“That is a good question,” Lt. Dish said. There was a distinct quaver to her voice.
“We do not know,” Trac said. His tone was of one stating the profoundly obvious.
Tim didn’t speak, but Riina noted the slow lessening of tension in his shoulders. There was no lessening in the lines of his face.
He glanced at her. He didn’t have to say it. She saw it in his eyes.
They were in trouble.
“Something is happening,” Veirn said.
It had been so long since something had changed, that Nevv Kellen had allowed himself to be distracted. One could only study the same data sets for so long and not risk drifting off.
He glanced at the mission clock, noting how long they’d been out of touch with the shuttle.
“What?” Kellen asked.
“I believe the entity is contracting. It is very slight, but it is reading as smaller,” Veirn said.
If they were preparing to leave…
“Should we try to make contact with them? With it?”
Veirn was silent for longer than was typical for the AI. Kellen knew it was running the various possible scenarios, so it could provide Kellen with a statistical analysis of which might be the best option.
But this time it was taking longer than usual. Much longer. As the seconds ticked by, Kellen began to see the shrinking of the entity on his screens as well.
If it was preparing to leave, they’d need to attempt contact soon.
While he waited, he tried to contact their team. If the entity’s presence was lessening…
Nothing. Not even a slight ping.
Veirn actually sighed.
“There are too many unknown factors for me to give you a recommendation for or against attempting contact. You will have to go with,” there was a pause like a human might make, “your gut.”
Veirn hadn’t liked saying that. Kellen would have grinned if the situation weren’t so serious.
Kellen paused to try to read his gut. It felt as conflicted as Veirn.
“I’m going to try,” he finally said. “We’ve tried sitting here and watching. We need to do something.”
“I am attempting to open a channel with the entity,” Veirn said.
The AI didn’t mess around when a decision had been made.
“This is Captain Nevv Kellen of the Garradian ship the Quendala,” he said, when he got the go ahead from Veirn. Kellen spoke, even while he noted that Veirn wasn’t sure the connection had been made.
He was, quite literally, broadcasting into the cosmos.
The view outside the shuttle slowly dissolved into flickering lights. Tim had shut down the shuttle’s engines, when he realized that they were having no impact and might be overheating.
Without the rumble of the engines, the cockpit felt wrong. The questions from the others were distant, almost muddy sounding. There was no sensation of movement, but never the less, he was certain they were moving.
Or changing locations.
Navigation was completely offline. So were sensors. Power and life support were both stable.
