The Dimensional Rift
Chapter 1 - The Discovery -

The NASA Mars rover was scouting out a possible landing site. A site for the man mission that was going to be landing on the surface in a few weeks. The rover had just finished a sweep of a large valley sending its images back to NASA Mission Control. It was waiting for further orders back before moving on. As NASA was reviewing the images that they had received from the Mars rover. One of the lead programmers noticed something shimmer. The shimmer was in the back grown of an image of the far side of the valley.

“Sir.” The programmer called out to his supervisor.

“What do you have?” The supervisor asked walking over.

“There is an object off in the distance. It should be checked out. It is highly reflective.” The programmer said. Looking up at the supervisor.

The supervisor looked at the image. He asked the programmer to pull it up on the large screen so he could get a better look at it. The programmer put the image up on the large screen as he was asked to do. As they all looked at the image. They noticed that the object looked to be highly reflective. Which meant it should have shown up on any of the mars mappings that had been done.

“Let’s check it out. Direct the rover to the object so we can get a better look at it.” The supervisor told the programmer.

It took the rover about fifteen minutes to get the instructions. The rover took forty-five minutes to make the journey to the object. Once there it started to take images and send them back to NASA. As the images started to come in. The supervisor wanted them to put up on the big screen for them all to see.

“Dear god it’s a Minivan.” One of the people in the room exclaimed. As the first of the images appeared on the screen.

As the images kept coming in the crowd saw a blue minivan. It that looked as though it had been shot thousands of times from all directions. The images came in at intervals of about one to two every minute.

Suddenly an image came in of one of the windows. In the window was what could only be described as a hand. As they all stared at the image with the hand. The ground commander walked in.

“What is everyone looking at?” The ground commander asked seeing everyone in the room standing around. As he looked up at the screen he saw the images. He turned to the supervisor. He said, “where are these images coming from?”

“From the far side of a large valley. The one we are considering for the landing site of the expeditionary group.” The supervisor told the commander.

The commander’s mouth dropped as he looked back at the screen. “We need to contact the mission commander. Tell him we have something extremely important for him to look into.” He said as the commander turned and started walking to his office. “And get these civilians out of here.”

Most of the crew of the Intrepid was just sitting down to eat. Breakfast packs were just being laid out when Jessica Long stepped into the room. “Sir, there is an incoming message for you coming in on the priority channel,” she said looking at Commander James Nichols.

“Priority, ha? They must have lost com. with the rover.” The Col. joked. Leaving the room to view the message.

When he returned nearly forty minutes later. He looked around the cabin at all the twenty-seven crew members. Not replaceing who he was looking for he turned and walk back out. James Nichols was a man with great leadership abilities. For the simple reason that he could get nearly anyone to do what he wanted. Whoever the one thing that made him mad was surprised. And this surprise was a big one.

James was ordered to change the entire roster. Both for the six manned landing modules. As well as the space station team. Simply because they think they found a car on the surface of Mars with someone or something inside of it. As James sat down at his desk to rewrite the rosters Rebecca Thomas came running in.

“Col. what is going on?” Rebecca asked.

“We have been ordered to investigate a family car. A car they say they found on the surface.” James said with a bit of anger in his voice. “They say they can see a hand in one of the windows.”

“A hand, Sir?” Rebecca said with an air of thought to the question. “In a family car on the surface of Mars, I wonder how the car got here?” she said more to herself than to James.

“The same way as us, I suppose,” James said now thinking about it. “But why bring a car to Mars? It can’t function in the Martian atmosphere.” As he said this he started to look up. Seemingly into nothingness. Thinking of the possible reasons.

“So what are we supposed to do about the car?” Rebecca asked. Now looking back down at James.

“We will investigate the car as we have been ordered,” James said looking down at the roster. “If we replace any bodies we will report them to mission control and see what they want us to do. The ones to go on this trip will be you and I, of course. As well as Doctor Frank Barnes and Bobby Dunn.”

“Should I tell them they are coming with us?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes. And tell Foster he will be going with Andrews team and tell Michael he is now with Susan’s team.” James told Rebecca. “And tell everyone we need to start descent procedures. No later than o-five hundred tomorrow. Will you?”

Rebecca said, “Okay.” Turning and walking down the hall to replace everyone.

The next morning James woke early. He donned his spacesuit for the descent. When he reached the command deck of module four (the medical module). He saw everyone was already in their seats doing their preflight. James told everyone good morning before taking his seat. Once seated he started going through his preflight as well.

