Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Charlie, What do you think?" Jace asked as he popped open the panel to look at the wires inside. He was being especially careful about damaging anything.

"Nine digit code, the same amount of digits as that message they sent out. Vana, did Jace's program finish on the ship?" Charlie asked as she entered the cave.

"What about that thing on the roof of the cave? Could that be involved?" Jul'an asked as he moved around the cave. The crystal on the roof was providing plenty of light.

"No, that is a light crystal." Jace told them. "I have seen them often enough to know how they operate and that could have been easily placed there since most of the minerals and unrefined metals that are in here absorb light." Jace explained as took a moment to relax.

"It is partially finished but not completed yet." Vana spoke up from the Guardian-01. "You have a blank then an 'IS' another blank 'OVER' and one last blank. Is that enough?"

Jace clicked his tongue in annoyance and began entering the partial code. Then after a moment of thought he leaned back and looked at the partially exposed wall. He grinned and put a 'D' at the start. Tapping his finger for a moment he was lost in thought, quickly running through possible words until he found one that fit. "Discovery." Jace entered it and the doorway lit up. Jace disconnected his wrist device from the door and stood up.

At the top of the door a blue light appeared and then spread out over them. There was then an automated voice speaking but Jace could not understand them. "What is it saying?" Nila asked as she moved forward.

"No clue," Jace shook his head as he recorded the voice. "But it is likely an ancient human language. But since it has been so long our language slowly evolved over time and split into the several different dialects we have now." Jace explained as the light above the door went green and then blinked red and then went back to green.

The door slid open easily and the inside lit up a moment later. Releasing a white light that was coming from both the roof and the floor. Then a green layer appeared where the door was a moment later. Covering the entire doorway.

"Do you think it is safe?" Ulin asked from the back of the group.

"Only one way to find out." Jace answered, he moved up to the green layer and stuck his hand through. He felt a slight tingling but nothing else. Then he stepped completely through, entering the ship. "It looks like-" He cut himself off as he noticed a message from the system appear. Unless he called up his own status it was rare to see something like this, since he had gotten so strong.

[ALERT! PASSED THROUGH GENETIC READING DISINTEGRATION FIELD! NO DAMAGE DONE!]

"Ahh… do not come through it yet." Jace told them. "I need to figure out how it works and turn it off first. Because it is apparently something called a disintegration field." Jace explained as he moved to the side of the door and started looking for the power source of this disintegration field.

He could see them all back up a bit. Acting a bit more cautious. "Yeah, that is definitely not something we want to enter through. How is it doing this? Does it have an AI core that we can reason with?"

"If it does exist on this ship it is not in any form I have seen before. I looked through it the moment I had the schematics in my head." Jace assured them, as he moved to open a panel where a power source was located.

But as he popped the panel open the door slammed close. Then the ceiling and ground lights turned red. "Umm… Spectre Jace? What was that?" Nila asked from the other side of the door. Thankfully the communications were still working.

"I think I triggered something." Jace answered as he looked at the corridor he was inside of and realized the lights were only on in one direction. He began walking in that direction. "Now I am following the path that the lights are clearly telling me to go to." Jace informed them as he began walking. It was a short walk when he arrived at what looked like the command center of the ship.

This command center had a single rotating chair in the middle of the room. To one side were three stations with more spinning chairs. To his left were another three stations with spinning chairs. Then in front of the central chair were a pair of chairs by a large console with an array of controls.

But before he could do anything he must have triggered another thing because the door closed behind him and his heads up display began telling him that the room was being filled with a breathable atmosphere.

Then in the center of the room in front of the central chair, a pillar began rising out of the ground. On the top of it was revealed a glowing handprint that was definitely human. After a moment of thought he grumbled to himself as he realized what was being asked of him.

Jace stepped forward and moved to remove the armored glove from his right hand. It was a complex procedure since it was not supposed to come off so easily. "Spectre Jace, how are you doing on the ship?" Nila asked through the communication channel.

"Fine, the ship is operating on a complex set of automated orders. There are a number of sensors and other things throughout it. There is no Artificial Intelligence involved." Jace informed them as he finally got his glove off and put his hand on the hand print.

A moment later he flinched in pain as it felt like his hand was burning. Then on the viewscreen which was currently showing rocks appeared a breakdown of his genetics. He pulled his hand off and saw his hand was only slightly red and felt funny, but it was quickly wearing off.

He began putting back on his glove as he watched on the screen as the automated systems seemed to be working through something. It was almost like it was making some type of decision based on his genetic makeup. That or it was searching for something.

BEEP!