a sudden thud against the ship that sent a vibration ringing from bow to stern. The sound of metal tearing screeched as pressure alarms filled the ship. Jacobs had the three-dimensional view of the ship in his virtual view, so he rotated it and zoomed in to look at the impact site.
“Layla, get me a drone out there to view this thing,” Jacobs ordered. “XO, get a security team there. They might be boarding us!”
“Aye, Captain!” Yohon moved some icons around in his virtual view and then tapped at a console in front of him. Then he looked over to the sensors and signals station at Victor Tarasenko with a nod. Victor patted the firearm on his side with a nod back at him. Both men gave a reassuring look to the captain. “Security and fire teams on the way.”
“Victor, keep an eye on the bridge entry hatch,” Jacobs said.
“Understood, Captain,” Victor replied.
“Visual feed approaching the impact zone now Captain,” Layla said.
“On the main screen.”
The drone video feed was from a vantage point approximately ten meters above the exterior hull of the ship. So far, the ship looked normal as the drone approached the impact site. Then the forward motion stopped, and the drone hovered over a large hemispherical shiny metallic object perhaps as much as five meters in diameter with eight metallic appendages protruding from its periphery. Each of the appendages had pierced into the hull and had imbedded themselves into the ship like some giant menacing parasitic metal insect. The odd thing about the view was that where the appendages had pierced the hull there were no tears or breaks or damage. Instead, the hull was rippling like water around them. In real time as the bridge crew watched, cables, or maybe tentacles, grew out of the “insect” and began melding with the ship’s hull. The materials of the cables and the hull seemed to simply join together into a melded object with ripples across the hull like dropping a pebble in a still reflecting pool.
“Has to be nanotechnology,” Walker gasped.
“Pressure leaks have stopped, Captain. Environmental systems seem nominal,” Layla said.
“Yeah, but what is this thing doing to my ship?” Jacobs grunted. “Layla?”
“Captain, as far as I can…I can…I…”
“Layla?” Jacobs brought her status icon up in his viewscreen. “Layla? Respond.”
The ship’s thrusters suddenly fired full power to port.
“Walker? What the hell are you doing?”
“That’s not me, Captain!”
“My bet is they are turning our main weapon away from them,” the XO offered.
“Damn. Probably right, Yohon.” Jacobs tried to cut the thrusters from his controls, but nothing was happening. “CHENG!”
“Yes, Captain?” Mastrano’s face popped up in his virtual view.
“Cut all power to all maneuvering thrusters.”
“Standby.”
“Quickly, CHENG.”
“I’m sorry, Captain, but, uh, no systems seem to be responding,” Mastrano replied. “We seem to be locked out of all ship’s controls.”
“XO! I need a visual report from that security detail!”
“Almost there, Captain. Microgravity is slowing them down.”
* * *
“What hell is that?” US Navy SEAL team leader Commander Mike Rogers put his virtual aimbot on the flurry of mechanical things moving out of the center of what he could only describe as a puddle of liquid metal in the outer hull wall. He and the security detail made magboot jumps down the outer cooling conduit corridor to the hull breech. Getting there in the microgravity had been a task in itself. At least the magboots enabled them to anchor and aim. The aimbots in the virtual screens made targeting even easier.
“I see it, Mike,” Dr. Carol Ash said, not lowering her rifle. The New Zealand special weapons expert had been in the armory with Rogers when they had gotten the call. The two were first on the scene. Rogers could see in his virtual blue force tracker that USN Lieutenant Commander Geni Holland and USN Petty Officer Third Class Daniel Visser were less than a minute out and moving toward them fast.
“We’re being boarded,” Rogers said quietly through his throat microphone. He waved his left hand toward the opposite corridor wall and then released his magboots with a bounce. “Let’s see if we can slow them down.”
“Copy that,” Carol replied, following him in leapfrog fashion and cover formation to the far wall. It took them twenty seconds to reach a truss structure connecting one section of the tube to another, about twenty meters from the alien penetration point.
“Good place to make a stand,” Rogers whispered. Then he tapped his throat. “Geni, Danny, we’re being boarded by mechanical devices, maybe robots, not sure. Move around us on the interior hallway and go to the fore of the impact point. We’re aft. Carol and I are going to engage as soon as the captain gives the order. You ready, Carol?”
“Ah, you know me, mate.” Carol smiled and patted the bag of frag grenades at her waist. “I’m always up for a scrap.”
“Captain Jacobs, Mike Rogers,” he whispered.
“Go, Rogers!” Jacobs said in their virtual screens.
“We’re being boarded by robots, Captain. Or mechanical bugs. Either way, looks like hundreds and still more coming through the hull. Permission to engage?”
“Get those damned things off my ship, Rogers!”
“Aye aye, sir.” Rogers moved his hand in an outward waving motion, pulling up his targeting screen. The corridor lit up with red targeting Xs. “Well, Carol, as you would say, let’s give the bastards heaps!”
