Part 1 of RatioxOC fic. Will post the whole thing later. Disclaimer: minimal knowledge of warhammer40k
Another day, another useless ‘academic’ conference. If it weren’t at the urges of the venerated foundation of Veritas Prime University, Ratio wouldn’t have graced the sham of academic conference with his presence. He knew very well his attendance was merely of promotional purposes (as to attract more attention).
But of course, he had to attend the conference regardless. For one, it’s a mandatory activity. An educator/teacher/lecturer at Veritas Prime are obliged to attend/present at least one academic conference annually (by IPC standard time). It’s part of point system that forces the members of Veritas Prime to be active in academic community. It has its uses, Ratio admitted. Such system prevents researchers from simply holing up in their basement forever.
Second reason, although it’s a more wistful thinking for Ratio’s part, he was hoping to find talent in the academic conference. A diamond in the rough. A true talented person among the sham. But alas, his hopes were dashed all the more too often. Most presentation in the conference were mostly repetition of old research. The only ‘new’ thing they presented is that they applied the Amber Eras old theories to recent subjects.
Ratio massaged his temple. He could have used the better part of the week actually teaching his classes.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The noise of the spaceship’s alarm broke Ratio from his somnolence. He set down his terminal, which he previously used to read his students’ research progress. Yet another disturbance to his thought process. Regardless, Ratio had to leave the small living room to the bridge. His personal spaceship do not have much room, but it was enough to accommodate him (and his collection of books).
Ratio sat on the pilot’s seat, accessing the control panel. He turned off the alarm, then proceeded to check the ship’s system, assessing what caused the alarm to blare off out of nowhere. It was neither damage to the ship’s system or hardware, but rather something external.
A ship floating in the empty aether.
The doctor considered for a moment. He had never seen the type of the ship before. It was certainly not one of the standard IPC spaceships, nor it belonged to the planetary system he was familiar with. The spaceship was, to put it in a word, unnecessarily flashy. The exterior was gilded in gold and decorated with skulls.
“What in Amber Walls is this…” Ratio mumbled with a hint of confusion.
Space pirates perhaps? Those types liked to send fake S.O.S signal to attract merchant vessels, only to turn coat against them. Perhaps the floating waste of space before him was pretending to be a derelict ship, with numerous barbarians waiting in lay beyond the airlock.
Still, what if there was someone truly in need? His conscience wouldn’t let him live off with that knowledge.
Therefore, in matter of minutes, Ratio’s spaceship had already locked in and Ratio himself was ready in the airlock. He had sent messages to the other ship, warning them of his arrival. Obviously, his messages fell on deaf ears.
“Look here, handsome. This is clearly an attempt to board our vessel. Beyond that airlock is definitely space pirates. Don’t try to be a hero and just leave this flashy spaceship alone.” Ratio’s Logic started.
Another voice replied, it’s the Emotion, “Are you being serious or are you being a doofus? What if there’s someone in need of help? Maybe they are too weak to answer to our call.”
“Doofus yourself, don’t cry to me when we’re hostage to barbarians. What would happen to our students then? I don’t see anyone else in the damn universe that could peer review their research.” Logic spat.
“They will manage. If they cannot go on without our guidance, then they have no reason to be researching in the first place. But we digress.” Emotion continued. “Now, the person on the other side of the airlock. They won’t survive unless we intervene.”
Logic scoffed with a gusto,“Ah, yes. What does it benefit us? You always say something along the line of ‘helping those in need’ and all those goody-two-shoes reasons. Give me something else. Otherwise, I won’t concede.”
“Alright, since you asked for it, genius. If there’s pirate, that’s that. We’ll just propel off with our automatic flight system. If not, we can discern where did this vessel come from. Clearly we haven’t seen this kind of spaceship model. We may encounter new galactic community. Oh, and saving the crew too, I guess.”
“Ha!”
“Come now. At the worst case scenario, we find empty vessel with dead crew. We’ll just take the flight data and black box. Then report to IPC space marines about this encounter. Let them take over from there. We can go back to our daily lives without entertaining what ifs.”
“Okay, okay. You won. This time.”
Without hesitation, Ratio pressed the airlock button. Still, he had a beam gun ready on one hand, just in case. What welcomed him into the mysterious derelict ship was neither a group of space pirates nor it was the deranged barbarians. Instead, he was met with eerie silence.
Ratio entered the derelict ship rather awkwardly, as he was wearing space suit. An obvious thing to do, since he wasn’t sure whether the air circulation system was working to begin with. Considering the leaking steam from the pipes on the walls, it may be failing.
However, the doctor had no time to ponder on trivial matters. He stepped out of the airlock and found himself in a long hallway. Just like the exterior, the interior of the spaceship was painfully flashy. The corridor walls were glistening, the doors were gilded in gold, red carpet laid upon the floor, and skulls serving as decoration.
