Stabilize

Unknown Dusk Moon

Gideon

He dreamed.

He tensed as he felt the rocking motion. The Rumbler attack was still ongoing. He grabbed what he could, snapping his eyes open to find he was in a cart made of scrap, being pulled along in a vast cavern of dark. He slowed his breathing, from shallow to deep. If he was dreaming, he must still be alive.

"What?"

An apt question, but one he received no answer to. Consciousness and reality felt like a revolving door at this point and he didn't know which one was more terrifying, the sleeping fear or waking danger. The cart hit a bump, sending him bouncing back and forth, the clattering of unknown materials rang out in the quiet darkness. He glanced to hit right, spotting what appeared to be a deactivated Anform head wrapped in silk. He hurriedly glanced around, seeing his back against the rim above the squeaky left wheel. He looked over at the one pulling and instantly felt a mixture of shock, revulsion, and fear. It was a large spider, harnessed to the cart like a beast of burden. And not just any spider, but a Dugrum spider, part of alien of the Proturan race. With humanity’s built in fear and revulsion of the creepy crawly, many desired war on principle. Anforms and AI proved to be the voice of reason, becoming the major emissaries to the surprisingly kind and barter minded race. A large departure from their first contact, the Empire of Dusk. He had as many questions as he did variety of screams.

"Jesus Christ."

It had to be spiders! You've gotta be shitting me!

He looked away back to the Anform in the hopes of recovering, but the damage was done. There was a giant spider within feet of him. There was no gene therapy for arachnophobia.

"Hello? Are you well?"

His eyes darted madly, searching for the voice. It came from the head.

“Hello?” he asked with furrowed brow, focusing on the strange automata as opposed to the horrifying spider.

“Yes! Hello, who are you?”

The Anform asked with a soft empathetic voice, filled with emotion and soul that so many Anforms disregarded.

A ghostly form rose from the Anform head, filling Gideon with a sudden shock. He bit down the stream of swears that threatened to break the dam and just gazed at the apparition. He could tell slightly by the outline that she was intricate, ornate, and valuable. She swiveled to and fro as if trying to inspect herself.

“Oh, this is wonderful. I can move!” the Anform cried out.

“What?” he asked dumbfounded.

He glanced down at his ghostly form, seeing they were both the same. An Anform that dreamed. It was impossible. But so were Angels, the giant cosmic horror, Lucifer and Demons. He experienced many impossible things lately, an Anform performing astral projection was possibly at the bottom of the list of extremes.

“Hello!”

He stared back at her, trying to see inside the thick spider silk to ascertain what she was. Gideon gave her a nervous smile, taken off guard by the Dugrum, Anform, and cavern. He recovered, giving her his winning smile.

“I’m Gideon, a pilot who fancies himself as marooner. Do you know where we are?” he asked, looking to the glowing structures dotting the expanse. They appeared to be random LED nodes, clustering the dark lands.

“Oh! Yes, I am Sol, an automata- I like staring at rocks and not moving.”

Wait, was that sarcasm?

Anforms had a bone dry sense of humor, he could never tell if she was being cheeky or blunt.

I like her.

Either way, it was a fresh breath of air compared to the horror of the previous dreams.

“And no, It is unclear where we are, but I suspect we are under something. I only have working theories. I was only just excavated moments ago."

He scratched his head, trying to determine why he was dreaming of this.

"So you’re underground, and just excavated by that Proturan-" Gideon almost gagged upon glancing back to the alien, "-Ulk! That guy! He should be helpful, at least!"

"Proturan..." Sol processed the word, her eyes glowing.

“But that must mean you’re down beneath my feet- maybe? Or you’re a figment of my active imagination-”

"Gideon," Sol interrupted, her tone implying her next words were important, "I believe this is not by chance."

He thought back to Lucifer and the cosmic horror-face, the battle for Earth, and the broken nun. This Sol was a needed relief of the horrors of the previous visions. Not only that, but a possible link in understanding what went wrong with the flight.

“Well, if this dream isn’t by chance, then swapping information would be good,” he announced.

“Yes, that would be wise!”

"Alright, I'm Gideon McDonough, I am the captain of the Decima. We were testing a new engine and are now lost in space on a Dusk moon."

There was a long pause, the cart rocked back and forth upon hitting a bump.

"I now have five questions," Sol replied.

"What?"

"What is a McDonough, a Decima, an engine, a Dusk, and a moon?"

