Beyond Light

Blood and Blue.

The hatched door of the Firefly began to spread, shooting white steam through their hydraulic valves. The vacuum of space suctioning the air inside the troop bay, showering with never-ending stars its three pressurized occupants.

“Alright, Commander," spoke the Pilot. "this is as far as I can get you. Good luck. I’ll be on hold for when you’re ready to come back.”

"Good luck to you too," John made a head gesture to Sargeants Derek Williams and Yuri Novikov. “Well, time to work, gentlemen. Let's rock.” 

The three got up from their seats and stood before the sliding doors. “It’s been a while since I was on an EVA operation,” said Derek. “I prefer to be on the ground, where the action is. Space screws up your body and muscles in many ways.”

“Once I got suspended from school for stealing an EVA security sphere and going to space during a visit to a garden station,” said Yuri. “was worth it.”

John and Derek traded looks. The sealed doors finished to budge, and the panorama before their eyes made their pupils dilate in awe. From the farthest point from west to east, the wrecked, millions of metallic bits formed a colossal cluster of broken beams, bent plates, and dismembered support cables up to where the eye could see. 

Reading the number 7230 meters was one thing, but seeing it in person was a jaw-dropping experience. Not event ants were as small compared to the human body! If anything, John felt like microscopic bacteria about to enter a decomposing organism. What was the Eternity of Return was so vast and big that it was hard to imagine it was of human creation. It was a majestic piece of engineering, even in that wrecked state.

Both major stars of the system became visible on the west; Hawking-616a and Hawking-616b, reflecting yellow light all over the pulverized ship fragments, and making rainbow shades on the visors of the three. Hawking-161c was a brown dwarf, and as such, was too faint to be seen from that distance.

“Whenever you want, Commander,” said Yuri. “we follow up.”

“Alright,” John gazed at the scrap field for one second more. “let’s do it.”

He deactivated the magnets keeping his boots on the deck of the firefly, and with a neuronal command, the thrusters on his Preserver EVA suit activated. His back propulsors illuminated cyan light before the soles of his boots did, and he lounged to outer space. 

“Here I go, baby!” yelled Sargeant Novikov. He and Derek jumped after John, and their blue thrusters shot them against the remains of the Eternity of Return as festival fireworks.

John made an acrobatic spin on himself, and the suit responded swift and precise, despite its bulky appearance. It was more maneuverable than the last model! Its fastness made him feel as if his heart was about to come out from his mouth. Derek and Yuri caught up. The Russian soldier chuckled like a kid. The taller Derek only grinned as he focused his blue eyes looked at their destination. 

John’s HUD displayed vital info; his bio lectures, ammo remaining, temperature, oxygen, as well, as the distance before they reached the destroyed vessel: 1025m, 1011m, 998m… 

“Commander,” appeared the image Lab Assistant Yui Nanoka on John's HUD. “If I were you, I’d avoid the lower fragment of the vessel. We’re detecting levels of radiation up to 120 Sieverts per hour coming from the failed engine. Trust me when I tell that you don’t wanna know what radiation does to the human body.” 

“I saw it myself when I was a kid, Yui,” responded John. “My father died on Titania during the Uranian Crysis.”

“I… am sorry,” Yui licked her own lips. “My grandparents died in New Prague, too.”

That was likely. The girl had been born a few years after the war ended, and the former floating city held a considerable Japanese population in its 42 kilometers radius. Japan was one of the main involucred nations in the conflict, after all. 

Doctor Weiber's image appeared next to Yui's. “You’ll be fine with the radiation, Commander. The drone team is already searching that section. It’d take ages for only 3 humans, and that preserver armor is only able to withstand some 100 hours of continual exposure to those levels of radiation before failing.”

“Got that, thanks, Doctor,” acknowledged John. Both scientists’ images disappeared, and a radiation counter appeared on his HUD: 58 Sv/hr. Only 489m left. They kept bursting their propulsors and swiveling through space.

“We’ve localized the Data Center, Commander,” Com. Officer Jeffrey Emmerson’s image appeared. “It’s located on the last deck, some 100 meters above the cockpit. I’ll mark it on your HUD,” a blue triangle appeared, signaling the vessel at the far west. “you should not have much problem getting into it.”

“Understood, Jeffrey,” John changed his trajectory to the right. “well, you’ve heard him, soldiers. To the marked triangle.”

“Wanna do a race?” asked Yuri Novikov without needing any answers. His thrusters intensified, and he began to rush 230 meters above the dented and holed hull of the Eternity of Return.

“You’ve heard the Russian, Commander. The last one to arrive pays the drinks,” Sargeant Major Williams accelerated too. 

