Into The Void (9 page)

              “When we reach the Overlapping Galaxies you will be very old. They are to help you build the gate by gathering parts and handing them to you. This should cut down on travel time to and from the ship which will help you not be so tired.”

              “Why didn't they just send them on their way without me?”

              “Because they can not build a good enough gate that will make at least one indefinite safe transport through it. They may be able to build an unstable gate that is able to have three ships pass through it but the probability of the gate breaking is very high. Last time a gate was destroyed while a ship was in transit through it the ship was lost. No one knows what happened to it.”

              “That's right I forgot. It's been so long since I've started this mission that I forgot about some of this crap. By the way, did you know that there is a cheese grater back here? I could have used this like 5 years ago.”

              Captain Steele then walked over to the kitchen. He prepared himself some bacon and eggs and made some waffles. After making his food he walked over to the recreational room decided to watch a movie. He wanted something good, something action packed. After finding a good over the top movie he sat down and ate his breakfast while watching the movie. He was only a few years into his assignment but life was good. He poured some more syrup on his waffles and ate them. He took the bacon and dipped it into the remaining syrup.

              Life was good. He had some good food, a nice place to live, an awesome assignment, and an epic trophy, that decked out his epic manship. Every day he woke up he would walk over to the dead creature and just smile knowing that he had had the best fight of his life. He knew that he could take on a creature so advanced in it's evolution that it bends the rules of time and space, a creature that was at the top of the universe's food chain, a creature so advanced that mankind would not be able to kill it with it's current technology for another 10,000 years, yet he did it by himself. And he had the awesome video footage of how he brought it down. He knew that the video sent back to the Milky Way would be the number one video in all of galactic space for a long time to come.

              The video was probably picked apart by some wannabe critic who couldn't believe such a creature could live or that a human could take it down. It didn't matter though, the point is he kicked it's ass.

              “Jamie, pull up that video of me kicking that thing's ass.”

              As Jamie pulled open the video, Captain Steele kept thinking how he would love to fight it again. He wondered if he could bring it back to life and kill it again for fun.

              “Jamie, any chance I can bring that thing back to life and kill it again?”

              “Certainly not! Even if you could bring it back to life I would not tell you how to.”

              “Okay okay. Just thought I would ask.”

              Captain Steele wasn't a scientist but he thought he would ask the most technological Artificial Intelligence in the universe anyway. Now that he thought about it he wondered why there were no scientists brought along with him. He was trained for the science stuff, but he was a solider. He followed orders and didn't really think about quantum physics.

              “Jamie, why am I the only one on this mission? Why not have scientists?”

              “They needed a soldier. They needed someone who would follow orders and not hesitate. The survival rate was calculated at an astounding less than 0%. If they hired scientists they would realize this, and automatically theorize that the mission was impossible. A soldier who followed orders and who did not fear death and had stared death in the eyes and fought it off was the only one who could do this. They trained you for the science part of the job because only a soldier with the will to fight and desire to follow orders was the only person who could complete the mission.

              “No one knows what is out here. Only a well trained soldier could survive what unknown horrors await out here. They need someone who has always thought, but acted without a second's hesitation. With the amount of resources and risk going into this mission only a soldier could do it.”

              “What do you mean 'at an astounding less than 0%'?” Captain Steele asked.

              “Your five DSSM suits make this extremely costly. Not to mention the facilities on this ship. Then there is food, scientific gear, cost of building materials for the ship, fuel, and me. It all adds up to a cost that will impact Earth. Not to mention the Instant Teleportation Device you have in the back of the ship. If you fail this mission all of mankind has a 75% chance of going bankrupt. The odds are you will fail and the galactic economy will die as mankind's economy dies.”

              “Great, no pressure at all,” Captain Steele said, “But why am I the only one? Couldn't they send me with someone else?”

              “No. The costs would be increased to an unacceptable level. The cost of failure would be 90% chance instead of the current 75% chance of galactic economy collapse. The odds are 100% that you will fail. The money spent on this mission caused an incredible debt that will cause serious problems on a galactic scale. If you successfully complete your mission that will increase exponentially the amount of money being exchanged because of the exploration that will happen. This will causes the deficit to be fixed in five years after you complete your mission.”

              “But this mission is like 150 years or so. 150 years of deficit only to be fixed in five if I succeed?”

              “Yes John, you will be a hero. Your face will be on lunchboxes.”

              “Awesome. I'm on a lunchbox because of a suicide mission. You really expect me to believe that second part about economic collapse?”

              “No. It was a joke. The real reason is because they couldn't risk having two people talk each other out of it. It was possible to have two, but the chance of failure went up. The odds are already 0% and if odds for failure went up whatever calculation error in the success of the mission with one person, would mean indefinite failure with two.”

