The relief Cathérine felt when she finally received a message from Evangeline Mayes was tangible. She felt like they’d been waiting above the mooring point -- a vertical tunnel a hundred feet wide -- for hours. The actual message was a little unsettling, however. The people on the video-screen, Evangeline at the front, seemed distinctly… uncomfortable. The full crew of scientists was present, and all of them seemed to be in various states of physical harm. However, rather than looking relieved, or loudly upset, they all sat quietly. A part of her wished they’d be crying. That would be easier than the eerie silence in the shuttle. 

“Commander Mayes,” she said. “Good to see everyone is alive…” she paused, “if not exactly all well. Preliminary report?” She’d noticed that the shuttle had not been towing the station, like they’d agreed on. Evangeline nodded. 

“All crew present and accounted for. Nobody is lethally harmed, and according to the Director, all relevant research data has been recovered.” On the screen, Evangeline checked her instruments as she navigated the tunnel, then looked behind her at the cabin. “I wish to withhold a full report until there’s been a time to debrief the crew of Research Station One, Captain,” she said, her voice more quietly so the men behind her couldn’t hear. “I’m not sure what happened to the station, but I don’t think it was just strong currents.”

“Acknowledged, Commander Mayes,” Cathérine said, and turned off the feed. She leaned on the armrest of her chair as she considered what she’d been told. “Thoughts, Blake?” she asked, looking at her First Officer. Clinton seemed perturbed, running a hand over his perfectly shaved jaw. She’d noticed that, despite the fact that it made him look even younger, he didn’t allow for even a slight stubble to be present. She empathized, which was why she’d noticed. 

“I’m not sure, Captain.” He was scrubbing through the footage of the conversation back and forth. “Several of the research crew seemed to be showing signs of extreme shock, which is to be expected, of course. If we hadn’t shown up in time, Research Station One might not have survived for much longer. However, I can’t help but shake the feeling there’s more to it than that. Our away team seems to be upset as well, and I can’t put my finger on why.” Cathérine nodded. She’d noticed that as well. She stood up, slipping into her shoes.

“Mx Nguyen, you have the bridge. Commander Blake, commander Prakoso, you’re with me.” She made her way to the elevators with the two men on her heels. “We’re going to welcome the crew of the station in person,” she said. “I want to hear everything as quickly as possible. If there’s any chance of sabotage, I want to know about it immediately. Just because the war is over…” She didn’t want to entertain the thought. If there really was enough sedition for the war to be reignited, then the glorious journey of the Sollipsis would be over before it began. It would either be stowed or retrofitted into a military vessel, and Captain Durand would be humbly requested to take up her former mantle as a military genius. She despised the idea. 

“I understand,” Clinton said. Hasan nodded too. 

“For what it’s worth, Cathérine,” he said, “I have the feeling there’s something more… interesting at play. Less sinister.” She briefly considered admonishing him for using his first name, but she latched onto his optimism first. She hoped he was right, and for giving her that hope, she was willing to let a little breach of decorum slide.

“What do you mean?” Clinton asked. “If it had been a mistake on their part, Ms Hayes wouldn’t have looked like she’d seen a ghost. And her service record is impeccable; she’s seen… action. What could make her look like that?”

“What indeed?” Hasan said, and there was a glint in his eye. Cathérine noted that he looked more excited than anything to find out, rather than scared or worried. 

“If you were a cat, mister Prakoso,” Captain Durand said, “you’d be running out of lives.” Hasan grinned in confirmation, and Blake seemed incapable of keeping a similar expression off of his own face. After a minute, the elevator stopped, and they made their way to the hangar bay. The shuttle would have to take a minute to cover the distance through the ice, but Cathérine couldn’t help but walk quickly, nervous energy coursing through her. She considered what both Blake and Prakoso had told her, and she wanted to get to the bottom of this, even if it was to disturb the proverbial sword of Damocles. Ideally, they’d be on their way to a dock on Earth right now, to pick up the last of what the crew had requisitioned, before they could leave, and their journey could begin.

The shuttle had just initiated descent into the ship’s hangar as they arrived. The hangar  bay was a large open space, capable of having several shuttles land and take off simultaneously, as well as a separate area for repairs and even modifications. Their modular design was innovative, but required a lot of space and manpower to actually apply. As the shuttle touched down, several medics stood by, ready to help the wounded get to the medical bay, and Captain Durand waited behind them, flanked by her Prakoso and Blake. 

Security Officer Evangeline Mayes was the first out the door, supporting a man Cathérine had seen unconscious in their call earlier. The man had come to, but was clearly unsteady on his feet, and he was immediately helped onto a stretcher, as was the next scientist to be carried out. Evangeline and Director Eman approached, and Cathérine nodded at them both. With just a short introduction, she guided him to the nearest conference room. The man seemed almost agitated, deeply anxious, and she wanted him debriefed sooner rather than later. Clearly he’d been through a traumatic experience, but she had the distinct feeling that the information he had to share was important, and wasn’t willing to waste time. 

“What can you tell us, Director?” she asked as the man sat down at the conference table, placing the little drive on the reader. The table lit up as the data was being uploaded into the ship’s computer. He spent a quick minute filing the information, which had been haphazardly organized onto the drive. Cathérine waited patiently. She didn’t want to miss anything important just because the Director might feel pressured to perform faster. 

“Well,” he said, “we’ve been studying Europa for several years now. We can only send probes so deep, and it’s hard to scan adjusting for the changing density that deep down.” He looked around the room, to make sure he wasn’t losing anyone. Prakoso nodded. 

