Chapter 008: Boarding

Sorcerers (also known as psions, alters, awakened, espers, anomalists, stormtouched and under a hundred other, more regional names) are an extremely rare result of exposure to Hyperspace (the so-called Awakening). Their nervous systems are massively altered, which - together with cybernetic enhancements such as neuroamplifiers -allows them to use a number of special powers.

The process of a Sorcerer’s Awakening can happen in three different ways. The most common is the so-called Long Awakening - it occurs to people who spend years traveling through Hyperspace, the small alteration to their nervous system building up until they become usable. This type of Awakening creates very stable, but also very weak sorcerers (the so-called Embers). It’s not unheard of for someone to not notice being an Ember, due to their powers being too weak to manifest without outside reinforcement.

The second type is called the Short Awakening. It typically occurs to people who spend too much time in Hyperspace at once, almost always accompanied by the Hyperspace Disease. The resulting sorcerers are dubbed ‘Infernos’, and while extremely powerful, they burn out quickly - both due to cancerous growths and neurodegenerative diseases… and their madness.

The last type of Awakening is the so-called Special Awakening. It happens when someone becomes a Sorcerer through a process similar to Long Awakening (but one that happens in a few months, rather than a few decades).The resulting Flames are strong and stable. Unfortunately, they are extremely rare.

There is one more type of an Awakening unconfirmed and considered mythical. The ‘True Awakening’ occurs instantly after the first entrance to the Hyperspace and creates Supremes, sorcerers of exceptional power and stability - yet limited to a single type of power, like all sorcerers. Sometimes an existence of Divines - equaling Supremes or Flames in more than one power - is also spoken of, but no evidence was ever found.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 1, page 217

***

An hour later, the entire Recovery Team 08 was present in the transport compartment of one of the Echo’s shuttles. Each of them wore a dedicated spacesuit which looked like a slightly puffier skinsuit with a helmet and an oxygen tank camouflaged as a backpack. Also, the boots were significantly thicker. According to Tiaa’s explanation, because of magnets in the soles that allowed them to walk on surfaces while in 0g. Plus some small thrusters to help maneuver in places without surfaces.

All of them were armed. Rukh, Tiriel, and Christopher were supplied with what seemed to be a futuristic assault rifle. Rukh also brought a mean-looking knife. Tendrik, Kivanna, and Ryan received pistols. And Nekia… Nekia received a light machine gun. Which, even with the accompanying exoskeleton (which boosted her strength and absorbed recoil) looked ludicrous.

Each of them also had a set of tools, chosen according to their specialty.

“Ok, first things first.” Christopher stood in the midst of the compartment, painfully conscious of the chief looking at him inquisitively.

“Those of you who received any formal training with guns, raise your hands.” Only Rukh and, surprisingly, Tiriel raised their hands. “All right, everyone but Tiriel and Rukh, do not disengage your guns’ safety mechanisms during this trip. Unless I order you to do so. I’m not interested in getting hit by a ricochet because of accidental discharge.” He didn’t plan to even touch his gun unless it was necessary. Visiting the shooting range thrice didn’t make him a marksman.

“Awww, and here I was, hoping for some nice gunfight with an alien scourge.” Tendrik said. He seemed at least slightly relieved by the order, though.

“Hopefully we’ll avoid having to fight with anything.” That would be the best-case scenario. “Ok, so now that the most pressing thing is over, I believe it’s time for Chief Petty Officer Tiaa Sistonen to instruct us about a few very important things before we land on the Pristine Jewel.” He moved to one of the seats that lined up by the walls of the compartment, letting Tiaa take the central stage.

“In a few minutes, we will arrive at our destination. All of you had basic training in operating a spacesuit.” If you can call four hours of crash course a ‘basic training’. I mean, sure, those things are intuitive and very easy in theory, but the practice is something else entirely.

“Using them in Hyperspace is easier because there is no gravity out there, but there is friction so speeding up too fast is impossible, and you will inevitably slow down, so no risk of flying too fast and disappearing into the endless vacuum of space. However, looking at Hyperspace in its pure state will do nasty things to your brain, so some precautions have to be taken. Access the suit’s settings and switch on the Hyperspace Mode.”

After Christopher did so, everything around him transformed. First, everything went monochrome. Second, the rest of the team and Chief Tiaa changed into spotless white humanoid figures.

