Skeltik

Chapter 1: Contact

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. The reality is, nothing in space cares if you scream.

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A soft rasp, like a blade passing over leather, whispered next to her ear. She pressed her face further into the bulkhead, knowing she wasted precious time trying to hide from the omnipotent presence on board. A soft rumble vibrated her cheek.

THE ENGINES!

They were moving! While she was being painfully toyed with, the engines were warming up. No time to hide before the end, for that's what awaited her if she didn't MOVE.

Commander Raven snapped her buckle open with a jab of her thumb, releasing the 6 point harness holding her, and kicked against the bulkhead in one smooth motion; practiced a thousand times in drills back on Centauri Station. Once free of the restraints she had full 360 range of motion and immediately checked her surroundings for signs of it.

It. What a simple word for overwhelming power. They had no word, no name for this creature yet; if it even was a creature.

Skeltik.

She turned towards the sound with a terrified start. Nothing. She had heard SOMETHING. Moving along the corridor toward the engine compartment with handholds for just that purpose, she knew she was already out of time. Whatever this thing was- Skeltik. There it was again. Maybe it wasn’t just in her head….

In your head.

Cables dangled like snakes from tree branches, as if trying to stop her from reaching her goal. Brushing them aside while frantically moving forward, she quickened her pace. She knew she had precious little time to stop the ship. If we’re moving, that can only mean the rest of her crew was dead. They would never allow something like this to happen while still holding breath in their bodies.

Bodies

The only light along the corridor was the foreboding red of emergency lighting. It helped her maintain her sight in the dark, and the dark was looking back. Commander Raven knew she was both seeing, and blind, when looking for the presence. From the beginning, every sighting of the creature conflicted with every previous account. She wasn’t sure what it looked like, or what to look for, but she knew it to be real. The carnage unleashed was proof enough of that. Her mind wandered back to the first time she saw what she knew now to be much more than a dream.

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28 Sol hours earlier

“Do you hear that?”

Lieutenant Atticus stopped work on calibrating the NAV electronic guidance module, NAV-E for short, to seriously consider her question.

“Hear what?”

Commander Raven looked at the open gangway leading back into the W.S.S. Shelby.

“I thought I heard someone laughing.” She continued to look into the hatch. She didn’t think she did, she knew she heard laughter. Not just any laughter, her mother’s laugh when her father told a joke. A naked joy that came bursting out, as if strangled by the worries of everyday life and released in a moment of pure love. Like a genie trapped in the confines of a lamp. Magic that could turn any of the endless days of struggle into something worth living for.

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Raven was part of a 4 unit family; the maximum allowable by law. Growing up in the largest bastion of human life on the east coast of what used to be the United States of America, Seven City. She knew the meaning of struggle. Her parents provided her with life, love and happiness in that order. More than a lot of people could say since Cataclysm.

That’s what historians called the eventual, predictable degradation of the planet. The sea levels rose faster than anyone ever expected, taking entire cities seemingly overnight. The first to go were the cities of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Vilyuchinsk, along with the entire Avacha Bay. Russia kept it quiet at first, no doubt assuming it to be an irregular warfare attack on their submarine base in that bay. It didn’t take long to figure out that was just the start.

For whatever reason, manufactured disaster or nature finally done with the back-and-forth yo-yo stability of the o-zone layer; the oceans started taking back entire cities. Before anyone was able to start developing a plan to save as many as possible, a global war broke out. Nobody knows who started sending out the first wave of missiles, and that is by design. Historians agreed, it didn’t matter; and would only serve to fuel generational grudges against ancestors of neighbors for misdeeds done in ignorance.

Once the bombs stopped, so too did the flooding. The whole world took a deep breath, rolled up their sleeves and decided to make a tomorrow. When all hope seemed lost for the human race, it was the world’s humanity that saved the Earth. People born into life post Cataclysm did not care for petty arguments and feuds. In a world of rapidly disappearing resources, they finally discovered the most precious natural resource of all, each-other. Sons and daughters of enemies past came together and erased an entire history of hate. That history was replaced with a future of hope. Small, seemingly insignificant collaborations led to entire populations being saved. An invention that turns plastic waste into building materials, combined with techniques turning the waste from that invention into clean energy solved two of the three problems plaguing humanity.

Once the ability to farm algae and turn it into enough food to feed the remaining population was introduced, humans were already looking to the stars. They found the oxygen they needed to sustain mammalian life indefinitely, closer to home than we realized; the moon. The moon’s surface minerals contained enough trapped oxygen to sustain the entire population for generations. Lunar farming became the beacon of hope humanity needed. Soon ion engines were combined with solar sails, algae farming, and oxygen mineralization.

Deep space soon seemed shallow. Humanity reached out and found nothing reaching back for a generation. They soon spread from system to system, against all odds remaining united across light-years. A second earth was discovered unbelievably close to home, Proxima Centauri, the closest star system to Sol. Humanity named it Gaia and vowed to make her in the image of the new face of mankind.

