Launch Day

Despite the sweat already filling in his suit, Dirk feels excited and alive. He works his way through his pre-flight checks, double checking that everything looks golden from where he sits. He gives a quick glance back at Belton and Hamlet, giving a quick smile and nod before returning his eyes to the front.

To Spay, "So far, so good over here boss"

Spay replies, "Good, McMillan. Let's keep it that way. Everyone stay focused, double check your systems, and follow protocol. We're just about a go for a launch."

Spay then proceeds to verify his own systems and glances at his instruments. While he does he calls back, "Turner...O'Neil and Weintraub secure and ready?"

Dierdre is wracked with conflicting emotions. Relief that the weather is perfect for the launch; apprehension about the mission; annoyance with weepy Weintraub and her inability to properly console the man who had no business being on this trip in the first place; and anger at being forced into a terrible position that had her clearing unfit men for this operation.

"Yes, commander. All systems go," she says, resigned to her fate.

» T MINUS 2 MINUTES: Crew members close and lock their visors.

» T MINUS 31 SECONDS: Ground launch sequencer is go for auto-sequence start.

» T MINUS 10 SECONDS: Main engine hydrogen burnoff system activates.

» T MINUS 6 SECONDS: Main engine starts. The entire launch stack of shuttle, fuel pod, and boosters pitches down about six feet. This is
known as the "nod" or the "twang."

» T MINUS 0 SECONDS: Solid Rocket Boosters ignite, explosive bolts release the boosters, and…liftoff. The astronauts feel the vibration of the incredible, deafening roar in the bones.

» T+12 SECONDS: The shuttle starts to pitch and roll, right on schedule. Instead of lying on their backs, facing upwards, the crew is now inclined, knees over head. The craft hits about 1.7 G forces, so someone who normally weighs 70 kg feels like they weigh 120 kg. All astronauts see a grey, speckly fog as G-forces impact their optic nerves. Weintraub starts gasping.

» T+19 SECONDS: The roll is complete. Weintraub is screaming. CAPCOM (Woolrich) cuts Weintraub’s mic from everyone in the shuttle and tells Turner that Weintraub’s heart rate and blood pressure have leaped into danger zones. She must watch them and prepare for treatment when the shuttle reaches orbit. Iron-clad protocol is to wait until microgravity (T+8 minutes, 30 seconds) before attempting to render aid.

Dierdre is dealing with her own anxiety while the ship goes through its maneuvers. Her ears feel as though they might burst. Her body feels like its vibrating so badly that her bones might shake themselves to dust, and it's all she can do to keep herself from biting her tongue. Worse is the feeling of being crushed and her eyesight becoming muddy. But this was expected. All of it. Still, in reality, it was horrendous to feel this way.

Weintrab's gasping breaks through her fogginess. She forces her head to turn and look at him. He's in trouble. She knows this and it's confirmed by Woolrich's report on his vitals.

Dammit! I can't fail already in my duties.

Now it's the doctor's heart rate that climbs ever higher as she is presented with a decision. Break protocol and help the man, or wait, in which case he could die before she can administer a drug to calm him.

>> T +38 SECONDS: Turner attempts to get to Weintraub but the G forces are too much and she's crushed into her chair unable to get out. The shuttle reaches "Max Q," the point of greatest aerodynamic stress on the vehicle. The throttle automatically eases back as the spacecraft breaks the sound barrier. CAPCOM restores Weintraub’s mic for Turner only, but cuts her mic from everyone but Weintraub. O’Neil demands to know what’s going on.

Damn good thing this launch is automated, thinks Spay. "Something's going wrong back there with the civilians!" Spay calls to Major McMillan. "I'm not going to let this mission fail before we even get it going! Make sure nothing goes wrong up here."

Then Spay attempts to make it to Weintruab

Just as Spay tries to get out of his seat the thrusters kick back into high gear and he's pressed firmly back into his seat, unable to get out. The whole shuttle is shaking under the strain and everyone's audio is out. The roar of the rocket boosters is almost deafening in the silence.

With clenched teeth as her chest feels like an elephant is sitting on it, she tries to sound reassuring as she talks into her mic to Weintraub.

"You're going to be ok, just breathe, -- BREATHE! -- and picture a nice scene. A sailboat on the horizon...."

As she turns her head, her eyes catch Spay making a move to help the struggling man but failing. The doc can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of doom. She almost laughs and then wonders if she's losing her faculties. She tries to see how Dirk is doing. Maybe he is faring better than the rest of them. And with O'Neill complaining she hopes that means he is relatively okay.

Con x 5 (55)

» T+7 MINUTES: The G forces continue to build, maxing out at triple Earth gravity. A 70 kg person feels like 210 kg.

