Predicting the Storm

10: What-signal

Vague strips of blue light illuminated the tunnel. Metal pipes and neatly arranged wires covered the naked walls. The machinery room was not much further ahead. I started walking faster. Strange thoughts of what was awaiting me filled my mind and a twitching smile got stuck on my lips.

A heavy door started taking shape in the distance and I ran towards it. Hastily I grabbed the circular handle and pulled it open with a loud shriek as the lock mechanism scraped the floor. Eventually I managed to create enough space to slip by.

I was met by a strange walls covered in sketches and blueprints. Further down the room I saw two cryo-pods that stood in the corner and flickered like light bulbs.

Slowly I walked closer. Screams and whispers from distant memories started to play in my mind.

"...Joseph?"

Like a tomb effigy made of stone his eyes were peacefully shut and his skin was wrinkly and pale. The cryo-pod seemed more like a casket now than it had ever done before.

I still recognized hints of the youthful face I knew. But I this old man wasn't Joseph. He had changed too much, lived an entire life while I had stayed the same.

This was a deceased stranger. Someone who I couldn't cry for now. I had no time left for grief. I felt my eyes sting but I didn't allow my emotions to boil. I looked away.

The Cor-screen that he had hastily set up in the corner went into sleep mode, and I remembered there were files that I needed to go through.

I turned away from the two pods and got back to the screen.

"Current Tellus year, 2491, October the seventeenth.

I have further looked through old scans and there's massive amount of data missing. It's not a technical issue. Nothing's wrong. I'm reading the scans of nearby light sources and there's data that definitely should be there but it's missing... 

It's like we were entombed by dust for centuries. Dust of dark matter? No. That makes no sense. Dark matter doesn't act like that. Whatever it was ... carried us, moved us ever so slightly and left specks of itself on the hull of Apog. 

I read through early scans from after we had just left the Solar system. There's strange readings of light missing here too.

I lack an explanation or theory of any kind.. They can't be constructed. They can't be deliberate. Were we just incredibly unlucky?"

"Current Tellus year, 2492, January the fifth. 

By tracing more accurately how the data was affected by irrelevant disturbances I'm now able to comprehend more of what happened.

It's like Apog was picked up by a wind from somewhere else...  

I think I understand. It's a storm. A storm of matter unknown to man. A storm of matter that isn't affected by gravity or time. Yes ... I understand now.

Do you understand, Joss?"