Dark Deeds and Black Flights - Part IX
08 Oct 2017Jellicoe
HIP 19026, Planet B 1 C"About to enter orbital flight, have you got the ground coordinates?" Jellicoe asked, the planet looming large in the Resolution's canopy.
"Yes." Claude Marsaud his first officer replied. "They're in the navcom." Jellicoe glanced at his navigation panel, checked his HUD and adjusted course.
"You'd think in this day and age the navcom'd be able to guide us in." Jellicoe muttered correcting his course again.
"Says the man who complains about machines taking all the skill out of flying." Claude replied grinning. "We're not far out, just watch we don't ..."
"What the!" Jellicoe's shocked exclamation cut him off. Claude looked up and involuntarily gasped, the sight too impossible to take in, a spiralling green scar etched into the planets surface clearly visible even at a hundred kilometres out.
"I presume that's it." Jellicoe said recovering his composure. "Open a link to Craddock as soon as we're out of glide.
"Stannis M'boy how does it look?" Craddock's concerned voice came through as they dropped from glide. Jellicoe tried to find words to describe something beyond his understanding, beyond even his imaginings, the site was enshrouded by a faint green haze, the structure itself had an almost luminescent quality. The 'thing' was a challenge even to catergorise, certainly not a natural formation but not manufactured structures either, the word that Jellicoe kept coming back to was organic, could this thing actually be alive in hard vacuum? Biologists had once scoffed at the idea but the 'barnacles' were classed as organic, what kind of intelligence could create such a thing?
"No threats yet as far as I can see, it's big, very big at least the size of a large spaceport."
"Any signs of life?" Craddock asked.
"Not yet, no ships or anything, it looks, I don't know, if it didn't sound so absurd I'd say it looked 'dead'. There's a big central structure with some open ground around it, I'm going to try and put us down there."
The Resolution eased passed rows of what looked like bone growing up out of the ground like the ribs of some monstrous serpent, then something Jellicoe could only describe as like a skull, a vast decaying insectoid skull.
"Do you want a visual feed?" Jellicoe asked.
"No, the signal's too big to hide it'd risk us being compromised."
"Alright I'm recording everything anyway. There's something down there, very faint flashes of light by some of the structures."
"Be careful Stannis we have no idea what we're dealing with here." Craddock cautioned.
"Going in closer." Jellicoe replied completely ignoring him. "Definitely movement around ground level and close in to some of the structures." The Resolution was close to surface level now, her huge landing struts deployed. "Sensors are picking up some kind of organic structure and some unknown resin."
"Engines disengaged." The computer announced as the ship touched down and settled.
"Picking up multiple contacts." Vik said from tactical. "Computer's calling them Scavengers, they're moving but not registering as a threat."
"Moving?" Jellicoe asked.
"Yes, seem to be ignoring us so far, not picking up any reds at all."
"That could just be because the scanners have no idea what they're looking for." Claude put in.
"Only one way to find out." Jellicoe said with a grin. "Vehicle bay have a buggy ready for immediate deployment."
From the SRV the green tinted haze was even more pronounced, as was the vague luminescence of the central structure, even the ground appeared to sparkle in places as though liquid silver had been strewn across it, steam rose from a small shell like feature not far from the ship and tiny orange lights flickered up ahead, seemingly moving."
"The organic structure looks like one of those spires we get at the barnacles." Jellicoe reported. "That's as much as the scan gives me and I'm not going to start shooting anything. "I'm picking up three of these 'Scavengers' three hundred metres up ahead, going in for a closer look."
"Proceed with extreme caution." Craddock's voice broke in.
"They've ignored me so far." Jellicoe replied gunning the engine. "They're flying, well skimming the ground, maybe a couple of metres up. Interesting - they're not showing up at all on the scanner, whatever they are they're not metallic , are they alive?" He broke off, the thought seemed preposterous, but then all of this would have seemed so only a few hours ago. "There's another cluster of them by the main structure, I'm going for a look." He turned the buggy, seeing the Resolution's reassuring bulk to his left, the familiar ship looking oddly alien and out of place in this strange and bizarre landscape. "This is very odd, the Scavenger's are clustered around a patch of the structure, there are yellow beams coming out of their fronts almost as though they're feeding off it."