“Fuel levels?” James called out.

“Thirteen thousand pounds,” Rebecca said

“Fuel valves?” James called out

“Open,” Frank said.

The list went on for another ten minutes. Soon all the little red lights started flashing. All the lights on all the boards around them.

James looked around the ship. Seeing everyone ready, he said, “Let’s drop this bitch.” At that James pushed the red button on the uppermost right corner of the panel to his left. And the ship started to fall towards the surface of Mars. The descent took the crew about forty-five minutes.

Once the engines stopped and all flight controls had been shut down. James turned in his seat to look at everyone.

“Good Job everyone,” James said starting off. “Now the real hard part starts. We have been given a special mission. A mission to investigate an American family vehicle. One found not far from here.”

“What type of family vehicle are we talking about?” Bob asked looking at Frank while trying to hold back laughter.

“If you are talking to me please look at me,” James said with a stern tone in his voice. “All’s I know is that it is a blue minivan that looks as though it had been in some sort of shootout,” James told the crew.

“So why me?” Frank asked. Making sure to look directly at James.

“Because for some reason. NASA thinks there may be some survivors.” James said with frustration in his voice. “Now this module is only set up with as a medical lab and has the two autonomous rovers. We will be taking both of the rovers, some medical supplies and all three of the extra pressure suits we have.” James finished.

“Sir,” Bob said with a half of a grin and a smirk in his voice. “Sir, if this is truly a minivan from Earth. There is absolutely no chance that any occupants could have survived.”

“True,” James said his face turning red from anger as he spoke. “But these are our orders. Now let’s get moving.” James said. Trying to keep from losing his temper.

James knew that all the anger was more or less from the fact that his job had just gotten a lot harder. Since he had to reorganize the teams for this part of the mission. If he did not have to have Bob’s skills as a physics expert. He would have preferred not to have put him on the team.

Bob was a joker and took little seriously. If there was a way to joke about anything. Bob would replace and exploit it. Without any concerns for anyone.

Once everything was loaded onto the two rovers. The team set out for the minivan, which was about one and a half miles away. It took the group about twenty-five minutes to get to the spot where the vehicle was. As they approached, they could see what looked like fresh skid marks on the ground.

“Look at the tracks here,” Frank told James. Looking at how long they were.

“It looks as though this van landed. Or rather, crashed land starting here. And slid all the way over there.” Rebecca said. Tracing the skid marks with her hand.

“The distance of the skid looks as though the van slid more than a thousand yards before stopping where it is. The depth of the skid marks is just a few inches which suggest that the van had come flying in on a shallow descent.” Bob said with a bit more curiosity than with any of his previous conversations.

“This is why I brought you along Bob,” James said looking at Bob with admiration. “Let’s keep going we still have a little way to walk.” James said starting to walk on.

The group soon arrived at the minivan and started to look around. Bob standing at the back of the van. Looked as though he had seen a ghost and could be heard either gasping for air or trying to say something. No one really knew for sure. Frank walked to where he stood and turned to see what Bob was looking at.

“James I think you need to see this,” Frank said looking at the back of the van.

As James and Rebecca walked around to the back. When they turned they could see the vehicles emblem. It read ‘Windstar’ and was on the driver side of the rear lid. They all looked towards the middle of the van where the ‘Ford’ oval should be. They saw a hole about half the size of the emblem. Almost perfectly centered in the ‘Ford’ badge.

“Let’s replace a way in,” James said with concern in his voice. He knew there was no way in here. Simply because the metal had been so badly twisted. Twisted from all the damage it took that seam was not entirely visible.

Rebecca walked to the passenger side and tried to open the big sliding door but it appeared to be looked. Yet, as she turned to try the front door there was none. Bob had made his way to the front of the van to look for a way in while James and Frank were on the right side doing the same.

“Sir, there is no doors on this side of the van,” Frank said as he looked up and down the side of the van.

“I think I found a way in,” Bob said looking at the front of the van.

“What makes you think you can get into the van from up there?” Rebecca said turning to scold Bob for even mentioning it.

“In case you haven’t noticed this is not your ordinary run of the mill family minivan. Now is it?” Bob said with sarcasm prominent in his voice.

“Ok, now you two. Calm down now.” James said as he came around to the front of the van and looked down. “It might be worth a try don’t you think?” James said looking at Rebecca.

