Voyagers
By Daniel Benaich
Illustration by Elena Osipyan.
In the space between the stars, there was a tear in the hull, and the ship was going insane.
Not the literal “mind” of the ship, of course. Neurologically outfitted ships were an interesting experiment back in 20k, but in the 25k AD, for a modern research vessel, it was impractical. Instead, it brimmed with practicalities: hyperdrives, navigational systems, and x-ray telescopes. At its centre was the jewel of technology, the heart of the ship: the new EXT-LEE, a dark energy detector.
By pushing themselves to the edge of space, humanity also pushed themselves to the limits of their technology.
ARCTURUS was a fresh new vessel, and its alarms rang with startling clarity: jolting sleeping researchers from their rest, funnelling the crowds to emergency evac vehicles, and propelling the small evac rockets away in terror.
Janet slid through the hallway, putting her monitor away while it finalised data and turning on her watch. Immediately, she heard a deep buzz inside of her skull, warning her that her watch detected a horrible, deadly scenario on the ship. Fucking thing, she thought, should’ve been on.
“4TH BAY SHIPS EVACUATED. NEXT, 6TH HULL SHIPS,” the ship’s speakers blared, “PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY. NEXT, 6TH HULL SHIPS.”
Janet rushed as much as she could, spinning and tumbling down the hallway– the crowds were emptying now, the 359 occupants jumping into the 10-person evacs, rockets that would hurl them to safety. She scrambled quicker and quicker, fear lumping in her throat, desperately hoping she wouldn’t be on ARCTURUS if it blew.
When it blew.
She felt it, she knew, in the moments before everything exploded, the terror that ran through the ship: it glowed in the red lights lining towards the nearest evac and in the screaming sirens. Memories started to flash in her head along with the polished white and grey hallways running past: the birthday in the dining room, seeing nebulas in the hull’s windows, and the 203rd-day anomaly—but now all she felt was surrounded and terrorised by the uncertainty of the moment itself.
Twisting around a corner she finally arrived, dashing to the evac’s hatch. A lurch of gravity tossed her up. She slammed into the ground on her shoulder, pain running through her body.
Her watch immediately injected a painkiller, and she got up as gravity stabilised. A hand reached for her, pulling her through the door, as she saw the bolded “6D” printed on the evac’s interior.
“Hey, you alright?” A man’s voice said, as someone lifted her into a seat.
She looked around, dazed, but then the world snapped into focus.
She appeared to be in an evac surrounded by mechanics. She recognised most of them: Darren had been the one to ask her if she was alright, Mike sat next to her, Teren sat in the front with her two kids, plus a few others. All were buckling in, and she quickly followed. Darren had put on a helmet, Janet knew that was unnecessary, the evacs were engineered to an absurd margin of safety.
But, supposedly, so was ARCTURUS.
“PREPARING 6th EVACS FOR LAUNCH. NO PERSONNEL UNACCOUNTED. REMAINING SHIPS WILL AUTO-EJECT IF NECESSARY.”
The lights outside dimmed and the hatch door closed. The evac hummed to life, lighting up the padding and emergency controls. The engines were located around the vehicle, and there was a bay in the front, so no windows offered any view.
“Evac 6D will light in 20 seconds,” the quieter speakers said, “Prepare for launch.”
I was. . . I was the last person in. It’s been a while since I’ve done something that crazy.
The danger of the situation finally hit her, and Janet took a deep breath, realising what was next. She tensed for launch.
“5.
4.
3.
2.
1.”
The occupants slammed into the back as the engines lit and launched them away.
Janet could barely make the screen from the fuzziness of her vision. They appeared to be en route to a nearby asteroid to collect samples while heading to safety. Apparently she had overestimated the damage, only certain sections of the ship had become compromised, her section included.
Taking more deep breaths, she felt herself relax. The acceleration disappeared and the mini-grav drive inside turned on, adjusting to a focal point. She felt gravity return, pointing downwards. Now the floor was the entrance hatch, and she unbuckled, slipping down to stand on the sturdy, although uneven floor. The two kids—Janet forgot their names—stood around in wonder, huddled around their mother.