» T+8 MINUTES 30 SECONDS: Thrust ceases. Orbit is achieved. The astronauts are in microgravity, orbiting Earth. The radio cuts back in. Woolrich explains that the problem on the ground has been solved and demands a situation report.

Con x5 (70)

Dirk's body relaxes from holding the Hick maneuver after having been squeezing his legs and abs in the long ascent.

"Whoo, what a ride. Easy parts over folks. Hows everyone doing back there? Anyone get a good nap in?"

Dirk begins reading the craft for orbital adjustments as he laughs at his own joke.

O'Neil grumbles at McMillan's comment but then you hear a worried gasp. "Weintraub! Weintraub wake up! Hey Doc, I think something's wrong with him!" Looking over at Weintraub you can see he is unconscious.

Shit! How could NASA not have expected this to happen!? Damn Civilians on a mission, thinks Spay to himself at the sound of O'Neil's gasp.

"Doctor. Status! How badly did launch hit Weintraub? This is no Disney ride."

Oh Christ.

The Doctor did not feel peachy herself but she unbelted and started to float, a condition she had been trained in but was by no means used to with the rush job she had had. Awkwardly approaching Weintraub, one arm gripping his arm rest while the other reached for his arm, she took his vitals.

"His pulse is slow and erratic. It's not good. I need to administer epinephrin."

Dr. Turner does a quick inspection and realizes Weintraub will not make it. His eyes are bloodshot with burst retinal vessels leaving him blind, and he had a stroke during the ascent. His pulese fades away to nothing under Turner's fingertips.

O'Neil leans forward as much as possible in his harness. "What's going on?"

Checking her kit, Deirdre realizes her adrenaline ampoule's have all been crushed and broken.

"Great! I guess the powers that be forgot to protect certain medical supplies from the rigors of a launch. I'm afraid he's gone."

Of course the doctor isn't at all surprised based on the man's physical and her observations of his state of mind. Was it her fault? No. She did what she was told, and she refused to carry the burden of his death.

Spay keeps it together and professional, though he doesn't feel good about the circumstance at hand. He inwardly laments how this tragedy places a dark mark on this mission from the get go. Nonetheless...

"There's nothing we can do then. Let's seal him up and secure him. Rendevous in 48 hours."

Spay radios CAPCOM to inform them about the situation.

Dierdre's gut reaction is to throw him out at the earliest opportunity. Say something failed, a space walk, or he lost his mind and managed to exit the craft. None of it made any sense. It was her addled mind running multiple panicked scenarios until she screamed STOP! in her head. Who was losing it now?

Heaving a deep slow breath, and using the techniques she had taught others, she managed to calm herself before she looked like a fool. The crew needed her to be calm as they too were feeling fear and anxiety at the very least.

Hearing of the death of Weintraub, Dirk calm, collected demeanor breaks away and he gets openly angry.

"God Damn it! They killed him. The Brass knows you can't make an Astronaut in a day, but they said 'Fuck it', and they killed him. This is on them."

He doesn't talk to anyone in particular. He keeps his eyes forward, still working on guiding the spacecraft safely.

Relieved that Weintraub's death wasn't being blamed on her, she made no outward reaction to the men's comments, as some semblance of calm returned to her. She noted that McMillan could be a problem later if he let his anger fester.

Belton simply closed his eyes. He knew it wasn't his fault, but he still felt terrible about Weintraub. He had expected the whole mission to be rough for the young man, but... not this rough. Not like this.

When the Lieutenant Commander was able to unbuckle and move around, his first order of business was to float over to the body. Opening the visor, he reached up and delicately closed Weintraub's eyes. "Fair winds and following seas, Weintraub." His voice is quiet, surprisingly small. Belton closes the visor again, and makes sure the young man's corpse is properly secured in its chair.

Turning to the doctor, he rests a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "You did what you could. This isn't your fault. I know it doesn't help much, especially right now... just know that no one blames you, so try not to blame yourself."

"Thanks Belton." Steeling herself for the unpleasantness to come, she added, "We better secure the body ... Weintraub ... somewhere secure but not here."

She almost said where we can be reminded of the stupidity of the powers' that be.

Weintraub's body is moved to the cargo hold where it is secured until you return to Earth. O'Neil says a small eulogy over the body and he is clearly distressed. 46 hours until rendezvous and the only item on the checklist left is the MMU inspection by Belton and Hamlet. How do you pass the time?

Belton will start by getting to work on the MMU inspection.

A small, unknown device has been added to each MMU. It is spliced in on the side of the Primary Life Support System (PLSS), the backpack that provides gases that an astronaut needs to live. Taking off the cover and frame, you see the new device has wires going from the suit’s internal antenna to a small digital receiver, along with some sort of effector output that disappears into the bowels of the oxygen regulation system. Without wrecking the PLSS, there is no way to know more.

