Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-56-

“Okay everyone; you should all know why I called you here.” Rarity was sitting at the table with everyone else. Minus Sassy, everyone in the crew was here and she was going to go over their options as to what they would do about Antilur Station. “If you don’t know already we have arrived at Antilur Station, but there’s a big problem. Apparently the station is infested with an unknown quantity with unknown abilities aside from the fact that it drains the energy out of several things and is under the classification Visitant which we will refer to as the infestation. I have gathered us here to discuss our options. Just know that no matter what is said, I will be going in there… alone if I have to. I’m of course very scared of what I might run into, but at least Ember said that an EVA suit is enough to prevent it from coming after you whatever it is, though it might not be entirely foolproof its something. Now who wants to speak first?”

“I do, I would like to simply say that you’re crazy for wanting to go into a place that left several military vessels empty, dark or even possibly infested with the infestation in question.” Gilda stood up and seemed to have a slight far off look in her eyes. “If you can remember, I and Greta lived through a scenario like that. I can’t speak for Greta, but I don’t like the idea of getting post traumatic stress disorder while possibly being hunted by whatever has made a whole space colony go dark.”

“I have my own problems with that Rarity, such as you putting yourself in danger though I logically know why you are doing so. You do realize that from the way Ember tells it, this kind of infestation is both virulent and deadly. At least to the point that destroying the entire station is the expected ultimate way to deal with the problem, I don’t think destroying an entire space station is a good idea assuming we’re trying to rescue the victims if they are even alive.” The monitor in the cafeteria was huge and Opal was taking advantage of it to appear as if she were sitting on a lawn chair on a beach wearing sunglasses. “There is also the fact that getting caught by the infestation is considered to be a slow death and we don’t even know what that death entails except there are a lot of people dying on the station from it at this very moment.”

“What were the systems still active on the station again?” Greta had an idea as to how the people were dying.

“The stations reactor, life support, hydroponics and gravity generation, all those systems are still running normally despite the entire station being dark and whatever excess energy the reactor is making is disappearing into nothing.” Sitting up and lowering her sunglasses, Opal gave Greta a flat look. “That’s what I’m getting when I look at the station. Just as a reminder, the life signs I’ve been getting are also sporadically popping up all over the place in there so the energy readings from said system being flat out normal is the most abnormal thing going on here. We know the infestation is eating energy, but not how it eats it. Does it bite into something, does it absorb the energy from its surroundings or does it have to make contact to do so? If we are going to go in there, we need a method to get some kind of visual on something we can work with here as I don’t like the idea of dealing with something blindly like this. Especially not when moms life is on the line, I’m not about to stop her from going if she’s dead set on helping people. Was there a reason for this question?”

“I asked, mostly because we really shouldn’t turn off the reactor if we do go inside the station.” It made sense to Greta, but it didn’t make sense to the others who sent questioning looks her way. “The infestation is likely feeding on multiple sources of energy and if we turn them off, then the people who are still alive will start dying faster since the infestation will getting energy from the stations population alone and why there might be survivors. Opal can you remotely access anything in the station?”

“That’s a negative Greta, I can’t get into the stations systems and I probably wouldn’t want to given the current situation. If I were to get stuck in the stations systems then that would kind of leave The Shining Jewel basically, for all intents and purposes meant, crippled.” Opal tossed away the sunglasses and rolled onto her belly, her fluffy tail started to lazily drift back and forth. “Though it brings up a particular question, how do you suppose this infestation would get energy from the gravity or hydroponics systems?”

“Hydroponics is usually the production of food or atmosphere providing moss right? So if left unchecked then the moss could very well grow out of control and wouldn’t that cause the station to eventually explode without something to release the pressure? That would actually take a long time admittedly, so forget that I mentioned it.” Mechanical issues were Gilda’s thing and the oxygen production factory would cause problems only after years of being left unattended. “We don’t know what the infestation exactly is or what it looks likes, but if it can absorb the life out of living beings as well as it can machinery. Will if the infestation can do that, then it very well could do the same thing to plants and the bacteria used that either helps or hinder said plants growth. As for the gravity generation systems, it could be taking the gravitational potential energy that’s being created. That kind of energy is negative and could be consumed to possibly balance out the positive energy being consumed; so the infestation must be large in number or just large in size. Large in number is more likely than size as Ember had stated that she has been in there several times, it would be impossible to miss something if it were huge from eating so much.”

