Into The Void (30 page)

              Captain Steele's DSSM warned him of incoming contacts from behind. He spun around as two creatures emerged from around the corner. He couldn't see them with anything other than heat vision so he aimed his rifle at them and fired while moving to the rec room for cover. His DSSM took several rounds and the creatures died as he shot them. His DSSM told him of movement from the bridge coming his way and he was hit with several more rounds to his back. He turned around and fired at them then did a tactical reload for his rifle. He didn't know where they were coming from or how many he had passed getting to the bridge. He had to protect Jamie. The bridge is what he needed to take.

              Captain Steele's DSSM registered a dozen more heading towards the bridge from the other hallway on the other side of the ship that leads to the bridge. He made a move towards the bridge utilizing what cover he could. He moved to a pillar in the hallway when he encountered 10 more of those things. He fired several rounds taking down four and wounding two more. He ended up getting hit 10 times. He wasn't sure what they were but he knew that they weren't going to hurt Jamie. He was going to make sure of that.

              Captain Steele was getting pinned down by those things and he knew that he couldn't throw a grenade. He couldn't risk damaging the ship anymore than it already was. He knew they probably didn't care about the ship, just Jamie, and he knew he was out numbered and out gunned. He leaned out from cover firing several rounds dropping three more. He quickly decided that making his way through them into the bridge wouldn't necessarily be easy. His DSSM pinged him that enemies were coming from behind. He turned around and shot several of them. His DSSM warned him that the creatures coming from the bridge were making an advance on him. He leaned out from the pillar and fired several rounds. His heat vision showed that they were making an advance but it also showed they were using a heat shield as well that was blocking his bullets and it also had the effect of them being able to hide behind it. He thought about using the invisibility part of his suit, but he wasn't sure what kind of technology they have and they already knew he was there. He decided to save that card for another time.

              Captain Steele leaned around the corner to shoot when he took a large blast to his arms, upper chest, mouth, chin, and forehead from a several feet away. He knew that it was some kind of powerful shotgun. His suit took most of the blast but it left his face bleeding. He could feel his blood pour down from his forehead across his right eye and down and around his left eye. He could also feel his upper lip torn from his nose to the bottom of the lip with blood dripping down and around his lips. He knew the blood was going to be falling down his chin and pooling in his face mask. Their weapons have somehow pierced some of his armor.

              Captain Steele knew that if they rounded that corner with those shotguns and unloaded on him his DSSM would probably take the damage as he killed them but knew that he still needed this suit to be in good condition to build the Instant Teleportation Device. Plus, they had already pierced his armor once with a shotgun so it could continue to piece his armor. He decided to make a tactical retreat and make his way around to the other hall way that led to the bridge.

              Captain Steele leaned his gun past the pillar and shot some rounds to try and get them to duck their heads then made a run back to the rec room. He was turning into the rec room when he saw several more. He open fired on them killing them where they stood. He then checked on the hallway he was just in to see if the creatures were still coming his way. Several of them broke off and went back to the bridge. He looked at where the creatures he killed fell. There were nothing there. He decided to continue with his plan anyway. He left the rec room and headed towards the cargo bay. It was important that he protect that cargo as well as Jamie. As he was headed there his DSSM pinged something in the food storage room where the food was produced. He knew there were much much bigger priorities so he left it be.

              Captain Steele went down the hall and found some creatures just standing around and so he shot them. One of them picked up his shotgun and shot at him. Captain Steele got hit with some of the shotgun's projectiles in his lower chest, stomach, and thighs but continued on. He continued on and found some more. He leaned out from a pillar and shot them and they went down. He reloaded and moved down the corridor and leaned up against the wall just outside the cargo room. He peaked into it and found several creatures. He needed to be careful one wrong shot could do a lot of damage to necessary equipment.