              “That part I do believe. Your getting better at jokes Jamie. Now play back the part of me killing that creature again.”

              Captain Steele watched the video several times knowing Jamie was probably lying but he didn't really care at the moment. He watched the video again before getting up and working out. After that he played a game with Jamie, then worked out some more, then ran some tests on the things he collected from the object, then watched a movie and went to bed. As he laid there he wondered what other treasures he would find out into the void.

              General Vaas was getting ready for another press conference about mankind's plans. Most humans had it hard and they hadn't even picked a candidate for the mission yet. Captain Steele was looking like the best one but there was still a ways to go. Everyone was still in training. Every since the press conference with NASA and the plan to move to another galaxy humans were ostracized. Lots even lost there job. Several hateful bandwagons were created and the many races jumped on them. They were taking everything out of context. Humans were seen as hateful, destructive, warmongering, even evil. Some, however, saw humans as thoughtful, creative, ingenious, even as saviors. But most saw the first option.

              General Vaas saw the way things were and knew it was going to happen. Not to the degree that it did, but he knew it would happen. Jobs in the galactic fields such as the medical field, law enforcement, customer services, and even in sales saw mass firings in the human population, but fields such as lawyers, scientists, the military, and even the arts industry sky rocketed. Most people didn't trust humans but some commended humans for their ability to think outside the box and come up with new solutions. Humans who had profitable businesses hired humans first before the others races for help because of the mass discrimination. This just increased the problem.

              The galaxy saw a schism. Humans verses every other race. Some people were quick to judge, but others to advocate.

              General Vaas stood there and answered questions at the press conference. He stood their as they hurdled questions and insults at him.

              “You want to move to another galaxy and suck their resources dry? What if other races live in that galaxy?”

              General Vaas knew that people were going to be angry with mankind's plan on how to solve the resource problem. He knew that as soon as NASA's president made that press conference that mankind would be ridiculed. He just wished that the mission would begin already so that he wouldn't have to see the ridicule he was getting. General Vaas also knew that until the mission was finished mankind was going continue to be ridiculed.

              “Let me make something very clear here,” General Vaas said, “All other races are creating more resourceful ways to harvest resources. Mankind is too. However, that still does not solve the problem of us running out of resources. One race is finding way to harvest the gravity of protostars so they can then turn it into energy, another to collecting the energy of the black hole in the center of our galaxy. We are looking for alternatives as well but no matter what we do, or how long we prolong our use of these resources we will still have to leave our galaxy within the next several millennium to completely stop the problem. That is why we need to leave.”

              “What about if the next galaxy has races living on them? Are we going to kill them?”

              “We will cooperate with them to make sure they do not put their selves in our current situation-”

              “What if their civilized and not primitive? What if they don't want our help? What if they are already running dry of resources themselves?”

              “Mankind has been watching this galaxy for a long time. We know that resources are plentiful based on the signals the galaxy sends out indicating a strong presence of newer planets and stars.”             

              “What if the races of that galaxy are not happy with our intrusion? You think they will just sit back and let us waltz in?”

              General Vaas knew what almost everyone else didn't know. He knew that there was no advanced civilized life in the Overlapping Galaxies. No spacefaring race existed in the Overlapping Galaxies that could go between solar systems. Humans had been watching it for a very very long time. Mankind had developed some powerful technologies that would bring a lot of fear to the galaxy if they knew about them.

              “We have sent faster than light messages to this galaxy and waited for a response. No signals have been return-”

              “What if they are scared? What have you told them?”

              “We are talking about the extinction of our galaxy. We have non-renewable energy sources, then we have renewable. The renewable resources will not last through the population growth. At best we can stay alive for several millennium if we make max use of our resources but after that we will need a new plan. We will go to the new galaxy and start with great regulations on how to use energy. We will prevail.”

              “What if there are other races? What then?”

              “We make them listen to our problems and make them see our situation,” said General Vaas.

              “And if they don't like it?”

              “Then we die.”

Chapter 9

Contact

              Captain Steele was sleeping soundly until he started to hear creaking sounds from the metal of the ship. He ignored it at first but then heard some more odd sounds. He decided that he'd ignore that until he heard what sounded like scratches on the hull. He got out of bed and moved toward the bridge. When he got to the bridge he checked the readouts and they said everything was okay. Having a gut feeling something was off he grabbed the pistol that he kept near the bridge and made a walk through of the entire ship. It wasn't long before Jamie found out what he was doing.

              “John, what are you doing?”

              “There is something scratching the hull of the ship. How do you not hear it?”

              “We are moving faster than light can travel, and we are out in intergalactic space. Nothing can exist out in this environment without some kind of containment suit. Even then, we are traveling faster than light so only a ship would be able to catch up to us and I have detected nothing.”