“Your suit’s helmet is no longer transparent, and the external cameras are offline.“ The human figure tagged ‘Tiaa Sistonen’ continued talking. “Your suit is using sounds in the frequencies inaudible to humans to map your surroundings via something resembling echolocation. It displays the computer render of the result as your visual feed. This allows you to see IN Hyperspace, without seeing THE Hyperspace. Which is safe. Furthermore…”

***

Hyperspace was… insane. Or at least that was the initial thought that appeared in Christopher’s mind once he left the shuttle. He corrected himself and altered his opinion from ‘insane’ to ‘weird’.

First of all, it felt like water. He didn’t need to use the suit’s thrusters to reach the Jewel. He could move around by doing breaststrokes - he ceased doing so solely because it felt too silly.

It also had ‘waves’, though three-dimensional ones, that kept pushing him a bit in random directions. Those arriving from ‘above’ were stronger, as according to Tiaa they were heralds of the hyperstorm coming from that direction.

His suit’s external sensors also told him that the Hyperspace had a mild temperature of about twenty-seven degrees Celsius, and was composed of Oxygen (twenty-three percent), Nitrogen (seventy-five percent), and two percent of trace components. But this kept shifting with every passing second (with the list of trace components sometimes including very exotic components) which lasted until the sensor figured out that they were Hyperspace and ceased functioning altogether.

They could see the Pristine Jewel in front of them. The ship was actually pristine for once, an enormous white shape floating amidst the darkness, visible only because the Hyperspace somehow allowed sounds (unlike normal space). A red dot signified their destination. Tiaa Sistonen kept instructing them on the comms, correcting obvious mistakes in their usage of thrusters. After five minutes of clashing with the controls, they arrived at the airlock near the main hangar doors.

They landed around it, using their magnetic boots to latch themselves to the hull and stabilize their position. Their suits’ computers adapted to their new position by showing more details of the ship’s surface. Enough to recognize the shapes, but not enough to do much more than that.

“Ryan, get it open.” Christopher said through the comms. Getting things such as the airlock open was an engineer’s duty, at least as long as they didn’t have to hack anything.

“On it. Uhm, how do I open this?” Ryan corrected himself after a second. “I can’t see the panel.”

The only two reasons why Christopher didn’t facepalm was because he wore a helmet… and because it would be hypocritical to make fun of people who lacked the experience to do something right after he kept wallowing in self-pity and lack of faith in himself due to lacking experience.

“There is no power, so panels do not work.” The ‘Ooooo!’ sound must have come from Ryan. ”Look for some sort of manual opening lever. If you find nothing, just use the plasma tor… actually, Tendrik, do you have the schematics for the airlock?”

“Well, yeah? What am I supposed to look for?” The transhuman answered swiftly and with no witty remarks.

“Find out if there is a way to manually open the airlock. And if there is a way to seal the hole after cutting it apart with a torch, so we do not depressurize half of the ship by accident.” That would both suck AND ruin his work assessment. Tiaa was silent, but she was there, and she still watched them.

Ryan was still trying to find something by blindly touching the surface around the airlock when Tendrik finished his investigation. “Uhm, it’s yes for both questions. All airlocks of the Jewel have a manual lever that can open them from the outside. They also have an airtight inner outside door that can be sealed shut either manually or automatically, mostly to slow down boarding attempts. The manual lever outside makes the place less secure, I suppose.”

“Great. Where is the manual lever, then?” It took quite a bit of self-control to not start complaining about Tendrik drifting off the subject.

“To the left of the airlock.” Finally, some progress.

“Uhm, where is the left side of the airlock?” Ryan asked the question. Christopher was briefly left speechless. The question sounded stupid, but after thinking about it for a second, it made sense. They didn’t see an awful lot of the ship from their present position - only its surface stretching in all directions at once. And while they remembered the airlock position from earlier, what if the ship was, for example, upside down? Goddamn 3D making things complex. “WAIT, I think I found it. Pulling it now.”

There was a loud metal screech, and the airlock started opening. Then it ceased, with the gap too small to allow them to move in.

