Project Typhon

Aleah, Raines, and Kahlberg were escorted down the long walkway towards the compound. They were in the middle of an empty, dusty plain, miles away from the nearest spacer village. Even from afar, Kahlberg was disgusted by the opulence of the Typhon building. The highly polished red granite building towered over the vacant plain, easily visible from miles around. It was an eyesore of a building, built in the shape of a massive obelisk and completely windowless. A group of smaller buildings sprawled near its base, connected by a network of covered walkways.

Kahlberg squinted against the hot wind and grit. Though the southern pole of the planet was the deemed the "most habitable" region by the terraformists, Malisa seemed like an uncomfortable place even on its best days.

Their contact was waiting just inside, no doubt avoiding the uncomfortable heat of the surface. He was a fat man, who was eye-level with Kahlberg's chest even when he stood up straight . He swung the door open with a sweaty hand and dismissed his guards with a wave. His clothes were worth more than entire spacer village could earn in a year. Large sweat spots seeped out from his underarms and down his back.

"Ah, welcome, Captain Quinn Kahlberg of the Stardiver. Come in, come in, out of the heat! I see you've brought friends and guns, how simply wonderful." He beckoned for the visitors to come in.

The interior of the large building was much cooler than the surface. The warm lighting made the granite walls actually appear welcoming. They stood in the main atrium, which branched off into several corridors. A vacant semi-circular receptionist desk faced the entry door.

Kahlberg was already getting irritated as they stepped inside. "What do you want and what's the pay?"

"Oh, the man gets right down business. Allow me first to introduce myself, I am-" He started to gesture to himself.

"Policus Finch. We've met." Kahlberg stopped him.

"I'm so glad you remember!" Finch stifled a laugh and picked up three folders from the desk, he opened one and flipped through it. "Aleah Campbell. Born 9 October, 2425. ESPer. Specialist on retainer for the EAP. Last active twelve months ago for EAP-sanctioned colonist relief effort. Last-known location: EAP Destroyer Stardiver in high orbit over Mars Surface."

Aleah rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you, Victor Raines," the man closed the first file and opened the second, "Born 29 February, 2419. Ensign on retainer for the EAP. December 2448 - Disciplinary action for disobeying a direct order, resulting in demotion. Wounded in the same mission, losing left arm at the shoulder. Last-known location: EAP Destroyer Stardiver in high orbit over Mars Surface." He snapped the folder shut and put on an exaggerated grimace. "Ouch, the whole arm, huh? I do like what you've done with it though. Very modern."

"Nice trick," Raines licked his fingertips and pretended to leaf through a make-believe folder, "Policus Finch, fat slob working for Project Typhon. Last-known location: sweating his ass off in a velvet bathrobe on the Mars surface."

Finch laughed, which sounded like shallow hiccupping noises. "Wonderful! Well then, with our warm introductions out of the way, let's go see what we have to show you." He turned and went down the leftmost of the hallways, beckoning for the crew to follow.

The hallway was long and unremarkable, a continuation of the granite walls and soft lighting as the atrium. Every twenty feet they passed a set of solid metal doors, with an orange palm pad next to each. Each pair of doors had the same sign, a simple placard that read "Lab/Office" and a number. Since the doors were only on their right, Kahlberg reasoned that they were on the perimeter of the structure. He wondered what horrors the corporation kept hidden behind them, but he wasn't certain he wanted to know.

"What's with all the doors?" Raines broke silence.

"Labs and offices, of course. I would love to tell you all about our projects, Mr. Raines, but I'm afraid Typhon only releases that sort of thing to our shareholders. I'm sure you understand."

A moment later, Finch stopped in front of a metal door. He placed his hand on a panel beside it and made a turning motion. The door slid open with a beep. Finch turned on the lights as they all stepped inside.

They were in a sort of conference room. The walls were all real-time feeds of the local system. One wall's feed was of Capitol Centre, two others were slow scrolling feeds of the stars and planets, and the last wall was a focused on the unknown planetoid. There was a bare metal desk with only a terminal and data pad on it. Finch walked over to a large table in the center of the room and plopped himself into a chair, fanning himself with his hand. "Such a long walk," he complained, "The price of having the best office on the floor." The door slid closed behind them and locked with a beep.

The Stardiver crew tensed up.

Finch read their expressions as the door locked, "Oh please, if Typhon was going to have you killed, I wouldn't mess up my office to do it." he gestured to the other vacant seats around the table, "Let's begin."

They took seats at the table, leaving the seats nearest to Finch vacant. In the center of the table was a black disc.

"Echidna, lights please." Finch began. He tapped on a table with his fingers and the disc hummed to life. It showed the same feed that was originally sent to Stardiver, the glowing sphere on the edge of dark space. "Do you know what this is, Quinn Kahlberg?" he asked.

Kahlberg shrugged, "A moon, maybe? Small planet? Hard to tell."

"We think it's more on the small planet end of the scale, but we're still unsure." Finch continued, "It appeared in the system roughly six days ago, in the Scattered Disc region."

"It's not everyday you get to witness the birth of a planet." Kahlberg said, shrugging.

