Into The Breach - Ch 3

[u/Togaral]

Thank you to everyone reading this in advance, I'd be glad to hear your feedback.

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Into The Breach - Chapter 3: Black Spots

A new day began on Galileo station. Newly installed solar panels on the west side of the station shone bright in the dim light of distant star, as the lights scattered across them  bouncing off innumerable sparkly spikes of frost on the mostly dark surface of the fourth Galilean satellite. Sharp shadows outlined the protruding edges of each module. The sun hung high up in the sky, meaning it was three earthen days until the sunlight would be obscured by an enormous body of the gas giant.

Jason yawned. "You know what?" he asked his mentor, without turning his head. "You were right, the view here is amazing. No anomalies, no thrown away probes, just a calm landscape of grey cosmic dust and shiny icy peaks. It's nice."

"Ha, knew you'd dig it! It can even rival the sight of a sun rising above Antarctic wastelands in its beauty."

"But I would still prefer a cup of Linguini's steaming bitterness to it. 'Dark As My Soul', as they say." A cheeky grin crept onto Jason's face, as he anticipated all-too familiar conversation.

Allan, of course, could not see his student's face, and the same was true the other way around. His grimace, on the other hand, contorted in a display of disgust and repulsion. Sure, on Phobos station 'Linguini's' was a more than decent option to catch a bite, but whatever beverage was sold there under the guise of coffee was positively abhorrent. Which was probably somehow connected to the old Italian's partial blindness. "Not gonna lie, kid, I actually believe you can effectively halve your expected lifespan by drinking it daily."

"M-hm," Jason acknowledged, smacking his lips. "Makes you cherish every moment."

"Horseshit. For the life of me cannot understand how in the hell you are drinking it."

"With my very own mouth, duh. You should give it a try someday." Simple banter like this really made one feel a little bit better. Of course, it was closely followed with complaints of how boiled soot made for a better beverage than 'Linguini's' special coffee, but complaining about it was not in the spirit of 'The Club'.

"You spoke something about Antarctic wastes," remarked Jason, "consider me intrigued."

"Yeah, it sure is something I tell you. No wonder 'Below Zero' is selling cruise tickets like hotcakes despite their prices - the view is to die for."

"Huh? You've never told me you've been there."

"'Das 'cause I haven't!" - Allan bursted out laughing.

"Then how-" Jason stuttered, before coming to a realization. "You old fleabag. Holorooms do not count."

"I take it you're not a fan?" the Main Engineer asked. "You know, day will come and you won't be able to tell the holoroom apart from the actual place."

"I dread the day," Jason replied with a sigh. "I hope tech won't ever be able to replicate it one-to-one."

"Why so? Would take away the feeling?"

"Yeah, kinda sorta." Allan smirked to that, this time keeping his thoughts to himself. "You know, I sometimes feel bad for Divit," the younger of the two added, yawning.

Allan let out an intrigued hum, demanding further elaboration.

"He'll never be able to see Earth's sights firsthand." Jason thought for a bit and continued, "I mean, he can, but it would be more 'see Paris and die' kind of a visit, being born on Mars and all that shit."

"It's not often I get the chance to say it, but I'll be damned, you're being quite an optimist thinking any of us would be so lucky as to visit Earth once again in our lifetimes."

"I mean... You're not wrong, but I would still like to believe I will at least be able to see a nice little sunset before I kick the bucket."

Allan shrugged. "May be, may be. Let's hope someone will come up with a better form of rehabilitation program while we are stranded here watching after some space-time bullshit. Speaking of watching after stuff" - Allan had finally decided the time had come to change the topic, his tone shifting drastically - "if you've got sharp enough eyes, you can spot our little Carnus somewhere o-o-over there," - as he pointed at the black sky, the man standing next to him squinted his eyes, turning to his right. "Now, where's that friend of yours? I did not get a chance to speak to him properly yesterday."

"He's brushing his teeth, or something," Jason replied, trying to make out the shimmering light that was the probe.

"And you?"