"Shit... I bet Weintraub would know what this mess of wires was before I was finished explaining what I found." Belton sighs and closes his eyes for a minute. The kid knew he couldn't hack it, but he had tried anyway. It just sucked. With that, Belton opens his eyes and heads off to find Cpt. Hamlet, see what he thinks.

Maybe O'Niel can ID the new parts of the MMU?

As he floats along, a thought crosses his mind: Shit. What if this mission is so black, none of us are supposed to make it back? He shakes his head to chase the thought away, but he briefly sees Weintraub's eyes right before he had closed them, and the hint of paranoia holds fast.

"Hey Captain, come check the MMUs with me would you? Found a piece I can't ID."

Deirdre busies herself with first finding the missing adrenaline ampoules that might have saved Weintraub's life. Then she sets about organizing the first aid and medical supplies while she fights with herself about not accepting the blame for the poor man's death. Then she writes up the details on his death and files it away.

Hamlet floats over to Belton and takes a look. "What the hell is that? That's not standard. Get Woolrich on the radio and ask for an explanation. I'll check the other MMU."

"I'm going to check with O'Niel first. See if he can determine what it is, so we know if command is bullshitting us," Belton replies thoughtfully before heading to O'Niel.

"Hey, I know this isn't exactly your job description but we found something out of the ordinary added to the MMUs and I was wondering if you might help us make heads or tails of it?"

Spay doesn't pipe in regarding the MMU modifications. But he keeps tuned in to the situation and is waiting to see if Belton can get anything out of O'Neil before Spay get on the radio to headquarters.

When Deirdre finishes her housekeeping she floats over to join the others and observes what's going on.

With her having to falsify the health examinations, it didn't surprise her at all that the mission was not what they thought it would be.

"We've already lost one crew member. This is ridiculous. Unconscionable. So what do we do now?"

Of course she was one to talk.

Belton's jaw goes slack, no doubt for far longer than was socially acceptable. Eventually regaining his composure, he blurts out, "What in the 'Hory Hoasts of Hoggoth' and 'Crimson Bands of Cyttorak' are you talking about? This is starting to sound like some Harry Potter shit."

O'Neil barks a laugh. "You're closer to the mark than you think. It's also why we couldn't train you to do this. Its very theoretical, but the closest I can explain is like this. The human body is a record player and the mind is a record. Even if the body dies, the mind remains, just as the grooves remain on a record. Perhaps that's an outdated analogy. The body is a computer, and the mind is a floppy disk. Shut off the computer but the data still remains. Same idea. That's because their is stored energy in the mind, the spirit if you will, that can be released. Just like splitting an atom releases atomic energy. We call it 'unspooling consciousness.' This energy can be used to power magic rituals. It's one reason we think human sacrifices were more common in ancient civilizations."

With his hand still on the radio and with his mind completely baffled on how to approach this crazinesses, all Spay can think to do for the moment is play along with the madness, "Okay, so now you revealed that not-so-small piece of information, you might as well tell go ahead and tell us why we need to destroy the satellite, what's the purpose?"

O'Neil shakes his head. "The only way to destroy it is through hypergeometry. It does what you were told it does: it is an anti-satellite satellite. It has the power to de-orbit any other satellite the US wishes. What they didn't tell you is that it is constructed from parts not of this world. With technology beyond what humanity has discovered for itself. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm sorry to have dumped this on you, because now that you know, you are involved. No matter what choice you make from now on, major life changes are coming your way. Welcome to the club," he gives a grim chuckle.

"Well obviously one of us won't have to worry about that," Belton replies dryly. "Humor me. Once we get all ancient Aztec with one of us to abracadabra the on switch... what happens to the dead guy? Do they actually die, or is their soul trapped in a satellite that'll serve as a personal hell for eternity?"

He crosses his arms accross his chest. "Y'know... hypothetically."

O'Neil shrugs. "No one knows for sure, but I don't think their soul will be stuck. Soul is not really accurate. As I said, its consciousness, but unspooling it terminates that consciousness and releases the hypergeometric energy. I'm not asking you to believe me. Hell it's better if you don't. If you knew half the things I know about what exists beyond our space and time, you'd never have a good night sleep again. There are things out there than feed on consciousnesses for eons. Unspooling is a far better alternative, believe me."

Shaking his head, Belton replies, "Well, I guess we can take some small solace in that. From a more technical standpoint... how often does this satellite have issues? Do we feed it people every year? Is this the first time it's gone dormant? Or what?"

"So where exactly did these "not of this world" parts come from and how were they obtained?"

Dierdre decides to focus on the technical details as a distraction from her impending panic at the unbelievable revelations. She was a student of science. Magic mumbo jumbo never entered into any of it. At least until now, in the form of objects outside their sphere of knowledge. Wasn't that what magic was, after all?

