Chapter 40: The Entity

Jake headed down to the planet's surface, towards the entity which managed to fry most of the electronics in the system.

Jake scanned the surface, which was full of craters both large and small, owing to the nearby asteroid belt.

"Still nothing Atlas, even the flash seems to be gone." Jake spoke.

(Let's land and try a sub-level scan.) The Atlas suggested.

"We don't even have a vehicle and these craters are huge. It will take us forever to navigate by walking."

(We have an easier option though?)

"Really?" Jake knew what the Atlas was about to say.

The ship descended and landed right next to the flash of blue light which they had seen earlier.

"Okay, the sensors are picking up some tiny energy fluctuations but there's no sign of damage or disturbance on the ground itself." Jake spoke after the sensors on the ship picked it up.

(Okay, now do a subsurface radar ping.) The Atlas spoke.

Jake tapped his console and deployed the undercarriage ground radar.

When it deployed, Jake activated it, sending a loud ping underground.

The first few pings picked up nothing, but then a small dot appeared on the radar.

"There, I see it." Jake said as he noticed the size of the shape getting larger and larger.

"It's in an underground cavern just below the surface." Jake spoke as the radar had given him a good picture of the sub-terrain levels of the planet.

(Good, it's not as deep as we thought, it still is odd how it managed to get down there.) The Atlas wondered.

"Alright then." Jake spoke as he booted the engines and got some distance away from the surface and positioned the ship towards it.

"Activating weapons, deploying the torpedoes." Jake spoke as he pressed a few switches, arming the ship.

(Fire 4 torpedoes at once, then launch one at a time so we don't overshoot.) The Atlas advised Jake.

"Got it."

Jake turned off the safety from the HOTAS and pressed the fire button.

The torpedoes launched in silence, having been given their target destination quickly moved forward and impacted into the surface.

4 large explosions were seen as a massive crater formed on the surface.

"Holy crap, these things are more deadly than they look." Jake spoke as he was surprised at how powerful the torpedoes were.

(Agreed, it's a good thing you only fired four first, it seems the planet's surface is stronger than I expected. Still, another one should do the trick.) The Atlas spoke to Jake.

Jake fired another torpedo into the centre of the crater and after the explosion settled down, Jake noticed the hole extending into a cavern below.

Jake kept all his weapons on standby and took the ship back in, shining every light into the cavern to see what was in it.

As they got closer Jake noticed the hole was too small for his ship to fit in and unfortunately, there was no vehicle bay on his ship so he had to go in on foot.

"Looks like we'll have to go on foot anyway huh." Jake spoke as he woke up from his chair.

(Well it's a good thing you have voice command  for the ship then.)

"I swear Atlas, if something comes up charging at me, you're dead."

(Well you'll also be dead then.) The Atlas teased Jake.

Jake equipped his space suit and lowered the cargo bay ramp which pointed directly at the cavern.

"Ship, turn around and keep all lights focused on my position when I jump off." Jake spoke to his ship, the comm link built into his suit.

'Roger Captain.' The Ship's AI spoke.

Jake walked over to the ledge, his night vision and 3D detection scanners showing him the layout inside the Cavern.

He took a deep breath and leapt down,  the thrusters on his suit slowing his fall.

The Cavern was deep and dark, luckily the ship turned around, giving Jake enough light to see the bottom of the cavern.

'Alright, let's see here.' Jake lifted his hand to see the location of the ping.

'250 metres west.' Jake thought in his head and started to walk.

(Relax Jake, or your legs will stiffen up.) The Atlas could tell Jake was trying his best to stay calm, however, his heart rate was increasing and his hands were slightly shaking.

'I know, I know, I'm trying Atlas, it's just...' Jake's voice trailed off as he continued to walk.

(Here, I'm releasing some oxytocin to calm your nerves, so take a few deep breaths.) The Atlas advised Jake as he listened to its instructions.