“So we’re not even sure what this infestation can do, but hypothetically speaking it would be possible for what we’re dealing with here to warp all nearby gravity out of shape by just eating it? That could be a nasty defense mechanism.” Surprisingly that little tidbit had come from Coco; she gave everyone a slight glare that just looked adorable coming from her. “Hey, don’t look so surprised! I am the inventor of Impulse Saddles you know, so it’s not that hard to figure out that gravitational forces exerted by the system regulating it could be altered in a dangerous manner in a given region if that energy is either being taken or given. So what if this infestation was capable of gravity pulses deadly enough to crush us for getting too close?”

“No, it wouldn’t be using the gravity pulses to defend itself with, but it could possibly be an incidental side effect or maybe useful for propulsion. The file Ember left behind stated that the battery drained drones were always found in perfect condition, if gravity was being used to catch or hinder prey it certainly isn’t aware that it’s capable of doing so.” The crew sat silent after Opal finished her statement for a moment.

“Okay, everyone, we’re all going to need EVA suits. I’m making it mandatory for the crew to have at least one functional EVA suit on hoof, hand, paw or whatever available at all times for safety concerns. Ember said that it won’t come after us as long as we’re in a sealed suit… I just got an idea as to how we can safely test that.” They all turned to Rarity and waited for her to continue. “I’m going need at least Chrysalis and Vera for the plan I have in mind, otherwise we’ll wait here for at least eighteen hours in the hopes that Ember comes back out, we’re currently parked where her ship was. If she doesn’t, some of the EVA suits I will be making in the meantime will be seeing use right after production.”

“Would you really be willing to put me in danger so soon after I joined the crew?” Chrysalis gave Rarity a big teary eyed look that made her look halfway adorable, only halfway as it was creepy that Chrysalis could even get her eyes to look like a puppies. “Please, do get me mauled. I quite frankly enjoy it!”

“What could I possibly do, need I remind you I’m mostly a masseuse and therapist.” Though it was nice that Vera was given a chance to be included in whatever idea Rarity had cooked up. “I wouldn’t exactly be helpful in a fight; my hooves were made for healing.”

“I assure you that neither of you will be in too much danger, well at least Chrysalis won’t be. If things go according to my idea, then this will rely entirely on your ability to remain ignored Vera. That and Chrysalis’s ability to detect danger will be the safety net in case it goes wrong. I will explain later, it will require us to access one of the stations hangars.” The idea would involve putting a crew member in danger and Rarity didn’t know whether or not Vera would agree to it. “I’m not going to force you to do this, but it would be useful if you helped to give us some idea as to what we’re dealing with. However Chrysalis is key to saving you, Coco do we have enough spare Pinpoint Pullers for personal use?”

“Well you’re no fun.” Here Chrysalis was willing to get brutalized and she wasn’t even going to be in danger, she may as well start taking this seriously.

-

“Why am I here again?” Coriander asked curiously, everyone else including Bernard had been outfitted by Rarity.

“Everyone has to learn how these suits work, no exceptions Mr. Cumin. This is a matter of safety and could one day save your life. I’m taking my job as captain of this ship seriously and you’re my crew members that I have to look out for.” They were all in EVA suits on Rarity’s orders and would be learning to maneuver in zero gravity with the impulse saddles. However Bernard was obviously too small for an impulse saddle and required a different mode of movement. “It is in my best interest that all of you know how to operate our equipment. Bernard you need to work with someone who has an impulse saddle. Prepare to switch the gravity generator to off Opal, but keep the running lights on so we can at least give Ember a place to come back to if she’s doing okay.”

Bernard nodded and moved over to Trapeze, he could figure out how to do this and when the gravity did switch off the fun began. Rover had a lot of fun and wasn’t having nearly as much trouble as Chrysalis was. This was the first time the Changeling Queen or Diamond Dog had been in zero gravity; Bernard seemed at home with it though. Trapeze and Saffron picked it up easily enough. Coriander was surprisingly good at maneuvering around. Greta and Gilda helped out where needed, as did Coco and Rarity.

-

“Okay it’s been long enough that it is quite obvious that Ember isn’t coming back, I will get some sleep and then upon awakening I will go on with my plan. That is if and only if Vera and Chrysalis are willing to go through with it. Otherwise I plan to explore inside the station and see if I can find a black box or something of the sort to bring back.” Looking to all of her friends around the table that just happened to be willing to work with her, Rarity saw that they still looked unsure about this. “Does anyone have any questions or doubts about this?”

“Yes, if you want to find a black box then you’re going to need either me or Gilda. How were you expecting to find a black box without an engineer’s help?” Greta put her elbows on the tables as she crossed her claws while leaning forward.

