Author: Robert Wagner
Category: Other
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"We're going to have to work in tandem, Virgil. What do you think? Bring it down in incremental movements every five seconds?"
"I think that would be the best way to approach it."
Synchronizing timers, the two of them looked like some kind of deep space ballet performers. Herra's arms began to quiver, not because of weight, but because of having them extended for so long. Yet, they couldn't stop. They were coming to the most crucial part, bringing the piece down alongside the end of the Dauntless. Now was when they could lose it. The engine part would drift off under the starship and Herra would have to pilot the ship to match its new trajectory, starting all over. Trying not to sweat it she continued on in five second movements.
The engine part bumped and scraped against the back of the ship. Herra flipped like she was doing a pole vault. Disoriented, she kept enough of her sense to not let go. She hung on the end of the pole and the broken engine lightly bounced off the Dauntless.
"Don't move," Virgil whisper shouted over the comm. "I think I got this. Your little unexpected jolt helped moved it enough..."
From her higher vantage point, Herra saw Virgil jab the end of the pole he was holding into a mess of pipes near him. He risked jumping a two steps without magnetic boots on to close the gap between him and the engine. Using his engineering pack, he started welding where the two pieces touched. She could see the Dido scurrying towards the ungainly joint where the Dauntless and her sliced engine part met. Light and sparks flared from two different spots.
"Am I just supposed to hang out here?" Herra asked.
"Let us go around the ship and get this engine on before you move. I would hate for this to rip off and take more of the Dauntless with it. I need to get some scrap metal and tether the two parts together at different junctions."
She felt embarrassed, sticking off the side of the ship. If that was what was needed, she would do it though. She looked down at her Dauntless, her baby. It physically hurt to see Dauntless so damaged. Herra needed something to distract her.
"We may not have the alien ship but we collected lots of data about it. We should be able to sell that for quite a few credits. I see where most of mine will go obviously. What about you, Virgil? What are you going to do with yours?"
There was no reply over the comm for a while. Herra began to wonder of Virgil was still so mad he was going to give her the silent treatment. Then he spoke up, a little breathless. "If we get back you mean. The chance is still slim. Chen will tell you the exact odds, if you want to know. Then if we do get back by then we could be at war. The first war among the stars, against alien beings. So I won't go counting my credits before there cashed."
Herra had to laugh. "Virgil. Always the pessimist. Come on. Dream a little. If I do have any credits left over, I think a vacation back on Earth might be in order. I haven't seen her in several years."
"You can come down now." Virgil sounded tense. Was he going to be sensitive the entire trip back?
Herra pulled herself down the pole. At the bottom she locked onto the newly attached engine. She looked down the length of it where sparks still shined in the darkness. It was hard to believe, seeing it attached again. She reached down, turning off the mag coupling and pulled off her makeshift tool.
Virgil had another job for her. "While you're out there see if you can grab some of those alien fighter parts floating by. I'll bring them inside. See what I can make of them."
Herra went fishing. By the time the oxygen counter beeped a warning to her she had three decent sized chunks. Awkwardly she held the alien ship pieces along with the pole as she headed back towards the ramp. "We need to go. Meet you inside, Virgil."
She had barely gotten inside and out of the envirosuit when Chen called her over the ship's comm. "Commander, you should come up here."
Virgil, who eyed the alien parts they'd brought in like a kid excited for his Christmas presents, gave her a questioning look. A look that mirrored her thoughts. What now?
Herra's sprint up to the bridge turned out to be more of a soft jog. Exhaustion was catching up to her. Chen was working furiously at her station. Herra slid into her place in the pilot's chair. Virgil came on over the comm.
"Not that you'll be able to do much fancy flying with just one engine, but you should keep it to a minimum. The other one might as well be attached with bubblegum. I don't think you'll want it flying off again."
"Roger that," Herra said grimly. She hoped what Chen had to tell her wasn't that another attack was on its way. "Go ahead, Chen."
