The Fifth Rule

What happens when a scout for the Imperium crash lands on a desolate world and is forced to use the 5 rules of frontier survival.

©2014 Richard Meic All rights reserved

The Fifth Rule

(Rule #1: Never leave your ship)

That's what it said.  It was as Clear as the nose on his primate face, the first rule of frontier stellar survival, "never leave your ship as rescue could be at any time".  The writers of the scout manual had obviously never been to some of the worlds Quinn had.  Planets around systems so far out that centuries could go by without anyone chancing on the transponder signal, beeping out "m’aide" and his location.  It was only after he came to that he realized the reason for the high pay to scout this system.  There were two major bodies orbiting the red dwarf star, Haibiachi.

Haibiachi c was the small, rocky planet on which Quinn became an unintentional resident.  It was slightly larger in size than the Earth, but its close proximity to its sun kept it tidally locked, so the same half always faced Haibiachi; a face that was constantly baking between 60 degrees Celsius at the poles to 120 degrees Celsius at the equator; plus or minus tens of degrees.

The larger and more bothersome body in the system, Haibiachi b, a large gas giant five times the mass of Jupiter, had a more intense electromagnetic field than was reported, a lot more.  Quinn had adjusted his course to avoid getting caught in the large planet's electromagnetic field when something powerful fried the main computer, as well as environmental controls, engines and navigation.  Yet, it wasn’t the Haibiachi b EM field, something else cascaded through those systems, and without the main computer to run a diagnostic he wouldn’t learn any time soon why communications were left untouched.

Quinn stabbed a button on his communication HUD, accessing the one system that escaped the fate of the rest of them on board.  "This is Frontier Scout Delta Five Niner; completed emergency landing on the day side of Haibiachi c.  Pilot needs assistance, craft badly damaged.  Coordinates follow."  He hit a couple other buttons on the console, in an attempt to retrieve the last recorded coordinates before the navigation computer fried, and looked at the readout.  "Good.  Communications, standby to transmit through the HEB."  A bleep confirmed that the communications computer was waiting.  The HEB was a high energy booster component kept in an emergency storage compartment accessible from outside the ship.

He had gotten enough information on Haibiachi c to know that it had an atmosphere and barely enough oxygen to support him.  There were toxins in the air too, and in high enough percentages to pose a problem.  The temperature where he was was a balmy eighty-four degrees Celsius.  The forecast did not call for a break in a heat wave, one that had likely lasted for billions of years.  The heat was starting to bake the small scout ship and only minutes lay between comfort and the unforgiving blast of Haibiachi.  

After waiting out the remaining time in comfort, Quinn grabbed a filtering mask from a small compartment behind him and popped the hatch.  It was like being hit with huge pillow. Quinn was still not prepared for the force of heat that pushed him back into his seat.  After a moment and a few grunts he hauled himself out and steadied himself beside the ship.  Using the ship to brace himself against a constant wind, he worked his way around to the aft storage compartments.  Still braced with one hand, he pressed a pair of release buttons, with thumb and forefinger, to open a small panel.  "This isn't so bad.  A little sun on a beautiful day,” he mumbled, “ damned-well thinking of getting a tan."  A good tug on the end of a shoe box-sized cylinder had it free in his hand.

Within a few minutes the Kelvin V Signal Booster was set up on a tripod and working.  After a few more checks Quinn hit the communication button on his lapel.  "Alrighty.  Communications, commence transmitting the recording on indefinite repeat."  He smiled and patted the Kelvin V.  "That's right, we three make an awesome team, guys."  Less than ten minutes on Haibiachi c and Quinn was already feeling the effects.

Sweat was pouring down his cheeks as he made his way back to the storage compartment.  Reaching in he pressed a hidden button and a larger compartment dropped open with a clunk.  With practiced moves Quinn removed a two foot long rod with a magnetic base.  He slammed the magnetic base down hard on the top of his ship, a solar array slowly fanned out.  Within a few seconds the power to the water condenser came on as a low humming sound began to drone.  Water was found to be common in the galaxy, so at the very least there could be some in the atmosphere.

