THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:7

Under the control of the fully automated navigational system, coupled with the propulsion of the experimental pulse engine, The Destination quietly journeyed for two centuries across the void.

The technician slept, not dreaming.

A small blue planet, the focal planet, came into view. The Destination’s governing operating system prepped for landing. Slowly, the pulsing hum of the engine silenced. The engine and fuel containment compartment were jettisoned. All that remained was the cock-pit, containing the computer system, the technician’s hibernation capsule, and the supplies he would need for his mission.

At an incredible speed, the remaining compartment rocketed like a missile through the atmosphere. A glowing fireball. It buried itself in a cloud of vapor and dust.

The computer next switched its concern to reanimating the technician, a process that would take hours. This had been an unusually long period in stasis. Despite the accommodations - intravenous nutrients and electro-stimulation - he would be sore for days as his muscles were hurriedly put back to use.

The technician emerged from the craft carrying all the supplies he would hopefully need to accomplish his mission and started walking. The probability data had suggested that the reorganizing denizens would most probably have a established a governing political body; that was his starting point. He would need help if he expected to succeed.

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:6 (Second Interim)

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:6

The day arrived. The technician climbed into the cylinder, where he would spend the duration of the journey in a state of stasis, hooked up to a myriad of monitoring contraptions. The Destination was entirely self managing, from take off to touch down. All the technician had to do was wake up at the end of the journey ready to save the universe.

Despite all the prep and guidance from the Council, the technician would be working with few clues once he touched down.



The probability data, that the Council shared with the technician, suggested that a near cataclysmic event had taken place, recently, on the focal planet. Could it have been a failed Nothing Mechanism? A Nothing Mechanism, a weapon of the gods. How could such a thing have fallen into the hands of a planet like this?

Whatever it was, it had nearly destroyed every living thing on the planet. The data suggested that what life remained was reorganizing and from that reorganization a Nothing Mechanism was definitely either in play or soon to be in play. The data also suggested that an outside influence was acting as a guiding hand. Outside influence, what? Who?

The Destination, with the technician in place, was towed to the edge of the system. The newly developed, entirely experimental pulse engine charged up to full power with a hum. The towing restraints detached and retracted; the towing vessel moved slowly, mechanically away from The Destination. All the world watched as the initial pulse carried the vessel out of sight, silently. It took only a fraction of a second for the vessel to disappear into the darkness of space. And, like gentle chop on a lake, the pulse sent a wave that rocked the towing vessel. Within minutes, all was calm.

Within minutes all were on pins and needles grasping onto a hope that shined oh so dimly.

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:5

The focal planet was far far away. Despite their accomplished deep space exploration it was rare for them to travel that far outside of their own system. They had spacecraft designed for such travel, but none that could travel fast enough to hope to interrupt the impending Collapse.

“There is an experimental craft.”

“Yes, The Destination.”



“How fast?”

“It’s a new engine. Speed, as of yet, unknown.”

“Near light?”

“Doubtful.”

“This seems the worst moment to test out a new technology.”

“We are without options.”

“Indeed.”

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:4

“You know why you are here?” One of the Council members asked the technician.

“I believe so,” he responded. “A high level Near Collapse Scenario?”

“The highest level.”

“A Complete Collapse Scenario.”

“Complete Collapse? You are certain?” Asked the technician.



“There is no doubt.”

“Events are already in motion.”

“We may already be too late to neutralize.”

“But we must attempt. We must try.”

“Yes. We must try.”

“Details are vague, but we do have a strategy.”

“We need your talents.”

“It is without hesitation that I accept this charge,” the technician stated stoically. Then he asked, “What is the cause of the Collapse?”

“There is a Nothing Mechanism in play.”

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:3

They were grouped around a large table covered with gadgets, 3D digital models of star clusters, and digital screens displaying data on everything from strategic probability statistics to spacecraft specifications. Finally, one amongst the group stopped studying the data and spoke.

“We have variables. Too many to account for. We need a technician.”



The others stopped to listen. Crisis of this caliber were incredibly rare. In their recorded history, which was vast and long, a crisis of this caliber had happened only twice before. And neither of those incidents involved an intelligent antagonist. Both previous incidents were resolved using unmanned strategies.

Although, technicians were trained for worst-case scenarios, they were most often used for less dire situations. Using a technician meant acknowledging an incomplete strategy. An incomplete strategy meant relying on improvisation beyond the guidance and control of the Council.

“A technician? Are you certain?”

“The path toward the Collapse is not entirely visible. The opportunistic interference is obscuring the players and the moves. Our only hope is a technician. One with with a complete skill set. Nothing less will do.”

“Do we have a technician with a complete skill set?”

“We do. There is only one.”

“He is the best?”

“Without question, he is.”

“Bring him.”

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:2

The Council convened to discuss the phenomenon.

“It is without doubt that we are facing a Complete Collapse Scenario.”

“There is no doubt?”

“None. The focal planet has already suffered a near self exterminating event. It should have died. It is beyond understanding that it has not. An opportunistic interference has latched onto the situation and is working toward an intentional Complete Collapse.”

“Without our participation all that is will cease to be.”

“This cannot be allowed.”

“It may already be too late.”

“Do we have steps?”

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Council 1:1

No one knows that they exist. They are whispers. Nothing more than rumors. Quite possibly the oldest race of beings in the Universe, they are calculators, monitors, fixers.

The Council was reviewing a mind-numbing array of data. One paused to consider something he saw amongst the chaos. In their native language of chirps and burbles he alerted the others.

