Chương 53: Chapter 15: The Expedition

"What did you say she needed?" Flint asked as we walked along with the other members of the expedition.

"Some part of the old Artemis" I told him, "She said they'd be giving it to the humans to help them create 'complex materials', whatever that means." Nori told me about how they brought Artemis's main processing functions online on board lifeboat 8 shortly after meeting up with lifeboat 7's remains. Until that happened, 8 and 9's main functions still worked but more complex problems like the driverless cars and power generation didn't work.

I thought originally that each ship had their own Artemis, but apparently that was only for the lower level functions for things like maintenance and keeping all the parts of the ship running. For the high level functions, they mostly died with lifeboat seven. But they were hoping to get more of him online once they had access to the more damaged parts of lifeboat 7. Some of what she'd said didn't make any sense to me. If his higher level functions weren't working, then how did he speak to me back on Earth?

Why was he able to guide me toward Nori? I had no idea what his goal was, but there seemed to be more of him there than Nori thought.

"Okay. Once you get me in, you can go do that part on your own. Did she give you a map?" he asked.

"She showed me one. As soon as I find a building I need to go toward the middle ring and I should find the entrance I need. She showed me pictures of it so I think I should be able to find it" I told him. The group we were in eventually made it to an elevator. We'd been walking for at least thirty minutes in the direction of the back of the lifeboat. There were twelve other members of the group, all of them had their eyes glowing.

I thought it might be a problem for us to talk to each other around them but Flint said he did it all the time. The people behind the assembler didn't tend to pay attention while they were in it anyway.

"Have you been up to sector zero yet?" Flint asked as the elevator closed.

"Zero? I don't know. I actually never figured out what the whole sector thing is about" I told him.

"Oh, okay well it's not too hard. Sector zero is black. That's the center of the ship, which is where we're going now. There's no gravity up there" he told me.

"In that case I think I have been there. I was in that big glass viewing area during the gravity games" I said.

"Okay, yeah so that would be sector zero. Sector one is purple. That basically means everything above the surface, so any buildings on the surface area or the treeshroom part of the back area of the ship, that's all purple. What it means is that gravity is less than normal" he said.

"How do they define 'normal'?" I asked.

"The surface is meant to have the same amount of gravity as the mechara home planet. So if you're in the purple zone, you have less gravity, if you have more, you're going into the blue section, which is sector two."

"And the green?" I asked.

"Green is sector three, which is where only the younger, more fit mechara can go, because that's where gravity gets to be a bit too uncomfortable for them. Sector three has mechara and melodians together" he said.

"Okay. And sector four is the red, which means only the melodians can go there?" I asked.

"Exactly, sector four is like… Everything else. It's where most of the melodians live, it's where all the maintenance stuff is, it's where power is generated, stuff like that. It's all one big sector that just means that the mechara can't go there unless there's a spindown" he said. I slumped a bit.

"Okay… So… When she asked me if I lived in sector five…" I said. Flint laughed a little "If she asked you that, she was asking if you lived outside of the ship. When you said yes you weren't wrong. Sector five refers to everything outside of the ship. So I guess earth would be included in that" he said.

"Darn… Didn't even realize I was being tricked" I said, a little frustrated.

"I mean, that's how 'being tricked' works, right?" he said.

"Hmm, yeah I guess so" I said. The other melodians grabbed onto the railing along with Flint.

"What's…" I started to ask. In a moment I found myself suddenly getting launched up toward the ceiling of the elevator. Thankfully Flint grabbed my leg, holding me down as the elevator came to a stop, leaving everyone in the vessel weightless.

"Oh sorry, forgot to warn you about that" he said sheepishly as he pulled me back down to eye height with him.

"Yeah a little warning next time would be good" I said, feeling a little flustered. Flint pulled me a little closer to him, speaking in a whisper.

"Speaking of warnings, keep that visor over your eyes, they need to think you're using the assembler along with the others. Act just like they do, okay?" he said. He was referring to the helmet we were all wearing. It didn't cover my nose and mouth but it covered everything else including my eyes if I had the sunscreen down. My ears were pressed back against my head but there was a bulge along the inside of the helmet to make it more comfortable for the wearer.

Nori had given me something very similar to the flight suit I'd originally worn on the ship, but it was a lot lighter and felt pretty warm inside. We were given backpacks with an assortment of items in it including a large flashlight that looked like it was partially a drone, an emergency whistle, a pouch filled with water that pressed against my back and a small metal tank that had a tube coming out of it with a spot to go over the wearers nose to give them oxygen, just like what you'd normally see in a hospital.