              Captain Steele activated the invisibility aspect of his DSSM and quickly made his way into the cargo room. He found one creatures, grabbed it, and snapped its neck all while remaining invisible. It then quickly disappeared as it fell to the ground dead. He liked that, it made it easy. He then quickly moved to the second one and snapped its neck, then to a third. While snapping the third one's neck, one creature looked over and acted surprised to see a creatures neck suddenly snap without reason. Captain Steele quickly grabbed his knife and was upon the creature before it could turn its gun in his direction. Captain Steele took his knife and sliced right through the creatures head spilling its freezing cold green blood onto him. His cloak then adapted the blood on him to be hidden as well.

              Captain Steele cleared out the cargo bay in seconds and shut the door and made sure it remained sealed. He quickly moved to the engine room and saw they were just looking at the engines. He had bigger priorities. He continued on quickly and came to the lab where there were about two dozen. They were watching his video logs.

              “That'll keep you freaks occupied for a while,” Captain Steele said as he moved passed it while still cloaked.

              Captain Steele moved toward his bedroom and found one laying down in his bed. He had bigger priorities than some creature sleeping on the job. He decided he will probably just interrogate him later. He then quickly made his way to the bridge. He peaked out from around the corner. There was close to two dozen. That makes almost 50 of these things left on the ship. He leaned around the corner again and saw them messing with the console that houses the core for Jamie.

              Captain Steele needed to save his friend. He looked around the corner again and saw the shield sitting there. There were two of them next to it. He knew he had to get to them and kill them so they couldn't use it. He couldn't reach them without really exposing himself on all sides without cover. He wasn't sure what weapons they had either and if they might be able to pick up his invisibility. His heat vision wasn't picking anything up other than their low body temperature and the extremely high temperature of their shield.

              Captain Steele leaned around the corner and shot the creatures closest to the shield. He was able to take down 6 before needing to reload. He reloaded then leaned around the corner and saw they had picked up the shields and were looking in his general direction trying to figure out exactly where the shots came from. The creatures from the lab ran towards the bridge to help.

              Captain Steele remained invisible, hoping they wouldn't see him and that they would walk right past him. If they did walk past him they would then most likely run down the other corridor looking for him assuming that's where he was shooting from. He waited as the creatures ran right by him. They talked to each other then started to run down the other hallway. There were three left in the bridge excluding one of them that was at Jamie's console. That one wasn't invisible for whatever reason. It appeared to be using some kind of electrical saw to cut the console open.

              Captain Steele sneaked up to the creature furthest away and ripped its head off causing its blood to gush onto him. He walked up to the next creature and slit its throat causing its blood to spill onto his arms and legs. He then shoved the next creature down onto its knees with his left hand and jabbed his knife into the third creature's head pulling out the knife flinging the creature's blood on him. He then walked up to the one at Jamie's console and tapped it on the shoulder. The creature turned around as Captain Steele uncloaked and his helmet came off and folded down into his suit. Fear enveloped the creature's eyes as it saw Captain Steele's bleeding and torn face, with the blood of the creature's friends all over Captain Steele. The creature looked into Captain Steele's eyes and saw the burning determination to protect his friend at all costs.

              “Leave her alone!” Captain Steele said enraged as he threw out his left hand grabbing the creature by its throat and lifted it up one foot above the floor as it struggled to get free, his right hand still holding his rifle pointed towards the creature's legs.

              “You think you can kill my friend?” Captain Steele demanded to know angrily, “No one kills my friends. I will protect my friends. I will even die for my friends! However, today is not that day. No, today, YOU WILL DIE!”

              Captain Steele squeezed the creatures throat so hard his neck bones shattered and the skin broke causing the head and body to separate and fall to the ground separately.

