The bridge had no windows. Unlike the control room of the Seeker, it wasn’t located directly at the front of the ship. As a replacement, images of the outside were projected from small glass orbs scattered around the bridge. One on each side, one at the front before the piloting consoles, and another mounted above the entrance. The image projected to each orb corresponded to each side of the ship. Two more orbs were studded into the ceiling and floor, but they had been left off for now.
“It’s kind of beautiful from up here,” Michael said. He had swivelled around in his chair. The Merydian chair was much better than the ones on the Seeker. He had felt the massive acceleration from the ship for just a brief moment before the chair had cushioned the force. Once in orbit, the chair had unlocked, allowing it to rotate on the spot, a feature the Seeker lacked. “It’s like a pearl.”
“Aside from this,” Brekt said. He had taken the spot to Michaels right on the bridge. He had spent most of his time aboard the ship so far searching for weapons but hadn’t found anything yet. He had been trying his luck with the bridge consoles when they had blasted off. “It’s like a tiny spec of green.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“He’s right,” Aileena said. She was walking across the bridge, towards the projection. “Clive, can we zoom in on that?”
“I think so. Hang on, it’s still weird having so many eyes looking at so many things. Ah, there we go.” Clive nodded towards the projection, his cloud buzzing as the picture flew towards the planet.
There was something there, Brekt and Aileena’s superior eyesight allowing them to spot it easily. In the ice, there was a perfect circle of green, untouched by the eternal winter. In the centre was a massive mound of rock. It’s domed shape clear.
“Is that what I think it is?” Michael said. “The asteroid?”
“It would appear so,” Mellok said. He unclipped the belt holding him to the chair, his legs unfurling as he did. He dropped to the deck, scuttling over, his robe trailing across the metal. “I wonder why the area around it isn’t ice?”
“Maybe it’s just warm?”
Aileena shook her head. “There shouldn’t be anything alive around it for a long way. The impact from something like that is devastating. Not even the Council uses asteroids.” Her upper lip twisted to a sneer. “Means there’s nothing worth conquering after, if they do that.”
“So, there is something weird going on down there,” Michael said. He felt deflated. Why was nothing ever easy? “So… what now?”
“I think you know what now,” Aileena said.
“Yeah, buddy, I think you know,” Brekt said, nodding in agreement.
“I was worried about that.”
Michael gripped the wire nervously. The magnets in the gloves were holding tightly to the thick metal strand, for now. Kestok had charged the suit from the power of the ship, the energy from the crystal flowing into its batteries. They had left the three suits they had dug out from the lockers on the Seeker for an hour and were pleased to find no trace of any power loss. Michael had pushed for them to recharge the Seeker itself, but their engineer had decreed that it was in no state to fly for the moment.
They had lowered the Sword back down into the atmosphere, holding position just outside of the area of greenery. Taking it in too close to the asteroid seemed unwise, just in case. Instead, Michael had found himself holding on for dear life to a lowering cable, a single foot resting on the clamp at the bottom. It wobbled worryingly in a breeze that was beginning to grow stronger moment by moment.
Michael breathed heavily as he tried to keep his eyes focused on the two people opposite him. Brekt and Aileena were wearing their own suits, riding the cables nonchalantly. Michael wondered if they had done something like this before, or if life as an interstellar mercenary just required a base level of casual disregard for safety.
“I really hate this,” Michael said. He was wearing a heavy helmet. It felt claustrophobic despite the glass on the front. In the corner of the helmet, a small line wobbled, the oscillation of his outgoing message.
“You think this is bad?” Aileena said, her reply prompting another icon to flash in Michaels helmet as her words were transmitted. “Imagine doing an orbital drop in one of these suits. Just free falling, hoping your gravity chute has enough power to slow your fall.”
“Sounds scary as shit.”
“It’s kind of fun actually.” Aileena looked downwards, her helmet tinting. Her face was hidden, the outer side of the helmets having a golden sheen. “We’re nearly down anyway.”
“Remember,” Brekt said. His soft voice sounded strange through the speakers, almost muffled. “Keep your helmet on, until your suit gives it the all-clear. We don’t know what that asteroid is made of. Could be leaking radiation, gasses, anything.”
“Right,” Michael said. “That helps. I feel better about dangling on a metal rope, hoping this magnet suddenly decides to keep its power now.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, now I’m more worried about what’s going to kill me once I’m on the ground.”
It was beautiful. Not in the way that people described boring paintings, or their partners when they were looking particularly shaggy that day. No, it was a genuine beauty, radiant splendour laid out before them. There was a beeping in Michael’s ear, his suit giving him the all-clear to remove his helmet. He reached up, twisting it slightly to the left to release the catches. Just behind him Aileena and Brekt did the same.
They were stood on the edge of a ridge, its sides dropping down into a crater, marking the start of the green area. In-person it was so much more than just green. A shower of colour bombarded them, glimmering gleaming plant life stretching out before them. A sea of glowing flowers and trees with luminescing bark. There were hints of blues and oranges, dots of pulsing purple. The colours seemed to saturate even the air, creating a kaleidoscope of colour.
“It’s… it’s magnificent,” Michael said. “I wonder if this is what the entire planet was like, before the ice?”
“Rhythm I hope so. Maybe it will be again, someday,” Aileena said. “Come on, we’ve got a way to go.”
The walk across the field was one of the greatest joys of Michael’s life. It was like stepping into a painting, descending into a work of art splattered onto canvas by the gods. A piece of heaven cast to the earth. The ground was soft, like a field under a light rain. As they walked through the waist-high plants that seemed to carpet the crater, the plant life shimmered with a thousand colours, shifting hues as they brushed past them.
The asteroid itself was a pale stone, nearly white. It reminded Michael of the chalk cliffs he had seen once during one of the few seaside trips his parents had managed to scrounge up one hot summer. It was smaller than he had expected, in his mind Michael had always equated asteroids with world-destroying mammoths. This one was by contrast the size of a football stadium his father had taken him to that same summer, a failed attempt to get Michael into the sport. The outside of the rock was pocked with large holes.
“Weird,” Aileena said, running her hand over one of the openings. “I think… I think this is hollow.”
“Is that not normal?” Michael said.
“Not really no,” Brekt said, taking up position on the opposite side of the hole Aileena was examining. “They aren’t usually this small either. I don’t think this is an asteroid after all.”