Beyond Light

Code of Alert: Rho.

“Sixth Designated Period of Cryosleep set as of July 14th, 2545, at the 2000 hours: status complete. Initializing thawing process. Depressurating capsules from section 12,” echoed LIBRA’s voice through the darkroom of blue lights.

John’s eyes spread themselves, but all they could see was a translucid barrier stained with freezing fog. The locks of his cryogenic pod hissed. The hatch rose, shooting vapor outside.

His intestines swirled against each other, and the first thing he did was to get out of that claustrophobic freezer and vomit the nourishing gel on the mesh below. His body could not stop trembling, and his muscles felt like they had died days ago. 

“Commander John Star,” spoke LIBRA. “Sixth period of cryosleep of 6 months: complete. Good morning, Captain. It’s nice to see you doing well.”

“...Yeah, doing so well,” John’s sarcastic voice rattled. He laid on his knees. The penetrating, bitter flavor of the gel was adhered down to his esophagus. Getting up to quickly would make him vomit again.

“The nourishing gel is totally harmless for your organism, Commander,” said LIBRA, "All the contrary. It has kept you alive for more than three years. Today is January 15th of 2546. Congratulations. We have successfully arrived with minimal complications at the heliosphere of Hawking-616a. I would invite you a drink if I had a liver to digest alcohol.”

John nodded. That news would have made him smile if he didn’t feel so physically bad. “Anything I must know? What’s our system’s status?” he clumsily got up. His black uniform of golden margins was located on a trail before him. He began to put it on.

“Everything is under optimal conditions, Commander. Cosmic Lynx has moderate levels of heat and decay. Chief Wallace is already working on them. He told you to not worry about it. Our 29 Vega-Mako generators are all good and operating from 40% to 50% of the capacity.”

“Thanks, LIBRA,” John replied. The news made his stiff shoulders relax for a second. Unlike the Eternity of Return, they would not need to deal with any critical complications putting in danger the ship’s integrity and everyone’s lives. John had put deep emphasis on his orders for LIBRA to wake him up at the minimal warning of danger.

He felt glad his six cryosleep periods weren’t interrupted. It was a good start. He finished buttoning his asymmetrical black jacket and put his captain cap on his grey, shaved head. It was a black design decorated with pearl white margins. The commander’s insignia and the cat’s face silhouette were on its front part.

“Anything for the secondary effects of cryosleep, Commander?” asked LIBRA. 

“...Eh, yeah. Bring me some hot chocolate. The hottest you can make it, the better,” replied John. Feeling weak, dragged down, and like a dead chicken taken out of the fridge, the thought of the warm and sweet beverage made his saliva water.

“Understood, Commander. I’ll make it reach you. Navigations Officer Xi Liang desires to meet with you. It’s about our current status, as well as a discovery. He’s on Doctor Weiber’s lab, along with most of your direct subordinates. They said it’s important.”

“What’s it?” asked John. 

“They told me to keep it hidden from you. I can tell you, but they said it’d better if you saw it by yourself.”

Well, if it was truly important or critical, then he would have been woken up before. “Alright, don’t tell me. I’ll be reporting ASAP.”

John looked around; the other 11 cryopods were already empty, leaving him alone in that dark room with the smell of refrigerant. He stepped on the main platform and walked to the exit. A service drone descended through a conduit carrying a sealed cup, and he picked it up to unlock it. 

He gave his hot chocolate a gulp before stepping on the disinfection web and crossing outside. He put out his holopad to read a more detailed status report as he made his way to the lab.

Nothing out of usual had happened during his sleep, except for some missing chocolate bars and other treats from the supply room. Sigh. He rolled his eyes and giggled. He needed to talk later with Mike and Yui.

But there was something more serious that drew his attention; someone had tried to access his personal database and private archives, two times to be exact. LIBRA was glad to help, and the biochip lectures corresponded with those of Supervisors Ivanovich and Supervisor Diaz. 

What were those two trying to accomplish? they deserved a call of attention. They could be the representatives of both INSU and PFSR, but John was the captain and the Beyond Light was his ship. Luckily, they would be inside of the laboratory too. They were too nosy to be not there.

He arrived at his destination, taking the elevator and going through the beige-colored passages of the ship. Various figures could be seen from the translucid glass in the lab. He got disinfected at the entrance and crossed inside.

