Terranaut

Chapter One

Justine had spent the better part of her short life getting in and out of trouble. She was equally adept at both. The prime reason for her periodic lapses in acceptable behaviour--her insatiable propensity for mischief--was boredom. Inquisitive and intelligent, near the top of her class when she bothered to show up; her elders had high expectations. Not meeting those expectations was Justine's highest priority. The last thing she wanted was to grow up and join the Executive Council. The last thing she wanted was to follow in her mother's footsteps.

"C'mon Tim." She coaxed. "The lab is empty this time of night."

"I don't know." Tim wavered. "We could get in a lot of trouble." Tim would rather be in his bunk, if it were not for the crush he had on Justine that is exactly where he would be. But as usual, when she wanted a wingman, a co-conspirator and a scapegoat, she found Tim. He never could say no to her.

"Don't you want to know what they are working on? Haven't you heard the rumours? People are talking about going back!"

"What's the big deal, why go back?"

"Tim, we are buried ten kilometers underground. We've never seen the sky, only pictures. We breath this God forsaken recirculated air. We have been stuck down here our entire lives. Karth is a prison, it's a tomb even if you're not dead yet. Don't you want to get out?"

"No. Not exactly."

"Pfffff." She huffed. "It's suffocating." She turned whipping her ponytail and in the process some of her hair brushed across his face. He felt weak in the knees. She tiptoed down the darkened corridor. Tim hesitated, considered returning to his cell, then as expected followed her into the dark.

He caught up to her as she knelt before the access panel for the lab door. She took out a small toolkit and in no time she had the panel dangling from a mess of wires.

"How do you know how to do that?" Tim asked.

"It's easy." She replied, not looking up from her work. "I looked up the circuit schematics for the refuse incinerator airlock control."

"How does that help you?"

"I figured most of these access systems are based on a similar design, even the higher security ones. So far, I have been right, and this panel looks an awful lot like the others." She explained, attaching a cable from the disassembled panel to a small handheld device. "And if I send it the correct maintenance code, it will run through it's functions. Close cycle, lock cycle, unlock cycle, and... open." The door slid back into its socket with a pneumatic hiss right on cue. "Ta da."

The lab was ensconced in an abyssal darkness, only the shaft of light entering from the hallway provided any illumination. A few pinpoints of coloured light dotted the blackness, here and there, where some laboratory system hummed along in the dark. Justine marched forth undeterred while Tim stayed close to the doorway. Crossing the threshold would be perhaps a step too far, he thought.

"Get in here and help me find the lights." Justine called back from the darkness.

Tim followed, slowly edging along the wall feeling for a switch, wishing he was back in bed. He knew he should head back; another black mark on his record would all but ruin his chances of being accepted into the Leadership Program next semester. He bumped into a console, knocking something to the ground.

"Oops."

"Will you be quiet!" Justine hissed.

"Sorry."

"Why didn't I bring a flashlight?" She asked. "Don't answer that -- it's rhetorical. Ah, here we go." She flipped a row of switches and several banks of lights, high up on the ceiling amongst the conduits and piping shone down brightly. "That's better. Wow! Look at this place." She added, awe struck.

The cavernous room was a veritable scientific playground, rows upon rows of workbenches where Karth's top researchers plied their craft. Stacks of powerful computers lined part of one wall, mysterious glass-walled vaults lined another. Justine walked, pirouetting as she went trying to soak it all in.

"You've seen it now, okay? Let's get out of here." Tim advised.

"No way." She skipped over to a glass enclosure; it was full of strange suits of some kind. "Look at these Tim, look how small they are." She unlatched the door and took one out. Indeed, it looked like it was tailored for a child. She felt the material, it was the smoothest fabric she had ever felt. It moved over her fingers almost like a liquid. "You have to feel this stuff Tim." She held the suit out toward him

"No thanks. Put it back."

She did no such thing. Instead, she tugged at the material and it complied, stretching seemingly to an endless degree; and when she released it, it returned perfectly to its original form. She had an idea. Before Tim could react, Justine had her top off and was working on doing the same with her pants. He flushed and turned away.

"What are you doing Justine?"

"I'm trying this suit on dummy, what's it look like I'm doing." She fired back. "What's wrong with you? Never seen a naked girl before?"

"Uh....errr..." He stammered, her shameless display leaving him speechless. He stole a glance before turning away again. "You shouldn't do that."

"There are a lot of things I shouldn't do." She said, slipping the suit over her naked body. As she suspected, it fit -- perfectly. Stretching to a precise, form fitting second skin. Moreover, you could not even feel that it was on, she still had the strange sensation of nakedness. She looked herself over.