Finch sighed, "I don't think you're understanding me. The planet appeared there. There was nothing in that airspace one second, and then there was a planet."

"So it's some kind of anomaly, then. I should have brought Decker with us, he loves this sort of thing." Kahlberg paused, then added, "And that's assuming it's not an issue with your feed equipment."

"I can assure you that, here at Typhon, we pride ourselves on the most up-to-date and accurate technology. An equipment issue is simply out of the question. Something or someone put that planet there."

Aleah stood and leaned forward, staring at the feed. "What you're saying is impossible. The amount of energy that would take is-"

"Incredible," Finch finished for her, smiling. "We know. We sent a vessel out there to examine the planet, but we lost them. They were sending us a live feed as they approached, they got a decent look at the planet before going down."

The small sphere grew larger, its surface becoming more detailed. Voices could be heard in the transmission. "Harpy-09 here, we're on near-side approach to the Unknown Planet. Initial scans show the UP's surface is composed of a nickel-iron alloy."

More of the planet came into view as the Typhon craft circled around. "Holy shit, are you seeing this, HQ?" the pilot asked. The planet's far-side hemisphere was obliterated, with only an ugly, jagged scar left in its place. Its exposed molten core bled white-hot liquid metal over the edges of the massive crater, coursing furiously over the cracked landscape.

Aleah gasped. "What could have done this?"

Raines, who was disinterested up to this point, leaned in. "You're telling us that this half-dead planet just appeared out of nowhere?

Finch shrugged, "No, I'm showing you. Keep watching."

The feed changed to a view of a cockpit with three men inside. They wore red and black Typhon flight suits. The two pilots struggled at the flight controls while the third, who seemed to be in charge yelled into the comm system. "Mayday! Mayday! This is Harpy-09. We're losing altitude above the Unknown Planet!" The feed started to break up, "...strong interference. Losing control." The feed turned to static.

Finch tapped on the table again, fast-forwarding through the feed. "Right here." he stopped the feed and played it at normal speed. The video component was offline, but a metallic chittering sound could be heard. The sounds were unlike anything they had heard before, and went on for several minutes.

The sound made the hair on the back of Kahlberg's neck stand up. Aleah stared transfixed at the blank feed.

"What the hell is that last part?" Raines asked. "Play it again, but slower."

Finch played the chittering at half speed. "Clever, Victor Raines. Unfortunately, we've had the feed analyzed forwards, backwards, half-speed, double speed. There's nothing like it in any database."

The way Finch emphasized the last sentence made Kahlberg uncomfortable.

Kahlberg looked down the table at Finch, "This is all very interesting, but what does Typhon want us to do in relation to all this?"

"Ah, yes. You are a man of action, I doubt watching endless feed presentations is interesting to you." There was a hint of boredom in Finch's voice. "Harpy-09 was carrying very expensive equipment and Typhon-"

Aleah sat forward, "I'm sorry, this is a rescue mission for machinery?" Her voice cut across the silent room. She shrugged. "Can't say I'm surprised."

"Of course we want you to save the crew! Here at Typhon we value each and every employee." Finch placed a hand to his chest, looking offended. "I'm sorry, I merely thought that rescuing the crew was implied. If they're at the crash site near the equipment, by all means, bring them back with you too."

She didn't look convinced, but Aleah sat back and said no more of the matter.

"We've agreed to supply you with fuel for the trip," Finch continued, "It takes about two days to make it to the UPs location from the nearest Heimdall gate. Oh, and we've also left a few gifts of good faith at the drop zone for the you, Captain. To help with the success of the mission, of course."

"I don't like surprises, Finch. Surprises get people killed. What's the gift?" Kahlberg asked. He doubted Typhon would anything try too extreme, but suspicion was still warranted.

Finch clapped his hands, looking pleased with himself. "Just some of Typhon's newest combat tech." He suddenly understood Kahlbergs's skepticism and put on a wounded expression, "Again, please. If Typhon had in mind to harm you or your crew, we would just shoot Stardiver out of the sky during her landing."

"Fine," Raines interrupted, "But why do we need top of the line combat equipment? Is there something you're not telling us? What should we expect down there."

Finch replayed the feed of the metallic chittering, then shrugged. "Would you like to encounter..." he made a vague sweeping gesture with his hand, "Whatever this is, in an unknown environment, without the best equipment you can get?"

"Fair enough." Raines stood from the table, "We done here, Captain?"

Kahlberg looked to Finch, "There anything more to discuss about this?"

"That's everything. I've sent copies of these feeds to your ship, should you wish to review them." The man gestured near the door, making a beckoning motion. "They will see you out. We here at Typhon appreciate your cooperation."

Six armed guards materialized behind Finch and formed a column near the door. Kahlberg exchanged surprised glances with Raines, then at Aleah, who seemed entirely unfazed.

"Campbell, what the hell. Why didn't you say anything?" Raines nudged her.

"You didn't ask. I had it under control." she said, standing up.

"We would feel just terrible if you got lost on your way out." Finch called to them as they were led from the room.

The guards took them all the way back to the shuttle and stayed even after the shuttle doors closed, then vanished once more.

Raines leaned towards Kahlberg. "Okay, I want that."