“Uhm, Ryan?” Christopher said,

“One second, please. It’s complicated.” How can a LEVER be complicated?! As if to highlight the situation, the airlock sealed itself. “Ok, I think I figured it out!” The exterior door of the airlock once again began opening. It paused after reaching the same point as earlier… but after a second it continued opening. Then it paused again… and then went on again.

Oh. Each time it halts, Ryan lets the lever return to the starting position… only to pull it again. Makes sense.

After a while, the exterior door was open.

“Tiriel and Rukh, go first.” They were the only ones armed right now. And if they were to come across an enemy, it would be inside. “Tendrik and Kivanna after them, then me and, uhm, Chief Tiaa, and Nekia. Ryan, you go last.” Once they all went in, they could advance to another step. “Ryan, can you see that inner door? Get it closed.”

“Yes, yes, no problem. Give me a second.”

“Am I the only person surprised with how Christopher suddenly developed a commanding presence?” Tendrik interrupted the silence of waiting until Ryan closes the outside airlock. “I expected him to be more like ‘uhm, how about we do this’ and ‘what do you think about doing that’.”

“You are right. After returning to Echo I’ll ask Lieutenant Commander Innocent to perform exorcisms on him, just in case.” Tiriel responded. Everyone in the airlock - save for Rukh and Tiaa - laughed. Even Christopher chuckled. It was a mystery to him as well.

“I found it!” Ryan declared. The humanoid figure at the back of the group suddenly grabbed something at the ceiling near the outer exit and pulled it down. Something started sliding out of the ceiling, covering the exit. Soon it arrived at the floor. After a while of poking around the wall’s edges, he spoke again. “Ok, it’s sealed. Tendrik, is there a manual opening mechanism for the inner doors?”

“Wait for a second.” Christopher interrupted him. “Kivanna, do it.” There were a few seconds of silence before she figured out what he meant. She put the additional oxygen tank she brought with her on the ground and turned it on. Soon the airlock started being filled with air. Once the pressure had reached the one inside the ship, he told them to continue.

After a few seconds, Ryan spoke.

“Ok, so I think this lever doesn’t work. Time to pull the torch out!” Christopher sighed. This would take a while.

***

Finally, they entered the ship. Its insides looked like Echo - dark, industrial, claustrophobic, and with cables, pipes, and various machines covering the walls. Though the dark part was magnified further by the lighting not functioning.

“Second lesson.” Tiaa suddenly interrupted the small celebration of their first successful boarding. “Enter your suit’s systems and switch on the Field Mode.” After he did so, Christopher’s view changed. The corridor turned lighter, as some sort of night vision turned on. Also, several counters showed up on the edge of his view.

“If you switch on a flashlight now, it will use the light color attuned to your nightvision. In short - it will lighten everything up much stronger, without being discernible from afar by other people, and without blinding you.” This sounded like a useful feature. “About the counters. The uppermost is linked to your outside microphones. The entire audio feed is analyzed in real-time, and any outside noise not caused by your team members will be displayed in that counter. It will show its intensity, direction, and display a warning once it takes place. For now, hide it to not hinder the view. Those things are set to show back if they have something relevant to show. Those three interconnected counters show the temperature, air pressure, and gravity. They, too, can be concealed. They will warn you if things change. Finally, the remaining three counters… well, that’s complicated.”

“How so?” How could counters be ‘complicated’?

The first one showed 0. The second one showed 1.0. And the third was frozen at 60/60.

“Because you do not have high enough clearance to know what they are.” What? “Sadly, it’s one of the few things where the Guild is stringent with security. You might figure out what the first counter is about during the mission, however, I must advise you that you are not authorized to disclose that to anyone. Anyone outside this team. Violation of this order will cause immediate termination of your status as the Guild’s employee and numerous other sanctions, including a partial memory wipe.”

... I didn’t see that side of the Guild before. It’s… weird. Unusual. Strange. To think they are this serious about something?

“Even I have no idea what the other two counters are about. And I’m not even interested in learning that.” And now it starts getting weirder. “All you have to know is that if the second or third counter displays anything other than 1.0 and 60/60, you are to instantly inform me about it. And if the first one changes not because of your actions, do the same. Then I’m expected to relay all of that to the officer in charge of the boarding, in this case, Commander Lena Drathari. That’s all. Now, you are free to continue.”