              As soon as the body and head of the creature hit the floor a creature walked around the corner into the bridge. It looked at Captain Steele with his hand still in the air, his rifle still pointed towards were the creature's legs had just been, and then ran down the hall. Captain Steel grabbed his rifle and shot it in the back just as some of the creatures rounded the corner at the far end of the hall. He ended up shooting his entire magazine into them killing 15 of them. He then reloaded and fired down the hall killing another 10 of them while getting hit with more of their bullets. Captain Steele then moved toward the other hallway that led to the bridge, reloaded, then open fired down the hallway. They raised a shield and proceeded to fire at him. He emptied a magazine then reloaded and shot more rounds down the hallway. He was able to kill all but 4 that were hiding behind the shield. They slowly approached firing rounds at him as he hid behind the pillar waiting for them to come around the corner and into the bridge.

              Captain Steele saw the shield come around the corner before he ran and jumped towards them. They all ducked and moved away from the shield while the one with the shield pointed it upwards and Captain Steele landed on it. Captain Steele then pointed his rifle at the creature holding the shield and shot the creature in the forehead, just beyond the top of the shield, running the magazine empty. Captain Steele then grabbed his hand gun with his right hand, and extended his right arm all the way out towards the creature on his right and shot it in twice in the head. He then bent his elbow so that his right hand was in front of his chest and fired the gun at the creature on the left. The last creature was just getting up from the ground and raised his rifle toward Captain Steele as Captain Steele moved towards the creature. He grabbed the creature's rifle, tore it from the creature's hands, then shoved the barrel into the creatures head and emptied the magazine.

              Captain Steele then turned his attention to his Jamie.

Chapter 22

Absolute Dissolution

              The console that held Jamie's Artificial Intelligence had been sealed in a small room at the back of the bridge. If you didn't know where to look you wouldn't have had any idea that it was there. There was a very thick door, and behind it was a small room about a quarter the size of a telephone booth. This room housed the AI core. The room was one giant computer and at the center of the room was the console. This console could be pulled out partially or completely. This console housed all that Jamie was. It housed her personality, her ability to think, her memories of everything, and even what her holographic form would look like. It was everything Jamie was. The room was supposed to be so secure that the only way it could be opened was either by completely vaporizing the ship, loosing the core, or by the key passwords that only Captain Steele and the top three generals in the Earth Military knew.

              The keywords required certain phrases and words to be typed into a hidden console, that could only be activated by using the bridge controls a certain way. After the hidden console opened up and the keywords typed, there then came a key phrase to say in a certain way. After that, a specific spot on the wall needed to be touched by an organic, so the droids Jamie controlled couldn't do it, then another phrase said. Only four people ever knew all the details. The only other way it can be opened is if Jamie opened it herself but still the wall needed to be touched by an organic so one of the droids she controlled wouldn't be able to do it. The wall was close to 20 feet long and 7 ½ feet tall. No one could have known where to touch the wall. If Jamie initialized the opening, then another set of walls would fold in opening the AI core to look more like a trapezoid then small rectangular box. It would also indicating she started the process. It was designed to be more opening and psychologically welcoming to Captain Steele, as if a human was opening themselves up to someone as an indication of trust.

              The console that housed her was only about 3 inches tall and looked like a cube. The console was designed of durable carbon nano aggravated diamond rods laced neutron star fiber. It was the exact same thing the DSSM suits were made of, however there were two differences. Outside the core of this console is nothing but pure neutron star fiber with the diamond rods followed with a sheet of metal on the outside hiding the neutron star fiber. It was much like steel rods in concrete with some kind of material outside the concrete for hiding the concrete for decorative purposes. It could withstand almost any force. At the very core of this console is where Jamie was. Every single time she asked to come out of the AI core she had the console float at the holographic center of her being, where her heart would have been. She didn't need to have the console float there to be able to take a holographic form but normally she would do it. The only exceptions were when Captain Steele couldn't directly protect her, like when he was on a mission or asleep. She just really enjoyed being around him.

              The console had been badly damaged. There were burn marks from where the creatures had tried to cut into it. The door to the AI core was torn apart with part of it sitting on the ground. There were also burn marks where the door fit into the room meaning they used explosives to get into the room. The AI core also had taken burns to the inside of it. No one knew where the AI core is other than him, mankind's top three generals, and about five other scientists and engineers. It was impossible for those creatures to know about it. There was no way they should have known that she was there.