I pulled my visor down as we all entered a circular room with an entrance at either side. Just as we were getting settled in, a white melodian came in behind us. She wasn't wearing the same clothing we were, instead she had a loose fitting garment that looked quite differently than anything else I'd seen a melodian wear on the ship.

"Everyone out of the way we have an emergency" she said in a quick decisive tone. I blinked, turning in surprise as I recognized Rosa's voice. She was the one I'd seen on the screens, the one that had spoken in the message to earth about the black shard, she was suddenly there in the room with me. I wanted to say something but she didn't look like she was in a position to talk.

Everyone in our group moved out from the center, making their way out to the outer edges of the room as Rosa went up to the opposite doorway. She grabbed a large handle at the center and turned the bar, causing the airlock to open. I could hear air rushing up through it as the room we were all in partially depressurised. On the other side of the doorway I could hear screaming from a melodian on the other side. Everyone in my party's eyes turned off as they heard the screams.

"Everywhere! They were everywhere!" he yelled, hyperventilating as he tried to get the words out.

"Inside!" Rosa yelled out through the doorway. A moment later several melodians came through, including the one who'd been yelling. His helmet was missing, his pupils contracted as he tried to breath.

"I couldn't, I couldn't get away, they were everywhere, their bodies, they boiled! I can't… I can't…" he continued yelling, his breathing dying down as his eyes rolled up in his head just before he passed out. Rosa sighed, grabbing the poor melodian by the arm and guiding his motionless body toward the door we'd come through.

"Take him to the infirmary. Tell them he's not to work after this until he feels recovered, okay?" she said to another melodian who nodded as Rosa let go, letting them go through the doorway together. Rosa closed the door behind them, sitting there quietly for a moment as she collected her thoughts. Nobody else in the room dared to say anything. After collecting herself for a bit Rosa looked up, turning her gaze to each person in the room.

"I want to make something clear," she said with a firm voice, "You are NOT to come out of the assembler while you're working. You were chosen for your strength, your resilience and your ability to remain in the assembler as long as you're needed. You were NOT chosen to make decisions, to go off on your own and to work anywhere outside of where Artemis drives you. You are not under any circumstances allowed to exit the assembler or else THAT!"

she said, gesturing toward the doorway where the screaming melodian had gone through "is what's going to happen to you. Do you understand?" Nobody in the room responded, but it looked like everyone understood. When she spoke she projected an overwhelming aura of authority. Everyone in the room seemed afraid to respond to her. Opting out of giving a verbal instruction, Rosa moved her hand over her eye like a shutter.

The other melodians seemed to understand what she meant as all their eyes started glowing white again. Only a few of them had the visor down, making it hard to see if their eyes were glowing, but a moment later it was even more ambiguous as all the other melodians reached up and closed their visor down. Flint was still next to me and when he gave my shoulder a slight tug I started following him along with the rest of the melodians up through the outer doorway. Rosa stayed behind, watching us all leave.

There was a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach. Nori told me about the people that were still in lifeboat seven but I was so focused on the tasks her and the listeners had given me that I didn't put much thought into what it would be like until I saw the door behind me slowly closing. More than anything I wanted to leave with Rosa, but she didn't seem like she was in the mood to chat.

The realization of what I might find in lifeboat seven was just barely overpowered by my fear of confronting Rosa after what I'd just seen.

"Come on" Flint whispered to me, pushing me up toward the lander ship. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It took me a moment to realize it was the exact same style of ship I'd arrived on from earth. It was fairly spacious on the inside with a lot of room for the fifteen or so melodians that filed in, each one grabbing onto a rope along the sides.

I followed Flint inside, my hands shaking a little from whatever horrors I could potentially find in the destroyed lifeboat. I have to do this, I told myself, it'll be okay, I'll get through it, I can always just close my eyes. Without a word, Flint led me up toward the front of the ship, past where all the other melodians had started holding onto the ropes and through a small door that led to a cockpit. He gently closed the door behind us and guided me up to the two chairs in the front.

I looked back for a moment, then back to him.

"Are you gonna fly this?" I asked quietly. He smiled "No no of course not" he said at a regular volume, "I just wanted you to see the view." I pulled myself up, only seeing blackness outside the windows, but that quickly changed as a loud whooshing sound came from all around us. A moment later, all the sound from the lifeboat disappeared as a large doorway opened in front of us. The ship started moving forward immediately, giving us the most spectacular view of earth I'd ever seen.

On the lifeboat, the windows only ever face the sun, so the day side of the planet is always out of view, only giving me a view of the night side of the planet along with sunsets and sunrises. At all other times it's impossible to see the earth. But just like how the window side of the ship only ever sees the night side of the planet, the back side of the ship only sees the day side.