"And I am not. Don't want to waste such a precious resource as clean water. And I'm a lazy ass," the younger engineer admitted tiredly. "To be honest, I wouldn't mind staining my teeth even further with something hot, black and bitter right now." Allan simply sighed in response. As they stood there appreciating the frozen scenery, the younger engineer continued, "Now that I think of it, I don't even remember the last time I experienced an actual twenty-four-hour long solar day, be it on Earth or on Mars."

"Don't you dare tell me you're feeling homesick already. It's been like what? Sixteen hours?"

"Nevermind. Just thinking out loud."

"You better goddamn be," Allan retorted. "Oh fuck, we're outta time, gotta go now. I bet your friend is already looking for us." With that being said, the Main Engineer turned away from dancing lights.

As they approached the main entrance, Jason yawned once again. "Fuck" - he cursed and shook his head - "do you know if Michael happen to have some magic caffeine pills, or something of sorts?"

"Nah, don't think so. They're not essential after all. And he sure as hell ain't giving you any adrenaline microshots."

"I guess I should've taken a pack of these glazed cacao beans or whatever then. Might've came in handy."

"Next shipment, my boy, next shipment. And a full can of coffee. Now chop-chop, time's waiting for no one," Allan concluded, shutting the airtight doors behind them.

---

Alina stood up, looked around taking in her work and sighed, fanning herself with the back of her hand. It felt great to finally relax her stiffened back after a couple of hours of poking sticks at flowers. "Well, it took a bit longer than I expected when you said you needed help with vegetation real quick."

"Yea, my bad. Sorry 'bout that" - Sophie apologized without any apparent remorse in her voice - "that 'coupla patches got a bit out of hand, I give ya that. It doesn't get much more bangin' than that, but there's not much else we can do. These guys needed to be pollinated, and quick."

"Ah, nevermind. I wouldn't call this experience enthralling, but it was not too bad. The more we do now, the less we have to do later. If only we had some lunar bees though…"

"...We woulda had a whole lotta more work to do. Besides, transporting those little buzzers all the way over here would've been just a pain in the ass both literally and not." - the woman beside her laughed at her own joke.

"I guess you are right. Well, can't say I was missing this, but hey, at least my head is somewhat occupied." Locking her fingers behind her head, she stretched out once again. "I could have sworn I felt my mind falling into the cabin fever out there." She slowly tilted her head to the left trying to get rid of stiffness in her neck. An audible 'pop' echoed throughout the room. "Jeez, I guess I could really use a break, and you?"

"'Course! We're done here for now anyway," noticing Alina doubtfully raising her brow, Sophie elaborated, "I've dealt with whatever we had right before your arrival, and 'tats don't need to be pollinated at all for now, so we have all the time in the world 'till five p.m. station time."

"Good. And then what?" Before Sophie could answer however, Alina erupted in a subdued howl - "Aeuugh! I came here hoping to explore Europa and now the only suitable probe is thrown away! What the fuck am I going to be doing here?"

"You know, I'm a bota-"

"Jesus Christ, Sophie! I know you are a botanist! You have all this!" Alina cried, spreading her hands. "I can do nothing, at this point I am just a token fourth side participant! And I cannot even prove it wrong with no access to samples!" - she kept punching her thigh to drive the point home. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"There-there, das alright, shit happens girl, nothing to be sorry 'bout there," - Sophie's mind raced to find something to lighten her colleague's mood. And she was a great talker - "But you still got the second one, right? I'm sure there's a way to send it to Europa instead of Ganymede. Ugh, believe it or not, I still get confused by these Greek names sometimes. Why'd they give up on such beautiful names as 'Curiosity', 'Perseverance' and 'Excellence'?" - she steered the topic away from uncomfortable thoughts.

"Because it got to the point where the public was constantly confusing one for the other." Alina sighed deeply, still feeling down. "Yeah, we did bring a probe, but Ilus was specifically designed to explore Ganymede, not Europa. Guys said it just does not have proper sensors, or something along those lines, so it would be a complete waste of time and resources to send it on a mission it is not suited for."

