Eli Ascending
Chapter 2
“Personal log,” Eli said, turning to look at the keno, “if for no other reason than to let everyone know how I’m doing and because I really feel we should be doing this. I mean, come on?, how often do we get to be out in space, on a spaceship, and not do a captain’s log. Since everyone else is in stasis, that makes me the captain. Though, you know, not officially since I’m not in the military and Colonel Young is a colonel and TJ and Matt and Vanessa. You get the idea.”
He’d spent the first several hours of solitude really looking into the operating code of the kenos and creating an algorithm for the search they’d perform. Time was essential, he knew that, but to send the kenos out without some kind of logic and the capacity to adapt and learn seemed especially stupid. He’d made sure all of the feeds were funneling through the bridge monitors and were being stored for review, he’d write another program to access the processing cores and data centers of the ship to analyze what was found, so he could watch many of the feeds in real time.
“Rush probably had more access,” he said and stopped with a shake of the head. They say madness is when you start talking to yourself and he wondered if even this period of solitude was leading him down the sanity route.
Probably not. He’d used verbalized self-talk to work through problems since he was a kid. It helped him think and focus. If Rush could access the systems, so could he. Rush had more experience, but he had more raw talent and ability. If nothing else was true, his tenacity was the one thing he knew would help him survive. At this point, setting goals and finding a way to find a way to get home was his main priority.
For the most part, Eli allowed the kenos to do what he’d programmed. He was looking for more stasis pods, equipment, things he could use. Even if that equipment was in areas of the ship that had failed or were decompressed, or whatever. He didn’t know what to expect from a more thorough investigation of the ship.
As he worked, he’d occasionally glance through the force fields protecting him from space. The darkness was getting bigger and harder to ignore. He had no idea what total darkness without star or external light would be like and really didn’t want to find out. While Destiny was in FTL, or faster than light, the darkness was partially mitigated by the interaction of particles with shielding. Though an absence of stars and planets meant considerably less material.
Almost in desperation, Eli hoped the kenos would find something. His other option was to do exactly what Colonel Young and Lt. Scott and others from the military contingent had ordered everyone to avoid, the containers left in waiting by the ancients. Containers that had to have something that could help. And containers that might be dangerous.
Might. As in “We don’t know,” and not, “Certain death through excruciating pain and emotional anguish because the Ancients booby trapped everything.”
Might was a much better option than dead by asphyxiation and hypothermia. He’d do it. Die. But not without trying to live.
Several of the kenos had alerted him to additional storage rooms, equipment, computers - or what passed for them aboard an Ancient ship, and so much more. He needed to check on those and plan how he’d start a systematic review of the available data as well as visual and physical review of the compartments, containers, and other equipment.
His mind working through possibilities, wandering through what he knew of Stargates and Ancients, their language, Destiny, the ships systems, what he’d learned because he had to, when he started seeing brief flashes of light in different monitors. At first, it seemed like nothing, brief flashes of light, possible anomalies, until those flashes increased and a pattern started to emerge. He didn’t know what the pattern was or, for that matter, what it would result in, untimely death by way of a non-corporeal alien presence with a desire to consume him. What he suspected was the light was trying to communicate with him.
***
Having calculated the location of the most recent flash of light, Eli went to check on it. He had his own keno, the one he’d been using to record the crew, his away missions, his video journal, and the bulk of the material for the documentary he was working on. It flew ahead of him, entering corridors before he did, checking to make sure another alien life form hadn’t created a home on Destiny waiting, like in Alien, to lay its eggs in an unsuspecting human only to have the larval form burst out of his chest. That would suck.
On the other hand, getting out of established safe areas and into the unexplored areas of Destiny was kind of exciting. Even though he didn’t have the many monitors to view all of the kenos, he was able to view different kenos through his handheld remote. Most of what he was concerned with was the keno he had ahead of him, though different warnings and preprogrammed messages drew his attention to other kenos as they entered compartments and located technology and possible solutions. For the most part, Eli glanced at what was transmitted and returned his attention to his keno.
When he was well into unexplored parts of the ship, he saw the flash for himself. It was hard to tell what was causing it, though the fact that it was moving really interested him and drew his attention. The second time he saw it, the flash had the distinct appearance of something more humanoid, two arms and two legs and a head. The third time caused him to think he saw Ginn. The fourth time he thought he saw Amanda Palmer. With each appearance, Eli started moving faster, the keno keeping with him and recording everything.
He found a lift and, on a hunch, hit a button. It fell out from beneath him and shifted a little before opening onto another passageway. This one central to the heart of the ship. He stopped, not sure whether or not he should follow, when the form turned and looked at him. It was none of the people he’d thought and was someone completely new, different. The being motioned for him to follow and he did. Walking directly at the being without thinking what he was doing or responding to any of the automated transmissions that were beginning to light up his remote.
Stepping through the hatchway of the compartment, he stopped short of committing to the compartment. Sitting in the middle of a large, round room was an Ancient chair similar to - and different from - the one Rush had discovered and used. This one didn’t seem as ominous or dangerous, though why he didn’t know. There was less of a Friday the 13th, Freddy Kruger kind of thing going on and more of a modern Ancients interface.
The being was standing on the opposite side of the chair and was motioning for Eli to sit down.
“Yeah. I don’t think so,” he said. “The last chair we found did not pretty things to the people who sat in it. Ugly actually. Rush got stuck in a hyper-virtual-reality that kind of got stuck in a loop and it took quite a bit to get him out.”
Again, the being motioned for Eli to sit down.
“No, really, thank you. I think I’d rather take my chances fixing one of the stasis pods and seeing what happens when I wake up. Mostly hope that only three years have passed, but if a thousand, or more, you know, figure out what’s happened on Earth. Check out some new video games. Maybe read up on the World Series. That kind of thing.”
“The ship requires a custodian,” the being said. “It requires a living custodian. One who can take command and control the systems.”
“In that case, why don’t I go wake up Colonel Young or Rush or one of the others ....”
“No. You,” the being said. “It has to be you.”
“I don’t know anything about the ship or Ancients or, you know, stuff. Plus, there are other people more qualified to lead and control and do whatever needs to be done.”