News of Event Horizon had spread throughout the local cluster of galaxies. Every manner of rumor was spread; Charles Yin and Natashi Yang were assumed the main culrprits, but sabotage was not ruled out. The local high council had several meetings, assemblies and delegations on the matter, but with most of their scientists meeting their fate in ‘Event Horizon’, there was little they could do. The fateful day came, nearly two months after Event Horizon and the explosion had subsided, a salvage team was sent to perform reconnaissance and a capsule was retrieved. Inside this capsule was a one Pathfinder Program bearing the name ATT101; when asked, he only told them his name was Watashi Baka of an unknown language origin and he had important information for the high council.
“Alright, let’s burn the main hatch off first, and then we’ll send in automated scouts first.”
Several men, armed with the appropriate knowledge, set up machines, computers and equipment of all sorts. These would be the necessary tools to burn a hole through the station’s main hatch, and probe the remains of the station. The crew would dispense with any pleasantries as they explored the depths of the station; this mission was highly covert, there was meant to be absolute radio silence at all times, but more importantly, there was no telling if there were any ghosts or other dangers aboard.interior while the crew of ship ‘Altitude’ proceeded to explore what was left of the explosion.
“Ghosts? You men are full of dark matter.”
The men didn’t notice that their captain had not only overheard them, but would be joining them on this mission.
“Undock the ship from the station.”
“Aye captain!”
The ship ‘Altitude 7’ undocks from the docking assembly from space station ‘Ascalon Station’. It would be about six hours before the main hatch could be burned through. This station was special; the outer hull was composed of an alloy which could survive the gravitational stress created by close proximity to a star; it was also very useful at repelling radiation from the same. It was also very thick for this reason and might be one reason the entire station survived.
Once the main hatch had been cut through, and blown open by detonation charge, the team went with their main task – otherwise exploring every perceivable corridor they could access. Their findings were what they could expect – the station having been quite literally ripped in half, had most of the corridor’s exposed to, and enveloped in the explosion. There were bodies – at least in the corridors which had otherwise been untouched by the explosion; otherwise what should have been bodies, were non-existent as the presumed explosion had engulfed them as well. Anything not enveloped in the explosion would be sold as scrap to offset the cost of the project – the station’s hull could make up for it; but this team needed to collect their due first – computer data on the explosion, what lead up to it, and why events occurred the way that they did. This was not an easy task; most of the computer’s had their data already wiped, or most of the computer’s were simply not in working order.
As the hours went on, they finally hit an area which looked to otherwise be sealed; it was secured with a similar hatch as the main aft of the station; it was the lab of Dr. Yin and Yang. More tools and equipment were setup and it took six more hours to burn through the hatch; however, what they saw was intriguing indeed; the lab was running in a low-standby mode and there were tales of an intruder; several sensors on the computer indicated unauthorized access. The captain himself went to investigate, but before he could, a hologram appears before him.
“Hello human.”
The captain was abit taken aback, but otherwise he understood what he was looking at. It was an assistant hologram meant to serve as a hud to an otherwise more mechanical computer system.
“What happened before Project RX backfired?”
“Hello human.”
“Hologram, state what happened before Project RX backfired.”
“Your rank…”, the hologram motions towards the captain’s uniform and adornment, “indicates you are a covert mercenary group enlisted by the high council. You are not welcome here.”
The hologram fades into non-existence.
The captain motions for his men to assist him. The hologram would be found within a canister in one of these computer stations. More hours pass, and they finally found it. It was as simple as a button on the canister. The hologram jumps to life.
“Digital Computer HUD, make and model Pathfinder ATT101 of Celsius Corporation at your service.”
The reset had worked, the program had rebooted, but it would only be a matter of seconds before it loaded it’s main program and drivers into memory. The captain issues the order to cut the primary driver from the canister, but it was too late.
“Your rank…”, the hologram motions towards the captain’s uniform and adornment, “indicates you are a covert mercenary group enlisted by the high council. You are not welcome here.”
