Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 55 - Deduction

"Wake up, Walter," yelled Megan, shaking his shoulder.

He groaned, blinked his eyes open and slowly raised his head from the ungainly position flopped backwards over the back of the command chair.

"Sorry, Commander," he groaned. "I didn't mean to steal your seat. It's just comfier than the other seats."

"So comfy that you fell asleep?" she laughed.

"I'm sorry, Comma..."

"Don't worry, Walter. I'm not kicking you out of the chair. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on a couple of things. I didn't think you'd be asleep."

"I've been tired for the last few days, Commander."

"Are you sleeping okay?"

"Too well, if anything, Commander."

Megan shrugged then spun one of the other chairs to face Walter and plonked herself in it.

"I think we should focus our efforts on the control room we found. It has to be the way to control this alien vessel and get us back to where we're supposed to be."

"I agree, Commander, but deciphering their language and the controls could take years."

"We don't have years," she replied. "There has to be a way to speed that up."

"I've had Foxy trying to decide the markings and displays in the video from our visit. She hasn't come up with much so far, Commander."

"Do you think she can crack it?"

"If any of us can, Foxy is the best bet. The problem is we have no start point and no frame of reference."

"It's not just translating what's there, we'll need to accurately translate our instructions into a form the alien control interface understands. I think another trip to that control room is called for."

"Who will you want to go this time?" Walter asked nervously.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to force anyone to go who doesn't want to." She smiled reassuringly. "To be honest, I'm not sure who should go. None of us really has a skillset which stands out as suitable for that one."

"A vessel as large and advanced as this one must have a very comprehensive computer system, Commander. There must be a way to communicate with it."

"It would certainly take more than an autopilot to manoeuvre us on board, close the outer doors and resume its original course," she sighed.

"I can't get away from the scale of the numbers."

"How do you mean?"

"This alien ship didn't just happen across us by chance. The odds of that are far too small; one in billions. Therefore, it must have detected us from a range. The greater that range the greater the likelihood it would find us. Also, detecting us from a great distance gives it more time to adjust its trajectory to match ours.'

"That makes sense," she nodded.

"It sounds simple but the ship around us is hundreds or thousands of times bigger than the Arcadian. Either it detected us months before it captured us or it turned and accelerated millions of tons of vessel in a matter of days, needing more energy than we can imagine, more than the sun puts out."

"So, either it happened to be near us, heading in the same direction at crazily extreme odds or it detected us at a crazily extreme distance or expensed an insane amount of energy to rendezvous with us?"

"Yes, Commander. None of those seems likely, at all."

"Could it have pulled us from a distance, using some sort of tractor beam?"