I felt a lot closer to earth than I thought we were, with the planet below us filling the entire field of view from the cabin's perspective. It was awe inspiring, like an endless painting that slowly moved underneath us. I could see mountains, lakes, rivers, oceans. I couldn't tell where we were but there seemed to be a giant desert with an ocean just next to it.

I hadn't thought about it, but the entire time I was on the lifeboat I was traveling around the world over and over again, which felt strange with how little I'd traveled since landing in Colorado.

"This is incredible…" I said softly.

"What?" Flint asked.

"I… Oh, sorry" I said as I realized I'd spoken in English "I was saying this is incredible. I saw a little of this on my way up but not like this." He nodded "Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Do you see where you lived?" I shook my head "I'm not sure where we are right now but if I were to guess this looks like Australia maybe?"

"Where's that?" he asked, tilting his head.

"It's… Very very far from where I live. But I think I'd need a lot more time to watch here until I could tell you where we were."

"Planet's pretty big huh?" he asked, turning his attention back to it.

"Yeah…" I said. I felt like I could watch it forever, looking at every detail, every mountain and every river along the continents below us, but the transporter ship had other ideas in mind as it turned, bringing us along the side of the spinning lifeboat. As expected, its speed increased the further we went further away from the center. Being so close to it felt jarring with how fast it was going toward the outside.

From the inside it just felt like you were heavier, but from the outside it looked like it was moving as fast as a bullet, the various features along its surface whizzing by in a blur, too fast to see anything with detail. Once we cleared the side of the lifeboat something else came into view. A massive white translucent balloon with the vague outline of lifeboat seven inside it. It was suspended in the middle but I couldn't see any detail because of the balloon surrounding it.

"Oh wow it's just right there isn't it" I said, pulling myself toward the window.

"Yeah it's always close by. Sometimes closer to the planet, sometimes further away, but it's always right there" he said. I started drifting away from the window, softly landing on the back of the cockpit as we started slowly gliding in the direction of the ship. I'd been focused on the task, but in the silence around us and with the slowly approaching balloon surrounding lifeboat seven, the realization of what I'd heard from the melodian started to sink in.

The massive ship felt intimidating, only amplified by whatever horrors it held inside. My hands started to shake as I felt a sudden pit in my stomach.

"You okay?" Flint asked. I turned my attention to him, his eyes focused on me.

"I… I'm sorry I don't think I can do this…" I said.

"Hey it's okay" he said, reaching out and putting his hand on my shoulder "you can just stay with me, okay?"

"But that other melodian… I don't think I can do this…" I said, stammering a bit as I tried to get my thoughts out. Flint shook his head "he was one of the cleanup people. We won't be going to any of those places. Just stay with me, I'll need to separate for a little bit but I have a place you can stay while I'm gone." I closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths. He seemed to know what he was doing and I didn't want to let him or Nori down.

"Okay" I sighed, opening my eyes again to see the ship was getting a lot closer. As we approached I noticed a tiny bubble coming off the side of the balloon surrounding the lifeboat. At least, it looked small at first, but as we approached I realized it was at least twice the size of our ship. Just as we were getting close, a large zipper-like structure moved down along the smaller bubble, revealing another transporter ship on the other side.

"There's another ship here?" I asked.

"Lots of them, yeah" Flint said "They're going in and out constantly. Once this one drops us off, another crew will get on board and make their way back."

"How many crews are there?" I asked.

"Maybe about a hundred?" he said. I wasn't sure if his 'hundred' was the same as mine but I took it to mean there were a good amount of them. As the previous ship exited, we started to move inside. The small cockpit lost all its directional light as the bubble enclosed around us, almost like it was a cloudy day. It only took a few seconds for the other side of the bubble to open up, revealing the remnants of lifeboat seven in front of us.

Along the outside of the ship I could see a lot of light sources from what looked like welding teams. Super bright points of light were coming from several places along the side of the ship. The engines on either side of the central ring looked like they were put back in place, but the bright metal bands around the arms that held them in place revealed how they'd broken off in the first place.

Once we exited the small bubble another transporter ship entered from the inside, no doubt leading another team back to lifeboat eight. Our transporter ship slowly moved out in front of the remnant ship, aligning itself to its front, causing a familiar shape to present itself.

"Oh my gosh that's what it was" I said quietly.

"Huh?" Flint asked.

"The ship, I've never seen it from this angle, but back on earth when we were decoding this shard I was given. This shape showed up on the screen. It was a small circle, a big circle around it, then two circles off on the sides. It was a picture of the lifeboat from the front" I said.

"Oh, yeah that's the symbol we use to represent the lifeboats" he said.

