“Here we go.” After making his warning, Joseph pulled the trigger. As soon as the drill started, it skipped across the hull of the ship. It did not even make a scratch. Two more tries led to the same result.
“This material is harder than diamond. Do you think they would sell us the patent?” Joseph said, embarrassed even though the strategy had considered the possibility that this surface would be hard to penetrate.
“Try the plasma torch tip,” Aki said, wanting them to stay loose but concerned that false levity might erupt into fear.
“If they’re waiting for us on the other side of this wall, I hope they don’t attack us because we sliced our way in,” Raul said.
“It’s not like we didn’t try knocking.” When Joseph spoke, Aki could sense his hard resolve, even through his suit.
Aki had dreamed of making first contact with intelligent beings her whole life, but none of the scenarios had started with breaking and entering. The lack of interest—one could not even call it disdain—in communication on the part of the Builders continued to frustrate her. The torch-driven drill cut through the surface as if it were wood. After two meters, the resistance against the bit was gone. The drill moved in and out freely.
“We broke through,” said Joseph. “It’s thinner than we thought.”
A protective cover slid down over the drill, allowing them to remove it and insert a sensor while still maintaining an airtight seal. The image sent from the tiny camera appeared on their helmet screens. The first few centimeters contained a clear substance, followed by a foamy material. As the probe moved deeper, the bubbles in the foam grew larger.
A dark hole appeared in front of the camera. As the camera passed through, the image went completely black. It appeared to be a chamber too large and empty for the dim light on the sensor to illuminate.
Joseph read out the composition of the air tested, “Forty-two percent nitrogen, 56 percent oxygen, 2 percent other inert gases. Air pressure is 43/100 of an atmosphere. Once we become acclimated to the low pressure, the sensors say we can breathe in there, disregarding the fact that we would fill the atmosphere with carbon dioxide quickly, since it’s unlikely that there will be vegetation.”
“Doesn’t look like there are any aliens in this room. Can we cut a door for ourselves?” Raul asked.
“This place is as good as any,” Aki said. Hanging out on the side of the Builders’ ship could not be much safer than going inside.
After equalizing the pressure in the dome to that inside the vessel, Joseph cut a circular hole in the surface. The process took nearly an hour. Even with the low artificial gravity, Joseph was surprised by how light the material was and nearly rocked backward on his heels when he made the lift. Raul shined his light into the hole, the beam reflecting off an object several meters below. The space was packed full of cells reminiscent of honeycombs, each about one meter wide.
“Send the sensor down into those cells to see what the cells are made of?” Joseph asked.
“No time. We go in and find out for ourselves,” Aki said. She was nervous and excited. She could not even begin to imagine what they would find. She recalled how much volume there was to cover inside the Torus, making her even more anxious to locate whatever being or entity was in charge and try to communicate before time ran out.
Aki was given the honor of being first to set foot inside. Joseph adhered a communication device to the edge of the hole and connected one end of the fiber-optic cable from a reel attached to his suit. Since radio signals would not be likely to penetrate the hull, this would allow an open channel with the Phalanx and send back a video feed and sensor readouts. The audio and video could be plugged directly into the Worldunity Network. The feeds could be seen on Earth in as close to real time as the vast distance from the planet allowed.
Joseph tied another tether line to the portable airlock. In an emergency, the tether could reel them back out quickly. Aki looked at her two crewmates and gave a nod, then made a final check of the Phalanx’s camera to make sure there were not any sudden changes to the Builders’ ship’s orientation or surface.
“Entering the vessel,” she said. She had meant to use a more profound phrase, but the plan had shifted so many times that she could not even remember the ones she had written down. Aki lowered herself several meters into the hole. Reconfirming that the air was breathable, she allowed her sampler to take in a trace quantity. She breathed the ship’s air cautiously. A sensor found a hint of trimethylamine, which Aki tasted as a hint of ammonia.
The next words spoken would be remembered by all for many decades, as they emanated from the sensor.
<SMELL: RAW FISH>
She lowered herself into the honeycomb structure. The hexagonal cells were covered with a transparent film. The cells were full of a murky glaze. A large yellow object was beneath them. Aki stepped on one of the walls dividing the cells, gradually adding weight, making sure it would support her. She let go of the tether, then indicated for Raul and Joseph to follow. They joined her and stood in awe. Honeycomb structures arced around them on both sides, all the way to the ceiling, nearly filling the inside of the Torus’s tube above them. Multiple bridges ran vertically and horizontally along the inner wall—thin, varied, and meandering like veins under skin.
Oddly enough, the scene resembled an alien horror movie the crew had all watched together on their way to the rendezvous point. She knew Raul was thinking the same thing but hoped that he did not feel the need to verbalize the thought.
“Damn, it’s just like that movie we watched. Don’t look at them, or they might jump up and eat our faces off! It looks like they hired Giger as their interior decorator,” Raul said, as if on cue.
“Will you keep the Alien references to yourself, please?” Aki snapped.
“Sorry.”
No one spoke for at least a minute. The sensor finally broke the reverent silence.
<SMELL: STRONGER>
“Upper part of their living quarters, like an attic? Maybe that is why nobody’s here.”
“Maybe this is the nursery and these are the offspring. Or it’s the pantry and we’re looking at the canned goods,” Raul said. “We need the living room so we can say hello to whatever lives here.”
They walked along the inside of the Torus in the direction of its rotation. In the distance, where the floor curved upward and was blocked by the ceiling, they could see a faint green light. Moving closer, they noticed the green light came from a hole in the floor about two meters across. There was no ramp or stairs. Raul guessed it was some sort of an air vent. Aki allowed her air sampler to take another small sample of the atmosphere.
<SMELL: BARN, MAPLE SYRUP>
“What does a barn even smell like?” Raul asked sarcastically.
The Contact Team approached the edge of the hole. Aki crouched, peering over the side. What she saw below looked like a deranged jungle gym. Countless gray branches extended in all directions from the central node. The gray arms were porous on the surface, like coral, and as thick as Aki’s torso. Seemingly lacking a consistent design, functionality, or even shape, the branches veered in all directions through the chamber. The cells pressed together tightly like a cluster of bubbles.
Aki attached an anchor to the edge of the hole and then connected a tether cable. She lowered herself down to the closest branch. Despite her thick boots, she could feel the texture of the surface beneath her feet. The way the surface wobbled, Aki felt as though she were standing on the back of a whale. She was grateful that the hard-shell suits had been reengineered to be much more flexible. Once her footing was stable, Aki looked around the cavernous room.