The Cycles of Revelation Series

Artifact of the Dawn: Beacon (A Queer Sci-Fi Adventure)

Episode 27: Jevan and Ardyn help Takyra launch a subspace beacon with the hopes of contacting the Athla’naa people on their homeworld.

The next day, Takyra invited them to join her in the dining hall for the morning meal while they discussed their options. They knew once they revealed their existence to both the Medellan and Athla’naa populations on this continent, it would be a shock and irrevocably change the lives of everyone. There was always the possibility of factions forming a resistance against their presence that might lead to violence. These were things Takyra was adamant they avoid.

Another issue was the pressure on local resources by adding a population of nearly five thousand new people, all of whom would require food and shelter. The Rahn’naa could sustain them for a time, since it had been running on standby mode for over a millennium. However, once everyone was awake, the ancient equipment may break down and they would run out of resources to repair or replace parts. This meant they would eventually have to venture beyond the ship and build a settlement of their own.

“Wasn’t this ship designed to be turned into a city?” Jevan asked.

“Under ideal circumstances, yes,” Takyra replied. “However, I don’t even have the resources available to assess how much damage the ship took when it crashed. We may not be able to salvage the equipment needed to excavate it after it’s been buried for so long. If we could reach out to Aria’naa, they might send us additional resources that would reach us in a couple of decades. Perhaps sooner if they’ve improved the speed of their interstellar travel by now.”

“Then our first priority is to determine if we have any operational subspace beacons,” Aerys said. “Then we need to assess how many of the cryopods may have failed during all our centuries of slumber.”

“I’ll work on the subspace beacon problem,” Takyra said. “While you analyze the viability of the remaining occupied cryopods. We also need a plan on how many we revive at a time, and the priority of the revivals.”

“Agreed,” Aerys said. “I’ll have a report for you to review by tomorrow.”

“Jevan and Ardyn, you can keep me company while I check to see if any of our subspace beacons are still operational,” Takyra said.

They headed toward the observation tower. When they stepped out of the elevator, Ardyn immediately recognized where they were. “That’s the door I entered, when you were stuck outside the forcefield.”

Jevan looked around, awestruck. “Yeah, this is overwhelming. What is this all for?”

Takyra led them toward one of the many stations lining the windows that overlooked the valley below. “That’s right. You told me you’d found your way into the observation tower before. This is our secondary control room. We can control most of the ship’s functions from here.”

Jevan stared up at the large windows and several levels of platforms above them. “Why do you need two control centers?”

“In the original design, were going to use this as the primary control center,” Takyra explained. “However, after the second of our colony ships ran into an asteroid belt and their observation tower was damaged, they had to be rescued because no one could easily access the control center to pilot the ship. All future ships were built with two control centers. The primary one is now located in a secure position within the center of the ship. It relies on external sensors and cameras instead of these windows to navigate.”

“Why even build an observation tower on new ships?” Ardyn asked.

Takyra walked toward one of the stations and sat down. “The tower is meant to serve a practical purpose in the colony. It houses all the meeting rooms and the council hall where the colony can be governed. Also, when we’re piloting the ship through space, many of us like to watch the stars.”

Activating the display at her station, Takyra worked over the controls. “Yes, it looks like two beacons are still operational. At least those fools listened to me when I told them to activate the solar panels on this tower before abandoning us to our fate. It helped us conserve our power reserves and I should be able to launch a beacon with no issues. Come, follow me.”

They joined Takyra in the elevator and while they headed up, she explained how the solar panels helped keep the Quark Fusion Engine that powered the ship stable over all these centuries. The solar power also helped to power some secondary systems, and the ship kept a store of power from the solar panels in case the engine ever went offline. The subspace beacons were part of the secondary systems powered directly by solar.

Exiting the elevator, Takyra led them down a short hallway into a room named Subspace Beacon Control. Inside were more workstations facing a large window. Behind them, the walls were lined with large hatches, like the one Jevan tripped over in the forest. All had lights, most red, with only two green.

Takyra opened each of the ones with green lights and slid out a strange-looking object the size of a large boulder. “That’s a subspace beacon? How does it work?”

While she continued checking over the beacon she’d pulled out, Takyra did her best to explain. “I’m going to launch this into space. It will stay in orbit above us while it sends a message to the homeworld. The signal will travel through subspace, which helps it travel faster than a normal signal would.”

“Why does it have to go into space to send this signal?” Jevan asked.

“The atmosphere of the planet could interfere with the signal,” Takyra explained, sliding the beacon back into its launch tube and moving on to the other one. “Sending it into space guarantees a clearer signal.”

Once Takyra checked over both beacons, she placed them back into their launch tubes and sat down at the central station, working through the controls. “Launching one beacon,” she declared as she pressed on the button marked launch.

They heard a rumble as the beacon launched from the observation tower. Running toward the window, they could watch it arc through the sky toward its destination. Ardyn never saw anything like that before, as he stared at the cloud-like trail it left in its wake.

“While we wait for the beacon to get into position, we can work on the message we want to send. I will set it to repeat automatically until we receive a response. Help me compose the message,” Takyra said, bringing up a display. She began typing.

Message to the Aria’naa Leadership Conclave from the Rahn’naa. We were headed for the colony on Maal’dak Five when our ship was commandeered by a rogue faction called the Aria’asharra and taken off-course. The Rahn’naa crashed and the Baaru’dak faction have remained in cryostasis. A descendent of the Aria’asharra and his friend, whose people call themselves Medellans, recently revived us.

Takyra looked at Jevan. “How much do you want me to say about your people?”

“Tell them this is the Medellan homeworld,” Jevan suggested. “They have nothing to fear from us, as we’re too primitive to do them any harm.”

Takyra added Jevan’s suggestion, while Ardyn thought about what else to add. “How about including the fact that my people don’t know the truth of what happened? I hope those on Aria’naa today wouldn’t hold us accountable for our ancestors’ actions.”

“Good idea,” Takyra agreed. After she finished composing the message, she read it aloud, recording it into the beacon.

A thrill ran up Ardyn’s spine when Takyra finished the recording and pressed send.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy my writing and are not yet a member of Medium, for a nominal fee you can join and support me, to unlock more of my articles and all the content on this platform.