Mike stood next to her, but the others had probably climbed to the deck and bay above. Mike was interesting, because he wasn’t a trades mechanic or welder, but a mech engineer: pretty rare to find on a ship. He was nice, well known, and smart.
“Hey,” he nodded to her, “Janet, right? L1 Research lab. Dynamics of expansion?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “This is crazy. Just… wow. I can’t believe it’s gone.”
“It’s not gone—woah.”
They both slid on the floor as the ship adjusted course, spinning around to land.
“6D comm. Course normal,” Darren’s voice said on the evac radio, “and planning to land smoothly in ten minutes. Meet in the bay to reconvene for ship-wide blast radio from the Admiral and Commander comms.”
“Damn, that guy knows his rules,” Mike smiled, “but no, the ship isn’t gone. ARCTURUS is brutally built. We didn’t know what we’d face coming out here. I think I know what happened, too—the redundant hyper-mag fuel of the drive sloshed too much.”
“Wait. You helped design ARCTURUS?” Janet said, shocked.
“Yup. Designed most of the hull. ‘Suspect Lex put me on the trip ‘cause of that.” He smiled, “Downright bastard. C’mon, let’s head up.”
The bay was significantly more organised and circular than the elongated entrance to the evac. One side was sectioned off with a windowed wall, with two complex looking hatches and a crane inside and a large exit for loading: the airlock. The other side had controls and storage crates, along with a fridge and a sleek circular table.
A clear voice rang out from the speakers as the members of the evac approached a screen displaying a kind looking woman: Commander Axel. The screen split and a stern man appeared beside her on a different camera, Admiral Duster.
“This is Commander Axel on blast to the local shipwide radio of ARCTURUS. Repeat, this is Commander Axel. The engineering report follows: the evacuation was caused by a tear in the hull from the hyperdrive’s fuel jerking around.” Mike pumped his fists at that.
“Fortunately, most of the ship remains intact, and only the hull was severely damaged.
“The evacs launched due to a blow to OX reserves, but this has only occurred in 32% of ARCTURUS. Admiral Duster, report to evacs on ship and comm status.”
The radio flipped channels. Admiral Duster started speaking, and Mike made a snoring noise. Teren’s two kids giggled. “All evacs intact, and all will be given direct instructions based on the personnel on board to conduct various tasks. Emergency call signs will be used for the next 24 hours. Please open the task on screen, and call for any necessary assistance.”
A small symbol appeared in the bottom right of the screen, showing the evac had logged the call. The screen then spread out with words, titled with Janet and Darren’s full names.
“Janet Wells,” Mike read, “‘Take two personnel and recover various regolith. Give another one your monitor to upload the recent data findings to your cloud. Signed, Edwards.’ Huh, it’s from Edwards.”
Edwards was Janet’s boss, the Research Captain on ARCTURUS. Although Janet was a head researcher and a renowned scientist—in the astrophysics world, of course—Edwards was in charge of all the ship’s research. “Teren, do you know the main protocols?” Teren nodded as Janet unfolded and handed over her monitor, the screen lighting up. “Can you upload this—”
“Wait a second,” Darren asked, his gruff voice more apparent than on the speakers, “You went back for your monitor? That’s why you were last?”
“Yes?” Janet replied, as if it was obvious. Darren snorted in response, and continued reading his task. He grabbed two mechanics to repair some of the evac engines and observe the main ship’s damage from afar.
“That’s neat,” Mike said, standing behind her.
“Hmm?” Janet said, scrolling through a map of the asteroid.
“That you went to get your monitor. Good for you,” Mike turned around and started putting on a vacuum suit.
“What makes you think you’re coming?” Janet said.
“Uh, the fact that I bet you want none of the mechanics to come. And that we’re going to go with Teren’s kids, who combined could be considered one personnel.” The two kids bounced away from their mom, who started to upload Janet’s work while making a coffee.
“YEAH!” the boy said, jumping up and down. He high-fived his sister, Noah, who was a bit younger.