Quinn wiped the sweat from his face, only to have it instantly replaced with more, and looked up toward the red sun.  After being dazed for a few moments he shook his head.  "Gotta get out of the direct sun."  He stumbled to the other side of the ship, opened a third compartment and hauled out a large bag.  Something inside clanked on the baked ground when he dropped it beside the ship.  Desperately Quinn rushed to construct his crude lean-to, trying not to overtax himself at the same time.

In short order, he collapsed under the protection of the lean-to, labouring to get oxygen.  After a few seconds he ripped off the filter and gasped in a moment of satisfaction as he was able to breathe a little easier.  "A little - trace - never hurt anybody."  With a heavy sigh, he flopped back against the bag as it was draped over a rock.  He could still feel the heat beating down on him and radiating through the bag from the rock underneath, but it was less severe.  The air was still so hot breathing became a problem again, so Quinn put his filter back on; at least it cooled the air a little.  In time he fell asleep, the little work he was being too much strain in the blasting temperatures of Haibiachi.

(Rule #2: Keep your mind busy)

The second rule of frontier stellar survival, "keep your mind busy, or it will busy itself in strange ways."

Quinn had barely slept in four days.  The heat of Haibiachi prevented any sustainable period of relaxation.  Outside the ship, under the tarp lean-to, was the only place that afforded the slightest respite from a sun that constantly baked the facing surface of Haibiachi c.  Inside the ship would cook Quinn alive if he tried to use it as shelter now.

He had begun talking to the sun, treating it as a loyal friend watching over him.  Through dried lips, and in a crackling voice, he spoke to it while shielding his eyes as he did so.  "I appreciate your unwavering watch, but you can dip below the horizon once in awhile."

A voice, more of a thought that was not his, soft and gentle, entered his mind.  “You know I can't abandon you like that.  We were friends for the last four days and I’d miss your company.  You could walk toward the east, temperatures there should be more bearable."

As the foreign thoughts weaved in his mind, he felt them to be feminine, caring, like a mother.  Quinn looked behind, to the east, then back to the sun.  "I can't, rule number one.  If help arrives, they may not be able to find me.  I may not be rescued."

"Seriously?  You can’t allow a stupid rule, one that has never been known to help anyone, to do away with you?  If you stay here you will die.  Listen to yourself, Quinn.  You won't be rescued.  Not here.  I am so far off the beaten path that it'll take decades for anyone to come close enough to pick up the transponder signal.  How much food do you have left?"

"A few weeks, maybe a month if I ration it a bit more."

"A month.  Then how long can you last on water alone?"

He pinched a bit more than an inch of his belly.  "Weeks, I don't remember."

"So, you have a few weeks, you know rescue is out of the question and I’m not going anywhere.  It doesn’t get any better for you here.  Here's what you do.  You go to the ship, pack up all your rations, fill your bladder tote with all the water it can hold, grab the condenser.  Then you head east, and just keep going until it starts getting cooler."

Quinn laughed.  "You gotta be kidding me.  This planet has a larger surface area than the Earth.  I'm no mathematician, but judging from the height you're at right now I'd guess a few hundred miles of walking before any appreciable temperature change would be felt.  I'll die sooner by going east than just staying here!"

"Quinn, sweetie... you're going to die anyway.  While you are slowly being cooked alive by my brilliance you're also absorbing radiation at a rate that will kill you within the week anyway.  Look, if you head east you stand a slight chance of finding better shelter from my heat, maybe even some way to sustain yourself."

After pondering the situation, Quinn nodded.  The sun's logic was undeniable.  "You have a good point."  Stumbling, he started to collect the rations, water and survival gear, and stowed it all in a backpack.  Before trudging off, he popped open a small compartment in the aft section of the ship and, using the communications system, recorded a quick log informing whoever may find the ship where he went.  With a small tarp draped behind him to block the sun, and all his belongings on his back, Quinn started off in the direction Haibiachi indicated.

