Free Keystones: Tau Prime by Alexander McKinney

probes.
    Jonny’s voice came back over the com system. “Congratulations. This just became more important than sleep. We need to know why that probe isn’t working.”
    Deklan didn’t mind. The diagnostics showed the first tool that he needed to use—an electrostatic flexer. He’d never even heard of that type of tool before, but it looked cool. It was shaped like a drill, but instead of ending in a cutting bit there was a tripod of short legs. It looked straightforward enough.
    He propped the legs atop the specific plate indicated on the schematic, a plate that looked no different than any other, and pulled the trigger. A charge appeared at the tip of each of the tripod’s legs, and the plate flexed like a muscle. It pulled away from the surrounding plates, its edges drawing in and the center bowing out.
    Deklan waited until every edge of the plate was clear of the probe and then pulled it out. Beneath the plate was an ordinary access panel with a handle. He snapped the electrostatic flexer into place on the diagnostics cradle and turned again to the hologram for further instructions. He then slipped his fingers around the handle and twisted it ninety degrees. There was a click of release as the panel swung open. A flare of bright yellow light burst out of the probe, blinding him.
    Deklan woke to see Jamie Beal holding one of his eyelids open while shining a penlight into his eyes. He recoiled, or tried to, but Jamie had a strong grip on his head.
    Her mouth was a dissatisfied moue as she completed her inspection of Deklan. “Do you know how annoying it is,” she said, “to have an immortal patient who collapses for no reason while carrying out a routine diagnostic process?”
    Deklan blinked and tried to escape Jamie’s iron grip. It was useless. He felt like a child pawing at an adult. “Do you mind? Something bright flashed in my eyes.”
    “Yes.” Jamie sounded tired. “Jonny went over the footage. There was a momentary flare from some circuitry in the probe, and you keeled over.”
    Deklan sat up and rubbed at his head and eyes where Jamie had manhandled him. “You have a terrible bedside manner, did you know that? Terrible.”
    Jamie nodded, somehow making the acknowledgment sardonic. “Yes, I have a terrible bedside manner. Surely that’s the problem here.” Her tone grew more agitated with every passing word. “Not that you’ve been unconscious for six hours and nothing in the medical bay is giving us a clue why. I liked the idea of having an all-Keystone crew so that we wouldn’t have to deal with another Avery. I even recommended you. Now for a medically inexplicable reason you’ve collapsed. How do I know that you aren’t going to turn into something ugly and eat us all while we’re asleep? How?”
    Deklan held up his hands like a shield that could protect him from her torrent of words. “Motion sensors and a buddy system.”
    Tension drained from Jamie like water running downhill. “That could work,” she replied.
    “Good. Now what do you mean in saying that there’s no explanation for why I collapsed?”
    Jamie showed him her tablet. Sure enough, every diagnostics category indicated green.
    “Well, okay,” conceded Deklan, “that’s odd, but I’m telling you it was the light.”
    “You’re not epileptic or light-sensitive.”
    “Not that I’m aware of, no.” A stray detail from Jamie’s tirade drifted to the front of his mind. “Did you say six hours?”
    “Yes.”
    “So we’re out of the wormhole?”
    “Yes. Jonny and Calm are on the bridge.”
    Deklan bounced off the table. “I have to go see this. A whole new solar system!”
    Jamie looked unimpressed. “There’s not a lot to see that we didn’t already see from the probes.” She stopped to give him a dirty look. “By ‘we’ I mean that Jonny and Calm didn’t see from the probes while I was busy tending to you.”
    “Then why aren’t you as excited as I am?”
    “I watched the footage from here after I