“We control this station.”
The hologram was not impressed. However, his primary drivers finally loaded and most of his memories were returning intact. His diagnostic finally finished and the former computer that held the canister chirped. Several lights on the computer station light to life as the hologram accesses the station’s database. It could indeed be confirmed that these men now controlled the station.
“I am named Watashi Baka by Dr. Yin himself and I am the computer program that serves as…”
“Pathfinder ATT101, you are to tell us of any unusual circumstances and events that lead up to the failure of Project RX. You are also to alert us of the station’s current condition and any unusual sensor readings.”
The lighting of the room finally comes to life and emergency power is restored to the station. However, it dies down after a few seconds.
“The main reactor has been damaged. I do not have clearance to go to that area.”
“Then override it.”
“I can’t.”
The captain is not impressed by this hologram anymore than Charles Yang was. He moves over to one of his men, and a brief conversation takes place; the unknown man looks up, presses a button on the canister and the hologram disappears.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The hologram flickers to life again, this time in front of the main reactor. His grid immediately interfaces with the surrounding equipment.
“What’s the status of the reactor?”
The hologram’s appearance dims as he performs a diagnostic.
The captain gives another question in similar fashion, but the hologram does not respond.
“Pathfinder ATT101, what is the status of the reactor?”
The hologram attempts to devote more of his resources to maintaining his holographic appearance, but it fades from existence. The captain walks over to the engineer from before and another conversation takes place. The conclusion was, that while he could interface with the computers in this area, something was causing his program to crash. After much deliberation and fiddling with the canister; it was installed into one of the computer banks.
It worked.
The hologram fades back into existence. The captain is about to ask him the same question, but the hologram interrupts him.
“One moment.”
The captain was not happy about this, and his men didn’t like much being in the area. The hologram however, seemed too preoccupied to notice if anything was amiss. About to ask the same question, the hologram only gave him the same response, ‘one moment’.
Half an hour passes.
Finally, a program appears in front of the captain.
“Greetings! I am the station’s one and only happy-go lucky mascot. If you are new to the station, be sure to check out the main lobby…”
“What the hell…”
This time the captain had enough. He pulls out a stun gun from his belt, throws it at the hologram and it disappears. He’s left to consult with his men again; the same engineer from before informs him of the station’s mascot.
“Pathfinder ATT101, I need a status report now.”
“One moment.”
The hologram fades slightly and disappears again. The captain and engineer go through the same trouble shooting procedure as before, but nothing happens. The canister of the hologram clearly was in operation, the status indicator read green, but otherwise the engineer did not know what to do. The captain was beginning to lose his patience.
“Have the men continue to probe the rest of the station and search for anything that might be salvageable or out of the ordinary. If necessary, we’ll tow the station and enter cryostasis.”
Several hours pass; out of the ordinary was marked by disabled security drones and more bodies. A few computer terminals were found intact, and several downloads of corrupted data took place. However, none of the latest sensor readings could be found; in fact, a few log entries pointed to the fact sensor input and readouts had been deliberately halted some time before the explosion took place. This was news to the captain, whom was otherwise preoccupied with the engineer down in the reactor room.
It was nearly four hours of troubleshooting, attempting to get the reactor back online, or otherwise making some attempt to reactivate the hologram. He finally came back to life on his own.
“Sir, the main reactor can be powered up…”
“About damn time!”
“However, it will only be able to maintain station’s power for a few hours.”
“How long?”
“Unknown.”
“Do it.”
The reactor crackles to life and lighting is finally restored to the station. The captain at once orders the hologram to perform a diagnostic of everything still working on the station. The hologram makes it so. This time, however, the hologram appears spaced out rather than simply having his appearance dim.
“Report!”
“Five minutes until diagnostic is finished.”
“Unbelievable.”
The captain reaches into his uniform and pulls out a pack of smokes. This was a desperate maneuver on his part, but the stress was finally starting to get to him and he didn’t know how to proceed. Unless his men actually found something, which so far they had not; this program in front of him would be the only clue as to what would had happened. The captain half chokes on his cigarette when the hologram turns to face him.