“I would ask you where to look of course, we need at least something on what we’re dealing with and the quickest way is either my plan or by at least one pony going in to scout around. Vera is probably the safest out of all of us when it comes to scouting around in there.” Standing up to leave the room Rarity didn’t look back to see everyone stayed where they were.

“You have to admit, despite not being a stallion she has some almonds on her for wanting to go into a situation that even several vessels worth of military personnel have disappeared in.” Speaking from experience Lightning Dust knew this might go south, she had been with the Wonder Bolts long enough to see some things. Though something like this was beyond her previous training, she was still trying to get back into shape. “I’m not afraid to admit that I’m scared in this situation, I don’t want to go missing.”

“I’m kind of scared too, but would you have rather stayed in the cardboard box?” Gilda held out a claw to Lightning in a friendly gesture.

“No, I’m glad to be on the crew and out of destitution that was starting to get me into the idea that prostitution with the Changelings was my futures. Uh, no offense meant?” Lightning turned to Chrysalis who didn’t look offended at all.

“Why would I be offended? We Changelings are helping less fortunate ponies… well unless you think the art of prostitution is horrible.” Chrysalis look offended that Lightning though she should be offended about the fact that Changelings were friends with a lot of prostitutes. “I’ll have you know it’s a noble industry we Changelings have been behind for years and is a relatively cheap method of getting lust, which is not as filling as love even it is the same basic energy. Why some Changelings might not even be alive today if a pony couldn’t be paid to sleep with another pony at random, I’m offended that you would think me offended by something like this!”

“Yeah, be a little more culturally sensitive Lightning!” Saffron joined in and it made sense that she did given her heritage. “I am of Rover’s need to mark his territory inside his room.”

“Yes, thunder pony is being quite mean to pack mates!” Even Rover joined in on the bandwagon, being that there were several culturally different species in the room it was easy enough for him to pick up on it as well.

Lightning was a little more than confused as to the fact that Changelings being involved in prostitution was seen as normal and culturally fine, when it should be entirely morally questionable.

-

Chrysalis liked the bright blue EVA Suit as it was both form fitting and relatively comfortable, though she didn’t like the fact that her jagged horn was incased in the helmet. How was she supposed to impale her enemies on it with it covered like this? Now she also had to figure out what enemies she had to impale in the first place, also there weren’t noble ponies to torture within the bounds of the Equestrian law in space. At least she was going on an adventure with scary implications.

“Chrysalis please tell me you aren’t mentally wandering off, we need you to be aware in case something tries to grab Vera when we get into position or in case the infestation comes after us before that.” Somehow Rarity had managed to convince Vera, Chrysalis and Coco to come on this excursion to the station with her. “Okay, Opal get the airlock and wait for us, we’ll make our way into the hangar to get Vera into position. Once we’re inside be alert for anything, movement, sound and whatever else.”

“R-r-right Rarity, I’m going to do whatever you need of me.” Coco didn’t know how she got talked into this; Saffron was the one begging to go on this excursion so why did she want to come again? The poor pony was quaking in her yellow EVA suit and looking everywhere despite not even being inside the station with the infestation yet. Saffron was required to stay behind to protect the Shining Jewel and to come up with a plan next if this fails horribly.

The CAT drone flew forward and accessed the airlock, after a moment it slid open. The interior of the airlock was dark until four lights shined on it, as the four floated forward gravity started to assert itself on them as soon as they were inside. The drone closed the airlock and then waited.

“Good news Rarity, power is still available everywhere, but the lights are not on. I’m sorry I can’t take the drone in, so you’ll have to go through a door to the hangar by manual access. As a reminder I can’t remotely control anything on the stations, so if there’s any automated defense systems you might need to use your weapons.” Opal’s voice piped in over the four suits and all four of them nodded.

“Impulse saddles off, Chrysalis you’re the danger detector here so take point.” It was quite helpful for Rarity to know if they were in danger or not. Chrysalis acting as a biological radar would be useful in this short sortie Rarity had planned. The operation was simple, try to get a visual of the infestation and confirm its appearance, that’s all they were doing here. “Keep the lights to low power, if the infestation is attracted to energy we don’t want to attract it to ourselves yet. Ember said this infestation didn’t attack her while she was wearing a suit. I’m not taking any chances; who knows what will attract the infestation towards us.”

