text: /////First Submission, howdy y'all!///// “Miranda, this is control, how are we looking?” Miranda was chewing on her lip, her brow furrowed in concentration as she focused on steadying her trembling hands. “I’m fine control, just... just being extra cautious.” “Roger, take your time captain.” She rolled her eyes, but out here there was no one to see it. Take your time, captain. No worries, captain. The whole world is watching, captain. She bit her tongue though, in no small part because she knew every word would be recorded and memorialized for all time. She took a glance at the heads-up display projected on her helmet’s visor - Aside from slightly elevated heart rate and blood pressure readings, everything was green. She let out part of the breath she was holding, then focused in on her hands again. She was still holding the long, braided polymer cable that connected her to her only lifeline. She looked back over her shoulder at the Herald, which she’d landed about sixty yards away. She could see that the cord - and all of the anchor points she’d placed along her path so far - were secure. The small landing pod was scarcely big enough for the measuring equipment it carried, let alone the sole occupant expected to travel down to the surface with it. But beyond it, hovering silent in the void of space, was the vast bulk of the Ascendant, the pride of the United Planetary Navy’s research fleet. Sleek lines and polished white bulkheads reassured her that she was far from alone out here, despite how it felt inside her tiny space suit. She returned to her work, retrieving another alloy stake from the toolbox she’d brought with her. She clipped her tether into the loop of the stake and then set it against the rocky surface of the asteroid beneath her feet. After ensuring that her mag-boots were set to maximum strength she swung the heavy tungsten hammer she carried. The impact drove the stake in easily, while nearly lifting her from the surface. Thankfully, her boots held. She gave the stake a firm tug and, when it refused to budge, bent to retrieve her tools and instruments. “Control this is Miranda. Stake six embedded, proceeding to target.” “Roger, good copy.” Minutes ticked by in silence as she worked her way painstakingly across the harsh, rocky surface. Yard by yard, stake by stake, she made her way to what her team had dubbed ‘the entrance.’ Finally, she’d made it. A short distance before her stretched a perfectly circular void in the rock. She looked at the lip of the hole as she drew nearer and was in awe of the razor sharp, impossibly precise edge. Her in-suit sensors did a quick scan of the opening and confirmed what she already knew. The circle was perfect, variance was 0.00% along the entire shape. No mortal instrument could have crafted such perfection, she’d seen laser drills less precise. She activated her mapping software and a wire diagram projected itself over the hole, measuring it’s diameter and depth in an instant. It was 31.4 feet across and... that couldn't be right. Her diagnostics weren’t giving her a stable depth reading. The number simply kept growing until it blanked out. eRR. She rebooted the program. eRR. “Uh, control, I’m getting some odd readings here.” “We’re tracking, captain, running shipboard diagnostics on your suit. Standby” Standby. Miranda quirked an eyebrow, what else was she going to do, pack it in? She was by herself on a rock floating in outer space. Of course she was going to stand by. “Suit is reading green across the board, you’re good to proceed.” She took a deep, unsteady breath. “Roger, good copy control.” Miranda closed the last few feet and was greeted at last with the reason they’d come all this way. The hole emitted a pale blue light that washed over her as she leaned out over the edge. Not so far as to risk falling, but enough to get a good look. Instantly her suit’s communications suite spiked. Every band, every channel, every signal that humanity had learned to listen for jumped clear off the charts. Tiny alert lights and warning indicators populated her heads-up display, prompting her to take a few steps back. They quieted instantly. This was it then. The Source. Fifty-four years ago, before the United Planetary Navy was even a pipe dream, humanity had suddenly and loudly been informed that they weren’t alone. At 7:31 PM GMT, on April 12th of 2066, every communications satellite, television set, and computer on Earth had been bombarded with... everything. The signal had been strong enough to blot out every form of communication on the planet, and had lasted exactly six minutes. Within days, world governments had convened a series of special meetings, and within weeks the signal had been traced here. To this otherwise unremarkable piece of interstellar space. All the world's instruments were trained on this spot and the scientific community was baffled to find this, a completely stationary asteroid, alone in space billions of miles away from anything else. It shouldn’t exist, it couldn’t exist. And yet it did. What’s more, the signal remained. It no longer drowned out the earth but it shone, a steady beacon to those who were listening. The Source galvanized mankind, revealing to all the world that the issues which had for so long divided them were petty, trivial compared to the knowledge that something was out there. Work was done in decades that would have taken individual nations centuries to accomplish, progress and innovation flourished as never before. All leading to this moment. “Miranda, do you read us?” She blinked, her eyes dry, unsure just how long she’d been standing, staring off into space. “Sorry, yes, I read you control.” “Thank God, we thought something had gone wrong,” the voice said, clearly relieved. “What happened? We lost all comms with you.” “The signal flood projecting from the entrance is too powerful for my suit, it overloaded everything, please advise.” Silence. “Control?” “Standby, captain.” God how she hated that phrase. Miranda waited as patiently as she could as seconds turned to minutes. “Captain?” “Yes, control, I’m here.” “Captain, this is Admiral Colin Reeves, UPN Commander.” Miranda’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment at her flippant response, this was one of the most important men in the world, he’d designed most of the equipment she wore. “Y-Yes sir!” “I’m talking to you now not as a superior officer, but as a fellow human being. We don’t know how this ends, we don’t know what happens in that hole. No one can rightly ask you to go down there, knowing you’ll be totally isolated. We can pull you back, consider other options. No one would fault you for-” “I’m good, sir.” She surprised even herself. She hoped her voice was steady and cleared her throat to speak again. “Sir, I’m ready. I’m here. I’ll do it.” “Then Godspeed captain, we’re all behind you.” Miranda heard a faint beeping and noted mentally that her heart rate was in the yellow, 130 beats per minute. She silenced the alert and closed her eyes, focusing solely on her breathing. After a few moments she opened her eyes again and stepped to the very edge of the entrance. She hammered one last stake into the ground, clipped on her tether, and then leaned forward over the opening. With her mag boots on max, she could walk down the edge of the tunnel with relative ease, so she took a tentative step down into the unknown. She held tight to her tether with one hand as she made her way down the tunnel. She felt the familiar tug of gravity as she approached the light below. That wasn’t possible either, this tiny asteroid should have had such a negligible gravity field that she shouldn’t have felt a thing. She grew closer, and it grew stronger. As she approached, she could see a thin membrane, like the surface of a massive bubble. It was the source of the light and, theoretically, the signal stream as well. She could see herself reflected in the shimmering surface as she got closer. She looked at her HUD, everything was still normal. No temperature spikes, no unusual radiation, just the mass of communications signals and the strong gravimetric anomaly. She was a foot away now, maybe less, and the gravity was strong enough that she felt as though she were suspended from the sky, hanging out over the pool of light and mystery. A moment of fear passed through her heart, chilling her briefly. But how could she give up now? She took a breath, closed her eyes, and fell forward into the unknown.