Chapter Six
Minutes earlier, after lowering themselves down into the oxygen vent and uncovering the massive, enclosed rock chamber below, Callum and the others discovered a thin veil of energy at the bottom of the tunnel, which reacted violently, when broken.
“It’s some kind of force field,” Richard deduced. “I’m not sure what’s powering it, but it seems to be the only thing keeping this chamber air tight.”
“Are you saying, we can breathe down here?” asked Callum.
“Yes, sir. I believe we can,” Richard responded.
The four of them then reached the end of the cable and landed on the surface of the hidden chamber.
“It’s a lot warmer down here,” said Max.
“We shouldn’t take any chances,” ordered Callum.
“Nonsense,” Simone boasted. “This is an incredible find and I’m not squandering it.”
She then approached Richard and checked his atmospheric reader. After determining that there was adequate pressure, breathable air and that there were no contaminates present, she exclaimed, “That’s good enough for me.”
She then proceeded to unlock and remove her helmet. Upon removing it, she had no reaction to the environment. She maintained her consistently authoritative expression and was breathing normally.
Callum glared at her with irate eyes.
“You need to stop being so reckless,” he said.
Simone just smiled and replied, “And miss all the fun?”
Callum rolled his eyes, as Max and Richard removed their helmets. Callum was the last to remove his and he did his best to control his bitterness with Simone.
“Smells familiar in here,” Max commented.
“Yeah,” Richard concurred. “Almost like the ocean.”
Richard had no idea, how correct he was. The Starblood also had an uncanny ability to manifest the smells of Drellic’s lucid dreams in the physical world, in order to enhance his experience.
The four of them shined their flashlights along the rocky walls of the chamber and discovered thousands of chiseled drawings and writings. A look of fearful recognition then came over Simone’s face, as she approached one of the paragraphs, etched into the wall, which was a remarkably clear representation of an unknown language.
Callum noticed her expression immediately and calmly approached her.
“Why are you staring at it like that?” he whispered.
“Like what?” Simone asked, defensively. “It’s incredible!”
“That’s not all,” whispered Callum. “I mean, why are you looking at it, as though you’ve seen it before?”
“I haven’t,” Simone answered. “I just think it’s astonishing, as should you.”
“Right,” Callum muttered.
“What’s going on?” Max inquired, as he noticed their private conversation.
“Nothing at all,” Callum answered, sarcastically.
A moment later, the sound of loud panicky breaths filled the room, from a far corner. The team directed their flashlights in the direction of the breathing, to reveal the naked body of a large muscular man on the ground.
Shocked and awestruck, they rushed over to him without hesitation.
“Oh my god,” Simone gasped, as she looked upon Drellic’s face.
Callum knew her reaction for what it was and grabbed her arm.
“What?” he asked, frantically. “Who is he? Do you know this guy? What the hell is going on?!”
“I don’t know,” Simone stuttered. “I don’t know him, I swear.”
Callum squeezed her arm tighter.
“Let go! You’re hurting me!” she yelled.
“What the hell is your problem?” Richard asked Callum.
“She’s lying!” Callum yelled. “She’s fucking lying! She’s been lying to us from the beginning!”
“I’m not fucking lying!” Simone screamed.
“Everyone shut up!” Max yelled, as he placed his fingers on Drellic’s neck and pressed his ear against his chest.
“This guy is barely breathing. We have bigger problems right now.”
“He’s right,” said Richard. “We came all this way to save this guy. Let’s just get him on the ship, then we can sort this out.”
Callum looked around the chamber and noticed that there was no radio equipment or electronic equipment of any kind to be found.
“How was he sending those transmissions?” Callum asked.
Richard and Max were becoming hysterical and looked at Callum, as if he were crazy, while Simone just remained silent and complacent.
“What the hell does that matter right now?!” Richard shouted at Callum. “This guy is dying. We need to get him on the ship right now or this was all for nothing!”
“No! This isn’t right! Something’s wrong here,” Callum yelled. “Look around!”
Max and Richard shined their flashlights around the chamber, as Callum continued to aggressively make his point.
“There’s no radio here!” Callum yelled. “There’s nothing here! So how the hell was he communicating with us?! Nothing about this makes any sense!”
Finally, Simone broke her silence. “That doesn’t matter now,” she said. “They’re right. We won’t know anything until we get him on board the ship.”
She looked Callum in the eye with sincerity and whispered, “Just trust me.”
“Trust you?!” Callum scoffed. “I’m supposed to trust you?”
“Yes,” Simone answered. “Now, more than ever.”
“What do you mean?” asked Callum.
“We’ll talk about this later,” she replied. “Just know that you’re right. You’re right about everything.”
Max and Richard gave Simone puzzled expressions, as she continued.
“But right now, the best thing we can do is get him on board the ship, safely,” she pleaded. “Help us get him on board and I promise you that I’ll explain everything.”
Callum did his best to calm his nerves and eventually put his helmet back on, sealing it. He then began making his way back towards the cable line.
“What are you going to do?” Simone asked him, with a worried expression.
“There’s no signal down here,” he replied. “I’m going top side.”
“And then what?” asked Simone, suspiciously.
He paused for a moment and replied, “I’ll be back with the lifeboat. I promise.”
“Alright,” she replied.
“That is if that big son of a bitch can fit inside it,” Callum added.
Callum climbed the cable line, up through the tunnel and passed through the energy veil, which felt considerably less intense than it had on their way down.
He made his way back to the surface of the moon and could see that Hades appeared to be in perfect condition. Upon reaching the surface, he immediately heard Jack’s voice on his radio.
“Commander, is that you?!” Jack shouted.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Callum responded. “You’re not going to believe this.”