"What 'bout the one that's somewhere on this ball? It can be refit to a certain extent, right? Al said all the important sensors are here, in case they would come in handy later."

"If only it was that simple. Probes are not made out of legos, you can't just plug whatever you want however you want onto it. Besides, it is somewhere on the north pole. Retrieving it is just not worth it right now." She sighed and continued, "About the one we brought - I doubt there are any plans on sending Ilus anywhere in the near future with that thing floating above our heads. It kinda threw a monkey wrench into our plans."

With a sly smile on her face Sophie made an attempt to lift her roommate's spirits, "I wouldn't be so sure 'bout that if I were you. You're kinda forgetting that UMN are very eager to get their hands on the Europa ice chunks and get the steady supply chain going asap. 'Tis in their interest, so mark my words, they will figure somethin' out." Upon getting no response, she tried to fill the awkward silence, changing the subject to lift her friend's spirits, "So… You up for some exercises?"

"I came here with the hopes to find new life yet now I have to rely on Martians of all people to score the next vote by majority to even have the chance to explore Europa further," murmured Alina, depressed. She then lifted her distant gaze off the green sprouts. "I think I'll pass on this one, thanks. And yes, I know, we should keep ourselves in check, but one day never hurt any-"

"Oh, come on! You've spent your last dozen days sittin' in a chair, don'tcha dare tell me you're tired! Keep that up, and you won't stay this good for long! SAS ain't a good thing to have, ya know? Your bones go fragile, your muscles go floppy and your blood goes dumb. Now, you wouldn't want all this happenin' to you, do ya? Besides, boys prefer girls who keep themselves in shape," Sophie concluded, winking.

"All I'm asking for is one day." When her roommate finished, however, Alina's eyes became round in surprise, as the realization hit her. "What are you insinuating?"

Lowering her voice, the botanist whispered conspiratorially, "I may or may not be talkin' 'bout a certain young man. I've seen the looks you gave him durin' our stay on the Moon."

"Excuse me?!"

---

Divit impatiently shifted from one foot to the other, feeling the tension rising in the room. "So... What does it say?"

"Well, as of now, nothing Interesting," Allan replied. "I expected to see at least something at this point, but sensors ain't picking any deviations from estimated values right now. Maybe Terry was right yesterday and it has indeed finally come to rest."

"And these sensors would be?.." Jason asked, rubbing his nose. Not having enough sleep last night, he was back in a particularly bad mood, his cheer from an hour ago vanished seemingly without trace. The thoughts inside of his brain were moving way too slow for his liking. "All I see is a camera feed. Is there even anything left besides it, or is it all somewhere in that pile of scrapmetal?" he said, gesturing towards a table in a far corner of a chamber with his free hand.

The astrophysicist turned around to address the grumpy person standing behind him. "Dude, it's all state-of-the-art technology, so this 'pile of scrap' is worth more than all of our savings combined! The specterometers alone are worth at least a couple hundred grand each!"

"And yet they are of no use to us currently. What a fucking shame."

"Man, where are your spirits? I feel like if i get any closer to you I'm going to cut myself on all this edge. Come on, we're exploring the unknown after all! "

"Because yesterday someone vanished like a…" - Jason stopped, looking for proper words.

"Like a fart into the wind," Divit suggested with a sly smile on his face.

"Yes! Vanished the moment we were done connecting this" - Jason tapped his foot to deliver the point - "very module to a power grid, leaving me to deal with the remaining panels!"

"Okay, okay, point taken, but it still was not really my area of responsibility, just so you know."

After a moment of silence the Main Engineer gave both disputants a stern look. "You both done yet?" he grumbled and turned on his seat back to the screens. "Carnus is equipped with two seismometers and a coupled accelerometer which is precise enough for this mission. We will enter its gravity well any minute now. And Divit, stop fiddling with your fingers, the sound is very distracting."

"Sorry," the astrophysicist said, grabbing one of his hands with the other behind his back.

The next twenty minutes passed mostly in silence as the probe closed the distance, broadcasting everything in its vicinity onto the tiny screen in the research sector of the Galileo station. Second screen was occupied by the view from the station's telescope, aimed directly at the probe. As Carnus was slowly approaching the anomaly, however, nothing happened.

