Phoenix 5

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Maybe not the scream of the voice, but the terror on the face…that’s louder than anything I’ve ever heard.” Nell Parker sighed. “End transmission.” The holo recording in front of her cut off, the file compressed, the debrief was ready to make the 800-million-mile journey to Earth. She sat back in her chair and stared at the steel bulkhead above her. Normally well illuminated, the bridge was dark as the reserve power only kept essential systems powered on, like artificial gravity, communications, oxygen, and power in the med bay. Technicians worked furiously to repair the power core within the vessel. She turned and looked out the window. The violent magnetic storm looked magnificent. A brilliant swirl of purples, pinks, intertwined with black, blue, and gray. White flashes pulsed from the center. The storm’s diameter was almost two miles. They had not yet been able to confirm how deep the storm was; none of the probes or drones had returned or been able to get a signal through the storm. Members of the crew had remained at the windows in awe for quite some time. It could put one in a trance. How such destructive power could be wrapped in such immense beauty, Nell would never know.

She saw the wreckage of the drone dock floating about. Explosions in space are a curious phenomenon. Within the pressurized vessel, the flames would start, then as soon as the hull was breached the flames would extinguish and all would go silent. Some called it peaceful. Nell didn’t think so. There’s nothing peaceful about being dragged into the abyss of space, no control of your body, floating off into nothing. A failure in the suit would be immediate death. Her heart sank. She could no longer see the body of her colleague, Dr. Reese Adkins, floating in the debris. They had not been able to recover his body after the blast. His body drifted into the storm and all contact with him was lost. If she had any consolation, it was that Reese died quickly, but she saw the fright on his face, his realization of what was happening. The memory continued to play on repeat in her mind.

The Phoenix 5 had been sent to investigate the storm as it made its way through the solar system. An outpost near Neptune had been completely destroyed by the storm. Now the storm had neared Saturn and was picked up by the United Republic of the America’s base on the moon Titan. They were preparing for full evacuation. Phoenix 5, a research vessel, was one of the fastest ships on the planet. It had been fitted with a new Einstein gravity engine. The engine could reverse the magnetic fields surrounding the vessel and reduce the strength of the gravity around it. With the gravitational fields reduced, they could reduce the amount of time required to reach destinations in space. A year ago, it would have taken a spacecraft six to eight years to reach Saturn. Phoenix 5 made the journey in two days. Nell heard a ping on her console. Her transmission had been sent.

“Outstanding, isn’t it?” came a voice behind Nell. It was Captain Percy Collins. “You see the pictures and holo images of these things…but they really do no justice to seeing them for yourself. The magnitude of them.” The Captain looked at Nell and could see she had no interest in the storm right now. “I’m sorry about Reese. Sanchez is trying to get a drone online so we can at least try to bring his body back.”

Nell dropped her head and nodded. “Thank you. I know his family would appreciate that.”

Collins put his hand on Nell’s shoulder. “They’re not the only ones. I know you two had something special.”

“We were just colleagues, sir.” Nell responded shyly.

“Sure. And we’re flying a giant ice cream shuttle.” The captain chuckled quietly.

Nell smiled and nodded to Collins. “He was…truly spectacular. At least he died doing what he loved.”

The power surged back to life, the bridge illuminating against the black backdrop of space. The crew cheered as all systems came online.

“Sir,” called Commander Riley Walker, “We have secured the rest of the research team from the airlock. The damaged section of the ship has been sealed off.”

“Is everyone okay?” asked the captain.

“Seems so. A bit shaken, sir, but no physical injuries. They’re being taken to med bay now to get checked out.”

“Good.” The captain sighed in relief. “Dr. Parker, any idea what caused the explosion?”

“It was the power outage, sir,” Nell took a deep breath, controlling her emotions. “One of the research drones was returning when we lost power. A flare of energy from the storm made contact with the hull of the Phoenix, that caused all systems to short out and shut off. With the power loss, we could no longer remotely steer the drone. Dr. Adkins secured the research team in the airlock before impact. He remained in the dock. I was able to capture the feed from his helmet camera and he detailed the last few moments before…” She paused. She could see his face again. He saw the vessel coming. The fear. Then the impact. The blast ripped through the protective shell of his suit. The camera caught his final moments. She will never be able to forget his face. The sheer panic and terror, and then she could see his soul depart from the body, his face going blank as he stopped breathing. She closed her eyes and began to cry. “I’m sorry, sir.” She took several very deep breaths and wiped the tears on her sleeve. “Dr. Reese secured the team to ensure their safety before he died. He mentioned that the drone was the only one to return from the storm so far and that it had footage of the inside of the cloud. We needed to salvage what we could if the drone survived. We lost contact with him once he entered the storm. His suit was damaged…and his oxygen had been leaking out. He lost consciousness before the comms failed.” Another deep breath.