"Anything on the scanner for the structure?" Claude asked.
"It's not metallic, though I am getting metal traces from inside it. It's not solid, I've got a lot of contacts from inside, more of these Scavenger things but others as well, the computer's struggling to identify them but some kind of resin and biological matter, I'm going to see if I can find a way in."
"Pull back Stannis, that's an order." Craddock broke in. "We need to put a full scientific team down there before we go trampling all over the place."
"Sorry old boy." Jellicoe replied in his most irritating drawl. "But as somebody told me recently I'm not an officer anymore." He swung the SRV round, keeping close to the side of the huge central structure, more Scavengers again seemingly oblivious to this human interloper continued with whatever they were doing. "Found what looks like an entrance. There's some kind of door by the looks." He drove closer. "It's shut and I can't see anything that might open it. Hold on the computer's recognising an uplink point."
"Uplink point?" Vik asked confused." We don't even know what that thing is, how can it have a computer uplink?"
"At a guess the computer's found a way to extract data from the material." Claude replied thinking hard. "Which means there's data to extract beyond scan information, we're dealing with intelligent life here," He exchanged a long glance with Vik.
"Claude look through the data packet and see if you can work out a way to get in there." Jellicoe's voice broke the tension on the bridge. Claude looked at the mass of information scrolling up his display, his mouth falling open.
"Skipper this is incredible, that thing has data stored in it, retrievable data that we've been able to access, this means..."
"Save it for later Claude just find me a way in."
Claude feverishly worked his console, when it came to information and computers he was a master. "It's a similar composition to these artefacts and probes we've been finding in space, the tech looks a match. No guarantees but see if it reacts to the one in the hold."
"Right, tell Saunders to get it ready to stick in the buggy."
The buggy loaded Jellicoe headed cautiously back towards the 'door', the Scavengers still flitted about continuing to ignore the alien intruder . The central structure loomed above, its apparent glow accentuated by the gathering twilight.
"Approaching the structure." Jellicoe reported for Craddock's benefit. "Didn't notice that before, parts of the outside look damaged."
"What do you mean 'damaged'?" Craddock asked.
"Hard to explain." Jellicoe replied trying to put into words what he was seeing. "The only way I can describe it is like the stem of a plant with a chunk taken out of it but the Scavengers are clustered around it feeding."
"The structure is their food source?" Craddock asked.
"Are you sure they're feeding?" Claude put in. "Could they be repairing it?"
"Hard to tell." Jellicoe replied. "Heading to the entrance. The door's opening, looks like you were right Claude, going in." The lights and holo-displays in the drivers cab flickered, warning messages flashed and the com link momentarily cut.
"Interference detected." The computer announced. The systems did not go down but they were struggling with something, the holo-displays flickering and distorting as they tried to compensate.
"Skipper are you okay? Come in please." Claude's worried voice came through the restored come link.
"I'm alright." Jellicoe replied. "Something's interfering with the systems but everything's still functional. I'm inside, some sort of tunnel or corridor, it's huge. More Scavengers but they're still ignoring me, a weird mushroom thing growing out of the floor like a giant spore or something and some kind of cabling running along the walls."
"Cabling?" Craddock asked.
"Don't know how else to describe it, god only knows what it's made of, it's translucent, glowing, almost like it's alive but it looks like some kind of power conduit. Proceeding up the tunnel, Scavengers still ignoring me. It's opening out up ahead, looks like some kind of central chamber.... My God!" He broke off as he emerged from the comparative gloom of the tunnel into a huge vaulted central space that was at the same time mysterious, sinister, utterly alien and genuinely breathtaking. "This must be the main chamber." Jellicoe resumed in a genuinely awestruck voice. "It's vast, must be hundreds of feet high, Scavengers all over the place, the roof looks alive, can't see clearly enough but its covered in something, there's definitely a power source though, and something in the middle, the scanner recognises it as a device but an unknown one, it is active though. I think I've seen enough, I'm going to grab some samples and head back."