The Void
Episode 3
The door slid open, and several officers sauntered into the mess hall. They all walked with an air of overzealous importance as they joined the rest of the enlisted soldiers. It was something Marcus was used to, and he barely noticed.
Rylee didn’t have that same personality defect and instead acted just like everyone else. Marcus respected that about her and was glad to serve under her. She was a lead-by-example kind of woman who never gave an order she wouldn’t follow herself.
The officers split off, joining their respective teams. Rylee entered the room near the back of the group, and she made her way quickly to where they were sitting. Marcus slid over so she could take a seat, but she didn’t. Instead, she tilted her head, gesturing for them to follow, and then disappeared through a back corridor out of the mess.
Everyone at the table exchanged a glance and then got up to follow. She led them through the narrow halls of the ship to a training deck. It was empty while everyone was still back in the mess.
“What’s up?” Lucas asked after shutting the door behind them. “Didn’t want to talk back there?”
“No,” Rylee said, frowning. “This is a need-to-know sort of thing, and they advised me against letting anything slip outside of my team.”
“Advised?” Marcus asked.
“Advised several times and strenuously, and by the captain, no less.”
“Captain, as in Captain Jessup?” Chelsea asked.
Rylee nodded. “I hope that stresses how important this is.”
“What do you mean?” Marcus asked. “How important what is?”
“We’re one of the advance teams,” she said, and there was a hint of excitement and breathlessness in her voice. “One of three.”
“Advance teams?” Chelsea asked. “Advance teams for what?”
“To go into the Void.”
“The what?”
Rylee shook her head. “No clue, really. No one knows. That’s sort of the craziness to all of this: no one has any idea what is going on.”
“Hold up,” Nigel said. “What are you talking about? Start at the beginning, because we weren’t briefed on any of this.”
“Alright. A few days ago, we lost contact with a planet out in a nearby solar system.”
“When you say ‘we’ lost contact, you mean…?”
“We. Everyone. The fleet, scientists, everybody. So, they sent a ship to investigate, and it never reported back.”
“Okay,” Marcus said.
“So, they sent a few more ships there to check it out, and that’s where things get weird. The planet was gone. Or, like, covered.”
“Uh, what?” Nigel asked.
“It was enveloped in some sort of shell-like thing, but not really a shell. It was still permeable, but completely impossible to see or sense inside. They sent ships around it completely, and it’s like a giant ball in space.”
“The entire planet?”
“The entire system,” Rylee said. “It even contains all light. A perfect sphere.”
“A black hole? I didn’t think something like that could pop up so quickly.”
“No,” Rylee said. “Nothing known or documented. There are dozens of scientific and research ships there now, but they can’t make heads or tails of it.”
“Can they get inside?”
“They can. After the first ship was lost, they sent drones into it, but at soon as they went through the exterior, they lost all contact. The drones never came back.”
“So…”
“Uh oh,” Lucas said. “I see where this is going.”
“We’re the Guinea pigs,” Chelsea said. “They’re sending three teams inside to figure out what this thing is, and we’re one of them.”
“Yeah,” Rylee said. “That’s why we have more information, and why we aren’t allowed to tell anyone else anything I just told you. This is strictly need to know.”
“But we do not even know what is inside,” Chelsea said. “Why all the secrecy?”
“Because it’s new,” Marcus said. “And new usually means valuable. The last thing anyone wants is this reported to family members until we have more information.”
“Can we even get inside?” Nigel mused. “For all we know, the drones didn’t return because whatever they ran into inside the barrier instantly destroyed them.”
Rylee shrugged. “Possible, but the scientists don’t believe that is the case.”
“How could they know? What you’re describing is literally the definition of them having no clue what is going on. They could say we all turn into unicorns when we pass through the barrier, and we can’t disprove it.”
“This isn’t encouraging,” Marcus said. “I think I’d rather not be a Guinea pig and not know what is going on then to get sent through like this.”
“Where is your sense of adventure?” Rylee asked. “Opportunities like this are why we signed up. We get to explore something completely unknown, which rarely happens.”
“It’s also rarely good.”
“Why are they sending anyone at all?” Marcus asked. “Shouldn’t we study the thing more and send more drones before risking human lives? Drones are cheaper than people.”
“Not really,” Nigel said. “With how many trillions of people there are in the world, the raw materials to make a drone are likely more valuable.”
“That’s a scary thought,” Lucas said.
“It’s a rescue mission,” Chelsea said, returning to Rylee’s previous thread. “You said this all started when we lost contact with a planet.”
“A planet and its moon base. We lost contact with both, and now it’s been three days without a word. Command wants to know why we have no contact and what has happened to them.”
“And risking our lives is worth maybe getting a sliver of information,” Nigel said.
Rylee shrugged. “That’s what we signed up for.”
“I signed up to shoot bad guys,” Lucas argued. “Not to get thrown away on a wish and a prayer.”
“How long?” Marcus asked. “How long do we have until they send us in?”
“Two hours,” Rylee said. “We’re already warping that way and should arrive at the outer barrier soon. We’re going to the moon base. The other two teams are heading to different cities on the planet.”
“Simple enough,” Chelsea said.
“The other good news is we get full kits,” Rylee said.
This had the desired effect of perking Lucas up. “Full kits?”
She nodded. “Full kits. All the toys.”
“Holy hell,” he breathed. “They must really mean business.”
“This mission is top priority. The kind of mission they give out medals for.”
“The kind of mission they send medals to your family for,” Nigel corrected, shaking his head. “I don’t suppose I can opt out?”
Rylee laughed. “Cheer up. The entire mission is supposed to take a few hours. We slip through the barrier, check on the moon base and make sure everyone is okay, and slip out to report our findings. Right now, the best theory is that this is just an anomaly in space that will dissipate. For all we know, the scientists on the moon base don’t even know we are out here to get in touch with them.”
“That doesn’t explain the other ship that went missing.”
“Maybe not,” Rylee admitted, “but it doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom, either.”
“True.”
“So, let’s head to the armory, get our gear, and then go be heroes.”