They all got into suits, while Janet made notes on her watch where they’d go. They needed three distinct samples and the registry said—
“Hey, what’s that?” Janet said aloud, pointing to a trail marked on the asteroid. Mike walked up beside her, as the computer identified it as an anomaly. A few seconds later, the computer noted that Edwards had changed their mission and requested they investigate the trail.
“Could just be caused by a collision,” Mike said, “A piece from the ship, or maybe another asteroid.”
“Or it could be an ALIEN!” the boy, Dale, said, jumping up and down.
“An alien! How cool!” Janet replied, “Why don’t we go look?
The four went into the airlock, and the on board computer tested their suits and connected their comms. Both Janet’s and Mike’s watches linked to their suits and the lock depressurized, then opened the doors.
“Woaaaah,” Noah quietly said.
It was always jaw-dropping once your eyes adjusted, to be out in the open with the depths in front of you.
That’s what they called it in past centuries. The depths. The black abyss opened up in front of them, a tapestry of darkness threaded with light. Entire systems, entire worlds. Each time Janet grasped the idea, she felt it slipping from her fingers.
She was always so confused that even after millennia humanity had such trouble understanding how the worlds just floated, nestled in the darkness.
“Woah is right,” Mike said, the static clearing, “isn’t it awesome? You kids are lucky, some kids are stuck their whole lives on a planet.”
“I never want to go down a gravity sink!” Dale said, as the group slowly floated to the surface with a tether, “I want to be a pilot and an Admiral. I want to fly ARCTURUS!”
“And what about you, Noah?” Janet asked.
“I want to go see the Yellow Rifts and the Blue Worlds. So many people. The planets look so pretty in pictures.”
“They are,” Janet agreed, “My family lives on the 2nd Blue. I’ve been a few times.”
“Woaaaah,” Noah said.
“You’ll go there someday,” Janet laughed.
Hitting the surface of the asteroid, the suits borrowed power from the evac and pulled themselves towards the centre of gravity of the asteroid, so they would be able to walk easier. But not too much.
“WHEEE!” Dale said, bouncing high.
They headed towards Polaris, in the direction of the trail, with Janet leading the way. When they found it, nothing remarkable happened. Nothing weird to be seen.
“Aww,” Noah said, “No monsters. No aliens.”
“Let’s see what’s at the end,” Mike said, taking up the front as Janet peered down at the trail. Nothing unremarkable. If she were to guess, the asteroid that made the trail might have been sharper on certain edges, and tumbled along unevenly.
Janet heard Mike breath in, startled, on the radio.
“Woaaah,” Noah’s voice said.
Janet saw Dale leap forward in the distance, but Mike stopped him firmly.
“Both of you, stay back,” Mike said, sharply. “Janet. Come here, now.”
Janet sprinted ahead, and saw something she simply could not believe. She dusted off her visor, as Mike tapped in commands to contact the Admiral, the Commander, and Captain Edwards.
It was a mechanical piece, as Mike had guessed. A probe, it looked like, with a circular plate, and boom arms broken to the side.
Janet gasped.
But not one she recognised.
***
As Darren used the evac’s bay crane to hoist the probe, Janet was still flabbergasted.
What does this even mean? She thought. How is this possible!
The rest of the 6D evac crew stood silent around the doors to the airlock, staring through the glass windows into the brilliantly lit chamber. A security camera blinked red as it recorded the scene and played it live for the rest of the ship.
The probe itself once had two large boom arms on either side of a huge two metre, twelve-sided, regular polygonal prism. Now one was gone, and the other was bent around a four metre conical dish. A side of it was covered with dust and another had a hole which likely had once contained an instrument.
“ARCTURUS’s main computer is currently being devoted to resolving the emergency situation.” Captain Edwards said, his steady quiet voice carrying through the room. “When we get time, we’ll analyse potential paths of origin. But.. it’s impossible. Everything about this… it’s impossible.
“Mike and Janet, the two most qualified on board, have been cleared by the systems and research departments to investigate the probe. Perhaps… perhaps it’s a prank? This is intensely unlikely, and obviously not well made or even designed by any logically thinking engineer. Good luck team, and Darren, complete the maintenance.”