“I’ve looked into your research, Director,” he said. “It’s fascinating stuff, if a little dry for my taste.” Hasan paused. “No pun intended.” Cathérine shot him a glance that she made very sure contained none of the smile that was trying to make its way onto her face. “Regardless, carry on, Director.”

“Well,” Eman said, “we’ve been looking into the possibility of deep-sea life, so we’d recently lowered a new probe, with higher depth-resistance and a buoy-system that would make retrieval a lot easier.” Cathérine nodded as Director Eman brought an image up on the holographic display. “This is a representation of the station,” he said, pointing at a small hovering symbol, then at a small pulsing light much lower. “This is the drone. We’d just signaled it to activate its buoy, and it was coming up. Then…” He pointed at the buoy, which was moving up at a steady rate, and then stopped, some seventy-five kilometers under the station. Cathérine looked at it with a frown. 

“What…” she began, but the Director shook his head and pointed again. 

“Just wait,” he said. Then the little light began to move again, as if nothing had happened. That didn’t make any sense. The buoy would’ve expanded with a lighter-than-water gas. There would’ve been no reason for it to stop. Then the probe’s ascent began to accelerate, at a much faster rate than made sense for it to. The distance between  it and Research Station 1 was rapidly getting smaller. Even knowing this was in the past, Cathérine couldn’t help but feel a sense of trepidation. There was something unsettling about its ascent. The little light felt almost threatening and then, rather than keeping on its trajectory to pass by the station, it took a rapid turn and collided with the station. There the simulation ended. 

“What was that?” Cathérine asked, not really wanting to know. The Director’s mouth was a thin line, and he was breathing heavy. 

“We don’t know. But when we were unmoored by whatever happened there, we got regular pings from the probe. It never left the outside of the station.” Commander Mayes grew pale. She’d been very close to whatever that was. 

“Mister Prakoso,” Captain Durand asked, “with the data here, do you think we could get a signal from the probe?” Prakoso nodded, after a second, and immediately began to type in some commands on his side of the table. It didn’t take very long for a simulation similar to the other one to pop up over the table. The station was still floating along underneath the ice, and the probe with it. “This is current?” she asked. 

“Yes,” he said. “No changes to its movem--” he began, and then stopped. The room grew quiet, eerily so. All eyes were glued to the floating graphic that showed the signals, both the probe and the station, suddenly stopping in place. They all held their breath as, without warning, accelerating unnaturally fast, the probe and the station descended rapidly. There was a soft line on the screen, where the water pressure would be so high, the pressure so dense, that the station would’ve been instantly destroyed. It passed there without even slowing down, but the station’s tracking signal blipped out of existence. Fifty kilometers. Sixty. Seventy. At one hundred kilometers, the buoy’s signal went out. 

They all sat there, not really wanting to consider what they’d just seen. The Director was on the verge of a panic attack, and Cathérine couldn’t blame him. If she could only move, swallow the terror she’d just experienced in the safety of a ship far above the surface of the ocean, she might be able to tell him to report to medical. 

“That was…” Hasan said, but he was either incapable or unwilling to make a joke. He just blinked a few times and turned the table off. “Captain?” 

“Uh…” she said. “Share this with a small team on the ship, Prakoso,” she said carefully. “There’s no need to jump to conclusions.” She turned to Clinton. “Set a course for Earth dock. The good man and his crew have some findings to report, and probably a lot of data to sort through. Until then…” She swallowed. “I’ll be in my quarters. Ms Mayes?” Evangeline stood up. “Take the day off,” she said. “Same goes for your team. Dismissed.” Her three officers saluted and they all went their separate ways, Hasan helping Director Eman to the medical bay. 

Captain Durand went to her own quarters. She had a lot to think about. There was… not concrete proof, but the indication of life. And it had been in their own backyard all this time. There wasn’t much she and her ship would be able to do about it, but it was still a hell of a start to their adventure. As she stepped into her quarters, she had to take a deep breath to calm her nerves. She still hadn’t unpacked most of her clothing. She didn’t have many possessions outside of her uniforms. Cathérine sat down on her bed. There was life out there, she concluded. And not all of it would be welcoming. They’d be stepping into territories that weren’t theirs to step into. She’d have to be careful. 

However, she was not in the least bit dissuaded from going forward. If this experience had taught her anything, it was that, while there might be things out there that weren’t friendly to her, her species or their desire to explore the wider universe, with a competent crew and a high regard for human life, they’d come out the other end rich in knowledge and experience. And she’d be damned if she didn’t make the best of seeing what the universe had to offer. The journey of the Sollipsis was now going to begin in earnest.

Elamimax

There are things in the deep... but they're not our problem!

So, this is a new story (with several more chapters already available for Patrons), and a new way for me to write stories. This story is, after all, a commission. But at the time of writing, it is not a commission of one person. Welcome to Among Brighter Stars, an ongoing, serial commission. The initial request was made by a patron, but everyone can contribute. That means that anyone (through Patreon or  by sending me a mail at [email protected], with "Commission ABS" in the header) can, if they want to, commission more chapters so more will get published in a month. That way, you can sort of vote on what you want more of. The cost is $20 per 1000 words, and half that for certain Patron tiers. Alternatively, you can just support me on Patreon and gain access to every chapter as its written, before anyone else does. All the cool kids are doing it!

I hope you like the system, and I hope you like the story. Don't worry, you'll see more soon.