“I don’t feel any danger yet, so far we’re good to move.” Chrysalis exited the airlock into the dark corridors with a material rifle levitated before her. Energy weapons wouldn’t be very helpful here so Rarity and Chrysalis were both armed appropriately for the situation. It was only an idea, but the infestation might have been vulnerable to ferrous materials if it was electrically charged. “I’m feeling quite nervous if I’m to be honest here, this infestation sounds like something that might be able to kill even me. Keep the chatter to a minimum and let’s get a move on. The quicker we do this the quicker I can get back to figuring out how to make my butt look a little bigger in this suit.”

Not a sound was heard aside from their hoof steps as they moved down the corridor. Coco looked behind herself and gasped.

“Where’d Vera go?” Coco started to panic.

“Coco she’s in front of you. Stop panicking, I’m here to make sure neither of you lose sight of her. Which if you remember right is quite easy to do despite the fact that she’s wearing an EVA suit in a garish rainbow of bright colors.” Rarity made a gagging noise, but pointed to Vera causing Coco to calm down. “I felt sick even making that thing, obviously it’s not helping her stand out and her ability to be missed is still going as strong as ever.”

The silence was quite deafening, even Chrysalis seemed to pause for a moment to take it all in. Once they were down the corridor they turned right and were right outside a door to the hanger.

“So are you going to open it or what?” It took a moment for Chrysalis to ask this because they had been standing there for a moment and they were watching her.

“Oh thank goodness for a second there I thought you…” A thunderous groaning sound came from deeper down the corridors.

“Whatever that is, it’s not coming towards us. It’s not intelligent, but it certainly is some kind of primal force.” Wrapping her hooves around herself Chrysalis started shivering violently. “I suddenly don’t think the infestation wants to hit on me, literally as much as figuratively.”

“Coco if you and Vera will get the door for us through the manual override?” They weren’t very deep in the station, but that noise had freaked them all out. Even Rarity could feel a chill at how silent a lot of this station was at the moment, this place should have been packed with people of all kinds. “Please hurry, there’s this constant sense of dread that is starting to wear at my mind.”

Coco and Vera opened the manual access and both started to pull on the doors, which required a certain amount of strength to move as they were somewhat heavy. The doors eventually slid out of the way thanks to the two earth ponies and once they were all on the other side of the doors, they forced the doors back together. They had officially made it into the hangar.

“Okay we’re here, so what are we doing Rarity?” Coco saw that the hangar they got into was equally as silent as the corridor they left behind, a few empty vehicles laid scattered about. Rarity looked upwards and pointed her lights at what had to be the control room that was dark as everything else.

“That’s where we need to go, we need to get the atmosphere barrier up and open the hangar. After that then we can position both Vera and Chrysalis. Though I don’t know how we’re going to get up…” The sound of shattered glass hitting the floor caused three ponies to freeze and then they looked at Chrysalis who was pointed her material rifle up at the window. “Is the infestation coming Chrysalis?”

“Nope, that didn’t do it. I thought I’d expedite the process of getting us in there, so noise isn’t a factor.” If Chrysalis didn’t feel any threats coming their way then they should be safe, the key word here was should and so far they were safe.

“Right maybe it doesn’t react to sound. If it’s managed to get all those victims, then sound wasn’t something that attracted its attention or I would like to hope so.” Was it Rarity or did things seem a little darker around them. “Right, since Chrysalis decided to cut out the middle mare I’m going to pull myself up there to get at the controls. Wait here; tell me if you detect any changes when I use my grapple.”

Rarity lifted her hoof and aimed for the ceiling of the control room and used the pinpoint puller to pull herself safely up into it. It had only taken about five seconds.

“Whoa, I think you certainly got its attention for a moment there and I’m feeling something much closer than it previously was and it was moving fast.” By Chrysalis’s standard she had never sensed anything like that before and now felt it far closer than she was comfortable with.

“It has to be either the energy usage itself or the zero point energy that is used as an anchor when a pinpoint puller hits a surface. How far away would you say it was compared to how close it is now?” Rarity moved to the controls and was ready to use them.

“If it isn’t picking up our communicating with one another then we’re good. However the infestations presence seemed to have jumped halfway across the distance between us in an instant… I’m not even sure there is just the one. We could be dealing with something that has a hive mind.” Chrysalis stowed her gun and looked to Coco, but couldn’t see Vera… she raised her hoof and started to point it aimlessly until it stopped when Vera appeared. “It could be like the Changeling mental linking ability where we almost become as one; honestly that ridiculous leap it made kind of freaks me out. I have never felt anything like that back on Equus and its worrying me, me the Changeling Queen!”