Janet and Mike changed quietly into their suits.
They entered the airlock as Darren lowered the crane and left them. Janet walked around the probe in a circle, staying a decent distance.
“Damnit Janet,” Mike said over the suit comms, “We’re not doing this entire operation silently, let’s talk, we need a plan of action. What can we do?”
“It’s so surreal,” Janet said, staring at the bent part, “You know that word? A bit older, but I like it. Surreal. I rarely feel this much of it, rushing up and almost making me explode with anxiety. This shakes my bones.”
Mike touched the probe, and nothing happened.
“Let’s focus on what’s at hand,” Mike said, as he wiped some dust off, “What’s the energy source? Must’ve been some radioactive, definitely non-solar source.”
“I think it was this,” Janet pointed at a cylindrical tube oriented outside of the probe, with a few wires linking it to the centre part. “Isolated radioactive source, like 6k to 8k probes.”
“Good. Let’s dust that off.”
They got a spare sheet and started to gently wipe down the surfaces.
“I have always wanted to believe alien life exists,” Janet says, “that it’s not just a black hollow, lonely and with us trapped inside. That someday, we’ll find our feet on the intergalactic stage.”
“But…” Mike said.
“There’s no buts!” Janet said, “This is proof, probably. And I’m touching it,” Janet shivered with anticipation.
“Hmm,” Mike said, stopping for a moment to pick out a rock. “No, this is not proof. You know that. This is just a probe that we’ve found. Could be a prank. Could be someone’s trash. But we haven’t met aliens for twenty thousand years. You understand that, right?”
“Yeah. I know, I know. Here, help me open this panel.”
Instead, Mike picks up a scanner and starts waving it in front of the cylinder.
“Bad idea Janet,” Mike said, and paused. “Why couldn’t it be some early primitive human creation?”
“The biggest space boom occurred in 8k,” Janet said, stepping to the other side, “When hyperdrives were readily available. And this isn’t like 8k tech at all. I actually saw some at a private collector’s once.”
Mike put down the scanner and started humming. “There’s trace amounts, but nothing conclusive. These boom arms, probably for comms?”
“Yeah that and this,” Janet says pointing at a wide conical grey piece, “I think. Looks like something to gather signals.”
“So strange,” Mike shook his head, “It’s too weird.” He began to brush away at the central base.
“What do you think the alien society is like?” Janet questioned, “This tells us they were scientific. They could engineer metal and electronics. Where are they now? Why haven’t we heard from them?”
“They don’t exist. That’s why. I know! This was some trash from a private ship. Damned technocrats, they sail so far, and we have to struggle so hard for science. Some people are careless.” But to Janet, he seemed to doubt the words as he said them.
“We found two cases of alien bacteria—”
“Both were inconclusive and one was from a visited planet.”
“We’d been to the planet just once! Mike, indulge in the interestingness of the question.”
“Fine,” he took a breath, and shifted his grip, turning the probe around on its supports. “You want my thoughts as if this was from aliens?
“They would evolve to be exactly like us.
“Humanity is the best path of evolution, the optimised mobile form, balance of mind and matter, social structure, scientific instrumentation, and so on.”
Janet stood shocked for a moment.
“Seriously? You belong to that school?” Janet said. “Why? There’s no creativity in that. Besides, vastly different species introduced to similar planets have thrived. Why couldn’t the same happen for intelligent aliens?”
“Because there are hundreds of challenges an interplanetary species needs to overcome: hyperdrives, semiconductors, and thousands of years of technology. This is the one odd shape that can fit through the twenty thousand weird holes of interspecies challenges. And that’s that.”
“I’m disappointed, Mike.”
“Well, that’s your—wow, look at this.”
Janet moved over and saw Mike had uncovered a glimmering plaque on the base of the probe. He wiped down more of the circular golden disk, which had weird diagrams sketched into it: circular diagrams of lines and graphs.
“This… this is incredible…” Janet stood, jaw slack.
“It’s oddly detailed to make it seem cool for some rich person’s party.”
“No, look at that: could that be an atomic diagram? Could it be deuterium? Or maybe it’s just hydrogen. I need to show Edwards.”
