Contact

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

January 29th, 2158

A middle-aged man who Logan had never met before began to line the team members up in two columns.  First were the six security Special Forces members.  Followed by the scientists and Logan.  Logan found himself last in line next to Manuel.  Logan smiled and nodded his head, but all he received in return was nervous smile.

There was a click in Logan's earpiece, then Taavi could be heard speaking though it.  "All right team, this is it.  Barring another mishap, we are gong through the tunnel in about fifteen minutes.  We have all practiced and trained, and we all know what we are doing." Taavi continued.  "Do as you have been trained, follow direction, and ask questions if you have them."

An amber light began to flash over the door that they were waiting in line in front of.  "Now is the time to say anything that needs to be said."

There was a pause that lasted less than a breath before Josh broke it.  "Anyone have a dry control suit?"  This brought a few chuckles from the team.

The large doors began to open into the room with the tunneling machine.  Several of the techs were now wearing environment suits as well as personal air tanks.  Logan now knew that those environment suits had air bladders that would adjust to assist briefly with the pressure changes that they would all undergo in a few minutes.  Once the doors had opened completely, the techs began to file through to their assigned stations.

"Alright team," Taavi's voice came over the ear piece.  "Lets get this done."

With that, Taavi began to walk his mech forward.  The rest of the team followed him.  The two columns of team members took up spots on either side of a large pallet.  Strapped onto the pallet were the teams living quarters, equipment, food and water.  They had enough food and water to last an entire month.

As soon as Logan and Manuel come to a stop at the end of the line, the doors slid shut, and amber lights began to flash.

The familiar voice of the female announcer could now be heard through his head set.  "Atmosphere equalization begins in ten seconds."

Although he had undergone the pressure change twenty or so times, a new sense of anxiety filled his body.  Logan felt it before the voice announced the change.

"Atmosphere equalization has begun."

Logan could feel the changes in the air.  He forced himself to take shorter breaths in longer intervals.  As he did so, he glanced up at the observation room.  The room had one-way glass, and he couldn't see any of the occupants inside.  He knew however that James was up there.

James had been training to go to a desert planet with several lush oases that were scattered around the planet.  The area on Clotho Three were Logan and his team would be set up was in a desert as well, however the life seamed much more spread out than on the planet that James was heading to.

Logan was not great at counting time in his head, but he assumed that they must have been getting close to complete equalization.  Logan's guess was not too far off as the female voice announced, "atmosphere equalization is complete.  Begin power feed."

The lights in the room all flickered, as a large amount of power was being diverted into the machine to allow for the tunnel to open.  It only took about thirty seconds before the voice announced the next stage.  "Power feed is complete, sending coordinates... Tunnel will open in ten seconds."

Logan found himself holding his breath as he was waiting for the tunnel to open.  Standing last in line he didn't have a great view of where the tunnel would open inside the machine.  But what he did notice was that the edges where he could see suddenly turned dark, and fuzzy.  At the same time, everything fell silent.  There was no sounds and no movement for several seconds.