“Bloody oath, mate! Let’s smash the buggers.” Carol didn’t wait for Rogers and started letting go on the targets. At that moment, Rogers was certain he was hearing other weapons fire, but couldn’t tell over the sound of Carol’s. His blue force tracker viewscreen showed that Geni and Danny had both fired their weapons.
“Shit,” he muttered as he clicked the safety off.
Rogers was more methodical. He started from the outside in, taking the nearest target headed in his direction. The target itself was the size of a cat or a squirrel but looked absolutely nothing like either. It was a random mishmash of metallic colors and polymorphic in shape. There were eight or ten magnetic legs protruding from the object, skittering it along the metal hull. The appendages weren’t like a two-dimensional walking animal like a spider or bug. Instead, the legs protruded randomly all about the thing and it sort of spiraled around its direction of travel as it skittered. There were hundreds of things pouring out of the wall in all directions.
Rogers locked his targeting X on the bot and released a single round. The round hit the target, poking a hole clean through and into the bulkhead behind it. The round ricocheted into another bot and took it out as well. Mike waited briefly. He half expected the bot to heal itself. When it didn’t, that’s when he let loose.
“Sweep them back inward, Carol! We need to stop the flow of these things!” he exclaimed as the tide of the bots had turned and started flowing toward them.
“Nail them!” Carol said with excitement and pointing to her explosives bag. “Gimme the word, mate, when you are ready to go all out bangs on the buggers!”
* * *
“The corridor hatch is up there, Danny!” Holland pointed in front of them approximately fifteen meters up the inner hallway at a hatch. “Mike and Carol should be right behind us. We can get in there.”
“Understood,” Visser replied. “Look out!”
“What the f—” Geni ducked and kicked her magboots off the sidewall, doing a Superman-style flight across the hall as a large tentacle-looking metal tube whipped about and grabbed her by the ankle as she passed. “Get off me!”
“Oh, my God, what is that!?” Danny screamed and started firing his rifle at something behind her. Geni watched as he released his boots and did a somersault to the top wall and reattached his magboots, running above and past her while firing.
“Danny!” Geni rolled her body sideways and twisted herself at an angle where she could push the muzzle of her rifle against the tentacle holding her. She pulled the trigger, cutting the metal whiplike tube free. The momentum of the motion sent her spiraling about, getting a view of Danny every rotation. The hall lighting was a dim low red and with every bright white muzzle flash there was a strobe effect showing his motion in jumps. Geni managed to grab a handhold, right herself, and kick toward him, only to be terrified and mystified by what she saw in front of them.
The tentacle had been attached to the hatchway door. The door itself had grown into some strange mixture of cables, tubes, metal appendages, and the most bizarre Cthulhu shit she had ever seen. The hatchway itself was literally fighting them. Suddenly, she heard a torrent of weapons fire from behind them and on the other side of the wall.
“Mike has engaged! We need to get through this damned evil door!” Geni said.
“Well, just putting rounds in it ain’t helping at all!” Danny kicked away from the door as a tube wrapped him up. He produced a long-bladed knife almost out of nowhere and brought his left elbow down through the tube. Grabbed it with his left hand and slashed himself free with his right. He tossed the tube aside, but it grew appendages and wriggled itself back toward the door.
“Holy shit! Did you see that?” he shouted.
“Get back, Danny!” Geni ordered him as she pulled a magnetic charge from her MOLLE—MOdular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment—vest. She popped the safeguard, armed the trigger, and tossed it at the hatch. “Cover, cover! Fire in the hole!”
* * *
“Jesus Christ, what is happening on this ship?” the XO shouted. “Captain, there are multiple shots fired, and we now have an explosion on the port external conduit near the object.”
“CHENG! Any luck getting control of the ship?” Captain Jacobs frantically moved his virtual screens, looking for anything that would help. He opened the ship intercom channel. “All hands! All hands! Prepare for possible pressure losses. Take emergency actions and shelter as needed!”
“Victor, maybe you should get Chang up here also,” Yohon suggested, meaning that they might want Colonel Ping Xi Chang, the Chinese military pilot and security force team member on the bridge as back up to Tarasenko.
“I’ve already messaged him. He’s on his way.”
“Good.” The XO gave him a positive nod. “Captain, we’ve got a lot of rounds bouncing around down there. We could poke something we don’t need to poke.”
“Rogers is doing his job, XO. Can’t ask more than that,” Jacobs replied. “Come on, Rogers. Get the job done!”
* * *
“This ain’t getting the job done, mate!” Carol shouted as a bot flung itself from across the room at her. She stopped it with her barrel and then impaled it against the bulkhead with a blade in her left hand. “I say it’s time for full bangers, Mike!”
Then there was an explosion sound from twenty meters forward and inward. The ship rang like a bell for a second. Seconds later, lines of fire were coming from the fore side of the corridor. Geni and Danny had made it to the scrap. Rogers keyed the open screen. “Glad y’all decided to join us.”
“You won’t believe what is on the other side of this thing!” Danny replied. “It’s the craziest mad shit I’ve ever seen!”