“It’s just a scam diagram. I’m not going to interfere in case it isn’t scrap, but—”
“Wait here!” Janet snapped a picture with her watch, and exited the airlock to send it to Edwards.
Janet rushed out and quickly got changed out of her suit. The bay computer showed a running view of the airlock, and she didn’t want to disturb it, so she climbed the ladder up and up towards the navigation computer, in the control room.
The windows spanned out above, dousing the room in a gentle starlight. Lights in the room were currently configured to dull reds, and so her eyes could make out a scattering of the stars above. Shining, brilliant dots. And one of them… one of them contained alien life.
She turned around towards the navigation computer, but Darren already occupied the seat. He sat, methodically typing away at a report, and ran some hardware configuration testing software in the background.
“Hello Darren,” Janet said.
“Janet,” he said, barely taking his eyes away from the dull glow. “What’s up?”
“You turn all the lights red?” She asked, pulling up the picture on her watch, “Aren’t they normally different colours depending on importance and status?”
“I like looking up and seeing the stars while I work,” he said, with a slight smile.
Janet looked up again, and the stars winked in response. “And now, somewhere out there are aliens. Isn’t that just absurd?”
“It is absurd. Do you want to use the nav computer?” he said.
“Yes, just to send a picture to Edwards,” Janet replied, and began uploading the photo to the nav computer from her watch.
“Ah,” Darren said, “The Hyperwatch 2, nice. Got it right before we left?”
“Actually, it was a gift from a friend,” Janet said as she filled in the details of the nav computer.
“Isn’t it interesting that technology stays the same shape, even as it advances? Watches stayed on our wrists. Books are still bound in a paper-like substance. Screws have been the same for thousands of years. There is a base minimal shape that every tech simply… becomes.”
“Mmhm,” Janet agreed distractedly, sending the photo.
Janet stood and Darren sat silently in the navigation room, filled with gauges, knobs, and sliders, arrayed in red light, doused in starlight from up above.
“Did you always think we’d find aliens?” Janet asks, watching the nav’s progress bar.
“Yes, yes I did,” Darren says, his rough voice steady.
Janet turns, “Really?”
“Yeah. Think about it, it’s a numbers game. How many solar systems are there? How many galaxies? We figured it out. We’re pretty stupid. Genuinely, we’re pretty stupid. So no wonder there has to be potential for life to figure it all out, and in 13 billion years someone has bound to have thrown their tech around.
“What scares me is why haven’t we seen them before.”
“What do you mean?” Janet asked, twisting her ring.
“We found their old probe, right? No one would say it’s new, and that means in that time they’ve gotten smarter. If they’re smarter than that, they’re smart enough to have emitted some radio or change that we could detect.
“This changes how we think from now on. We haven’t found anything else, including radio signatures, and that could mean anything. Did they suddenly die? Or are they hiding? Have they hidden themselves in human society? Are they listening to us right now?”
Janet felt something looking over her shoulder, and an unnerving sense that no matter where she or humanity turns, they are traced. She turned around.
But there’s nothing there. Just her and Darren, and red blinking lights.
“Aren’t you just a bit skeptical?” Janet said, facing Darren again.
He snorted. “There’s no time for skepticism when reality is bashing you in the face with a hammer. This is physical proof, we’re not alone.”
Is it better to be alone, Janet thought, or to be facing a threat we have no capability to understand?
“This is what you want to send?” Darren said, the golden disc picture displayed on the screen.
“Yes, if you don’t mind,” Janet replied. Darren almost hit the send key, but looked back at the picture.
“I recognise that diagram,” he said, pointing at the one with lines pointing from a central point. They weren’t a consistent thickness, and at points there were tiny notches. “But from where?”
“You sure?” Janet said.
“Yeah…” Darren responded, and shrugged, pressing send. “Or maybe not.”
Janet left Darren alone in the navigation room, heading back to the bay to check on Teren’s work. Terren sat at the table, half glancing at Janet’s monitor but mostly reading a book to Noah. It was a picture book, and had very colourful illustrations.