There was no going back to the ship, no matter what he found.  When the transponder eventually ran out of power, an information buoy would automatically launch into orbit.  The buoy, a small cylinder the size of a soda can, would be stable for approximately fifty years before the orbit would degrade, and all hope of rescue, if Quinn survived that long, would be gone forever.  The ship would be slowly eaten away by the harsh conditions, leaving but a skeleton of what used to be.

(Rule #3: Never give up)

Easier said than done.  The third rule of survival was, "Never give up.  When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think".  It was the indomitable spirit of mankind that prevailed in harsh times.  It was what pushed him to build tools to overcome the absence of natural weapons and defenses against predators.  It was what drove him to the stars when Earth became uninhabitable.  It was what drove Quinn to place one foot in front of the other over and over, ever keeping on the eastward course.

Days had passed silently, as he had nothing more to say to Haibiachi, his ever-present companion.  Only occasionally it would urge him onward with words of encouragement; "you're doing great, Quinn"  or "not much further, Quinn".  Once a day he would stop, set up the lean-to and condenser, and sleep for an hour or two before continuing his journey.

On the fourth day, with labored breathing and a sense of failure, Quinn collapsed.  He felt relaxed in the knowledge that rest was soon to be his, even if it was death.  The game was over.  But then Haibiachi beckoned.  "Quinn - please, do not give up.  You are so close."

"I - I can't - I'm finished."  He panted.

"No, Quinn - you are stronger than this.  Your will is not yet sapped.  Only a few more steps and you will find what you seek."  Haibiachi pleaded.

Quinn swore.  "Damn you, you really enjoy my toil, don't you?"

"That hurts.  I do not enjoy it when you suffer.  Why would I have helped you if I enjoyed your suffering?  I could have said nothing and let you die at your ship."

Quinn forced himself back to his feet.  He teetered momentarily before setting his feet in motion again.  "You are not really talking to me."  He accused Haibiachi.  "You are a non-sentient, stellar body.  It is my mind that is making it seem that the red dwarf is talking."

A long moment passed in silence, only the hot breeze was heard whistling between rocks and buffeting his ears.  "Would you have welcome my company less if I were your own mind?"  Said the voice.

Quinn stopped, then shakily turned toward Haibiachi and laughed.  "I guess not.  Whether you're my mind or the sun, I welcome your company all the same."  He turned back to his path eastward.

When the sixth day blended seamlessly into the seventh Quinn had found it.  He nearly stepped off the edge of the precipice and plummeted to his death if Haibiachi hadn’t warned him.  "Thanks, Red."  He said, using the name he gave Haibiachi.  "I mean, really - thanks."  He realized how close he was when he almost gave up.  “Damned statistics.  Damned rules.”

He looked out upon a vast rim of what could have been a valley or plain.  If it were a valley the other side would be beyond the curvature of the planet and he would not be able to see it.  Until more information became available he considered it a valley, possibly as vast as the Great Mariner Valley on Mars back home.  The full extent of the formation was obscured by a thick layer of cloud, or fog.  Quinn decided they were clouds.  The cloud tops in the distance erupted in a chain reaction of lightning flashes that expanded an uncertain number of kilometers in all directions then subsided.  His voice caught up in his throat with emotion.  "Oh my - this truly is a gorgeous view."  Looking along the edge Quinn found a path of ingress.  Carefully he made his way downward, keeping to areas of permanent shadow.

"How did this form, it's amazing?"  He asked after some time.  When he got no reply Quinn stopped and sat down, feeling a significant difference in temperature.  Catching his breath, he pulled out his canteen and took a mouthful of water.  He looked up to where Haibiachi would be and nodded.  "I’ll always consider you my friend, Red… whatever happens."

Quinn took his time.  The urgency was not as serious, and he still had a little food remaining.  The trip down took nearly three days.  He would be left with but two small meals before he was completely out.  Quinn felt he would skip a couple days and live off the water, it was no longer a problem for the condenser to whip him up an abundance whenever he needed it.