"I've been picking up some very interesting reading, Commander." said Chen. "While scanning the moons, the long range sensors picked up some odd readings about sixty kilometers from the gas giant. If I'm not mistaken, the reading appear to show a wormhole is forming."
Formation of a wormhole or the Wyrms that made them had only been documented twice in the history of people being out among the stars. Both time by robotic probes. Herra had a hard time believing this could be possible.
"Are you sure?" she asked Chen.
To her credit, Chen didn't sound miffed by Herra's dismal. "Since I've never seen formation in person, I can't be positive. I'm seventy percent sure though. The energy and chemical readings coming for the area I've trained the sensors on show tachyon, neutrino, and planck particle concentrations which is only found where wormholes are. They started out as faint traces at first but they're getting stronger."
"I'm taking us closer." Herra rubbed her hands together. She fired up the one engine. The Dauntless shuttered all around her. The metal around Herra groaned like a thing alive. "Steady girl." Pushing one of the flight sticks forward, the Dauntless steadily moved to rendezvous with whatever Chen was picking up.
Twenty minutes later, Dauntless arrived at Chen's coordinates. Herra parked the ship two kilometers away from the greatest concentration of energy. From the ship's vantage point, Herra could see something happening. It did look like it could be a wormhole. Except instead of a circle it was like ribbons of light were leaking out into space from... somewhere. The closest Herra could come to thinking about it was watching a lighting storm approaching on Earth. The action looked furious outside her viewscreen. It was unsettling to her that it wasn't accompanied by any sound.
Chen called out behind her. "The energy emissions are spiking. I'd love to get closer."
"I'd love for Dauntless not lose any more pieces," Herra said. "I'm holding position here. Unless we are in danger. Are we, Chen? Anything like, say lethal radiation leaking out of that thing?" Sometimes Chen's curiosity could get away from her and she didn't think about the danger.
"No, Commander. I'm ninety percent sure it's a wormhole now. All the usual signatures are there."
Even though Chen was reporting an energy increase, Herra wasn't seeing any difference in the intensity out in space. The ribbons kept on flashing. She could see far in the distance the brownish white sphere of the gas giant. Then she couldn't. Instead it looked to Herra as if she was looking into a circle of pitch. Not like a black hole. Light wasn't bending around it. It was like an umbrella, blocking the light.
"What is that?" Virgil said beside her. He must have sat down beside her while she was stargazing.
"I don't know. Ask Chen."
Before either of them could speak again, something emerged from the large, round blackness. The light energy did flare up then. The familiar colors and shape of a wormhole formed. The thing emerging was shaped like a tube with a point at the end of it. They were slightly at an angle relative to it and could see the thing in profile. It emerged like the space behind the wormhole was something solid, like it was coming out of the ground. It front end was scooped and its bottom jaw, for lack of a better word, jutted out beyond its top jaw. It moved up and down like it was wiggling. The wormhole colors reflected off of its black, almost scaly looking skin. The thing was huge, easily the size of a small moon. When it was first between Neptune and Uranus, no one knew what had caused the wormholes. Once the wyrms were di
scovered, one scientist speculated that it was possible one of them could have crashed into Uranus and that's what tipped it on its side. After seeing how massive it, was Herra could believe that now.
"Wow." Chen's exclamation was nearly inaudible.
As the Wyrm fully emerged, that's all Herra could think it was doing, a pulse of purplish light spread out in all directions. As it washed over the Dauntless the power went out.
"Not again!" Virgil spat out, pounding his fist on his console.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing to my ship." Herra chided him.
The dull yellow lights of the emergency backup filled the cabin. "Zayan! Get up here!" Herra yelled back through the ship, since now the comm was down. She couldn't believe she was seeing this. It would never happen again in any of their lifetimes. This would be Zayan's only chance. She hoped he'd heard her.
The wyrm moved its massive bulk towards them, sliding through space somewhat like an eel. All any of them could do was watch the once in a millennium sight unfold before them. They would have limited sensors with the main power out. She figured Chen was recording as much data as she could. It slid over head. They could see nothing outside but its black, scaled body.