Dirk sets the coarse for the shuttle and lets the autopilot do the remaining work for now. He joins the group just in time to hear O’Neils explanation of the program…and not believing a word of it.

"What the hell are we talking about right now? Human sacrifice? That’s completely ridiculous. Even if it were true, what makes this satellite worth it? We can knock out satellites with a simple missile."

"The malfunction was part of the cover story. Nothing is wrong with the satellite. I am not an engineer so I don't know all the specifics, I'm just here to destroy it. Sure, you can shoot down a satellite, but not without risking an international incident. And definitely not raising questions about how the US knew who has what secret satellites and where. With BLACKSAT there is no proof of anything, and governments can't make the information public without showing their hand as well. It'd be like a drug dealer calling the police because he was robbed of his heroine. As for the details, it's not something you want to know. I already said too much. At a minimum all of you are probably facing the ends of your careers after this. Probably assigned to desk jobs in Alaska. If you want to know even more, there's a good chance you'll meet an unfortunate accident."

"At this point, I'll welcome a desk job. Actually no, I'll welcome getting back alive."

This nightmare was only getting worse by the minute. And deadly.

Belton just shook his head. "Man, ain't this some bullshit. I thought Tuskegee, Radiation Experiments, and MKUltra were bad, but here we are. Just outright human sacrifice now."

With that, he floats off to put the MMU he inspected back, having finished the inspection itself.

Not yet clear enough of mind to radio headquarters with any logical assessment of mission status, Spay processes O'Neill's revelation and all the questions and comments of his colleagues that follow. He feels pretty helpless.

He couldn’t wait to get back in space, into another mission. The thought he always keeps to himself suddenly surfaces to the forefront of his mind:

there is not a human on earth I would not betray to get into space.

It was always a more figurative idea, that helped keep his drive and ambition strong, not let the noise of life and people distract him from his goals, his purpose. But now...the thought suddenly has new meaning.

"O'Neil. Why the hell should we go through with this mission at all!? I mean, what's in it for us, for humanity?"

Can you give us a little more other than saying it could be catastrophic or unatural? I mean if you're asking for sacrifices, we have a right to know. We will keep it to ourselves of course.

This was all getting crazier by the minute. Ava wasn't sure which she felt more. Anger or fear?

O'Neil shakes his head. "I wish I could. The unnatural doesn't obey the laws of physics or reality. Trying to understand it runs the risk of warping your brain and body. Thanks for not looking to closely into that," he says this last part to Dr. Turner with a small smile. "What I can say is anything unnatural is dangerous by its very existence. It's like radioactive isotopes."

"So we should draw straws or what?" Dierdre asks incredulously.

"Seems appropriate." Her comment drips with sarcasm and a sense of disbelief. Boy, did she rue the day she joined this expedition.

"Or we can just leave. Fabricate some malfunction, come up with some excuse. It's up to you. Just know that you'll be leaving a dangerous weapon in orbit if you do."

"Look." interjects Spay, primarily addressing rest of the team beside O'Neil.

"I know I'm the officer responsible for calling this mission. But this is all beyond any of our pay grades, including mine. I'm not about to make a decision for all of us here. We'll have to agree on what to do."

The magnitude of the situation is beginning to settle in to Spay's mind.

"But I just gotta say. If we abort now, we won't know if any of this is for real. And we won't be able to talk about it back home. We'll just have to go on about our business like it never happened."

"What if O'Neil is not just someone who has lost his mind...how do you get out here anyway...in space...if you are completely off your rocker? What if we end up making the choice here that seems safe but really is the worst thing we could ever do, for us...for all of humanity. I mean what the hell are we really talking about here?"

Belton returned from stowing the MMU. Hearing Spay, he chuckles. "This is the mission. We finish it. I'll take the MMU out, as planned. Y'all... just make sure my wife is taken care of. Don't tell her what happened, or what this was actually about. Just make sure she doesn't have CIA spooks following her or anything, because after this shit I wouldn't put it past our government to freeze her bank accounts due to "fraud" and stage an accidental gas leak at the house. Check on my folks too, yeah?"

"Well that is the question, isn't it?" Dierdre says to Spay. Selfishly relieved that Belton has offered himself up, she nods in agreement.

"We are pawns and of no worth obviously. It's a noble thing you are doing nevertheless, Luke." She figures the least she can do is address him by his first name now. "We will do what we can for your family," she adds, her voice devoid of any emotion. At this point she feels almost dead herself and merely going through the motions.

Dirk starts to feel anger from the direction of this conversation and will speak to the rest of the crew while completely ignoring O'Neil.

