Ancient human strategist
CAPT Chen was proud of his initiative and innovative approach to command having volunteered his ship and crew for a perilous and obscure mission.
The selection panel didn't need to sit. Their choices were limited, very limited with Chen the only candidate who'd applied. He was promptly 'selected' and the mission approved. Their memo to him reeked and was riddled with nothing statements. His appointment made the news. It sort to loosely align with recommendations from a highly politicised Commission looking into the military's use of cold cases to bury its washing.
...your mission is of a priority that people rarely dream about.
...without you this whole project would fall apart.
...you stood out at the top of the list.
These comments all played well into Chen's burgeoning ego.
He replied with platitudes and cliches that confirmed his suitability for the role.
His first case, the one he'd carefully selected was about as cold as they got. His staff had spent a lot of time searching and only then did he volunteer.
Meanwhile, somewhen else… The Long Quiet observed.
OBJECT: SolDiri Seed Arc
QUIETUS PROTOCOL: PASSIVE STATE
INTERVENTION: Not Authorized
RISKS: Minimal
TEMPORAL VARIANCE: Within Acceptable Limits
ACTIONS TAKEN
- Observation window established
- Historical sensor records amended
- Retrieval probability elevated
No further action required.
OUTCOME: to be determined by local actors.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Back now…
Chen’s staff diligently trolled through old data from listening posts. They found a signal, so old it would have to be long dead and well off the beaten track. It was sufficiently interesting to support a defendable case for investigation. Perfect.
They ran the data through predictive models. The signal didn’t repeat although the models appeared to converge and briefly stabilise before rapidly diverging. And while the cycling continued, they could find no identifiable point of origin, no decay in signal strength and no Doppler shift.
One of the analysts wrote “…this isn’t a normal signal. It’s abnormal, something else entirely…”
And it was that extract that became the backbone of Chen’s case for follow-up.
The entire response written by the analyst had a different flavour from the isolated extract. “I don’t know what this is, but this isn’t a normal signal. It’s abnormal, something else entirely. Most likely random noise with no variance. Nothing.”
Chen’s ship, The Measured Response, was a discovery vessel. Built for speed and evasion. It was also packed with research equipment, carried a small team of researchers and a squad of marines for protection. Not that Chen expected them to be needed. It looked good to bring them along…and you never know.
They were currently far away from any known sector where the Drexari were active. It was actually far away from any known activity, except for the “abnormal” signal he was following up on under the remit issued by the Commission.
“Sir. We have arrived at the predicted source of the abnormal signal. We plotted many navigational solutions to intercept the source, all converge here. On the same empty volume of space. We are there.” The nav quickly added, “Here. We are here.”
“Good, good. Empty space you say?”
“Yes, sir. In fact, it’s very empty…” the nav hesitated.
“Continue,” Chen urged.
“It’s too empty, Sir. The sensors register much lower variance than we’d expect in a vacuum.”
“And the source of the signal?”
“Nothing we can detect.”
“Good, good.” Chen turned to his 2iC. “Please put in place silence protocols. I want stealth and observe this area of nothing in detail. Observe it constantly. And the area around the nothing too. I want nothing to be overlooked.”
One of navs stifled a laugh.
The 2iC repeated the orders back, “Watch the area of nothing in detail. Constantly. Overlook nothing.” Even the 2iC, used to Chen’s … eccentricity found the orders odd.
“Yes. Good,” and with that Chen strode off the bridge and back to his stateroom.
Meanwhile The Measured Response approached the “Area of Nothing”, as the crew had jokingly labelled it. The acronym AofN, in true military fashion, made its way into daily briefs and reports.
Isolated fragments of ‘stuff’ were identified using long-range sensors in the Area of Nothing. These were analysed and found to be ice, rock and dust. The lead analyst suggested that these came from a comet, but none had been seen or tracked in this area.
“Good. Benign, but abnormal?” Chen was positively delighted.
“Yes sir. Also, we backtracked the fragments and there’s a wake, of sorts.”
“But there’s nothing here.” Chen was confused, “Is it the wake from a comet?”
“No sir. The stuff is from a comet but it’s like something passing through it without leaving a trace.”
“That makes no sense. I can’t put that in a report.”
“Sir. We need more data.” It was the lead navigator. "But this is where the signal originated."
"How is that possible. Given the time the signal needed to arrive at our listening posts?"
The lead nav shrugged. "We don't know. We were told it was abnormal."
Chen turned to his 2iC. “Get us safely into the debris so we can coast in this ‘wake.’ Match speeds. Then, get these guys more data.”
The navs slowly and carefully repositioned the ship so it was riding within the ‘wake’ left by the Area of Nothing.
Then, when given the nod, the 2iC made an all hands call that blared out across the ship.
“Silent Protocols. This is not a drill. I repeat, Silent Protocols.”
The main forward screen on the bridge remained black. One or two small dots of light were visible. Then as the engines shutdown and the ship became still, a shape resolved before them.
The crew all turned and stared. The 2iC reached out to Chen, ‘Captain. You need to get up to the bridge and see this.’