“Oh, wow. So there are fields upon which the Guild gets serious. I didn’t see that coming.” Tendrik commented, saying the same things that Christopher thought earlier.

“Let’s go. The sooner we meet up with the others, the better.” Christopher stated, cutting off the talk before it started. He didn’t enjoy lacking firepower while aboard the Jewel. The ever-present darkness (even with the night vision on) was oppressive. And he kept having bad feelings about the entire operation. His crippling lack of faith in his own skills was taking its toll.

***

By the time they arrived at the main hangar, Recovery Team 01 and the marine squad had already landed. Two shuttles stood in the hangar, surrounded by some unloaded equipment (including the spare oxygen tanks, tools, and explosives) and two crawlers.

To Christopher, they resembled WW2 German kettenkrads. Light transport vehicles, looking quite like a motorcycle with an attached tracked trailer. Useful to carry equipment (and ‘salvaged’ parts) through the corridors of boarded vessels. One of the two was theirs, waiting for Kivanna to take it for a ride.

“Great, so everybody’s here.” Tiaa commented. “Charlz, what about the air?” One member of the first team turned towards them.

“We’ve pumped out air from the hangar, disinfected everything, and replaced the air with one brought from Echo. We’ve sealed the ventilation and installed temporary airlocks in all exits.” Ah, so that’s what the thing we passed through was.

“We are ready to take off helmets, just waiting for your permission.”

“Permission granted.” As if that was an order, everyone took their helmets off. Including - with a slight delay - members of the Recovery Team Eight. “Much better. What about air analysis?”

“We are running it now. In an hour or two we should know if there are any biological or chemical contaminants. For now, airlocks and helmets.” Tiaa nodded. Then Christopher suddenly saw a small picture of lieutenant Nowak in the corner of his view. A voice followed.

+Lynx, Lynx. This is Berserker, over.+ I forgot we had a long-distance communication on. Too bad they use that military talk style, which is something they failed to teach us thus far.

“Received, over.” Tiaa responded. Huh, Lynx. I guess when she linked up with our team’s network to oversee our comms and suit settings, the incoming messages to her that weren’t tagged as private also reached us. Good to know she is not infallible.

+We’ve arrived at the Passenger Deck. Found the passengers and majority of the crew. The ship had a garrison of Tavian marines. They attempted to dig in in the Passenger Deck. Many passages and all shafts sealed shut. Heavy weapons emplacements and reinforced blockades in the remaining tunnels. Something bulldozed through them. Over.+

Tiaa once mentioned that the majority of passenger ships had their Passenger Decks built to be easily defendable. A ‘citadel’ of sorts. Looks like it didn’t work on Jewel.

“Signs of assailants? Over.” Tiaa responded.

+Negative, they cleaned after themselves. Not pirates. Most of the marines died before shooting even once. All soldiers we encountered were executed with a double-tap to the chest and then a headshot. Civilian bodies carry no signs of wounds, Frankenstein is carrying out an autopsy right now. Over.+ FRANKENSTEIN, PFFFFF.

“Copy, Berserker. Inform Sapphire. Over.”

+Wilco.+

“Great, so the mystery thickens. I hate when that happens.” Tiaa said to herself, though she remained close enough to Christopher for him to hear it. Then, a moment of silence - during which, Christopher was sure, she altered her comms’ settings. ”Alright, no reason to waste time. Team One will stay here and continue their analysis. Team Eight will take the crawler and go on a reconnaissance to get some experience.”

I knew she would do that.

***

The route that Tiaa planned for them was long, but it remained close to the bridgehead in the main hangar. The only issue was communication. The hangar was near the surface, and Lieutenant Nowak’s group placed a series of relays behind them as they kept moving deeper. This, together with the two satellites deployed near the ship’s surface to relay messages between the teams, provided them with an ability to communicate with each other and the ship.

However, this would not work with Christopher’s team. Too deep for regular comms. Their crawler was endowed with a very strong radio transmitter, so if things went awry, they could call the marines for help. However, this inhibited Chief Tiaa’s ability to oversee their every move, an enormous relief for Christopher.

At least he anticipated it would work that way. Because five minutes after their departure, the group committed to the Engineering Deck brought the reactor back online. Which allowed the group assigned to the bridge to revive the Jewel’s internal comms once they got to their destination. Since they were quick about it, ten minutes since the Eighth's departure, Christopher Hill got his guardian ‘angel' back.

