Galactic
Unity 2
By: Mark J. Hadley
* * *
“So, what are we dealing with here, exactly?” the professor said to everyone… they were gathered around a table in one of the chambers of the ship as it continued on its way, auto piloting during faster-than-light travel. The girls, and Silver, both were trying to put together what they knew about the Invaders in order to start looking for a way to defend themselves against them.
“They’re fast,” Bubbles said, “and strong. I punched one and didn’t even hurt it.”
The professor rubbed his chin, “They’re probably very resilient to physical damage. Maybe because of how malleable they are. You said they were changing shape?”
“Yes,” Blossom nodded. “Not completely, but they could change it a little. Claws, extra legs… that kind of thing.”
“And what about that infection we saw on the station surface?” Silver asked. “Was that something of their doing as well?”
“One of them put their hand to the wall, and did that,” Blossom answered. “Computer panels inside the corridor started acting weird, and then they were taking control of things. They lowered some security doors around us…”
“Yeah, and started sucking all the air out of the room,” Buttercup added.
“Hmm…” the professor said, thoughtfully. “It sounds like this ‘infection’ of theirs has the ability to override and assume control of computer systems it encounters. The darkened effect on the metal is likely a residual effect; I surmise it was spreading through the connections running along the station.”
Silver nodded, “That makes sense…” He hesitated a few moments, before glancing over at the girls and saying, “Wait a minute… girls, those Galactic Monitors that you told us about, the ones that enforce galactic law… they’re robots, right?”
“Right, but what does th—…” Buttercup started to say, but then it dawned on her, just as it did Blossom and the Professor. “Ohh… man, that’s not good…”
“What?” Bubbles asked. “What’s wrong?”
“The Monitors are robots,” Blossom told her. “Their systems are computerized. No wonder they’re having a tough time fighting off the Invaders… if these things got close to any of them, they could just infect and take control of them, and…”
“…and then any of the other ones would hafta fight the robots and the Invaders,” Bubbles finished, understanding now.
“Exactly,” Blossom nodded. “The Monitors will keep fighting, but their numbers will get less and less, and the Invaders’ forces will just get larger.” She paled a little at the thought. “My gosh… there’d be nothing to stop them, would there?”
Silver leaned forward and declared, “We can. We’re already going to go ask the Repository for a solution; maybe it can find some sort of ‘cure’ for their control. If it can figure out something, we can find a way to administer it, and give the Monitors an edge in combat against them.”
“If there are any of them left,” Buttercup pointed out. “Who knows how well the fighting is going? They might have already lost…”
“Well, we need to try anyway, if it’s our best chance,” Blossom said. The others around the table nodded in agreement, but there was still a sense of doubt… if this had indeed already grown beyond control, maybe there was nothing left to stop them. Even so, they still had hope… the girls knew how important hope was when things looked bleak, since in the past, they never would have succeeded in restoring Earth without it.
* * *
“We’re approaching the turn point,” Blossom said, looking down at the navigation screen from her position in the cockpit. “I’ll drop us back down to speed in about thirty seconds…”
Everyone was strapped in their seats for the expected deceleration. The ship was nearing the nebula where they were going to change direction, in order to avoid being detected by possible Invaders nearby… here, at least, it would be harder for sensors to pick them up. That was assuming, of course, that the Invaders didn’t have technology or some other means that were beyond conventional scanners. It was a chance they had to take, since there was no straight path.
As the ship passed through the outer edge of the nebula, it shuddered briefly. Bubbles gripped the arms of her chair and said, “What’s happening?”
“It’s the particles of the nebula,” the professor explained. “We should be all right, so long as we don’t stay here for very long.”
“Okay…” Bubbles nodded, but she didn’t let go of the chair anyway… at least, until Silver’s hand reached over and grasped hers reassuringly. She looked back at him and smiled in thanks, and he grinned slightly, nodding back.
