✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Two - Part VII: Exploration

          Gabriel was jolted awake by the HUD in his helmet beeping incessantly in warning. A text prompt told him that the air around him was extremely noxious and concentrated, to the point where it was starting to eat at the outer layer of his suit. It also told him it was too volatile to be filtered and that his suit had switched over to the internal oxygen supply as a result.

          "Fuck... fuck," he cursed when he'd taken in the information in full. He pushed himself forward in a fast military crawl toward the slitted vent where the shaft ended. He figured that was a better option than going back out into the cold void of space, even if it did lead somewhere less than ideal—it was inside, at least. He realized as he moved that he had fully recovered from the earlier seizure, and it had him wondering just how long he'd been asleep.

          Suddenly, he could feel a strong suctioning force attempting to pull him backwards. The vent just ahead had opened the small horizontal slits fully to allow the gaseous waste to be vacuumed out into space, and it was trying to take him with it.

          "Hnngh... ugh..." He grunted as he spread his arms outward against the strong air current and tried to grip onto the several tiny openings along the tunnel. He managed to wedge the tip of his boots and his fingertips into the small rectangular ventilation shafts and held fast until the current stopped about thirty seconds later.

          "Primary defense system compromised. Current operating capacity: 84%. Proceed with caution."

          He looked at the text prompt that appeared in his visor, and willed it away by rapidly flicking his gaze to the far left while focused on it. He quickly crawled up to the end of the tunnel and peered through the several parallel slits and discovered there was a small dimly lit room beyond. He applied slight pressure on the metal plate, and to his surprise, it easily came loose and clattered loudly to the floor in the room beyond.

          Gabriel froze. He slowly and carefully reached over to the small console on his left arm and activated the stealth mechanism. It distorted his image to make it look less opaque, and combined with the colour of his suit, it allowed him to blend into shadows quite well—well enough to have gotten him out of some tight situations before.

          He held his position for a solid minute, but he couldn't hear anything that could indicate someone investigating; the two circular hatches on either side of the tiny cubical room remained closed. Those too looked small enough to crawl into at roughly a meter in diameter, but he was wary about where they might lead. On the ceiling was another slitted vent like the one he'd just come through, but it was larger and all of the openings were closed. Otherwise, the room was empty.

          He shuffled out of the tunnel and tried to push the vent cover back in place, and it seemed to stay, but it was slightly crooked and looked like it could fall out again at any time. Just as he was deciding what to do, the hatch to the right of him slid open and a round floating drone drifted into the room. It was dark green and covered in small holes, with the exception of a protruding socket for it to plug into something.

          Gabriel noticed it was hissing loudly and the HUD alerted him that the virulent gases that ate through his suit before were steadily rising in concentration and that if he lingered for even a minute more, it would start to erode the protective fibers again. He rushed over to the hatch that the drone had come through and tried to force it open again, but it wouldn't budge.

          He backed up against the wall and sidled into the corner while he debated what to do next. It looked like up through the second ventilation shaft might be the easier option, and he was sizing it up when the drone abruptly stopped hissing and began to move towards the other hatch. He followed it through a cloud of corrosive gas so strong that the primary defense system's capacity decreased to 81% just from a few seconds of standing in it. The circular hatch slid open, and as the drone was drifting through it, Gabriel took his rifle and wedged it over the threshold. He crawled inside, replaced it in the holster on his back, and turned on the echolocation again as the door snapped shut and plunged him into near-complete darkness.