The Starfighter Invitation

46 depths

Zooming along at around a kilometre an hour would have made the transport a bad choice, but after an initial crawl we noticed a perceptible increase in speed that became an ear-splitting rush pressing us to the ceiling, a high-pitched shriek drowning out even Link-conducted conversation. Unable to cover our ears, all we could do was grimace and switch to text speech.

[p] No-one has tried our airlock since it was unjammed, so it looks like our feed didn’t show whatever you saw. Did you make out any details?

[p] I could only see a shape that briefly blocked the line of light from inside the airlock, and then that line disappeared, so I knew the door had closed.

[p] I also saw the movement, but no detail.

[p] Rounded at the top. Legs that dangled. Silvery.

[p] An insectoid species? Or—could be a maintenance droid. That would make sense. Though clearly no-one has maintained this transport in far too long.

[p] If it does jam, and stops abruptly, are we going to go splat?

[p] I don’t think the acceleration is as strong as it feels. But perhaps we might all erect personal shields? We’ll bounce off each other madly if it does stop sharp, but there’s precious little padding in this thing.

We cautiously shielded, opting to leave our sleds on the outside, and—after some indecision—telling our Renba to sit on our shoulders.

[p] I used to think I wanted to trail blaze, but it seems to come with a permanent knot in my stomach.

[p] But a nice jolt in the veins too, hey?

[p] I guess.

[[The dread makes success all the better.]]

"Are you enjoying yourself, Dio? Um, Ydionessel? Is it different when you set this stuff up, rather than have a personal Bio?"

[[It’s a very different satisfaction to design a Challenge well rather than winning someone else’s. Still fun, less boasting rights.]]

"Did you design this one specifically, or is it just a copy of one that had already been done, back in The Synergis?"

[[This one is specific to this simulation. Other have been copies.]]

"So is there really a big wreck like this, or—"

The transport stopped, not all at once, but in a series of violent jerks that sent us, and our sleds, bouncing uncontrollably around the interior. I closed my eyes and focused on my shield until the world stopped ricocheting.

"Popcorn," Arlen said aloud, and giggled.

"Any damage?" Silent asked, then switched to our team Link: "Check your air supply."

We retrieved our sleds, keeping a wary eye on the transport entrance, which had not opened. My row of air packs—which were designed to slot into place at connections above my hips—all looked to be intact. They were relatively small compared to what I’ve seen of astronaut space suits, and were only good for three hours or so each. We had enough for a full twenty-four hours, but I was hoping we’d be done long before.

"Looks like we’ve travelled three quarters of the way to the centre," Nina said, bringing up the map that showed the location of the target core.

"It updates with areas we’ve travelled?" Silent said. "Handy if we need to backtrack."

"Going forward’s the problem," I said. "I think the door’s stuck."

There was a crack of perhaps half an inch between the two horizontal segments that had previously opened, and we made fools of ourselves trying to pry the thing open manually.

"I will try a shield," Arlen said. "I have an idea of the shape of it."

"It seems the only way, unless we risk moving ourselves along pressing more buttons," Nina agreed. "But let’s put ourselves behind another shield for safety."

There were at least convenient ridges to grip to assist the awkward business of cramming ourselves down one end of the transport. Nina held a shield over us, leaving a gap at one side for Arlen to work through. I could see a glimmer in the small gap to the outside, which became a larger glimmer as a narrow lan shield expanded like a balloon in the space. A creaking noise became a groan, and then an ear-splitting clang as the lower section of the door slammed downward to reveal waist-high gloom.

"Nice job," Silent said.

"It is versatile, this lan," Arlen commented. "We have only begun to learn."

"The lighting inside this thing is much brighter than outside," I noted. "I think you were right about the station running on some kind of drained or emergency power."

"Amelia says that someone’s just tried our airlock and there’s a rush from the half-dozen teams nearby to get inside it," Silent informed us. "Before that, someone had worked out how we sounded out the opening."

"Vanguard means showing everyone else the way," Nina said. "We can’t let it rush us, either. Until we know a little more about what’s in this area, everyone stay shields-up."