"Yeah I guess I never thought about it" I said. Our vessel started its approach, heading toward the front section of lifeboat seven. The windowed portion of the ship seemed so small in comparison to the rest of the ship, but I knew it was likely just as large as the central area of lifeboat eight. The thing that stood out to me was how dark it was on the inside. I could see a few crews dotted here and there on the inside but the interior was otherwise pitch black.

"Is that…" I started to ask as I saw an irregularity on the windowed portion of the ship. Flint knew what I was talking about.

"Yeah that's where Sloan blew out one of the windows." There was a large structure on the inside of the ship right up against the windowed section of the lifeboat, but where a window should be was instead a large series of pipes and metal scaffolding. The pipes reached out from the blown out window like a shotgun that had its opening sealed shut before getting fired. The pipes all started in the center but splayed outward like they were trying to escape.

"Are we… Going through that?" I asked as the ship approached the grotesque entrance.

"It's the only way inside right now, yeah" he said.

"Why didn't they open another spot?" I asked, wondering how we were expected to get through the mangled pipes and wires.

"They're working on it, but it's taking time," he said.

"Seems like it would be pretty easy though" I said.

"It's about priorities" he said "When lifeboat eight first got to seven's remains it was a lot of work just getting everything back together. Despinning and putting the parts together took nearly all of our available spare oxygen. Now that we have resources from the planet we can start to rebuild it properly but for now they're working on getting the back entrance working again and they also got the basic electrical systems back online. Creating a bigger opening for us in the front… Not important.

It's enough to do the initial cleanup and they're hoping to have the back entrance online before we can start the proper rebuilding that's needed." We stopped about a hundred feet away from the entrance, giving us a good view of the mangled pipes and debris that found itself at the exit point on the ship while all the debris had rushed out of it. Almost like a ghost, the sound of rushing air came through the transporter.

"What's happening?!" I asked, my ears hurting as I felt air getting forced out of my lungs.

"Take a deep breath, you're fine, we're just depressurising a bit" Flint said as I heard the air rushing out of him in the same way. I felt a little sick, but the air stopped, making me feel like my insides were expanding from the inside of my skin, almost like I was bloated but from every part of my body all at once.

"It feels a bit weird the first time but you get used to it" Flint said with a smile, trying to reassure me. A sudden rush of freezing cold air came through the ship as I heard the back door open. I was expecting the cold, but I wasn't expecting the coldest air I'd ever felt in my life. Right as the frigid air came through the transporter I heard the little machine on my back turn on as a slow, gentle stream of oxygen was pushed out the small tube around my nose, giving me breathable air.

"We… Aren't gonna be here too long right?" I asked.

"I'll try to make it fast" Flint said as he led me out of the cockpit. The others had already made their way out by the time we reached the back, another team looking like they were ready to board behind us. Flint quickly showed me how to use the little thrusters we had around our waistes. It was thankfully quite intuitive with a joystick-like touchpad in the center of my left glove, letting me touch my thumb to tell it which direction I wanted to go.

The system seemed pretty smart, using the direction I was looking as a basis for what 'up' meant on it. A similar pad on my right hand guided my rotation. Once we'd gotten around the transporter I was able to see the entrance properly for the first time, unobstructed by the transporter's interiors. It looked like the place we were going was intentionally set up to have an exit to the outside.

The giant platform was mostly obscured by the pipes and ducts that looked like they were trying their hardest to escape from the inside of the ship, but there were still some signs of what the structure used to be. It looked like an airlock, its purpose could have been anything, but what stood out to me was a dark black line that spiraled its way from the entrance, out to the outer edges of the ship. It was dark, almost looking like it had burned the side of the ship.

Flint waved to me, encouraging me to follow after him. Oh right I thought as I moved toward him. Just before getting to the entrance something caught my eye. On the right side of the airlock there was a distinct outline against the wall in the shape of a melodian, its hand gripping a bar along the side of the airlock. It was the only spot that wasn't burned. I paused, wondering what had happened to the poor melodian.

Below the outline was a bright yellow pool of liquid, frozen in place, looking eerily familiar to the color I'd seen in my memory. Shaking my head, I looked up to the entrance to see Flint waiting for me. We made our way through the mangled mess, grabbing onto the various metal bits as the pathway narrowed to be just large enough to let a melodian through. The pipes were colder than cold, almost painful to touch.

As we made our way up, small parts of the room became visible as the room we were in became more visible between all the debris. It looked like a control room of some sort with lots of computer screens and large panels with buttons going across them, much like the one I'd seen at the large sphere Nori brought me to. Eventually, we made our way up to the other side of the control room, suddenly revealing the interior of lifeboat seven.