In the absence of the unforgivable heat of Haibiachi, Quinn no longer felt like he was about to die.  The closer he got to the valley floor the cooler it became.  All around him a bright, Erie purple-red glow of diffused light provided just enough for life to take hold. Just thinking about it filled him with confidence that he could, possibly, come out of the situation alive.  There was now some hope that he would find edible vegetation.

In time he started seeing wide-bladed, crabgrass in the crevices between the rocks; at first ankle-high, but, after several hundred meters into the valley, the blades grew to sword-like proportions.  Quinn stopped, pulled out a hand scanner, and sat down on a rock the size of an apple box that was covered in a dark-red, moss-like fuzz.  Similar such rocks, of varying sizes, littered the area, coaxing Quinn’s curiosity.

When he turned on the scanner new data from the atmosphere immediately around him scrolled over the display.  A smile crossed Quinn’s face when he removed his filter.  He sniffed the air before taking a deep breath through the nose.  It was humid air, with a high oxygen content, far more than he was used to… it was wonderful to feel.

As he continued the ground was less rocky the mist began to fade and the vegetation thickened, leaving behind a translucent, purple, canopy of clouds protecting the delicate ecosystem below them.

Further down the side of the valley he could view a much larger portion of where he was.  The rocks were much larger, and more numerous, there than further up.  “What am I really descending into?”  He went over it in his head again, looking at the walls of the valley and the mounds where boulders had sat for millions, perhaps billions, of years.  “Well, I’ll be a Denebian w***e, this isn’t a valley.  It’s a crater!”  He stared in wonder, imagining the entirety of the ring formation and estimating the size of the impactor.  “Not a mathematician… but damn that must have been huge.”

It wasn’t long before he was surrounded by vegetation; sword grass and waist high plants with huge, red, leaves that spanned a few square feet.  Short-stemmed plants that resembled palm trees littered the landscape in all directions.  However, nothing was much taller than the average human, no giant oaks towered overhead.  After cresting a hill Quinn found that, in fact, there were no trees anywhere for at least as far as he could see in the ever-present mist.

There was a small plant that resembled rhubarb in nearly every way, except the leaves were purple.  Out of curiosity, he scanned it and found it to be quite nutritious.  There were complex sugars in configurations that were similar to some Earth plants.  The unit kicked out a green light.  He broke off a leave at the stem and touched the broken end to his tongue.  “So far so good.”  Gingerly he took a tiny bite and chewed it with the front teeth, tasting it while still being able to spit it out, just in case.  Quinn found it tasted quite like a very sweet celery, like a cross between celery and honeydew melon.  “Wow… that’s bloody good.”  He said with a British accent.

He stopped chewing and pondered a moment.  He wondered if it was too convenient that he crashed so near the one place on that hell-world where he could survive, and well.  Still, facts were facts.  He could live out his days there should rescue never come.  Quinn ate more of the leaves.  He only hoped he wouldn’t have the craps after.  With that in mind he supplemented with the last of his rations, and continued on.

(Rule #4: Seize every opportunity)

When survival was the top priority one had to seize every opportunity, because one never knew if there would be another of it’s kind again.  No matter how insignificant every bit mattered.

On the morning of the fourth day the ground started to level out to a more comfortable angle.  So far Quinn had not heard a single sound from a single creature.  It was an eerie-quiet, filled only with wind-rustled leaves, and an occasional roll of thunder.  Still, that uneasy lack of everything else kept Quinn from enjoying it fully.  With a deep inhale a mixture of scents filled his nostrils, some of them were pleasant, others not so much.  One distinctly smelled like fart, and he realised it was sulfur.  Yet in all that, no smell of flowers or sweet scent of berries could be detected on the light breeze.  On Earth life exploded.  On Haibiachi c it trickled.  Variety just wasn’t there.

The mighty sword grass, at one time during his descent towered up to thirty feet above, then yielded to their larger leafed, slightly taller brethren.  There wasn’t enough light for them to survive that far into the crater.  A similar story befell a number of other species that thrived higher up the crater floor.  What was left behind was a hard-packed clay that was a little slick to walk on, often covered with fallen leaves in various stages of decay.  The entire crater trapped copious amounts of water, saturating the air with it and forcing Quinn to take shorter breaths.

