Space Odyssey: Spectre

Chapter 619: Ticking Clock

"You are going to the control station part of the gateway station. I assume you downloaded the directions?" Jace asked as the ship started passing through the yellow bubble. As it did his timer that was displayed on his heads up display started. Showing how much time passed outside the bubble.

He moved behind the cart and got ready to move it as the rear ramp began opening up. "Looks like there is an atmosphere. Not breathable for us. But it is a contained atmosphere with gasses instead of a vacuum in space."

"Make a record of the gasses and send it to me." Jace told him. "We could use it to track the species that made this place later."

"Done." Cain told him as the metal in the back of the ship creaked. "The ramp is lowering."

Jace nodded as he stomped his foot on a panel and the harness holding the cart and its power source occupant. He then slowly pushed the cart forward as the ramp lowered. Putting his all into moving it. This power source was getting to be the bane of his existence with how heavy it is.

"Moving to the power station." Jace announced as the ramp was lowered enough that he could start pushing the cart down it. When the Wyvern transport bounced as it landed, Cain bolted out of the back of the transport craft and toward the control station. Once the ramp was lowered enough he pushed it down and it picked up speed.

When the ramp slammed down he gained some speed and pushed the cart down and toward the path that would lead him to the center of the gateway station where the power station was located. He smiled as he came up on the ramp that led downwards.

But then it leveled off and he started losing momentum. He continued to push the cart even as his muscles screamed at him. The station was small but it still took him ten minutes to get the cart to the power station.

Once he was there he finally got a view of the place. Simply put, it was barren. There was a pedestal where the power source would go. But there was no other indication of how to hook it up. He moved the cart next to the pedestal before he strained to pick up the power source. Once he had it up he moved it over to the pedestal and set it down.

"I am here." Jace announced. "But I am not really seeing a way to hook this up."

"The controls are dark. I have something that could light up but it needs power." Cain declared. "Checking the schematics now." Jace moved to the control console that was nearby. Leaving the cart where it was for the moment. Just in case.

"Okay," Jace tapped the side of the console. He was looking at the schematics as well. But Cain was using the one from the initial scan.

"Pull down the large lever. Then press the button in the lower left hand corner." Cain directed, Jace followed his directions. A moment later a holographic screen appeared above the console.

"Okay..." He looked at it and saw a bunch of symbols. All of them were the same and did not match anything on his record. None of the hundreds of languages from the past or present. "What popped up?"

"No clue but I figured that would start something. Try turning the dial." Cain suggested.

Jace did what he suggested but the dial would not turn. Although now that he was looking at it. The symbol that was on the dial at the top was the same symbol that was being projected. But there were also a few other symbols as well around the dial. "That symbol is a number, a zero if I had to guess."

Jace’s mind ran quickly. "It’s a timer or clock. One that is still set at zero. We still need to trigger the timer. The dial is something else, probably power control to how much is dispersed or a valve. We need to start the emergency systems, after that I think an automated process will start." Jace nodded in agreement as he looked at the last of the controls that were on the analog control console.

There was another button and it was the only thing he had not touched. But they knew that would shut down the system rather than start it up. So what else could he do? As he thought about this his eyes drew to the lever. "It’s like a circuit breaker!" Jace decided after a few more minutes.

Cain did not respond before grunting. "Probably. Do it."

Jace grabbed the handle and moved it back up. Once he did fully there was a beep and the counter changed. The symbols changed to new ones, some of them he saw around the dial some of them he did not. "Okay the timer has started, is power coming through?" Jace asked.

"You would know better than I would." Cain responded.

"Actually, I wouldn’t." Jace answered with a grunt of annoyance. It was something that had been bothering him. But he could not sense any electricity anywhere. Yet somehow the place was powered. "This place is powered but I cannot even tell how. That is how technologically advanced it is. I can not even steal some of the tech."

Cain chuckled mechanically. "You are actually pissed. Got it. So you are not able to jumpstart anything?"

"Nope, but I am running a translation program on the numbers in front of me and if I am right about the rate of change and how long their ’beeps’ are. It will finish in-" Jace stopped mid-sentence as the room began changing. His eyes twitched as he realized what was happening. "It is nanotechnology. These people use nanotechnology, something smaller than even the system."

"That is why you can’t sense the electricity. It is operating below any scale you have tried to see or control." Cain reasoned. "How long did you say before the timer ends?"

"An hour and a half, maybe more." Jace answered as he watched the cart was pushed away by nothing and several things that looked like wires and pipes began to form and connect to the power source’s containment unit. "I only have zero, one, two, three, four, and five. Those are the only numbers on the dial." Jace informed him. "I suppose we are here for at least a year in outside time."

"Maybe longer." Cain told him. "We are going to have to translate this. I think I am going to need your help. I just sent you an image."

Jace saw an image pop up on his HUD, it looked like a screen with similar writing to the numbers he had already started translating. The translation of which was picking up since they were going down in an order. He was getting eleven numbers before it went back to zero. Making twelve numbers in their numerical order going from zero to eleven. Just like how they had zero to nine.

"I just finished with the numbers. They have two extra base numbers." Jace explained as he looked at the image and the program he started running immediately. It had translated the numbers but it was struggling with the other five hundred characters. "Five hundred characters for a language. It is a letter index." He rubbed his temple or rather the part of his helmet where his temple was.

"I thought so as well. We are going to have to do this manually at the same time the translation program is running." Cain told him.

"I know... but that would take hours... what if..." Jace stepped forward and into the area where the ground looked like it was waving slightly. On a microscopic level it was small machines. He sent a burst of electricity and then the ground formed up around his hand. He flinched in pain. His heads up display got staticky for a moment before it was covered by the same microscopic machines.

He stayed still as it felt like his hand was being torn apart. After a few seconds he felt the pain in his mind disappear. Then the film disappeared and the micromachines removed itself from him.

[Avatar foreign AI interaction detected. No intrusive alterations detected.]

Jace stood up shakily and looked at the timer. It had only changed for a few minutes but it had only felt like a few seconds for him. He also noticed the translation program had been completed. "Well that worked."

"What worked?" Cain asked in annoyance. "I have been calling you for a few minutes but you have not responded. I was about to run down there."

"I interacted with the micromachines. It was painful but it worked. I just got a mental download of everything I need to know." Jace explained as he sent the translated language back to Cain. "I think I will also need to be down here for when the power source is fully connected."