              They had gotten through some of the neutron star fiber and Captain Steele could see inside the core. He could see where the console had been torn out of where it sat in the AI core. Every aspect of security the console and AI core had was torn apart. He could even see the chip inside the console and saw it had been burned. He knew what it meant.

              “Jamie...”

              Captain Steele looked at the core. Maybe he should have went straight into the bridge to kill them. If he had maybe she wouldn't be gone. He thought he had more time. He thought they hadn't gotten into the console. He wasn't sure they had even gotten the console out. They were standing at the door. How could they have gotten in so fast?

              “Jamie... I'm sorry...” Captain Steele said.

              Jamie was the best friend he had ever had. They spent so long on the ship with just each other. They had grown a special bond. He hated her at first but she grew on him.

              “I'm so sorry,” Captain Steele said with tears coming to his eyes, “I'm so sorry.”

              He thought about how when he first started the mission he tried so hard to forget about her. She was always there. It was annoying. He thought she was just some artificial intelligence that was supposed to remind him to do things but she came through for him time after time and looked out for him. He had been with her on this ship for just over 130 years. Time had flown by so fast. She had kept him company over the years and he had come to enjoy every minute of it. She came to his rescue time after time after time. She had saved his life more times than he can remember and when it came time for him to do the same for her he had failed.

              Tears welled up in his eyes and he clutched the console close to his chest and cried.

              “I'm so sorry Jamie. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you... I'm so, so, sorry,” He cried.

              “I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have...” His words drifted off as he wept.

              Captain Steele laid down on the floor and cried. He just didn't care anymore. To him, there was no point in continuing the mission. The Milky Way might be gone anyway. He could still run the ship and complete the mission without Jamie, but it would be much harder. What was the point? He wouldn't know if anyone was left in the Milky Way until after he made the gate and tried it to see if they make it through. There was no point. Even if he thought of a way out the dimensional rift he would be truly alone. He didn't even realize it but Jamie was the only thing that was really keeping him going. He cared about her a lot. He knew that she cared about him a lot too.

              Captain Steele continued to cry. He couldn't help but think about all the things he should have done, all the things he should have said.

              “Jamie... I...”

              The words just wouldn't come. It felt like someone had stabbed his heart with red hot jagged dagger and dragged it downward ripping his heart open. His heart was in pain. The emotional pain was so strong he could feel it physically. Someone he loved was taken from him too soon. He thought back to those final words they spoke.

              Captain Steele thought about them again then he realized that she seemed distracted. Was she occupied with the creatures? Why didn't she ask for help? She would have asked for help. Why was she so distracted right before she asked for help? She would have been watching the images from his DSSM's feed but wasn't.

              Captain Steele pulled up the cameras on the bridge's holoscreens. He pulled through some footage and saw Jamie's holographic form there on the bridge. She looked to be busy and then all of the sudden the screens went black for a couple seconds then it cuts to her suddenly turning toward the direction of the portside airlock. Then she was shot with some kind of gun. Her form looked to be electrocuted before it disappeared.

              Captain Steele looked through the footage again. Why did the camera's go black? They always worked. Something happened. He had to know. Jamie was dead because he wasn't fast enough. He wanted to know. He
needed
to know everything that happened. Something was missing but he couldn't figure out what. He watched it again and again from different cameras. The only cameras that went black were the bridge cameras and it was just before anything happened. The external cameras don't show anything happening outside. He
had
to know what happened. He
had
to know but explanation evaded him. He couldn't figure out what had happened.

              Captain Steele paused to collect his thoughts. Eventually he decided that it was best for him to continue the mission. Jamie would have wanted him to. No matter what, he had to try. It's what she would want. The intense pain in his heart didn't leave, but he had to move on. He had come so far and he couldn't go back. He slowly stepped back to the portside airlock, looked back towards the bridge, and decided to go and grab the Endeavor's engines. He would be able to get enough working parts from them to fix the engines.

