of colors.
“The door is to your grow room. It's self-sufficient. You'll find your fresh fruits and vegetables there, all growing on hybrid trees, bushes, and vines. They are smaller than normal so as to fit inside the room, but nutritious and delicious all the same.”
“Connor, are you ready?” This time it was Admiral Byrd.
Connor shrugged. “Not really, but I'm as ready as can be.”
“Good,” replied Admiral Byrd. “Sit in the cockpit and punch in coordinates 166 into your control panel. You'll spend a day operating Black in this sector, and once you think you have this starfighter understood, then you'll jump.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
“Good luck, son.”
Out of the corner of Connor's eye, and through the cockpit window he saw something move. It was the wall just in front of his starfighter sliding open. He noted that it was a good thing the starfighter was locked in place, or else it would be sucked out into the starlit opening he now saw.
“So,” said Connor. “I'm guessing there isn't a launch tube anywhere in here? I just go out into the sector from this location?”
“You do,” replied the Admiral. “On my mark, we will release the constraints on the landing gear. Don't touch anything. Black will navigate herself out of this room and into space, without the use of ion thrusters. Ion thrusters will only initiate at a certain distance from the starbase.
“So, I'll be floating for a while.”
“You'll be photon sailing is more like it. You'll be propelled by radiation pressure against Black's mirrored-body from the sunlight. The good news is that the mirrors have been engineered to become darker the more the sun hits it. So, you won't see any reflection from the sun off of your craft.”
“I see—and Admiral?”
“Yes, son.”
“What exactly will I be looking for in coordinates 166?”
“We don't know.”
“Great— that makes me feel more comfortable!”
“Connor?”
“Yes, sir.”
“No sarcasm.”
“Aye, Sir.”
As the constraints released, Black shuddered, then lifted gently off the platform. After a few moments it slipped out of the room and into space, moving slowly away from Starbase Matrona.
Connor flipped his HDC vid screen view to the rear of the craft and observed the starbase and all of the ebb glass and ebb metal that held it together. It was a feat of incredible engineering, much like this starfighter.
Through the starbase windows he could see skyscrapers, hovertrains zipping by on hoverrails, and hovercars moving along the streets. The longer he watched, the smaller everything became. He was floating away from his home and heading out on his first mission. He had no idea what he was about to find, or what he was even searching for. For the first time since he agreed to these missions he understood his new position in life— a space investigator. A silly term, but one he'd embrace.
∞
Crystal was strapped in her standing Mech's cockpit, her heart beating a little faster than normal. She was determined. She had thought about this moment for a long time and now stared into the cave—the same cave she had run frantically away from months ago.
“Hendricks? I'm going back in,” she said over the com link.
“Chief, where are you?”
“At the cave.”
“At the...” There was a pause. “The cave? Why are you there?”
Crystal stepped her Mech forward and peered into the cave. She turned on her slit light, highlighting the perfectly chiseled ceiling and walls of the tunnel inside.
“There ain't no part of nature that can create a perfect tunnel like this one. Something’s cooking and I smell it,” replied Crystal.
“Nice analogy, Chief. Don't fire me, but I demand that you turn around. Last time you went in there you came out hysterical.”
Crystal brought her lips to a small, clear hose that hung above her and was attached to the Mech's internal water tank. She took a sip of water. “I wasn't hysterical.”
“Well, you were something and it was a something that I'd never seen from you before.”
Crystal walked her Mech into the cave, slowly moving her slit light from wall to wall, and then to the ground, and back to the walls. “I'm in.”
“Dammit, Chief!”
“Watch it, Hendricks. Superior office here.”
Hendrick's sigh came through the com link, and Crystal couldn't help but feel more powerful because of it. There wasn't anyone in the world that could tell her what to do. There were only those she let think they were telling her what to do.
She continued to move her Mech along, seeing a curve in the tunnel ahead. “I'm going deeper in this time.”
“I know,” responded Hendricks. “How am I supposed to work when you're doing this?”
“Work. Don't worry about me.”
She rounded the curve and the tunnel started to descend. “This is man-made.”
“Then it's a Star Guild Military project. Leave it alone.”
