Chapter 1
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UNSC Spirit of fire, Location: Unknown.
“Captain, wake up, We’ve found something.” Professor Ellen Anders waited eagerly for her colleague to wake up, tapping frantically on the glass of a Cryo chamber. She was clearly bewildered by something, and was desperate to alert Captain Cutter of her discovery. The temperature inside the glass container began to rise, and the captain’s muffled voice leaked from inside of it.
“How long have I been in here?” He questioned, placing his hand on the side of the chamber and hauling himself out.
“That’s not important right now,” The professor snapped, “You have to take a look at this reading.”
The elegant gentleman rose to his feet and nodded in acceptance, allowing the professor to escort him to the ship’s bridge.
As the captain entered the command room, Professor Anders was already bashing at one of the keypads. The ship’s main display unit lit up with a sudden whir, displaying a map with relevant information; such as the ship’s current position.
“As you see, captain, we are here.” The professor stated, pointing at a flashing blue dot in the centre of the screen. “And if you look over here, you can see what appears to be a planet of sorts.” She repositioned her finger so that it pointed at a large metallic object on the map.
“Are there life forms?” The captain asked, puzzled as to why the professor was making so much fuss over such an ordinary occurrence.
“It doesn’t appear so,” She responded, “However looking at the planets data through my scanners; it appears to be designed using forerunner technology.” She glanced at the captain with a meaningful glare, but he was deep in thought.
“The forerunners were a race beyond comparison,” she continued, disregarding her captain’s lack of interest, “They built entire planets using technology far greater than anything that could be replicated by today’s standards. Some say they are still out there, however it is believed that they are now extinct.”
She did not know why she was explaining them, for both she and the captain knew the stories.
“Exactly,” Cutter snapped, overcoming his state of ignorance, “so why is this planet anything special?”
“Take a closer look at the data, captain.” Anders forwarded the map reading to a data analysis page. “The planet is no more than 120 years old.” She finished, beaming at the monitor.
“How is that possible?” The captain seemed more bewildered than ever now. “The forerunners died out centuries ago. . .”
“That’s exactly why I’m so excited by it.” She smiled, returning her focus to Captain Cutter.
“If the data is correct, and trust me I have checked it over several times, then we are looking at proof that these ‘forerunners’ still exist.”
The captain seemed a little more enthusiastic about the discovery now. He raised an arm and placed it onto Anders’ shoulder, walking her to the ship’s cockpit.
“Professor, we are looking at a monumental discovery here. We can’t let this go amiss.” With richness to his voice, he declared the plan of action. “We fly the Spirit of Fire close to the planet. I’ll be the one to lead the expedition, surveying the planet’s surface and searching for life forms. I want you, Anders, to stay on-board the ship and assist me from the air. If anything serious develops, you get me out of there fast. Got it?”
The professor was understandably a little underwhelmed by the plan. She had rather hoped to excavate the planet’s surface herself, but she knew that Cutter was right. The mission was too dangerous for a civilian to undergo, and so she signalled her agreement with the captain and took control of the primary thrusters. Cutter sat beside her and set the ship’s speed and altitude. He glanced across and noticed the look of un-fulfilment in Anders’ eyes.
“Hey,” he calmly added, “Maybe one day it’ll be you in command.”
This remark brought an involuntary smile to her face and she sat back into the seat, knowing where her place was.
For a brief moment, a wall of silence came between the two. A pulsating blue light, an indication that the ship was still stationary, tainted Anders’ eye as she processed the information in her head. Captain Cutter observed the scientist’s spontaneous smiles, amazed at how quickly his colleague could forget the real world and lose herself in a matrix of scientific fact and calculation. He had always admired that trait, for he still found himself stuck with the haunting memories of their previous mission. Something inside him seemed unable to forget the price they had paid.
“Sergeant Forge was a good man.” the captain sighed, attempting to make conversation with the professor. She was still deep in a world of her own.
They had called it ‘The Captain’s Curse’ back in training - the guilt that comes with losing someone under your command. “You have to learn to deal with it”, they had always said. Cutter was sure that in most situations dealing with it wouldn’t have been too hard, but this was different. Forge was a close friend, and his death was not one of those that happen suddenly on the battlefield; it was a part of the plan.
The mission was simple to being with, a basic investigation of a seemingly uninhabited planet. But things got complicated. The planet turned out to be a shield world, an artificial planet where everything interesting was hidden inside of the planet’s surface, and the Spirit of Fire was pulled in. The inner planet was filled with an ancient parasitic creature called the flood, and the ship was stuck in a gravity hold, unable to escape. The plan was to deliver a bomb straight to the cause of the gravity disruption, but things are never simple. The bomb had to be manually detonated. Forge…
“He volunteered,” the Captain burst out, “nobody forced his actions. They were a tribute to his own bravery.”
Professor Anders noticed the sudden outburst and attempted to take control of the situation. “Captain, it’s ok.” she softly assured, “You’ve been in Cryo-freeze, drifting through black-space for several years.” She had experienced this kind of reaction before. Prolonged periods of Cryogenic exposure had been known to sometimes cause emotional distress, due to the dramatic alterations to the body’s internal clock. This was a fairly logical reaction, as far as science was concerned. “The events you’re remembering happened a long time ago, and you have to forget about all that right now.”
The captain seemed a little embarrassed by his own actions. Here he was, a Captain of the United Nations Space Command, being calmed down by a civilian scientist. After straightening his back, and adjusting his shoulders, he chucked to himself at the thought. He tried not to think of Anders as a civilian; for he knew that she was perfectly competent at handling a situation. However, when it came down to it, the soldiers were the soldiers and the scientists were the ones they fought for, the people who made the difference.
“So tell me,” The captain began, “how long have I been out?”
Anders was busy fiddling with an AI chip. She attempted to activate it, with no such luck. A bright red spark flashed from the chip, illuminating the word SERENA on the metal plating before fading away again.
“You do not want to know.” She gasped, hiding the object from view and gazing into the vast space ahead.