John swirled his eyes with a grin and followed them behind, not knowing how to feel. Their mission was serious; they weren’t there to repair some buoy or antenna. But using those EVA suits basically made you a mini spaceship. Soldiers always fought to use them and loved to do tricks and races against each other once in space. It was hard to not have fun with them. 

“Woohoo!” yelled Novikov, gliding faster than a rocket. He dodged a floating plank on his way. 

“Now make sure you don’t hit anything, Commander!” exclaimed Derek, leaving blue stelae behind him.

John fixated his eyes on the horizon; a skeletal beam got on his way. He made a crocodile role and thrust up, avoiding a pile of scrap full of dented beams. The blue triangle on their HUDs grew bigger when they were at 400 meters from it. 

Having evaded that track full of obstacles, the three descended to the broken hull with a backflip and activated their magnetic boots.

“Hehe, I won this!” said Yuri. “You owe me a drink!” 

“You had the advantage,” complained Derek. “The drinks are on the Commander, by the way. Sorry, Cap. You lost.”

“I stepped first on the hull, so technically, I won. Ask LIBRA for a compensating reward or something,” John stepped past them and looked down on a hole in the hull full of dented edges, broken wires, and parts of the internal structure of the ship showing up.

Nav. Officer Xi Liang’s image then appeared on HUD. “That hole leads to the seventh deck, Commander. Just make your way to the ninth and you’ll find the Data Center. It’s supposed to be locked, but I doubt any safety mechanisms survived whatever blasted the ship.”

“Thanks, Xi,” nodded John. He made the hand sign for his team to follow. “I’ll go first. Cover me up.”

He looked for both stars in the distance one last time, making a rainbow ring on his visor. They reminded him a lot of the Sun as seen from Neptune, except double. He then landed on the diamond plate floor. their yellow light was gone. Yuri Novikov descended after him, and then the heavier figure of Derek Williams made the floor rumble as he fell. 

The disaster inside that square corridor meeting point made them trade concerned looks and frown for a second. 

“Blyat...W-what happened here?” cursed Yuri.

John’s first instinct was to pull out his ROW-0 SMG. It was a mess, but not the kind of mess they were expecting from the massive obliteration the ship suffered. There were bloodstains splashed on the curved white walls and red hand marks on the floor. It was as if someone had been dragged against their will through the ground.  

There were also traces of some coagulated blue substance splashed over the white too, as well as various bullet holes and empty gun magazines lying on the floor. Charred holes on the walls revealed the inner mechanisms behind them. Plasma weaponry, perhaps?

“Damn,” Derek took the first step ahead. “It seems like a good fight took place here.”

“But, who?” the accented Yuri asked. “Why would they fight each other?” 

“For space on the escape pods, perhaps?” guessed Derek, frowning his eyes around.

“But those are on the lower decks,” responded the Russian Master Sergeant. “Why would they fight here?”

John thought about it, with his SMG in hand and observing the murder scene around. Could the crew have really fought each other? Why? That didn’t make sense. 

As Sargeant Novikov said, the escape pods were located on the ship's lower decks, too far from that place. Besides, whatever destroyed the Eternity of Return must have had power enough to obliterate anything trying to escape. 

Were those unidentified ships responsible for the dreadnought’s destruction? that was the most likely explanation. They demonstrated powerful shields and weaponry systems. They could have returned later with reinforcements to finish the human ship off, but that didn’t explain the scene before their eyes. Those burnings on the walls didn’t match common plasma weaponry either. They were too wide.

That blue substance. Without saying anything, John approached a puddle and touched it. It had not dried already. It was a dense goo, sticky, and with the texture of coagulated blood. 

“What did you find, sonny?” approached Sergeant Major Derek. “What’s the hell is that?”

“No idea…” responded John, observing it deeply. “It doesn’t seem like any substance you’d find on a warship,” he took a fair share and stored it on his sealed belt. “Maybe Doctor Weiber or Yui can examine it in more detail.”

“Puagh,” frowned Yuri. “that looks like something I would vomit after drinking blue beer.”

“A blue beer is better than that cheap thing you call Venerakaya,” responded Derek.

“It’s Veneranskaya. And it’s not only a drink. It’s a piece of art.”

“C’mon,” interrupted John. “you can argue later about your drinking preferences. We’ve got something to do.”

He looked at the stairs at the bottom and wondered what other surprises the ship held for them. First bullets and blood. What was next? If the fight passed to the insides of the ship, what were the chances someone was still alive? 

If they could not find witnesses, then the Data Center would be the only way of discovering what happened. The cameras around didn’t look particularly damaged...