"I have no doubt that this thing actually exists, there's a reason that O'Neil and the other Bozo were thrown on this last minute. But if we abort now, it will be pretty obvious that we refused to follow through with the mission. I got to tell you though, I'm not convinced we need to destroy this thing, and I'm sure as shit not volunteering to be the sacrificial lamb. Lets go take a look and just fix the damn thing if we can so that we can keep our careers in tact. I don't know about y'all, but I have no intention of making this my last flight."

"That "other bozo" was Bruce Weintraub. Put some fucking respect on his name. Kid got chewed up and shit out by the government, least we can do is not piss in the casket," Belton snaps, then composes himself and shakes his head. "They don't want it fixed. That was a cover story. They want it decommed."

"Says the man we’ve known for only 48 hours! I don’t know where you went to SERE school Luke, but I find it highly suspicious that the our agency would send us up here to destroy a valuable asset, and we’re suppose to just take the word of this guy!"

Dirk gestures to O’Neil and looks him in the eye.

"Even more suspicious that the one guy to coo-berate the story is now in a body bag"

"So, you don't want to listen to the person in charge via their billet because you just met them? We've done that shit our entire careers in the military. Now you have an issue with it?" Belton scoffs.

Looking at McMillan, O'Neil says, "Your agency didn't. Mine did. We are using yours to complete a very important job and the less people know, the better. There's only Woolrich and I left. There's nothing suspicious about Weintraub's death. It is a tragedy and I wish he were still here. But this was the risk we both took to take this satellite out. The question is will you let his sacrifice be in vain?"

Dirk feels his frustration boiling over.

To Luke:

"Not when that person tells you to abandon your primary mission for his own, especially for some other shadow agency's motives!"

To O'Neil:

"And which agency do you actually represent? FSB? VAJA? Mossad?

Dirk doesn't really expect an answer. Dirk stands there breathing a moment, calming his heart rate. Then he'll gesture to the rest of the group.

"Am I the only one concerned that we might be talking about treason? Doc...? Michael...? My vote is to proceed to the satellite to examine it, radio in with what we found, and await more direct instruction."

Dierdre ignores the drama and shrugs.

"I don't want to be around when you get that instruction. Sure, go ahead and take a look at it."

"Is it treason, or did things just go wrong? And how would anyone prove one or the other? It isn't like this can see a court. They'd have to pony up the evidence to make their case. Never happening."

Belton shrugs, and suddenly seems tired in a way sleep won't help.

"Besides... O'Neil is the only one who knows anything about this sat. It all hinges on him, and all we have to do is say we didn't know and stick to the story. Easy right? It was above our clearance, why would we know anything? That makes O'Neil the fallguy, the one who did his own thing. (No offense, man.) If I go out with him to fix it, and it all comes crashing down -- maybe literally -- who says otherwise?"

"It sounds like we are at least in agreement that we rendezvous with the satellite as planned as opposed to aborting the mission now. If we examine it, radio in with what we found, and await more direct instruction, like McMillan said, at this point it will be interesting to see what instructions we from Woolrich. Really, what the fuck is this all about!? I mean what are we up against?"

Dirk nods his head at Luke’s words. Having plausible deniability is comforting as his mind tries to think through the facts in front of him. He won’t say it out loud, but the first thought on his mind is ensuring his own career survives.

"I don’t really understand any of this. But it seems our course is set for now, I better check the guidance computer and make sure we are still on track."

The crew finally arrives to rendezvous with the satellite. It seems unassuming and like any other satellite, which feels somewhat disappointing with what you have been told about it.

O'Neil says, "We're here. What do you want to do about it?"

"I don't want to do anything but we have to do something now that we are here."

"Well? she asks, turning to O'Neill. Then, "Michael, I don't think we will ever really know those answers."

"Let's do what we're really here to do, and be done with it."

Belton has been awfully quiet the entire trip. Polite, professional, but mostly silent. The fact he's speaking up after arrival should surprise no one, however.

Dirk sighs from the back, but isn't going to argue with anyone.

"I obviously don't know exactly what I'm looking for, it looks like any satellite one would expect. If we went out there for an initial inspection, how would we proceed O'Neil? Is there something specific you need access to?"

"Nothing specific. I just need to access it manually."

"Alright, then let's proceeed."

...I mean what else can we do, Spay thinks to himself.

"You're right doctor we probably won't get any answers"

Belton, Hamlet, and O'Neil are suiting up for their spacewalk to the satellite. The mood is quiet and tense. Before he puts his helmet on, Hamlet says, "This is fucked up beyond words, you know. Whoever you work for is using us. Will you be able to sleep after this?"

O'Neil likewise pauses putting on his helmet and gives a sad smile. "Oh, I have had trouble sleeping for a long time. Sadly I've been part of much worse than this. I imagine it's like being in a war. Sometimes you are forced between many terrible choices and you are stuck choosing the least awful one."

