The Celestial Minds (Spacetime Universe Book 2) by J. Benjamin

Author:J. Benjamin [Benjamin, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2021-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

January 16, 2083

“I’m inside the host,” Val said through her comms.

“Acknowledged,” Ty answered. “Keep us informed when you reach the core.”

“Affirmative.”

She was already walking up the incline where Thomas had been not long before. The thought made her stomach lurch.

The glowing light of the core was up ahead. Her fifty-pound tactical suit felt heavy. Nevertheless, she picked up her pace. Thanks to the low gravity of the moon, she practically leaped her way up. To Val’s surprise, the helmet did not hamper her vision.

“I’m approaching the core,” Val said.

“Do you have visual?” Ty asked.

“Negative, I . . .” Val stopped.

Facing her was the bright, glowing, purple core of Minerva. To the right, a person in a spacesuit laid on the ground, their arms tied behind their back.

To the left of the core, another person stood, several cables emerging from their spacesuit. The cables terminated into a digital mainframe, which sat at the base of an orange information crystal. From that mainframe, another bunch of cables emerged. Except they weren’t cables. They were biological fibers constructed from cells unlike any that Val had observed on Earth. Those fibers fed directly into the trunk that held the core in place.

“Holy fucking Christ!” Val said.

“Val, what’s going on there?” Ty said.

Despite all her years studying exobiology, she was unprepared for this.

“I’ve located Thomas and Kosuke,” Val said to Ty.

“What’s the status?” Ty asked?

“He’s alive,” another voice said in Val’s headset. It was Kosuke.

“You can hear us?” she asked.

“No,” Kosuke replied. “I figured your first question would be how he’s doing. He’s beat up, but he’ll be fine.”

“Can I talk to him?” Val asked.

“He was still knocked out last I checked. The stun blast blew out his vital sensors. I scanned him with my own equipment though. Heart still beating. Oxygen on high supply. Not that I think he’d need it in here.”

“I see,” Val said.

“You gonna tell Ty and Endo about him? They’re probably wondering.”

“They can hear you,” Val said. “They can’t talk to you directly but they can hear you.”

“So I take it your next question is . . .”

“What the Hell are you doing with that nano crystal?” Val demanded.

“Removing the veil that’s been concealing them ever since first contact,” Kosuke said.

“How far along are you?” Val asked, pointing to the nano crystal and biological fibers connecting it to the Aquarian host.

“More than halfway,” Kosuke said.

“And what do you mean when you say remove the veil?”

“Well isn’t it obvious?” Kosuke asked. “I’m using the hybrid anima to dig into this thing and learn all the secrets it’s hiding.”

“Secrets?” Val questioned. “Kiara and Matt found those secrets when they jumped through space and time.”

“Kiara and Matt got a taste of what the Aquarians know. Now it’s time to break them and get it all,” Kosuke said.

“You think Starscraper is going to help you accomplish that?” Val asked.

“If we can connect their mainframe to ours, then Starscraper could interact with their computational biology and download their information. It’ll be just like when their hosts hacked the Pelicans at Wolf 482.

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