“Wait, do you know anything? Remember anything?” he asked in turn.

“No. I only remember who I am and even then it is fragmented. Gideon, it is possible you know more of me than I do.”

“That’s pretty bad. But you’re in good hands. That Proturan will help. Maybe even repair your core functions.”

“That is good. But how do you know I won’t be scrapped?”

Gideon felt a tug at his chest. He didn’t. He had little idea of this Dugrum we benevolent or malevolent. He thought quickly if the information did little to help, encouragement should.

“I can’t say. If it wrapped you up, then you’re valuable. If you can talk, then it’ll most likely respect you as an Anform and not scrap- just a thought,” he explained with a shrug.

Gideon felt his perception pulling away, the dream was ending.

"Well, got to go! Good luck to you, Sol!"

"Wait! But what is a McDonough?"

His vision faded to white, leaving him not entirely satisfied with the encounter. he was grateful for the reprieve. He hoped there would be more dreams with Sol, even if that spider was present. Another voice spoke up, the voice of a caring Father.

"She will need all the help you can give."

Gideon shook awake, finding his right arm numb. He snapped his eyes furiously around the bridge, finding it was still intact despite the bedlam of only moments ago. They had survived. He glanced at Baxter, seeing the dog slumped over in his seat. He checked the vitals, finding Baxter was in better condition than he was.

Better him being OK than me, I can take a few hits, apparently.

He tried to flex his hand, finding he was unable to move anything below the elbow. He checked vitals to find he was in worse shape than he imagined.

“Shit,” Gideon groaned out as he attempted to move, finding that his body wasn’t responding as it should’ve. He felt his suit sleeve loosening to relieve the pressure forming. He would need to look at it soon. He felt his body trembling as shock set in. He glanced over to Baxter, seeing the dog stir.

“Baxter... You dead?” Gideon asked with a strained cough.

“Yes,” Baxter responded quietly. There was a soft whine over the coms.

“Ok, good... Me too.” Gideon added as he slumped in his chair.

The bridge was as silent as deep space. There was no sign of the rumbling metal mountain, implying it had either left or was directly above them. He sent a mental command, materializing a Gnat.

“Hey- ugh- go check the surface,” He ordered with a grunt.

The Gnat turned to salute before flying off.

“Hai! Ganbatte!”

The Gnat slowly phased through the vessel, flowing to the surface. His mind was updated to the images the Gnat displayed, seeing the grey wasted deadlands were empty, apart from the three other metal mountains. Round massive pits dotted the land in a predictable pattern, with enough width to fly the Decima into and enough depth to lose the vessel completely.

How long was I out? Where the hell is it?

His seat belt straps retracted back inside the captain’s chair, the jolt of movement causing him to wince. The painkillers were running through his system, but it didn’t prevent him from feeling his damaged body. He tried to flex his right hand again only to feel it twitch.

Shit. I’ll be no good until I’m healed back up again. But Shindow has all of the medical expertise modules… Well, I’m not in critical condition.

He checked his suit, finding the one person that he needed.

AI repair complete for: Shindow

Gideon’s heart leaped at the sudden news. Shindow was back, which implied he was out longer than he expected. He gave a mental command and she responded, appearing in a ball of orange pixelated light. Shindow appeared, tiny orange body, ponytail, glasses, and all. She glanced around in confusion as she adjusted her glasses. She surveyed the bridge, her face returning to a vacant smile as she floated in close to Gideon. He was glad to have her back again. He felt relief wash over him, despite the critical circumstance.

“Gideon,” She asked calmly, “what the hell happened to the ship!?” She shrieked as her face turned cross.

“Hi Shin. You’re alive... “ Gideon replied with a relieved sigh that went became a cough, his cheeks burning at the chastisement.

“Don’t you play pitty games with me! What happened?!”

She seemed mad.

Gideon tried to rise, finding he was unable to move. He now realized now that his bearings finally settled, that the vessel was pointing face up buried in the ash dust, with gravity pressing him into his seat.

“Oh, hang on- You’re wounded! Oh, God!” Shindow replied distraughtly.

Gideon let out a confirming groan as he tried to rise, only shifting in his seat. Shindow rushed to him, floating just off to his side.

“Cracked ribs, muscle tears, your right wrist is shattered… God- Gideon what happened??”

“Someone went for a walk,” Gideon replied sardonically.

Gideon sent a mental uplink, showing Shindow the moments after her shutdown.

