The
station's comms had been jammed for 27 hours, and by now Daisy was
certain the massive object peeking out from behind Jupiter was to blame.
Sensors had picked it up past Neptune less than a day ago, and it had
leapt the two billion miles between the two planets in an hour. Then it
paused, and it waited. And it watched.
And Daisy was helpless.
If Earth had seen it, they wouldn't have launched the ship. Mission Hermes was supposed to be the fastest vessel ever. Daisy watched it pierce the atmosphere and ignite its lightspeed engine, hanging in space for a moment wrapped in a corona of heavenly blue energy, the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen. Then she watched it vanish, shooting faster than she could imagine through the solar system. It passed Mars in less than ten minutes.
The thing behind Jupiter did not budge until Hermes approached the asteroid belt. It lurched out suddenly, meeting the ship just before it crossed the boundary.
Then the station's sensors picked up something strange.
Daisy watched as a a trio of long, thin objects extended from the thing in space. On her monochrome screen, the little lights almost looked like fingers extending from a disembodied hand. The fingers reached out and grasped Hermes, and then they... Tightened.
And Hermes was simply gone.
Comms returned less than an hour later as the thing hovered at the edge of the asteroid belt. A flickering green light at the communications terminal revealed a backlog of audio messages from Earth, plus one more from somewhere else. Daisy pushed the playback button, and an uneven, robotic voice like a text-to-speech readout spoke to her:
"ATTENTION PRISONERS: FURTHER ESCAPE ATTEMPTS WILL BE MET WITH EXTINCTION FORCE. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING."
And Daisy was helpless.
If Earth had seen it, they wouldn't have launched the ship. Mission Hermes was supposed to be the fastest vessel ever. Daisy watched it pierce the atmosphere and ignite its lightspeed engine, hanging in space for a moment wrapped in a corona of heavenly blue energy, the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen. Then she watched it vanish, shooting faster than she could imagine through the solar system. It passed Mars in less than ten minutes.
The thing behind Jupiter did not budge until Hermes approached the asteroid belt. It lurched out suddenly, meeting the ship just before it crossed the boundary.
Then the station's sensors picked up something strange.
Daisy watched as a a trio of long, thin objects extended from the thing in space. On her monochrome screen, the little lights almost looked like fingers extending from a disembodied hand. The fingers reached out and grasped Hermes, and then they... Tightened.
And Hermes was simply gone.
Comms returned less than an hour later as the thing hovered at the edge of the asteroid belt. A flickering green light at the communications terminal revealed a backlog of audio messages from Earth, plus one more from somewhere else. Daisy pushed the playback button, and an uneven, robotic voice like a text-to-speech readout spoke to her:
"ATTENTION PRISONERS: FURTHER ESCAPE ATTEMPTS WILL BE MET WITH EXTINCTION FORCE. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING."
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