The Beacon
16 Aug 2020Sally Forth
If you haven't done so, please read Sally's story from the start before getting stuck into this episode!Supercruise blurs into realspace. I throttle the ship to a halt and stare at the strange thing a few kilometres away. We’ve explored ruins of the Guardian civilisation before, but this is something new. They call it a Guardian Beacon.
“Not very glowy, is it, you guys?” I grin and glance up at the tortoiseshell cat sitting on the ceiling above me. Annie glances at the thing out of the canopy and begins to groom her front paws.
“That good, huh?”
Gabby is even less impressed, remaining curled up in my lap. I busy myself with the weapon settings, locking the turret lasers to fire forward and deactivating the multi-cannons. No point wasting ammo. Satisfied all is ready, I throttle the ship towards the alien thing ahead.
I look around the cockpit with a glow of satisfaction. Despite the mental backflips on the first long trip out, it made enough lucre to upgrade from the dear little Cobra. Felis Astralis, a Krait Mk 2. I even forked out for the extraneous mod kit and a lime green paint scheme.
The beacon changes as we approach. The three protruding arms at one end of the structure slowly drift outwards.
"Okay...we zap these things and get a prize!"
Jetting sideways until we’re was facing the nearest arm, the glowing sphere embedded therein. A few seconds of laserfire and a writhing beam of energy, not unlike lightning, connects the dismembered arm to the rest of the device. A message flickers up on the HUD. A timer? No-one mentioned a timer….ah sod it. Can’t be any worse than those pylons at the ground sites, and there’s no vicious, ancient, floating shooty things to contend with either.
The second arm lights up its writhing beam. Plenty of time left, but I’ve become disorientated; as I try to work out where the last arm is, I gun the ship straight through one of those energy streams. Arcs of light lash through the cockpit, the displays flicker and then go blank. Throwing my arms up instinctively is of no help at all as an arc hits me and then -
Crackle, flicker. Darkness, a moment of panic - but my prosthetic eyes slowly come back online. The ship is drifting through space. The displays flash intermittently, and won’t respond.
My head hurts. I lean forward and fumble under the blinking consoles until I find a recessed lever; the manual reboot switch. Everything goes dark, and I wait, heart in my mouth...and then the COVAS kicks in, reporting the restart is under way. The Krait comes back online. Everything seems normal. I’m maybe ten k from the beacon now.
“Huh, good job you guys aren’t….actually….real….”
Gabby is gone from my lap; Annie isn’t above me any more. Wrenching myself from the pilot’s chair, I spin and see two motionless bundles floating towards the back of the cockpit.
“Shit!”
My throat constricts as I make my way over to the two cats, gathering them carefully in my arms. They do not react to my touch. Carefully now. To my cabin, where I draw the zero-g webbing over the bed, awkward with one hand. Place the inert forms under the webbing.
Choking back tears, I swing out of the doorway in search of Mack. Cargo hold is usually the best bet, and sure enough, a limp, black-furred form is tumbling slowly in the empty bay. Retrieve him and stow him next to the others. Crumple to my knees, wringing my hands in despair.
I have never been able to grieve for my murdered family. Yet here I am, besides myself in anguish over three creatures which are apparently nothing more than products of an injured mind. What kind of person does that make me? They're not real so how can they be dead? Unless my mind just thinks they're dead. But I don't want them dead. Ah fuckfuckfuckfuck.
I’m not thinking rationally. Ha! Maybe the energy discharge from the beacon has rattled my brain. I need to. Need to. Need to. Do something. Somethiiiiiing….
There is a planet nearby. Scrambling back to the cockpit, I send the ship hurtling towards the icy orb, hardly aware of the transition from orbital cruise, to glide. The rumpled surface rushes towards me; the landing gear deploys and Felis Astralis skids to a halt.
Back to my cabin, trying not to look at the cats. Fumble under the bed for the Emergency Bottle. What's inside is a mixture of gin, opiates and honey. A good swig and I feel the pink cotton wool start to wrap itself around my head. Carefully divest myself of the RemLok and manage to reach the bed before floppiness occurs.
I am awoken by the sensation of something prodding my chest. One hand manages to turn on the lights. I crank open an eyelid and gaze with annoyance at the black cat patiently kneading at the skin of my sternum.
"Mack, you little shit, what are you -"
There's one of those weird moments of transition from half-asleep to suddenly really awake.
"Mack! You're okay! You're - alive!" I cuddle him up to my face; there's a muffled meow of protest. Off to one side, Annie is there, golden eyes gazing at me calmly. Gabby is sat with her front paws folded under. I gently let Mack go and he walks away trying to be dignified.
I simply sit there, tangled up the sheet and stare at them. What just happened? I'm still dazed, but the sense of relief is overwhelming. With a big sigh, I lie back down and turn off the lights, rolling over and glancing at the cats before I close my eyes.
And freeze, heart skipping a beat.
What the hell?
Although it's dark, I can see exactly where the cats are because they are each surrounded by a faint, pale blue aura. My body spasms; the movement causes Gabby to open her eyes briefly and they too, are glowing.
It's my prosthetics, obviously. Damaged by the energy discharge. And I know that's so much bullshit. Roll over. Get some kip. Things will make sense after some more sleep...
Things seem...heh...normal. Waking up on an uninhabited, barren planet with three hallucinatory cats. Just another day for me. Out of bed. Shower. Big mug of black coffee. Why am I here? Oh yeah. That alien machine up in space. The RemLok clicks shut around me, and I search for a hairband to tie back my dreads. As I stretch the band with my fingers, it snaps and falls to floor. Almost immediately, Annie pounces on it and starts chasing it across the cabin. Fairly normal cat behaviour...if these were normal cats. Prior to this I've never witnessed them interacting with anything other than each other or myself. I sit heavily on the edge of the bed and watch.
The thing is, ninety-nine percent of the time, they act like cats. In other words, sleeping, play-fighting or being apathetic. Yet there's moments where they seem to have more going on in their heads than they should, like when Mack guided me to that box in my kitbag. I didn't know it was there. How could he have?
"Come on, woman. Get your ass in gear."
The Krait comes to life and hurtles up towards the sky. The Beacon beckons once more.
I'm cautious this time....!
And am rewarded with an object that glows so brightly that I cannot define its shape. The ship inches towards it, cargo scoop lowered, the pale blue glow drowning out everything else. The pale blue glow. The same glow that surrounded the cats last night.
Whoa.
I have to get away from here. It would be nice to go do something normal and tedious, instead of having what is left of my sanity fucked over by million-year old alien technology. But I have seen the hybrid ship-launched fighters that Ram Tah has developed, and I want one. The luminous artefact that now sits in the hold is essential to obtaining the designs for those ships. But before leaving, I go through the motions of activating the beacon once more...after all, they say you should always have a spare key...