Day Twenty ∞ Wednesday late afternoon (PST)

DANNY'S GAZE WAS GLUED to the enlarged, dancing factory outline as they waited with bated breath. Almost a minute passed before the right half of the space view flickered and was replaced with a new holoscreen displaying a gray interior. The view panned to show a motionless robotic machine in a plain corridor before stopping at a recessed door labeled "CONTROL ROOM".

"I'm in the center Control Core." Artemae's voice sounded impersonal, almost metallic, accompanied by an intermittent creaking noise in the background. "Status report: Production Center blast doors sealed." Her point of view rotated and paused several times. "No hull fractures detected in this section... All production operations confirmed inactive... Power on standby. Checking structural integrity of the rest of the plant."

Her bare hand entered the frame and pressed against the wall. "Accessing monitoring systems... Confirming all internal blast doors engaged... External raw materials mining door traps at the fore damaged... intake compromised... Self-repairs inactive... Hull shield inactive... Product Storage area... Containment in effect."

A chill shot up Danny's back. Containment?

"Artemae, was there a breach?" Mickmi asked, her voice tight.

"Yes... According to the production record... 9,990 kilos of antimatter... 370 units ready for delivery but inventory only has 368... 9,936 kilos. Accessing log from twenty days ago..."

Two cylinders? The calculation came to Danny in an instant, and his stomach sank—54 kilograms of antimatter was missing.

"Two units damaged from transit through violent environment... and started leaking. They were immediately temp-shielded until ejection... as per protocol."

"Were they ejected toward Sol?" Mickmi asked.

"That is the protocol," Artemae replied after a couple of seconds, "but it appears... Erratic navigational systems and attempt for orbit trajectory upon exit from vortex... Tracking records indicate proximity of high altitude satellite... within range."

"Did the containers – collide – with it?"

"No... Antimatter made contact, likely disabled it. Containers with remaining antimatter maintained enough acceleration to escape Earth's pull, headed for inner Sol System."

Mickmi bowed her head and drew a long, controlled breath. Then she looked up. "Radiation fall-out exposure?"

"Contact explosions occurred over mid-ocean... the Atlantic. No records regarding spread. However, not all leaked antimatter was consumed. Some particles escaped into space, along with the containers." Artemae's view turned to the ceiling. "By my calculations, no antiparticles remain in this sector."

"Deymos, launch monitor probes with antiparticle sensors activated."

"Ten monitor probes launched for 250 meter perimeter," Deymos' intrinsic intelligence responded.

Before Danny could blink, five small objects zipped away from the fore view and vanished in the distance, one straight ahead, the other four toward each side the ship.

"L'or Aug," Mickmi said, "heard you? We cannot be too careful."

"Aye," Lora's voice responded. "I shall do the same."

"Artemae, what is the status of the remainder?"

"Remaining product unaffected," Artemae replied. "Still secured and stable. Confirming docking bay intact... Unloading bots and port hatches unresponsive. End status report."

"Thank you, Artemae. Please proceed."

The view moved up and down as Artemae nodded. "I shall enter the Core Room." She placed her palm on the panel next to the door. "Overriding."

The door slid sluggishly into the wall and the interior brightened with subdued light. The view entered the empty room and scanned the segmented paneling, some with small, flickering lights. It settled on an extruded block and approached it.

Eckstein leaned forward. "This is serious. Why didn't you brief us this info earlier?"

Mickmi turned her pilot seat to face them. "I accessed the plant's status report for this mission. That includes not what happened 20 days ago. For that, I must access logs remotely with the correct key, which I possess not. Thus, I learn of this right now, with you." She gave a brief smile before returning to the screens.

Danny looked over his shoulder to see Eckstein and Muzzy exchanging glances with lifted brows. Then Eckstein met Danny's gaze and shrugged.

O-kay... Danny looked back at the holoscreen as Artemae's hand reappeared. The view narrowed and vanished as if a black blind had been pulled down.

"Accessing master control."

They were seeing everything through her eyes, Danny realized. Nope, that wasn't quite true. It was through the lenses of thousands, maybe millions of Nanites that formed her eyes. Did that mean he could use his Medibots to transmit visuals too, like the communicator next to his ear could transmit audio? Again, the answer was immediate: he'd need a subcortical implant like Mickmi's to interface with any nano-mechanism. He shook his head—the procedure did not sound particularly appealing to him.

Speeding letters and symbols on the screen grabbed his attention, then they froze for a second and vanished.

"IAI disabled." The view opened and Artemae's hand on the control block snapped into focus. "You may resume."

"Thank you, Artemae," Mickmi said. "L'or Aug?"

"Ready," Lora replied.

"Deymos, Paulux, resume synchronized stabilization."

"Resuming PGF stabilization."

It took a few seconds before the IAI voices started counting off each checkpoint achieved. But it was not until the IAI voices reached "Thirty" that Danny perceived a reduced swing of the end facing them, the tumbling through space slowing down.

"Yess," Muzzy murmured behind him.