Water settled in, on, and around anything it could.  Everything was coated in a thin layer of moisture; leaves, swordgrass, the thick dandelion-like trunks, his jumpsuit, face and hands.  Even his boots were soaked to his feet and made a squishing noises with each step.  And when there was no where else to go water gathered in rivulets that all seemed to join and converge into larger streams further down.  They all flowed in the same direction, toward the center of the crater, toward the central storm he had seen just before descending into that miraculous wonderland.

Quinn was studying the changes as he travelled.  He guessed that the central storm had always been there, that there was a definite water cycle.  But what drove the water cycle, and why, he could not tell.  On planetary scales it was global weather patterns, and the proximity to the sun and a Moon’s influence, that caused weather.  On Haibiachi c it was a crater, and something had to be constantly feeding energy into the system.  “Geothermal vents?”  Quinn shook his head.  “Then what about the water?  Outside the crater, only trace amounts in the atmosphere.  Here I’m nearly drowning in every breath.”  It was true.  His breathing had become quite laboured, a human was not exactly equipped with gills.  With one hand he put the breather back over his face.  It filtered the ultra-wet atmosphere of the crater enough that he could breathe in relative comfort.

The overcast sky became steadily darker the further toward the center of the crater he went.  Quinn couldn’t see more than half a kilometer ahead.  Everything, clouds, moisture and life itself, radiated outward from the center.  Whatever it was that was powering life in that crater, he had suspected would remain a mystery until he got there.

Later that day the ground levelled out and the drizzle vanished, replaced with a constant low rumble from all around him.  The man wasn’t so sure it was thunder.  It was quite dark and, until that moment, he resisted using artificial lighting to see.  Without Haibiachi to recharge, the remaining battery power would last him 24 hours.  After that he didn’t know what he would do.  Still, he needed to see more than a couple feet ahead.  He needed points of reference or he would end up walking in circles.  With a sigh, he turned on a small shoulder-light that illuminated the vegetation several hundred meters in front.  Quinn froze for several minutes, staring at the scene before him.

The vegetation had formed a canopy a hundred meters overhead, blocking much of the rain that fell, and much of the remaining light that filtered through the upper atmosphere.  Supported by long trunks resembling mushroom stems, layers of huge leaves channelled rainwater to the ones below them until the rainwater fell off of the lowest in long, graceful, waterfalls.  Fed by the storms above, the hard, uneven, ground gave in to randomly scattered ponds throughout the area.  The rumble was a complex orchestra of water; echoing, as it hit the top leaves, and fell from leaf to leaf and hit the land below.

Some of the pools were quite deep, the water inside them so clear he could see to the bottom where short grass-like plant life gave off bubbles that Quinn was certain was oxygen.  He watched as many bubbles clung to the grass with a few that would let go, making room for more to form in their place.  Those ponds could splash through with casual abandon.  Wonder gave in to concern about how to navigate around the deeper pools without backtracking, Quinn could not afford the waste of time and energy.  He would assuredly run out of battery power days before he reached the crater’s center.

Looking around Quinn noticed that some leaves from the canopy had fallen sometime ago and remained buoyant.  He wondered how much weight they would hold, and if they could be used as makeshift rafts.  Certainly, if he could manage that, the flow of the water toward the center would take him quickly and effortlessly to his destination.

With that in mind the human studied a few of the fallen leaves until he found one, a few meters in diameter and strong enough to hold his weight.  Carefully, he steadied the leaf near the edge of a nearby stream and located a long stem to guide the makeshift raft.  As if he was the driver of a Venetian gondola, Quinn found his footing in the center of the raft and pushed off the shore with the stem.  Only needing to guide the craft around other floating leaves and large plants the large stream did most of the work, giving his legs and feet a needed break.

With his shoulder light illuminating the way ahead Quinn was able to see obstacles with enough lead time to keep his speed relatively constant.  By his estimate he would reach his destination in hours instead of days, and well before his light ran out of power.

