Aeon Read online

  “Perhaps they had a different way of allowing crew members to orient themselves,” Twi suggested, coming to hover in front of her. “Why don’t we break apart and search?”

  “A horrible idea. Our comms won’t work.”

  A thin wire shot into the comm Reaghan had attached to the collar of her jacket. “There,” Twi proclaimed. “It has enough of a charge and I’ve altered it and myself to broadcast across a broad range of channels.” The wire retreated. “Try it.”

  “Calling Twi,” Reaghan said. Her voice echoed through the hallway.

  “Perfect!” Twi sounded almost a little too proud. “Keep in touch.” She punched through Reaghan’s shield and vanished in the direction they had come from.

  Reaghan stared where the AI had gone for several minutes before shaking her head. Had the AI just recovered her entire operating system yesterday? If only humanoids were able to bounce back like that.

  Reaghan continued down the hallway, giving the doorways she passed a token glance to see if any were open. Just before the hallway rounded back, she saw a panel set on the outer wall. The lettering on the surface of the controls was as alien to her as the design of the vessel. Regardless, she pressed one, then held her breath. Ahead of where she stood, the ceiling opened and allowed a small, spiral staircase to unfold.

  Reaghan activated her comm. “Hey, Twi, I found something.”

  The beat of her wings filled the background of the transmission. “What is it?”

  Reaghan inched forward. “A sort of hidden room.” Craning her neck, she tried to see what was inside. “I can make out a few consoles from here.” She stepped on the bottom step. “I’m going up.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  It was the bridge. Consoles and holographic screens lined the room. Like the ship below, there was no sign of damage. And no sign of a crew. Reaghan walked around, mindful to keep a respectful distance in order to avoid triggering anything. The lettering from the panel scrolled across the screens.

  “Imperial?” She stopped in front of a station and waited for the message to scroll across again. “Yeah, definitely Imperial… something.”

  She took another look with the new information in mind. Despite the language, the design, something they tended to keep universal across upgrades, had nothing in common with any of the Dynasty’s current fleet.

  “So, what are you?” she muttered.

  “Reaghan,” Twi called over the comm. “What is going on up there?”

  “Well, I found the bridge. No signs of life.” She turned in place. “What the hell is going on here, Twi? I’m half-tempted to leave. A perfectly intact ship, here? Even if we set aside the fact nothing besides a probe was supposedly sent here, there should be some sign of the crew.”

  “Maybe it was unmanned. Or perhaps they were already rescued.”

  “Then why leave the vessel adrift? If you could make your way into this space and rescue the crew with enough time to pack, you’d want to haul the ship home.” Her gaze fell on the captain’s chair. “I wonder if there’s any logs… if I’m able to read them in the first place.”

  “Run it through a translation program,” Twi suggested.

  Reaghan felt a bit dirty as she took a seat in the chair. Like the actual captain could come walking in any second to take command, though it was likely the entire situation leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She swallowed hard as another hologram appeared across her lap.

  “I might need you to find that function,” Reaghan admitted after a few minutes of trying to find what she was looking for. “This system is really annoying to navigate. I keep running into security protocols.”

  “Keep trying, but I’m on my way.”

  Reaghan navigated what she could while she waited for Twi. Graphs and charts that measured energy usage and efficiency, only distinguishable since layouts were similar to what they had on the Scavenger, were worth further investigation. Massive high points were followed by deep valleys which lasted for days. She minimized the windows and tried again to access the restricted areas. The red denial message flashed across the screen.

  “Come on, Reaghan,” she muttered. “You only have so many combinations of six buttons you can try.”

  “Do you really want to know the exact amount of possible combinations that works out to?” Twi asked.

  Before Reaghan could reply, thin wires dug into the side of the chair. Reaghan rose, breaking through the hologram, and resumed her survey. The consoles at the rear of the bridge were now errored out, no doubt a side effect of her failed hacking attempts. Eventually, her wandering found her back in front of the pilot’s station. The old-fashioned controls brought a smile to her lips. Given the holograms around her, she thought it would be higher tech.

  “I’ve got it!” Twi cried out.

  Reaghan whipped around, startled. “Can you read any of it?”

  “Yes, now that I converted it to a language the system refers to as Standard. Based on the letters and structure, I’d say it’s an early form of Banal. Still, I have to give them credit. If you want something to remain a secret, use a form of Imperial. Even today, few enough know it.”

  “Great!” Reaghan rushed forward, leaning hard on the opposite arm. “So, what’s all this—”

  Her words were cut short as the ship began to shake around them. She gripped the arm hard to steady herself.

  “We have to get out of here!” she cried as the vibration worsened.

  “It’s too late! The shields are up and the ship is locked down!”

  Another violent shake threatened to send Reaghan to the ground. Despite her dislike of sitting there, she threw herself into the captain’s chair and strapped in. Twi remained connected to the seat, though she gripped Reaghan’s shirt so tight the ends poked into the skin beneath the fabric. Reaghan gritted her teeth and fought against the temptation to squeeze her eyes shut. Pressure pushed her back into the chair, making it hard to take even the smallest breath. They were thrown forward abruptly, the chair’s restraints the only thing holding them in place.