Shindow pursed her mouth as she nodded at the events that led up to now.

“You weren’t kidding. Whatever that thing was, it almost squashed us…”

Shindow flew over to Baxter, attempting to wake the dog.

“Go away, I am dead,” Baxter whined from the coms.

Shindow continued lightly tapping the dog’s helmet, much to Baxter’s protests.

“Gideon, why do we have an armory?” Shindow asked as her systems finally updated.

“Ask Baxter. He took it,” Gideon retorted with a grunt.

Shindow slowly turned away from Baxter, facing Gideon, “wait, he was the one that took the supplies, not the Empire of Dusk?”

Gideon let out a strained sigh as he recalled the story, “Yeah, gave the quartermaster the good ol’ razzle-dazzle to get in and he absconded the items.”

Shindow blinked vacantly, “Gideon. They were all encrypted! He shouldn’t have been able to do that.” Shindow explained blankly.

“What,” Gideon gave a brilliant retort.

He glanced at Baxter, running a privilege query.

Privilege Access: Baxter is the best doggy

“What.” Shindow and Gideon said in unison.

“How did he get that? What is that?” Gideon asked.

“I don’t even know what I’m looking at. I don’t know what level of access to compare it to.” Shindow gestured the last words with her tiny arms.

“Well, wouldn’t it be super-admin at least? I know I can dematerialize encrypted items,” he pointed out.

“At least,” Shindow acknowledged the argument.

“And just to compare, don’t we have a certain item I can’t touch?” Gideon asked while cocking an eyebrow.

Shindow mimicked that gesture and thought. Her eyes went wide as she stared at Baxter, “you think?”

“Maybe. Father couldn’t access it either. This is a galactic-wide long shot,” Gideon stated.

He tried to get up again, unable to move.

“Hey Shindow, can you do something about this angle?” Gideon asked from afar.

A utensil skid across the floor, clattering to the far side of the bridge. Shindow raised her hand and with a wink of light, the vessel began to vibrate.

And then Gideon blacked out.

He awoke in a daze, unable to focus on what was going on. Someone was shouting at him.

“Gid! Oh, we disturbed his injuries! No, he is not ‘just OK’!”

“Shindow?” Gideon attempted to speak, only to let out a groan. He shook his head, trying to wake up. The haze began to clear as he felt the ship had righted itself. Shindow was flying madly around Baxter, trying to keep up.

I must have blacked out for a time… I need to get looked at.

“What do you mean she gave you back scritches? And you stole all of it!?” Shindow shouted as she pointed to the now foraging dog.

Barking rang out in the background.

“A Hind Canis Mark A canine power armor!? That’s unreleased tech!” Shindow bellowed a response, “and Excertius! Gideon! He couldn’t have done that!” Shindow protested futilely.

Must have been out for a time. Probably minutes due to Baxter’s length of explanations and question dodging.

“I know… But now we have weapons to fight. At this point, I don’t care how he did it,” Gideon replied, his breathing coming out in a rasp.

Shindow stopped, pondering their situation.

“Well, we need to get you out of that suit, get you patched up, and get our bearings! I can’t do it, and Baxter certainly can’t. So that means…” Shindow squinted her eyes as she materialized two new crew members.

Orange pixelated light surrounded the two humanoid figures that appeared. What stood in front of Gideon appeared innocuous, but he knew better than to misjudge Mars’ military anform. Their thin metallic skeletal forms glinted in the light as their monocular eye snapped to Gideon as one. He felt a disquieting dread at seeing the robophobia incarnate as their camera eyes narrowed to beads. Glowing blue light emanated from their right hands, materializing two laser pistols. They mechanically turned their attention and trained their sights on Baxter, the dog responded by sitting in place as he cocked his head. Gideon’s heart stopped, unable to say or do anything. Shindow flew in front of them, madly waving her arms.

“Don’t shoot- don’t shoot! We’re marooned!”

They paused, glancing at the floating AI. Excertius trumpeted out a comment in its unknown language.

“No! Look at where we are! Cease justice protocol, enact survival protocol! Dusk Planet! Dusk Planet!” Shindow shouted as she gestured with her hands.

Excertius silently processed the news, their trained guns lowered as Baxter yawned, oblivious to his own destruction. They let out another low bassy noise.

“Correct. Survival protocol for Dusk Planets activated. The safety of all crew is the number one priority,” Shindow ordered.

“Understood,” Excertius spoke aloud in its deep bassy voice.