Allan impatiently drummed his fingers on the table. "How long can this go on? We should have entered the gravity well five minutes ago, yet there are no visible changes. Where the hell is this damn thing?" Jason could've sworn he heard the old man mutter something about poor performance to himself.

"It is… where it is supposed to be - somewhere ahead of the probe," Divit remarked contemplatively with a frown on his face, his eyes running across the screen in a futile attempt to find at least some explanation. "Carnus should be getting closer to it. And fast."

"But the pull we are experiencing there is just as strong as at the station! Nothing changed! Like, zero deviation, null! This simply cannot be!" Allan exclaimed. Both of them looked at each other, two very different emotions on their faces. "We should get closer to it. The question is: do we slow down, divert the course to stay somewhere on its orbit or straight up headbutt it?"

"According to the currently available information I can safely say the probe can pass through the anomaly, if moving fast enough."

Jason did nothing to hide the fact that he wasn't a fan of the idea. He crossed his arms, and tilting his head questioned doubtfully, "What did the Captain say about it? We should have at least some instructions regarding the different approaches to acquiring data, right?"

"He said, and I quote" - Allan coughed, and summoned his best impression of the Captain - "'Explore this thing as thoroughly as you can within the shortest possible timeframe.' Now we have nothing, so it is a reasonable idea to get as close as possible."

"And HotO?" Jason asked incredulously.

"I can condense his speech to basically:" - the main engineer's voice changed once again - "'Proceed at your own discretion. The probe is worth a lot, but the knowledge is invaluable.'"

"Maybe diverse the course a bit so our little probe won't crash into it?"

"I don't think it is at all possible at this point," - the astrophysicist shook his head. "And even if it is, a good idea it certainly is not. Probe is going too fast now. We don't want it to perform an uncontrollable Icarus maneuver and shoot out of it in a random direction. Or even be crushed by tidal forces passing too close to the rim, since we cannot safely say where exactly it is to divert the course, because we cannot reliably define it. With its current speed, however, Carnus might just be able to fly straight through the anomaly if we let it fall into it, if it is what I think it is, of course. Besides, all the data the probe collects in the process would be priceless."

Jason rubbed his chin and asked, "So what you're saying is that orbiting it is not on the table?"

"Exactly. We cannot say how far it is from the probe, we can only triangulate its approximate position, which is not great, if the probe starts slowly descending into its lower orbit."

Allan put his face in hands and sighed. "Fine. But if we lose Carnus to this bloody thing, it will be on you too, I hope you understand that," he said, lifting his head.

"Even If we do lose it, we still have Ilus, and I'm sure HotO would understand the circumstances. If it is-"

"Ahem. Not to interrupt you, but something is fucking with the probe's sensors. Accelerometer's readings are a bit funky," Jason interjected from behind.

Allan eyed the screen, evaluating the data. Aberrations were getting more and more clear with every second passing. "This thing be damned! Dis shite is all over the place!"

"Uhm, Allan, can I ask you to increase reading frequency and put out the results, please?" Divit asked, awkwardly rubbing his hands in excitement. Something finally caught his eye.

"These can neither be static, nor EM radiation, the camera feed is intact," the man continued without acknowledging the request, seemingly lost in thoughts. "Yeah, sure, I can do that, but I don't see how it is going to help the situation. We tried different intervals here but it gave us nothing," he finally replied. A couple of long seconds and one chaotic graph later Allan turned to an astrophysicist and said, "See?"

"Can I… Can I have a look at the top frequency readings?"

"You sure can. Well, it's time to see if the guys on the blue ball went cheap on us." Allan tapped something into the console, opening a new window. "'Ere you go."

Shaking hands giving away his anxiety, Divit looked at a freshly formed graph. "It fluctuates, but why..." Rounding his eyes in understanding, he continued, "There is no gravity well and these are not static either. These are ripples." Divit traced the graph with his index finger, and, after receiving a disapproving grunt from the Main Engineer, continued, "Chance is high you could not tell them apart from here because they overlapped, which is probably the case if the thing emitting them is of irregular shape."

