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Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

March 20th 2157

            “Hey, mom.”  Jake had started the recorder on his DNAC.  “We found something, something in one of the asteroids!”  He was speaking fast and was a little breathless.  “We found a large cube.  It’s about a meter and a half on all sides and black.  We don’t know were it came from or who made it.  But our best guesses indicated that it was not man made.”

            Jake took a moment to try and control his breathing.  He was excited and it showed.  He had recorded a short message every night since leaving home.  The recordings were stored on his DNAC, and when he complied enough he would load them onto a transport hard drive and send it back to earth by ship.  But considering the recent events he was already thinking about loading them onto the message spike that his mother had bought him.

            “This could be the first actual proof of alien life that we have ever found!  And your son was among those who found it!  There seams to be some sort of writing on the cube, but we have no idea what it is or… well anything about it really.”

            Jake realized that he was once again light headed from speaking so quickly.  Once again he stopped and took a few deep breaths.  “I will record more onto this message once we know anything else.”

            Jake turned off the recording and fought the urge to upload the recording to the spike at that very moment.  He believed that he was the only one on the station that had a message spike.  Deciding against it he pushed himself out of his nook where his bed was, and pulled himself toward the lab area.

            If he did send the message spike he was sure that his message would reach earth months after the company had announced the discovery to the rest of the world.  Waiting another few days wouldn’t make much of a difference.  But if he were able to figure out more about this cube, then he could possibly get some detail out to his mother that may either be over looked by the media, or that the company withheld.

            It had been a very long shift, twelve hours of processing material from the asteroid while watching the holo feeds of Salim and Jafta working around the cube.  Salim and Jafta had worked straight without any breaks.  The rest of the crew had finished for the day and gathered together for dinner, and the two did not join them.

            The amount of precious metal that was extracted from the asteroid today was equal to a little over three weeks worth of work.  Excitement abounded in small part to the bonuses that they would receive for the work.  But it was the strange discovery of the cube that really had everyone buzzing.

            In the Lab area Mathews was at his workstation.  He was recording a message to be sent to his boss, about the discovery of the cube.  Luca, Mel, and Sam were surrounding a monitor on the wall close to one of the airlocks.  Jake headed in that direction.

            Sam was the first to notice Jake’s approach.  He turned and had a wide grin on his face.  “They say they are going to bring it in!”

            A million thoughts raced through Jake’s brain, the rush of questions and thoughts competed to be the front-runner.  The mess of information left him in a stupor, and that must have translated physically to his face.  Sam’s smile grew even wider.

            As he reached the three at the terminal he noticed that no one was manipulating the feeds, yet they seemed to be changing under their own power.  Jake slid in between Mel and Sam; Luca took up the other side of Mel.  It was then that he noticed that Mel wasn’t blinking.  He turned his head slightly to get a better look and her eyes moving at lightning speed accented by flashes of green light.