"Allah be praised." Herra heard Zayan's reverend whisper behind her.
They were going to be here awhile. The wyrm didn't move fast and its length was tremendous. It felt almost sacrilege to talk at that moment. Like she was disturbing a wonder of the universe. She couldn't help herself though. Their survival was still on the line.
"Virgil, how long do you think it will be to get engines running again?"
Herra watched as Virgil had to tear his eyes away from the scene outside the ship. It took him a long time to get the answer since he kept stealing glances up. "I honestly don't know. I'm not sure what kind of energy it was that hit us. Could be minutes or could be hours."
Herra wasn't happy about that. Just when things looked like they were turning around. She wanted to be mad at the wyrm passing over her ship but that wouldn't be helpful. That was like being mad at a hurricane or a solar flare. Yeah you could rage at it but it wouldn't do any good. The universe was indifferent to feelings of humans.
"I am seeing something strange," Chen said.
"No kidding? So am I," teased Virgil. Chen turned and gave him a sour face.
"On the body of the wyrm. It looks as if it was hurt. Since it's so close I'm able to scan it and I couldn't penetrate it's outer shell except for one spot."
Herra was incredulous. "What could hurt that?" She wondered if even the biggest Earth capital ship could put a dent in the thing.
"I don't know, but that's what the sensors show."
If Zayan were a bigger man, he wouldn't have fit up in the bridge with everyone else there. As it was he had to squeeze in sideways. His head was tilted at a painful looking angle as he pointed out to the wyrm. "There, I think I see it."
Herra's eyes followed Zayan's finger out. Squinting, Herra thought she could see a lighter gray spot on the body of the wyrm. She wished that they had the power to turn the outside lights on.
"I have a crazy idea," Chen sounded embarrassed to be speaking up so much during such a momentous occasion.
Herra tried to sound reassuring. "Go ahead, Chen. Anything that would save us, I'm all ears."
Chen sounded much more confident as she laid out her idea. "I'm picking up signs that another wormhole is forming. Whatever it is that the wyrm does or wherever goes is happening again. What if we caught a ride with it?"
Virgil turned in his seat, knocking into Zayan who stumbled back a step. "Sorry," he said, not looking at Zayan but instead at Chen. "How do you propose we do that with no engines?"
"We could use the three docking clamps to latch on to the open spot on it's body. Like a hitchhiking parasite we could ride it through the wormhole."
"That does sound crazy. What would that thing do to us if we bothered it?" Virgil argued. "If it did work, we have no idea where we would end up. We could be even farther away from any help."
"Or we could get closer," Herra interjected. "You said yourself that we could be here for hours trying to get the engines back online. We won't live that long on emergency power. Even if you did we have the choice of two wormholes and we have no idea where either goes."
"Whatever you decide, Commander," Chen said, "you would have to make it now. The vulnerable spot is passing near us now and will be out of range in two minutes."
"Chen, are you sure we're close enough?" Herra asked.
"If you can extend the clamps to maximum range, I believe so."
"We're going to have to go topside and do it manually with the power out. It will be a significant drain on our battery life too." Virgil crossed his arms.
"It seems wrong somehow. To do something like that to creature like this," Zayan added. "Though you have my profound thanks for giving me the opportunity to actually see one. I knew I had good feeling about you."
Herra looked up at it again, contemplating the choices. She could see the grey square of its underbody sliding by. It looked close enough that she felt she could reach out and touch it. "We're going to do it. Virgil, take Zayan with you."
To his credit, Virgil didn't complain this time. He got out of his chair and followed Zayan out of the bridge. The stuffy feeling in the cabin dropped. Herra breathed a sigh, now that it looked as if there was a way out of the system within her grasp. No sooner than Zayan and Virgil had left, Sanford came in. He sat down next to Herra. She thought he looked strange there, in that place.