Gideon sat in shock at hearing it speak his language. He thought they had shed their ability to communication with humanity entirely, leaving that to other anforms.

“They- What, they can speak?”

Shindow glanced back to Gideon, cocking an eyebrow, “uh, yeah! Of course, they can!”

Baxter scooted closer, wiggling his rump, “Shin! Who are these new friends?”

Shindow flew close, tapping the dog on the nose who sneezed in response, “these are the anforms you stole. Excertius. They are the military anform from Mars.”

“Oh. Did I do a good?”

“No!” Shindow curtly replied. Baxter’s ears sagged.

“And yes,” She gently responded, patting him on the nose. Baxter perked his ears up as he wiggled his rump.

“Excertius, if you would assist us, please!”

“Understood,” Excertius chimed as they both move to collect Gideon.

He felt their stiff skeletal hands as they began to easily lift him. A stretcher appeared nearby as he was moved. His vision swam, as his body screamed at him to stop. And he screamed unintelligibly for them to stop. And then he was on the stretcher, his suit and clothes dematerialized as Shindow floated over him.

“Do you know medical procedures?” Shindow asked Excertius.

“Of course, we have a full library of human anatomy,” Excertius replied.

On how to fix? Or how to break?

The way they said ‘we’ set him on edge. He felt a chill in the air and a sudden vulnerability at being inspected by anforms that could kill him just as easily as speak to him.

“Alright, we need to run nanite cultures to repair the bones, but we must set the bones first, especially that wrist!” Shindow explained as she gestured to the broken arm.

He finally saw why.

The hand, all the way to the mid-forearm was swollen and bruised. He felt his stomach lurch at the hideous damage.

“Sorry Gideon, I can’t put you under. I can’t have you go comatose on us. We do have the nerve stoppers and can cover your eyes so you won’t have to see.”

Gideon grimaced at the idea of having surgery performed on him while awake. But he had no choice in the matter. He gave a grunt of an affirmative.

And then a flurry of activity began. Medical equipment began to materialize as a gentle pair of hands put a cover over his eyes. He began to breathe heavily from his nose, feeling the tightness in his chest. Shindow whispered in his ears.

“Relax, you’ll be fine.”

Her soft words reassured him only slightly.

“Beginning operation. Injecting pain killers,” Excertius declared.

Gideon heard the click of the stim injector, feeling nothing due to the capsaiphine. He was thankful the drug didn't interact with other drugs, alcohol, or stims. The pepper plant that the medicine was produced from would send someone to the medical ward if devoured, but would ironically kill the pain if applied medicinally.

“Now Gideon, about those satellites, do you know how they captured the Decima? They were only a fraction of the size!”

Gideon shook his head, unable to explain any of it.

“The Dusk can manipulate time, my QSD, and vanish people into nothing. Of course, they could tow away the Decima- and almost kill you, too!” He replied, beginning to lose calm.

“Gideon, I understand how scared you must have been. I was trying to tell you not to worry, but- well you know- poof!” Shindow replied.

“Injecting first round of nanite cultures,” Excertius chimed in.

“And those metal mountains…” Shindow stated, trailing off.

“You mean the Rumbler guys?” Baxter shot back, a mouthful of remnant food.

“Rumblers,” Gideon said aloud.

“Well it is a fitting name,” Shindow replied.

There was a loud crunch, following by several more crunches.

“Uh, don’t worry about a thing, Gid,” Shindow attempted to calm.

That was my arm being wrenched back into place. Calm. Don’t vomit.

He felt sick at the noise. Excertius continued unabated.

“Resetting of arm complete,” Excertius announced.

“See? The big part is finished!” Shindow exhorted.

Gideon let out a grunt of relief. Everything else could be repaired via nanites.

“Second nanite culture injected,” Excertius declared.

“So, Gideon? What do we need to do in the meantime?” Shindow asked, trying to pass the time and focus him.

“Well, you were the first step of the plan; getting repaired. Next, we scout the immediate grounds and get our bearings and to monitor movement. We follow the Decima’s signal and attempt to liberate it while searching for new nacelles. The Dusk appeared to be using our stolen tech as well, so it may integrate. We then ride into the sunset- figuratively- and head home.”

“We’ll need to see if we can find an updated star map, but otherwise it’s a solid plan. With Excertius and the armory Baxter stole, we can put up a fight. As long as it’s just the satellites…” Shindow added before trailing off.