Artillery Chief Xi Liang talked with Doctor Weiber. Mike and Jeffrey were by his side, while Chief Wallace leaned on the table next to the doctor. Yui was busy with a coffee machine, and to John’s surprise, both supervisors were nowhere to be seen.

“That’s what I’m saying,” said Xi. “The distress signal repeats itself. Listen again.” 

He pressed a button in a media player on the central table.  John approached, and those obliged did the military salute, but no one told him anything, focusing instead on Xi’s audio. A particular voice John knew spoke through the device. 

“Mayday. This is Master Captain Jay Cortez from the INSU. To everyone who might be copying this distress call, we have taken fire, and we request immediate assistance. Code of Alert: Rho. I repeat, Code of Alert: Rho... To everyone—” Xi halted it by pushing again the button on the device.

Code of Alert: Rho. That was the emergency code for unidentified ships. Everyone looked curious yet frustrated. It was as if they had been there for a long time without reaching any solutions. John bypassed Mike and spoke. 

“What’s happening here?” 

They traded serious and concerned looks. Xi was the first to speak. “Commander Star, I’m glad you are already here. We have successfully arrived at Hawking-616a, but there is something we found.”

“What’s it?” asked John, with a tone that said ‘get to the point’.

“It’s the Eternity of Return. As soon as we arrived, we began to receive various lectures from the warship, and we managed to catch that distress signal you’ve just listened to. They are still in this system, but there is a small detail.”

“What’s it, Chief?” John began to lose his patience. “Tell me now.”

Com. Officer Jeffrey Emerson took a step closer and raised his holopad before John. “Look at this, Commander. Those aliens didn’t give up.”

John spread the image with his finger, and the telescopes mounted in the Beyond Light revealed the destiny that suffered the most advanced warship ever built. If they hadn’t told John that was the Eternity of Return, he would have never recognized him.

It was a mess of mauled debris making a cloud in the middle of space. Beams, armor bits, and parts of the hull orbited around two bigger fragments full of holes, dents, and missing electronics, all surrounded by mini-nebulae of scrap and ashes. He recognized at the bottom of the first halved chunk the two propulsors of the vessel. On the other halved mess of debris, the fighter-shaped vessel's head was now a metallic, skeleton structure. 

He also distinguished some letters on both junk pieces, separated from the main laceration: ‘Et’ and ‘rn’.

“...We arrived too late, John,” said Mike, lowering his eyes. “...Everyone’s dead.”

All their efforts had been useless. The Eternity of Return had needed help eight months ago, not until that moment. John’s eyes raged, but he stopped himself to think. That ship counted with isolated vital systems. If that distress call was still being played, then there was likely some power to keep those systems going, even if at minimal. Maybe someone was still there.

“Doctor, Engineer,” spoke John to both men. “what are the chances that the vital support isolated systems are still working?”

Both men looked at each other. Chief Wallace moved his lips first. “It’s… not likely. But technically, it's possible. Those systems have their own supply of energy that’s independent of the generators of the ship, and they cover almost every room and section of the vessel. Maybe someone survived whatever caused such damage.”

“But eight months is too long,” continued Doctor Weiber. He scratched the wart on his cheek. “they wouldn’t survive without supplies. If I was looking for survivors, I would check out the supply rooms. Maybe the cryogenic bays too.”

John nodded. He knew what he had to do. “LIBRA, prepare an EVA team and make them meet me at the armory on the third deck. Prepares us a Firefly for transport. Make Sargeant Williams aware about it.”

“Yes, Commander. Are you going too? It’s not against the code, but for security reasons, the captain should remain inside the ship at all times. Are you sure about it?”

“As sure as my name is John,” he spoke clearly, making sure that everyone could hear him. "We knew that we would not be secure again ever since we all signed for BLACKCAT and left the Solar System. Prepare my equipment.” 

He knew that the only way of finding survivors and discovering what happened was to get inside the remains and check out by themselves. Drones were clunky for navigating among debris and other cramped spaces, they weren’t the best for rescue operations, and radiation could interfere with transmissions and their functionality. 

Besides, if there was the possibility that Blair was still alive, John wanted to personally be there to find him and bring him back to safety...