“Something terrible. Something very very terrible.”

He pointed to a cluster of graphics and text. The others gathered around him to share in the concern.

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Black Fish 1:7

Penelope, Blue, Karcsi, and Somerset kept to the bridge.

“Okay. List of suspects. Who’s most likely?” Somerset was greasy with stress.

“I reviewed the passenger list. Roughly half of these people are new to this ship,” Karcsi handed the manifest to Somerset to inspect. “I’ve noted the new crew members and the deceased. Counting the bodies we found this morning, just before the passengers were restricted to their cabins, we’re up to nine dead. Additionally, Smith, who found the first body, is missing.”

MANIFEST
*New to The Black Fish

Expedition Team
*1. Penelope Aberdeen - Project Leader
*2. Doug Mills
*3. Eriko Saito
*4. Jessica Paskin (deceased)
*5. Benjamin Caddock (deceased)
*6. Antal Martin
*7. James Kobayashi (deceased)

Medical Staff
8. David Moreau - Surgeon/General Medicine
*9. Samuel Clement - Surgeon/General Medicine
*10. Crystal Knots - Nurse

State Agent
*11. Blue - Security

Vessel Crewmen
12. Ernest Somerset - Captain
13. Farkas Karcsi - First Officer
14. Leroy Shackleton - Navigator (deceased)
15. Vincent Whitehouse - Lookout/Carpenter
16. Pauline Payne - Cook
17. Jeromy Smith - Cook (deceased)
18. Martin Laurent - Engineer/Carpenter (deceased)
19. Janet Greenfield - Engine Expert
20. Christopher Trotter - Stoker
21. Thomas Black - Stoker
*22. Danny Smoot - Able Seaman (deceased)
23. James Bryon - Able Seaman (deceased)
24. Wallace Smith - Able Seaman (deceased)
*25. David Laird - Able Seaman
*26. Vincent Smith - Able Seaman (missing)



The Black Fish was being tossed about violently, now completely immersed in the storm. As Somerset examined the crew manifest the two man deck guard burst into the bridge with a third man between them.

“We found him.”

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Black Fish 1:6

Just as Karcsi had suggested the passengers were restricted to their cabins. Only the two guard details and the smallest possible operations crew were allowed to leave their cabins.

The Black Fish boasted an experimental coal-fueled steam-powered rotary engine. With temperatures plummeting the added heat from the burning coal and rotating steel would be all too welcome. The sails were stowed and the engine fired up. This helped to lessen the operations team to just those men needed to keep the fire satisfied and the lookout to keep the vessel from smashing into something.

Antal, a member of the Expedition Team, and currently a member of a roaming two man security detail called for Vincent, the current lookout, to climb down from the crow’s nest.

“Did you see the man?” Antal asked, agitated and out of breath.

“What?” Asked Vincent as he stepped from the rope ladder to the deck.

“Wallace and I saw someone on deck. There’s not supposed to be anyone else out here. We chased him, but we got separated.”

Vincent pulled a knife from his belt. “Let’s have a look.”

The two men set to investigating the night-obscured deck. It didn’t take long before they stumbled upon a trail of blood, which they followed into a corner shadowed by a stack of cargo containers. A figure cloaked in the darkness of the cargo containers was crouched over another figure, probably Wallace, working him over with a knife. Wallace was a lifeless mass.



“Get off him!” Vincent cried lunging at the shadow-man with his knife.

With lightning speed the shadow-man stepped out of the way. Vincent, off balance, sailed past him, missing him with his knife. As Vincent sailed past him, the shadow-man swung his blade slicing through Vincent’s clothing and flesh. Blood sprayed as Vincent cried out.

Antal froze in horror as the shadow-man glanced at him then dashed away. Antal dropped to his knees to help Vincent. He tore Vincent’s many clothing layers off to get to the wound; luckily the clothing had absorbed most of the blade’s bite. The other man was indeed Wallace and he was very dead. His blood was spreading out in a pool on the deck.

“CAPTAIN!” Antal’s cry tore across the night’s quiet air. As if on cue, a clap of thunder followed.

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Black Fish 1:5 (First Interim)

THE NOTHING MECHANISM: The Black Fish 1:5

“It’ll do us no good to turn around,” Somerset continued thinking aloud. “We’ll all be dead in another week, two at best, at this pace.”

“We have to find the murderer. It’s the only option,” Karcsi suggested, distractedly, as he carefully refilled his flask with booze.

“Any idea how we’ll accomplish that?”

“Blue, you’re the security expert,” Karcsi said. He, along with Penelope and Somerset, shifted his attention to the hulking off-worlder. “Ideas?”



Blue set his tea cup down and met Karcsi’s eyes. “I say we lock the ship down. Everyone restricted to their cabin. Bare minimum operations crew. One two-man guard detail on the upper deck and one-two man detail on the cabin level.”

“How’s this plan reveal the killer?” Somerset was clearly impatient.

“It might not”, interjected Karcsi, “ but at the least it gives us a certain control over the passengers’ comings and goings.”

“Sure. Done. Let’s do it,” Somerset conceded.

With the flask hidden away in one of his pockets, Karcsi was taking swallows from the bottle of booze. “There’s something else,” he wiped transparent brown fluid from his chin with the crook of his sweatered elbow, “I think you’ve failed to notice, Somerset.”

“Oh?”

“There,” he pointed aft, through the bridge window. “We’ve got a beast of a storm chasing us.”

Somerset dropped, defeated, into his char. “This is truly a cursed thing we chase.”