“Keep it frosty, Danny,” Geni replied. “And keep firing!”
“Aw, screw this!” Rogers toggled his magboots off and kicked forward five meters, then activated them, clanking, to the wall to run toward the swarm of bots pouring through the hull, while firing on full auto. Red targeting Xs filled his virtual view. “Carol! Do it!”
“About friggin’ time, mate!” Smiling from ear to ear, she activated a magnetic hull-cracking charge. “Be ready to drop your lids and mag your skids!”
Carol rushed behind Rogers in three bounds with her boots, each time landing with a metal-on-metal sound that reverberated through the conduit like a church bell. On the third bounce she flipped sideways of Rogers, who was still firing on continuous, put her rifle in her left hand—still firing—and with her right thumb activated the charge and tossed it at the center of the rippling pool generating the metal monsters. Almost simultaneously, all of the virtual icons and screens in their mind views started flickering at maximum intensity, speed-blinding and mesmerizing the team.
“Boomer’s away!” Carol shouted through gritted teeth. “Cover!”
Rogers tried to shake his head clear from the frantic visuals but that only made things worse. He could barely concentrate. Suddenly, he realized he had stopped firing his weapon. Through the crazy overwhelming visual stimulus before his eyes, he could make out tentacles extending from the central portion of the rippling pool. Four of them to be exact. The tentacles darted out toward each member of the team. He could see the one tentacle to his right swallow the charge flying through midair and then impale Carol through the chest. He could see similar results from the other two tentacles farthest from him until he felt a searing pain in his upper sternum and back.
“What the f—” Rogers faded into blackness.
* * *
“What the…?” Jacobs watched as Victor Tarasenko and Ping Xi Chang grabbed their heads and screamed in agony.
“Something is wrong with the comms and nav panels…” Joni Walker put the palms of her hands to her eye sockets as if she would tear out her eyeballs.
Suddenly, all the viewscreens started scrolling through images at the maximum frame rate possible on the screen technology. The virtual screens in front of everyone on the bridge must have been zipping by as quickly as the ones in front of Captain Jacobs. She swiped at icons, trying to stop the feed, but nothing worked.
“Oh my God!” the XO shouted, clutching his head while swiping at icons. “Make it stop!”
“All hands, all hands!” a female voice came over the radio. “This is Dr. Gilster. Remove your contact lenses immediately! Take them out now!”
Jacobs tried closing his eyes, but nothing could stop the virtual images flashing by him rapidly. Were he susceptible to seizures this would certainly have been a trigger for them. He had finally reached the point where it had to stop or he would pass out from the stimulus, so he focused his mind and carefully felt into his right eye with his finger until he slid the contact lens to the corner of his eye and then out. The virtual imagery cleared from one eye. Now he had seizure-level flashes in his left eye and clear vision in his right. The effect that had on his inner ear and balance was overwhelming, forcing him to wretch violently.
Jacobs forced himself to remove his left contact lens. It took a moment or so but the nausea subsided.
The bridge door slid open, and Rain floated through it directly toward Jacobs. The captain looked up at her as he recovered from his vomiting. He was sweating profusely, clammy, and still dizzy. But he was in control of himself now.
“Rain?”
“It’s a communication attempt, Alan,” she told him. “The probe out there. It is digging into our data network, I think. My spectrum analysis shows it handshaking with our WiFi and every other system via wireless and direct connections. I can’t determine if it is friendly or not yet, though.”
“Can you shut it down?”
“Oh, God no.” Rain shook her head. In the microgravity her hair simply floated above her as her head turned back and forth. She pushed herself to Walker and helped her remove her lenses. “Try to hold still, Joni! Whatever this is, well, it’s light-years ahead of us.”
“What do you suggest we do then?” Jacobs asked as he helped XO Koeq.
“I don’t think we can do anything,” Rain replied. “I think all we can do is tend to the crew and wait.”
“Wait?” he protested.
“I know. I don’t like it either, but this is signals control and hacking unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Maybe Cindy has an idea.” Rain adjusted her magboots and floated to the deck with a clank. She clanked across to Tarasenko, who was already standing, holding his lenses in his hand.
“I’m good.” Tarasenko said. “Bozhe moi. I’ll help Chang.”
“CHENG, you there?” Jacobs called over the comm on his wristband. He swam his way back into his chair and strapped back in.
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Rain’s call came through just in time,” Mastrano said. “With hindsight, that was obvious. Haha. But we still can’t get control of any systems yet. I’m looking at cutting the main power and just shutting them down.”
“Do it,” Jacobs ordered.
“On it, Captain.”
“That would be unwise, Captain Alan Jacobs,” Layla’s voice intoned.
“Layla?” Captain Jacobs asked as an image of the Atlantean woman and the ruins from the Proxima system appeared on the main screen. Then video images from the conduit hallway appeared, showing Commander Rogers and the security detail floating lifelessly and impaled on mechanical tentacles. The imagery was like something out of an animated Japanese horror movie from a century prior.
“No, not Layla. Not exactly. You will come with us.”