“Okay, Dr. Parker. That’s good for now. Commander Walker, get together with Ensign Sanchez and see if we can also bring the remainder of that drone onboard. We can get any of the technicians to try and extract any data from it.”

“I can do it, sir,” Nell spoke up, sniffling. “I’ll work on reassembling the footage.”

“Nell,” responded the captain, “take some time. We can get someone else to look into it.”

“Sir, this would be best. Let me do this…and then I’ll take some time.”

The captain looked at her, “No you won’t,” he smiled. “Very well. Commander Walker, get the remnants of the drone to Dr. Parker in the laboratory.”

“Aye, sir.” Commander Walker stood and exited the bridge.

The laboratory onboard was top of the line. All the equipment was brand new, always replaced when a more advanced version of anything came out. Nell had lined up all the equipment she would be needing to extract any data from the neural core of the drone. She tested the neural reader on a nearby drone and got a strong signal – the equipment was functioning properly. Nell didn’t know what to do while she waited for news of the drone. She always became nervous when she didn’t know what to do. She looked in some cabinets and found some cleaning supplies and began to clean the laboratory. After nearly an hour of cleaning, Ensign Diego Sanchez led two enlisted men into the lab with crates. Within them were the remnants of the drone. Nell began to dig around and look at the scraps. She grabbed what remained of the front of the drone, to see if the backup drive of the holocam had any data on it, as well as the neural core.

“The neural core seems to be intact. That’s a good sign.” Nell delicately sat the exposed core on the table. She wiped it gingerly with a cloth to get off what residue she could from the blast as well as damage from the storm. Once she cleared off what she could, she took the neural reader from the table and began to run it along the data points on the core. “All the files are loading without issue.” She looked to the computer monitor and watched as the computer began to sort the data from the neural core. The backup drive on the holocam was clear, no data. “Hmm. All the data must be in the core.” The computer pinged. Data Processed. Images available, read the monitor. Nell was surprised everything was intact. She raised her wrist communicator and spoke. “Lab to Captain Collins, data retrieved.”

“On my way,” came the response. The captain hustled to the lower decks to the laboratory. The doors swooshed open, and he entered, out of breath. “We have images from within the storm?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll go ahead and commence playback.” Nell entered a command on the computer. A table near the center of the room came to life. “Broadcast to holodeck Lab1,” Nell commanded. The computer responded. The lights in the lab dimmed and the holographic video began to run.

They saw a lot of static and video interference.

“This must be as the drone was passing through the cloud,” observed Captain Collins. “I imagine the whole video will be….” He was cut short as the video became clear.

The crew in the lab began to walk closer to the table in unison, stunned.

“Oh my God…” Sanchez whispered.

“Sir…is that…is that what I think that is?” Nell asked nervously.

“I think so Dr. Parker," said the captain, shocked. "That’s an unidentified ship…and it’s massive!”

* * *

Everything was blurry. And cold. So cold. The blurriness began to clear, revealing a small room. The room was dimly lit. A window was to the left. The storm shone brilliantly through. The room became clearer still. He tried to sit up but was restrained. He looked and saw beams of energy across his body holding him down on a table. He wrestled, trying to break free, but to no avail. Now the room became completely clear. Looking down at his feet, he could see the silhouette of a figure standing at the far end of the room. The table moved, it began to stand upright, bringing his feet to the floor. The figure approached in the dim light. As it approached, he could see the details of its visage. It was not human. It came closer, bright orange eyes stared not at him, but into him. It cocked its oval head, as if intrigued. No nose, no hair, just bright yellow skin. It reached out its hand, poking him with one of its four fingers. A smile came across the face, revealing a mouth of pointed teeth.

It began to speak in a language he did not know. Then, the words became known to him. Confused he looked. The creature wore a collar around its throat, lights would illuminate when it spoke. He heard the creature’s language with his ears…but he heard his language with his mind.

“I am glad you are awake,” the creature spoke.

“You’re…you’re in my head…how…how are you in my head?” he asked, beginning to panic.

“I have inserted a communications probe into the left hemisphere of your brain along your parietal lobe, allowing us to communicate. I have a probe within the speech center of my own brain as well.”

“What do you want with me?” the man asked.

“To study you.”

“Why?”

“To know how to best destroy you. You are a resilient species.” The creature leaned in closer. “And you, Doctor Reese Adkinson, will reveal to us your weakness.”