THE TITAN PROTOCOL

Chapter 1 - The Signal

Chapter 1 - The Signal

It's been a few days with no contact. Where the hell could he be?

Commander Xavier James Jr., lying on his bed, begins thinking to himself. Jack usually responds every couple of days.

Xavier says, "Sam!" (Sam is short for Smart Automated Manager). Sam responds, "Yes?" Xavier asks, "What time is it? Any messages from Jack?" Sam replies, "The time is 8 a.m., Earth Eastern Standard. No new messages to report, Commander."

It's been a week now since Jack's been gone. I guess I better get up.

"Sam?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Can you start my morning routine?"

"As you wish," Sam says.

The lights begin to brighten, and a little bit of music starts playing—it's jazz this morning. I usually listen to everything, but today, I just need to clear my head.

There's a lot on my mind. Why hasn't Jack responded? He knows what kind of mess we're in.

"Jack, what have you gotten yourself into this time? Why didn't you leave me any clues?"

I get in the shower. The water feels nice— not too hot, not too cold— and I begin humming along to the music. I can't wait for breakfast: eggs, some bacon, and coffee. Oh yeah, definitely some coffee. French vanilla creamer, maybe an espresso. I can taste it now.

Just then, I hear beeping, and Sam's voice comes over the intercom. "Commander, urgent! Priority level 5!"

"Fuck. What now?" I respond. "I haven't even had my coffee. This honestly couldn't have waited until then?"

Sam says, "I'm sorry, I know."

I sigh. "Go ahead, Sam. Patch it through."

"Commander?"

"Yeah, go ahead," I say.

Amanda's voice comes through. "Xavier, this better be good," I grumble. "I haven't even had my coffee yet."

Amanda replies, "You're going to want to get up to the bridge ASAP. And you may want to bring some extra underwear."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I ask.

"We just received a subspace distress signal," Amanda says.

"So? We hear those all the time," I reply.

"Yeah... but this is no ordinary distress signal. It's Jack's."

"Amanda, Commander, you there?"

Xavier responds, "Yeah..." He turns off the water, trying to catch his breath. What have you been up to, Jack? You wouldn't activate your distress signal unless it was life or death. I know you too well.

Xavier says, "Amanda, tell Helm to head toward the signal immediately!"

"Commander, we're already on a direct course to the signal."

Xavier pauses. "What? Who ordered it?"

"That's the thing," Amanda replies. "It was automatic. Sam's been trying to override the commands, but nothing is responding. This is even too complex for Sam. However, everything else is functioning normally. We just don't have any control over our course or direction."

"Xavier... fuck."

"Commander, you might want to get up here," Amanda says. "Maybe to reassure the crew that we're not gonna die. Or, I don't know, say something like we're not gonna be blown up into a million pieces or something. We've all seen science-fiction movies before." She begins to nervously laugh—this is even freaking her out.