“Dropping out of faster-than-light… now!” Blossom said, activating the singularity generators. The ship was jarred to a stop, and the surroundings finally became visible outside the window. It was an endless sea of green in all directions, a dense fog of gasses, drifting and swirling about in seemingly random patterns. It was difficult to see very far through it… no starlight penetrated the clouds, yet they still seemed to have a soft green glow, as though the light of nearby stars were still causing some illumination. Blossom smiled as she watched out the window, “It’s beautiful…”
“It certainly is,” the professor nodded. “I wish we had time to stay and study it, but the sooner we get to Centraxia…”
“I know,” Blossom said, turning her attention back to the controls. When she did, however, she blinked a few times at one of the readouts, “Wait a minute… hey, I don’t think we’re alone here…”
Buttercup sat up, “What? What do you see?” She didn’t have to wait for an answer, though, as it slowly became visible out in front of the ship anyway, a large silhouette in the nebula. It was difficult to tell how close they were, but it looked like they were probably still a mile away or so. They could see no details, but whatever it was, it had a long, bulky shape.
“What is that?” Bubbles asked. “A ship?”
“I think so,” Blossom replied, then nodded at the readings. “Yes, it’s some kind of large, metal object. Probably a ship. But what’s it doing out here?”
The professor unstrapped himself from his seat moved up to the front to get a better view out of the cockpit, glancing down at the readouts as the sensors picked up more data. “Hydroponics… central habitat areas… looks like some kind of colony, or maybe a science vessel. It’s too small to be a station, though.”
They got closer, and as the clouds slowly parted in front of them, more and more details became visible across its surface. The large scorch marks and holes across its surface grabbed their attention. Whatever the ship had been before, it was a wreck now. “Looks like it was in a fight,” Buttercup remarked. “Maybe the Invaders…”
“I hope not,” Silver said. “That would mean they’re in this area. Maybe it’s been here for a while. But if it’s recent… Blossom, can you get close enough to scan for life?”
“Let’s see…” Blossom said, edging the ship towards it a little faster. As they got closer, Blossom tried to run some scans… she had a little trouble with it, since she had never done it before, but after a few minutes she figured out the correct method and began a scan. “I don’t think there’s anything over there,” Blossom remarked, checking the readouts. “I’m not picking up any organics, dead or alive…”
The ship skimmed close to the outer surface of the hull, and it became easier for the professor to examine the damage. At once, he had a startling observation, and said, “That’s strange… it looks like most of the damage came from the inside of the ship.”
“The inside?” Bubbles asked. “Are you sure?”
“Look at the edges of those large gaps,” the professor replied, pointing out the window. “They’re curving outwards slightly, and are scorched along the sections that faced inward. There’s some exterior damage as well, but most of these look like they came from internal explosions.”
Buttercup looked over at the professor and suggested, “Should we fly over and check it out?”
Thinking about it, the professor said, “All right, but take your suits this time. There probably isn’t any air left in that vessel anyway.” Nodding, she flew up from her seat and headed towards the back to find her suit. The other girls followed right behind her. The professor, in the meantime, moved up front to take Blossom’s position at the controls of the ship.
Silver continued to stare out the window, surveying the damage on the ship and watching as the girls disembarked and flew towards one of the large gaps in the hull, going inside. “I wish I could join them,” he said.
“I understand,” the professor nodded. “You’re as curious as I am, probably even more so since you’re a Centraxian.”
“Still,” Silver said, leaning a little closer to the window, “I feel like I’ve seen this ship’s design before…”
“Really?” the professor asked. “It’s probably from your memory storage… what else do you know about it?”
Silver held the side of his head, closing his eyes a moment and trying to think hard, but he grunted in frustration, “I can’t remember…”
“Don’t worry about it,” the professor told him. “Everything will become clear once we reach Centraxia.” Silver nodded and settled back in his seat, continuing to look out of the window… the professor guided the ship carefully and didn’t stray far from the hole where the girls had entered. He looked across the controls a few moments, then started experimenting with the communications panel to see if he could open a channel to the radio frequency their suits used. Switching it on, he spoke, “Girls? Can you hear me?”
* * *
“We’re right here,” Blossom replied. “We can hear you.” She and the girls were making their way down a corridor in the ship… it was dark, but they had switched on their suit lights to illuminate the passage in front of them. Debris floated around in zero gravity, and it looked as though there weren’t any power left in the ship. Exposed panels were neither sparking nor lit, and the door at the end of the corridor was stuck.
Buttercup flew up to the door and said, “I got it.” She grabbed the center with her hands and pulled hard, forcing the doors to slide open. On the other side, it looked like they had made it to the bridge… several seats were scattered about next to various control panels, and a large viewscreen, currently deactivated, adorned one wall. A chair in the center of the room was likely reserved for the captain. Buttercup dusted off her hands and flew inside, with the other girls following behind her.
