The ship settles, the reverberations calming to stillness after a few seconds of my bones rattling in aftershocks. I search the room for signs of damage.
Nothing. We're all okay.
Hayomo catches my eye and nods, sending me one of her last well wishes — a sentiment she can stick right up her ass for all I care. She closes the airlock behind her on her exit, cutting us off from ARC10. I slide my mask down and hear the seams suction the hood, sealing me from the foreign atmosphere. The heads-up display activates in blue and the instant sound of air rushes around my thin helmet. The light buzz of the empty comms surrounds me. I fill them. "Ready, VIPERs?"
They shout in unison.
Taking the lead, my HEL-SR at tactical across my chest, I step forward. The warmth from fresh battery packs charging at my hip reassures me. We're finally on an even playing field. There's nothing between me and a new world but the thick locks of the hatch. The last time I saw this hatch move, it closed us away from our home on Earth, shutting me from Dean who stood beyond it.
The locks disengage.
The top cracks. Bright light breaks through. The rays strike my eyes. An agonizing inch at a time, it reveals the alien territory.
Which is funny because doesn't this make us the aliens now? I chuckle to myself.
"What's so funny, Reaper Boss?" Umpire's question strains through what must be tight lips. I shift in place to face him and wonder how many of the others are just as nervous as he is. Flatts slaps his ass.
I turn back around and face the land.
Slow. The hatch is so slow.
My fingers stretch and flex in my gloves. Another inch of bright light pours into our cabin. We stand together, half exposed to the glare. The brightness creeps down our bodies until it lands at our feet. We're surrounded in a white world where holding our hands up against our eyes does no good against the garish illumination.
The ramp lands with a hardy thump. When the white clears, we get our first glimpse of Xeno A-302.
Now I understand the view from above – the yellow ball floating in my window makes sense.
Dense mustard clouds roll over the surface of the planet. The fog speeds around our platform and drifts into ARC10, inching closer toward our boots. With the bump in our landing, we obviously struck hard terrain, but the constant movement of scattered nimbus suggests otherwise. If we were to step out, would we fall through?
As commander, it's my hypothesis to test.
I swallow hard and take one step closer to the ground.
Panic rises as I descend, foot over foot, sideways down the ramp. Cloud tendrils curl around my ankles, thickening the closer I step to the ground. At the lip of the hatch, my courage wavers. I'm shin-deep in the cloud, but I still feel ARC10 beneath my feet.
My entire body, from my heels to my hairline, halts in place. Blaring sirens, massive red flags, all alerts scream in my mind and tell me to stop and don't go any farther because it's not just my life on-board anymore.
I can't breathe.
Who do I disappoint? My planet or my child?
"Commander?" Hayomo's curt question cuts the air in my helmet. I shake my head of my worry.
This is part of the job.
Without another thought, I step out of ARC10 and onto Xeno A-302. My foot hits solid ground.
I deflate with relief. "It's good. Let's move."
They disembark behind me.
I scan the area from side to side, scoping out the flat land, watching for possible threats. A line of ships in varying shapes emerge from the mist. I recognize none. Doesn't matter, they appear abandoned anyway. We're totally alone out here.
Beyond the soft static in my ear, I strain to make out any sounds.
There's nothing.
I don't even hear the crunch of the land as we walk. The horizon waffles between yellow and white. It hurts to look directly at the line that connects the ground and sky, but we move forward. We tread in silence until a faint, repetitive beep catches my attention.
It's directly ahead of us. I crouch a little lower — a very uncomfortable position when my body is squeezing against its restraints and my child is pressing against my kidneys. The soft alert crescendos. Cautiously, we keep walking. The noise persists. It increases its tempo becoming a rapid thrum.
"Unknown noise is dead ahead," I say.
"The closer we get, the louder it resonates," Coodi confirms.
"I know. Keep your feet low to the ground when you walk, VIPERs."
The noise escalates into a rapid vibration. I no longer hear it as much as feel it.
I take one more step.
It stops.
We wait.
"Commander?" Coodi steps closer to my shoulder.
I slide my foot forward.
The land beneath my foot disappears. I bobble back and forth as my boot floats in the air.
"What the hell?" I pull back. The vibrations return. "The ground's gone."
No one says a word as I puzzle through this. I've discovered an opening in the planet.
Seven curious faces peer back at me through clear visors. They expect action. With a hesitant step forward, I dip my foot into the unknown.
I crouch closer and closer to the ground, my foot sinking into the hole under the thick cloud covering the alien planet. It hits the hard floor. Just to be sure, I sweep my foot around. It's another platform. Lower than the one before, but it's there. I jump into it with both feet.
The clouds circle around my thighs.