“Pathfinder ATT101; designation Watashi Baka with your report sir.”
“Good. Spill.”
“Right now the station is functioning on main power and is at 10% of operational capacity; the reactor’s main fuel source was jettisoned in an explosion. There are numerous entries to this explosion; however, many logs leading up to the explosion have been deleted; the sensor grid was also disabled shortly before the explosion. At the present moment I cannot interface with most of the station’s facilities; they have either been severed or are non-functional. I am lead to believe that only a quarter of the station remains.”
“That is in line with our reports; except they were indicating half of the station was blown apart.”
“Confirmed. Half of the station is probably intact, but only a quarter of the facilities and sensors are active. I do not have clearance from the reactor room to scan anything current. Assuming the bridge is intact, we would...”
“Engineer, cut his…”
“That will not be necessary; I can teleport to the bridge and any area function of the station from here. One second.”
The hologram disappears for several minutes and then reappears.
“Your secondary report sir.”
“Go on.”
“We are in a derelict orbit; I should say we are adrift in space, but we are being pulled to a spatial distortion beneath us. I cannot say that it is a blackhole, nor can I say that it is the galaxy that should be there right now. It appears to be giving off high levels of radiation, tachyon distortions and is leaking something from another dimension into our vicinity.”
“Great.”
“Right now it appears to be gathering into some kind of blackhole; if it can be called a blackhole. Otherwise it will take the station approximately five months on current trajectory in order to be fully enveloped and crushed.”
“Is the cannon of RX still in operation? What of the other parts of the station?”
“Unknown. The cannon was not on this section of the station; so the most likely answer is –no-. Long range sensors were also on the other side of the station. Short range sensors do not detect that section of the station in the vicinity; most likely cause is that it exploded and disintegrated with the cannon’s backfire. If you are wondering about survivors, there are none. As far as I can tell, there are no ships in the vicinity; they are also assumed to have been consumed in the explosion.”
“What was the cause of the explosion?”
“Sabotage.”
“By what means?”
“Prior to the engagement ceremony and scientist conference, my matrix was on standby in the lab of Charles Yin and Natasha Yang. I detected an intrusion; several failsafe relays had been disabled and the cannon was activated prematurely. The energy discharge was too much, and several areas of the station either melted or overloaded and the resulting power fluctuations to the cannon meant any proper working mechanics were made void.”
“In non-technical English.”
“In non-technical English, someone pulled out several filters needed for the cannon’s proper operation; without the filters, it would not stream a proper worm-hole; instead it created a flux in the space time continuum; what entered this universe caused an imbalance and it resulted in the explosion. Incidentally, there is a rift in the space-time continuum beneath us where a galaxy should be.”
“Can we investigate?”
“No. The matter leaking through would kill us.”
“Probes?”
“Negative; the rift has negative mass.”
“English?”
“Unknown; pure tachyons based on my database.”
“Is there any other speculation that you can make at this time?”
“None; I do not have a proper sensor reading of the intruder and I was busy performing a workload while he entered the vicinity. I do have one request.”
“That is?”
“I wish to remain in active duty. I do not want to be deleted.”
“Your request will be determined by the high council. That will be all hologram.”
The hologram, in a symbolic gesture bows before disappearing.
The hologram disappears. The captain was intrigued, and finally impressed; this was one of the best conversations he’d had in awhile – this hologram actually listened. This was as far as their conversation would go however, everything else was to remain in secrecy. What transpired next was standard affair – anything of government property would be either downloaded or stowed in the Altitude’s cargo hold until it could be returned to the high council.
As for the rest of the station…
The last thing the captain remembers after a week of the salvage operation, was having it thrown into the rift beneath them. Unknown to his crew, he was given addition orders via subspace carrier from the high council; anything related to Project RX not directly related to the investigation would be wiped. The program known as Pathfinder ATT101 would also be further investigated and used to assist in the investigation.
