Mission Orion: The Travel through Time

Chapter 12 | The Sound of Silence

The rest of the crew were already waiting for me by the time I walked into the bridge. "Tell me you've found something important from Dave." I told him, eager to know what he'd recovered. "Wait" Konrad interrupted. All of us turned around to look at him. "We've been here from yesterday. Why haven't we been attacked yet?" He asked. " Excellent question" Souvik muttered. I started at Souvik. He never talks much except when he's really worried about something. "Well..." I said, raising an eyebrow at Leo. He shrugged his shoulders saying "I don't know. But it's good, right? At least we have some time to think about our plan." Leo continued. "Well, I have a very bad feeling about this." Reneesh said. "Maybe they got our message and decided to help us out." Souvik said. "I don't think it's that simple, Souvik. Why would they destroy three of our ships and then leave us alone? We have not received any communication regarding a peace talk. I think it is highly unlikely." I replied. "Let Leo speak, Rithvik. Looks like he has really good information by the looks on his face, which is bustling with excitement. "Reneesh said. "Go on, Leo. What do you have for us?" I asked him. "Well, guys I found out something's from Dave's system." Leo started. "The civilization which we're up against is older than the human civilization, so is their solar system. They outmatch us in every possible way both in manpower and technology. Our time wrap should have put us right in the outer circle of the solar system. But the wormhole puts us right outside the visible zone. They're actually supposed to have ten defence ships over here but soon after they blasted Orion three with missiles, they received orders from their base to pull back for reasons that are not mentioned in the files. According to the information present on Dave's system, there is not one, but there are three planets which are capable of sustaining life. There is nothing more about two of these planets. But there seem to be certain things in this place which pretty much don't make sense to me. Coming to Planet G, which we think can sustain life,  they call the MR-1, our information was right. And according to the information, there is no other system of planets in the vicinity of the Xandion System which has planets which are capable of sustaining life. So, we were right about MR-1. But something here bothers me. MR-1 placed under their list of protected planets while clearly stating that it is not the home to any civilization. Also, I could gather information that all ships, cargo and military, are prohibited from landing there. It's almost like quarantined. The database does not further have any explanation on that issue. Coming to the military aspect, as I already told you, we are outnumbered and outmatched. They have this highly complicated defence system which blasts any unauthorized ship into pieces. The same system which probably blew up all our ships. On a more positive note, I can hack into the system. I cannot promise you I can turn off the system, but I can fool the system into thinking that our ships belong to them. And another bit of information I uncovered states that the civilization is called The Vortex. I don't know why they chose that name, but I suspect they're a part of a group, which probably means that there are other civilizations out there. There is so much about this place we just don't under or know. " He finally completed. 

"That is some really good information you picked up, Leo" I said, sighing. "This is not all of it." he said. "I've only completed decrypted half the information in there. The other files are more deeply encrypted which make me believe that they're more important files. I'll decrypt those files by tomorrow hopefully." he said, beaming, visibly pleased with himself. "Well guys" I said facing the rest of the crew. "Well crew, I cannot figure out what all this information means, but we are better than how we were yesterday. Some information is better than no information. Let's seize the chance we've got, crew. Carpe Diem. According to what Leo uncovers tomorrow, we'll start planning for the attack." I said. " Go back to work." I ordered. Just then Anna came over to me. "I need to talk to you. It is very important." she said. "What?" I asked, as soon as we reached her room. "It's about Dave. He came to wake me up this morning" she said. I smiled as I recalled his so-called 'cute' nature when he came to wake me up. "What're you smiling at? " she asked. "Nothing. Continue" I replied. "Well, he came to wake me up in the morning. And when I went out to get dressed up, I saw him sneaking into the server room. I went to check out what he was doing there when he just walked out without talking. It's all very suspicious, Rithvik" she said, her concern rubbing me. "What do you think he was doing? " I asked. "Well, I am not very sure, but I saw the word "Activate" on the screen. It seemed more like an option. He was definitely trying to activate something, Rithvik. We need to find out more about what he was doing. Leo himself stated that these robots were unpredictable." she said. "Call Leo, NOW!" I ordered.

 In a few minutes, Leo was in the room. "What can you activate from the server room?" I asked him. "From the server room? Absolutely everything. Why do you ask?" he asked. "Anna, tell him the whole story." I ordered. Leo kept nodding his head every second and finally said: "I'll try finding out what he was doing, along with Kon". I instructed Anna to keep an eye on him until the time we found out about what he was doing in the server room. Apart from this the rest of the day went on as usual. Weirdly, there was no sign of alien activity anywhere in the system according to the probes we sent out there. But just then, a frightening thought struck my head, what if they were lying in wait for us? Not taking the effort of coming forward to attack us knowing that we would come and be knowing that we would fall? With these disturbing thoughts, I went to bed, more nightmares haunting me. I just couldn't bear this sound of silence.

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Dedicated to Leopotter for supporting me immensely all the way through and helped me hit the 1k mark! Hence, showing my gratitude, this chapter is dedicated to her. ;)
-LPS21