It was also about green aliens.
What would they look like? Janet thought. Maybe Mike is right, they’d be humanoid. Do they have to be governed by laws of matter? Do they have to communicate? When we meet them, what physical aspects of reality will we doubt?
Dale ran up to Janet, and tugged at her shirt.
“Look! Look!” Dale said, excitedly, “I drew what I thought of the aliens.”
There’s some grey scribbles on a screen he holds up for Janet to observe. There were vaguely two dots for eyes and maybe a leg stuck out at the bottom.
“I think they’ll be like sludge and have tentacles!” Dale says.
Maybe they will be a horror crafted from a child’s imagination, Janet thought.
“Did you like going out of the evac?” Janet asked. She could see he also drew a rough crater with a golden object that was probably the probe.
“It was awesome!” Dale replied, “I can’t wait to tell everyone on ARCTURUS.”
Who would respond like Dale, thrilled at every adventure? Was humanity ready? Could this be the remains of another civilization, and humanity was about to discover their demise?
“Janet!” A gruff voice calls out her name, and Darren appears climbing down the ladder.
“I know what that chart was,” he says, talking quickly, “It’s a star map—an emergency navigational map. The aliens drew a star chart, and we can find them. It’s in all the emergency guides that I’ve read—they use a super old standard that’s really strange. But the idea fits, and the standard could similarly apply.”
Janet stood awestruck.
Dale grinned. “We can find the aliens,” he said.
Janet was not sure if that was a good thing.
Darren was already on the bay computer calling Edwards and Axel.
Janet heard his voice as she stared out at Mike, still in the bay, probably wondering what in the world was happening. He was not alone.
“Captain Edwards, Commander Axel,” Darren said in the background, “We’ve found an even more interesting discovery.”
***
Janet sat strapped in. Now, this time, it was different.
When she first boarded ARCTURUS from Uzin Station, she hated saying the goodbyes. It was such a beautiful parting dinner, hosted by a benefactor of science, and she said so many goodbyes, to her family, close colleagues, and friends. Everyone but her felt it was a celebration: for them, it was a slight misdirection in their daily lives. For her, she spun around, and took a highway to the stars.
She’d been on other scientific journeys before that, but now was the first launch where she was giddy with excitement. Before, her experiments had been decided long in advance, through gruelling committees and long nights. Not to say she didn’t like her work (she loved it), but the repetition and pre-planned aspects made it feel dull.
Now, she had no clue what was coming next.
All the other evacs were recalled, everyone gathering to get ARCTURUS maintenance and up to hyperdrive speed. So they could race away into the stars, into the opening jaws of uncertainty.
They could find true alien life: they could prove they were not alone, and Janet would be there. In so many ways, this was like being there at the invention of the hyperdrive, at the invention of the rocket, at the invention of flight, millennia ago.
This was a new era.
The quiet evac voice came to life.
“Evac 6D will light in 20 seconds,” the voice said, “Prepare for launch.”
This time, she wasn’t filled with restless anxiety, but a rising laughter in her stomach, a rising excitement and jittering movement that made her want to exclaim with joy. This is why she wanted to be a scientist, all those years ago: the thrill of discovery.
“10.”
With a childish grin, she turned to Mike. He rolled his eyes, but smiled. Across the seats, Dale practically jumped up and down in his seat.
“9. 8. 7.”
Could they understand, could they comprehend what would come next? Janet didn’t know.
“6. 5. 4.
3.
2.
1.”
With a roar, the evac engines lit alive, blasting the rock below, slowly rising like an angel towards the stars. It arced towards ARCTURUS, a beam of light that reached towards the glimmering constellations, the countless scatterings of light that suspended themselves gracefully in a dark void.
The evac shot into space, powered by dreams, curiosity, and imagination. It was a liftoff to greater beginnings, a like of which had never been seen before.
About the author
Daniel Benaich is a mechatronics engineering student who occasionally dabbles in writing. He has loved reading science fiction and fantasy ever since he was a kid, and dreams of being an aerospace engineer. You can find his other works online here: https://sites.google.com/view/writings-of-daniel/.