'Wow, I feel better already.' Jake spoke to the Atlas as he managed to get a grip on himself.

(Good just keep that mindset, we're almost there.)

When Jake was 90 metres away from the target he felt an odd feeling in his head.

'Sum iea coo no?' A deep voice spoke, the unrecognised words ringing in Jake's mind

'What was that?' Jake spoke to the Atlas as he looked around the cavern, the lights on his suit could only shine so far.

(Something just spoke with you.) The Atlas said.

'Wait, you heard it too?' Jake quickly asked.

(Yes, I did.) Jake was confused as the Atlas could not hear or converse with his previous interactions with The ChronoScribe and Seraphina.

'How?'

(I don't know, with both the ChronoScribe and Seraphina, I was blocked from accessing your mind at all. It was like they knew I was a foreign entity and not you. To put it simply, you and I share one house, your head.

When both the ChronoScribe and Seraphina spoke to you it was like I was kicked out of your house and whenever I tried to speak to you it was like banging on a large Steel door.)

The Atlas explained to Jake.

'And what's different now?' Jake asked.

(Now, it's like someone opened the door and is speaking to us from outside the house. It's up to us to either listen or ignore it.)

'Oh, I understand now, can you tell what it's saying?'

(It's not a language I've heard of, however, I could decipher the language if I can hear more of it. I can get a general understanding and form basic sentences.)

'Alright, then I'll try communicating with it then.' Jake spoke before trying to focus on the voice he heard before.

'Hellooo, whoever you are can you hear me.' Jake tried to speak based on what the Atlas had told him.

After a few seconds, Jake heard the deep voice again.

'Sum iea foul no? Yu mooja ieal fork.'

'Got anything Atlas?' Jake asked the Atlas if she had understood what they heard.

(Not yet, I need more, just keep communicating with it.)

'Hey, I don't mean you any harm, Who are you?' Jake questioned the voice.

'Yu jem'g pmequ quoug iea ulo cuiot. Yu mooja geh teh feno.' The voice spoke again but this time Jake felt the distress in the voice.

(Got something.)

'What is it?'

(It's alien however the structure is different from how intelligent species form a language. It's like how animals would speak but it's developed further from body language to an emotion-based structure.)

'So we're dealing with an alien animal then?'

(Well yes, but that does not mean it's stupid, it may still be intelligent or far more capable than us so don't take it lightly.)

The voice sounded again but this time like a cry instead 'Feno, feno, Yu quumg geh teh feno.'

(It's a juvenile species from its speech patterns and it seems to be in distress.)

'Feno? What is feno?' Jake asked the voice.

The voice spoke again, reacting to Jake's words 'Ioc feno, iea amjolcgumja no? Yu mooja kalo. Yu jem'g fubo umi rohg vag iea fubo ceno. Krouco, Yu mooja geh teh feno.'

(Got it, I've deciphered the basic structure and have enough for us to speak to it, well crudely I guess.)

'Good what should I say?'

'Uh, Yu ckoup iea, Yu un meg vuja.' Jake spoke, trying his best to imitate the accent of the voice as well.

The voice spoke again this time, Jake let The Atlas translate for him.

'What's it saying Atlas.'

(It's saying it needs to go home, and that it needs something called 'Pure'? to leave.)

'Tell it that we can help but we don't know what pure is?'

This time the Atlas spoke to the voice and it quickly spoke back.

(One body two people. It seems it recognises us as two people. It said that we have enough of it outside.)

'Outside? The ship, does it digest fuel or something.'

(Wait.) The Atlas stopped him as the voice spoke again.

(It says, too little on you, oh, electricity, it needs it to go home. It seems it uses heat from the sun to provide it energy but it takes too long for it to be able to move where it needs to go.)

'So like an energy boost essentially.'

(Yes exactly.)

'Can you tell it to show itself.' Jake asked the Atlas.

A few seconds later, Jake felt the ground shake as a massive organism towered over him.