Soon Gaia bore the fruit of that promise, Centauri Station was founded in orbit. A militaristic bastion for explorers to train for the unknown. Thousands of recruits graduate every Sol year to set out into the universe. Looking for more ways in which humanity can help not only each-other, but whomever they may someday meet. Humans not being fools, trained for every scenario and life-form that may be encountered, hostile or benevolent.

Then it happened.

As humanity knew it must, something or rather; someone reached back. A signal unmistakably generated by intelligent life, pinged on consoles all but gathering dust in their inactivity. People training all their lives in theoretical xenobiology were suddenly speculating what intelligent life would look like that could send such a signal. The signal was strong, stronger than anything humanity could produce. Coming from Epsilon Eridani, practically next door. It was immediately identifiable as intelligent because it was in English. It was a single word, help.

Humanity believed themselves to be ready for anything when Commander Raven set off with her crew of 28. Under the command of the famous Captain Barichello, they set out to shake the hand reaching back.

After a short 2 week journey, they found themselves on the surface of the planet from which the signal appeared to have originated. Roughly ¼ the size of Earth, the planet had nothing remarkable about it save for the atmosphere. It was breathable for humans and, unbelievably, it was artificial. With no vegetation on the surface there was no evidence of it occurring naturally.

First, they searched in vain for the signal that brought them here. After that proved an impossibility they began looking for what was generating, or at the very least holding the atmosphere in place. Once again they found nothing.

The surface was a precisely consistent elevation in its entirety. Flat lands as far as their eyes could see, and their instruments could detect. The surface, a marbled array of colors and insignificant composition of minerals. An entire planet unnaturally subdued. Save for one slight detail; their NAV-E system malfunctioned once they entered the atmosphere. Located just outside the main airlock, the system inexplicably needed manual adjusting before they could return home.

So they set down.

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“Commander Raven?”

She turned with a start, nearly leaping out of her skin. “Sorry Atty, what was that?”

“You were just standing there staring into the hatch. I asked if you were sure you heard something.” LT Atticus was standing closer than she realized, a puzzled expression on his face and a multi-tool in his hand.

“Yeah, I’m not really sure. I’m going to check it out, this place is eerie city. I’ll be right back, do not get lost.” She called over her shoulder as she entered the corridor looking for the source of the sound she was sure she had impossibly heard.

“Yeah, as if I could get lost. Miles of nothing but us.”

The corridor was brightly lit and smelled like the comfort of space. Raven heard all the sounds she would expect to hear on a vessel she knew better than her home growing up. The rhythmic hum of the powerplant, the hiss of static from open coms along the p-way, the clang of hatches opening elsewhere by people she felt closer to than family.

There it was again, that laugh. She had not heard that laugh for a dozen hours, not since she called home to check in. She followed it easily now. It was coming from the small galley that serviced this side of the vessel when they needed to sleep in shifts. She approached it warily, thinking maybe someone was listening to her call log and wanting to catch them snooping. Peering around the doorway she saw something she never expected to see.

Standing at the kitchen sink back home, the entire scene somehow transported here on this alien planet orbiting Epsilon Eradini, was her mother. Her back was to the p-way entrance, shoulders still shaking from a joke only she could hear. Raven did not know what to think. She became slightly dizzy and nauseous as if under intense vertigo.

“Mom?”

Her mother’s shoulders stopped shaking. She turned toward Raven in a surreal, jerking motion, like a marionette puppet on the strings of an amateur. Slightly slumping with an almost sleepy gait she started towards her. “Is that my bird?” The thing said in her mother’s voice without any of the warmth. It reached its arms out, hands clawing like talons. Shuffling forward in half-steps it opened its mouth and asked “Is my bird hungry?”

Raven turned to run, letting out a shout, bumping right into a wall. There in his comforting solidity was her commanding officer, Captain Barichello.

“Woah, hey Commander. Everything all right?” the captain asked, genuine concern in his eyes. He had been standing there when she slammed full force into him. Probably barely felt it. When he stood still it was like he planted himself and took root. You could tell that he would only move if he decided to just by looking at him. In this case, the immovable object meets the stoppable panic.

“I’m not sure. I saw something impossible” Raven said and described what she saw in vivid detail. “I don’t know, maybe something in the atmo we didn’t detect? I’ve never had a hallucination before. I felt fine both before and after I saw what I saw.”

The captain didn’t even question it. His crew was highly trained and hand selected from millions. If they said they saw something, they saw it. He placed a hand on each of her shoulders and gave her a reassuring grin. “I feel fine too. I’m going to have a little peek just in case and then we can get you checked out. For now, get on the com and have everyone keep their helmets secure and button the hatches.”

Raven waited until he peered into the galley before switching on her com-link. The captain didn’t react to whatever he saw and that reassured her enough to get back on mission.

“sssk- Be advised - there may be a contaminant in the air that is causing hallucinations - Captain orders we all keep those helmets secure and button any open hatches - sssk”

25 WILCOs (short for will comply) came through in their pre-designated order to avoid confusion. Professionals all.

“sssk - Atty do you copy? - sssk”

“ssk - I ssn’t feel so gssd -sssk”

The static was normal, the interference was not. “Atty this is Commander Raven, how copy on that last?” She was not worried in the slightest. Even with the macabre vision she endured, she was certain it could all be explained with some kind of contaminant. The interference was likely just her signal bouncing around the inside of the hull she told herself. Maybe the alien atmosphere had an unforeseen effect on the comms too. Moving back along the p-way from the direction she came, she tried one last time.

