Darkness Follows
"It's no good where ever we go
the Darkness Follows us"
Sam Torn - NL Botanist - 3596
Majellan
- Somewhere onworld - 2904
The landing went smoothly, like a well coded program, until they opened the doors. Only then did they realise how unfinished the world really was.
The door hit the dirt with a squelch, loose algae heaved into the air. The MMC expedition stepped forward in pressurised suits. Himmelman stood on the verge of the door, peering at the ground with a suspicious glare.
"I don't like it - my sensors are picking up some strange shit," he growled.
"Well, let me do the honours Captain," said Seyka, bucking to be first to explore the unknown.
"Go right ahead - but be warned - the surface doesn’t look stable," replied the Captain.
Seyka stepped onto the quivering Majellanic soil. The ground shivered, a ripple spread from her feet in all directions. Various weeds, flaxes and trees swayed under the tug of her weight.
"It's fine!" exclaimed Seyka, waving her arms slightly to keep her balance.
"Still looks weird to me," said Himmelman, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh… Captain the Commander has received advice from 'Tan that a Terriforming station, an Augarium, is not far from where we stand. Or in Seykas case," laughed Morgan, "wobble!"
"Just you wait till I get back on steady land Morga," she tried to say but instead fell into the slush face first. The gathering at the edge of the door laughed. As the laughter died away - Himmelman cried to Seyka " Come on Seyk', no time to take a nap!"
But there was no reply, Sekya remained still.
Back on ship Seyka lay limp and peaceful within the Glasteel coffin of the ship’s Medroid.
"We'll take her to the Augarium," said the MMC Commander. "There we will get some answers as to what is happening on this world. The computer there will hold a catalogue of all the life created and identified in this area. If we can work out what's affected Seyka then we might be able to cure her."
With that the ship slid and jolted higher into the wind. The wind lashed the Rattan as it whipped around the murky landscape like a tireless snake.
The peaked nose of the Augarium soon appeared above the low hills. Vapour poured from the opening at its apex. At its base various pipes and openings looked clogged with algae and other equally primitive vegetation. Movement at its base showed that the Augarium Droids were still active.
"Better be careful," warned Himmelman. "Those Droids will try and gather us as samples for their genetic vats if they catch us."
"Is there any way we can link up to the Augarium computer without landing?" asked Morgan.
"We've tried," answered the Commander. "But there's too much interference - the background radiation is much higher than on Earth. Although it won't do us any serious damage."
Inside the main vent shaft the crew of the Rattan avoided contact with any roving Droids using their Hover Bac-Pacs.
Flying down the steep wall they came to a clumsy halt next to an airlock. Gases and steam hissed all around them, making the task all the more hazardous. Morgan guided his swaying Bac-Pac over to the airlock console.
He carefully unhitched a small cable from the right side of his Myoplex helmet. He held his breath as he eased the end of the cable into a small slot at the base of a keypad.
The TLX jack slotted into place and immediately he felt the faint thrum of a Synchronisation Sequence somewhere in his skull. He always imagined it to be above his ear somewhere, close to where the external TLX jack had been implanted.
He exhaled slowly, nervously. A sudden gust of wind now could rip off the side of his head. The cable itself swayed gently in the fumes between his helmet and the lock. Come on - he grated, it's not that old a model! Surely I can link up to this thing.
Examining the solid Ackrin construction of the airlock he gathered this must have been a late 22nd century Imperial Earth construction.
This was probably on Mars hundreds of years before he was born. Churning out oxygen from all the useless carbon-dioxide, making it into a more hospitable world.
Not very hospitable, unless you like living underground most of the time or under domes, he muttered.
Nothing like a habitable world, one like the one he was on. He still found it hard to believe.
Suddenly he was through, the interface was indeed old and yet not as primitive as he would have thought.
That's intelligent machines for you, he moaned. Always getting ahead on you.
Fumbling through the visual information he found a data corridor to the medical facility. For Cyberspace it was quite unlike the cluttered Ship Command Computers he was used to. For one it was clear and open, and no one else around, no one else online.
Just to spite him, a flicker of movement made him jump. He had no need for a visual representation in the digital world of the Augarium computer - but if he had one it would have shat itself.
A blurred shape crawled across the ceiling of the corridor. It was closing in on him at a slow and inexorable pace. He made a grab for the data he wanted and pushed it into his metaphorical pocket.
It was closer now and he could see the heart of the beast. He'd seen data viruses before, but nothing like this, it reminded him of some hideous experiment hundreds of years before. The failed attempts of computer emotions, they always ended in nightmares.
He turned and fled.
Disengage, he commanded the TLX link. The response did not come.
This just gets better, he whined. Looking into his other digital pockets he frantically searched for something to distract it.
A Data Widget popped up its head and said. "What do you want now?" in a high-pitched and ever so slightly petulant voice.
Go get it boy, he commanded the Widget.
"Alrighty!" chirped the Widget excitedly, oblivious to its messy fate.
Himmelman came into view. The grainy view of the digital world faded from behind his eyes.
"See, I told you he was going bug eyed on us,"
said Himmelman, with one hand on Morgan's shoulder, the other holding the TLX cable.
The others were hovering not far away, waiting for Morgan to blow Himmelman up for breaking his data link.
"T-thanks Himmelman, I owe you big time. Now let's get away from here." Morgan sighed. "This world is trouble..."