The news that the whole exoplanet was artificial shocked Dranke and Piteer as much as it had Fenie. The two crew members of the darkmatter starcraft stood rooted to the spot where they had introduced the probe into the soft soil of the planet. Dranke asked Fenie "Can you scan to see if there is any activity on this planet under the crust?" He got the reply he feared "We can't do anything more than a very basic scan. There is too much material for us to do a detailed scan captain." He gestured to Piteer to walk with him as he walked across the crater floor, looking for clues.
Dranke and his crew were searching for the alien fleet which they had tracked across the Milky Way galactic disk, but finding the Hnnet was proving to be more difficult than they had imagined. Spacecommand had tasked the Raven to search the neighboring galaxies for the mysterious alien called 'Ed.' After searching a number of planets, they had still to find the aliens they were looking for.
Dranke and Piteer did a circular visual scan, but nothing stood out which could provide any clue to the reason this planet existed. It was frustrating, and after a few hours, Dranke called off the search and they headed back to the Raven. On exiting the airlock inside the ship, they pulled off their suits in relief, it was getting warm. Vaxe looked at the screen and said almost to herself "That's funny, it seems that we are circling a star which does not exist. At least that's what the simulation seems to indicate." Fenie looked at the visual representation "What does that mean?" Vaxe explained "It seems that the planet is following an orbit which would make sense in a binary system. Except there is no other star. Not even a black hole, since we did a scan and there is no gravitational lensing."
It was now Fenie's turn to look mystified, as she peered at the numbers wondering if there had been an error. Dranke asked for the simulation to be sent to his console and he looked at the simulation. It seemed to be sound.
Vaxe had a frown on her face as she muttered "What if the missing star and planet are linked?" It sounded ludicrous, but nothing else made sense. The Universe followed the laws of spacetime. How were they supposed to interpret this? Without warning, the Raven lifted off and seemed to be rapidly heading for the missing star. Dranke started out of his seat and yelled "Situation report! What's going on?" The engines showed no activity and yet they seemed to be pulled into the dark spot. Fenie looked apologetic "No idea captain. We just lost control. It might well be the Hnnet."
They waited. There was nothing else to be done. Whatever had them in it's control had rendered them helpless, and they were at its mercy.
In a few moments, they stopped slowly as if they had been flying through treacle and the ship was stationary. Without preamble, an artificial airlock appeared from the side of their darkmatter starcraft. Maybe this was the Hnnet after all! Dranke felt almost relieved as he waited for the familiar round globular alien to appear. Instead there was a bluish green probe which snaked through the opening. It slithered into the ship and seemed to be looking around. It inspected everything. Without warning the probe's tip pointed at Dranke. He moved back slowly. The tip withdrew slowly too. Vaxe tried to approach the probe from the side. It whipped at her threateningly. She stood very still.
After a few minutes the probe withdrew. It seemed to melt into the artificial airlock, which closed rapidly behind it. Vaxe tried to communicate with whatever was outside, but there was no signal. The sensors did not show anything at all. Dranke took a deep breath "Whatever that was, it was definitely not friendly." The others were too shocked to say anything. Piteer announced that they were released from whatever was holding them. There was no answers.
Dranke instructed them to send a detailed report to spacecommand, with specific location markers of the artificial planet and where they had encountered the strange creature or probe. He was as shaken as the others, but he held his nerve. This was a time to calmly reflect on the future course of action. Aloud he said "We need to figure out this before we take the next jump. Whatever that is, bears investigation." Without skipping a beat, Fenie was running him though the options...
Pic courtesy: Space landscape by Metalyman on Deviantart (http://goo.gl/YsS0Mu) Website http://goo.gl/N2Z2WX
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