As James looked over the front of the van he could see an opening between what would be the hood and the body of the van. But here the differences to a normal van were extremely obvious. Where a normal van would have had a grill with a radiator behind it. The hood on this van came all the way down to meet the bumper which had a wide step the front of it.

“Rebecca, bring me one of the rovers around so we can try the wench,” James said staring at the small gap between the hood and the body.

Rebecca brought the rover around that had the larger of the two wenches and put it right in front of the van. As she did James grabbed the cable and hooked it on the hood. He then hooked the attached pulley to the end of the boom on the rover.

“Now pull up,” James said not daring to take his eyes off the van.

As the wench pulled you could hear the metal creak and groan under the force of the wench. For several moments the winch pulled only lifting the minivan a fraction of an inch. As James was about to give up the hood finally popped open. Rebecca quickly pulled the rover away from the front of the van so they could get a look inside.

The group gathered around and peered in. What they saw was beyond any of their beliefs. The space under the hood was massive. A room that from what they could see looked at least thirty feet deep and at least sixty feet across. In the middle of the room was a large tank. Along with what looked like a large electric motor or generator. The generator looked like it had cracked from something hitting it. James was the first to file through the opening followed by Rebecca, Frank and then Bob.

“I read something about this before we left Earth,” Rebecca said as she looked all around. “I think it was called a ‘Dimensional Rift’, a sort of space within space of sorts. In theory the amount of space inside the rift. Could be exponentially greater than the space without.” Rebecca said as she tried to recalled the article.

“Well, that explains it now doesn’t it,” Bob said with sarcasm in his voice. “This place is amazing and it should not exist.” He said the last part with awe.

“Look around for a door to get into other parts of the ship,” James said starting to walk to the back of the room walking to the right side of the large motor like object.

The group spread out looking all around the room. They saw wires, control panels, and instruments everywhere they looked. But none of it seemed to be doing anything.

“Over here,” Frank called out a few moments later from the back wall on the opposite side of the room from James.

As the others gathered to look at the doors Frank found. The group realized they were looking at two doors side by side rather just one. Both doors were painted the same color as the rest of the room in its matte black finish. But rather than a door knob and hinges, there was nothing.

“How do we open it?” Rebecca asked looking at the doors in amazement.

“With this?” Bob said walking past the rest of them with a crowbar in his hand.

As Bob tried to pry the door on the left open they all heard the sound of air rushing out of the room beyond. James started to tell Bob to stop when the door finally opened up. As they all looked through the door. They saw another room that even though smaller than the one they were in, it was still larger than the van in all.

James walked through and started to look around. As he looked he saw the room had many corridors on at least 4 different levels all leading off in the same direction. James started to turn back to look at his team standing in the doorway he had just walked through. Suddenly he stopped. Looking back towards the group with his mouth wide open and his eyes as large as they had ever gotten.

“What is it?” Rebecca asked as she made her way into the room. She turned to look back and simply said “Oh my God!”

“What.” Bob and Frank asked in unison.

“There is no second door here,” Rebecca said looking at the empty spot on the wall where the other door should be. But the spot was not totally empty. She saw the edge of a giant flat panel monitor. The monitor took up nearly every inch of the visible wall except the door directly in front of her.

“Actually the other door is on the opposite side of the large screen in front of you,” James said looking across Rebecca. “Why don’t you go get the medical stuff and then search the other room?” James told Frank and bob.

After Frank and Bob left James turned to Rebecca and said: “Shall we look around?” Rebecca looked back at James and nodded her face pale from what she was seeing. Soon they were off walking down the first corridor.

“The damage does not seem to have made it in as deep in this section,” James said as they walked.

There were no doors on either side of the long corridor they walked down. Just depressions where they thought something might have been. Some even had pipes and conduits that ran up and down the walls and ceiling. When they reached the end there was nothing to do but turn back. After trying 2 more corridors with the same results James was ready to call it quits. Yet, Rebecca convinced James to try just one more corridor.

About halfway down the corridor, they found a crossing. Rebecca was standing at the intersection. Keeping watch while James explored a little way into one side of the two corridors. It should have intersected with the other corridors. After walking about one hundred feet into the new corridor. James heard Rebecca scream and started running back to where she was.

“What happened?” James asked as he arrived.

“Something moved down there,” Rebecca said while pointing down to the end of the corridor they had been walking down.