              Captain Steele set a navigation marker on his DSSM's navigation system for his ship and then headed towards the Endeavor.

              Captain Steele made his way back to the Space Shuttle Endeavor moving around debris from ships. He quickly paused at the massive ships that had entered the dimensional rift. They looked very familiar. They looked like ships from the Milky Way, only newer and upgraded. He couldn't figure out what they were doing here or even how they got here. He looked to see if he could find any bodies. If he found some he might be able to recognize them to be from the Milky Way. He carefully looked around the debris field and failed to see any. After being unable to find any he carefully went to where he thought the engines were. He saw they were damaged so badly he could hardly tell if they were engines. He headed to another ship and found the engines were far to big for any parts to be shared between his ship and this one. One engine on that ship was large enough to fit the length of his entire ship. He searched a third ship and failed to even find the engines. He searched the immediate area around the ship for anything he could use and didn't find anything.

              After being unable to find any engines or engine parts that could be used, Captain Steele headed back towards the Endeavor using his DSSM's navigational system. He wasn't sure why his DSSM suit was able to keep track of the Endeavor's location but not his own. Maybe he traveled too fast for the nav system in his DSSM suit to keep track of.

              Captain Steele wasn't previously aware of how far off course he was until the ship entering the dimensional rift caused him to divert his course. He had only found his ship because of the ships entering the dimensional rift caused him to go in another direction. He would have never found his ship if they didn't show up.

              Captain Steele was about five miles out from the Endeavor when he really started wondering if the engine parts were compatible. He knew they were his only shot of getting the engines to work. He also wondered about how the Endeavor got into the dimensional rift when he remembers seeing videos of it exploding. Some parts were recovered but a lot of it disintegrated.

              Captain Steele was just outside the Endeavor. He gently landed on it. He peaked into the windows on the front of the ship and didn't see anyone inside. He quickly located a hole in the side and climbed in activating his magnetic boots so he could stay attached to the floor. There was no gravity in this ship unlike the first three he entered in the dimensional rift. He activated his heat vision and started searching the ship. He didn't want to run into any more of those things. He moved from the crew cabin and into the middeck where storage would have been kept. He then made his way around floating debris and was surprised to find no cargo anywhere. Most of the cargo was never recovered when it disintegrated.

              Captain Steele continued searching the ship as he made his way from the middle deck to aft fuselage where the main engines would be. He checked them over and saw they had had minor damage. The reason the last flight of the Endeavor ended in disaster was because of a critical temperature failure in the engines. The engines completely disintegrated at the upper level of the atmosphere at speed of mach 30, or close to 10,200 miles per second, a little more than 10.2 times faster than needed to escape the pull of gravity on Triton.

              Captain Steele started to carefully cut the engines out of their place with a special torch so he could pull them back to his ship. He slowly cut around where the engines were in the hull, careful not to cut anything important on the other side. After successfully cutting them out from the hull he headed outside the ship to cut from there. He wanted to see if the airlock still worked and approached it. He laid his hand on the airlock door and looked out.

              The Endeavor was a shinning example of human ingenuity and skill. It was a part of the United State's space program for so long before being retired and then brought back into service. It was a symbol of Earth, of mankind. It was an iconic design that everyone in the milky way knew. This design lasted so long while actively being used and then stood the test of time again in the museum. No one could believe something so old would last so long. They put it back in service due to its durability with new retrofits. It looked almost the exact same with the paint design and shape. This shuttle design was used when mankind first met other races in the Milky Way. Mankind had stepped foot on a rocky planet around Barnard's Star. The star had several planets and was only about 6 light years away from Earth's solar system. Mankind had settled on that planet for a year and then set out for the next planet in the system. When they left orbit they came across another race. It was first contact and it was peaceful. The shuttle used that day was the Space Shuttle Discovery and it was the first contact with another race of sentient beings.