“Final nanite culture injected, operation complete,” Excertius announced, “Patient has suffered no traumatic brain injury, suggest sedatives for rest.”

The cover was pulled from Gideon’s eyes, revealing Shindow standing atop his chest, wearing a nurses’ outfit and hat. He glanced at the casted arm, seeing the swelling had gone down. He still felt numb all over, with the shock subsiding.

Gideon thought back to the strange dreams. They were too surreal. Too memorable. A dream would vanish over time to the abscesses of one’s mind, but these he could recall them down to the minute details, such as the smell, or feel of it.

“Shindow, do Anforms and AI dream?” Gideon asked, trying to ground himself in the tumbling black space of their situation.

“No...” Shindow stated with an awkward pause, cocking a head at the odd question, “Why would we?”

“I’ve had strange dreams over the past few days. All of them brutal. Horrifying. And then the flight goes off the grid,” Gideon began to explain, palming his head with his good arm.

Excertius had walked off to the side, with both going into a statuesque waiting mode. Baxter tap-clacked up to the stretcher, sitting quietly.

“What was one of them?” Shindow asked, glancing about the room.

“Lucifer…” Gideon muttered.

“What?” Shindow asked, scrunching her face.

“I dreamed of Lucifer. It was- she was terrifying, unlike anything I had ever seen. And this was after meeting The Dusk,” Gideon retold the dream, detail for detail, leaving nothing out.

“That’s a strange dream-” Shindow began to state.

“-That wasn’t a dream; it was a vision,” Gideon retorted, cutting her off.

“But why have a vision of such things? It’s all so...” Shindow began to reply before trailing off.

“Ridiculous?” Gideon said it for her.

“I mean- come on- the first guy, whatever that demon was- Xylophone or whatever- freeing Lucifer? Why is Lucifer in prison?” She argued.

“I thought you would know. The demon was posing as Lucifer, implying demons knew of her- somewhat,” Gideon stated, leaning his head back. The meds were beginning to kick in.

Shindow retorted, puffing out her cheeks, “Look- I think it’s all just the flight nerves. I mean, yeah it does describe Lucifer as an angel of light and it is possible she has a gender, but that won’t help us escape!”

“Thanks, Shin, but I’m not sure it’s so simple.”

Gideon thought back to the face in the darkness. That creature he saw in the IIT flight.

Shindow nodded, crossing her arms.

“Now, don’t we have a certain item that we can’t see?” Shindow suggested, turning her attention to a suddenly concerned dog, “Baxter. You have very strange access privileges for your QSD. How did you get that?” Shindow showed him his current privileges.

“I begged,” Baxter replied matter of factly.

“To whom?” Shindow asked with raised brows.

“To father,” he replied with a dumb doggy grin.

Shindow blinked rapidly before responding, “wait, how did you convince the CEO of Primetech to give you an unknown and unorthodox level of access?!”

“I begged nicely” He replied with a half-bark, updating his answer.

Shindow sat down on Baxter’s head in between his ears.

“We’re going in circles here. Baxter, can you perform an experiment?” Shindow asked.

“Is it on the flavor of steak?”

“O-of course…” Shindow hesitantly said with a grimacing giggle.

Baxter snapped his head between Gideon and the AI, expectantly awaiting a treat.

“Baxter, can you check this item?” Gideon ignored the silly question, giving Baxter explicit permission to the directory.

“Oh. Yes…” Baxter began, twitching his ears as he scrunched his brow.

Gideon and Shindow exchanged vacant glances before turning back to the technologically deficient dog.

“Hold please,” Baxter announced.

“Baxter do you need help?-” Shindow started to ask.

“Ah. Yes. Here.” Baxter announced with a yip.

Baxter displayed the item for both to see.

???? Tesseract (Catalyst) ????

“What the hell is that?” Gideon demanded, “how the hell??”

Shindow knit her brows, considering what it meant.

“I’ll need to go through the data we have on the Dusk to see if there is anything we can gather from,” Shindow stated with a nod, “But right now, you need to sleep. We’ll discuss the item later. I’ll also see if Baxter can retrieve it. Now sleep!” Shindow ordered.

“Yes ma’am,” Gideon stated sarcastically as he drifted off. He had a thousand questions, but only one broken body. The questions could wait.

Gideon felt his perception drifting off, the black fog of unconsciousness claimed him.

God, I hope we can all get out of here.

He passed out with the titanic weight of their situation firmly bolted to his shoulders.