Since the spaceship was of similar size with his own, he could predict the layout. Although it wasn’t exactly carbon copy of his own spaceship, Ratio found several rooms serving as storage, workshop, living room/ bed room, and command center / office. Obviously, the furniture were unnecessarily luxurious.
Judging from the size of the ship and the available rooms, the vessel seemed to be accommodating a small number of crew members, if not just one person. Solo traveling wasn’t as dangerous as it used to be in several Amber Eras ago, and there were more solo-spaceships in production. Perhaps the occupant of the ship enjoyed such trips.
Still, it was too soon to draw conclusion. Ratio entered the office room to find several envelopes on the office table. The envelopes were untouched. Without feeling any remorse, Ratio opened the envelopes only to find documents with unfamiliar characters. It was certainly not IPC standard nor any other characters he knew of. No, it was something new.
“Perhaps we are indeed dealing with new galactic community. Good find, doctor.” Ratio spoke to himself with satisfied tone.
“There’s still the crew. I don’t think you need reminder.” Emotion spoke.
The second to the last door, had unfamiliar characters on it. However, with the sound of creaking and hissing coming behind it, Ratio could easily guess that it was the engine room. He tapped on a button beside the door and accessed the room with ease.
He didn’t venture too far from the door.
The engine room was on the verge of failing. Steams leaking out of the pipes, sparks of electricity from cables hanging off the ceiling. Ratio wasn’t concerned about those, as something else caught his attention.
The entire room was filled with glossy gas-like substance. When Ratio blinked, he swore he saw images of something inside the engine room. Tentacles. Grotesque creatures with multiple eyes and mouths in places it shouldn’t be. The creature phased in and out, being ethereal and physical at the same time.
Ratio stepped out of the engine room and closed the door right when the tentacles attempted to reach out to him. The doctor gingerly stepped away until his back hit the other side of the corridor.
“What was that?” Ratio finally managed after catching his breath.
“Didn’t I say so, handsome? We’re getting into trouble.” Logic Ratio scoffed.
“Was that really the engine room? What was those creatures? They looked so real and yet ephemeral at the same time.” Emotion Ratio chimed in, “Was this the reason why the ship was abandoned?”
Logic Ratio quickly interjected, “We haven’t seen any proof yet.”
“This may sound crazy,” Ratio added, “Would it be so outlandish if we assume that those creatures are part of the engine room to begin with? Some of them seemed to be fused into the engine.”
“Nahhh…” “What crack are you on?”
“I’m going to need a whole day bath after this.” Ratio tried to massage his temple, but his gloved fingers only found the glass protector of his helmet. So instead, the doctor merely shook his head and decided not to meddle with the engine room again. For a blessing, the creatures did not go beyond the door.
After composing himself, Ratio headed towards the last door in the corridor. He put his hand on the control panel and opened the door. The moment the door gave way, thick white fog flooded out of the room. If Ratio wasn’t wearing protective suit, he would succumb to the coldness of the fog.
Based on the fog alone, Ratio could discern the function of the room. His hypothesis was proven right away the moment the fog dissipates. The darkness of the room could not very well hide the familiar shaped cold-sleep coffin.
Nobody answered Ratio’s call, because nobody could answer. The proof was right in front of him at the time. The cold-sleep coffin was in use. There was no way the occupant could be aware of engine problem and communication. Although, any good spacefaring system would have forced the occupant to wake in case of emergencies. Even then, the system wasn’t immune to fallacies.
Ratio wiped the glass window of the coffin, allowing him to see the occupant. All he could see from the small window, was a small face of a young girl with raven locks. Her sleep looked disturbed, as if she was having shallow dreams instead of deep sleep that sleeping pods would provide.
“Just the one?” Emotion started.
Logic immediately answered, “It’s pretty obvious there’s nobody else. There’s only one coffin in this room. We didn’t see any other crew members either. The existing furniture and facilities indicate this ship is indeed designed for single passenger.”
“Look, the girl just shifted. Even the cryogenics system starts failing? Otherwise she wouldn’t be making such disturbed face.” Emotion pointed out.
“What caused the system failures, I wonder. This ship doesn’t look that old, clearly it’s newly produced. I’d give it good two or three years. Unless the design is utter garbage this ship should last a decade or two.” Logic pondered, then he continued, “Perhaps the things in the engine room was the source of the system failure?”
“No, no. In the first place. What was the things to begin with?” Emotion pursued.
“Mysteries upon mysteries.” Ratio commented, he looked at the coffin’s control panel. Despite the foreign characters, he could discern the occupant’s vital sign. “We wouldn’t know unless we wake the--”
HISSSSS
“What was that?” Ratio started, but he did not have time to think, as the ship started shaking and the engine hissed violently. It wouldn’t take long before the system truly failed.
Ratio had to work fast.