  “Twi!” Reaghan bellowed. “Hang on!” And for a second time in a few days, Reaghan knew no more.

  “I hope I don’t have to get used to this feeling,” Reaghan said, fighting against her rebelling stomach.

  “You plan on making a habit of being on abandoned ships?” Twi asked.

  Reaghan reached for the buckles, falling onto the floor when they released. “Woah!”

  “Careful!”

  She ignored the AI’s plea. “Where are we now?”

  Twi’s wire pulled taunt, then went lax. The screen over the pilot’s station changed to indicate their position among the vacancy of stars.

  “Still in the Void,” Twi replied.

  Reaghan wrapped her arms around her knees, staring at the display. “Is there anything near us?”

  “Difficult to tell.” The computer chimed. “Wait.”

  The screen in front of them showed a small planet on fast approach. It was fragmented, with the tiniest pieces forming satellites around the largest ones. Small formations of fabricated debris caused further clutter and made any landing impossible. The ship altered course and came to a stop in a standard orbit.

  “There, I halted the command,” the AI said. “The ship was apparently en route to these coordinates when it encountered whatever set it adrift. When I unlocked the system, it carried out its last order.”

  “Well, whatever it was on its way to do, I’d say it arrived too late.”

  “Still, it’s interesting. My understanding was this region was called Void for a reason, and yet we’re looking at a planet.”

  “Any ideas?”

  “Many, though I’m hesitant to voice them.”

  Reaghan frowned at the screens. “The bits of metal might be valuable. Especially if we are going to repair the Scavenger.”
/>   “That’s just it. I don’t see any other ships on the sensors.”

  Reaghan stiffened. “What are you saying?”

  “I think it became dislodged when we jumped. Or…” The AI didn’t seem to want to finish her statement. Instead, an image of the ships gliding toward a wormhole appeared on the screen. They entered the anomaly together, but only one seemed to come out the other side.

  “Did it disintegrate on the way through?”

  “It looks that way. I suppose we could go back and try to confirm it, but it doesn’t look good.”

  Reaghan considered Twi’s offer. It was tempting. The Scavenger was hers, a repaired wreck of a ship she had managed to procure from a junkyard. Even with the constant upkeep it required to keep flying, she was hesitant to just abandon it. She knew the Scavenger’s quirks. How the consoles needed a gentle kick to actually display the information she needed, if Twi wasn’t around to give it to her. This ship, however, was a completely different animal. Despite being older, the systems ran like a well-oiled machine that didn’t need much her touch.

  Reaghan sniffled. Still, Twi doesn’t lie about odds. In the end, we’ll likely just waste time and energy searching for something that’s just atoms now.

  “Well?” Twi asked.

  “What’s it called?”

  “The ship?” Twi consulted her connection. “Best translation I have is Aeon. Now, don’t change the subject.”

  She cast another look around the bridge and quietly sighed, “Thanks for the offer, but welcome home, Twi.”

  “I can’t wait to see all the data in this system. Think of all the time it’s spent in this region of space. Even adrift, there had to be something that kept track of what happened over the years.”

  The AI moved so fast it was hard for even Reaghan’s practiced eyes to follow. She vanished between two of the consoles, never to resurface. “I’m going exploring,” Reaghan called out.

  “Stay on your comm!”

  “See you in a bit.”

  The doors she had passed on her way to the bridge were now wide open. Most were just shells, though all were clearly designed for eventual humanoid occupation. Reaghan made a few notes of what each had to offer in terms of space so they could be converted to whatever rooms they needed.

  A shiver suddenly ran down her spine. She hadn’t brought rations! It hadn’t crossed her mind since they weren’t planning on leaving the Scavenger too long. Reaghan took several deep, calming breaths. She just had to believe they would find intact planets out there. Well, that and hope that what we find is compatible with my digestive system.

  Reaghan stepped just inside a dark room, instinctively making her small stars to see by. Long tables, like what could be found in a hospital or clinic, lined one of the walls, while all sorts of equipment sat along the other. Her gaze was quickly drawn to the large, fluid-filled tube in the center of the room. Arms, each with a different attachment, came off it like branches.

  Reaghan walked around until she found a console. Like the bridge, the information was reasonably translated into something she could read. She pushed the button for lab work and immediately found herself dodging one of the arms as it searched for its patient. She kept low while darting out of the way, then watched as it tried to take samples at the first examination table.

  “Reaghan?” Twi’s voice came over the comm.

  “Yeah?”

  “Come up here. I found something interesting.”

  The arm swung past her to deposit its nonexistent samples for testing. “On my way.”

  Twi was hovering inside the door when she entered the bridge. “Hurry up!” the AI beckoned, leading the way toward a station at the far side of the room.

  Reaghan floated over on a bit of conjured wind. “Better?”

  Twi ignored her sarcasm. “We have a problem.”

  Reaghan felt her limbs tense and she mentally braced herself for the worst. “Don’t tell me, the Aeon’s no better than the Scavenger is and we have to try to find some other ship.”

