Chapter 6

Bright Sphere

At first I couldn’t tell if we had left the Randomization slip-drive, because the bright light remained. It was coming from our view-screen, and blinding the three of us.

“Jake! What the hell is this?!”

“I…I don’t know…!”

I could hear as he fumbled around with the controls, pushing random buttons to see what would happen. Finally he pushed the right one, and the screen was shielded. Instead of a bright light, we could now see what it was emitting it.

“What the hell is that?” Jessica asked, standing up to take a closer look.

Jake pulled up his task feature, and started to read. “It’s called a Neutron Star.”

The object in space was perfectly spherical, and had no characteristics of what I would define as a star. There was no orange plasma glow, there were no solar flares soaring about the corona, and it didn’t even look like it was from our universe.

Instead, we had a whitish blue orb with what looked like ripples of blue energy slowly bathing it. There was the plasma glow, but it was an unearthly light, which gave it an almost ere feeling.

“Are we too close?” I asked.

“Don’t think so. The ship is in a safe orbit, and we’re not showing any unwanted heat.”

“Well call me if anything changes or you see even a little hint that we’re in danger.” I stood up, and started walking out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Jessica said.

“There has to be science lab on this ship somewhere. I need to test my Dad’s remote and see if I can use it to figure out where he is.”

I quickly left the bridge, and sighed inwardly. I was hoping to avoid confrontation from Jessica after…after the previous events. As I walked down the hallway, though, the whole thing kept playing out through my mind over and over again. Her lips were so soft, and the kiss…ah man, who am I kidding? I was practically floating down the corridor.

Eventually I did find a lab on the aft side of the ship. Not knowing how to work any of the equipment, though, I set the remote down on a study table, and asked the computer to run a signal scan. It was still receiving data from the main entry port, which was where my Dad was hooked up, and where data was being fed in by the scientists.

This signal was in the very fabric of the code, and wasn’t even part of the game’s false-signal chain. The computer of course did pick up the signal from my Dad’s avatar, but simply recorded it as on the planet we had previously been at. Hell, I didn’t even know where we were now. But there were no other signals.

Nothing.

I suddenly jumped as I heard the sliding doors open, and looked back to see Jessica walk in. Her slender figure made me shudder, but I managed to maintain my composure as she approached me. She looked at me with those green eyes, kind of titled her head awkwardly, and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Um…I just wanted to thank you…for saving my life,” she mumbled.

“Look, about what happened back in the transporter room…”

At that instant she wrapped her arms around my neck, and pulled me in for another kiss. This one was much, much more passionate, and we nearly fell over onto the control panel. When she finally broke, we were both panting.

“Chris, we can’t keep playing this game anymore.”

“But we haven’t found my Dad yet.” I added this in jokingly, and smiled as she gave me a death stare.

“I meant our relationship… We’ve had feelings for each other all this time, but we’ve never acted on them. Why?”

I shrugged, and now it my turn to rub the back of my neck. “I was always afraid that things would get too…awkward. That we’d try, but nothing would happen. Then things would be too awkward, and we’d never be able to look at each other again… I couldn’t bear to lose you as friend to something like that.”

She looked back at me sympathizingly, and we were drawn back into another kiss. A few moments later we broke, and she spoke. “But we’re more than friends. You know it…”

We slowly connected again, and for the next few minutes I was in paradise. However, it was all broken when the computer began beeping loudly. We broke apart instantly, and I look back at the screen. A new signal had been detected.

I quickly rolled out from under Jessica, and ran over to the screen. It was confirmed. For less than a second a new signal had been detected, but had disappeared too quickly for it to be traced. Jessica sat up, tried to un-frazzle her hair—which had become quite messy in that last few moments—and came over too.

“What happened? What is it?”

“It’s my Dad! The computer briefly found another signal…but lost it.”

As I finished speaking my radio buzzed, and I pulled it out quick. It was Jake.

“I know, I know. Call you whenever something in the least unusual happens.”

“Jake, what’s going on?” I asked.

“Looks like there was a small radiation burst thingy from the star, and it hit the ship. Nothing to worry about, ‘cause as far as I can tell nothing happened.”

A radiation burst? Was that what caused the signal? A false signal? No, wait a minute. Maybe it wasn’t creating a false signal from interference, but was in fact increasing the signal output. That meant that if this thing was in contact with Dad, then the radiation burst had increased it! But it hadn’t been long enough.

“Jake! You’re a genius!”

“Finally! Someone realizes my true inner self… Uh, why am I a genius?”

I turned to Jessica, putting my arms on her shoulders. “We need to get closer to the star! The radiation is boosting the signal. If we get close enough, we might have enough time to track where it’s coming from!”

Her eyes went wide. “Then let’s do it!”

“Uh, guys. You do realize that we don’t want to be going towards the big glowing ball. We want to stay away where it’s nice and safe.”

“Don’t worry, Jake. We won’t get too close…just close enough.”

“Guys, I may not be the smartest of people, but I know what I’m talking about! These things— the gravity on this thing— if you even drop a marble on it, it would be like blowing up a nuke! And this ship is much bigger than a marble!”

“Plot a course to take us closer. I’ll be up there shortly.” I quickly pocketed my radio, and hooked up a wire to my Dad’s remote on the table.

“What are you doing?”

“Letting the computer do the work. When we get close enough, I don’t want to be down here giving orders over the radio. The computer will track the signal, and we’ll be able to chase after it instantly.”

I finished hooking up the last things, grabbed Jessica’s hand, and the two of us quickly hurried back to the bridge.

Upon arriving, we could see that Neutron star was indeed much closer, and that a small warning alarm was going off. Jake was pale, and almost looked like he was holding onto the control panel for support.

“You okay, Jake?”

Jake slowly turned to face us. “Going towards very big and dangerous object. My instinct is to turn and run!”

I smiled and took my seat again. The ship was going out of its regular orbit, and moving in for a closer pass. This way we’d just pass at a close angle, and then shoot off past without incident.

“Keep us going. We’re still within safety zones…”

As if almost on command, the ship started vibrating slightly. It started on and off, but as we got closer the ship vibrated non-stop. We continued to get closer and closer, but still nothing. We finally crossed the safety limit, and we’re now playing chicken with the star. Any closer and the whole thing would melt.

“Chris…”

“Keep going.”

The shields started to glow from the radiation and energy streaming across. Suddenly Jessica’s eyes went wide.

“We’ve got a signal!”

I looked back, and sure enough I could see the wavelength displayed across her screen. “Quick; get a location, and zero in on it!”

She turned and began fumbling with the controls, while Jake continued to groan in protest.

“Chris, can we be turning back now?!”

“Just a little bit longer…”

A warning klaxon finally went off, and the whole place went to chaos. The ship was getting too close, and was complaining about it.

“Got a location!” Jessica shouted.

“Now, Jake!”

He reacted instantly, and pulled the ship away as fast as the thrusters would allow him. The vibrations slowly began to dissipate, and soon the ship was back to normal.

Jake sighed long and hard, and nearly fell out of his chair. I turned to Jessica.

“Program those coordinates in and Jake…?” He faintly acknowledged me. “Take us there, won’t you?”

Jessica finished typing in the destination, and Jake activated the Randomization Drive. Everything became warped, there was a bright flash of light, and we were no longer in orbit of the Neutron Star.


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