“ssk- LT Atticus, I’m en route to your location - we have a bad copy on comms - going to do a face-to-face hand off of the order - how copy - ssk?”

Silence this time, not even the static of an open com. She kept calm, not letting the unease she was feeling dictate her pace. She had just been with LT Atticus no more than two minutes ago and knew him to be a consummate professional. However, the episode started as an auditory hallucination while she was with the LT and that finally quickened her step. Though he could handle himself, he may not be himself if he was exposed and the reaction was worse.

Reaching the hatch, she immediately noticed it was closed. LT Atticus was the only one on this side of the ship, so he had gotten the Capt’s order to button the hatch at least. She announced she was coming out over the 2-way speaker mounted to the right of the hatch. When no reply came it only heightened her unease. The system was designed to pick up sounds as low as the hiss of gas escaping. He should not only hear her, but she should also be able to hear him breathing with the maximum gain. She heard nothing. No scraping of tools, no clack of plasteel gloves working, nothing.

Opening the hatch, she stepped out into the airlock and walked onto the gangway ramp. The vast emptiness bothered her this time. Nothing about the planet, until this moment, had affected her. Now the lack of life felt menacing. She did not know how to describe how or why, but she felt like the entire planet was watching her step onto the surface. When she reached the NAV-E she found no sign of the LT. Everything was gone. His tools, the parts he had laid out, even his footprints in the soil were missing.

There was no wind as far as they had been able to determine on the entire planet. No environmental factor accounted for this new development. Her boot prints were still clearly in the soil. Panic finally started to creep its way into her conscious mind. Either she was still under the effects of the contaminant, or even more worrying; she was seeing reality with complete clarity.

“LIEUTENANT ATTICUS!” she screamed at the horizon before remembering her comms. “Ssk- has anyone in control got a location for LT Atticus’ comm unit?”

“Ssk- Hang on... no, actually. Weird, he would have had to turn it off manually. Even still I should have a last known location on screen. Are you with him now? -ssk”

Each comm link was biometrically tagged and implanted subcutaneously for every member of the crew. If at any point they lost comms, experienced interference or (heaven forbid) died, their last location would register on control’s screen. In any case, there would be a ship wide alert for any of those events should they occur. They were out here alone, together. Nobody was ever supposed to be cut off. No one on board could access anyone else’s comm save for the CO - Commanding Officer, or the XO - Executive Officer. Since she was the XO and had just been with Capt Barichello, she knew that was not the case. How someone could disappear from control’s screen without their bio-tag registering was beyond her ability to understand.

“Ssk- Control, please contact the captain and ask him to meet me by the main airlock. We have a situation. -ssk”

“Ssk- Um, wilco XO -ssk”

“Um” was not verbage that was typically heard aboard a vessel with a crew of this caliber. That um went a long way toward showing just how unnerved the control operator was. They needed to get this situation under control, preferably sooner rather than later. Moving with a sense of urgency, she started to do a full scan of the outside of the ship. Eyes sweeping the ground in a right-to-left, left-to-right zig zag pattern, she did a complete circuit of the vessel before ending back where she started. Nothing to indicate anyone had been out here but her.

The W.S.S. Shelby was not a large vessel by military standards. Built for exploration; it was meant to house the crew, their equipment and all the trappings that came with sailing into the unknown. Barely 250 meters long and half again as wide, she was as sleek a vessel as you could ask for. They hadn’t come expecting to have an entire planet to set down on. Most military vessels were built in space and meant to spend their entire service life there. The Shelby was unique, as far as being able to enter a planet’s atmosphere and back out again under her own power. With no shuttle complement necessary, her bulk was substantially cut down without the need for a hangar bay.

It did not take her long before she was back in her own boot prints and waiting for the captain. He opened the hatch without announcing himself and came to stand beside her. After briefing him on everything that she had observed and done, he only nodded. After a long moment of silence the captain turned away from her and addressed the crew.

“ssk - This is Captain Barichello, I want everyone to buddy up and stay that way until ordered otherwise. This is not a time to panic, however; at this time we are missing one of our own. If you see LT Atticus, you are to report in and have him sent to the infirmary to get checked out immediately. I want active scans running at all times until we locate LT Atticus. If at any time you experience anything out of the ordinary, no matter how minor, it is to be reported and documented immediately. There is to be no deviation from any of these orders. Let’s find our shipmate. -ssk”

Turning towards her she could see his smile did not go all the way to his eyes. “Guess we’re buddies for now.” he said, trying to reassure her. When they were told to buddy up it meant to stay with whomever you were assigned until further notice. To put it the way the instructors on Centauri Station would shout “You and your buddy are to eat, sleep, shit, shave, and shower together. Do not leave each other's sight, to do so is to die.” As much as she enjoyed the captain's company, they were all eager to find the LT.

Capt Barichello opened his comm again.

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