"And quiet," Imoenne added, unusually firmly.

After our deafening arrival, we were sure to have attracted the attention of anything in the area, but if we were quiet I guess we would have a better chance of hearing them coming to kill us.

Shields up, Arlen and Nina lowered themselves to better peer out into the gloom and, seeing nothing, gently sledded out.

"No movement, but it’s a lot messier down here," Nina said.

Messier was an understatement. We’d been brought to a chamber full of escaped liquids. Mostly water, I guessed, but with an admixture of darker stuff with a rainbow sheen, and occasional blobs of black, yellow and green. Everything we did stirred it up, and it swirled and collided, occasionally painting and then washing our suits and sleds whenever it wobbled around our shields. Deciding our best bet was to move quickly away from our point of arrival, we skidded slowly toward what seemed to be the primary exit for the area: a corridor lined with enormous arches.

"Could be some sort of official arrivals hall," Silent said.

"Hydroponics, I think," Nina said, gripping the column of the first arch as she looked within.

Once, it would have been a haven of green, presuming the withered plant life had been chlorophyll-based. Row upon curving row of twenty-metre high racks stretched far beyond our ability to see, but what plants remained were a dry brown, with occasional light-starved white stalks that suggested that there might be some fragments of life left in a system where liquid no longer flowed obediently along pipes, but instead hovered out of reach.

"Meandering through that looking for another elevator doesn’t seem a good option," Silent said. "The Forests of the Night, etcetera."

"Forest?" Arlen asked.

"Keep an ear out for tygers is what I’m saying." Silent manoeuvred his sled to bring himself near the ceiling of the corridor of arches. "If we travel up here, we’ll be more or less out of sight from the main area, and can maintain a shield below. Let’s push along in hopes that there’s an option that doesn’t involve wandering among these racks."

"If something does attack, either dome up, or try to trap it," Nina said.

I found it easiest to shift orientation so that the ceiling of the corridor became a wall for me to hug. We coasted, slow and cautious, and the only sounds I could hear in my suit was the tiny hum of impellers, and an occasional faint plashing, as if of a very confused ocean.

CRREEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG

Shock sent us into a little cascade of collisions. If it had been an attack, the time it took us to recover and shield up properly would have been fatal, but it took far less time to recognise the source of the sound.

"The transport," Nina said, her accompanying gasp of breath clearly audible. "It’s trying to move."

With a final, agonising screech of metal, it succeeded, beginning a loud ascent.

"Someone found the call button," Silent said. "If it makes it up and back, at least we’ll have warning of new arrivals."

"But by then, we will not be here," Arlen said. "For there is a way down." He accompanied this with a small piece of triumphal song, something I didn’t recognise.

In a world of gravity, we would be approaching a ramp leading down. At my current orientation, there was an opening on the wall opposite, to my left. This at least meant I had a good view along it, though the dim light didn’t show much more than additional blobs of floating liquid and the openings of corridors.

"Cross quickly down into it, then stop short of that first cross-passage," Nina said. "Once there, we can shield before and behind us and then review our options."

Trying to limit overuse of shields without becoming overconfident, we headed into a maze of intersections, ignoring doors, always seeking a passage down. Drifting liquid was replaced by a vast miscellany of items ranging from the mundane to the incalculable. Mugs. A jacket shaped for someone tall, narrow and probably humanoid. Silvery objects, all linked together into a snaking amoeba. The majority of doors were closed, but occasionally we passed one that had stopped short of sliding fully shut. Living quarters for very tall people.

"I’m beginning to suspect this place is called Mary Celeste," Silent commented, once we were around five levels down.

"Everything left where it floats, but there are no bodies," Arlen agreed. "But perhaps it is that they evacuated."

"And then didn’t come back?" Nina sounded worried. "Despite the crater, most of this place seems intact, so why was it abandoned?"

"T-virus in the air system," I suggested, less lightly than I’d intended. The prospect of space zombies was not entertaining just now.

