Art prompted by author using MidJourney
Previous Chapter 13: An Absolute Stillness: https://onthebeachatnightalone.com/2023/05/16/fiction-the-girassian-debacle-chapter-13-an-absolute-stillness/
Captain Anthony Maureau awoke disoriented and in a cold sweat. He sat on the edge of his bunk for five minutes trying to feel alert, sensing it was taking far too long to recall what was happening aboard the London. As he climbed up to the bridge, the increased weight from London’s two-G deceleration wearied him. Anthony feared the residual symptoms of fatigue and headache from his head trauma, only several days prior, would make it a challenge to function well over an entire watch.
But he had to. This is not the time to turn the ship over to Commander Gray as we arrive at the nil-void. We still have work to do together to get us on the same page.
Arriving on the bridge, Maureau recognized all of the bridge officers intent on their monitors. The security officer of the watch announced, “Captain on the bridge.” No one looked up. Yoshi, cables running into the base of the skull, lay in its jump seat with eyes closed, appearing asleep.
Commander Gray sat in the captain’s chair, her gaze fixed on the main monitor which displayed data and external views of the London. Gray wore only the lower half of her G-suit. She did not look up at Maureau and was slow to rise out of the captain’s chair.
Maureau did not wait for her to turn and face him. “Number One. What is the status of our mission to the nil-void?”
She glanced sideways without turning to face him. “The London remains at a steady two G deceleration. We are one hundred thousand kilometers from the nil-void. Twenty minutes away. The void is collapsing.”
The holographic display had changed since he last manned the bridge. It still showed the nil-void’s black depths plunging within the faint gray of the display’s interplanetary space, but a bright ring of white light now surrounded the hole.
“What am I looking at? Before turning over the watch to you, all I recall is the void, looking darker than the space around it. When did the ring of light appear?”
“The ring appeared ninety minutes ago,” Grey said.
Yoshi opened its eyes and rose from the jump seat to squat. Staring at the display, it interrupted Gray. “It looks like a splinter in the Eye of God,” Yoshi nodded to itself, looking pleased.
Maureau again looked hard at the display and to finally see a black, needle-shaped object embedded within the ring of light. “Love the metaphor,” Maureau said. “This ‘splinter’, when did we detect it?”
Gray hesitated and Yoshi answered before she could. “The splinter appeared nineteen minutes ago.”
Song would have notified Maureau immediately. What the hell! Independence is one thing. Judgment is another.
“These are significant changes. I need to know about them immediately!”
“We’ve been analyzing the splinter. Without knowing what it is, I decided not to disturb you,” Gray said. “My apologies, Sir. You returned just before I was going to notify you.”
Maureau paused, thinking of what to say next. “What do we know about these phenomena. Start with this splinter-object?”
Gray cleared her throat “It came out of the void. It’s not responding to our hale. I think it’s a probe. BDP, update us on the object.”
“Your BDP is named Yoshi.”
There was an uncomfortable silence. Great! I have an XO who withholds critical information and now a biodroid pilot with an attitude.
Yoshi continued before anyone could say something. “It is three hundred meters in length. The wider terminus is fifty meters in length. It has four decks, each seven meters in height. The narrow terminus is two hundred fifty meters in length. It rapidly tapers over one hundred fifty meters from the wide section. The terminal one hundred meters is one meter wide and solid with equipment.
“The vessel is not under power. Speed is steady at fifty kilometers per hour. It will be through the radiation layer in twelve minutes.”
Yoshi spun to face Maureau and Gray. “The surface is one meter thick and made of an unidentified organometal. It is absorbing light. The signal reflected back from the vessel is diffuse. Scanners do not show life forms. There is a nidus of energy amidship, a reactor. Currently there is no distribution of power. The probability the vessel is a probe is zero point four five. The probability the vessel is a ship is zero point five five.”
Adrenaline kicked in, jolting Maureau into action. “Without receiving a response to our hale and given the fact we are not receiving any communication from Central Command, we will go to Condition One. Immediately.” Everyone on the bridge turned to look at Maureau. The alarm for general quarters sounded.
“Send out a probe. This ship may have generated the nil-void. Yoshi, keep the engineering system primed for acceleration away from here. We need to slow down more to give us time to assess things. Set deceleration at two point two-five-G’s.” The warning alarm for change in deceleration sounded.