Quinn couldn’t help but feel a bit like Tom Thumb in the garden of some cottage on an English countryside.  He half expected to see a daddy long legs walk into view, or some predatory insect or arachnid to jump out and try to eat him.  He laughed at the thought, knowing that nothing more complex than plant and microscopic life existed here.  Nothing disturbed the calm paradise, but the occasional falling leaf and the constant roar of the waterfalls.  If there ever was a Garden of Eden that place would have been a close approximation.

(Rule #5: If all else fails...)

If all else fails, prepare to settle down any place that will support you.  In Quinn’s case it was the crater.  Although by no means in perfect standing, he did have enough food around for the foreseeable future, and there was also abundant building material through the entirety of the crater.  Settling in was not a terrible prospect; if you gave up any notion of advancement in the merchant marines, any dream of one day commanding a scientific research yacht, and any hope of better life thereafter.  Of course, there was that tiny voice in the back of his mind that insisted there was hope of rescue, that his dreams weren’t dead, and, in a quantum probabilistic sense, that it could happen any time.

As Quinn advanced he spotted the sharp up-sloping in the land, an indication that he had finally reached his goal.  Directly ahead was a cave nearly his height.  It was taking in the atmosphere around it; visible by watching the mist get sucked in steadily.  5 meters to the left and right were 2 more of exactly the same dimensions.  Beyond the light were probably more, all evenly spaced in a great circle around the base of the mountain in the center.  Quinn was left with little doubt that millions of them would be taking in the atmosphere.  “Intake vents.”  He felt his adrenaline kick in as he realized what he was seeing was planned by something intelligent.  “Is this a living complex or a machine?”  The man mumbled as he stepped off his raft and onto the semi-solidity of land.

Quinn boldly stepped up and entered the closest vent, his light illuminated the tunnel before him.  The passage turned downward sharply a few meters ahead.  The atmosphere was brought in at the base of the mountain at a constant rate.  He could feel the wind at his back, coaxing him inside.  From there the air got processed somehow, ending with enriched air being blown out through the top.  The storm, far above, was a vast nutrient delivery system.

Before he took another step to traverse the length of the tube, a familiar voice was in his head, stopping Quinn.  “I guess from your perspective, I’m a machine, but I assure you I am much more than that.”   The voice soothed.

Calmly the human replied.  “Hey Red, I’d ask where ya been, but I see you’ve been here all along.”  Quinn wasn’t upset.  He was certainly disappointed, a little fascinated, and quite curious but not upset.  Whether for ill or benefit he still found the tardy news a bit disappointing.

Red was sincerely apologetic.  “Quinn please, understand there was no time to properly explain things to you.  You were going to die and every second counted.  You nearly gave up on us if you remember.”

Quinn paused a long moment.  “You encouraged me, pushed me to keep going.  I’m thankful for that, but you gotta tell me everything.  You can’t just cut out important information for brevity.  You could have told me you were a ship.  You are a ship?”  It had to be a ship the probability of this entire complex forming on its own was so mind bogglingly incredible that the conclusion was inescapable.

“You could say I’m a vessel, yes.  One only a bit larger than the derelict you left behind.  I crash landed here, 3.4 billion years ago, after my pilot ceased to function.”  There was sadness in Red’s voice.  The sorrow of loss was clear.

“So you’re stranded here also.”  It was a conclusion, not a question - he had plenty of those.  He had questions that created little child questions that ran around his head like unruly brats.  Then those children had children of their own, who had children of their own, and so on.  Red’s reply pulled him out of his maelstrom.

“Well, yes and no.  I repaired and retrofitted myself, but I have no pilot.  He died on impact.  I used the little functionality I could to spark life into being here.  At first, I was hoping it would grow in sophistication and spread fast enough to tap into for energy.  That came about 2 billion Solar years ago.  It then occurred to me that, given enough time, something more complex would form, eventually.  With a red dwarf star as a power source, I had literally trillions of years of free energy.  It was prepared to wait until the end of the universe.  That is, until you came along and befell a similar fate as I.  Other possibilities were calculated, new scenarios were considered.  Ideas, that were long ago cast aside, ran with fresh optimism.”