              “You make a good point-” Captain Steele stopped mid sentence. “There! You hear it?”

              “I hear nothing and the ship's sensors are picking nothing up.”

              “What if it's like one of those creatures we found back on that large object weeks ago?”

              “Unlikely. We have adapted our scanners to pick up everything they were are able to scan. There is nothing out here John.”

              Captain Steele proceeded to walk through the ship looking and listening for anything odd. He kept hearing the scratching sound. He followed it and ended back toward the bridge. He looked out the bridge's window and saw nothing. He continued to walk the ship listening for the sounds. He didn't want to stop the ship for a space walk around the ship because if something was out there traveling at speeds faster than light then he clearly wasn't at the advantage to begin and he was at an even lesser advantage if he slows the ship down. As he was headed back to the cargo bay he heard a very loud sound that caused him to fall to his knees and place his hands over his ears. The sound went on for several seconds.

              “Jamie, what is that sound?”

              “Unknown.”

              “Slow the ship down. I am going for a space walk.”

              “You can't do a space walk with the ship moving as fast as it is,” Jamie said.

              “That's why you slow it down so that it goes as fast as it can while I do a space walk.”

              Jamie started to object.

              “Not open for discussion bot.”

              Jamie sighed.

              “Okay, but be careful John.”

              Captain Steele grabbed his DSSM suit and put it on, grabbed his rifle and got ready for a space walk down the side of his ship at half the speed of light. He would be traveling at 335,612,181 miles per hour with no ship to contain him. If the ship were to take a sudden change of course, no matter how small, he would be killed. Any sudden change would add unequal force on his body and will tear it apart. The DSSM will keep him alive as long as no sudden and abrupt moves were made.

              The ship was designed so that when it was traveling at extreme speeds the ship would create a small invisible “bubble” around the ship in case work needed to be done while moving. This “bubble” is created so that the ship can fly smoother. It worked similar to the way a submarine creates a bubble around a torpedo so that the torpedo flies smoother without having to worry about any currents in the water knocking it off course. It's the same for a space ship to protect it from any unknown but weak gravity fields or miscellaneous objects.  As long as he stays close to the ship the “bubble effect” around it will keep him safe.

              Captain Steele wasn't quite sure how the effect was made other than it had to do with the ship's movement and a certain piece of equipment that generated it. He just knew that if he kept close enough to the ship he would stay within that bubble. The bubble wasn't fail proof however. Thousands of people have been killed because the ship made a small movement and the bubble either collapsed or shifted enough so that part of a person was on the outside of the bubble and that part was vaporized. Even inside the bubble, the effects of the speed that the ship is traveling at is still present, along with the artificial gravity the ship generates. The person on the outside of the ship is still subject to all the laws of physics that would normally be there just significantly less so.

              Most people think that outside a planet's atmosphere laws regarding things like wind would change because there is no atmosphere so you would not be pushed around by air going around the ship. That is true at slower speeds, but once you reach a tenth of the speed of light things change. As you fly by dark matter at speeds of one tenth of the speed of light physics themselves seem to operate differently. Aerodynamics become a real thing in vacuum because of dark matter and dark energy. It is known as Dark Dynamics. Dark dynamics is much more deadly because of the unknown and volatile nature of dark matter. Scientists still have a hard time of understanding dark matter, 2,000 years after its discovery.

              No race has ever figured it out, and according to Jamie, not even the ones that Captain Steele killed on the object. Dark matter will always be hard to comprehend. Until recently it wasn't added as its own element on the periodic table of elements. It started out as a whole other theoretical table of elements. Dark matter is the same, yet has different elements at the same time. The thought was it was originally one element but then scientists came to the conclusion that it was multiple elements as well. Captain Steele wasn't sure about all the research into it and just left all that stuff for the scientists to figure out.

              “Jamie open the portside airlock door. I'm leaving.”

              As Jamie opened the portside airlock door Captain Steele saw the bubble effect. He noticed it had a low clearance.

              “Jamie check the bubble effect. It seems too close to the ship. It will be just above my head.”

              “John, something seems to be affecting it. I will look into it but I recommend we stop the ship before proceeding.”

              “Negative. I don't know that this thing is, but I don't want to stop the ship if its hostile.”

              “Stepping outside is suicide John. It will result in your death if you must fight it,” Jamie said.

              “I killed that creature that's hanging above my bed. I think I can handle this.”

