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‘So who was right after all?’

‘Ok Johan you were right, but I was the one who said it would be on the body, not lurking out there to get us, anyway we have not confirmed it to be the craft’ Meredith was helping with Johan’s spacesuit, the skin tight pressure suit he had slipped on himself in some privacy at the back of the flight deck, but the environmental armour that had to be put over it required more than one person.

‘Ok what else could it be, a conveniently shaped rock made of heavy metals?’ said Johan in false sincerity

‘It could be, just don’t get so smug before you have even had a look at it.’ Meredith countered

‘Ok, ok you just go and check our little teleporter, while I make sure this suits working fine.’

‘You know how much I disapprove of that machine I cant see why the both of us cant take the shuttle’

‘We have gone over this already, one, time is of the essence’ trying to imitate the fleet intelligence speaker’s strange lilting speech ‘two,’ he said as he was handling his helmet onto the neck collar, ‘safer if only one of us goes, means only one person cant get into trouble, three,’ the mechanical locks clunked into place, and the nano-fabric slithered to form a second seamless seal, ‘three, less likely to cause undue attention to ourselves. Oh, and four, because you’re the loser’

‘Well I still don’t like it, the device is ready to go, but charging the accumulators for it will take a few seconds, fleet intelligence hasn’t commented so it is probably safe.’

‘Great’ Johan replied half heartedly, he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the machine either, it was the claustrophobic metal coffin of it he hated most, he pulled aside its think door and stepped into the narrow chamber, a series of displays lit up showing him the status of the machine.

‘Ok its ready to go, you ready?’

He checked his suit for the last time, ‘As ready as I will ever be’

He felt the chambers gravity decline, the artificial gravity of the chamber was shutting down ready for field generation, and then he felt all pressure on his feet cease. The floor retracted further down into the chamber, he was hanging free in the chamber, and only his headlights lit the dark interior. Suddenly the familiar metal grey panels of the chamber disappeared and replaced by the dark infinity of the teleporter’s generated field, he hated that moment. A second later the veil collapsed and he was standing in a cavern of ice. Then he noticed he wasn’t standing, he was falling.