  “Nothing like that.” A wire embedded itself into the console. “I found more on the Aeon’s mission in Void.”

  “Just tell me. If there’s one trait you don’t need to adopt from us humanoids, it’s the need for suspense when delivering difficult news.”

  Twi let out a slow breath. “Fine then. Apparently, the builders of this ship became interested after repeated encounters with a vortex that served as a bridge between the two regions of space. The passage remained intact long enough for them to give complicated orders and navigate the ship from the other side. The Aeon also has a unique propulsion tech that’s just amazing—”

  “Cut to the chase, Twi.”

  “We might not be able to get back. The last message the ship sent to its mission control was that it was being chased. It must’ve went dark to avoid being detected. Unfortunately, that’s all the message says and the logs for the incident, along with a lot of data, has been corrupted.”

  “We haven’t found anything on sensors yet, have we?”

  “No, but I wonder if it’s only a matter of time.”

  “That does seem to be our luck lately, doesn’t it?”

  “We have enough power to perform another jump right now, but after, we will have to recharge. There’s another set of spatial coordinates set in the computer that we can use.”

  Reaghan’s brow furrowed “That accounts for the spikes I saw in their power logs.” She let out a long sigh, “Do it, but keep sensors at maximum. That way, we get a bit of a heads-up on whatever’s out there. This ship does have weapons, right?”

  “Of course,” Twi said. “I suggest you strap yourself back in. This might get… bumpy.”

  Now that she was expecting the shake and rattle of the initialization process, she leaned back in the chair like a seasoned vet. Her hands, however, still maintained a tight grip on the arms. Twi’s clinging to her jacket also seemed more relaxed, though the occasional quiver told her otherwise. The Aeon gave one final jolt, then came to a smooth glide.

  “Where are we now?”

  “In orbit above another planet. I have coordinates, but no context for them,” Twi answered apologetically.

  “So we’re still in the Void. Any unfriendlies?”

  “Nope. Sensors read that the atmosphere and climate are similar to what we’re used to.”

  “Good. Let’s get down there and check it out. Maybe it’ll somewhere to get supplies.”

  “Reaghan… I’m hesitant to suggest it, but I should integrate with the ship like I did with the Scavenger.”

  “No.”

  “But, Reaghan—”

  Twi’s inert form in the palm of her hand flashed through her mind. “Absolutely not,” she said, standing abruptly, causing Twi to flutter in shock. “Get us down to the planet, please.”

  “Of course, Reaghan.”

  Reaghan stepped off the ship and closed her eyes. A pleasant wind blew across the plains, carrying with it the scent of flowers and grasses. Twi was right in the analysis. It could be any terraformed planet if you ignored the fact that it was constantly a starless night. Speaking of Twi…

  Reaghan turned back to the ship and activated the comm. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”

  “I should stay and familiarize myself with how to instruct you on ship operations,” Twi replied. “Be careful. We don’t need to invite trouble.”

  Reaghan didn’t try to reestablish the link when the AI closed it. The message was clear; Twi was pissed at her for denying her request. She huffed, pivoting on her heel and starting off in a random direction. Luckily, the flora and fauna had adapted enough to be luminescent enough for her to see by and not have to conjure any light sources herself.

  She could see Twi’s point. Why shouldn’t she allow the AI to integrate? Having her integrated like tha
t would be faster than transmitting the commands via her wires. Still, it might be faster, but it meant that she’d be susceptible to everything that happened to the ship, like it had on the Scavenger. She couldn’t risk that again; she wouldn’t.

  She let out a low groan of frustration that bordered becoming a growl. “Why can’t you see it, Twi? Why do you have to insist upon always being connected?” She cast a sad look in the direction of the Aeon. “Just don’t be mad at me too long, huh?”

  She broke through the trees and found herself overlooking a picturesque valley with a wide river that wound its way through. In the distance, she could just make out a smaller cluster of buildings on a far bank. Her heart beat in her chest. Civilization!

  Her hand instinctively rose to her comm, then paused. No, Twi was too angry to be interested in her findings yet. She’d have to check it out and fill her in later.

  Elation made her float a foot off the ground. Instead of correcting the motion, she used the breeze to sail over to the village. She spread her arms out wide to enjoy the wind whizzing past her.

  Reaghan landed with several meters between herself and the village. It was quiet for it being a time when most should be hard at work or out and about. The buildings were made of fabricated metal—the early stages of construction for a city or an outpost. Reaghan snapped a skintight shield around herself so it wouldn’t be obvious if she were to walk through a crowd. She didn’t bother to hide the gun. That way, any potential troublemakers had ample warning of what she had at her disposal to defend herself.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she stepped beyond the initial buildings and caught sight of the square. The majority of the settlement was little more than piles of rubble. Carts and early versions of hovercars were burned shells. She turned in place to get a complete picture. It wasn’t from artillery or some sort of aerial bombardment; that sort of destruction tended to be messy, instead of the neat piles she was seeing.

  “Hello?” she called out, though judging by the amount of growth in the rubble, the destruction had happened long ago.