Everyone is suited up and ready. The airlock to the payload bay opens. The payload doors are open to space. The view is as amazing as the astronauts hoped. Earth is a brilliant globe of white, green, and blue and the view is peaceful. The satellite is a few dozen meters away. You must tether yourselves to the ship and then begin piloting the MMUs to the satellite.

Before Belton suits up, as to avoid using the comms, he quietly reminds the others to please keep an eye on his wife. Part of him trusts she'll be fine -- heartbroken by the loss, but no abnormal complications. Unfortunately... part of him just can't quite trust the government. He always had reservations, but his faith was at an all-time low.

As Belton tethers himself, he asks O'Niel, "Hey. I'm not sure how this is all going to play out, but is there any chance we can just take in the view from the sat before we... get to work? Or are we on a timer?"

Literally, he thinks, realizing he isn't sure what makes the killswitch engage.

With that, he steps into the void.

Dierdre gazes outside from the bay in awe. This was what she had wanted to experience but naturally not under the current circumstances.

Dirk stands there as well, watching the men head out and thinking if he should be doing more to stop this.

After they leave, he’ll proceed back to the cockpit and try to radio Mission Control to let them know that they are on station and the crew is proceeding out.

"Yeah, no problem. It will take me a while to make the...'repairs' anyway. Maybe a half hour or so." With the tethers secured, the trio float out into space. Belton and Hamlet help guide O'Neil with the propulsion units in their MMUs. Halfway through the trip, O'Neil begins looking around, trying to peer over his shoulder, looking up, looking down. He repeats this set of motions once more before muttering, "I get the feeling something is watching me. Does anyone sense a presence?" You do not.

McMillan gets through and gives an update to Woolrich who seems pleased and tells you that despite the tragedy of Weintraub's death, this will still be a successful mission and you should be proud of your part in it. After the conversation ends, McMillan looks up out of the windshield and sees something that his brain refuses to register at first. It looks as if his view is distorted in sharp angles. The stars beyond are at skewed angles, like their is some perfectly translucent prism of unknown geometry refracting the starlight behind it in sharp angles. This distortion moves towards the shuttle, but "moves" is the wrong word as it doesn't move in a linear fashion, but seems to flicker in and out of existence, getting closer with each experience. Currently it settles on the nosecone of the shuttle, with only the windshield separating the astronauts from whatever is out there.

"Sounds good," Belton replies wistfully. "May as well enjoy the view while we can, eh? This isn't any ordinary Teusday."

In the cockpit with McMillan, Spay spots him looking out the window with a puzzled look, "What's up? What are you looking at Dirk?"

Looking out the window, Spay sees the same sight. As the sun passes in front of the windows, behind the distortion, the spherical sun becomes a sharp-angled fractal that reminds Spay of an intricate crystal structure of abnormal complexity.

Dirk doesn’t respond to Spay right away as he tries to decide if his eyes are playing tricks on him.


"I’m…I’m not sure…you are seeing this right?"

Suddenly worried, Dirk opens comms with the men outside.

"Benton, you seeing anything strange outside on the ship. Hard to say what. It’s nearly invisible but there’s definitely something there!"

"Dirk, I'm seeing it too. I, I just don't know what I'm seeing."

"What are you guy seeing? What is it?" Dierdre tries to see around the globed heads in front of her.

Dr. Turner looks just in time to see the fractal distortion enter into the nose of the space shuttle and disappear.

Shaking her head as if to clear the impossible image she just saw ....

With it settling on the nose, Dirk will look down at his instruments, scanning each system to ensure none of the sensors are being affected.

Speaking to Spay:

"Something is definitely out there. Should we reel the guys in?"

One of the interior camera monitors catches Turner's eye. The distortion emerges in the cramped mid-deck, below the flight deck, coming through Turner’s personal locker. The handwritten label on the locker, "TURNER," distorts to a meaningless gray smear behind it.

"My locker ... it's ... my name on it .. it's smeared I don't understand." she says, shaking her head, emphasizing her bewilderment.

"Some kind of distortion. But what for?"

"I don’t know, but I say we check it out."

Dirk will head down to the mid deck to try and see it with his own eyes. He’ll try to look at it from a safe distance, moving his head at different angles to see it better.

"Okay Dirk, but come right back, don't linger." insists Spay. He continues scanning the instruments, picking up where Dirk left off.

"Little busy out here, Commander. Plus, we're in space. There's nothing there. I think this whole thing just has you feeling some type of way. You're good. Belton out."

I do not have the time to hold their hands through their little anxiety issues. I'm piloting an MMU with a civilian through space towards some Blackops Satellite that I'm gonna die to disable because... magical science shit. Fuck man, need me to cut your food for you too?