“What?” Jack asked, as Sophia began to talk over him.
“Did you find the survivor?” Sophia asked.
“We did,” Callum replied. “And this is the part you’re not going to believe. The guy is seven and a half feet tall, at least.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Jack.
“No bullshit Jack,” Callum answered. “And here’s another fun fact. He’s butt naked. Not a stitch of clothing on him.”
“How gracious of him,” Sophia muttered.
“Tell me about it,” Callum replied. “There was some kind of pressure chamber, constructed down there a long time ago. That’s what was keeping him alive, but we couldn’t find his suit or any electronics whatsoever. It looks like whoever dumped him here, is long gone and took every last piece of equipment with them. It’s a miracle he survived.”
“I’ll say. Who the hell could’ve pulled something like this off?” Ja
ck asked.
“No idea,” Callum replied. “But we’re going to need a lifeboat. Can you bring one online?”
“Online and ready,” Jack answered. You’ll have it in about five.”
“Make it five minutes ago,” Callum ordered. “He has barely any life left in him.”
“Understood,” Jack replied.
Sophia made her way towards the back of the ship as Jack brought up a diagram of the ship’s “lifeboats”, on his control console. The lifeboats were essentially automated self-guiding pressure chambers with extremely limited supplies of oxygen. They were invented specifically for the Hades mission to Charon, for the purpose of recovering survivors with damaged pressure suits.
Hades was retrofitted with only three 7 foot by 3 foot lifeboats. Jack programmed one of the lifeboats with the coordinates of the target crater on Charon.
“Are you ready back there?” Jack radioed to Sophia.
“Ready to deploy number one on your order,” Sophia replied.
The lifeboats were stored in the very bottom compartment of the ship, just on the other side of the ship’s outer hull. Sophia was stationed at a computer terminal directly above the lifeboat compartment.
Jack gave the order to deploy the lifeboat and Sophia used her instrumentation to open a small hatchway on the ship’s underbelly, allowing for the lifeboat to proceed to the crater on auto pilot.
Callum looked on, as the sleek metallic coffin- like device made its way towards him. Upon reaching the crater, the lifeboat automatically stopped at Callum’s feet. Using the long handle bars on either side of the lifeboat, Callum took advantage of Charon’s extremely low force of gravity and pulled the device up to the tunnel, which led to the underground chamber; still venting oxygen out into space.
It was going to be a tight fit, but Callum was satisfied that the lifeboat would in fact, fit inside the tunnel and pass through it, undamaged.
“Mr. Morioka,” Callum radioed to Richard. He then rolled his eyes. He had forgotten that there was no way for him to send a transmission underground. He decided to use the flashlight attached to his sleeve to signal to the crew below. As he peered down into the tunnel, he saw that the light signal was returned.
Beneath the surface, Simone ordered Max and Richard to put their helmets back on and assist in the receiving of the lifeboat. Together, they climbed the cable line into the tunnel and helped guide the lifeboat safely to the surface of the underground chamber.
“There’s no way this is going to work,” Max said, after having an opportunity to compare the size of Drellic’s body to the size of the lifeboat.
“It has to work,” ordered Simone, as she opened the lifeboat hatch. “Help me get him in there right now. We don’t have time for second guessing.”
Simone, Richard and Max were barely able to lift Drellic off of the ground, regardless of the incredibly low gravity. After a few attempts, they were finally able to place him inside the lifeboat, however his hands and feet were still hanging over the sides. Simone then noticed that Callum had descended the cable line, to join them.
“Get over here and help!” she called to him.
Callum was able to help Max and Richard roll Drellic onto his side and fold his legs inside the compartment. Callum then slowly made his way to the other end of the boat to secure Drellic’s left arm, which was still hanging over the side.
“I think this should do it,” said Callum.
He slowly reached down to reposition the arm, when suddenly, and without warning, Drellic violently grabbed Callum’s right hand and squeezed it as hard as he could.
Callum screamed in pain, as Drellic then promptly released his hand, while still appearing to be unconscious. Callum fell backward onto the ground, while Simone, Max and Richard rushed to his side.
“Are you alright?!” Richard frantically asked.
“What the hell was that?!” Max shouted, as he looked back at Drellic, who was still unconscious and nicely tucked inside the lifeboat, aside from his left arm.
“It must’ve been a reflex,” Simone said calmly, as she put on and sealed her helmet.
All four of them were now ready to return to the surface of the moon.
“You call that a fucking reflex?!” screamed Callum, who was still lying on his back and writhing in pain.
“It’s alright!” Simone shouted, as she cautiously approached Drellic. “It was just a reflex,” she said reassuringly; though it seemed as though she was more interested in reassuring herself.
The others then fearfully watched Simone gently take Drellic by the left wrist and reposition his arm inside the compartment. She then sealed the lifeboat, without incident.
“See? What’d I say?” she arrogantly asked, with a smile.
The four of them needed all of their strength, to muscle the lifeboat back onto the surface, before the auto pilot could safely return it to the ship. Callum’s broken right hand did not help the situation, as Richard had to abandon the lifeboat, in order to aid Callum in his climb up the cable line.
After a considerable struggle, they returned to Hades and left Charon on the morning of October 16th, 2027. Drellic was loaded into the lifeboat compartment of the ship and was then transferred to the medical station, which was right outside Simone’s private quarters.
Once there, he was loaded onto a gurney and hooked up to life support equipment, as he was presumed by the crew, to be in a coma.
Callum and the others had another eight month journey ahead of them, and their food, water and fuel supplies were extremely limited.
And although they were still many millions of miles from home, there was still one thing of greater interest to them, than their own survival; the mystery surrounding their new passenger.