Four sets of numbers next to the wire-framed object reported changing angles and speeds along each axis as the movement was brought under control. Eventually, the factory appeared to come to a stand-still.

"Attitude stabilization achieved."

The holoscreen view panned the interior of the factory control room and then bobbed again.

"Artemae, status?" Mickmi asked.

"Status appears stable." Artemae paused as if listening. The creaking had stopped. "I shall attempt partial systems reactivation. Not the attitude compensation module, or it might destabilize the plant again. The hull shield and self-repair protocol as priority. If the unloading mechanisms don't work, then I'll service two myself."

"Proceed." Mickmi pushed aside that display and studied the space view data. "L'or Aug? We can approach the delivery bay at the rear."

In a near-instant, the factory satellite loomed before them like a submarine without a turret or other protrusions, its dark hull streaked with friction.

Viewing it this close brought home how large it was. Almost three football fields long. Danny couldn't imagine the devastation it would make even if it impacted Earth without antimatter onboard.

"I shall conduct a brief visual inspection," Mickmi said, sweeping her right hand.

Parting from Lora's ship, they traveled along factory satellite and passed a couple of recessed access hatches. They circled to the center of the front end where two long edges had ripped open to a wide crack. But only darkness was visible inside.

"Had the vortex lasted longer, or the shield failed sooner... these might have been forced wide open." Mickmi shook her head. "In which case, friction with your atmosphere..." She didn't finish the sentence as she directed the ship to zoom a distance away.

In which case, it could've burnt up at that speed through the atmosphere and blown up or... crashed... and I would've never met you...

"Thank God it didn't." Eckstein's voice was filled with awe.

...and we'd probably be dead already... The very idea threatened to give Danny a headache so he immediately dismissed it, focusing on the full view of the damage. The end that doubled as a mining trap reminded him of a huge bud about to blossom with the edges of a couple of the petals bent back. But it would probably look more like a monstrous maw to a black abyss when fully opened.

The hull slid by as they continued along what he would have assumed to be the underside. Except, Nightstar 4 had no underside. He would have to reconfigure his perception of it. Not like a sub... more like a giant rocket... Right. Vertical.

Mickmi rotated the ship so the factory took up the lower half of the view instead. They were upside down, but with no gravity to tell either way, it didn't feel any different from being right-side up. Danny twisted to follow the hazy, white-speckled blue with green-gray landmasses of his home planet as it took the position of a sky.

Man, this really turns reality on its head!

They approached the 'bottom' of the factory, the center softly illuminated by the presence of Lora's ship. The area brightened perceptually as they approached and halted parallel to Paulux.

"We shall have the PGF shield projected on the exit." Mickmi brought her hands down, disengaging the propulsion system. Then she spun her seat around and rose, smiling. "Well, gentlemen... are you ready?" She met Danny's gaze.

A hand clap startled him from behind.

"Let's do it!" Muzzy said.

Eckstein chuckled and lightly pushed himself up as Danny's seat moved back to the wall. Danny unbuckled his harness. Immediately, he floated out of the seat but the soles of his boots anchored him to the floor.

"Activate your suits and join me for the airlock."

Everyone donned their gloves and activated their helmets. Danny drew a deep breath of the suit air, quickly scanning the status data appearing on the heads-up display. All read optimal. He stood beside Mickmi as a clear U-shaped partition grew out of the floor around the four and merged with the ceiling, the 'open' side fused to the wall.

"Ready?" Mickmi's voice came over the spacesuit comms.

"Ready!" Danny said in unison with Eckstein and Muzzy in his ear reciever, but his stomach did a nervous flip.

"Deymos, open airlock."

The wall yawned before them to the width of the U and a two-foot ledge grew out of the hull. Lora and her crew were already waiting outside Paulux ten meters away. Four more markers popped up in a row on Danny's HUD display, <<ATLAS>>, <<JAGGER>>, <<AUG>>, and <<TILLMAN>>.

Danny stepped out next to Mickmi, his boots locking him to the surface at each step. "Whoa," he breathed, looking down.

The ledge ended six inches in front of the tip of his boots, a 35-meter drop of nothing extending between him and the rim of Nightstar 4. To the left of their ship, the matte hull of the factory gently curved like a shallow bowl to its round edge the same distance above. Three yellow squares framed what Danny suspected were the delivery hatches in front of the ships. He was sure he'd glimpsed more. And to his right...

I'm an ant. The enormity of absolutely nothing... with dots of distant stars... brought home how small and insignificant they really were. But they weren't insignificant. They were here on a mission to save the world.

The angle of the factory hid Terra Firma from here. And where was the shield? The HUD responded by pointing an arrow at his upper left and adding a yellow dot grid to his view, marking the location of the invisible bubble spanning the rim.

"You have ten minutes to acclimatize and practice." Mickmi floated away, facing Lora and her crew, then turned to face Danny, Eckstein, and Muzzy. "Then we shall start work. Remember to stay within the shield—it protects you from being struck by space debris."

