Shadows in the Rift Part III
04 Apr 2017Jellicoe
I dropped out of Frame Shift and opened the throttle, obsessively checking my scanner until I was certain our exit cloud had collapsed and I had put an appreciable distance between us and it. The chances of there even being anyone to follow us out here, so close to the edge of the galaxy were vanishingly small, but old habits are hard to set aside and our encounter with Commander Orson had persuaded me not to take any chances. I left the bridge regretting I had not had the time to recruit at least one more watch to replace the naval personnel I had lost in Solati and joined the others in the briefing room.I found Vik, Mira and Harry Soames sat around the rooms central table above which was a holographic map of the inner system. In the briefing officers chair was Claude, I had expected his long, sharp face to be wearing its customary look of self satisfaction at having cracked the code but instead his visage was a picture of confused doubt as he still pored over his terminal.
"You've got it then?" I asked.
"Yes I think so." He replied dubiously.
"And?"
"Assuming I've got it right, and I can't see how I can be wrong on this I've run the decryption a dozen times."
"What's the problem then?" I pressed.
"The problem is that if I'm right it means that the beacon is broadcasting in a code that's several decades old."
"They're using an old code to confuse people?" Mira asked uncertainly.
"It doesn't work like that." Claude said tetchily. "Once a code is broken once it's useless, someone uploads it to the grid and anyone can read it, that code hasn't been used in over twenty years, they might as well have broadcast it in clear it took the computer seconds to decode it, the other two hours was me checking, rechecking and trying to find another explanation."
"So the beacon's older than we thought, so what?" I wished Claude would get to the point.
"Because it's impossible." Claude said firmly "You remember what it was like before Frame Shift technology, days to make a single jump, maximum range less than twenty light years, how long would it take to get out here? Five years? Ten? and the same back, all in total secrecy with not one leak in over twenty years?"
"Looks like they managed it though, unless you have anything on it."
"No, there's nothing on the grid, not even conspiracy theories because it's just too ridiculous."
"We can worry about that later." I said my becoming impatient. ""What did the transmission say?"
"Okay, so if this is right..."
"Just spit it out man!" I half yelled in frustration."
"It looks like a location, a planet and a set of coordinates."
"Any mention of what's down there?"
"Nothing. You should have the full text on your console so see for yourselves." I looked down at my display, read the transcript and my heart skipped a beat, one of the words leaping from the screen, a word an old and trusted friend had told me to be on the watch for, the word was 'dynasty.'
"Anything on scanners?" I asked Claude as we closed on the coordinates.
"Nothing, no transmissions either. I don't like it."
"Neither do I, especially given how well this has been kept secret. How far out are we?"
"Just under fifteen kliks."
"That's withinn tele-presence range then." I thought aloud. "Mira take the fighter in, make a high altitude pass and if it's clear a low level recce."
"Roger that Commander, launching now." Mira replied and I heard the clanking hydraulics of the fighter bay opening followed by the roar of the Taipan's engines as Mira gunned them for the target.
"Something spooked you about the text of that transmission." The ever perceptive Claude asked. "Would you mind sharing what it was?"
"A message from Admiral Craddock that was passed to me in Nanomam was to look out for two words, one of them was 'dynasty' the only message he had for me, one so secret it could only be passed on in person by a trusted contact and it was two words, and now we find one of them in a coms signal way out in the Formidine Rift."
"What the hell is going on here?" Claude asked.
"Hopfully we're about to find out."
"I've got eyeball Commander." Mira's voice broke in. "There's definitely something down there. Too small for a port but it looks like structures and maybe a landing pad. I'm too high to see any detail, going in for a closer look, no signs of life so far."
"Copy that Mira, keep your eyes skinned for any threats." I replied, Vik looking at me with a suppressed grin as I realised I was calling Mira by her name rather than he call sign.
"Will do Commander." Mira replied, then a long pause. "Okay there's buildings, definitely human, look like those prefabricated accommodation and agri huts. Power's still on, no sign of life at all. Can't see any damage to the buildings, hard to be sure from here though."
"Copy that Rogue Leader, get back to the ship." I ordered, this time remembering correct protocol to Vik's supressed amusement. "I need a closer look, I'm going to put us down and go in in the buggy."
"Is that wise?" Vik asked.
"It's a risk but there may be records, logs or something that gives us a clue to what happened here, and Mira didn't see any sign of danger."
"A lot you don't see from up there though."
"So be ready for a fast take off I replied with a grin.
I drove the kilometre from our landing site with considerable caution keeping coms with the ship open all the way. The settlement itself was entirely unremarkable, like one of thousands of temporary bases awaiting either replacement with more permanent structures or demolition having served their purpose right across the bubble, except this one was over ten thousand light years away from the bubble.
"There's tyre tracks." I relayed what I saw back to the ship. "Hard to tell in a vacuum but they look recent." I drove down the settlements main street. "No sign of anything, no life, no damage. Looks like it could have been put up yesterday." I turned a corner looking for the generator. "Found a data point that's still active, downloading it direct to the ship."
"Got it." Claude's voice came back. "Firmware by the looks of it, I'll go through it when we have time. Look for any live coms logs, your scanner should pick them up if there are any, they'll give us a much better idea of what happened here."
I made a complete circuit of the site. I am a curious man and I have seen a lot of strange things in this galaxy, I have stood in the ruins of a long dead alien city holding a still glowing relic of a once mighty civilisation now turned to dust in a past ancient beyond imagining, I have seen the so called 'barnacles' in the Pleiades, life, apparently miraculously existing in hard vacuum and I have examined the wreckage of strange spaceships like no vessel ever built by human hands, yet none of them felt so eerie or uncomfortable as this collection of instantly recognisable buildings lying abandoned and forgotten so far from home. Humans are strange creatures, show us the unknown and we will set out to meet it head on with bravery and fortitude, but show us a mingling of the unknown and the familiar, where the familiar is out of place, especially if it has succumbed to the unknown and even the bravest of us will feel the tingle of fear rising in their guts.
"I've got some." I relayed to Claude. "Five or six showing, do I scan them?"
"Yes, exactly the same as a data point."
"Roger that." I turned the SRV towards the first signal, pulled up and activated my scanner. "Downloading it to you again."
"Got it." Claude confirmed, then in a shocked, disbelieving tone. "Mon Dieu!"
"What?" I replied alarmed.
"Nothing." Claude replied unconvincingly. "Just spooked myself. The data needs cleaning up before it's any use anyway."
"Alright, I'll scan the others and get back, there's something about this place that gives me the creeps."
My drive back was made with considerably less caution and a great deal more speed than the outward trip and it was with immense relief that I pulled in under the Warspite's reassuring bulk and felt the magnetic clamps pull my buggy back into the vehicle bay. I headed straight to find Claude and sure enough he was in his lab, feverishly working on several terminals, so engrossed he did not even notice my arrival.
"What have you got?" I asked.
"Not much yet the computer's still cleaning up the data packets but it looks like something bad happened here. The main thing I've got so far though is the date, it ties in with that beacons code, this base has been here for over thirty years."