Mission report: 5 days after arrival in Dark Star sphere of influence
With consultation between the Captain, the AI, and navigational officer Enzarl, an insertion burn was performed to place the Aelius on a shallow-angle entry course with the Dark Star, as soon as possible. Arrival now imminent.
In the time since arrival, the crew ran final checks of every on-board system, including themselves. No mission-threatening irregularities were discovered. Flight Officer Sound-Glorious-And-Bring-New-Life-Unto-Creation records fully operational condition in away-craft, and has secured it against trauma and vibrations the ship may experience upon entry. Ebony confirmed all stocks in the chem labs are present and correct according to the mission charter. Makai and S4 performed cursory mental and physical checkups on the rest of the crew (notes logged in confidential files). The AI noticed no faults in mechanical systems, except for a small irregularity in the hibernation suite a few hours ago. It seems to have corrected itself, and both sensory confirmation and Ra'sara's examination of the life-support systems shows no further irregularity since, but the area has been noted for increased monitoring.
[Additional observational data of Dark Star environs obtained from ship's sensor contained in tranmission.]
[Astonomical data from vantage point in Dark Star system collected from ship telescope and transmitted, as per request of sponsor-party-77A]
[Any personal messages from crew members included in encrypted subset.]
Transmission ends. Last reported communication from SS Aelius prior to entry into Dark Star.
(I've
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1 2 )
The wall of darkness approaches. It was impossible to tell how close it is with any precision or certainty, but when before it had seemed immense, now it was a field of black nothingness occupying half of the sky. Looking out the cameras that could still see the stars, one might almost think they stood on the dark side of a barren planet, staring up at the unobstructed night from a flat pitch-black ground. The sensors returned nothing. The scanning waves they threw disappeared into the field of darkness. Nothing.
The event horizon drew indeterminately nearer. How would they know when they crossed it? An event horizon admits nothing but in one direction, all inside shrouded by gravity, or whatever was at work here, but all that light would still be falling in, showing the outside. Hypothetically, anyway: it could not be known for sure without venturing inside, from where the knowledge would never leave. Except, perhaps, from this one. That's what they were there for after all. This one was different in other ways, perhaps there was a way out.
Suddenly, motion. The cameras showed the sky whirling, the sky whipping around at random angles until it settled. By the new positions of the stars, it was quickly calculated that the ship's path now pointed directly into the darkness, and yet the instruments registered no acceleration, no centripetal stress along the hull, no shifting of any masses or ballasts within: the ship had not rotated. But now the darkness rises, the black horizon grows to encompass more of the sky, until, within a few minutes, only a rapidly shrinking circle of the distant stars remains visible, and soon, it closes to nothing. There is only darkness in every direction.
This does not last long. A wave crashes over the ship: the cameras register pure white for a moment before they shut down or overload. Quickly, they divert more power to the magnetic shields, but the hull begins to rattle violently. The entire ship quakes, filled with the roaring noise transmitted to the atmosphere by the vibrating metal. The temperature outside climbed rapidly, alarmingly. The drones went in and out of contact, the lights flickered, the ship would surely be torn apart-
And then there was nothing.
The crew came to their senses. No one seemed injured, but they could not remember. There was the storm, and then nothing. There was an indeterminately long gap in the records of the ship's systems as well, which no chronometer on board seemed able to account for, as not only were the system clocks wiped but no one could remember the frame of reference for the mechanical clocks during the entry. Judging by biological functions, though, it couldn't have been more than a few hours.
Immediate checks revealed that most systems were still functional, though there seemed to be some damage and a full diagnosis would be needed. The AI had lost contact with 2/3 of the drones. Most of the hull cameras seemed still functional, just needing a rebooting, but some of them would need to be serviced. Immediate visual confirmation showed that 3/5 of the drones were still present, though unresponsive. Only a few of the unresponsive ones seemed to be heavily damaged, but there was minor to moderate damage amongst both them and the still responsive ones. More diagnosis would be needed. Plenty appeared undamaged, though.
Around the ship, in all directions, only darkness was visible. Except, that is, for a single, distant point of light.
Author
Topic: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"] (Read 54110 times)