“Hendricks, I saw bare feet tracks last time I was here. That's not normal. That would suggest someone either wondered in here that had very small and very wide feet, then died because of the intense gravity and lack of oxygen. Or...”
“Or, what?” asked Hendricks.
“I haven't thought that far yet.”
“It's almost time to get back to the warehouse and pack up and to Starbase Matrona. Can you get out of there, please?”
Crystal ignored Hendricks and descended into the tunnel, moving around another corner. The tunnel was definitely spiraling, something else that doesn't happen this perfectly in nature, she thought.
“I'm a mile in, it's still descending, and I see no end.”
“Ten more minutes and our shift is over. You don't want to be stranded on this planet when we all leave. It gets beyond cold, to say the least.”
Crystal rolled her eyes and rounded another curve where she abruptly halted the Mech. Her eyes widened.
“This is definitely man made.” She checked her HDC and switched her vid channel to a less occupied one. “Turn your vid channel to 81, and see what I'm looking at.”
“What the Guild?!” uttered Hendricks.
In front of Crystal and on the HDC vid channel was a large door, blueish-white in color, trimmed in gold.
“I'm opening it.”
“The Guild you are!” barked Hendricks.
She reached her Mech's arm out, squeezing the Mech's fingers around a golden door handle. She pulled and when it didn't budge, she changed direction and pushed.
It didn't move.
Suddenly, Crystal shielded her eyes with her forearm, the Mech mimicking her movement, casting a shadow over her cockpit.
“What was that?” asked Hendricks.
“Do you see that, Hendricks?” questioned Crystal, squeezing her eyes shut.
“Something is wrong with the vid channel. All I can see is blue.”
“There's nothing wrong. It's that light. It turned on again. It comes from this door.”
“I told you to leave things alone, Chief!”
The light faded, and Crystal opened her eyes. “The door is pulsing now.”
“Yeah, I see it.”
The pulse vanished and in its place was a view of space projecting from the door, as if she was staring out of a vid screen on a starship. The scene zoomed in, passing an icy blue planet with ice rings, speeding past more planets, then by a reddish-orange one, and stopping at a blue planet, with browns and greens splattered on large land masses.
“I'm watching a vid...of some sort,” explained Crystal. “That planet is gorgeous.”
“Again, I see it,” reminded Hendricks.
The vid flickered off and Crystal was left staring at the door again. She waited, hoping to see something else appear.
She scratched her temple. “I think I'll turn back now.”
Warehouse 11 held a team of Mech's, more than tw
o dozen. It was a medium sized warehouse, although one of many on planet Lumus. It was thickly built to withstand the intense gravity of Lumus and pressurized inside for the same reason, and oxygenated as well: Lumus didn't contain breathable air.
There was nothing pretty about the warehouse: ebb metal ceiling, ebb metal walls, ebb concrete floors.
It was lined with a couple of large offices where some Techies, managers, and administrators worked. The offices were filled with desks and HDC's, always busy, always blaring bright colors and holographic images.
The Mechie’s offices, on the other hand, were simple lockers lining the warehouse walls. They also considered the showers and the bathrooms as their offices as well.
“You ready?”
Hendricks stood over Crystal, his legs on each side of her, almost straddling her.
“Move, you oaf,” growled Crystal, lying on her back, ready for another round of sit-ups.
Hendricks hopped out of the way. “You never tire.”
“And, I wish you would.” She shooed him away with a flick of her wrist. “Go bother someone else.”
“I would, but we're all waiting for you.”
“Wha...?” Crystal looked around and saw that everyone had left the warehouse and the short terminal to the transport ship was empty—no one was walking up toward the ship because they were already on it.
Hendricks extended his hand. “Like I said, we're all waiting for you. My wife doesn't like it when I'm late, and I don't want to have to tell her it was your fault. You know how she gets.”
Crystal gave Hendricks an odd look and grasped his hand, saying, “I've never met your wife.”
Hendricks pulled Crystal into a standing position. “Oh, you'd love her. Now, come on, Chief.”
Walking up the ramp and into the ship, Crystal eyed several Mechies and Techies who were trying to get a