Meltdown Ophilion - Book One

STAGE_THREE - - - 27_ANTARIOUS

They made their way to the service tunnel and quietly crept towards the escape hatch. They stood before it in silence. Orion searched for confirmation from his companions then knocked on the hatch three times. They waited for a few seconds and the answer came – three knocks in response to Orion's, and a muffled voice. "The vacuum is sealed on this end, you can open the door; it's safe."

Jenna and Celli looked at each other. They instantly saw what the other felt: the voice was not what they had expected. It didn't sound like it had when they heard the agents in their minds during their relays. Now it sounded like an ordinary human voice – a friendly and confident voice but...ordinary. The last relay they had had was on their planet's surface, far away from where they were now.

They had no visual confirmation that anyone was really there at all. The pressure gauge on the door showed neither absence of, nor normal pressure – it blinked as if it were out of order. They had never heard of a pressure gauge being out of order. If what the voice outside their ship said were false they would all be instantly sucked into the vacuum of space. If it were true they would have some of the answers they had been seeking.

At this point however, Death by Space seemed better than to have come this close, having followed this many clues, having witnessed this many phenomenon and then walk away from the answer which was on the other side of a steel panel. They waited, staring at the door for what seemed an hour. There were no further knocks or voices, and they all knew there would be none. It was up to them to open, or not open the hatch.

Orion, with pounding heart and trance-like motions, slowly reached down and pressed the release sequence as the diagram instructed. No one tried to stop him. The young pilot was still again, his finger hovering above the release button. The last two dreams which pushed him to travel to the free-zone to try to find the sphere flashed through his head: the drove of hiebra-luren, the mad train, young Jenna, making contact with the sphere, the thing, the world of red; then their last mrith game and the strange way they had won; the moment they lifted the sphere from the ground in the cave. He remembered standing on the edge of the cliff overlooking the forest of the free-zone, the deafening silence; his desperation to understand who or what was out there.

He felt his finger press the button. There was a loud click and the door vibrated. There was the hissing sound of air rushing through the disturbed seal, then the whirr of the motor which slowly pulled the door inwards and to the right.

They found themselves looking into the face of a man who might have been somewhere in his thirties or forties. He had shoulder-length light brown hair, a very light skin tone, and steel-grey eyes. Next to him was a woman of the same undetermined age. She had rich brown skin, fine features and sparkling dark-brown eyes. Her hair was black as night. Someone was there. The vacuum was sealed.

Orion felt his legs nearly give way under him. He had almost committed them all to a quick and painful death by suffocation and freezing and then a perpetual orbiting of their planet along with the frozen rocks of the asteroid belt.

But that hadn't happened. They were alive and staring into the eyes of the most remarkable individuals they had ever seen. Even for Jenna, who had once seen an agent, this was a complete surprise. None of the young Ophilion had any words they could at this moment pronounce.

After five seconds of silence, the man, whom they hoped was a Merenthaal agent, spoke. "My name is Arthur, and this is Maria," he said in a kind, authoritative voice.

Orion swallowed hard and licked his lips. "My... my name is Orion Formoren," He stammered, with rasping voice.

"We know who you are," Arthur said in a commanding tone that further unsettled the adolescents, "we know all of you." And he smiled and looked at each of them. "We would like to welcome you to the Antarious. Please come aboard."