Maybe O'Neil was waiting for a distraction to cause Belton as little distress as possible, but when Belton is communication back with the shuttle, a green gas begins filling Hamlet's helmet. He makes a choking face but no noise as his comms have been disabled. What Belton does here is O'Neil begins chanting in a language that sounds totally unknown and with too many consonants.

---

McMillan heads to the mid-deck and sees the distortion. You can't help shake the feeling it is like looking at completely transparent crystal with a geometry of planes and angles that shouldn't be possible. The distortion shifts and a thin distortion of angles seems to reach toward you.

Dirk takes a step back from the distortion, he’ll look around for something relatively long and firm and try to poke it to see what happens.

McMillan finds a slim metal pipe used for cleaning small-bore barrels and reaches out. When it enters the distortion it bends and folds along the strange geometry. The distortion seems uninterested in it and keeps moving closer.

Spay calls back concerned, but not really mentally prepare for the answer he might get, hoping that Dirk tells him some obvious, mundane explanation for what they all saw, "Dirk, what's going on back there? Get a better look?"

Dierdre can offer no explanations and fights with herself in her mind as she thinks she's losing it.

There HAS to be a logical explanation for all this. Just has to be!

Dirk will continue stepping back, slowly retreating from its expansion.

"I don’t know, it’s still coming in…."

The distorted anomaly moves forward (or the closest equivalent your mind can process on how it actually moves) but then seems to halt at Weintraub's corpse. The distortion seems to enter into Weintraub's body, sinking down into the flesh. After several moments Weintraub's body begins to bubble and dissolve, the flesh sloughing off his face and some out of the suit's openings.

---

O'Neil finishes his chanting. He's sweating and breathing heavily. "It's done," he pants. The satellite has gone completely dark, and only now you notice there had been a faint humming sensation you could feel through your suit that has ceased. "We should get back to the shuttle. What do you want to do about..." he turns and looks at Hamlet's lifeless suit.

"Bring him back. Give him a proper burial. Seems like the right thing to do," Belton replies. He sounds detached, resigned... he wasn't sure why O'Neil had ended up killing Hamlet when he had already made peace with the sacrifice, but nothing Belton could do or say could change that now.

When O'Neil was ready, Belton starts leading them back to the shuttle with Hamlet in tow.

"Did it just ... did that thing ... oh my God. What is it?"

Her eyes then turn to O'Neil and his question. All she can muster is a slow I don't know, headshake.

Seeing the flesh melt off Weintraub, Dirk jumps back far from the body.

"Whoa! What the fuck!?"

Dirk looks frantically around the room for something to defend himself with.

"Let’s get back to the bridge and seal the room!"

Thinking he hears Dirk's exclamation, Spay calls back to Dirk and Dierdre, "Report, what's going on?"

Responding to Spay in exasperation as he rushes out:

"That thing…! That distortion thing! It melted Weintraub’s body! I think we got a biological attack or something here! We need to contain it!"

"Can someone get me a sample to analyze so we know what we are dealing with?" Being able to focus on something was helping the doctor hold on to some amount of her waning sanity.

Belton and O'Neil arrive back in the shuttle with Hamlet's corpse in tow. Entering the air lock, O'Neil says they are ready to enter but why isn't anybody at the airlock waiting for them?

"What the hell is going on?" Belton mutters, more to himself than anything. "Any of you gents want to come open up the airlock? There's no doorbell out here y'know."

Spay distracted by the anomaly and Dirk and Deirdre’s investigation hears Belton’s communication and snaps to a response, "Sorry, roger, coming to open the airlock."

He makes sure the shuttle controls are locked and heads to let them in.

Thankfully the anomaly has yet to reappear, but that makes you equally nervous as you have no idea of its location. Opening the airlock, Belton and O'Neil float into the cargo bay. You are surprised to see them towing Hamlet who is floating horizontally and not moving.

Seeing Hamlet horizontal is a surprise to Spay. Not exactly sure what they accomplished out there besides taking Hamlet’s life he asks,"What the hell happened? Mission accomplished?" He asks the last part with an eye on O’Neil.

Dierdre follows Spay to the airlock. The site of Hamlet threatens to unhinge her yet again.

"The sacrifice has been made," she announces to no one in particular.

O'Neil nods. "Yes, the satellite has been deactivated for good. You've done the whole world a service and made it safer for all of us. More than you will hopefully ever know. Now, we need to--what the hell is that?" O'Neil looks aghast as he catches sight of the human soup that is all that is left of Weintraub.

Dirk glares at O’Neill and has the urge to punch him after seeing Hamlet, but his mind shifts back to the anomaly when Weintraub is brought up again.

"Something appeared in the ship and started melting his body or something. We don’t know where that something went to but it’s a real fucked update situation. If we’re done here, I say it’s time to head home."