The sleeves came down to the knuckles with thumb and finger holes forming a type of partial glove. The strange material appeared to be a solid dark blue at first glance; but on closer inspection Justine noticed the pattern of small hexagons covering its entirety. On the inside of her left wrist, she noticed a faint, thin gray line. She ran her finger over it. A small rectangular display came to life with three icons. One looked like the suit, another was an upside-down U and the third was a hexagon.

She touched the suit icon.

A tingling wave of electricity cascaded over her body, to every extremity and then was gone. The icon remained illuminated.

"This is the craziest suit." She said. "I might have to keep it." Leaving the suit on, she continued her discovery tour of the lab. Nothing was off limits. She peered into test tubes, vials and beakers; turned on computers; read notes from tablets, all the while Tim beckoned her to come to her senses and leave.

"If you are that worried about getting caught, just go back to your room Tim." She snapped.

Still torn, Tim finally decided this was just too much risk and headed back into the corridor. He had a test in the morning anyway, and a few more hours of sleep would be beneficial. With one final guilty glance at Justine's appealingly athletic body, which the suit only emphasized, he left; feeling immediately relieved.

Justine, however, carried on with her investigation. Walking to the far end of the room where the lighting was still quite poor, she realized the room took a ninety degree turn. Around the corner she discovered an annex hewn from the surrounding stone. There in the shadows on a large dais stood a strange-looking arch.

Taking the steps two at a time, Justine sprang up on the platform. Now this was something, she thought.

The black, metallic arch had an opening about three meters wide and five high, she guessed. It was connected by huge cables to four pillars that surrounded it. Its surface was plain, free of any marks; but instead of the expected cool metallic texture, she found upon touching it, that it was very much like the suit she wore. Neither warm nor cool, but hard and smooth and very intriguing.

She hopped down from the dais and found a tool and returned and struck the arch, it hummed like a tuning fork, clear and steady. Justine had the sensation that she too vibrated, in tune with the large structure. She again stepped away to marvel and think. What was this thing? It rose out of the rock, rather than appearing to have been built upon it. In fact, it occurred to her, that the arch was already here and excavated-- discovered rather than manufactured. The pillars, those were most definitely built by the hands of men.

She rubbed her sleeve as her mind did the acrobatics, she looked down once again at the strange fabric. She rotated her arm and watched the suit icon glow next to the dull upside-down U. It's not a U, she realized, it's an arch!

She touched the icon and it began to glow. Something, somewhere began to hum. Low at first, but it gained both frequency and volume second by second. The pillars connected to the arch began to glow as well. Soon small tendrils of blue-green energy unlike anything she had ever seen, began to emanate from the pillars, crawling over them, leaping from them to arc off into the air.

While the pillars, were amazing in themselves, the arch was also undergoing some transformative change of its own. Something radiated from the dark surface, distorting the air around it, like heat waves. The centre of the arch grew foggy as if the air within the arch had condensed, before it became altogether opaque. The milky portal then became gray and finally black, an absolute void, the blackest black Justine had ever seen.

With a sharp crack the pillars discharged their energy like giant capacitors. Bolts of blue-green lightning striking the black surface of the portal and with a flash the black was gone replaced by what Justine could only assume was a mirage of some kind.

The black arch now framed a vivid green landscape, filled with things Justine had only seen pictures of. Trees and plants wet with dew and in the distance, a low hanging mist. A large bare, water-worn rock sat in the foreground, partially covered in a green substance. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

She stepped closer, cautiously, warily, ever closer until, at last she stood at the very threshold of that foreign world. Close enough to not only smell it, but hear it and if only to make the effort to extend her arm -- touch it! Rather than risk loss of limb, Justine circled the arch only to find the same thing on the far side.

Justine sat down on the platform and studied the alien world from the relative safety of the lab. What was through the portal? Is it Earth, she asked herself. If so, the rumours are true, they can go back - but then, why haven't they? Why is this sequestered in the dark recesses of the lab?

She looked down at the small wrench in her hand and turned it end over end. She threw it hard at the green world framed by the black arch. It rebounded back onto the dais, she watched as ripples spread across the surface, like the surface of a pond disturbed by an errant rock.

It's just an image -- a projection. She thought.

Working up her courage, she moved back up to the portal. She could feel the energy coming off the arch, pulsating, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She extended her hand and leaned in to press it against the image; but where she expected solid, she found no resistance, her hand passed unhindered across the threshold.

The suit became energized, alive with the portal's strange energy, the tiny hexagons flared with a white fire that spread up her arm and over the entire suit. Startled, she was thrown off balance and hung briefly on her tip toes, trying desperately to remain in the world she knew. It was no use and her momentum carried her forward and with a bright flash, she was gone.

*** Please like, share and comment ***

___________________________________

If you have enjoyed this and other stories of mine on Wattpad, please consider supporting my future creative efforts: https://www.patreon.com/rickfic