“If something has you this worried, then we should all be far more cautious about what we do from here on out. Keep track of how the infestation reacts when I turn on the atmospheric barrier and open the door to space Chrysalis.” Rarity looked over the panel and turned it on, she then saw the computer screen come to life and she accessed the atmospheric barrier, opened the door to space and turned on all the lights in the hangar. Access codes were only needed to turn off the atmospheric barrier.

“Okay I feel trouble coming, but it’s slower this time. Almost like it’s prowling towards us, like there’s a sense of curiosity in the air. It’s not here yet though.” Chrysalis, Coco and Vera turned around to a brighter light shining in the hangar as the doors opened; the atmospheric barrier was glowing brightly as light from The Shining Jewel shined inside the hangar.

“Right, Vera find an open spot near the atmospheric barrier where Chrysalis can hit you with a pinpoint puller to pull you out if needed, Coco and Chrysalis go out into space.” It was only now that Rarity thought of something that might have made things a bit pear shaped. “This might not actually be a good idea, if the infestation reacts to pinpoint pullers like that. Then I might not be able to get down from up here using it, I might be able to turn off the hangars gravity and use the impulse saddle. We still don’t know how the infestation will react to that either. Opal we’re in position, are you ready for whatever might happen?”

“No, but I get the feeling I know what you’re planning.” Opal was looking through the sensors and saw Coco and Chrysalis jumping outside the atmospheric barrier and they floated away from the station before activating their impulse saddles. “Do you have anything to report about using the impulse saddles in space Chrysalis?”

“The infestation isn’t moving any differently; wait what if me pointing at Vera makes the infestation go for her?” Chrysalis and Coco turned back towards the Antilur. “We’re not going to learn much by losing Vera here.”

“I beg to differ as we’re learning a lot here. According to you the fact that it’s not moving any different means that it isn’t able to detect us outside the station while we’re using the impulse saddles.” Coco had a good visual of Rarity, but Vera was hard to spot. At least until Chrysalis started to randomly pointed her hoof into the docking bay and found Vera shaking with fear.

“I know this sounds a bit odd Vera, but I’m going to need you to remove your helmet and inhale deeply once and then put it back on quickly.” From her position Rarity could tell that Vera might have been sending her an incredulous look. “I have a reason for this; it might explain why the infestation can’t sense us while we’re wearing EVA suits. Chrysalis I need you to stop pointing at Vera.”

Vera slowly reached up to her helmet and it started unfolding. She held her breath for a while, then after seeing nothing happening she inhaled deeply and promptly put the helmet back on. It folded over her face and pulled her mane back in before returning to a state where it could be sealed.

The moment her helmet came off nothing had happened, the moment Vera took a breath the lights started flickering and the entire hangar started to seem as if it were slowly flooding with darkness. Rarity and Vera could swear they could hear the screams of children, men and women and if that wasn’t enough the temperature dropped by quite a few degrees. Vera was already hyperventilating as she saw the shadows shift about her and could almost see amorphous visages moving in it from her helmets lights.

“Vera, if you can hear my voice stay absolutely still wherever you are. I don’t think it needs saying, but I’ll do it anyway. Whatever the infestation is, it’s currently in there with you and Rarity and getting Rarity out is going to be a problem as she’s in the back of the hangar.” Both Chrysalis and the shivering Coco beside her had their lights trained on the hangar, but the light wasn’t going through the veil of shadows that had begun forming up against the atmospheric barrier. “How are you doing in the control room Rarity?”

“Oh just peachy darling, we’re both kind of trapped in the hangar with whatever a Visitant classification sifter drifter infestation is and we can’t even see anything thanks to whatever said infestation is doing. My thoughts of breathing in the air being something that would attract its attention to us was rather spot on, I also think I might be hallucinating a bit because I’m hearing a lot of horrid things.” They all stayed silent as the darkness completely enshrouded the hangar, even the light coming from The Shining Jewel couldn’t pierce it. Rarity started to match Vera by hyperventilating herself. “Opal, please tell me that you’re at least getting something from this.”

“Yes, please tell us you’re getting something because I’m hearing things too.” Vera whimpered and closed her eyes; she stayed very still and hoped that her ability to be ignored kept her safe. “Can’t any of you hear that? They’re screaming!”

“Rarity, Vera, I have all my sensors trained on that very hangar and….” Though Opal could very well see what was going on inside the hangar herself. “I’m not detecting anything.”

Comments

[Razzy]

Things are getting horror-y.

Game over, man, game over!

Just use some padding, Chryssie.

Coming to think of it, with her duże and strength, they could make a heavily armoured Eva suit for her in case she needs to get close and personal.