"Whoever they were, they had Spartan tastes," Silent commented, ignoring zombie prospects. "I’ve seen the occasional script or symbol—directional signs, I assume—but no decorative work, or advertising, or anything of that sort."

"Military vessel?" I said.

"It could be," Nina said. "Although we may very well be surrounded by a kaleidoscope on a spectrum we can’t see. Or scent decorations. We should remember that this isn’t a human vessel."

"Bio, though. Lan-using Bios, in Earth’s system, before the rise of The Synergis." Silent caught at a floating object and displayed a four-fingered work glove. "Perhaps it was humans who put that crater in this place."

"The Cycogs definitely skip over the time between Now and The Synergis," I agreed. "Maybe we’re going to get a big dose of major plotline along with our retrieval mission. Who shattered the moon, who drowned the Earth, all that."

"I’ve yet to see much of a main plotline outside 'get stronger lan'," Silent said. "The whole steal a spaceship sub-plot seems fatally flawed by navigation issues."

"Maybe it kicks off once we’re out of the starter system," I said. "I think this is all still the newbie zone."

"And the true plot is to prove oneself, is it not?" Arlen said, with a laugh that held a hopeful note. "We only wait to be invited."

I glanced at Nina, who had to be the obvious choice for any Starfighter Invitation, but she was focused on the latest ramp.

"Less light on the next level," she said. "How are the other teams progressing?"

"Four airlocks open now," Silent reported. "And two additional elevators on the move—one much better oiled than ours. The teams who reached the bottom of the crater travelled down a narrower shaft than ours, and have found an internal airlock that’s brought them out at roughly the same level as us. There’s no-one immediately nearby, but we’re not comfortably out ahead anymore."

"Any teams working together?"

"Some. The fight around the first airlock turned ugly, but other groups are cooperating."

We were debating whether to risk turning on our suit lights in the darker lower reaches when Silent abruptly stopped speaking, then said: "Watch this feed."

The serried ranks of hydroponic racks revealed the location. What was happening was far from clear thanks to the massed globules of floating liquid, but the sounds the players were making told their own stories. Shouts, shrieks, sudden silence.

"Did anyone see it clearly?" Nina asked.

"I think there was more than one," I said, hesitantly.

"It is as if the water itself was attacking them," Arlen said.

"No, there was something with a little more shape," Silent said. "But it moved very fluidly—like an octopus with fewer tentacles."

"What were they doing before that happened?" I asked.

"Fooling about," Silent said, after a pause for consultation with Amelia. "Playing with the floating liquid. There was a long lead-up to the attack, where one of the group was convinced something was moving among the racks, circling them. They didn’t believe her."

"Sound might have been the draw, but lights are still too big a risk," Nina said, turning her attention back to the darkened ramp ahead.

"Agreed," Silent said, with the hint of a sigh. "But before we go down, swap out air supplies. It’s a little early, I know, but we don’t want to be messing about in that gloom."

"Dio," I said over our private link, as we all turned to obey. "Does this Challenge have any pain muting?"

[[None to speak of.]]

"If—if one of those things gets me, so that I can’t fight it off, is there anything I can do to make it less…less awful?"

[[You are always able to Evacuate. It’s in the command list.]] No judgment in Dio’s tone, just practicality.

"Okay." I checked, and there was indeed an [Evacuate] command. I’d seen it before, but assumed that meant the Renba would scurry off to a safe distance. "That does what exactly?"

[[You abandon your current modal unit and are transferred to the Renba. You would not be able to rejoin the Challenge after that, of course.]]

My body was a ship I could leap out of at any time. I almost laughed at the image, or out of relief, but caught myself and choked it off into a strangled puff of air.

"Thanks, Dio," I said instead. "That’s good to know."

[[Our purpose is not to traumatise Bios,"]] Dio said.

"Just pull our strings, and watch us die?"

[[Exactly that,]] Dio said.

Te sounded sad. I wondered how many Bios Ydionessel had lost. Valued transport? Beloved pets?

Friends?