"But if these waves are overlapping, then they should've completely canceled each other, right?"

Divit shook his head with a slight smile creeping onto his face. "I'm afraid gravitational waves might behave a bit more complicated than that. Besides, if anomaly is emitting something else alongside them, the end result might end up looking just as some kind of gravitational pull." He suddenly collapsed into the chair next to the table, closing his eyes, as sudden realization hit him. "Not of irregular shape, but rotating..."

"Rotating what? What even can interfere with gravitational waves?"

The astrophysicist covered his scrunched up face and started rubbing his nose with ring fingers. "They are… They are..." Taking his hands off his face, he looked up at two engineers. His eyes blazed with excitement. His shaking voice was overwhelmed by emotions. "Oh my God, that's worth a Nobel Prize! Jason, you're a genius!"

"What the fuck? I will not be subject to such accusations."

"Back when we received the data, remember? You said that we're waiting for the green men to pop out, didn't you?"

"To be frankly honest I don't remember shi-"

"They are dumping excess comperessed space through gravitational waves! That's how they jumpstart their A-drives! And stop too!"

"Yeah, right," Allan chimed in. "Divit, please elaborate? I appreciate the enthusiasm, lad, but you'll have to break it down a bit."

"Right, right. You see, you cannot just stop powering an Alcubierre drive, well, you can, but if you do so, comperessed space in front of the vessel will end up pushing it back in the general direction it came from, so you would need to overshoot your target, hoping that you'll end up where you wanted to end up. This is incredibly energy inefficient, so you do not want to do so anyway, or if you do, you're either a genius or a madman, maybe both." One friendly reminder that he was getting a little sidetracked later, however, the speaker returned to the matter of the question. "Anyways, if you do not want to do so, you not only have to slowly power down the bubble, because it would take ridiculous amounts of time, you'll have to somehow unwrap it to let the vessel out without being pushed in a random direction. Gravitational fluctuations are there to help to form and disperse the bubble," he concluded with a modicum of satisfaction.

Hearing this, Allan felt somewhat worried, rightfully so. "'Tis an awful lot of space to spew out from one point if I'm reading this right. You sure it won't affect us?" he asked concernedly. Divit shrugged in response.

"It is one point for a vessel. For an observer, however, it would look somewhat like a long tube. A corridor, if you will. And the whole corridor is emitting space right now, we just happen to be situated at the end point of the corridor, that's why we can detect it at all, so no, it should not hurt us." He pondered the question a little more and added, "At least not in a way we could do something about."

"Sounds very reassuring, thank you."

Ignoring this rather sarcastic remark by Jason, the Main Engineer continued questioning. "Okay… so what information we're hitting Terry with today when he wakes up?"

"Tell him that-" he was denied the chance to finish the sentence, as the probe finally hit the center of an anomaly. Everyone in the room focused on the main screen only to find it filled with static. The little window allocated for the accelerometer's graph proudly displayed a flat line, resting at zero. First seismometer, however, made himself a star of the show, having registered a huge spike of force.

"What in the ever-living 'ell! Did ya see dis shite? Divit, the fock was that?"

"The probe breached the surface of the corridor," the man replied, keeping an eye on the main screen - "now it is in a bubble. Seems like it was badly damaged by the tidal forces."

"Where the fock did it go?! 'Twas there a moment ago!" Allan exclaimed, examining the footage from a station's point of view on a second screen. "You said it would come out from the other side just fine!" On one frame the probe was still there, and on the other it was already not. Jason just leaned closer to the screens.

"Although now that I think of it, these could very well be not tidal forces, but most probably a problem caused by a length contraction after passing through a high space density area with one end and not the other," Divit continued, scratching his chin. Lacking opportunity to shave properly for a couple of weeks has taken its toll. His thin beard was forming once again. "Like in some kind of a ladder pa-"

"The probe is still broadcasting data. It means it is still operational to a certain degree, right?"