"All clear," I enunciate with a hint of pride. My foot juts out again and I feel the disappearance of the ground as before. I step down and realize that I've come across a set of stairs.
The next step down is taken with a bit more confidence. The flowing white surface is up to my neck and, taking a leap of faith, I duck down under it and check out the vast world below.
A new microcosm appears. Structures, pointed, jagged, and dark pierce the air from all angles. This world is made of sharp points. The stairs, as I can see them now, come straight down from the sky and curve around a massive, steep mountain that resembles a shard of black glass.
"You're not going to believe this," I whisper. I don't know why I'm whispering.
It's beautiful. The heavy, thick clouds roll over a rock ceiling. Massive obsidian pillars hold up the platform sky. I motion for my VIPERs to follow me so they can check out this lucid dream too.
"Holy Heap." Coodi's sentiments reverberate through my helmet as we step deeper into this sub-level city under the sandy canopy of stone.
The descent is short and when we reach the bottom, two humanoid creatures in matching pink skin greet us. Their proportions are similar to ours, maybe a stretch longer. The dome of their slick, bald heads shine above bulbous chestnut-brown pimples protruding from their scalps. They stare at us through filmy blue pupils the size of tennis balls, and with slim lips in a grim line, they greet us. Black slits framing their lips flutter open and closed with what I assume is quick breath.
As I was taught, I lift the badge attached to my reconnaissance suit belt and hold it out for them to inspect. The one on the right pulls out a small stick. His three fingers hold it carefully as it roves the surface of my badge. A little vibration travels from my card to my arm, and we're waved through. The sentinel returns to his original position as if we had never crossed paths.
The whole interaction seems normal. Calm. Like they were expecting us. I guess they were.
We move on to fulfill our simple mission — find the fueling headquarters. Arrange a supplies transfer with the proper authorities. Oversee the intake of assets. Get the hell out of here.
"Where to, Reaper Boss?" Umpire speaks up for the rest of the group.
The resonant beeping emerges from the ground again. I step forward. "This way, I guess."
This planet is a buffet of bodies. Monstrous, bizarre bodies and diminutive creatures that roam in different stances. Some are upright, some are forward on three or more limbs. Some float. Some slink. Some absolutely stink. I hold my breath as the malodorous entity slithers past, leaving his horrible trail behind. My suit is supposed to be airtight.
There aren't any signs. There's nothing to indicate we're moving in the right direction. Coordinates appear in my heads-up display, but I follow the rapid beeps instead. They lead to a flimsy, top-heavy clay structure leaning left. I jab a thumb at it.
"That? That's the first port of enormous renown?" I turn to the VIPERs who have the same confusion behind their masks.
"Copy that, Commander. You are no more than twenty feet from the target. Proceed with caution. Hostiles may be present." SCOPE is confident enough to make it seem like they were leading me to my rack.
An enormous beast, a long-haired bull standing on two massive legs, huffs as it shoves me out of the way, grumbling something in a language like chucking globs of mayonnaise onto a marble wall. I stumble on unsteady feet.
This thing has to be nearly eight feet tall and must weigh about a ton. Twisting, bony horns protrude from its skull, splitting its long auburn hair down the middle.
My fingers tighten on my weapon. I quell the urge to aim between its eyes, asking it to shove me again, just one more time. If it touches me again, I know I won't go down without putting a few holes in its face. I want to call out to it. A single word lurks in my throat as I turn to face its retreating back.
"What'd you see, Reaper Boss?" Flatts' voice pipes up in my ear.
The mangy cow continues on its way, ignorant of how close it came to being burgers.
"Nothing. All clear." I return to the front of the group, slicing the crowd as we enter the hub.
The inside is silent and empty — not what I expected at all. A large screen blinks to activity in front of us.
"Finally," I say. "Something I recognize."
I touch the screen. The white and green image appears as a jumbled pile of symbols.
"Mother of Heap." I flip through the images. Geometric shapes, foreign objects, and a myriad of other nonsensical images flutter around the screen as I try to find something distinguishable.
In a cluster of symbols near the bottom of the screen, the URE's flag appears – the single star surrounded by ten smaller ones – I tap it and wait.
Another round of high-pitched beeping emits from the device. The noise disappears and re-emerges further down the hall. I get it now. We follow it.
The noise takes us around the corner to a large, narrow room with a massive ceiling held up by shiny titanium in cobalt blue. The halls reflect the beams of lights from sources we can't see, the sheen guiding us through the thin passage. We follow the noise until it takes us to a partition in the wall. I nod to Coodi who comes forward to try and open it.
"Should I knock first?"
"I'm going to assume they're expecting us." I wait for her to make a move.