"Say that again? What do you mean 'something'?" As if on queue, the fractal distortion of space time rises out of the floor of the ship. Whatever it touches seems to distort as well. The floor under the anomaly is no longer smooth metal but has a fractal geometrical pattern as if its atoms had been rearranged. O'Neil inhales sharply. "It's a Derivative! Oh my god, Weintraub, we were right!" O'Neil then shakes himself. "We have to get out of here, now! Don't let it touch you!"

"The more you talk, the more I wish you were wrong," Belton says to O'Neil, stepping back away from the... derivative, was it? "How do we get it off the ship? I don't want to take it home, or have it... "complicate..." re-entry."

Keeping away from the anomaly O’Neil called a derivative Spay calls out as he heads to the cockpit, "Aright, let’s get moving! Positions everyone."

He plans to get the shuttle on its way. Hoping the fractal distortion stays behind.

Dierdre watches the distortion unfold. Wideyed, trying to control the rising well of panic she blurts, "What the hell is a derivative, O'Neill?"

"We don't have time for science lectures. I'll tell you if we survive! Get to your seat and strap in. Commander, please get this shuttle moving! These things don't obey the physics of our reality, so hopefully if we move it may stay in a fixed location. If we are unlucky, it might follow us." O'Neil swims through the space shuttle as quickly as possible to reach his seat and strap in. He makes the universal signal for hurry the hell to everyone who hasn't already strapped in.

"You don’t have to tell me twice!

Dirk rushes back to the cockpit and gets everything back online as everyone straps in. Once he confirms everyone’s good to go, he’ll activate the thrusters to get away from their present location and get away fast

Dierdre hurriedly floats to her seat and straps in, glad to be away from this nightmare and hopefully not into another one.

The crew strap themselves in and begin their descent home. Looking at one of the camera monitors, you can see the derivative emerge from the floor of the cargo bay. It seems you have not lost it as you'd hoped. But there's nothing to be done about it now. Upon hitting re-entry, the heat and the vibrations do seem to have an effect on the derivative. It is hard to see through the low quality cameras, but it looks as if it is being unfolded, or smoothed out, erasing great jags of folded perspective at a time. Like someone is smoothing out the folded origami of reality. After a minute there is nothing left but a single fold which then smooths clean and the derivative is gone.

Landing and debriefing proceed as smoothly as could be expected. There are some hard questions about what happened to Weintruab's body and the death of Hamlet, but Woolrich interrupts and has any answers stricken from the record for national security reasons. After the debriefing, Woolrich expresses his thanks for your service to the country and that you've made the world a safer place. He is truly apologetic for the loss of Weintraub and Hamlelt, then says cryptically, "We are all tools to the Program, and every tool gets worn or broken sooner or later."

As for your careers, you never see space again. You are all quietly reassigned to useful but ultimately dead-end positions in departments best suited to your skills. At one point, each of you are contacted by people digging about the mission: investigative journalists, conspiracy theorists, TV show hosts of disreputable programs...

After that mission, Dirk struggled with his new position in life. For the first time in his career, he was no longer a flyer and was now riding a desk. He knew it would come to an end eventually, but this early retirement from space is a lot to bear. He’s mad that the system used them and cost him one of his friends.

To say that he is bitter would be an understatement.

Dirk talks to the media willingly, though he never provides concrete details about what actually happened. He mostly says things like "the official mission report is bullshit" and "the agency is full of crooks and you can’t believe anything that NASA is saying."

He uses it as an outlet to vent frustration, but he never directly references the program or the derivative.

Dierdre goes into general practice as far away from civilization as she can get, living in some non-descript one-horse country town. She never speaks of the mission and immerses herself completely in country life, raising cattle and pigs.

She has nightmares every night.

Once they're debriefed, Belton pulls O'Neil to the side and holds him to what he said about an explanation. He also grills the scientific-occult expert on why he killswitched Hamlet, after Belton had made peace with what was coming.

None of it really helps though. It gives him understanding, but it does nothing to alleviate the weight on his soul.

He makes a point of staying in touch with the others. He tells them it's because they share a bond no one else could possibly understand, which technically is true... but the real reason is that it's harder for government to make you vanish if you have eyes on you. Maybe not much harder, but anything helps.

It takes him a while to adjust, but ultimately he settles into his routine as a teacher. He doesn't say much to media -- or anyone else digging for information. Just a generally empty statement with a positive message.

"Government unofficially does things most people couldn't or wouldn't believe. Even if you could and did, you'd be powerless to stop them anyway. Live your life with love and happiness, be good people, and make the best of the time you have."

Two years after the incident, Dr. Turner, Belton, and McMillan get mysterious phone calls. A voice says they know what really happened and have been keeping an eye on them in the intervening time. Not going to the media or revealing what really happened was a test and they all passed. You all have been recruited by an agency that calls itself Delta Green...