              Captain Steele walked outside the ship and down a small curved path down the side of the ship. The path was designed for easy access to the outside of the ship and made it so that no jumping or large steps were needed to access the outside of the ship. Once Captain Steele reached the bottom of the ramp he stepped sideways and was walking on the side of the ship. He had his rifle sighted at the high ready and ready to engage any threats. He walked down the portside of the ship before finding some scratches deep into the hull. He estimated that they must have been several inches deep. There were 5 scratches and the metal around the outside of them were red hot.

              Captain Steele continued to move around the portside of the ship finding more. He then went to the underside of the ship and found some more markings.

              “We definitely have a visitor Jamie. Either that or we hit a flock of space ducks with claws.”

              Captain Steele went around to the starboard side and found some more marks. He then went around to the top side of the ship. As he was coming around he saw an extremely massive creature that was at least five miles thick and 75 miles long. It had four “legs” and reminded him of a very large Chinese dragon. The face of the creature was very similar to a cat's face, with teeth at least a mile long, with eyes the size of his ship and as dark as night itself, glowing with black light that somehow stood out from the darkness of space, with a very long tongue that was sliced down the middle about halfway down it. It had two “arms” about a mile down it's body from its head and that were probably 7,000 feet thick.

              This creature was over 1,000 times the size of his ship.

              Captain Steele stood there in awe as the creature turned it's face to him. He couldn't move. No living creature this size has ever been recorded. Nothing this size has ever been able to get into space or even fly. The thing was doing so at speeds faster than light. He lowered his gun knowing that nothing could bring this creature down. He knew the last fight was just below his limits, and if this thing can survive so far out into intergalactic space without a ship, then it was over for him. He looked the thing into its eye.

              The creature brought his eye closer to Captain Steele. The creature then turned it's head toward him as Captain Steele looked down its throat. Captain Steele felt a sense of fear overcome him. He stared at this thing and it pulled its head back and opened its mouth. The creature roared again causing him to drop to his knees and to cover his ears. The DSSM helped block some of the sound but it was still loud. The creature brought its head in fast with its mouth open and stopped just short of him. The creature looked Captain Steel in the eye, then tilted its head, then shot straight up into the air then flung itself forward in a flash of light. It then came back down towards the ship and closed in on him. It stopped just short of him again before shrinking to only 12 feet long and 5 feet thick.

              It then opened it's mouth.

              “Captain Steele, let's talk.”

              Captain Steele stood in amazement. He didn't understand.

              “Let's go into your ship. Let's talk.”

              Captain Steele stood there confused. How did it know English? How did it know his name? How did it find him out here, about a decade away from the Milky Way at speeds traveling faster than light?

              “Captain Steele, let us go into your ship and talk. I mean you no harm. We must talk but not out here.”

              Captain Steele stood there and the creature opened his mouth to talk.

              “We will not talk here. I mean you no harm. If I wanted to kill you I could have already done so, and I can do so at any moment but I choose to talk. Let's talk.”

              Captain Steele walked back toward the entrance to the ship. As he entered the outer door of the  ship's airlock the creature shrunk itself down to a human size.

              “Open the door Jamie. We got a guest.”

              “You risk the mission by bringing it in here. It could contaminate the entire ship with some-”

              “It could have killed us by now, and can still kill us if it wanted to. Whats the point in trying to fight it or run from it? Let us in, if it decides to kill us then its not like we have much of a choice in the matter.”

              Captain Steele waited for several minutes before saying, “Jamie, did you not see the size of this thing? You think pissing it off will make it leave us alone? It wanted to talk inside, so let us inside so as not to piss off the giant space worm.”

              After several minutes the door opened up.

              “Women AI's... they are
not
suppose to be emotional...” Captain Steele muttered under his breath as he walked into the door.

              “I heard that John,” Jamie replied.

              Captain Steele entered the ship and started to take his DSSM suit off.

              “Let's go to the lounge and talk if your okay with that,” Captain Steele suggested.

              “I am conformable where ever you are,” replied the creature.

              Captain Steele walked to the lounge as the creature floating behind him. He sat down and he said, “Okay, let's talk.”

              The creature looked around the room and said, “I will continue to float for now.”

              “There is much to talk about Captain,” the creature said.

              “Let's start with your name,” replied Captain Steele.

              “I do not have a name.”

              “Then what am I to call you?”

              “Nothing. Do not call me anything for now.”

              “Okay, a monologue it is. Please, continue,” Captain Steele said.

              “First off, no one has made it as far as you have Captain, so, congratulations.”

              The creature floated there for several seconds not saying anything before Captain Steele spoke.

              “How are you floating?”

              “It is simple really. I was born with the ability.”

              “That's fricken sick. I'm sorry, continue with what you were saying,” Captain Steele said.

              “Second, I'm sure you may want to know how it is I know your language and your name.”

              “Yeah, that'd be nice. Also, what do you mean no one has made it as far? As far as I was aware no one else has even tried.”