The Eleusian Effect
Chapter 24 The Great Download

October 3, 2169 0004 Hours

It was just after midnight and the last of the Community had arrived on the Kennedy. I went to the Emissary’s quarters to tell her the news. I rang her bell but there was no answer. Concerned, I activated the security override and opened the door. She was floating over her bed, glowing with energy. She slowly descended onto the bed and the glow dimmed. “Sorry to alarm you, Doctor. I am ready.” It caught me off guard but I quickly regained my composure. “Marcus will be okay, right?” I sounded like a concerned family member.

“Yes, but you must retrieve her immediately. Once the download begins I can neither control it or stop it.”

“I understand.”

We left the room and proceeded directly to the shuttle bay. The delivery shuttle was ready and we had security on hand. “Everything is fine, stand down.” I was slightly annoyed about security being there but it was protocol. Tanner was there. “How are you holding up doctor?” “I’m fine. I’ll be glad when it’s done though.”

“Me too.”

As we performed last minute checks, I sensed something. Some projectile was hurtling towards the Emissary. All of a sudden an arrow plunged into the Emissary and pierced her shoulder! “Give us back our planet!” A small group from the community had smuggled some homemade bows and arrows aboard the Kennedy. They were perched on the mezzanine above the shuttle bay floor. Marteen had turned to see it was the few that didn’t want to leave Centauri. He desperately called out to them, “You must stop! We don’t have time to waste!” We all took cover and Tanner called for security. Two Security officers handled the small group and Tanner ordered them to the brig. I attended the Emissary. “You’re bleeding, I need to get you to sickbay.” “There is no time. I can stabilize myself.”

“But-” I was interrupted by a glow from the Emissary’s body. The bleeding subsided but she was still weak. “Get me on the shuttle.” The pilot and I helped her onto the shuttle. Tanner spoke, “Once you let her go, you’re only going to have about seven minutes to clear. That energy wave is going to move fast! Get Marcus and get out of there, that’s an order!” “Yes Sir!” The pilot responded out of habit in the masculine. It was a small detail and quickly forgotten once we fired up the shuttle’s beryllium drives. “I’ll need you to co-pilot, Doctor.” “Roger that. I am also arming the laser cannons, just in case.”

“Good idea.” We skipped the typical launch protocols and left the shuttlebay. Landing protocols we put into place to avoid skipping off the atmosphere. We risked it and headed straight for the cavern entrance. We hovered above the cavern and put the Emissary into a harness. Once we secured the winch and harness, we took the weight and sent her out, down below us. We weren’t sure what would happen next and fortunately the Emissary took over. With the harness still attached (in order to retrieve Marcus, once the Emissary separated herself), the Emissary stretched out her arms and legs and began to glide down into the cavern. We doubled the length of the cable and sent a camera drone to follow. Via the drone, we saw the Emissary’s view of the cavern, then we saw the omnisphere. As the Emissary drew closer, the sphere grew in energy and changed color. It went from royal blue to midnight blue, then it grew lighter and lighter until it was a bright, blazing white. Watching it through the drone, it was still hard to see due to the blinding white light. We adjusted the filter and could see the Emissary creep toward it. Finally the sphere began to elongate, as if to match the size and shape of a person. It morphed into a coffin like shape and surrounded the Emissary. The harness dissolved and we saw the Emissary merge with the now coffin shaped mass. “Shuttle One to Kennedy! The harness has been severed! We no longer have a hold on Marcus!” “Has the Emissary downloaded to the sphere?”

“Yes. She has merged with it.”

“Then depart immediately.”

“What do we do about Marcus?”

“Nothing. Get out of there.”

“This is Doctor Obama. We made a promise to the Community we would bring Marcus back.”

“I know Doctor, but if you can retrieve her remotely then I’m not willing to lose you too. Get back to the Kennedy, that’s an order.”

“TANNER!” I was incensed. “Didi, we have to try and save her.”

“Danna, I can’t lose you. You have three minutes to get back here.”

I was using pure adrenaline now. “Get me a jetpack.”

:Doctor, you heard what the Captain said.”

“I know what the Captain said, we have three minutes. Get me the jetpack, now.”

The pilot handed me a jetpack. It takes three seconds to initialize so I pressed the start button and jumped out of the shuttle. I fell about half a mile before the pack fired and I barrel rolled to orient myself. I used the drone as a homing pigeon and flew right to the sphere. I could barely see but I found a body on the ground below the floating mass. I strapped it to my own body and blasted out of there. I flew up to the shuttle and crashed inside of it. “GO!” I screamed at the pilot and he pulled the shuttle up almost vertical. Marcus and I fell to the back of the shuttle and bounced around. I was able to look out of the window and see the cavern light up with energy. I scrambled to the co pilot’s seat and contacted the Kennedy. “Prepare shuttlebay for crash landing! We don’t have time to make it pretty!” I checked the aft view and saw the entire planet glow. We aimed for the shuttlebay which was filled with a special high density liquid foam that firms up when subjected to high impact. We clipped the edge of the shuttlebay entrance which threw us into a spin. We sailed into the foam and bounced off of the back wall of the bay. The three of us were banged up but alive.