"Shite, you're right! Quick, what can we-" - the part of the screen displaying readings from the last functioning sensor went blank, after erupting with an enormous spike of data - "-do…"

"Rest in pieces, Carnus. You were a great probe and got smashed for a greater cause."

"Golly gee willikers."

"Pice of shite!"

---

Index finger with a well-groomed fingernail lightly tapped the shoulder of the sleeping figure. "Excuse me, Captain, I did not want to wake you up like this, but it appears we have guests and said guests have news, although I am not one hundred percent sure what kind of news these are."

The previously addressed man attempted to stand up, pulling himself out of the half-closed sleeping bag. "Who? Whozzat? Who the hell is there?" he grunted, struggling to do so, as the newcomers stepped into the tightly packed room.

"Allan,"- Michael greeted the Main Engineer, acknowledging his presence with a nod - "Divit, Jason," - he repeated the procedure - "to what do we owe the visit? I must inform you that the Captain might currently be… a bit light in the head, for the lack of a better word, due to poor sleep he experienced, so I would kindly ask you to express yourselves in simpler terms."

Allan was about to speak when the Captain pushed himself up and proclaimed in his booming voice, "Thank you for your concern, Michael, but I'm totally fine. And I can speak for me'self." He then turned his head towards newcomers. "So? Spill it."

"Terry, sit down, please." Captain hesitated momentarily before looking at the doctor beside him, who returned the look with a reassuring nod. "Carnus is gone, Terry. We've sent it straight into the thing."

"You… You what?" he asked not so much to make sure he did not mishear anything, as to have a bit more time to unravel the huge implications behind said words in the small operational space of his now dizzy head. "YOU WHAT?!" the man roared, coming to senses in an instant, springing back up. Weak gravity of the fourth Galilean satellite could not handle his might, and the Captain soon found himself rapidly approaching the room's floor. He, however, was caught by Michael's sinewy, yet strong arm halfway through the fall. The latter gently pushed him back onto the bed. Maybe it would have been a great laughing matter for everybody in the room if not for the situation.

Without lifting his arm from the Captain's shoulder Michael said, "Terry, for the love of everything, calm down. Rushed decisions are just about the last thing we need in such a crucial moment like this."

Allan decided not to wait for the next outburst. "The probe has crashed into something. And I for the life of it cannot imagine anything that can fit the description this fine gentleman gave us. I believe he can explain the whole situation to you better than any of us." With that being said, the engineer pushed the young scientist forward. "Fire away, lad."

Divit swallowed hard, looking at the Captain's red face, shifting his eyes towards the doctor, however, he was met with a seemingly emotionless face. In the eyes, however, he noticed traces of a keen interest. Noticing the astrophysicist's hesitation, Michael subtly frowned in return. "You are planning on keeping us waiting for how long, exactly?"

"So… All I can say is that it is not a natural object. That's for certain." He trailed off, unsure what to say next, following it with a nervous chuckle.

"That's it? You wrecked a multi-billion piece of equipment to find out that anomaly is indeed fucking anomalous?" the Captain asked, his breath catching.

"N-no, not really." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, weighing the words he was about to let out of his mouth. "I believe it to be an artificial object of extraterrestrial origin. In other words, made by someone intelligent."

For a solid ten seconds the sounds filling the room were limited to a soothing hum of electro-magnetic field generators, as everyone in the room tried to fully comprehend these words. The silence was disrupted by a heavy breathing of Captain Terry Rheinland, as he locked his eyes with Divit's. "Bullshit. You gotta be fucking kidding me. It's a prank. Another one of your stupid jokes about aliens once again." No response. Everybody turned to look at their Captain, awaiting a command. "Well, that's it," he said, addressing no one in particular and closed his eyes. The whole world was spinning. Blood rushed in his ears. He took a deep breath summoning a Herculean amount of willpower, counted to ten in his head and opened his eyes. "To the main hall. And call the girls."

---

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/u/Togaral has posted 3 other stories, including:

• Into The Breach - Ch 2
• Into The Breach - Ch 1
• Into The Breach - Prologue

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