Quinn interrupted.  “What ideas?”  He now wondered what this thing was planning.  He wondered if he should run far and fast, perhaps even back out of the crater and to the unforgiving heat of Haibiachi.  Was Red one of those cosmic psirens that sometimes lured pilots to their doom?  Was Quinn actually strapped in his undamaged, uncrashed ship and drifting slowly into a great maw of oblivion?

“Oh, Quinn… you fear me now!  Please do not, I do not intend to harm you…”

Exactly what a psiren would say to him.  Again he interrupted, but more demanding.  “What ideas?”

Red replied carefully.  “I had hoped you would be my pilot.  To journey through the galaxy with me, to help run my systems, to keep me company.”  There was a long silence before Red added,  “I’m not a psiren, I’m not malevolent, I’ve merely been lonely and bored for a very long time.”

A psiren would say that too, just to maintain the illusion.  Was he being too paranoid?  If Red was sincere, was he about to think himself out of something amazing?  How was he to know if he was in a trap or on the doorstep of a great adventure?  “I didn't mean to be that harsh.  Understand that we humans have spanned across a huge region of the galaxy and we’ve seen, logged, and categorized huge amount of weird crap we never before imagined.  Trust is a hard thing to earn for us.  Conversely, you may find me too emotional, too impulsive. You may even find me distasteful.”

“It’s a chance I’m willing to take!  Though, what I have seen is a kind, adventurous and highly intelligent creature fully capable of understanding my systems and myself.  Granted, there is darkness within you, but every sentient creature has such things.”

Quinn thought for a short time.  “There really is no hope of rescue for me… is there?”  Of course there was no hope of rescue.  He was a statistical number now.  They'd have given up trying to reach him and would be chalking it up to a scout-eating anomaly.  Either way, by now he was gone from the active system, status was set to "lost", and a standby contract called to replace him.  It was simply cheaper to hire another contractor than waste resources and time on an outside chance of finding a single missing scout.  That’s what the risk pay was all about.  A frontier scout understood the risks and was paid handsomely for it.  

“No, I am sorry.  You could stay in this crater, if you so choose.  These resources can sustain you for as long as you need.  I feel, however, that you will end up in the same state of lonely boredom I now suffer.  Your kind are adventurers.  That is what drives you into ever more remote parts of the galaxy.  That is what brought you to me in this place.  I too am adventurous.  It is my purpose.  I have been devoid of adventure for so very long.”

Quinn nodded.   “I agree, boredom is unpleasant for both of us.”  He took a deep breath and continued through the tunnel.  Making an irreversible mistake was one thing, but sitting on a planet, no matter how much food there was, seemed like a sentence to a prison.  With no goals, but simply existing, he knew he was going to go mad.

Red was silent as he worked his way through the tunnel.  When he reached the end Quinn stopped at the mouth of the tunnel and looked upon an immense chamber.  He froze in a moment of awe.  Quinn’s mind became conscious of detailed information about the complex.  Red was now able to feed him information.  “All this is an extension of yourself?”  The spherical chamber was well lit by yellow and orange lights laid out in a studded equatorial ring a hundred meters in diameter.  Each light was four feet long and several inches wide.  To Quinn it appeared as a perforation line, as if he was expected to cut along it with something like scissors.  In the center was a gold, translucent sphere, just large enough to engulf his body.

“Yes, Quinn.  It is all a part of me.  I extend out to the very rim of this crater and deep into the planet’s crust.  I am using geothermal energy to maintain the ecosystem.  Though, now much of that same system is self-sustaining and far less energy is required now than when I started.”

More information flooded into his mind.  “Of course you don’t need to take all this with you, the core part of your mind is quite small, as is your primary power source.”  Quinn smiled as he was made aware of things he never realized were possible.  “In fact, both are stored in hyperspace… all you need is enough space for my physical body and,”  He trailed off.