“Cutting it close aren’t we, Doctor?” The person pulling me out of the shuttle was Tanner. “Just keeping my word, Captain.”

“The planet has been glowing white for two minutes. That’s longer than we calculated.”

“I think it was a gift from the Emissary. No one could have known that the harness would be affected that way. She bought us time.”

“Did you know she would do that?”

“I had a hunch.”

Tanner called the bridge. “Mr. Sullivan, get us out of here.”

“Aye, Ma’am.”

Marcus was rushed to sickbay. She had not regained consciousness but she was alive. Tanner insisted that myself and the shuttle pilot get checked out. We had a few bumps and bruises but we were unhurt. I switched on a view screen of the planet and it was still glowing white. The energy readings from it were fantastic to say the least. Tanner moved the ship out another million kilometers that we had originally thought was safe. We watched the planet as the white color started to streak with reds, blues and finally dozens of brilliant, bright colors. It was a symphony of light and then a strange thing happened: the planet disappeared from sight. Then a blinding explosion erupted and shook the entire cosmos. I checked the movement of the Kennedy and we had already jumped to lightspeed. I ran up to the bridge. “Doctor, glad you’re here. I need to brief the executive staff immediately. We don’t have time for formality so I will just say it. We are not out of the woods. The residual energy from the explosion, is, well chasing us.” “Chasing us, Ma’am?” I hadn’t seen Wilson since before the download. “How? Why?”

“My guess is that it’s attracted to the ship. I plotted a course to another system to see if we can use a star to distract it.”

“That makes sense. How long til we get to another system?” I hoped for quick resolution.

“About four hours at FTL-1.”

“That’s not far enough to another system.” My resolution may have been too quick.

Tanner took a deep breath. “I realize that. I am hoping it doesn’t wreck this system. There is not enough time to work it out. We are going to have to wing it. Get all the bridge staff up here to work on this.” “Aye.”

After two short hours, we had a working plan. We would fly the ship towards the sun and pull away at the last minute, sending the energy mass into the sun. Hopefully the laws of physics were stable but to be honest, I wasn’t sure. I was a loose plan but viable, meaning the only plan. We presented it to the Captain. “Okay, sounds good. Helmsman, how long will it take to get to the sun?” “At full speed we can orbit the sun in 20 minutes.”

“Change course for the heart of the sun. We can’t afford to have that thing skip off the sun and come after us.”

“Aye Ma’am.”

“Course laid in, Captain.”

“Engage, full speed.” Tanner walked back her command chair and sat down. “View screen, normal magnification.”

“So now we wait.” I was trying to remain calm.

“Yes. It will be the longest 20 min-” Tanner was interrupted by Tracy Felloner. “Captain! The energy mass is gaining speed!”

“What? Is that possible?”

“Apparently. It’s picked up speed and headed straight for us!”

“Time to impact?”

“12 minutes!”

“We won’t make it to the sun at this speed.” Tanner tapped the comms, “Engineering! We need more speed!

Terry Harrison responded. “She’s already maxed out all six engines! I don’t know if we can-”

“Find the power somewhere! If you don’t we are all dead!”

“If I can shut down some non-essential systems, botany, science labs I may be able to divert more power to the engines!”

“DO IT!” We waited five minutes and then we felt a surge of power. The ship vibrated as it limits were surpassed. The hull groaned under the stress of the added power and for a split second I thought of the resulting damage. When we got close to the pull up point Tanner commanded, “All hands! Brace for evasive maneuver!” She mashed the buttons on her console and the emergency command module rose quickly out of the floor in front of the Captain’s Chair. She pressed her hand to the security plate and grabbed the joystick. Evasive maneuver in 3-2-1!” She yanked back on the joystick and the change inertia threw all of us back, even though we were strapped in. The view screen was in real-time so we saw the sun drop and disappear. The Captain eased back on the stick and brought the ship around on the other side of the sun. We saw the energy mass splash over the sun and dissipate. “Terry, give me a status on the Energy mass.” “There is some residual energy,” she paused. “But the levels are nominal. We did it!”

Tanner slumped back into her chair. “That was close. Is there any change to the sun condition?”

“No Ma’am, the sun is unchanged.”

“Monitor the sun’s activity and report in an hour.”

“Aye, Ma’am.”

I unclasped my belt and stood next to the chair. “Congratulations, Captain. Well done.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“I am heading to sickbay to receive any casualties, so far the reports are none. Dinner later?”

“As long as you bring the Champagne.”

“Deal.”