As they entered, Bubbles glanced from side to side and said, “I wonder what happened… there’s nobody here, I mean.”
“They probably abandoned ship,” Blossom guessed, looking over at Buttercup, who had moved over to inspect one of the control panels. “See if you can find a captain’s log or something…”
“Sure, piece of cake,” Buttercup huffed. “I’ll just bring it up on the screen with no power.”
Blossom shook her head, “Right, right… Well, maybe there’s still a little power left. Try all the panels.” She moved over to one, and Bubbles went over to the captain’s chair, to see if there were any buttons on it that worked. None of the controls seemed to respond, though… the ship was definitely without power, even backup power.
As she looked at the controls, Bubbles narrowed her eyes a little and said, “Blossom… does this look like…?”
“Yeah,” Blossom nodded a little, still examining the panel she was at, “Yeah, I noticed it too…”
The professor’s voice came over the radio, “What is it? What did you find?”
“Nothing,” Blossom said, “but these controls… they’re very similar to the ones on our ship. Very similar. Which means…”
“Is this a Centraxian ship?” Buttercup asked. “Oh man…”
It makes sense that the ship would be empty then, Blossom thought. When a Centraxian dies, their body just kind of breaks down. But if they’re still alive… Blossom looked up from the controls and spoke, “Professor, do a scan for inorganic life forms, quick!”
“Right away,” the professor’s voice replied. After a few moments, he answered, “I’m reading one faint signal. It’s in the section right above you…”
“Quick, let’s go!” Blossom said, taking off out of the bridge to find a way to the upper level. The other girls followed her through the corridor until they came to a section that had been blasted away, flying up through the gap to the floor above. As they headed towards the section that was located above the bridge, Blossom couldn’t help but wonder how anything could be alive up here, since there still wasn’t any air.
They came to a door that was partially open, and Bubbles quickly flew over to push it the rest of the way open. Once they good get a look inside, they realized they were in some sort of medical bay. Medical supplies and debris were still floating around the room, and clouds of frozen water vapor or something else hung in the air. The back wall was lined with large glass tubes, probably some kind of hibernation capsules. Most of them were either empty or broken, but one still looked intact, although it wasn’t being fed any power. It was filled with a thick gas, and a shape was barely visible through it. It also looked like it was moving slightly.
“C’mon,” Buttercup said. “Maybe we can take the whole capsule back to the ship somehow…”
“I don’t think so,” Blossom said. “Look, it’s attached to the ground. If we move it, we’ll probably end up breaking it open.”
“There’s gotta be something we can do!” Bubbles exclaimed.
Blossom looked closer at the glass, trying to get a good view of what was inside… as she did, a pair of hands, barely visible inside, slammed against the edge of the glass, startling her and causing her to back up. She could see that it was definitely a Centraxian inside, although she couldn’t make out any details. Before any of them could do anything, it looked around feverishly, then bared its claws and started striking the side of the glass repeatedly.
“What are you doing?! Stop!!” Bubbles cried out, but the Centraxian kept it up anyway. The glass started to crack, and before the girls could do anything, it shattered, causing a cloud of mist to billow out from the tube, most of it freezing as it entered the coldness of the vacuum. The large shape inside thrashed, now that it no longer had any air, and it became difficult to see through the crystalline vapors that now filled the air. As the girls watched, helpless, a soft glow came from it, and its body broke up as its cells began the automated self-destruct procedure that occurs on death.
After a few more moments of watching the remains of the tube in shock, the professor’s voice came over the radio, “Girls? Are you all right?”
“We’re… we’re fine,” Blossom replied. She lowered her eyes a little and added, “We’re coming back. There’s nothing left here…”
“All right,” the professor told them. “We’re still near where you entered, come back as soon as you can.”
The girls left the medical center and started making their way back out of the ship heading for the hole they used to enter. As they went, Buttercup asked, “What was wrong with him? Why’d he flip out like that?”
“Probably panicked,” Blossom guessed. “Either way, we need to get to Centraxia as soon as possible now.”
“Why’s that?” Bubbles asked.
Blossom frowned a little, “I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this…” They made it to the hole and flew out from the vessel, to rendezvous with their own ship and resume their journey to Centraxia. Blossom hoped that once they were there, they could send out a ship to determine exactly what had happened to this vessel. She suspected the Invaders were involved somehow, and hoped that this area was still safe to travel through…