"Whohooo!" Muzzy leaped as Eckstein lifted off the ledge. Tillman and Atlas were already moving with Jagg not far behind. The men's intermittent exclamations came through the comms but Lora remained silent as she approached Mickmi.

Danny looked down again. He didn't have a pool to hop into this time. Here is no fear, he reminded himself and inhaled deeply. As he put a foot forward to 'test the waters', he found himself taking off in slow motion.

O-kay... This was like starting training all over from scratch.

—Are you okay? Mickmi's warmth filled his abdomen.

—Yeah. This time he instinctively controlled his movements into a slow, 360-degree turn without lifting a finger.

Surreal... Floating, hovering between two shuttle ships behind the literal butt of a giant space factory. He chuckled.

The intervals between the dots widened as Danny approached the shield, then he stopped when the HUD cautioned with <<PROXIMITY TO SHIELD : 2 M>>.

He silenced his breath as he cast his gaze wide. A sea of star-speckled space curved up around his world as if cradling an immense blue-mottled marble that he could only see a sliver of. The five spacesuits maneuvered a distance around Danny, performing slow-motion flips and turns. Apart from their occasional comments and the soft hiss from his air supply, there was a strange absence of sounds in his ears. Soon they all halted to stare at the view. Muzzy aimed his camera, taking soundless shots in every direction.

"We're passing over India now," Eckstein said, his voice filled with wonder.

A haze of light lowered from above and through the shield markers, condensed before them into a loosely human form.

Selina! Danny had forgotten about her. A spot of fuzz marked her position on his display.

—My Queen. Her mental voice bypassed the comms.

"What the hell is that?" Tillman blurted as Muzzy turned toward her with the cameras.

"Damn!" Jagg slapped his helmet as he lined up beside Danny. "There's a voice in my head!"

"That's Blanc Aave," Atlas said.

"In her energy form," Danny added, exchanging glances with Jagg. The black man had lost his usual, controlled self-assuredness to an expression of confounded awe.

The markers labeled Wamba and Aug rose from the bottom of the HUD display as they approached from behind and halted between him and Jagg.

"Please proceed, Blanc," Mickmi said.

The light body shortened and widened in a brief acknowledgment. —I observe fourteen planes maintaining circuits... at 15 to 25 kilometers Earth altitude. They appear to be there to monitor the plant... and our activities.

"High-altitude planes," Muzzy commented as they all rotated to face the planet. "Could be FA-18s... F-15s and Sixteens... And at least one Blackbird."

"I can't see them. Isn't that too far away to be— Oh!" Jagg tapped his helmet. "Damn—is it those crosses?"

Danny saw them on his display too: a cluster of small orange plus-signs with altitude labels attached. "Yeah."

"Probably ours. Not surprising," Eckstein said. "I'd be more surprised if there weren't any. It's just a precaution. They can't do anything unless we decline within range—well, they wouldn't unless we become an immediate threat. Depending on their orders."

"In which case, it would be too late anyway," Atlas added. "Major collateral damage."

"They probably already got the President, senate, and congress to safe locations," Tillman said. "They're not going to warn the public. Not till the last minute. To avoid widespread panic. They're expecting us to be successful, but preparing for the worst... Then it's each to his own."

Each to his own... Danny didn't want to think about it. His family was down there, and he was here to make sure that didn't happen.

"Can they see us?" Jagg asked.

"Not likely," Danny responded. "But l bet Mister Gray can... He probably has some telescopes watching us."

"Who's Mister Gray?"

"There's no satellite nearby for them to see us," Eckstein said. "They're relying on ground observation."

"What the... hell is that?" Atlas floated near the factory rim, pointing at Earth. "Is that another one from your world, princess?"

Selina relocated her light body to outside the shield as Danny and the others joined Atlas.

An angular, black object contrasted against a thin mat of cloud cover. Its outline appeared on top of the small airplane crosses on Danny's HUD, with a label flashing <<UNKNOWN>> next to the altitude marker.

"Nay, it has not our dimension signature," Mickmi said.

"Wow," Tillman said, "if it is what I think—"

"That must be..." Eckstein hesitated. "That must be the 'Black Knight'."

Danny stared. "The Black Knight?" Jagg echoed him.

"One of ours?" Atlas asked. "Some deep-black project? It just came from southeast and stopped right there."

"No," Eckstein replied.

"Isn't that the same satellite reported from the late fifties?" Muzzy asked.

"I think so."

"I thought that was an unmanned observational satellite of unknown origin," Muzzy continued. "And now it's tracking us?"

They fell silent as they continued staring.

"Blanc," Mickmi said after a moment, "represents it the Galactic Federation you were in contact with?"

Selina's form moved to the rim. —I know not, my Queen. I sense no such signature.

"Then whose the hell is it?" Atlas demanded. 

— ∞ —

©2020 by kemorgan65

Credit:

Banner image of the Black Knight satellite taken in 1998 (NASA). https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS088&roll=724&frame=66#myModal3