James walks down to the end of the corridor. But instead of ending like all the others it had corridors going off in either direction. James looked both ways for any sign of what Rebecca saw but to no avail. When James turned to look at Rebecca to let her know there was nothing there. He saw something standing right behind her and he froze the terror etched deeply on his face.

Rebecca saw the look of horror on James’s face as he looked at her. So she turned to see what had him frozen in place, and there it was. A purple skinned creature with twelve-inch horns. They came out of either side of its head and turned sharply upward before coming to a sharp point. It also had a cat like ears on its head that pointed straight to the front. Long purple hair that changed to teal before ending in a bright pink at the ends. A tail that was as half as long as its body was tall. And eyes that looked as though they were made from a yellow fire with the blackest of black slits like that of a cat. The creature was wearing a black leather halter top that stopped just under its breast. As well as a black leather miniskirt with knee high black leather boots with two-inch heels.

Rebecca took one step back as her eyes rolled upward into her head and then started to fall. As she fell back the creature reach out and caught her before she hit the ground. The creature looked into the mask of Rebecca with a look of longing on her face.

“What are you?” James asked the creature as it set Rebecca down and stood up.

“My name is Rose and unlike you, I do not know what I am.” The creature stated. With an extremely enchanting voice that put her squarely in the female category. “I have three friends that need your help in the next room. They cannot breathe the atmosphere like I can.” She told James.

“Where did you come from?” James asked as he started to walk towards the creature named Rose. Seeing for the first time she truly had all the features of a human female.

“That is not important right now. My friends won’t make it another half hour without oxygen and space suits.” She said the panic welling up within her but she did not let it show.

“My crew should be back by now with all of that,” James said looking into the eyes of Rose thinking they had to be the most enchanting eyes he had ever seen.

“Have them bring all the stuff into this chamber so I can close off the outer chamber. I will then open the door to my friends so you can help them. Please, there is not much time.” Rose said now with tears well up in her eyes.

James stood there looking at Rose with the emotions in her eyes. After a few seconds he raised his left arm and called out “Frank can you hear me?”

After a few seconds, there was a response. “Yes, I can,” Frank said. “What’s up?”

“I need you to bring the pressure suits and medical supplies into this chamber. I have three survivors that need help.” James told Frank.

“Right away boss,” Frank replied.

“Thank you,” Rose said before bending down to pick up Rebecca to carry her back to the front opening of the corridor.

As James and Rose stepped out of the corridor. They saw that Frank and Bob had just finished bringing the all the stuff in.

“Frank, Bob this is Rose,” James said introducing Rose to the crew.

“Holy Shit!” Bob screamed as he stumbled backward over one of the pressure suits he had just sat down on the floor. “What the hell is that?” He asked looking at Rose with his eyes looking as though they were about to pop out of his head as the color left his face.

“I am Rose, the creator of this ship,” Rose said looking down on Bob. “Now we need to get to work to help my friends.” She said stepping over Bob and walking to the door they had just come through. She closed the door with extreme ease before turning to walk to the other side of the room to open the other door.

“More like you?” Frank asked looking puzzled and scared.

“No… Human… Like you.” Rose replied. “They are in the next room waiting for my return.”

“Are any of them hurt?” Rebecca asked stepping out of the corridor having finally awakened.

“Just minor injuries, nothing major. The main problem is the lack of oxygen in the room, it is thinning out quickly.” Rose said looking around to all them. “I will explain everything I can as soon as my friends are safe. I promise.”

“Ok, why don’t we get to work?” James said his Canadian accent showing for the first time.

It only took Rose a few moments to open the door to the next room. Inside she directed them to her friends lying on the floor. Amongst all sorts of camping gear clothes and cooking supplies. Frank first checked their pulses. Before fitting each of them into their own pressure suits.

As Frank checked out each of Rose’s friend. He could not help but notice all the things strung around the compartment. Camping equipment, scuba tanks, and food. Most of it looked as though it had been used for some time.

“Your friends are going to be ok,” Frank said as he finished putting the last of them in their own suit.

“Rose?” James asked seeing that the youngest of her friends was not more than thirteen or fourteen years old he thought. “Who are these people? I mean how do you know them?” He asked with a really bewildering look on his face.

“Like I said, it is a long story,” Rose said with a look of sadness and tears starting to form in her eyes again. “But I guess it is important for it to be told. I will start from the beginning before I was born. Well before I was born into this.” As she told them this nearly everyone looked transfixed upon her waiting for the story to begin. James, however, looked as though this made absolutely no sense to him.

“It all started about two years ago when...”