The patrol was boring. As they were told, no alien beasts or any other threats aboard the Jewel. And once Victor Fouquet hacked the ship’s central computer, they also got administrator rights on every single computer system aboard, which made opening the doors a child’s play.

Nothing but emptiness. Abandoned corridors. Abandoned rooms. No bodies, as everyone aboard had made a run towards the citadel on the Passenger Deck after they were attacked. Seeing another ship than Echo was less appealing than Christopher and Ryan thought, as it looked barely different from Echo’s innards. Only occasional propaganda posters were giving it some uniqueness.

At some point, they reached a place where a massive bulkhead was closed in the midst of an immense transport corridor, according to the ships’ schematics connecting the hangar with the main cargo hold.

“It doesn’t open. I think it’s broken. Should we cut it apart?” Ryan asked.

“It would take several hours.” Our patrol route goes right through it, damn.

“Can I use explosives? Please!” Nekia, oddly silent thus far - presumably because of her mother following the group - suddenly sprung to life.

“Well, if you are sure that they will blow a hole within it.” Part of an exercise, after all. ”Give me a second to consult with Chief, though.” I’m NOT blowing anything up without her explicit approval.

After two minutes he had it. As the gate was totally and utterly broken, and it had to at the very least be cut apart to get the cargo out after selling the ship back to the Republic. Thus, the Eighth team could as well use it for practice.

Twenty minutes later Christopher rose from the floor in the corridor now filled with smoke. The crawler that they used as a cover was burning. Kivanna and Tiriel quickly grabbed attached fire extinguishers to stop the equipment from being damaged further. “Is everyone all right?” After he received confirmation from all members of the group, he could start the investigation. “Great. Nekia, what happened?”

They all stood in ‘safe distance’. Which didn’t save them from being sent flying, and the valuable crawler from getting trashed.

“Uhm, I might have used too many explosives.” Nekia answered. That was a breaking point for Christopher. He didn’t travel into the future to die in an accident. Especially such a foolish one. He was ready to overlook the weirdness and plain absurdity of most of the surrounding people. He would lightly criticize them when they would lead to failure in something. But the game was over when those traits could have killed someone.

“Too many… Nekia, let me ask you some basic questions. Did you review the schematics of the area to make sure that there is nothing explosive or important near the door?” The silence offered him the answer he needed. “Nekia. I’m not even an expert on explosives, yet I still know that this should be ESSENTIAL. You would have killed us all if there were pipes with something volatile under the floor! I prohibit you from using explosives until you spend at least forty hours repeating the basic training in this field.” She stared down at the feet, not answering at all.

TEXT MESSAGE FROM:

Chief Petty Officer Tiaa Sistonen

TO:

Recovery Team 08

Nekia, we talked about this. Several times. Explosives. Are. Not. Toys. This is a civilian ship, they are not built to withstand damage, especially not internal. If the ship's designer messed up, you could blow up a significant part of the ship that we are supposed to sell. If you want to make things explode, you have to be careful and smart about it.

I changed the penalty training length to sixty hours. You spend too much time training other things, and you need to freshen up your skills in explosives handling.

I’m glad to know that the higher-ups are siding with me. Time for phase two.

“And about you, Rukh. Chuckling in the background due to Nekia’s mistake and because of her mother’s chastisement is an awful idea. Especially as you were supposed to oversee her management of explosives. Did you do so here? That was a rhetorical question, as you either didn’t follow orders at all or were bad in following them. I ground you in the quarters for a week. Spend that time reminding yourself that you are an integral part of the team, and not an outsider with no obligation to anyone but yourself.” Is that sound a quiet growl? Great.

“Uhm, Christopher? I don’t want to rain on your parade, as you seem to be going through a spiritual catharsis there. I get it that what you’re doing is your job and you have both the right and obligation to do that in this case. But, uhm. There might be a problem.” Ryan’s voice cut him off. “The blast created a hole in the floor and there is a passage there. It’s not on the ship’s blueprints.”

Christopher was about to respond to that when he heard an alarm. Three seconds later the three mysterious counters showed up before him. One of them began falling down rapidly. And it wasn’t the first one.

Well. Fuck.