Old Frontiers: The Severan Contingency

Chapter 4, Part 3

The skeleton looked intact in spite of the interior damage. Whole corridors and rooms had been smashed and torn open, their contents long ago spilling into the Out-Fields. The hull was cracked and shattered all along the impact point. To make matters worse there was some sort of crystalline material all over the interior that was eating away at the support within.

The object, which had veered off and away after the impact, had left this residue everywhere. There was even some of the stuff on the exterior, but this had glazed over and become inert. The interior crystalline matter occasionally let loose puffs of atmosphere as it worked to dissolve away the metal it had come in contact with.

Ref floated out amid what remained of the interior, extremely careful not to come in contact with, or even get anywhere near the sparkling material. She watched Grathe collect a sample with a carbon container that appeared immune to whatever deterioration was going on. The matter was slow and mostly ineffectual, but given enough time if it was a renewing process, the crystalline could eat away the ship's skeleton.

"Yet another oddity," Rather said. He floated near the entry-point for the collision, which was a big gaping hole that looked out at the vortex that was a fair distance away now.

"Definitely a curiosity—seems to digest metal fairly slowly." The Mallaen with red feathers floated near the back running tests on the crystalline substance. He had a long neck and small beaklike structure and there was a shell on his back that was covered by his environment suit. The bird-like Obsolus looked taller than the rest because his neck was almost a third of a meter in length. The suit required was unique and the Mallaen couldn't use the standard fishbowl helmets at all. "Can't tell if the stuff came from the impact or the vortex itself."

"Good enough reason to not get near that thing again," Ref said. She suspected that the way both Grathe and Rather eyed the stuff that they might want a closer look. Fortunately, at least for her, their sensors couldn't tell them much that made sense and so a closer look was pointlessly dangerous.

The vortex was there sometimes and other times it wasn't so clear of a manifestation. Occasionally their sensors seem to pierce the disgorging field and they could see a different Out-Field on the other side or perhaps were receiving a reflection of their own. Whatever they might learn was continuously running into stumbling encounters like those and then all of a sudden the vortex ceased outputting materials. Now it was just a swirling mass of unknown energy lighting up everything like a star but without the heat.

Ref pulled herself up, allowing momentum to carry her to a place where she could view the swirling energy. She looked at with her own eyes for the first time instead of through sensors or a screen. There was an almost beautiful quality to the brightness, even if the portal might be transporting the derelicts they found throughout the Out-Fields. A trash collector might be the best analogy, but who or what was still operating out there after all those centuries without a single word from wherever home was?

"Travel is one way." Khotor had appeared next to her in a huge suit of armor. Was it his Castar-twin or something else he had custom-fitted? "Shot a drone into it after the blast had disabled us—shattered against the surge like it was solid."

"So we're not going to escape back into the universe through that, huh?"

"If it is a doorway the vortex is definitely one way. Did you want out of linked space? Seems like there is plenty left to discover—" he grinned, looking eerily like Quinton for a mere moment. "Or perhaps rediscover."

"Not everything is safe out there to rediscover as you say," Ref replied. The Kith gave her a knowing glance but said nothing further on the subject. She was relieved they weren't the only one to stumble into a past better left forgotten.