The Titan Mystery – Part 2

The Titan Mystery – Part 2

“We can’t locate and destroy the field generating this temporal field” Neila was telling him. McKinley had gathered his senior officers in the board room to understand his options and make a decision on the next step to escaping this field they had fallen into.

“Even if we did, the Titan is so large that there’s no guarantee that our weapons could cause enough damage to collapse the field” Tymon continued. The mood in the room was negative. McKinley didn’t like taking indiscriminate decisions, but they weren’t going to get anywhere by doing nothing and find out what they could not do! Looking over the table at each of them, McKinley spoke up.

“I did not call this meeting to find out about what we can’t do! We’re still no closer to a solution!” McKinley wasn’t shouting, he didn’t need to and saw no use in it. But he was now in no mood for more problems, they had now been trapped for 5 days and he didn’t want to be there a second longer.

“Commander – we’re merely reporting back to you as instructed” Neila protested.

“We can board the ship and find out what is causing this heat signature.” Seanna spoke up, up until now she had been silent. She had a readout of the Titan, with a heat source clearly showing.

“You can’t be serious – we have no idea what’s over there!” McKinley barked back, Seanna was McKinley’s second in command and he had learned to trust her despite her impulsive nature. She had demonstrated herself to be exceptionally capable many times, but McKinley often couldn’t see where her decisions led. He suspected she couldn’t either.

“What else is there we can do commander?” Seanna asked matter of factly? ” We have no other option!”

McKinley thought for a few moments, before nodding his head n agreement “very well” he replied “Gather a team together and devise a plan. I want to see it at 19.00 hours. You will execute at 07.00 tomorrow morning.” Seanna nodded, trying to contain her excitement. It seemed that having a look around the Titan was something she was itching to do.

The next morning Seanna’s team were preparing Tranquility for the short trip to the Titan. The general air of business was interrupted when McKinley turned up and walkled into the loading bay, suited up in a mission outfit.

“Commander?” Seanna asked with some surprise.

“Don’t worry Lietenent Commander, this is your mission still as it’s your plan. I’m coming along as well as an observer. Besides, you may need another pair of hands.” He smiled as he walked past Seanna.

“And?” She asked after him.

“And… I’m curious too!” Seanna grinned to herself as she fitted the helmet over her head. The door behind her closed and she walked past the two rows of team member either side of the Tranquility cabin and assumed the commander’s seat beside the pilot.

“Let’s go chief Collins” She instructed the pilot. The small craft lifted from the landing bay and out into the blackness of space. In the rear monitor the Tycho was slipping behind fast, while ahead the immense Titan loomed ever closer. It was just as she thought they were nearing that another depth to the scale was discovered. This spaceship was truly huge. It was going to take time to find their way around. Scans from theTycho were helpful, but incomplete and of course what was on board was almost completely unknown.

As Tranquility approached one of the many port side landing bays, roughly amid ships it lit up with a bright blue.

“Sensors are indicating an atmospheric force field” Collins advised. “Shall I proceed inside?”

“Proceed inside” Seanna instructed. Tranquility glided into the empty hangar bay and slowly descended to land gently on the deck. Inside the cabin Seanna checked the enviromental data.

“The atmosphere is good to breathe, but for now full mission suits and helmets to be worn. It my be breathable, but it’s also -100 cecius in there.” The mission members all acknowleged the instruction over the intercom. With that the door to the small spacecraft opened, there was a loud hiss as the pressure equalised and there before them, dark and mencing was the largest landing bay they had ever witnessed. It could have held six spacecraft the same size as Tycho, two wide and three long. With the far end of the bay mostly hidden, light was needed. The rest of the team follwed Seanna off the Tranquility, stading side by side, they looked on. Some of the team had scanners and were busily looking for any data on what lay ahead.

“Collins, can you give us some light please?” McKinley instructed.With that a number of piercing light around tranquility activated. Even with these lights there wasn’t much to see in such a large space.

“Deploy the buggies people” Seanna instructed, at once the team scurried around to deploy the four vehicles, which were a large buggy with six wheels “We’re never going to get this ship explored on foot!”

Then McKinley’s voice was heard over the intercom “Tycho this is Mckinley, we’ve landed on the Titan. So sign of any activity yet, will keep you updated with data and instructions”

“Acknowledged Commander” Tymon answered.

“You left Tymon in charge?” Seanna asked McKinley.

“Yes, I didn’t think he could do much harm on this one!” Seanna laughed, but was stopped suddenly as the landing bay was suddenly lit up with rows of lights, one after the other turning on, until the whole landing bay was brightly lit. The whole team froze and looked around at each other, waiting for what was to come.

 

This story is part of Rachael Ritchey’s blog battle, the category is Science Fiction and the theme is:

Indiscriminate

Rules:

1. 1000 words max
2. fictional tale (or true if you really want)
3. PG (no more than PG-13) Content – let’s keep this family friendly!
4. Your story must contain the word(s) from the theme and/or be centered around the theme in a way that shows it is clearly related
5. Go for the entertainment value!
6. State the Genre of your story at the top of your post.
7. Post your story on Tuesday, by 11:59 PM PST
8. Use the hashtag #BlogBattle when tweeting your story, put a link back to your #BlogBattle Short Story in the comments section of this page, and/or include a link to this page in your own blog post (it creates a “ping-back” which will alert me and our friends to your #BlogBattle post)
9. Have fun!

Read all the short stories and vote! Winners are announced the Monday following. 🙂