“Yoshi, confirm Senator Mitchell is all right with the prolonged deceleration. AIC, have someone from Security make sure Mitchell is secure and knows what Condition One means for him.”
Yoshi looked at Gray, clearly wanting to speak. Gray shook her head at it and began, “Captain, there are more things to consider as we move forward to engage this ship. We have not reviewed what we know about the halo of light around the nil-void.”
Maureau clenched his jaw as a wave of vertigo made him grab his chair to steady himself. He hoped no one noticed. Should I surrender the bridge? But this is just not the time! Commander Gray waited for a response while he sat down and stared at the image of the nil-void.
“Of course. Go on, Commander!”
“BDP…Yoshi. Show the Captain what analysis of the radio signals showed.”
Yoshi changed the hologram to display the nil-void hole surrounded by a transparent outline of a sphere which extended millions of kilometers from the center of the nil-void. This sphere enveloped a large length of the transit lanes shown running from Earth to Mars, including the path of the London over the past six hours. The London’s deviation from its planned course showed it going deeper into the sphere as the ship traveled towards the nil-void.
Grey stepped in front of Maureau, standing to the side enough to allow him to see the display. “What you are seeing, Captain, is the situation as we changed course towards the nil-void. Before you left the bridge, our communication signals were being absorbed by a sphere of interference from the nil-void.”
“Was this electromagnetic interference? Why did we not know this? ” Maureau said.
“The interference is not due to electromagnetic forces. Our comm signals went out and were bent and diffused across the surface of the sphere. We could not detect this. ”
“What is this sphere, then?” Maureau said.
Yoshi could not contain itself. “Some of the alter-universe exploded through the nil-void into the Solar System. Its space acts differently than this universe. The London is within a bubble of the alter-universe which is acting differently than Solar System space. It is like a drop of oil in a vinegar solution. Things inside the bubble are not the same as outside. The alter-universe contains our signals.”
Maureau shook his head. He did not want to ask anymore questions. Bent forward, elbow on his thigh, he bowed his head and put his hand over his eyes and rubbed his temples. He waited. I should have been a part of this analysis, not learning about it now as we close in on this anomaly.
“Yoshi, stay silent as I explain things to the Captain. As I mentioned before, when you came back on the bridge, the nil-void is contracting and the sphere of alter-universe is being pulled back through it. Now, show how the nil-void has been contracting along with the sphere. Both the sphere and the central void contract together. The energy glow at the border of the nil-void is an energy layer generated as the alter-universe spills into the nil-void. We see it like the corona of our sun.”
Gray continued speaking rapidly, crisply. “Once the sphere collapsed to a certain point … BDP go back and show the point where things changed and we found out what was happening to our communications… Once the sphere collapsed to the size now shown, the surface started reflecting signals back to the London instead of absorbing them. It’s only when signals bounced back that we could detect we were in a bubble of sorts and that our signals were not getting through.”
Still bent forward looking at the display, Maureau said, “When you detected reflected signals, you were able to determine what had been happening since we changed our course. Analysis showed the contracting field had been present for hours.”
Yoshi nodded vigorously. “Yes, Captain, that is correct,” it said in a low voice.
“Will we be able to communicate as we approach the nil-void?”
“Answer that,” Gray said to Yoshi.
Yoshi bounced up from his squat to stand, turned around and looked at Maureau. “As London continues to decelerate the border of the bubble will pull back past us. Communication will open to Mars and the Emissary Portal Control Center.”
“And we will be able to connect with Earth?” Maureau said.
“There will be clearance to Mars in five minutes. Eight minutes after that, the line of communication will be open to Earth.
“Captain, may I observe, since we have not been able to contact Alpha One, we may also be undetectable by Earth,” Gray said.
“I agree with you, Commander. But we are committed to probe the anomaly and make contact with this spacecraft. We will do this as soon as possible.
“Communications. As soon as a channel opens up, send a secure message to the Emissary Portal Command Center.” Maureau looked intently at the display as the London appeared to be backing out of the sphere. “Identify the London’s position and course. Inform them of our departure from our transit plan to investigate an anomaly. Yoshi, attach all of the data you have on the nil-void, the signal interference by the sphere of alter-universe, and the findings on the apparent ship.”
Anthony felt like he just dove off a cliff towards black water without any idea what was under the surface. “Ask them if the anomaly and the ship is one of theirs. If not, can they identify what it is?”
I pray this is one of the Emissary wonders. Maybe, we are going to meet The Hidden?