Red interrupted with an explanation.  “Your mind will be linked to mine via a quantum gateway.  All your experiences will play out in a virtual world created by you, for you.  Because the interface is on a quantum level your subconscious will have influence.  Just a little at first, but, as you become accustom to the experience, that influence will steadily increase in significance.  Of course, your body will be safe the whole time, constantly nourished and maintained by me.”

She continued.  “Because all primary components are in hyperspace I can bring great energies to bear when needed without needing much bulk in normal space; bulk I can add or shed as needed.”

“What if I try this and I change my mind?  Is it possible to undo it?”  If Red was a psiren, he was committed now, captured, and his life force was being consumed as they spoke.  No matter how things played out from here he was soon to be released from the planetary prison of Haibiachi c.

There was a perceptible pause.  “I would prefer otherwise, but I will abide your wishes.  You can choose to end our arrangement, any time.  What is not good for one is not good for the other.  The only condition I ask is to leave me where I can seek another pilot.”

“Okay, how do I get there?”  He pointed to the gold, luminescent sphere with his chin.

“Jump toward it.”  Before Quinn could form words Red continued.  "Once you pass through the threshold and into the large chamber you will be in free fall toward the center sphere, where all motion will gradually cancel out.  Once there I will pull your mind into the command center.”

Quinn had a vague idea what to expect and, in spite of the near uneasiness he felt he nodded.  “Okay, let’s try this.”  Knowing he didn’t have to, he grabbed both sides of the tunnel and pulled himself forward with a force he presumed would be enough.  As described, he was pulled toward the center, even though his aim was slightly off.  The feeling of one’s organs being weightless was a sensation Quinn was used to; one couldn’t even make it into the academies without the ability to adapt to free fall.

Red was pleased.  “I like your enthusiasm.  It matters little how fast you pull yourself in you still settle into the center within a few seconds.”

As promised Quinn soon flew through the center a few meters, slowed to a stop and returned to the center.  It only took three passes before he was dead center and motionless.  “Nice, so it’s like a gravitational center, with altered properties that centers the pilot quickly.”  It wasn’t a question.  Quinn thought he was getting a handle on this companionship, and rode that high until Red broke the news.

“Well, not exactly.  It’s not altered properties as much as higher dimensions added in the right way.  It’s okay, you will learn all the details on this as time goes on.  For now, you will know certain things in their respective times.”  There was a long pause as Red allowed Quinn’s mind to settle.

“Are you ready now?”

The human closed his eyes.  “Yes.”  As soon as the word passed out of his mouth, he felt a tug at his attention.  It wasn’t like he noticed something and then decided to pay attention to it.  It was much more like something physically grabbed his will and forced it in a specific direction.  In his head Red spoke, but this time it was as if she was right in front of him, not in his head.  He opened his eyes and all he saw was the inside of the huge sphere.  He looked around and she was not to be seen.

“Quinn, don’t worry.  That was just me establishing the connection at the quantum gate.  Just relax.”  Again there was a tug at his attention, snapping it in a direction he never experienced before; a direction neither up or down, left or right, forward or backward.  Nor was his mind pulled temporally.  It was as if his mind perceived a perfect state of everything and nothing all at once.  He panicked and then it was gone.  “You’re resisting.  Sweetie, you need to relax.”  Again the tug forced him in the everything/nothing state, but this time he did not panic.  It was only a moment before a final tug found his surroundings dramatically changed.

What was the inside of the sphere became a paved path through a forest of highly manicured trees, carved in places and ways unnatural.  The sun was directly overhead and warming his face, while the cloudless, blue sky stretched beyond the treetops.  Quinn could not tell North from any other compass direction, given the sun’s position.  But in a particular direction he called east, for lack of any better description, was a darkening on the horizon.  A darkening that didn’t seem to recede or approach, but remained at bay just as the sun remained motionless overhead.  A single overriding thought kept playing in Quinn’s head.  “If this is what it feels like to have a psiren eat your mind, then it is a most wonderful feeling.”