When she touches the door, it rolls back on itself, revealing a large room with a circular table in the middle. A creature stands in the middle.
"Do you think we have to fight it?" Umpire raises his rifle, clutching it close to his chest.
"Or eat it?" Norbit chimes in. "Because I'm starving. I'd give it a go."
The humanoid being is about our size, naked and smiling with diamond teeth. It sparkles when it grins. "You are neither obligated to battle nor consume me, my friends."
It speaks English. Thank the fucking Heap. "I'm Commander Janika Lorn of ARC10. Our objective is to acquire fuel for the next leg of our journey. We have orders to arrange provisions from Hub A-320 at oh-ninehundred—"
"Your time doesn't work here, Commander."
I hate getting interrupted. "Excuse me?"
"You have a sense of time that does not exist here. Earth hours and Earth time. It does not exist on Rasiph."
"It's protocol."
"What is protocol?"
"Me telling you the rendezvous time." This is getting annoying.
"It does not matter what the time is. You are late. That is what the problem is. You were scheduled to meet me here nearly three sondits ago."
I just want to get our things and go. "I need clarification on what a sun dot is before I understand how I'm late for it."
"Not sun dots. Sondits. The metrics in which the universe calculates the passage of time. We have no more sondits left to discuss this today. Come. Let us get your affairs in order so that you may keep your port time."
He, or she, I can't tell, slips behind the circular structure in the middle of the room. The dark plate covering the table lifts on our end so that it's facing our new acquaintance. While our side is dark, his face illuminates with the glow of his screen.
"ARC number, please, Commander?" He taps the screen a few times. The sound of rain splattering on rubber bounces back into the room. It's a sweet noise. It puts me at ease.
"ARC10, sir."
"You are the fourth ARC to arrive. There are reports of two more just beyond our atmosphere. You may still be here when the closest of the two docks."
My heart bursts from its tight spot squeezed between my newly engorged breasts and far-too-snug vest. "Another ARC?" I swallow down my spirits in case I get them too high.
"Yes. That is what was reported."
Do I ask? At the risk of looking extremely unprofessional in front of the VIPERs who also have family and friends on other ARCs and won't be able to give their bombardment of questions. "If you don't mind me asking, which ARCs have already passed through, sir?"
"It seems that ARCs one, three, and eight have already fueled and passed. ARC8 only recently left port about twelve klyks ago."
I stare at him. "Clicks? That measures distance."
"You are mistaken again, Commander."
I wait for him to expand on this, but he says nothing. "Our crew members are working to put together your order. We should have it ready within two klyks."
"What the fuck does that mean?" Umpire shouts from the back.
I glare over my shoulder to check out the frustrated frowns of my team. The little man in the front continues tapping into his circular tablet. After a few seconds, he spins it and, on a track, tips it toward the middle. It swivels around to face us. A countdown is prominently featured with a small light pulsing in the corner. When a certain number of pulses emitted from the light, a little number decreases.
"What are the pulses?" I point at the small illumination.
"Those are the pulses of the Core. The center of the universe from which all things expanded."
There's more. I know it. "What's that called?"
"Each pulse of the Core is called a blip."
I get it now. "And how many blips are in a sondit?"
He pulls the wheel back to his view, seemingly annoyed. "There are one thousand blips in a sondit."
"And how many sondits in a clyk?" Coodi asks from behind me.
"There are thirty sondits in a clyk."
"Boss," Umpire says in our private channel. "Those pulses were going in nearly three-second intervals. You know what this means?"
I heave a heavy sigh. "We're going to be here a long fucking time."
"Forty-eight days and six hours," McCroy says.
We all spin around to stare at him. These are the first words he's said in so long.
My heart soars. Both ARCs will arrive by then. Maybe one of them has Dean on it. Maybe I'll get to apologize for the silence and the stupidity. Maybe we can run into each other's arms and spend a few blissful days together out of the URE, exploring this planet, having adventures, getting into trouble, becoming true pioneers. Maybe I can break the news to him gently. Maybe he'll say it doesn't matter. Maybe he'll just be glad we'll be a family.
He said it himself.
Blood doesn't connect us. Love does.
At least that's what Dean would have said before he discovered I was carrying around the child of his arch nemesis.
"When does the next ship land?" I ask our diminutive host.
"They are tracking at one clyk and three hundred and twelve sondits." He swipes away the screens until his face is no longer illuminated by the bright projection.
"Forty-two days, eight hours, and fifty-six minutes," McCroy says.
"Nerd," Umpire returns.
I sling my rifle around my side and latch it to the hook over my back, locking it in place. "Let's buckle the ship down, VIPERs. We're going to be here a while."