"That's quite something out there, isn't it?" Sanford said plainly, with a nod of his head towards the window. You would think he was talking about looking at some average moon or planetoid. Not one of the wonders of the universe.
"I know, right?" Chen said, still sounding as giddy as a child.
"It sure is." Herra agreed. "Can I help you with something?"
"Yes. Can we talk in private?" Sanford looked a little perturbed, which was also unusual for him.
"Now? As you imagine this isn't the best time." Herra jerked a thumb toward the viewscreen. Not that there was anything she could do, again, right now. It still felt wrong to leave her seat.
"While everyone else is occupied, I thought it would be best. After this you will be busy getting us home."
His behavior and tone were so unlike Sanford that Herra felt she had to agree. Besides, he did have a point.
"Alright. You have ten minutes. In my quarters. Chen, alert me if the slightest thing changes."
Chen answered with a distracted yes. Herra spread her right arm out to say to Sanford after you. He got up, smoothed and straightened out his white jacket, and left the cabin. Herra followed him.
"I wouldn't have believed in a million light years, as I laid huddled under my thin blanket in a box behind a trash bin, that I would be seeing a wyrm. Now not only have seen one I will be getting to be so close as to almost touch one."
Zayan had said all of this in one breath as he and Virgil put their EV suits on. For Virgil, he was losing track of how many times he had suited up today. Maybe after this I should just keep wearing it. Even sleep in it.
Virgil waited until both of them had their helmets on before speaking again, over the suits internal comm systems. "Try not to become too much of a space case out there. We have a job to do. A delicate one. With only one shot to get it right."
Virgil couldn't see his expression clearly anymore but Zayan sounded annoyed when he replied. "My job will be done to the best of my abilities. As always."
"The only thing I want to see touching that thing out there is the docking clamps. We have no idea how the Wyrm is going to react. Will it be a tickle to it? Will it start thrashing about and kill us all?" Virgil shrugged his shoulder in an exaggerated manner.
With only about a minute and a half left, Virgil wasted no more time on chit chat. He opened the ramp, tethered, and was almost sprinting across the top of the Dauntless. What seemed like a dark, black clou
d rushed overhead. Virgil heard Zayan gasp over the comm.
"Magnificent," Zayan said, breathlessly and reverent.
Virgil's engineer mind went automatically to work as he looked at it. He wondered how it moved, what was the method of its propulsion. What were its internal systems like? How did it create tears in time and space? With an effort Virgil shook his head to remind himself he had a task to do now. He had just told Zayan not to become a space case.
The wyrm was only a few meters away from the ramp. There was one clamp on each side of the ramp and one above. He ordered Zayan to take the right while he took the left. He planned on sending Zayan inside while he stayed to do the last clamp. Dido could have done it, if it hadn't been blown off earlier.
"If I ever get to tell some of my old mates about this well, they're just not going to believe it. Someone like me, getting to see something like this. As I laid in the gutter shivering under a thin holey blanket, looking up at the stars, I always imagined I would be up among them someday. I would not only survive in this galaxy, I would thrive."
Sanford watched the immense bulk of the wyrm slid by, looking for the open spot. They only had one shot. Yet he found himself curious. "How did you go from such shitty circumstances to learning exobiology?"
"While others on the street would spend their time fighting over the meager scraps or fighting just to fight, I would read. Any book I could find or steal. I would eat the leftover scraps of scraps just so I could read. At fourteen I was rounded up during a sweep of the city. The new prime minister of my planet had promised reforms. At the time I resented those in charge for treating us as they did. First they ignored my plight. Then they wanted to use it for their own political gain. Looking back, it was the best thing that could happen to me. We took many tests, as the government wanted to try to integrate us back into society. I scored so high in math and science that I was eventually transferred to the state run college." Zayan laughed once then scoffed. "Me, who hadn't had a day of school since I was seven. Now I had been thrown into college. I grabbed that chance though. Like a man would grab a tether if he were floating off in space. I scrambled and worked myself to the brink of exhaustion."