Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 2 - Lost in the Dark

Two hours later, Megan led another crew member up the central ladder and into the control room.

"I had Foxy wake you up first, Aron, because you're the most qualified to comment on the various electronic systems and sensors."

"I'd love to know why we're all up so early," croaked Aron Nowak, the Arcadian's Chief Engineering Officer. At thirty-nine, he was one of the older crew members and at six foot six, he was also one of the tallest. His long, dark, brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, but Megan knew he only did that while frozen for the voyage – the technicians had insisted upon it on safety grounds. He usually left his hair loose to hang over his broad shoulders and down to the middle of his back.

Megan climbed into the control room then stepped out of the way to let Aron scramble up messily after her.

"It wasn't part of the plan, I know, but something...something bizarre has happened."

"Bizarre?" he croaked in surprise.

"The particle shields are open. Look up there. What do you see?"

He rubbed his obviously sore neck and struggled to look directly up at the view ports.

"Nothing?"

"See?"

"No, I don't. I don't see anything. That can't be right?"

"It isn't. We're most of the way through the deceleration stage and this ship should have her exhaust nozzles pointing directly at our destination. Through those windows up there we should have a view of stars gradually moving away from us."

"You'd be hard pressed to see them move," corrected Aron, "But I'm not seeing any stars at all. You're sure the particle shields are open?"

"I saw them hinge up with my own eyes. Foxy confirms, no stars."

"We need the rest of the command crew awake!"

"Already in hand, Aron. Sandy's in supply tube two, supervising the last few minutes of Walter's defrost. I thought the sooner you could cast your technical eye over this one, the better. Any ideas?"

He stared at the view, or lack of it, again, then looked around at the array of computer screens around them.

"Anything on the external sensors?"

"Nope, all blank."

"And you've tried the cameras, I guess?"

"Yes. Foxy, cycle through all exterior camera feeds."

"Yes, Commander," replied the computer immediately.

One of the large wall-mounted screens on the wall in front of them began to cycle through cameras, changing source every few seconds. View after view showing pure blackness.

"Okay, so we're either looking at a system-wide problem, combined with something obscuring the view ports, and that's extremely unlikely, or something is coating the outside of the ship, blocking all our cameras and any other sensors and the viewports."

"But the view ports were under the particle shields until a couple of hours ago. Nothing was visible right from the first second the shields opened."

"I know what you're saying but if we're experiencing some sort of fluid, it could easily spread. The particle shields are designed to take high energy particle strikes, not to be watertight."

"Can there be fluids in the vacuum?"

"No, well like most of physics, it's not that simple, but essentially, no."

"So, it can't be a fluid?"

"You're making me guess on very little information here."

"You said no?"