I woke some time later with Carey up on the bed beside me, snuggled up close to my chest. Feeling much more rested, I swung my legs off the bed and noticed Magnus had replaced Mary on the other bunk. I quietly walked out and left Carey snoozing away with the big Swede. The door hissed lightly as it slid back closed. The hall lights flicked on when they sensed movement, and soon I was at the bridge.
“Mary, I hope you got enough sleep. How are we doing?” I asked her as she looked intently at the monitors.
“It’s been about six hours. I woke after four and tagged Magnus out. I’m glad you got to sleep for a while. It was needed and well deserved, Dean,” she said.
“How do you feel?”
“Not great, but alert enough. We’ve only had a couple times we needed to stop. I can’t believe this technology exists. This can change everything. We could get across the solar system in days. I mean, humans could travel to other systems! And we know that we aren’t alone out there now.”
“For a CPA from upstate New York, I can’t imagine being out here in the great expanse. That said, I always believed we weren’t alone. All the movies were right, though; the aliens wanted to destroy us. Is Natalia still live with us?” I could see her smaller ship as a green blip behind us.
“Da, hello, Dean,” Natalia said through the speaker.
“I’m sorry you’re all alone over there. You must be exhausted,” I said, knowing she was tough, but we all had our limits.
“I’m running on low, but I’ll be okay. I actually prefer to be alone most of the time.” Her voice was more than tired-sounding.
The sun was growing in size in the viewscreen, and I could tell the heat was drastically increasing, but the ships seemed to have automatic temperature control. Cool air emanated from multiple sources on the ship.
Stars streamed quickly by on the screen, but the massive glowing orange ball of gases stayed steady, slowly getting larger as we moved toward it. I assumed that at any point we would come across our people. With any luck, they were still here, and still alive.
“From what I understand, there’s an awful lot of radiation as we near the sun. Does this thing have any gauges on the danger?” I asked, worried we would get close and die of poisoning.
Mary touched her head where the implant had been. “Yes, according to the information we were fed on the ships, all of the ships are built to withstand almost any amount of radiation. The suits in the cargo bay as well. Seems they had some serious problems in other systems and found ways of protecting themselves.”
“Thank God. One less thing to worry about… as if we don’t have enough,” I replied, actually happy to hear I wasn’t going to die a horrible death by an invisible ray.
The ship’s sensors beeped, and Mary hopped out of hyperdrive instantly. Natalia appeared behind us on the screen. Something red came into view on the screen and we stayed back, trying to figure out what it was.
“Go get Magnus, Dean,” Mary said. I quickly ran back and woke the large, slumbering man.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Not sure. Something’s registering on the sensors. We’re only about ten million miles from the sun now. It could be them,” I said as we rushed back to the cockpit.
“What are we looking at, Mary?” Magnus asked, rubbing his eyes.
“Take a look for yourself,” Mary said quietly. I looked up and squinted at it. The view screen had an auto-tint to protect us from the sun’s burning glow. Sitting in the middle of our view was a large rectangular box, like the ones that had lowered into Earth’s atmosphere. It looked much like the Kraskis’ mother ship, but less square and much smaller, though still quite large if my depth perception was making any sense out here.
“Is there just one? The image the Deltra showed us had at least a hundred of them out there.” My voice came out gravelly, and I took a mostly dry swallow.
“That’s all the sensors show. Nat, what do you think? Any chance this is a trap?” Magnus asked.
“I don’t think so. Want me to go in for a closer look?” she replied, full of confidence.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, but what choice do we have?” Mary said. “Let’s move in. I wish we knew if there was a way to scan for life signs, but there’s no instruction manual. And let’s face it, if there was, we wouldn’t be able to read it.”
My heart raced as I thought of the people that might be in that container. Would they have oxygen? Could we save them somehow and still make it to the others and stop them too? People could survive up to a week without water, Mary had told me. We were there now. Most would perish well before that.
“How the hell are we even going to find out if they’re in there?” Magnus asked.
“I have an idea. We’re going to have to get close. Really close.” I had no clue if my idea would work, but I didn’t really see any other options. I ran to the locker room and picked the smallest suit. I truly hoped the air levels would be suitable for humans, or else this would be a short trip. I started to pull it on, and Magnus walked in.
“Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard… and I once walked through a minefield wearing nothing but my boots,” he said with a smile.
“I’m going to coax that story out of you over a beer, but for now, suit up.”
“This thing is loose even on me. And you look like a little kid putting on daddy’s pants. Imagine the looks we’ll get if this plan works. We look ridiculous. Come to think of it, I’d better use the bathroom, or whatever that strange room is over there.”
“I’ve used it. No way to flush,” I said.
I scooped up the metallic rope rolls and attached one side of the first roll to my suit’s belt. The suit was surprisingly light, nothing at all like the space suits from our Apollo missions on the moon, from what I remembered from the old documentaries about them. Magnus came back in and I hooked his rope to the suit and passed him the helmet.
“I’ll try it first.” I put the dome over my head and it clicked in, mechanical clasps auto-connecting it to the suit. The helmet was dark, but a clear square appeared in front of my face, giving me crystal-clear vision out of it. It had a small grid layout in light green lines. I looked at Magnus, laughing at the sight. Here was the massive man in a silver alien space suit, sleeves bunched up so his hands would fit into the gloves of the long arms. As I put my own hands into the gloves, I realized there was only room for four digits in there. Luckily, their hands were larger, and my two middle fingers easily fit into one space.
“Nothing more of a reminder that we’re in an alien’s suit than a four-digit glove, hey?” I said, my voice cutting out in the small helmet.
“You got it. I can hear you in the helmet, so I guess we’ll be able to communicate, at least. Good thing these guys weren’t telekinetic or something, I only know a bit of sign language.” From the smirk he gave me, I had the feeling he just knew the dirty words. “Do you really think this can work?” he asked.
I didn’t know, but we had to try, and it was the only thing I could think of that gave us a shot at saving everyone. I decided to be the positive one and told him I did think it would work. He clapped me on the shoulder, and we grabbed the handheld thrusters and strapped them to our wrists. Soon we walked to the cargo bay we’d first entered the ship in.
Mary stood there watching us. Her face had never looked more serious.
“I see the air is breathable?” she asked and I nodded. “Good. I’m twenty feet over the container. I’m going to move in closer to land on it. You know what to do then. I’ll yell at you when you’re good to go.”
Magnus grabbed his metal-linked rope and clasped the other end to a firm-looking anchor point in the bay. There were three, side by side, and they had to be made for this purpose… I hoped. I clasped in beside him and pulled on it a few times to make sure it was secure.